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“Starbucks warned Wall Street on Thursday that its profit would fall short of analysts' expectations this quarter; just hours after Chief Executive Howard Schultz tried to assuage concerns about the recession's effect on the coffee retailer's sales and profits.
     
Chief Financial Officer Troy Alstead said that he could not provide specific guidance, but that same-store sales deteriorated by 9 percent in US since the company's fiscal first quarter began at the end of September. In its fiscal fourth quarter, the company reported a decline of 8 percent in the US - a drop that many investors had hoped would be the company's steepest.
     
Sales have been particularly dismal in those states that have been hardest hit by foreclosures, most notably in California and Florida which make up about 30 percent of the company's store base.
     
"We were not immune to the deepening impact" of the economic crisis, said Alstead, who said it was too early to say how sales for the quarter would end.
     
The comments came during an analyst conference that began with Schultz attempting to curb anxiety on the Street about the chain's recent sliding sales and profits.
     
Starbucks shares were up 2.8 percent, or 24 cents, at $8.88 in afternoon trading. They had traded as high as $9.41 earlier in the day.
     
Schultz had told analysts that the company would emerge from an environment in which consumers are no longer as willing to spend on small luxuries like $4 (US) lattes as a stronger, leaner and more socially conscious company.     ” source...