Meanwhile, the company's Kmart chain recorded a same-store sales gain of 0.9%, its first quarterly year-on-year increase since the second quarter of 2001, due to higher apparel and home-product sales. However, the chain's total revenues declined by $200 million, to $5.9 billion, in part due to store closures. The company operated 60 less of the stores since the year before, as 12 closed and the remainder were converted to standalone Sears units.

In a statement to shareholders, Edward Lampert, the company's chairman, said that same-store sales are not a good barometer to measure Sears' chains' performance, since the metric does not take into account improvements put into a store and annual changes in revenues. "While reducing sales is not a prescription for success on a base of healthy, profitable stores, it can be a prescription for success where profit was not the primary objective and where sales came from 'giving product away' rather than from providing value to the customer," he said.

Sears Holdings continues to transform some of its Kmart stores to Sears units, calling them Sears Grand, instead of the short-lived banner Sears Essentials. The company is also looking at ways to bring Sears merchandise in to Kmart stores. Between both chains, Sears Holdings operates 2,300 units, about 1,400 of them Kmarts and the rest Sears. The company also has just over 1,100 specialty stores, including chains like Sears Hardware.

Sears Holdings is also still trying to acquire the 46% of the 370-store Sears Canada chain it does not own. Sears is offering $720 million for the portion of the chain it does not own, in a deal that will be offered until the end of the week.

During the quarter, the company's earnings per share came in at $4.03, up from $3.09 from the year before. For the full year, earnings per share were $5.59, compared to $11 in 2004, which included a $946-million asset sale.