Sears sales continue downward trend

TORONTO ― Sears Canada reported that same store sales declined 7.4% and core retail same store sales declined 6.9% for the first quarter. Revenues of $595.9 million represented a decline of 14.5% compared to the same quarter last year. The decline in same store sales was due in part to a decrease in transactions both in big ticket items such as major appliances, partly to the loss of customer financing solutions with the termination of the credit card agreement, and also in small ticket items, and also to slower sell through in items for which some vendors passed through price increases as a result of the decline in the Canadian dollar over the past year.