Gottschalks April Comps Inch-Up 0.3%

Gottschalks Inc. same store sales for the month of April 2006 increased 0.3% from the prior year. Total sales for the month decreased 0.4% to $43.3 million from $43.4 million in April 2005. On a year-to-date basis, same store sales decreased 0.5% from the same period of the prior year. Total sales for the year-to-date period decreased by 0.4% to $143.5 million compared to $144.1 million for the same period of fiscal 2005.

Jim Famalette, president and chief executive officer of Gottschalks said, “Our sales were uneven during the month of April as we experienced unusually cool and wet Spring weather. As expected, we had strong sales trends in advance of the Easter holiday as well as later in the month when more typical Spring weather returned to the West Coast. For the month, our best performing merchandise areas were children's, juniors, cosmetics, shoes and accessories. The latter three categories were also our top performers for the quarter. Additionally, inventory management remained a priority and we ended the first quarter with comp store inventory 3% below the same period last year.”

The Company also plans to close its 42,000-square- foot store located in Danville, California. As the Company previously announced, it expects to open its fourth store in Oregon at the Valley River Mall in Eugene, where it will be taking over a 124,000-square-foot Federated Macy's store lease. The Company anticipates that these two store events will occur in the third quarter.

    Sales results are summarized as follows:

                                                    Same Store
                          April 29,    April 30,      Total %      Sales %
                            2006         2005       Inc./(Dec.)  Inc./(Dec.)
                                (in 000's)
    Sales, 4 Weeks Ended   $43,258      $43,421       (0.4%)         0.3%

    Sales, 13 Weeks Ended $143,512    $ 144,104       (0.4%)       (0.5%)