Fred's Super Dollar posts sales gains of 3.3% for September

MEMPHIS, Tenn. — Fred's Super Dollar on Wednesday reported sales of $183.6 million for the five weeks ended Oct. 4, representing an increase of 3.3% as compared with the year-ago period. Comparable store sales for the month increased 0.2% on top of an increase of 2.8% in the same period last year.

 

Fred's total sales for the year-to-date period increased 1.5% to $1.3 billion. On a comparable store basis, year-to-date sales decreased 0.5% versus an increase of 0.8% for the year-earlier period.

 

"Our September comparable store sales continued the positive trend we have experienced in recent months in spite of the strong sales performance posted in the same month last year," stated Bruce Efird, Fred's CEO. "Our initiatives to emphasize our convenience-center model continue to gain traction throughout the business. Driving customer traffic remains a challenge in our markets, but the implementation of these initiatives is clearly beginning to produce positive results," he said. "General merchandise inventory has been significantly lowered and our clearance programs to address unproductive inventory, once again, exceeded the sales plan for September."

 

Pharmacy was another highlight for the month, Efird added, with increases in both comparable prescriptions filled and sales. "We are very excited to have our new pharmacy prime vendor agreement in place, which will not only accelerate gross margin improvement in the pharmacy department, but will also support our pharmacy expansion initiatives," he said. 

 

During the month, Fred’s closed five full service stores and one Xpress location. Fred's operates 701 discount general merchandise stores, including 21 franchised Fred's stores, in the southeastern United States.