Federated in the Eye of the Hurricane

Federated Department Stores Inc. (Cincinnati) said early estimates were that it would lose approximately $10 million in sales in its Florida units from the impact of Hurricane Jeanne last week.

The expectation comes on the heels of an estimated $20 million in lost sales in Florida from Hurricane Frances three weeks before.

The department store giant, which has 64 Bloomingdale’s and Burdines-Macy’s stores in the state, has further reduced expected September same-store sales by 0.7 percent as a result.

The company said that while it still is too early to precisely evaluate the total impact of Hurricane Jeanne on the business overall, it did not believe any of its Burdines-Macy’s or Bloomingdale’s stores in Florida were seriously damaged as a result of the weekend’s storm.