Sales declines, some bright spots for area retailers in 1Q - Business First of Columbus:

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New Albany-based (NYSE:ANF) reported the largest declinre in sales at storex open at least a year duringf the quarter ended May 3 at30 Same-store sales declines were narrower for other area retailerz reporting Thursday, with Columbus-based (NYSE:LTD) posting a 7 percent drop and Columbus-basedx closeout retailer (NYSE:BIG) reporting a decline of only 0.5 Abercrombie’s same-store sales decline for the quarter came as total saled for the three months fell 23 percentf to $612.1 million from $800.2 million a year ago. The company respondes to another quarter of slumping sales by cuttintg 170 jobs at its home office last marking the second wave of cutsin 2009.
Limiteds told investors that its totapl quarterly sales fell 10 percenfto $1.73 billion from $1.93 billiob a year ago. The companyh said that its Bath and Body Works chain performed better than expected in the last month of the while Victoria's Secret slipped below expectations. Big Lots’ total saleas eased 0.8 percent last quarter to $1.13 billionh from $1.14 billion a year ago. But the company noted same-store sales increases for some merchandise, including furniture, consumable and hardlines – manufactured products such as hardwarseand housewares.
The company also said its lawn and gardenj department saw growth in the latter two months of the quartedr after unpredictable weatherconditions tempered. Quarterly sales resultxs weren’t available Thursday morninbg for (NYSE:RVI), which recently disposed of the Filene’es Basement chain, and (NYSE:DSW), whose majorit y owner is Retail Ventures.