Retail sales over the period reached $280.6 million, up 11.5% from the $251.8 million recorded in the same quarter last year. The company's same-store sales for the second quarter ended September 30, 2007 increased 6.1% over the same quarter last year. Over the same period, the number of overall same-store sales transactions increased by 4.3% and the average transaction size increased by 1.8% to $9.34, up from $9.17. During the quarter, the company opened three stores - two in California and one in Texas. Gross and saleable retail square footage at the end of the quarter ended September 30, 2007 were 5.61 million and 4.41 million, an increase over last year of 5.6% and 5.7%, respectively. As of September 30, 2007, the company had 256 stores, up 6.2% compared to 241 stores as of the same period last year. Eric Schiffer, CEO of 99 Cents Only Stores, said: "We are pleased to continue our positive trend in same-store-sales for the eighth quarter in a row with a 6.1% increase in the second quarter of fiscal 2008. Overall, the same-store-sales average transaction size increased somewhat while the number of transactions increased significantly. We believe this indicates that we have increased the frequency of our customers' visits and brought new customers into the stores."