Orange County’s two mall retailers took different paths in November as Anaheim’s Pacific Sunwear of California Inc. posted a gain in sales at stores open at least a year and Foothill Ranch-based Wet Seal Inc. saw a decline.
Both companies are working through turnarounds.
Pacific Sunwear’s same-store sales rose 2.3% last month, driven by its dominant PacSun chain selling clothes inspired by surfing and skateboarding.
The company is in the process of selling its demo chain offering urban styles and closing its small shoe store chain to focus just on PacSun.
PacSun stores saw a 7% gain in November same-store sales. Demo was off 31%.
But the company still faces challenges, as Wall Street analysts on average had expected a 2.8% rise in same-store sales.
Wet Seal, which runs two store chains selling clothes for girls and young women, saw a 1.7% drop in November same-store sales.
The decline was better than what analysts had expected at 5.3%.
Wet Seal said it expects another same-store sales decline in the low- to mid-single digits in December.
After slumping earlier this decade and then posting a big turnaround in the past few years, Wet Seal has seen its growth halt in the later half of 2007.
Last week, the company told Wall Street it plans to slow its rate of opening stores from 15% to 5% next year as it focuses on improving operations.
Wet Seal also plans to tweak its mix of clothes at its stores, switch out merchandise more often and cut operating costs.
