Finally, we decided to slow the rollout of our power delivery program. Last year, we begin rolling out the new power delivery program and it has now been implemented in three distribution centers. While this process has tangible store level benefits, it also requires a significant capital investment to retrofit distribution centers, trailers and stores. Over the next several months, our supply chain team will evaluate our current process to identify opportunities to reduce the capital investment required to lower operating cost and to increase DC level productivity.
Now, Mary will review our financial results in more detail. Mary?
Mary Winston, Chief Financial Officer, Family Dollar Stores Inc
Thank you, Howard and good morning everyone. This morning, we reported financial results for the first quarter of fiscal 2015. And as we expected, it was a very challenging quarter.Top line pressure and corresponding SG&A deleverage combined with continued gross margin headwinds resulted in a decline in profitability. Total sales for the first quarter increased 2.3% to $2.56 billion compared to $2.5 billion in the first quarter of fiscal 2014.
Comp store sales for the period decreased 0.4%. The decrease in comp sales was due to a slight decline in both the average customer baskets and the number of transactions. Sales in the quarter was strongest in the consumable category driven by strong sales growth in tobacco and food. Although sales in the seasonal and electronics category delivered modest growth, discretionary categories overall continued to be pressured in the quarter.
For the quarter, gross margin contracted 91 basis points compared with the first quarter last year. Similar to trends we saw in the fourth quarter of fiscal 2014, the two main factors negatively impacting gross margin in the first quarter were lower merchandise markup and an adverse sales mix. These pressures were partially offset by lower markdowns. Freight and inventory shrinkage as a percentage of sales were approximately flat compared to the first quarter of last year.
Merchandise markups were lower in the first quarter compared to the first quarter of last year, largely due to the pricing investment we made in the third quarter of fiscal 2014 to lower everyday prices on nearly 1000 consumable SKUs. Although lower margin consumables continues to increase as a percentage of sales, the shifting mix within consumables also continues to pressure gross margin.Reflecting recent assortment expansions, food and tobacco grew significantly as a percentage of total sales in the quarter, increasing about 160 basis points and 80 basis points, respectively. These categories also have average markups that are lower than the overall consumables category, resulting in gross margin pressure.
Offsetting some of this pressure, markdowns in the first quarter of fiscal 2015 were lower than the first quarter last year, reflecting our ongoing focus on everyday low pricing and fewer promotional events. SG&A expenses in the quarter increased 5% compared to the first quarter last year and as a percentage of sales increased 79 basis points to 30.3%. The SG&A deleverage in the quarter was mainly the result of the slight decline in comp store sales. Store occupancy cost including rent, depreciation, property taxes and utilities deleveraged approximately 50 basis points during the quarter. Many of these fixed expenses are difficult to leverage with the flat-to-low comp store sales growth.Electronic transaction fees also increased in the quarter compared to the first quarter last year. Although cash remains the tender type most frequently used by our customers, the use of debit and credit cards has been increasing.
In the first quarter of fiscal 2015, the number of credit and debit card transactions increased about 8% compared to the first quarter of fiscal 2014, resulting in higher electronic transaction fees. As a percentage of sales, these fees increased about ten basis points in the quarter.As a percentage of sales, lower corporate payroll in the first quarter of fiscal 2015 partially offset the increases in store occupancy and electronic transaction fees. As a reminder, in April of 2014, we took actions to reduce corporate overhead and realign key organizational functions to reduce our infrastructure costs.These efforts resulted in the reduction of about 10% of our corporate workforce. In addition, we have experienced elevated turnover in our corporate offices over the last several months.
