Earnings Call Excerpt
Nordstrom, Inc. (JWN)
December Sales Results Call
January 10, 2008 7:15 am ET
Executives
Chris Holloway – Investor Relations
Presentation
Chris Holloway
Hello, everyone. This is Chris Holloway with Nordstrom Investor Relations. Welcome to our prerecorded comments concerning our December sales results.
Before getting started, we remind everyone that this recording contains forward-looking statements concerning anticipated sales results for the fourth quarter of 2007. These statements are subject to the risks and uncertainties that could cause the company’s actual results to differ materially from the expectations and assumptions discussed, due to a variety of factors that affect the company, including the risks specified in the company’s most recently filed Form 10-K and Form 10-Q.
This recording may not be rebroadcast without the prior written consent of Nordstrom.
Earlier today, Nordstrom reported preliminary sales of $1.22 billion for the five-week period ended January 5, 2008. This is a 3.8% decrease from December 2006 total net sales of $1.27 billion. Same-store sales decreased 4%.
As a reminder, the 4-5-4 retail calendar shifts one week of holiday shopping from the December reporting month to November, which negatively impacted our reported results in December.
Our quarter-to-date same-store sales results, which combine the months of November and December, were up 0.7%. For the fiscal year-to-date, total and same store sales are up 4.9% and 4.5% respectively.
The strongest performing merchandise categories were accessories and women’s shoes.
Looking at geographic performance, the strongest regions were the Northwest and the Northeast.
As we look forward to the rest of the quarter, we expect the impact from the retail calendar shift on January same-store sales results to be minimal. January total sales results will be negatively impacted, as there was one additional week of business in January 2006.
Our next scheduled update will be on February 7 when we release January sales results. We will release fourth quarter earnings results on February 25.
Thank you for your interest in Nordstrom.
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