Stein Mart, Inc. reported total sales fell 6.3% to $98.7 million for the four week period ended May 29 on a 4.5% drop in comparable store sales.


The off-price fashion and gifts merchandiser said year-to-date sales are down 5.9% to $399.7 million on a 4% comps decline.


For May, costume jewelry, ladies’ dresses and Boutique had positive comparable stores’ sales, while casual sportswear had much weaker trends. Geographically, May sales were better than company trend in the Southeast (led by Florida) and along the East coast. Sales were weakest in the Western states. It should be noted that May 2010 did not include the Sunday and Monday of Memorial Day weekend, whereas May 2009 did include those days.


There were no new stores opened or existing stores closed during May. At month-end, there were 265 stores in operation compared to 273 at the same time last year.