J.C. Penney Company, Inc. March Sales Down 0.3%

J. C. Penney Company, Inc. JCP reported today that its comparable store sales for the five-week period ended April 2, 2011, decreased 0.3 percent. Online sales through jcp.com increased 7.6 percent over last year, while total company sales decreased 4.0 percent for the month. As expected, sales during the last week of the month were negatively impacted by the shift of Easter out of the March reporting period this year. Women's apparel, fine jewelry and women's accessories reported the strongest results in March. Geographically, the southwest was the top performing region of the country.