Charming Shoppes Inc. posted a net loss of $23 million for the fourth quarter compared to net income of $24.9 million in the prior year.

The cataloger reported net sales of $784.9 million for the quarter ended Feb. 2, a 10% decrease from $874 million last year.

The Bensalem, PA firm posted direct marketing sales of $149 million for the quarter, a slight increase over $148.2 million in the prior year.

"Clearly, our performance during the fourth quarter was extremely disappointing, and was affected by downward traffic trends and response rates to our stores and catalogs, which we continue to experience," said CEO Dorrit J. Bern, in a statement. “The combination of changing customer preferences from our merchandise offerings and the very difficult economy in which we are operating led to accelerated promotional activity and a meaningful negative impact to our merchandise margins."