As a result, while down 13% to last year on a comparable basis, comparable sales for the second quarter increased 14% to 2019.
Additionally, we delivered diluted earnings per share of $1.09 within our guidance range, despite ongoing supply chain and distribution headwinds that were greater than expected at the beginning of the quarter and cost us at least 1 point of comp.
I speak for all Big Lots leadership when I convey how indebted we are to the over 30,000 Big Lots team members.
The overall category comped down 15% to last year, but up 4% to Q2 2019.
Soft Home comps were up 14% versus 2019.
Hard Home comps were up 13% to 2019, exceeding our expectations with appliances and home organization, delivering double-digit increases in 2019.
Furniture delivered another very strong quarter, with comps down 10% to last year, but up 30% to 2019.
Upholstery was particularly strong in Q2, delivering a flat comp to 2020 and up almost 40% to 2019, driven by high demand for sofas and sectionals.
Anchored by the Broyhill brand, which continues to gain share, it is now over 40% of total upholstery sales.
Apparel, Electronics & Other also performed very strongly, up 15% to 2020.
Apparel delivered a 90% comp for the quarter, with casual and athletic lifestyle dressing dominating the women's business.
The Lot continues to strengthen as delighting our customers with fun, innovative treasures just right for life's occasions while delivering nearly 2% of the Company's sales in the quarter.
I'm delighted to share that this campaign is driving a 2% lift in transactions in the markets where we have rolled it out.
New BIGionaires visiting Big Lots for the first time are driving 60% of these incremental transactions.
In our demographic distribution, we've seen a 600 basis point share increase in new customers with ages 25 to 39, with the distribution shifting from those 55 and older.
Meanwhile, our rewards membership continues to contribute productive growth to the business with active membership of 8% versus the second quarter of 2020 adding 1.8 million more new members this past quarter with rewards membership currently at 21.5 million.
Additionally, rewards customers in total spent 16% more than last year and 7% more per customer.
Over 72% of our sales this past quarter were attached to our rewards membership.
That penetration to sales is up 400 basis points to the same quarter last year.
Demand increased 10% over the second quarter of 2020 representing over 400% of growth to Q2 2019.
They've all been very successful and drove over 60% of our demand fulfillment.
To support holiday, we are increasing the number of stores providing ship from store fulfillment to 65.
Turning to merchandise productivity, momentum remained strong within our growing Broyhill businesses as the assortment drove $194 million in Q2 sales.
This represents a $77 million increase to Q2 2020, at which point we had just launched the brand.
We remained thrilled with Broyhill's trajectory and continue to see strong growth ahead for the brand with over $400 million in year sales today, up to last year's full year performance and showing continued acceleration to becoming $1 billion brand.
Real Living has ramped up quickly, generating over $400 million in sales year-to-date, and we are confident that it, too, will become a $1 billion own brand for Big Lots.
For Lot and Queue Line, front end strategies are now rolled out to approximately 1,225 stores.
The Lot and Queue Line continues to drive 3% incremental combined lift to our store performance.
I'm excited to announce that this test now in over 80 stores continues to perform very well, delivering around a 15% furniture sales lift.
We expect to roll this next-generation model to several hundred stores in 2022 delivering at least 1 point of comp to the total Company, on an annualized basis.
Based on all the work that we have done in recent months, we are confident that there is white space to grow our store count by hundreds of stores in the coming years with two to three times the net store growth in 2022 than the net increase of around 20 stores we expect to achieve this year.
At the same time, we expect to continue slowing our rate of closures as a result of our store intervention program, which this year will be only around 15 stores.
Meanwhile, during Q2, we initiated a multi-year program, which we're calling Project Refresh to upgrade our approximately 800 stores not included in our 2017 to early 2020 Store of the Future program.
The average cost per store will be around $100,000, much lower than the prior Store of the Future program.
Net sales for the second quarter were $1.457 billion, and a 11.4% decrease compared to $1.644 billion a year ago.
The decline was driven by a comparable sales decrease of 13.2% as we lap stimulus impacts in 2020, on the height of last year's nesting activities, partially offset by 180 basis points impact from net store openings and relocations.
Sales in total were up 16% to 2019's $1.252 billion with a two-year comp of 14% [Phonetic] driven by basket size.
Net income for the second quarter was $37.7 million compared to $110.1 million in Q2 of 2020 and $20.6 million in 2019.
Diluted earnings per share for the quarter was $1.09 within our guidance range coming into the quarter.
As a reminder, we reported adjusted earnings per share of $2.75 last year, which excluded the gain on the sale of our four owned distribution centers.
In addition, we've got approximately $0.03 of benefit from share repurchases during the quarter.
Gross margin rate for Q2 was 39.6%, down 200 basis points from last year's second quarter rate, and 20 basis points below 2019, in line with our guidance.
