BJ's Wholesale Club August sales up

BJ's Wholesale Club Inc., with seven Connecticut stores, said Thursday that sales at its warehouse clubs open at least a year rose just 2.4 percent as more customers came to its stores but spent less, The Associated Press reports.

The results came in shy of the 3.3 percent increase that analysts were expecting

Excluding sales at the gas pump, sales at clubs open at least a year rose 1.9 percent, also missing analysts' 2.4 percent projection, according to a Thomson Reuters poll. Sales at locations open at least a year are important because they measure performance of established stores rather than newly opened ones.

For the month total sales rose 4.9 percent to $794.6 million from $757.7 million.

BJ's said departments with the strongest sales growth were bakery, cigarettes, computer equipment, dairy, frozen, housewares, meat, milk, produce, small appliances and snacks. Departments with weaker sales compared with last year were air conditioners, health and beauty aids, household chemicals and prerecorded video.

BJ's sales rose in all major regions with the exception of metro New York, which saw a slight decrease. Excluding sales of gasoline, 3 percent more customers came to BJ's stores but the average transaction amount dropped about 1 percent. Sales of food increased by 4 percent while sales of general merchandise decreased by about 1 percent.

The company currently operates 189 BJ's Wholesale clubs in 15 states. Its Connecticut stores are in Manchester, North Haven, Torrington, Wallingford, Waterbury, West Hartford and Willimantic.