Copyright 2000 The Houston Chronicle Publishing Company
The Houston Chronicle
November 21, 2000, Tuesday 3 STAR EDITION
SECTION: BUSINESS; Pg. 2
LENGTH: 188 words
HEADLINE:
7-Eleven reports sales up 1.5% but says higher gas prices hurt
profits
SOURCE: Reuters News Service
DATELINE: DALLAS
BODY:
DALLAS - 7-Eleven, the world's largest convenience store chain, Monday
reported a 1.5 percent increase in merchandise sales for October but said
rising gasoline prices continue to hurt its results.
The Dallas-based company said if wholesale gasoline costs continue
rising at their current rate, its fourth-quarter earnings could
come in as low as 12 cents. Wall Street analysts expect it to post a profit of
17 cents a share for the fourth quarter, according to the research firm First
Call/Thomson Financial.
Gasoline sales for October rose 21.9 percent to
$ 234.1 million from $ 192.1 million a year ago. Year-to-date gasoline sales
through October rose 37 percent to $ 2.3 billion.
7-Eleven said total
merchandise sales rose 1.5 percent in October to $ 551.7 million from $ 543.6
million a year ago. Year-to-date merchandise sales through October were up 7.6
percent to $ 5.6 billion from $ 5.2 billion in the year-ago period.
The
company said U.S. same-store merchandise sales, or sales at stores open at least
one year, rose 0.5 percent in October, compared with an 11.5 percent increase in
October 1999.
TYPE: -LINKS-
LOAD-DATE: November 22, 2000 
