August sales at Anaheim-based mall store operator Pacific Sunwear of California Inc. surged a surprising 9.6% last month, while the county’s other major retailer, Foothill Ranch-based Wet Seal Inc., was up 1.7% last month.
Pacific Sunwear said it benefited from a later start in back to school shopping in Florida and Texas.
The company’s sales increase for stores open at least a year easily topped Wall Street’s expectation of a 0.9% gain.
The company’s dominant PacSun chain, which sells surf-inspired clothes, drove the gain, rising 11.9% in August.
It’s smaller demo chain, selling urban styles, was off 17.3% last month.
Even with the big drop, August was the best month in same-store sales for the company in recent memory.
In early August, Pacific Sunwear said sales for July fell 4.6%, versus Wall Street’s hope for a 3.2% rise.
The company also cut its quarterly outlook in early August, saying it expects a loss of about $12 million instead of an earlier forecast for a $12.6 million profit.
Wet Seal, which runs stores selling clothes for girls and young women, beat analysts’ estimates of a 0.6% gain in August sales.
For July, Wet Seal saw a 7.2% drop in same-store sales, below Wall Street’s expected 5% decline.
