It takes a strong stomach to set aside a $50 million drop in sales, but The Talbots is fully justified in asking those following the company to do so. Despite racking up only $308.9 million in net sales during third-quarter 2009, down from $357.3 million in third-quarter 2008, the company is actually booming along — at least from a direct marketing standpoint.
This is because while retail sales were falling, direct marketing sales held their own, dipping only slightly for the third quarter from $53.8 million a year ago to $53.5 million. As a percentage of total sales, direct marketing increased from 15.1% to 17.3%. In comparison, store sales fell by 15.8% from third-quarter 2008
Network
