Gottschalks Inc. reported a 1.4% increase in comparable store sales in October. Total sales for the month increased 0.5% to $44.2 million from $44.0 million in October 2005. The company's store count decreased by three from the same period last year.
For the third fiscal quarter of 2006, same store sales increased 0.5% and total sales decreased 1.6% to $148.8 million, compared to $151.3 million for the third fiscal quarter of 2005. On a year-to-date basis, same store sales increased 0.1% from the comparable period of fiscal 2005. Total sales on a year-to-date basis decreased 0.3% to $445.7 million compared to $447.1 million in the same period of the prior year.
Jim Famalette, president and chief executive officer of Gottschalks, said, “Our fashion softline merchandise generated strong results in October, with our best performing merchandise categories being shoes, children's, dresses, special sizes and better apparel. While our trend in the home division continued to perform below the same period last year, we have taken a more aggressive marketing approach for this division and expect sales to show improvement in the fourth quarter. At the end of the month our comp store inventory was up 2.7% from the same period last year as a result of our proactive efforts to bring in holiday merchandise at the end of the month, earlier than last year. With our holiday inventory in place, we are excited about the coming months and believe we are well positioned for the important holiday season.”
Sales results are summarized as follows:
Same Store
October 28, October 29, Total % Sales %
2006 2005 Change Change
(in 000's)
Sales, 4 Weeks Ended $44,213 $44,009 0.5% 1.4%
Sales, 13 Weeks Ended $148,830 $151,314 (1.6)% 0.5%
Sales, 39 Weeks Ended $445,739 $447,055 (0.3)% 0.1%
