Hurricanes Not Good for Goody’s

Goody’s Family Clothing Inc. (Knoxville, Tenn.) has reported a 4.7 percent decrease in total sales for the fiscal month of September 2004 (the five weeks ended Oct. 2, 2004). Same-store sales decreased 9.1 percent.

Total sales for the first eight months of fiscal 2004 have increased 3 percent, but same-store sales are down 0.1 percent.

“The month of September 2004 began with a comparable store sales increase of 6.3 percent through the Labor Day holiday over the same period of the prior year,” said chairman and ceo Robert Goodfriend. “However, the company experienced significant sales decreases throughout the month caused in part by the effects of three major hurricanes which impacted approximately 240 stores. We estimate that these storms accounted for approximately one-third of the comparable stores sales decline for the month of September 2004. In addition, we believe that warm weather, which prevailed in our markets during the last week of September 2004, accounted for most of the balance of the comparable stores sales decrease for September 2004 when compared with the unusually cool weather in the last week of September 2003.”

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