kirklands inc posted lower sales and swung to a loss in the fiscal fourth quarter as persistent inflation and tightening financial conditions continue to weigh on shoppers the retailer of home decor and furnishings posted a net loss of 38 million or 30 cents a share for the three months ended jan 28 compared with a profit of 125 million or 91 cents a share in the same quarter a year ago stripping out onetime items including asset impairment adjusted loss came to 9 cents a share analysts polled by factset were expecting an adjusted loss of 4 cents a share sales for the quarter slipped to 1625 million from 1762 million in the yearago period analysts were looking for sales of 1621 million according to factset samestore sales which strips out the effect of store openings and closings were down 61 which includes a 55 drop in ecommerce sales the decline was driven by dropoff in traffic though an increase in average ticket size offset some of that slowdown kirklands said we started the fourth quarter with promising sales trends during our black friday event but then declining traffic and the effect of significant inventory reductions on our merchandise mix drove sales lower chief executive steve woodward said he said 2023 is expected to be a year of stabilization we expect to begin seeing margin improvements starting in the fiscal first quarter as the supply chain has begun to normalize and we continue to remain vigilant in our efforts to tightly manage operating costs across the organization he said he added that it remains hard to predict when discretionary spending will rebound write to will feuer at willfeuerwsjcom