Stormy Weather

Federated Department Stores Inc. (Cincinnati) said it expects to lose $20 million in lost sales as a result of the hurricane that swept through Florida last week.

The retailer’s early estimates of the impact of Hurricane Frances on lost sales in its Florida Burdines- Macy’s and Bloomingdale’s stores is expected to reduce September same-store sales by 1.5 percent and earnings by about 3-4 cents a share in the third quarter.

The company said that while it still is too early to precisely evaluate the total impact of the weekend’s devastating storm, it did not believe any of its stores in the state suffered major structural damage. But it said it will take several weeks before there can be a complete assessment of the hurricane’s impact on business, both in terms of lost sales before and during the storm, as well as any potential sales rebound in the days to come.

Sales were reported as having begun to decline as early as Wednesday, September 1 — a day before the storm began to hit land — as people prepared for the storm. Federated’s stores began closing on Thursday, primarily in the southeastern part of the state and the Orlando area. Over the weekend, as the hurricane slowly traveled west across the state, southeastern stores began reopening even as stores on the Gulf Coast of Florida were closed.

By Tuesday, September 7, the company expects only a handful of stores to remain closed due to power outages.