Brown Shoe Co., one of the largest shoe retailers in the US, has reported lower earnings for the second quarter and warned that things will not improve in the short term. For the quarter to August 4 earnings were $5.8 million on net sales of $442 million compared with $9.2 million on sales of $419 million last time.

The retailer, which includes Famous Footwear in its stable of brand names, blamed the drop in consumer spending for the gloomy forecast. Chief executive Ron Fromm said in a statement: "our retailing businesses have not been able to avoid the industry-wide slowdown in traffic and the increase in promotional pressures."

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