Bill Prange, chairman and CEO of the retailer, put the best face on the situation by noting that "while sales results were disappointing for the quarter, we responded to the sluggish consumer demand by taking the markdowns necessary to keep our inventories on plan. We finished the quarter with total inventory per square foot being flat with last year.

"Based on month to date performance and our expectations for the balance of the month, we anticipate that December same-store sales will decline in the range of 6% to 7%," he continued. "We do, however, anticipate that December merchandise margins will improve modestly over last year's levels."

Joseph E. Pennington, president and COO, noted that "there was a clear geographic break in comp-store performance. We saw comp-store increases throughout the West, with all the states west of the Mississippi comping positive during the quarter. Parts of the mid-Atlantic and southern tier states also were positive." He added that the company recorded average transaction growth of about 2% over the quarter, compared with last year.