99 Cents Only Stores Sales Up 8% in 3Q

Commerce, Calif. 99 Cents Only Stores reported total sales for its third quarter of 2009 ended Dec. 27, 2008, of $351.1 million, up 8.0% from the year ago period. Same-store sales increased 4.2%.

99 Cents Only Stores is continuing to report a breakdown of its sales for its non-Texas and Texas operations because the company previously announced that it will exit the Texas market.

For the company’s non-Texas operations, retail sales in the third quarter of fiscal 2009 were $307.3 million compared to $281.5 million in the same quarter last year.

Retail sales for the company’s Texas operations in the third quarter of fiscal 2009 were $33.7 million vs. $33.1 million in the third quarter of last year.

For the company’s non-Texas operations, same-store sales were up 4.4% for this period, with the number of same-store-sales transactions increasing 1.8% and average transaction up 2.5% to $9.90 compared to $9.66 for the comparable period last year. Same-store sales for the company’s Texas operations were up 2.5% for this period.