If demand should continue to plummet, a lot of retailers will find themselves with too much inventory on hand despite their course of caution. A lot of retailers are cutting back on inventories, canceling orders, in virtually every single area of retail.
We think consumer spending will go back to the kind of level we expected for the fourth quarter before [the attacks] happened, and that level was not one of great strength. We were thinking that it might be 2 to 3 percent above last year on a same-store basis, and last year was pretty bad. We would be coming off a weak base.
It is a good time if you're willing to accept slow growth and slow improvement. We do not anticipate at this time that the foreseeable future will bring a real strong massive upturn in consumer spending.
This has become far more important today. Kids are becoming more independent.
The May contribution is going to be very substantial because of the in-house brands, displays, and ambience of the stores.
The outlook is for a muted third quarter, and also fourth quarter. It's not getting any worse in our opinion. We believe that consumer spending has essentially bottomed out. That does not mean consumers are ready to go on a spending spree or a buying binge. Things are likely to remain at their current level.
It's going to be a one-time pop, and it's not going to be much of a pop, either.
They (retailers) don't know. All they can do is hope and guess more than anything else. It's a brutal, brutal problem.
So far I think he has done quite well under very difficult and trying circumstances, ... He's making the store more appealing and easier to shop, and has been reviewing the product mix for the last several months now and we have seen some very favorable shopper response.
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