our Ship, Optimize our Infrastructure and provide Innovation and Solutions for our new moms and moms2be. As we look forward to FY 2019, we are committed to transforming this business to a more nimble and profitable organization that generates long term shareholder value. On behalf of myself and the entire Destination Maternity team, we wish you a happy holiday season and a healthy new year.
With that, let me turn things over to Tom to provide a review of our financial performance.
Thomas McCracken, Senior Vice President, Finance:
Thank you, Marla.
This morning, I will review our fiscal 2018 third quarter andyear-to-date performance and key items on our balance sheet and cash flow. Sales for the third quarter were $92.8 million, a decrease of $3.6 million or 3.7% from the comparable quarter last year.
Comparable retail sales were down 2.6%, which was primarily driven by a 3.3% decrease in comparablebrick-and-mortar sales. Additionally, sales were impacted by the net closure of 27 owned locations, in addition to 12 leased locations and a decline in sales to franchise partners.E-commerce sales represented 22% of retail sales compared to 21% last year.
Gross margin for the third quarter was 52.4%, a decrease of 40 basis points from the same quarter last year. This decrease was primarily driven by increased markdown of promotional activity to more aggressively manage inventory, in addition to the increase ine-commerce sales as a portion of our retail sales.
Gross profit for the third quarter was $48.7 million, a decrease of $2.2 million, or 4.4%, from the comparable quarter last year. Selling, general and administrative expenses for the third quarter were $48.6 million, a decrease of $4.6 million, or 8.7%, from the comparable quarter last year. The decrease in expense for the quarter primarily reflects reductions in employee costs and occupancy expenses, resulting from the closure of underperforming stores and ongoing expense reduction initiatives. As a percentage of sales, SG&A was 52.4%, a decrease of 280 basis points from the third quarter of last year.
Adjusted EBITDA before other charges and effective change in accounting principles for the third quarter was $3.9 million, an increase of $1.9 million, or 95%, from the comparable quarter last year.
The net loss for the third quarter was $4.1 million, or $0.30 per share, compared to a net loss of $7.5 million, or $0.55 per share, for the prior year. Adjusted net loss was $1.7 million, or $0.12 per share, compared to adjusted net loss of $2.7 million, or $0.20 per share, for the third quarter of fiscal 2017.
I will now turn to ouryear-to-date results. Sales for the first nine months ended November 3, 2018 were $292.5 million, a decline of $8.6 million, or 2.9%, from the comparable period last year. Comparable retail sales were down 0.5%, which reflects the net effect of 18.1% increase ine-commerce sales, offset by a 5.4% decrease in comparablebrick-and-mortar sales. Additionally, sales were impacted by the previously mentioned decrease in store counts and the decline in sales to franchise partners.E-commerce sales for the first nine-months were 22.7% of retail sales compared to 18.5% last year.
Gross margin for the first nine-months of 2018 was 52.6%, a decrease of 80 basis points from the comparable period last year. This decrease was primarily driven by the previously mentioned growth of oure-commerce business as a percentage of retail sales. Gross profit for the first nine-months was $153.9 million, a decrease of $7 million, or 4.3%, from last year. Selling, general and administrative expenses for the first three quarters of 2018 were $150.6 million, a decrease of $11.1 million, or 6.9%, from the comparable period last year.
The decline in expense primarily reflects reductions in employee costs and occupancy expenses resulting from the closure of underperforming stores and ongoing expense reduction initiatives mentioned previously. As a percentage of sales, SG&A decreased 220 basis points from last year to 51.5%. Adjusted EBITDA before the charges and effective change in accounting principle for the first nine-months was $15.7 million, an increase of $3.3 million, or 26%, from the comparable period last year.
Net loss for the first nine-months of fiscal 2018 was $7.9 million, or $0.57 per share. For the comparable period last year, the net loss was $11.4 million, or $0.83 per share. Adjusted net loss was $2.3 million, or $0.17 per share, compared to adjusted net loss of $5.2 million, or $0.38 per share, for the nine-months ended October 28, 2017.
Turning now to the balance sheet, atquarter-end inventory was $79.1 million, an increase from last year of $5.1 million. The increase is due to the reasons mentioned earlier by Marla. Debt, net of cash was $47.9 million, an increase of $8.5 million from last year.
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