We're very pleased with the record results for the second quarter with sales of $250 million.
We've done a good job in our expense controls across the board, and combined with pricing disciplines from the merchandising teams and stores, we achieved solid gross margins and 11.7% pre-tax operating profits.
We're investing in our distribution capacity to support growth over $1 billion over our regions.
We just completed additional racking to our mothership, the Eastern Distribution Center in Braselton, Georgia, which adds 20% more storage capacity.
Also, container prices on the spot market continue to increase with prices varying between $12,000 and $22,000 a container.
We have been able to balance our shipping mix, so that no more than 20% to 30% is on the water at one-time at these increased rates.
Foam continues to be an issue for some of our domestic vendors, however, their production has increased during the second quarter, but still not at 100%.
They are expected to open back up beginning the week of 8/2.
Our pool is now approximately 2 times larger than last year, with the average pool age stretching to approximately eight weeks from six weeks over the last 90 days.
Our special order lead times have increased to 12 weeks to 20 weeks, depending on the vendor, causing some softening in our special order business.
Over 90% of our markets are delivering within a week to the customer's home once we have the product in our warehouses.
Staffing continues to be our #1 concern in both distribution and home delivery.
In the second quarter of 2021, delivered sales were $250 million, a 127.3% increase over the prior year quarter.
103 stores reopened on May 1, 2020, and the remaining stores reopened by June 20th.
Total written sales for the second quarter of 2021 were up 67.5% over the prior year period.
Comparable store sales were up 46.9% over the prior year period.
Our gross profit margin increased 240 basis points from 54.2% to 56.6% due to better merchandising, pricing and mix and less promotional activity during the quarter.
Selling, general and administrative expenses increased $39.8 million or 54.7% to $112.4 million, primarily due to increased sales activity.
However, as a percentage of sales, these costs declined over 2,000 basis points to 45% from 66.1%.
Other income in the second quarter of 2020 was $31.8 million, which included the gain on the sale-leaseback transaction of three distribution facilities in 2020.
If you recall, the gross proceeds from the sale was approximately $70 million.
Income before income taxes increased $10.5 million to $29.2 million.
Our tax expense was $6.3 million during the second quarter of 2021, which resulted in an effective tax rate of 21.6%.
Net income for the second quarter of 2021 was $22.9 million or $1.21 per diluted share on our common stock compared to net income of $13.6 million or $0.72 per share in the comparable period last year.
Excluding the gain on the sale of our distribution assets in 2020, our adjusted earnings per share in the second quarter of last year was a $0.52 loss.
At the end of the second quarter, our inventories were $115 million, which was up $25 million from the December 31, 2020 balance, and up $10.2 million versus the second quarter of 2020.
At the end of the second quarter, our customer deposits were $116.1 million, which was up $29.9 million from the December 31st balance and up $58.5 million versus Q2 of 2020.
We ended the quarter with $235.3 million of cash, cash equivalents.
Looking at some of our uses of cash flow, capital expenditures were $10.9 million for the first half of 2021, and we paid $8.6 million of regular dividends during the first half of 2021.
During the second quarter, we did not purchase any common shares in our buyback program, and we have $16.8 million remaining under current authorization for this buyback program.
We expect our gross margins for 2021 to be 56.5% to 56.8%.
Our fixed and discretionary type SG&A expenses for 2021 are expected to be in the $275 million to $278 million range.
The variable type costs within SG&A for 2021 are expected to be in the range of 17.3% to 17.5%, a slight decrease over our previous guidance.
Our planned capex for 2021 has increased from $23 million to $37 million.
Anticipated new or replacement stores, remodels and expansions account for $18.7 million.
Investments in our distribution network are expected to be $15.2 million, and investments in our information technology are expected to be approximately $3.1 million.
Our anticipated effective tax rate in 2021 is expected to be 24%.

Summary:
We're very pleased with the record results for the second quarter with sales of $250 million.
In the second quarter of 2021, delivered sales were $250 million, a 127.3% increase over the prior year quarter.
Comparable store sales were up 46.9% over the prior year period.
Net income for the second quarter of 2021 was $22.9 million or $1.21 per diluted share on our common stock compared to net income of $13.6 million or $0.72 per share in the comparable period last year.