Electronics Boutique Sees Small Rise In Holiday Sales

The period during which EB holiday sales are measured is nine weeks long, and ended December 30. The company, which operates 740 stores in 46 states plus Puerto Rico, Canada, Australia, New Zealand and South Korea, said that total sales for the period came to $266.1 million, compared with holiday sales of $261.7 million last year. On the down side, EB announced that its comparable store sales for the period declined by 6.6%. The company attributes its overall rise in revenue to a 51.8% increase in console hardware sales, driven by demand for the PS2. What offset this increase was a sharp downturn in sales of Pokemon Trading Cards (off 88.1%), toys (also primarily Pokemon related, and off 31.6%), and PSX software (off 30.8%). Last year at this time, EB reported a 12.2% rise in holiday sales.