Big 5 Sporting Goods reports same-store sales decline

EL SEGUNDO, Calif. Big 5 Sporting Goods reported that for the second quarter same-store sales declined 0.5% versus the comparable period last year. The company's same-store sales increased 0.3% during the second quarter of fiscal 2009 compared with the second quarter of fiscal 2008.

For the fiscal 2010 second quarter, the company now expects to realize earnings per diluted share in the range of 20 cents to 23 cents, compared to earnings per diluted share of 22 cents for the second quarter last year.

"Our top-line results were slightly softer than we expected, which we attribute largely to the sluggish pace of the economic recovery across much of our geography as well as a lack of warm weather in many of our west coast markets," said Steven Miller, the company's chairman, president and CEO. "All three of our major merchandise categories -- footwear, hardgoods and apparel -- performed within a relatively tight range of one another.  Although we comped positively in April and June and experienced encouraging sales trends over the recent Fourth of July holiday period, those sales were not enough to offset a challenging month of May that was impacted by lackluster sales of summer-related products."