PriceSmart, Inc. (NASDAQ: PSMT) today announced that for the month of June 2019, net merchandise sales increased 3.9% to $253.1 million from $243.7 million in June a year earlier. Foreign currency exchange rate fluctuations impacted net merchandise sales negatively by $7.6 million or 3.0% versus the same prior year one-month period.

For the ten months ended June 30, 2019, net merchandise sales increased 0.8% to $2,575.6 million from $2,556.1 million in the same period last year. Foreign currency exchange rate fluctuations impacted net merchandise sales negatively by $84.7 million or 3.3% versus the same prior year ten-month period.

There were 43 warehouse clubs in operation at June 30, 2019 compared to 41 warehouse clubs in operation at June 30, 2018.

For the four weeks ended June 30, 2019, comparable warehouse sales for the 40 warehouse clubs open at least 13 ½ full months increased 1.9% compared to the same four-week period last year. Foreign currency exchange rate fluctuations impacted comparable net merchandise sales negatively by $6.8 million or 3.1% versus the same prior year period.

For the forty-three week period ended June 30, 2019, comparable warehouse sales decreased 1.0% compared to the comparable forty-three week period a year ago. Foreign currency exchange rate fluctuations impacted comparable net merchandise sales negatively by $82.9 million or 3.3% versus the same prior year period.

PriceSmart, Inc. also announced that on June 27, 2019, the Company opened a new warehouse club in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic, bringing to 43 the total number of warehouse clubs in operation by the Company. This warehouse club is the Company's fifth warehouse in the Dominican Republic. The Santo Domingo location is the Company's second new small club format, following the one opened in May 2019, in Santiago de Veraguas, Panama, and it is our first new small club format in a densely populated urban area.

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.