[aruanan]

The company's same-store sales tally was up only 1 percent for December, far below his estimate of 2 percent to 2.5 percent.

In other words, "I made more money than I did a year ago, but since it wasn't as much as I had hoped for, it was a very bad showing--even though the increase last year was seen as good back then."

[Dave S]

The company's same-store sales tally was up only 1 percent for December, far below his estimate of 2 percent to 2.5 percent.

In other words, "I made more money than I did a year ago, but since it wasn't as much as I had hoped for, it was a very bad showing--even though the increase last year was seen as good back then."

Sales are not the same as profit. You could sell more product than you did the year before but if you had to give it away in order to get it to move, your profit is down, not up.