"July same-store store sales were negatively impacted by the effect of last year's stimulus checks early in the month and by the shift of many states' tax-free weekends from fiscal July to fiscal August," said John Cato, Chairman, President, and Chief Executive Officer. "Without the impact of these issues, we believe July same-store sales would have remained within our expected range of flat to down 3%.

Likewise, the Charlotte-based company feels the shift of the tax-free weekends this year to benefit August results. "We now expect second quarter earnings per diluted share to be near the high end of our previous guidance range of $.48 to $.54 vs. $.41 last year," added Cato.

The Company will release second quarter results on Thursday, August 20, 2009.