Sales at Haverty Furniture Companies slipped in the second quarter as the Atlanta company reported a difficult comparison to last year's sales amid weak consumer spending.
"We found it difficult to match last year's top line with the housing sector in an apparent double-dip," president and CEO Clarence Smith said in a Thursday conference call.
But Smith said orders are up for the second half of the year and the company sees an opportunity to pick up business in higher-end furniture sales, and from the many local retailers that have gone out of business.
"We're trying to appeal to the better-end customer with better quality, and it's going well," he said.
The amount of money that shoppers have been spending at Havertys has increased, Smith said, even as traffic has not.
Sales at Havertys decreased 1.4 percent, to $143.1 million in the quarter, and the company lost $942,000. On Thursday, when the Dow Jones index dropped 4.3 percent and lost 512 points, Havertys had a gain of 71 cents a share, or 6.59 percent.
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