Lowe's Second Quarter Sales Up 5.8%

Sales of home improvement giant Lowe's increased 5.8% in the second quarter of this year over last, to $14.2 billion. The increase was mostly from the addition of 26 new stores; same store sales for the period were off by 2.6%. Sales for the year to date hit $26.3 billion, up 4.1% over the same period of 2006; same store sales for the half slipped 4.4%.
Lowe's now has 1,424 stores in 49 states totalling 162 million square feet of retail selling space, an 11.1% increase over last year. It expects to open 40 stores in the third quarter.