“Antique toys seen fetching millions on auction block - Reuters” plus 4 more

Antique toys seen fetching millions on auction block - Reuters
Quail Lodge Prepares for The Quail, A Motorsports Gathering 2010 - PR Newswire
The Posh and the Perverse - New York Times
Text Size - Chicago Tribune
AutoZone 4Q profit slips, misses view - Miami Herald

Antique toys seen fetching millions on auction block - Reuters

Posted: 24 Sep 2009 07:47 AM PDT

NEW YORK (Reuters Life!) - More than a thousand antique automotive toys will go on the block this week as Donald Kaufman, whose family founded KB Toys, auctions off his private collection.

Kaufman, who began collecting toys in 1950, is among the world's top antique toy collectors, with roughly 7,500 pieces focusing mainly on tin and cast-iron vehicles such as cars, planes, boats and trucks.

The entire collection is being auctioned in a series of sales taking place over the next few years, giving collectors and enthusiasts a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, according to Jeanne Bertoia, owner of Bertoia Auctions in Vineland, New Jersey, which is handling the auctions.

"He was one of the strongest buyers at all the antique toy auction houses and he just really bought the best," Bertoia said. "When his paddle went up, people in the audience would say 'oh darn, Don's in the house'."

The first auction of Kaufman's toys, held in March, raised $4.2 million. The second auction will take place on Friday and Saturday and is expected to bring in roughly $2 million to $2.5 million, Bertoia said.

One highlight is a rare boxed example of Mickey and Minnie Mouse on a motorcycle dating from the early 1930s, which Bertoia estimated at $40,000 to $60,000. She noted, however, that because this is an absolute auction, every lot must sell, even if the offer is lower than estimated.

"In any big auction there's always opportunities for bargains," Bertoia said. She guessed that overall prices for antique toys are now about 15 percent softer than they were before the recession.

This week's auction will include an array of early 20th-century luxury toy cars, many of which are still in their original boxes.

Richard Bertoia, a Bertoia associate, believes a Renault touring car is worth $25,000 to $30,000. He said the toy was found in a Paris factory after a toy show in 1928 and bought by an Italian count. Kaufman picked up the car several years ago at an auction of the count's collection.

There are also several hand-made, hand-painted Marklin cars from around 1905 that "have the $50,000 potential," he said.

"I'm not one to use the word exquisite very often but that would be as close," he said. "It's a visual history in miniature because these cars were duplicated from what the toy masters saw driving on the rough roads back then."

Kaufman's collecting intensified after he retired in 1981 and he and other family members sold their stake in KB Toys.

KB filed for bankruptcy in December, citing a sharp drop in sales and held "going out of business" sales at its roughly 460 stores. Rival retailer Toys "R" Us then bought KB's trademark, logos and Web addresses at a bankruptcy auction for $2.1 million.

In an interview, Kaufman said he was "disappointed" to hear that KB went out of business even though he was not surprised.

About the auction, Kaufman said he expects it to be "great" since toys bring a lot of "interest and excitement" to people's lives, as they did to his. Continued...

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Quail Lodge Prepares for The Quail, A Motorsports Gathering 2010 - PR Newswire

Posted: 24 Sep 2009 07:04 AM PDT

CARMEL, Calif., Sept. 24 /PRNewswire/ -- Amidst news of the Hotel closing in November, Quail Lodge announces that preparations have begun for The Quail, A Motorsports Gathering, scheduled for August 13, 2010. The event brings together a collection of the world's rarest sports and racing automobiles in an intimate garden setting.

Regarded as the exclusive automobile event on the Monterey Peninsula, The Quail, A Motorsports Gathering brings together automotive enthusiasts for a day of friendship, legendary cars and culinary delights. For 2010, a few of the celebrated marks will be: Featured Milestone Cars of 1934, 45 Years of the Shelby Mustang and Alfa Romeo Special Coachbuilders. As in past years, the event will also feature the tradition of The Great Ferraris along with Pre and Post-War Sport, Pre and Post-War Racing, Sport and Racing Motorcycles and Super Cars.

"We are proud to be recognized as one of the most sought after events during Monterey's Classic Cars Week," said Sarah Cruse, General Manager of Quail Lodge. "Our team has excelled in creating an exclusive day-long celebration where automotive collectors and connoisseurs have an unmatched opportunity to compare the aesthetics and engineering of the world's most extraordinary driving machines in a picturesque garden-party setting."

