Wal-Mart Stores Inc on Saturday maintained its October sales forecast and said demand was strongest in the US Southeast, where Florida residents were bracing for Hurricane Wilma.
On a recorded message, the world's biggest retailer said it still expects a 2 percent to 4 percent increase in October sales at its US stores open at least a year - a key retail measure known as same-store sales. Demand for food outpaced general merchandise sales.
The retailer, which said 10 of its stores remained closed due to severe damage from Hurricanes Katrina and Rita, did not list any store closures related to Wilma.
Wilma clobbered Mexico's Caribbean beach resorts on Saturday, threatening heavy damage and loss of life as it meandered slowly into the Yucatan peninsula.
Wilma was expected to begin hitting heavily populated southern Florida as early as Sunday. While forecasters expect it to weaken by that time, authorities in the Florida Keys ordered tourists out and were considering evacuating the islands' 80,000 residents.
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