Gap Inc.'s September Same-store Sales Impacted By Distribution Center Fire

Gap Inc. said Thursday it had September sales of $1.43 billion for the month ending Oct. 1, down 2% from $1.46 billion for the same period last year. Same-store sales dropped 3% for the month. The retailer, whose brands include the namesake Gap stores, Banana Republic, and Old Navy, estimates that a fire that occurred at its Fishkill, NY distribution center negatively impacted the same-store sales result by 3 percentage points. The company expects the incident to negatively impact October same-store sales by about 3 percentage points, and have a negative impact on fiscal fourth-quarter same-store sales. At the time, a Gap spokesperson told MarketWatch that the company has "contingency plans in place" to manage the aftermath of the fire. Gap Global had the steepest decline in September same-store sales at 10%. Banana Republic same-store sales fell 9%. Old Navy saw same-store sales climb 4%. Gap Inc. shares are up 5.6% in after-hours trading, but are down nearly 20% for the past year. The S&P 500 Index is up 9.1% for the last 12 months.