Tickets will be going on sale soon, and due to the high demand, are very limited. For more information please visit www.quaillodgeevents.com.

Although the owners of Quail Lodge announced the closing of the hotel portion of Quail Lodge after November 16th, 2009. The Golf Course and Clubhouse will remain open and will continue to run a full events program, including The Quail, A Motorsports Gathering

Nestled on 850 acres in the heart of sunny Carmel Valley, Quail Lodge is owned and operated by Hong Kong Shanghai Hotels (HSH). Amenities include an 18-hole championship golf course, swimming pool, tennis court, restaurant, and trails through the remarkably beautiful environment of lakes, lush gardens and rolling hills.

Incorporated in 1866 and listed on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange (00045), HSH is a holding company whose subsidiaries and its jointly controlled entity are engaged in the ownership and management of prestigious hotel, commercial and residential properties in key destinations in Asia and the USA. The hotel portfolio of the Group comprises The Peninsula Hong Kong, The Peninsula New York, The Peninsula Chicago, The Peninsula Beverly Hills, The Peninsula Tokyo, The Peninsula Bangkok, The Peninsula Beijing, The Peninsula Manila, The Peninsula Shanghai (opening in late 2009) and Quail Lodge Resort and Golf Club in Carmel, California. The property portfolio of the Group includes The Repulse Bay Complex, The Peak Tower and The Peak Tramways, St. John's Building, The Landmark in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam and the Thai Country Club in Bangkok, Thailand.

Website: www.quaillodge.com

Digital Photo Library: http://www.leonardo.com/peninsula/

SOURCE The Quail, A Motorsports Gathering

Website: http://www.quaillodge.com

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The Posh and the Perverse - New York Times

Posted: 23 Sep 2009 09:46 PM PDT

THERE are destination stores that you must make pilgrimages to just for your edification. You go for the same reason you go to great little museums or unique homes: to bask in an expansive articulation of a particular style, a unified curatorial vision.

The goods at Maxfield in Los Angeles represent decades of a rare and decadent taste allowed to ferment, boil over and roll out as far and wide as its whims demand. Just stumbling around inside the store is a master class in aesthetic sophistication, and this is why you go, because unless you're an Olsen twin, the price tags are open-palmed blows to the face.

Tommy Perse, the father of James Perse (of expensive T-shirt fame), is legendary for being the first Los Angeles retailer to embrace the color black, and cutting-edge looks from Yohji Yamamoto and Comme des Garçons, back in the earliest 1980s.

Among Maxfield's offerings are pre-owned luxury goods — collected, I learned, via Perse acquaintances with old European families. Vintage medical vitrines are full of old Rolexes and Cartier baubles; tall glass cases are packed with old Hermès desk sets, thermoses, bottle openers, horse brushes and other instruments of aristocratic equipage. A moth-eaten Gucci suitcase made of genuine zebra hide will set you back $21,500 ... but it screams old money.

The brands are a fusion of poshness and punk. I lusted over a rack of LGB (Le Grand Bleu), a brand that expresses a fiction of the American West retold through a Japanese fashion sensibility: long, skinny, distressed plaid cowboy shirts, with zippers — something Sam Shepard would be wearing after being dragged for a couple of miles behind a 1959 Chevy Apache.

A rack of Balmain brings a mind-bending new unattainability to your wardrobe with tumescent shoulder pads (a motorcycle jacket, $8,915) and motocross-style jeans weighing in at an unforgivable $2,915. For jeans! Made of denim! No Kevlar, no sheared ibex, no major electronic, automotive or weapons capabilities whatsoever. Just motorcycle pants that cost a full 300 percent more than my last motorcycle. But if you are so aggressively well-off that you're willing to drop the equivalent of a schoolteacher's monthly salary on your day look, then you're probably married to someone like Scarface or Hank Paulson ... and that's how you roll.

I know that when shopping for clothing, I'm just not happy unless the décor involves taxidermy chickens dressed in Edwardian formalwear. Maxfield is good enough to provide these, alongside an impressive collection of first-edition out-of-print art books; some stunning examples of vintage modern furniture (a compulsion so addictive that Maxfield recently opened a furniture annex across the street); and two other elements that have come to symbolize the mark of true sophistication for me: sex toys and human remains.

