August same-store sales at Foothill Ranch-based mall retailer Wet Seal Inc. fell a deeper than expected 11.2% versus a year earlier.
Analysts who follow the seller of clothes for teen girls and young women were expecting a 9.5% drop in sales at stores open at least a year.
The company’s dominant Wet Seal store for teen girls led the decline with a 12.6% same-store sales drop.
Wet Seal’s smaller Arden B. chain for young women saw a 1.8% decline.
Total sales at all of the company’s stores were off 9% to $50.5 million.
Wet Seal runs about 500 stores. The majority, 420, are Wet Seal stores. Eighty-one are Arden B. stores.
August marked the third straight month of lower than expected same-store sales for Wet Seal.
In July, same-store sales open fell 12.1%, worse than the 10.2% analysts were expecting.
Like other retailers, Wet Seal is dealing with the worst retail downturn in recent memory.
The company is in the midst of the back-to-school shopping season, the second most important for retailers after the holidays.
Back-to-school sales were impacted by a shift in Labor Day, which falls on Monday, a week later than last year, Chief Executive Ed Thomas said.
Market watchers say back-to-school shoppers are hitting stores later this year and are spending less.
Last month, Wet Seal upped its forecast for the three months through October, with investors taking that as indication its long sales slump could be easing some.
It now projects sales of $138 million to $142 million, versus the $140.6 million analysts had been expecting.
