J. C. Penney Company, Inc. reported that its comparable store sales for the four-week period ended Nov. 26, 2011, decreased 2.0 percent.  This compares to a 9.2 percent increase in the same period last year. Total company sales in November decreased 5.9 percent.

For the month, women's and men's apparel and accessories were the top performing merchandise divisions.  Sales throughout November were ahead of the prior year heading into the holiday weekend.  However, the company noted that its decision to respect Thanksgiving Day for families and open at 4:00 a.m. on Friday, as it had in prior years, adversely impacted Black Friday sales. Sales remained soft in-store throughout the holiday weekend.  

The company specifically noted that traffic on jcp.com was strong – including traffic coming from jcpenney's mobile commerce site (m.jcp.com) – starting on Thanksgiving Day and continuing through Cyber Monday.  Overall, traffic on the site was up 12 percent to last year for the holiday weekend.