The Erotica case, discreetly placed at the back of the store, holds scrimshaw and quartz crystal phalluses, silver slave collars, real horsetail whips and $3,950 handcuffs designed by the scholar, author and bondage enthusiast Betony Vernon.

I have always wanted to see a real shrunken head. At Maxfield, you can buy one for a mere $37,500. Also a Dayak human trophy skull, whose tag describes him as having a "very well handled patina," and perhaps the most truly frightening objet d'art I've ever seen: another human skull with huge ram horns knotted onto it with rattan and decorated with a knot of shredded floral fabric that strongly suggests the someone's bird-watching aunt toddled too far into the heart of darkness ($39,000).

I beseeched Jahil Fisher to dress me, on the merits of his slick pompadour, tiny black blazer and untied shoes. The first outfit: Balmain motorcycle pants (O.K., I requested them), a long tank by LGB ($185) and a reversible plaid shirt by Serenade ($1,275) — an outfit remarkably similar to ones I liberated from trash bins as a punky teenager.

A distressed-leather biker vest by Agatha, Mr. Fisher agreed, was definitely something Cher would have worn in "Mask." I agreed that a certain clingy black dress with mesh detail by L'Wren Scott was "sex personified" ($2,310).

The soundtrack, ironically, was the ABC song "How to Be a Millionaire": "I've seen the future/I can't afford it."

In the 1930s, the majority of Germans were already put off by modern art — atonal music, Cubism, Surrealism, jazz, etc. — when the Nazis deemed it entartete kunst, or degenerate art. Culture itself became a weapon of propaganda, and the idea that modern art was immoral and elitist was ascribed to its being an expression of the depraved nature of Bolshevik Jews. Spinning mainstream discomfort with avant-garde art into anti-Semitic sentiment helped the Nazis regulate culture; by 1939, Kafka was banned from bookstores, and "degenerate" works were confiscated from museums and replaced by wholesome works extolling the virtues of obedience, militarism and racial purity.

The avant-garde, in its original sense, was meant to push cultural boundaries, and oppose market forces dictated by the mainstream culture. Nowadays, sales figures have replaced all other metrics for determining artistic merit and success.

Tommy Perse will never move anywhere near the volume of merchandise as his son, the T-shirt baron. But quality, not quantity, is the goal. The intelligence and energy of Maxfield is evident in every object selected to represent its thrillingly chic, grown-up sensibility. The inventory is in itself a high-level conversation about art, culture, modernism, morality ... and shoes. What you're really buying, at Maxfield, is this subtext, this wealth of mind-expanding things you may not know about.

There is something that feels sincerely radical about $3,000 jeans, rare art books, sex tools, the viscount's old luggage, Le Corbusier patio chairs and human skulls all being sold in the same room. But is Maxfield truly avant-garde, or is it sexily complicit, capitalist luxury kitsch?

Only Mr. Perse's hairdresser knows for sure, and you can bet your Balmain boots she always looks flawless.

MAXFIELD

8825 Melrose Avenue, Los Angeles; (310) 274-8800.

PERSE Haute-style arbiter Tommy Perse stocks an inventory selected with utmost care by well-traveled grown-ups, placing razor's-edge lines like Dsquared and Maniac alongside the luxe-iest household items, and uncharacteristically young and nasty-looking Chanel suits ($5,945).

PURSE Among the privileged clientele are with-it celebrities and voraciously spoiled brats. Actual overheard dialogue: "Don't be so weird, Dad! It's, like, $14,000. Whatever. I want to look at Comme des Garçons."

PERVERSE A Prada motorcycle helmet made of zebra hide ($1,635). Stuffed white peacocks standing over Ed Ruscha photo books. Black Japanese golf bags, covered with skulls, for the Hells Angel who has everything. Who knew heaven was black?

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Text Size - Chicago Tribune

Posted: 23 Sep 2009 05:25 AM PDT

CRUISE PLANNING CLASS The Waukegan Sail and Power Squadron is offering the U.S. Power Squadron Cruise Planning class beginning Sept. 24 at Bass Pro Shop Outdoor World in Gurnee. The class meets from 6:30 to 8:30 p.m. every Thursday for eight weeks. Fee is $47.50 for members and $127.50 for non-members (includes one-year membership). Contact instructor Ken Miller at kenanne@sbcglobal.net.

