The results were also hurt by the decline in the number of stores in operation and the lingering effects from its spinoff of the Hometown and Outlet brand.
Shares fell nearly 8 percent in morning trading.
A series of retailers, including Wal-Mart Stores Inc. and Macy’s Inc., have reported disappointing quarterly results this month and have issued bleaker outlooks as shoppers deal with an uncertain economy and an increase in the payroll tax.
Sears, which caters to middle-income shoppers, faced those pressures on top of its own problems, further clouding the path toward profitability. The latest results only shore up critics’ arguments that Sears hasn’t done enough in its own stores to give shoppers a compelling reason to buy.
For the quarter, revenue at stores opened at least a year in its U.S. stores fell 1.5 percent, including a 2.1 percent drop at Kmart and a 0.8 percent decline at Sears. The measure is a key indicator of a retailer’s health because it excludes results from stores recently opened or closed.
Declines were across a broad range of categories, including appliances, which should have benefited from a shift in consumer spending towards home improvement.