Pacific Sunwear of California, Inc. saw a 7% increase in net sales for the fiscal month of February to $77.6 million from $72.5 million during the same period last year. At the PacSun concept, same-store sales increased 6% during the same period.

On February 3, 2008 the company began liquidation sales in its 153 remaining demo stores. The company will report demo as a discontinued operation in quarterly filings beginning with the first quarter of fiscal 2008 ending May 3, 2008. Total February sales from these demo liquidation stores were $13.6 million.


The company reported that comps increased in the mid-teens in the month’s second week as it found success when it introduced its Spring II floor set.


Apparel sales drove a 22% comp increase and accounted for 75% of total comp sales. Junior's apparel comps were up low-30s, driven by continued strength in tops, Bullhead denim and dresses. Young men's apparel comps were up low-teens, driven by tops, denim, shorts and swim.


Accessory comps were down low-double-digits and footwear comps were down high-30s due to planned reductions. Transactions per comp store were up low-single-digits and the average transaction value per comp store was up mid-single-digits.


Zumiez Inc. reported that comparable store sales decreased 2.6% for the four-week fiscal February timeframe after jumping 12.4% in the year-ago month. Total net sales for the month increased 11.5% to $23.1 million, compared to $20.7 million for the same period last year.


February marked the first monthly comp store sales decline reported by Zumiez since the company’s IPO in May 2005.


Sales growth came from new stores as the retailer saw comps declines for each of the month’s four week. The decrease in comparable store sales was driven by a decrease in transactions and to a lesser extent lower average unit retail.


Footwear and men's apparel were the primary drivers of the negative comps, somewhat offset by skate, hard goods and boys, which comped positive.


The Buckle, Inc. recorded a 24.3% jump in February comparable store sales on top of a 4.5% increase in the year-ago month. Net sales for the fiscal month ended March 1, 2008 increased 31.6% to $49.6 million from net sales of $37.7 million for the prior year period.


Men’s sales increased approximately 42% for the period as women’s increased 23% over last year. Accessories sales for the fiscal month increased approximately 22.5%, but footwear sales declined approximately 14.5%. These two categories accounted for approximately 8% and 5%, respectively, of the current fiscal February's net sales. 


The TJX Companies, Inc. reported a 3% increase in fiscal February net sales to $1.3 billion from $1.2 billion for the same period last year. For the four-week period ended March 1, 2008, consolidated comparable store sales increased 3% over last year. Comps at Bob’s Stores declined 2% for the month with the company attributing the softness to adverse weather conditions in the Northeast.