A Mixed Bag of December Sales Statistics

New York City, Nordstrom reported preliminary sales of $1,046.0 million for the five-week period ending Jan. 1, an increase of 11.7% compared to sales of $936.2 million for the five-week period ending Jan. 3, 2004. Same-store sales increased 9.3%.

Circuit City Stores Inc. said its December sales rose a disappointing 1.8%, while same-store sales declined 5.8%. Total sales increased to $1.75 billion in December from $1.71 billion in the year-ago period.

“December sales were below our expectations,” CEO Alan McCollough said in a statement. “While we continue to believe that our stores are operating more effectively than they did at this time last year, customer traffic was below last December’s levels.”