Same-Store Sales Show Whether the Existing Shops Improved

Same-store sales, also called comparable sales, measure revenue at locations open for at least a full year, against the same period a year earlier.

New shops are excluded until they have been trading long enough to compare.

Why Total Revenue Is the Wrong Number Here

A chain that opens a hundred shops will report higher revenue whether or not a single existing shop improved. Growth by expansion and growth by performance look identical in the total and are entirely different businesses.

Expansion costs capital and eventually runs out of locations. Improvement does not.

So a retailer reporting rising revenue and falling comparable sales is a company whose existing estate is deteriorating while the total conceals it.

Where It Appears

In management's discussion in the quarterly and annual reports, and usually in the earnings release before that.

The definition is the company's own. Some include online sales in the comparable base, some do not, and a company that changes the definition will say so in a footnote that is easy to miss.

Changing it mid-run breaks the comparison, which is why the footnote matters more than the number in that period.

What to Read Alongside It

Transaction count and average transaction value, where disclosed. Comparable sales can rise because more people came in, or because the same people spent more, or because prices went up.

Those three have different implications and the single figure does not distinguish them.

What It Cannot Tell You

Profitability. A retailer can grow comparable sales by discounting, and the gross margin line is where that shows.