CORVETTE FUNFEST Mid America Motorworks holds its 16th annual Corvette Funfest Sept. 25-27 at its headquarters on U.S. 45, 2 miles north of Interstates 57 and 70, in Effingham, Ill. Some 15,000 of the sports cars are expected for show. Admission starts at $40. Call 800-500-1500 or visit www.corvettefunfest.com.

HUNTLEY CAR SHOW The Huntley Fall Fest Car Show is set for Sept. 26 in Deicke Park, on Ill. 47. Registration opens at 8 a.m. for the show from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. Fee is $10 per vehicle. Cars from 1980 and older will be judged in 12 categories. Proceeds will benefit the Huntley Parks Foundation, Pediatric Brain Tumor Foundation and Ronald McDonald House Charities. The show is part of Fall Fest. Admission is $2 per adult, $1 per child older than 12 and fee for kids 12 and younger through 3 p.m. After 3, admission is $5 per person. Visit www.huntleyfallfest.com.

AMAZING RACE RALLYE Brand-X Rallye Team presents The Amazing Race gimmick ralley based on the TV show Sept. 26. The rallye begins at 6 p.m. with registration at Woodfield Mall, parking area B2, near the Firestone Tire Center. A free beginners' school starts at 6:30 p.m. with the first car off at 7:30. Call Kathy Thomas at 815-338-6319 or visit www.brandxrallyeteam.com.

HORSEPOWER SHOW To mark its final day of the 2009 season, Arlington Park race track hosts "Horsepower!" Sept. 27. The car show will include The "Blowfish," a 1969 Plymouth Barracuda that can do 255 mph, a 552-horsepower 1940 Ford convertible and a 1,000-hp, flex-fuel 1970 Chevy Nova. Gates open at 11:15 am at the track at Euclid Avenue and Wilke Road. Admission starts at $6 with kids younger than 17 free. Call Dave Zenner at 847-385-7537 or Jerry Campagna at 224-629-7100.

PUMKIN DAYS The Illinois Railway Museum hosts it annual Pumpkin Days Oct. 3 and 4. Ride the trains and pick a free pumpkin. Hours at the museum in Union are 10:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. Fares are $12 for adults, $8 for kids or $45 for families. Visit www.irm.org or call 815-923-4000 or 800-BIG-RAIL (244-7245).

CYCLE SWAP A Motorcycle Swap Meet and Show is set for 8 a.m. to 3 p.m. Oct. 4 at the Sandwich Fairgrounds Admission is $5 for adults and free for kids younger than 15. Vendor booths are $30. Call 630-985-2097.

ORPHAN SHOW Illinois Valley Oldsmobile Chapter of the Oldsmobile Car Club of America hosts its 5th annual Orphan Show Oct. 4. The show, from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m., is open to all cars no longer in production. It will be at Mr. B's Sports Bar & Grille, 23956 Ill. 53 South, Elwood. Fee is $8 in advance and $12 at the gate. Visit www.ivocolds.com or contact Tom Echlin at 815-423-6077 or echlin88@yahoo.com or Gordon Neubauer at 815-423-6976.

TERROR ON THE RAILROAD The Illinois Railway Museum hosts its annual haunted event, Terror on the Railroad, Oct. 9 and 10, 16 and 17, 23 and 24 and 30 and 31. Participants must be at least 13 and in good health. The event will run from 7 to 11 p.m. all eight nights. Tickets, available only at the gate, are $12. Visit www.irm.org or call 815-923-4000 or 800-BIG-RAIL (244-7245).

RAILROAD SWAP MEET The Blackhawk Chapter National Railway Historical Society hosts its Fall Railroad Swap Meet Oct. 10. The meet is set for from 1 to 6 p.m. at American Legion Post 485, 7485 Burr St., Schererville. Vendor fee is $15. Admission is free. Visit www.blackhawknrhs.org.

SIMPSON'S RALLYE Join the SCORE rallye team for The Simpsons Rallye VIII, a gimmick car rallye, Oct. 10. Registration opens at 6 p.m. at the Firestone Auto Center at Woodfield Mall, north entrance off Golf Road between Ill. 53 and Meacham Road, with cars out at 7:15. Fee is $15. Call 847-398-8342 or e-mail road-rallye@sbcglobal.net.

