Halloween scares up Target Oct. sales

MINNEAPOLIS Target today reported that its net retail sales for the four weeks ended Nov. 3 increased 9.7% to $4.4 billion from $4 billion for the four-week period ended Oct. 28, 2006. The company reported that comparable-store sales increased 4.1%.

"Due to strength in the last week of the month which benefited from year-over-year Halloween timing, our October comparable-store sales were at the high end of the range provided in our mid-month update," said Bob Ulrich, chairman and chief executive officer of Target. "However, for the second straight month, we experienced soft sales in our higher margin categories."