Stage Stores, Inc. saw sales for the month of December increase 11.8% to $270.5 million from $241.9 million in the same month last year. Comparable store sales increased 2.2% on top of an increase of 7.3% last year.

Jim Scarborough, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, commented, “Although unseasonably warm weather impacted our sales of cold weather merchandise, and we were up against last year's very strong post-hurricane recovery driven gains, we were still able to achieve a 2.2% comparable store sales increase for December. In fact, for the most part, in markets other than those affected by last year's exceptional post-hurricane sales growth, we experienced solid same store sales gains during December. The majority of our key merchandise categories recorded comparable store sales increases, with our best performing categories being cosmetics, women's special sizes, accessories and dresses.”

Mr. Scarborough continued, “Our gift cards sales during December were up over last year by approximately 20%, reflecting the growing trend of giving gift cards as presents during the holiday season. Since gift cards are not included in our sales results until they are redeemed, we believe that our sales over the next few months should benefit from the redemption of these cards.”

Mr. Scarborough concluded, “Based on our sales results during the first nine weeks of the fourth quarter, we currently expect that our earnings will be towards the lower end of our previously provided earnings guidance range of $1.31 to $1.36 per diluted share. As a result, we expect that our earnings for the 2006 fiscal year will also be towards the lower end of our previously provided earnings guidance range of $1.86 to $1.92 per diluted share.”


                            SALES SUMMARY
----------------------------------------------------------------------

                             Comparable Store         Total Sales
                                Sales Trend
                           % Increase (Decrease)    ($ in Millions)
                           --------------------- ---------------------
      Fiscal Period          2006       2005       2006       2005
-------------------------- ---------- ---------- ---------- ----------
       1st Quarter               3.2%       4.9%    $343.5     $310.1
       2nd Quarter               4.5        7.0      362.1      309.4
       3rd Quarter               4.1        3.9      353.4      306.0
         November                0.2        4.6      121.2      110.6
         December                2.2        7.3      270.5      241.9
     4th Qtr-To-Date             1.6        6.4      391.7      352.5
  Year-To-Date (11 mos)          3.3        5.6    1,450.7    1,278.0