Retail Ventures, Inc. announced total sales for the five weeks ended July 3, 2004, increased 1.5% to $240.6 million from $237.1 million for the five weeks ended July 5, 2003. The company's same store sales decreased 4.4% for the five week period.

Total sales for the twenty-two weeks ended July 3, 2004, increased 7.7% to $1.11 billion from $1.03 billion for the twenty-two weeks ended July 5, 2003. The company's same store sales increased 1.8% for the twenty-two week period.

    Retail sales statistics are as follows:
                                         Five weeks ended ($ in thousands)
                                         July 3, 2004         July 5, 2003
                                         $           %          $       %
     Total Sales
      Value City Department Stores   $123,610       51.4    $133,960   56.5
      DSW Shoe Warehouse               84,165       35.0      73,380   31.0
      Filene's Basement                32,778       13.6      29,737   12.5
                                     $240,553      100.0    $237,077  100.0

     Comparable Sales Percentage
      Value City Department Stores                  (7.7)%             (2.1)%
      DSW Shoe Warehouse                            (0.8)%              3.7 %
      Filene's Basement                              2.6 %              1.7 %
                                                    (4.4)%             (0.2)%

                                      Twenty-Two weeks ended ($ in thousands)
                                         July 3, 2004        July 5, 2003
                                         $           %          $        %
     Total Sales
      Value City Department Stores   $567,347       51.2    $585,570   56.9
      DSW Shoe Warehouse              397,125       35.9     325,581   31.7
      Filene's Basement               142,853       12.9     117,383   11.4
                                   $1,107,325      100.0  $1,028,534  100.0

     Comparable Sales Percentage
      Value City Department Stores                  (3.1)%             (2.2)%
      DSW Shoe Warehouse                             7.4 %             (0.4)%
      Filene's Basement                             11.7 %             (4.6)%
                                                     1.8 %             (2.0)%