June 5, 2008 7:48AM

Watching The Buckle

By Brian Sullivan

With many retailers struggling in a slowing economy, one small cap Nebraska-based retailer has been posting surging same store sales numbers.

Kearney, Nebraska (population 27,341) based The Buckle (BKE) just rolled out its May numbers and they are staggering.   May same store sales (stores that have been open at least a year, this does NOT include new store openings) rose 34.7%.   No, I didn’t misplace the decimal.   That’s 34.7%.   Net sales rose 44.1%. 

The Buckle sells fashions for the younger set.   Competitors include companies lsuch as Abercrombie & Fitch (ANF), American Eagle Outfitters (AEO) and Pacific Sunwear (PSUN).  Compare the numbers.  This morning PSUN posted a decline in May same store sales of 2%.   American Eagle showed a drop of 9% year over year, and The Gap (GPS) a 14% drop.   The point - The Buckle’s numbers prove that teens continue to spend, they are just chooosing new stores to spend in. 

The Buckle still relatively small by publicly-traded retailer standards, but is getting bigger.   They have 376 stores, opening two more in May.   I’ve called the company a few times and each time the CEO is traveling, on the road and opening more stores.   He’s going to nearly every store opening, the sign of a hands-on CEO.   By the way, when I call the company I speak directly to the CFO.   No media runaround.  That’s rare these days.

Note that these numbers haven’t gone unnoticed by The Street.  The stock has had a big run the last few years, going from $18 to $46 in the last four years.  Chairman of the Board Dan Hirschfield just sold 50,000 shares.