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.
Pacific Sunwear’s smaller demo chain, selling urban styles, was off 17.3% last month.
Even with the big drop at demo, 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.
Pacific Sunwear has been working on a turnaround for the past year or so. So far this year, the company has brought new clothes to stores, tweaked store layouts and closed some demo stores.
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.
The company recently lowered its quarterly profit outlook.
For September, Wet Seal expects same-store sales to range from a decline of 1% to a gain of 3%.
