PriceSmart (PSMT) comparable warehouse sales decreased 1% in March

PriceSmart, Inc. (NASDAQ: PSMT) today announced that for the month of March 2019, net merchandise sales increased 0.1% to $261.5 million from $261.3 million in March a year earlier. Foreign currency exchange rate fluctuations impacted net merchandise sales negatively by $8.7 million or 3.3% versus the same prior year one-month period.

For the seven months ended March 31, 2019, net merchandise sales increased 0.3% to $1,829.1 million from $1,823.3 million in the same period last year. Foreign currency exchange rate fluctuations impacted net merchandise sales negatively by $57.9 million or 3.2% versus the same prior year seventh-month period.

There were 41 warehouse clubs in operation at March 31, 2019 compared to 40 warehouse clubs in operation at March 31, 2018.

For the four weeks ended March 31, 2019, comparable warehouse sales for the 40 warehouse clubs open at least 13 ½ full months decreased 1.0% compared to the same four-week period last year. Foreign currency exchange rate fluctuations impacted comparable net merchandise sales negatively by $7.6 million or 3.3% versus the same prior year period.

For the thirty-week period ended March 31, 2019, comparable warehouse sales decreased 1.4% compared to the comparable thirty-week period a year ago. Foreign currency exchange rate fluctuations impacted comparable net merchandise sales negatively by $56.2 million or 3.1% versus the same prior year period.

The Company reports comparable net merchandise sales on a "same week" basis with 13 weeks in each quarter beginning on a Monday and ending on a Sunday. The periods are established at the beginning of the fiscal year to provide as close a match as possible to the calendar month and quarter that is used for financial reporting purposes. This approach equalizes the number of weekend days and weekdays in each period for improved sales comparison, as we experience higher merchandise club sales on the weekends. Each of the warehouse clubs used in the calculations was open for at least 13 ½ calendar months before its results for the current period were compared with its results for the prior period.

The term "currency exchange rates" refers to the currency exchange rates we use to convert net merchandise and comparable net merchandise sales for all countries where the functional currency is not the U.S. dollar into U.S. dollars. We calculate the effect of changes in currency exchange rates as the difference between current period activities translated using the current period's currency exchange rates, and the comparable prior year period's currency exchange rates. The disclosure of the effects of currency exchange rate fluctuations on the Company's results permits investors to understand better our underlying performance.

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