August sales at Anaheim-based mall retailer Pacific Sunwear of California Inc. fell less than expected, while Foothill Ranch-based Wet Seal Inc. saw a steeper than expected decline.
Pacific Sunwear, which runs stores selling clothes inspired by surfing, said sales at stores open for at least a year fell 6% last month, hurt by poor sales of accessories.
Analysts had been expecting a drop of 8.8%.
Total sales for the month fell 4% to $163.1 million.
Pacific Sunwear is working on a turnaround after closing a chain of stores selling urban-style clothes and a small chain of shoe stores earlier this year.
Like other retailers, it faces a tough market as the slowing economy and high prices for everyday items have cut shoppers’ demand for clothes.
Wet Seal, which runs clothing stores for teen girls and young women, saw August same-store sales drop 8.7% as its Arden B chain continued to struggle.
Analysts were expecting a 7.5% drop.
The company runs some 400 Wet Seal stores for teen girls and about 90 Arden B stores for young women.
Same-store sales at Wet Seal stores fell 5.4% last month. Arden B sales were off 24.7%.
Total sales fell 1.3% to $55.4 million.
Wet Seal has been working on a turnaround, particularly at Arden B.
The company blamed the chain’s same-store sales decline on the “ongoing difficult retail environment” and having fewer items to sell as the company guards against ending up with unsold clothes.
“We believe we’ve missed some selling opportunity as a result of tight inventory management,” Chief Executive Ed Thomas said.
