"We're finding that landlords are much more willing to make concessions than they were a year ago," Smith said. "We have already made progress and started to achieve significant rental reductions, and we intend to continue to do so."
The company now plans to close between 25 and 30 stores this year. However, store closings are not the main goal right now.
"As we've been doing for the last year, we're going to be looking at every single lease, every single opportunity," said Cary Turner, EVP and CFO. "Our best solution would be to close zero stores, as we negotiate with our landlords. But right now, we don't have a definite number of what that would be."
Traffic in a sense is improving at the stores, as the company's marketing campaign and improved merchandise mix is becoming evident, Smith said. While it is still negative compared with last year, it is less so than in October and November. And the company is continuing to experiment, adding wine to the mix in five units this year, and expanding the test to more stores next year.
Total sales for the third fiscal quarter declined to $301 million from $374 million in the year-ago quarter. Comparable store sales declined 17.8%. The company reported a net loss of $36.9 million for the quarter, vs. $10 million for the same period last year. At the end of the quarter, Pier 1 operated 1,108 stores in the US and Canada.
Want to continue reading?
Become a Free ALM Digital Reader.
Once you are an ALM Digital Member, you’ll receive:
- Breaking commercial real estate news and analysis, on-site and via our newsletters and custom alerts
- Educational webcasts, white papers, and ebooks from industry thought leaders
- Critical coverage of the property casualty insurance and financial advisory markets on our other ALM sites, PropertyCasualty360 and ThinkAdvisor
Already have an account? Sign In Now
*May exclude premium content© 2024 ALM Global, LLC, All Rights Reserved. Request academic re-use from www.copyright.com. All other uses, submit a request to [email protected]. For more information visit Asset & Logo Licensing.