FALL SWAPFEST Mid America Motorworks hosts its Fall Swapfest Oct. 10. Swapfest will also include an uction, flea market and car corral from 8 a.m to 4 p.m. at Mid America, on U.S. 45, 2 miles north of Interstates 57 and 70, in Effingham, Ill. Vendor spaces are $40 and the corral costs $25 per vehicle. Visit www.mamotorworks.com.

FAMOUS GHOST HUNT Wheels Rallye Team presents The Famous Ghost Hunt Halloween rallye Oct. 17. Dig up your friends and visit new haunts on the rallye that starts with registration at 6 p.m. at Woodfield Mall parking lot, in Schaumburg, just west of the Firestone Tire Center at Light Pole B-2. A beginner's school will be held at 6:45, and the cars head out at 7:10. Fee is $15 per vehicle, with proceeds benefiting MS research. Visit www.wheelsrallyeteam.com or contact Dennis at 847-446-2904 or roadrallye@aol.com.

GHOST TRAIN The Monticello Railway Museum hosts its Ghost Train Oct. 23-25 and Oct. 30 and 31 in Monticello, off I-72 between Champaign and Springfield. The trains, with a Haunted Boxcar, run every half hour from 7 to 9 p.m. Oct. 23, 24, 30 and 31. The run on the half hour from 1 to 2:30 p.m. and 7 to 8 p.m. Oct. 25. Tickets are $6 for ages 2 and older. Visit www.mrym.org.

LOOOONG RACE The Chicagoland Sports Car Club hosts the 39th annual Loooong Race Oct. 24-25 at Blackhawk Farms in Rockton. Visit www.cscc-racing.com.

TRICK OR TREAT TROLLEY Tricks and treats await you at every stop on this spooky and kooky trolley ride at the Illinois Railway Museum Oct. 24 and 25 and 31. Kids in costume get a free prize. Hours at the museum in Union are 10:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. Fares are $12 for adults, $8 for kids or $45 for families. Visit www.irm.org or call 815-923-4000 or 800-BIG-RAIL (244-7245).

SKIP'S SWAP The 17th annual Skip's Auto and Truck Parts Swap Meet is set for Nov. 1 at the new Lake County Fairgrounds in Grayslake. The meet and sale for collectible and performance vehices is set for 8 a.m. to 3 p.m. Admission is $7 for adults and $2 for kids 6-11. Vendor fee is $35 and cars for sale $25. Visit www.skipsusa.com or call 630-340-4744.

POLAR EXPRESS The Polar Express pulls into the National Railroad Museum in Ashwaubenon, Wis., Nov. 27, 27 and 29 and Dec. 4, 5 and 6. The annual trip to the North Pole will be made at 3, 5 and 7 p.m. each day and include a dramatic reading of the Christmas story about a boy who is not sure whether he believes in Santa Claus. Standard class fares are $12 for adults and $8 for kids 2 through 12. Fares in premium class--a restored 1950s streamline buffet-lounge-observation car, are $25 for lounge seating and $18 for table seating. Reservations are required. Call 920-437-7623, ext. 10, or visit www.nationalrrmuseum.org.

THE POLAR EXPRESS The Monticello Chamber of Commerce hosts Lunch with Santa on the Train Dec. 4 and 5 at the Monticello Railway Museum, off I-72 between Champaign and Springfield. The journey, from 5:30 to 7 p.m., leaves the Wabash Depot in downtown Monticello and includes a reading of the story. Tickets are $20 per person. For information, visit www.polarexpressride.com or call 877-762-9011. For tickets, visit www.mrym.org.

LUNCH WITH SANTA The Monticello Railway Museum hosts the Polar Express Nov. 27 and 28 and Dec. 5 and 6 in Monticello, off I-72 between Champaign and Springfield. Departures are 10 a.m. and 1, 2:15 and 3:30 p.m. Dec. 5 and 10:30 and 11:45 a.m. and 1:15 and 2:30 p.m. Dec 6. Tickets are $11 per person. Visit www.monticellochamber.org.

HAPPY HOLIDAY RAILWAY Take a train ride through holiday light displays and visit with Santa Claus and his elves at the Illinois Railway Museum Dec. 5 and 6, 12 and 13 and 19 and 20. Children on Santa's "good" list will recieve a gift. Trains run every two hours at the museum in Union. Visit www.irm.org or call 815-923-4000 or 800-BIG-RAIL (244-7245).

