• Most Popular
  • Most Shared

BJ's Wholesale March same-store sales rise 6 percent

CHICAGO
Thu Apr 10, 2008 9:45am EDT

Stocks

   

CHICAGO (Reuters) - BJ's Wholesale Club Inc (BJ.N) said on Thursday sales at its stores open at least a year rose 6 percent in March, more than double the rate Wall Street expected, helped by strong gasoline sales.

Stocks  |  Global Markets

Shares of the No. 3 U.S. warehouse club operator rose more than 3 percent in early trading.

Analysts, on average, were expecting a same-store sales gain of 2.8 percent, according to Reuters Estimates, while the company had forecast an increase of 1 percent to 3 percent.

The same-store sales result included a contribution of 3.4 percent from sales of gasoline. A calendar shift in the timing of Easter hurt the results by 2.5 percent to 3 percent.

The company said total sales for the five weeks ended April 5 rose 8.5 percent to $858.1 million.

Same-store sales rose in weeks one, two, three and five, with the strongest increase in week two, while they fell in week four as there was one less day of sales due to the Easter holiday.

Excluding gas sales, traffic was flat, while the average transaction amount rose about 4 percent, BJ's said. Sales of food rose about 5 percent, while those of general merchandise fell about 1 percent.

Departments with the strongest sales increases included coffee and tea, dairy, eggs, juices, frozen, health and beauty, paper, pet food, produce, televisions and toys, the company said. Weaker performers included apparel, cigarettes, electronics, furniture, prerecorded videos, storage and summer seasonal.

Sales for the Natick, Massachusetts-based company, which operates 177 stores in 16 states, rose in all regions, with the highest increase in upstate New York and the smallest in the New England region.

Shares of BJ's rose 3.3 percent to $36.48 on the New York Stock Exchange.

(Reporting by Ben Klayman; Editing by John Wallace and Dave Zimmerman)



More from Reuters

Photo

Sturdy U.S. home sales bolster economic growth prospects

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Sales of previously owned U.S. homes jumped last month to their highest level in nearly three years, the latest sign that the economic recovery was gaining steam, after growing below expectations in the third quarter.

Guadalupe Hernandez receives an ultrasound by nurse practitioner Gail Brown during a prenatal exam at the Maternity Outreach Mobile in Phoenix, Arizona October 8, 2009. Credit: REUTERS/Joshua Lott

Health reform inches closer

Democrats are on the verge of passing landmark legislation by Christmas, with only one more hurdle remaining.  Full Article | Video 

Photo

The end of the carry trade?

Borrowing the dollar cheaply to fund purchases of higher-yielding assets was a no-brainer in 2009, but will it be a safe bet in 2010?  Full Article