With Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows generating sales of $1.8 million in its first 10 days after its release on July 21, comparable store sales at Hastings Entertainment jumped 6.9% in the second quarter ended July 31. Total revenue for the chain rose 2.3%, to $125.9 million, and net income jumped to $1.9 million, from $179,000 in the comparable period in last year’s second quarter. With the exception of music, where comps fell 14.2%, same-store sales were up in all categories, with the movies, video games, trends and electronics segments all posting increases of more than 10%
For the first half of the year, total revenue at Hastings slipped 0.2%, to $254 million, but improved cost controls helped Hastings double earnings from $2.1 million to $4.3 million. Book comps in the six months were up 2.8%, with higher sales of Hallows partially offset by fewer sales in the value book category. Hastings CFO Dan Crow said that earnings were “substantially better than our internal forecasts,” and he said earnings for the full year should come in above earlier expectations. He cautioned, however, that the company remained “concerned about general economic conditions” that could have a negative impact on retail sales.
