J. C. Penney Company, Inc. comparable store sales decreased 8.1% for the five-week period ended Jan. 3, 2009, better than the company’s guidance for a low-double digit decrease.


During the same period last year, comparable store sales decreased 7.3%. Total company sales in December decreased 6.8%.

Over the course of the month, the company said it took aggressive promotional pricing action across all channels, which resulted in improved sales during the week leading up to Christmas and for the remainder of the month.

 

This served to partially offset weaker performance earlier in the period. Comparable store sales results for December also benefited from an increase in sales through jcp.com, the company’s Internet channel.

For the December period, women’s apparel and accessories and family shoes were the top performing merchandise divisions, while fine jewelry continued to experience softer sales performance. Geographically, the best performing areas of the country were the southwest and central regions, while the northwest region had the weakest results.


                 Preliminary December Sales Summary 
                                  ($ in millions)  
                           
Total Company Sales             % Increase/(Decrease)                        for period ended                     Total Sales   Comp Stores 
  Jan. 3,   Jan. 5,         
  2009       2008                 2008       2007       2008        2007 
              
5 Weeks 
$2,961   $3,177                  (6.8)      (5.6)       (8.1)        (7.3) 
              
9 Weeks 
$4,776   $5,227                  (8.6)      (0.8)       (9.6)        (2.8) 
              
48 Weeks 
$17,503  $18,697                (6.4)      1.0         (8.0)         0.0  
                    



January Sales Guidance


Management’s guidance for the four-week period ending Jan. 31, 2009, is for a low-double digit decrease in comparable store sales. In last year’s January period, comparable store sales were flat.