More Sales Woes for Chico's

Shares of Chico's were slammed in late August after the once red-hot retailer surprised Wall Street by warning of a slowdown following an aggressive expansion. At the time, the company lowered its profit forecast for the year and reported its first monthly same-store sales decline in nine years.

Those declines continued into November. Chico's said Tuesday that its same-store sales for the month fell 0.4%, though total sales increased 14.3% to $127.3 million.

The company said that same-store sales at its namesake chain were essentially in line with guidance. Overall same-store sales, however, were below projections because White House|Black Market same-store sales fell short of plan.

"We are currently finding that the combination of the more promotional retail environment along with our own fashion errors have resulted in a higher than anticipated markdown rate," Edmonds said. "However, since we are only four weeks into the quarter and have a number of marketing events planned for the remaining period, we do not believe it would be prudent to provide updated guidance for the fourth quarter or for fiscal 2007 until we see and can more fully appreciate the extent to which these initiatives will be able to produce stronger sales and margins."

Shares of Chico's recently were up 48 cents, or 2.1%, to $23.60 in after-hours trading.

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