NEW YORK (Reuters) - Upscale department store Neiman Marcus posted a sharply lower quarterly profit on Wednesday as its affluent shoppers, facing a deep economic downturn, scaled back their spending.
Neiman said its net profit was $12.9 million in the fiscal first quarter that ended Nov 1, compared to a profit of $78.6 million in the year-earlier quarter.
On an operating basis, the company posted a profit of $81.6 million, compared with $189.7 million, a year ago.
Sales fell to $986 million from $1.13 billion a year ago. Same-store sales, a key measure of retail health, declined 14.5 percent.
(Reporting by Aarthi Sivaraman, editing by Dave Zimmerman)
