Kohl’s Corporation said that for the four-week month ended May 26, 2012 total sales decreased 2.6 percent and comparable store sales decreased 4.2 percent from the four-week month ended May 28, 2011.

For the year-to-date period, total sales increased 0.8 percent and comparable store sales decreased 0.9 percent.

Kevin Mansell, Kohl’s chairman, president and chief executive officer, commented, “May sales were lower than our expectations and, as a result, we now expect second quarter comparable store sales to be modestly negative. From a line of business perspective, we saw strength in Accessories. Our Men’s and Women’s businesses also outperformed the company average. The South Central and West were the strongest regions. We made some progress in building our inventory levels, but continue to expect lower units to hinder our sales until the Back-to-School season.”

The company opened nine new stores, including one relocated store, and closed one store in March 2012 and now operates 1,134 stores in 49 states, compared to 1,097 stores at the same time last year.