shares of ll flooring inc ll slid 7 wednesday after the company posted weakerthanexpected thirdquarter earnings as lower spending by inflationconscious customers weighed richmond vabased ll flooring formerly called lumber liquidators swung to a net loss of 377 million or 13 cents a share for the quarter after income of 878 million or 30 cents a share in the yearearlier period the companys adjusted loss came to 14 cents a share while factset analysts were expecting eps of 26 cents sales fell 48 to 2688 million below the 289 million factset consensus samestore sales fell 73 while the factset consensus was for them to be flat chief executive charles tyson said the numbers lagged the companys expectations notwithstanding the challenging consumer spending environment we believe there are opportunities to improve our performance and we are focused on increasing brand awareness and consumer traffic he said in a statement still the company is expecting spending headwinds to persist through yearend while transportation and material costs will remain a challenge the stock has fallen 53 in the year to date while the sp 500 spx has fallen 195