The Bon-Ton Stores, Inc. Announces March Sales

Comparable Store Sales Decreased 5.3% for the Month
YORK, Pa.--(Business Wire)--
The Bon-Ton Stores, Inc. (NASDAQ: BONT) today announced comparable
store sales for the five weeks ended April 5, 2008 decreased 5.3%
compared to the prior year period. Total sales for the five weeks
decreased 4.9 % to $274.0 million compared to $288.0 million for the
prior year period.

Year-to-date total sales decreased 6.6% to $491.0 million compared
to $525.6 million for the same period last year. Year-to-date
comparable store sales decreased 6.2%.

Tony Buccina, Vice Chairman and President - Merchandising,
commented, "Given the overall challenging retail environment, we were
pleased with our March results. A strong promotional event in the last
two weeks resulted in a positive finish to the month with solid gains
in shoes, intimate apparel, accessories and men's furnishings. For the
month, categories that performed well were cosmetics, hard home,
furniture and missy outerwear. The weakest performing category was
apparel - women's, men's and children's."

Mr. Buccina continued, "We continue to manage our inventory
levels; our total inventory, including clearance merchandise, is below
the prior year. With more disciplined inventory control, we can better
capitalize on new trends, resulting in fresh assortments with strong
value for our customers."

Keith Plowman, Executive Vice President and Chief Financial
Officer, stated, "Our excess borrowing capacity under our credit
facility was in excess of $300 million at the end of March, which is
slightly above the March 2007 level."

The Bon-Ton Stores, Inc. operates 280 stores, including eleven
furniture galleries, in 23 states in the Northeast, Midwest and upper
Great Plains under the Bon-Ton, Bergner's, Boston Store, Carson Pirie
Scott, Elder-Beerman, Herberger's and Younkers nameplates and, under
the Parisian nameplate, three stores in the Detroit, Michigan area.
The stores offer a broad assortment of brand-name fashion apparel and
accessories for women, men and children, as well as cosmetics and home
furnishings. For further information, please visit the investor
relations section of the Company's website at
http://investors.bonton.com.

Statements made in this press release, other than statements of
historical information, are forward-looking and are made pursuant to
the safe harbor provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform
Act of 1995. Such statements involve risks and uncertainties that may
cause results to differ materially from those set forth in these
statements. Factors that could cause such differences include, but are
not limited to, risks related to retail businesses generally, consumer
spending patterns and debt levels, additional competition from
existing and new competitors, inflation, changes in the costs of fuel
and other energy and transportation costs, weather conditions that
could negatively impact sales, uncertainties associated with opening
new stores or expanding or remodeling existing stores, the ability to
attract and retain qualified management, the dependence upon key
vendor relationships and the ability to obtain financing for working
capital, capital expenditures and general corporate purposes.
Additional factors that could cause the Company's actual results to
differ from those contained in these forward-looking statements are
discussed in greater detail under Item 1A of the Company's Form 10-K
filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

The Bon-Ton Stores, Inc.
Mary Kerr, 717-751-3071
Vice President
Investor & Public Relations
mkerr@bonton.com

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