U.S. Retail Chain Sees Depressed Sales On X360 Shortages

U.S. media retail firm Trans World Entertainment, which operates combined movie, DVD, and game stores under brands including f.y.e, Coconuts Music and Movies, Strawberries Music, and Wherehouse, has announced its fourth quarter results for the 2005 holiday season, under which comparable store sales decreased 8% and total sales decreased 11% to $458.6 million, with a small profit of $18.0 million. However, the company cites overall retail weakness, both in the physical retail end of the music industry, which continues to experience a slump as digital downloads take off, and in the video game market, where the company's CEO specifically cited supply issues with the Xbox 360 as affecting holiday sales. Robert J. Higgins, Trans World's Chairman and CEO, commented on the results: "As previously announced, fourth quarter sales were affected by a general weakness in our industry... In video games, Microsoft's Xbox performed well, however, a lack of sufficient product negatively affected the category as a whole." Going forward, Trans World expects a net loss per share in the range of $0.25 to $0.30 on a comparable store sales decline of 6% to 7% for the first quarter of 2006, and is also in the midst of an acqusition of U.S retail Musicland, meaning that no further guidance will be given for now.