Stein Mart, Inc. Reports September 2012 Sales

JACKSONVILLE, Fla., Oct. 4, 2012 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Stein Mart, Inc. (Nasdaq:SMRT) today reported comparable store sales increased 2.4 percent for the five-week period ended September 29, 2012. Total sales for the period were $102.7 million, an increase of 3.9 percent from the same period in 2011. For the year to date, comparable store sales increased 1.3 percent and total sales increased 2.0 percent to $761.5 million.

			Percent Change
	Total Sales (in millions)		Total Sales	Comparable Store Sales
Fiscal period	2012	2011	2012	2012	2011
September (5 weeks)	$102.7	$98.9	3.9%	2.4%	-1.7%
Quarter to date (9 weeks)	$181.7	$172.8	5.1%	3.8%	-4.3%
Year to date (35 weeks)	$761.5	$746.5	2.0%	1.3%	-0.8%

Linens and ladies' career sportswear posted the strongest sales for the month, while ladies' accessories, men's sportswear and ladies' boutique were weaker.  Geographically, September sales were strongest in Texas and Florida, where we have our largest number of stores. Other states generally all had positive comparable sales, except where impacted by the hurricane.

"Early in the month, sales were impacted by hurricane Isaac resulting in a number of stores not being operational for a period of time.  Despite this, we were able to deliver positive results this month," said Jay Stein, Interim Chief Executive Officer. "We began to reduce regular priced coupons in November of last year, but this was preceded by a high volume of coupons in October. Therefore, our challenge in October, and the remaining holiday selling season, will be to increase our sales against the prior year which includes the higher amount of couponing."

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