Freight headwinds were greater than initially expected with freight costs closing close to 200 basis points of gross margin contraction year-over-year.
Total expenses for the quarter, including depreciation were $524 million, down from $534 million last year, and slightly lower than beginning of quarter expectations, despite the distribution and transportation cost pressures, while deleveraging versus last year expenses leveraged 120 basis points versus 2019.
All of the above drove us to an operating margin for the quarter of 3.7%, versus 9.1% last year and 2.6% in 2019.
Excluding the freight headwinds, our operating margin would have been closer to 5.7%, a 300 basis point improvement to 2019.
Interest expense for the quarter was $2.3 million, down from $2.5 million in the second quarter last year.
In light of our strong liquidity position and current market conditions, on June 7th, we prepaid the remaining $44.3 million principal balance under our 2019 term note secured on the Apple Valley distribution center equipment.
In connection with the prepayment, we incurred a $0.4 million prepayment fee and recognized $0.5 million loss on debt extinguishment in the second quarter.
The income tax rate in second quarter was 26.7% compared to last year's rate of 25.8%, with the increase primarily driven by the impact of the Section 162(m) executive compensation add back.
Moving on to the balance sheet, total inventory was up 32% to $943.8 million, slightly ahead of our beginning of quarter guidance.
Inventories were up 8% of Q2 2019, maintaining a strong two-year turn improvement while supporting our ability to drive third quarter performance.
During Q2, we opened 12 new stores and closed seven stores.
We ended Q2 with 1,418 stores and with total selling square footage of 32.3 million.
Capital expenditures for the quarter were $45 million compared to $41 million last year.
Depreciation expense in the quarter was $35.3 million, approximately $1.3 million lower than the same period last year.
We ended the second quarter with $293 million of cash and cash equivalents and no long-term debt.
As a reminder, at the end of Q2 2020, we had $899 million of cash and cash equivalents and $43 million of long-term debt.
We repurchased 2.4 million shares during the quarter for $153 million at an average cost per share of $63.57, under our previously announced $500 million authorization.
There is approximately $97 million remaining as of the end of the second quarter of 2021.
For the program to date, we have repurchased 7.3 million shares at an average cost of $55.18, including commission.
As announced in a separate release today, our Board of Directors declared a quarterly cash dividend for the third quarter of 2021 of $0.30 per common share.
In the third quarter, we expect a diluted loss per share in the range of $0.10 to $0.20 compared to $0.76 of earnings per diluted share for the third quarter of 2020.
For the full year, we expect earnings per share in the range of $5.90 to $6.05.
While this represents a decline to last year's adjusted diluted earnings per share of $7.35, it represents 60% plus growth to 2019 earnings.
Our full year sales outlook bakes in approximately $60 million of adverse impact in Q3 and especially Q4, related to COVID related manufacturing shutdowns in Vietnam.
We expect the third quarter gross margin rate to be down approximately 175 basis points to last year, driven by freight headwinds as Bruce previously discussed.
Versus 2019, the rating -- versus 2019, the rate is expected to be down approximately 100 basis points, essentially all freight-related.
For the full year, we now expect a gross margin rate impact from freight of approximately 150 basis points resulting in gross margin rate being down approximately 50 basis points versus 2019 and approximately 100 basis points versus 2020.
These increases will be mitigated by more than $30 million of structural expense savings, which remain an ongoing area of focus and priority.
We continue to expect 2021 capital expenditures to be around $200 million to $210 million including around 55 store openings, of which around 20 will be relocations.
On a net basis, we expect total store count to grow by about 20 stores in 2021.
We expect ending Q3 inventory to be up around 10% versus 2019, continuing to reflect healthy turn improvement.
We know we left sales on the table and seasonal over the past 12 months to 18 months, and we are heavily focused on recapturing those sales as we go forward.
As well as the impact in Q4 ending [Phonetic] inventory, these early receipts will drive around $6 million of additional supply chain expense in Q4.

Summary:
Additionally, we delivered diluted earnings per share of $1.09 within our guidance range, despite ongoing supply chain and distribution headwinds that were greater than expected at the beginning of the quarter and cost us at least 1 point of comp.
Demand increased 10% over the second quarter of 2020 representing over 400% of growth to Q2 2019.
Sales in total were up 16% to 2019's $1.252 billion with a two-year comp of 14% [Phonetic] driven by basket size.
Diluted earnings per share for the quarter was $1.09 within our guidance range coming into the quarter.
In the third quarter, we expect a diluted loss per share in the range of $0.10 to $0.20 compared to $0.76 of earnings per diluted share for the third quarter of 2020.
For the full year, we expect earnings per share in the range of $5.90 to $6.05.