TOYS FOR TOTS The 32nd annual Chicagoland Toys for Tots Motorcycle Parade begins at 9:30 a.m. Dec. 6 at Dan Ryan Woods, 85th Street and Western Avenue, Chicago. The parade will proceed up Western to the Marine Reserve Center at Foster Avenue and Troy Street. Participants can gather at 8 a.m. and should bring an unwrapped new toy or game -- but no plush toys. Visit www.chicagolandtft.org or call 773-866-TOYS (8697).

Having a public event? Rides would like to list it. Please send the information--event name, time, place, admission/fees and contact information--to What's up, Rides, 435 N. Michigan Ave., 4th Floor, Chicago, IL 60611 or e-mail to transportation@tribune.com at least two weeks before the event. Submissions will be accepted in writing only.

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AutoZone 4Q profit slips, misses view - Miami Herald

Posted: 23 Sep 2009 04:42 AM PDT

NEW YORK -- Auto parts retailer AutoZone Inc. said Wednesday its fiscal fourth-quarter profit fell 3.1 percent, citing tough comparisons to a prior-year period that included an extra week of sales. Its shares dropped more than 7 percent.

Bill Rhodes, AutoZone's chairman, president and chief executive, said consumers remained focused on trying to save money during the quarter by spending more on basic maintenance in order to keep their cars on the road longer.

Rhodes added that he expects the same trend to continue for the near future.

"This quarter we continued our focus on the basics," he told investors in a conference call. "And we continue to believe we're well positioned to take advantage of opportunities as we head into the new fiscal year."

For the quarter ended Aug. 29, the Memphis, Tenn.-based company earned $236.1 million, or $4.43 per share, down from $243.7 million, or $3.88 per share, a year ago. The per-share figures rose because it had fewer shares outstanding in the latest period.

Analysts polled by Thomson Reuters expected a profit of $4.45 per share for the latest quarter.

Sales rose 1 percent to $2.23 billion from $2.21 billion and matched analysts' estimates.

Excluding sales from the additional week included in the prior year's quarter, AutoZone said sales rose 7.1 percent and domestic same-store sales - or sales at stores open at least a year - increased 5.4 percent.

Raymond James' Dan Wewer said the same-store sales growth could be a positive sign for auto parts retailers as a whole.

"This marks the third consecutive quarter of sharply higher same-store sales for AutoZone and reflects the company's growing market share, as well as the overall health of the industry," Wewer wrote in a note to investors.

"As a reminder, reliable leading indicators of same-store sales such as miles driven continue to improve."

But Deutsche Bank's Mike Baker said the increase could be a sign that the industry's recovery has peaked, noting that the 5.4 percent same-store increase marks a slowdown from 7.4 percent growth in its third quarter and a 6 percent increase in its second quarter.

Auto parts retailers such as AutoZone have seen their sales soar over the last year as an increasing number of people have put off new car purchases amid a tough economy. While the overall market tumbled, shares of AutoZone rose steadily and are up 20 percent from where they were at the same time last year.

AutoZone's competitors have gotten a boost too.

Last month, Advance Auto Parts Inc. posted a second-quarter profit that beat Wall Street predictions on a 7 percent sales increase. And in July, O'Reilly Automotive Inc. posted better-than-expected quarterly results citing strong sales.

AutoZone said it got a boost during the fourth quarter from improved efficiencies in how it ships its products and lower fuel costs, but said those benefits were offset by a shift in its sales mix to lower margin products.

Rhodes said that as in recent quarters, a greater portion of the company's sales were purchases of maintenance items such as oil and filters, break pads and shocks and struts. Discretionary purchases made up less than 20 percent of the quarter's sales, he said.

The CEO added that the government's Cash for Clunkers program - which offered cash incentives to consumers who swapped older, less fuel efficient vehicles for new ones - didn't have a material impact on AutoZone's fourth-quarter sales, noting that the average age of vehicles on American roads continues to rise.

For the full fiscal year, AutoZone earned $657 million, or $11.73 per share, up from $641.6 million, or $10.04 per share, a year ago. Sales rose to $6.82 billion from $6.52 billion.

During the quarter AutoZone opened 58 new stores, closed one store, and replaced three stores in the United States. It also opened 20 stores in Mexico. As of Aug. 29, AutoZone had 4,229 stores in the U.S. and 188 stores in Mexico.

AutoZone shares fell $11.42, or 7.5 percent, to close at $141.50.