J. C. Penney Company, Inc. (JCP), a leading retailer of apparel, footwear, accessories, fashion jewelry, beauty products, and home furnishings, recently reported sales results for the four-week period ended Jan 30, 2010.
The company’s comparable store sales for January dipped 4.6% compared to a 16.4% decline in the same month last year. Comps were better than the company’s guidance range of a 5% to 8% decline.
The Plano, Texas-based retailer, J. C. Penney said that year-to-date comps slid 6.3% compared to a fall of 8.5% in the same period last year.
By categories, women’s apparel and fine jewelry registered an improvement in demand. However, sales at the children’s division remained sluggish. Internet sales through jcp.com rose in the high single-digit.
Total sales for January declined 4.4% to $940 million from $983 million reported in the same month last year. Year-to-date sales were down 5% to $17,556 million from $18,486 million reported in the same period last year. The retailer said that sales in January reflect its planned strategy to have less clearance merchandise to sell.
J. C. Penney currently operates 1,109 department stores in the United States and Puerto Rico. The company also operates the largest apparel and home furnishing site, jcp.com, and the largest general merchandise catalog business.
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