That little nip in the air means it's time for Williams-Sonoma (NYSE:WSM) to really get to work. While this multi-concept king of housewares is reliably profitable from quarter to quarter, the holiday-laden fourth quarter is where the company makes a lot of its money and most of its free cash flow.

As preludes go, the third quarter wasn't too bad. Sales were up more than 14%, margins expanded, and net income grew 30%. The growth in sales was fueled by double-digit growth in both the store-based business and the direct-to-shopper business. Overall comp-store sales were up 4.4%, and reported revenue and earnings per share were both very slightly better than the published average estimate.

Looking concept by concept, the flagship was once again a laggard as Williams-Sonoma posted just 1.3% comp growth. Not only is that pretty pokey, but also the year-ago performance of negative 4.2% should have made for an easier comparison. Still, with the past two quarters having shown negative comps for Williams-Sonoma, this is nevertheless an improvement.

The Pottery Barn concepts (Pottery Barn and Pottery Barn for Kids) both did well, posting 5.5% and 3.8% same store sales growth, respectively. Hold Everything was down 7.4%, and comp sales at the outlets were up 16%. The Internet business is continuing to become an increasingly important retail channel for the company, as sales rose more than 42% and made up nearly one-quarter of the total.

I'm sure there will be some concern about the 18% jump in inventory, but I wouldn't get too worried just yet. After all, you need to have inventory on hand if you're going to get good sell-through in the holiday season. I will say, though, that I'm surprised to see accounts payable down when inventories are up. This situation bears further watching.

I do think that Williams-Sonoma has a claim to being preeminent in the upmarket housewares space, though privately held Crate & Barrel may disagree. But that doesn't automatically make it a good value. Then again, with Pier 1 (NYSE:PIR) still on its back and sort-of-competitor Bed Bath & Beyond (NASDAQ:BBBY) not exactly cheap either, I suppose I can understand some sort of scarcity premium. Just because I understand it, though, that doesn't mean I think it's a good idea to pay it.

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Fool contributor Stephen Simpson has no financial interest in any stocks mentioned (that means he's neither long nor short the shares).