Weather's Double Whammy Hurts Federated's Sales
September sales took another hit at Federated Department Stores Inc., Cincinnati, thanks to Hurricane Jeanne, the company reported yesterday. The news follows previous reports that Hurricane Frances caused a drop in sales earlier in the month.Early estimates of lost sales at Federated's Florida stores total about $10 million from Hurricane Jeanne, reducing September same-store sales by 0.7 percent.
The combined effect of hurricanes Frances and Jeanne reduced sales by about $30 million and same-store sales by 2.1 percent. The company expects its overall same-store sales to be down slightly in September as a result of the storms.
Though it was too early yesterday to assess the total effect of Hurricane Jeanne, Federated did not think any of its Burdines-Macy's or Bloomingdale's stores in Florida were seriously damaged from the weekend's storm.
