Wet Seal reported a decrease of 7.2% in net sales for May, while same-store sales fell 8.8%, the 9th straight decline and compared to a 2.9% gain in the year-ago period. Wet Seal same-store sales were down 8.7% and Arden B same-store sales fell 9.3%. Susan McGalla, chief executive officer of The Wet Seal, Inc., commented: “May sales were in line with our expectations. At Wet Seal, down-trending fashion knit tops and screen tee businesses overshadowed growth in several other categories. Through the remainder of the quarter, we will continue to shift our assortment toward strong performing categories, including woven tops, jeans, dresses and shoes, to better position Wet Seal for the back-to-school season. At Arden B, the bottoms category performed well, while other categories declined. We remain focused on building our bottoms business and improving our tops assortment to provide more compelling outfitting solutions for our customer, as well as maintaining our strength as a dress destination. E-commerce sales declined 5% in May compared to a 6% decrease for the prior year month. The level of May sales decline reflects improvement from our recent trend. In June, we expect continued improvement as we anniversary the beginning of strategic efforts to transition to a higher penetration of full-price selling online and better align merchandising in the e-commerce channel with our stores.”
