During the quarter, customer closures peaked in mid-April, causing the weekly revenues of our core laundry operations to be down about 18% at that time, from the weekly revenue run rate in the weeks of February and March immediately preceding the disruption.
From that point in April until last week, revenues have been steadily -- have steadily recovered to the point where last week's revenues were down about 8% from pre-pandemic run rates.
As a result of the evolving nature of the pandemic and its impact on our communities, our ability to assess the financial impact on our -- the ability to assess the financial impact on our business continues to be limited.
As a result, we are not providing guidance for the remainder of fiscal 2020.
Consolidated third quarter revenues were $445.5 million, a decrease of 1.8% over the same quarter a year ago.
The overall shortfall in revenue was mitigated by a large direct sale of $20.1 million to a large healthcare customer as well as strong revenues from our First Aid segment.
Our consolidated operating margin was 6.2%, and was impacted by the revenue shortfall in our US and Canadian laundry operations as well as numerous costs related to our COVID-19 response efforts.
Despite all of the events of the quarter, we continue to generate positive free cash flows and ended the quarter with $421.3 million in cash and cash equivalents on hand and no debt on our books.
As Steve mentioned, consolidated revenues in our third quarter of 2020 were $445.5 million, down 1.8% from $453.7 million a year ago.
And consolidated operating income decreased to $27.7 million from $60.2 million or 54%.
Net income for the quarter decreased to $21.3 million or $1.12 per diluted share from $47.2 million or $2.46 per diluted share.
Our Core Laundry Operations revenues for the quarter were $388.4 million, down 2.8% from the third quarter of 2019.
Core Laundry organic growth, which adjusts for the estimated effective acquisitions as well as fluctuations in the Canadian dollar was negative 3.2%.
The company was able to partially offset these declines with a $20.1 million direct sale to a large healthcare customer as well as increased safety and PPE sales.
Core Laundry operating margin decreased to 5.1% for the quarter or $19.7 million from 13.4% in prior year or $53.4 million.
The segment's profitability was affected by many items, including the impact of the decline in rental revenues on our cost structure, a higher cost of revenues related to the large $20.1 million direct sale and additional costs the company incurred related to the pandemic.
This is because our merchandise in service is amortized on a straight-line basis over the estimated service lives of the related merchandise, which average approximately 18 months.
As of last week, our weekly revenues were down about 8% from pre-pandemic run rates, primarily related to customer locations that remained closed.
Energy costs decreased to 3.4% of revenues in the third quarter of 2020 from 4.2% in prior year.
Revenues from our Specialty Garments segment, which delivers specialized nuclear decontamination and cleanroom products and services, decreased to $36.2 million from $37.3 million in prior year or 3.1%.
The segment's operating margin increased to 17.6% or $6.4 million from 14.4% or $5.4 million in the year ago period.
Our First Aid segments revenues increased to $20.9 million from $16.6 million in prior year or 26%.
Operating margin decreased to 7.8% from 8.4%, primarily due to higher merchandise costs as a percentage of revenues.
We continue to maintain a solid balance sheet and financial position, with no long-term debt and cash, cash equivalents and short-term investments totaling $421.3 million at the end of our third quarter of fiscal 2020.
Cash provided by operating activities for the first three quarters of the fiscal year was $205.4 million, an increase of $6.0 million from the comparable period in prior year.
For the first three quarters of fiscal 2020, capital expenditures totaled $91.2 million.
During the quarter, we capitalized $3.3 million related to our ongoing CRM project, which consisted of license fees, third-party consulting costs, and capitalized internal labor costs.
In the first three quarters of our fiscal year, we have capitalized a total of $9.9 million related to this project.
During the third quarter of fiscal 2020, we repurchased 46,667 shares of common stock for a total of $7.5 million under our previously announced stock repurchase program.
As of May 30, 2020, we had repurchased a total of 314,917 shares of common stock for a total of $52.3 million under the program.

Summary:
As a result of the evolving nature of the pandemic and its impact on our communities, our ability to assess the financial impact on our -- the ability to assess the financial impact on our business continues to be limited.
As a result, we are not providing guidance for the remainder of fiscal 2020.
Consolidated third quarter revenues were $445.5 million, a decrease of 1.8% over the same quarter a year ago.
Net income for the quarter decreased to $21.3 million or $1.12 per diluted share from $47.2 million or $2.46 per diluted share.