Despite promising signs footwear sales slip
In spite of the many retail reports touting a positive start to holiday season spending, retailers financial results appear to be telling a very different story as far as third quarter results are concerned. Footwear wholesaler and retailer Brown Shoe Company, Inc., which runs the Famous Footwear chain, has reported a 4.6% drop in net sales to $645.5 million for the quarter, down from $676.8 million in the third quarter of fiscal 2006/
In its Retail division total sales at Famous Footwear declined 1.4% to $361 million compared with $366.3 million, whilst same-store sales declined by 6.2% compared with an 8.2% last year. However, its Specialty Retail segment, which primarily consists of Naturalizer stores and the Shoes.com e-commerce business, reported sales of $70.8 million, up 3.8% from $68.2 million.
Wholesale sales declined 11.8% in the quarter to $213.7 million compared with $242.3 million in the previous year.
