Robin Murchison (Suntrust Robinson Humphrey): Any comments on the impact of the competitive market?
Lorna Nagler: The overall apparel industry is suffering a little bit. With an unsure environment, many retailers have raised their voice and level of promotions but when you really get down to it, it is about focusing on product and giving her that surprise and delight when she walks in the door.
We understand the promotional environment continues to be aggressive but we focus on what we know that we can do to control our own destiny, which is working on that merchandise content, the newness, the novelty, the improvements we are making to how frequent we are flowing that newness, pre-planning promotions so that we can think about that up-front.
Robin Murchison (Suntrust Robinson Humphrey): Where would you be right now in terms of looking at locations?
Monica L. Dahl: Our real intention right now is dealing with the present time. Those approximate 30 stores that we are opening for this year are basically committed for and leases are not all signed.
We are taking this time to evaluate what our opportunities and our strategic, our growth plans are going to be so that when we get to the point where the environment feels a little more stable that we are making the right choices for those openings next year.
Crystal Kallik (D. A. Davidson & Co.): As you are ramping up your IT systems, what are you looking to tap into as far as existing systems with planning and allocation, with the new POS system?
Monica L. Dahl: In terms of the POS system, it is really a hardware upgrade that allows our stores to be on a more current platform or functionality. There are benefits both from an operational standpoint and a communication standpoint and there certainly are benefits once we get that hardware in, in terms of our ability to download and transmit communications like markdowns more effectively to the stores, allow the stores to be able to do those markdowns more effectively.
Crystal Kallik (D. A. Davidson & Co.): When you talk about lowering the SKU count, what kind of magnitude are you looking at?
Monica L. Dahl: One of the other things that we know will help or has been a problem in terms of lack of clarity for the customer and over-SKU concentrates and goes back to how we were plotting our deliveries and the significant amount of carryover that we continued to carry.
Crystal Kallik (D. A. Davidson & Co.): Are there new store formats coming down the pipeline or new fixturing?
Lorna Nagler: We are really looking at assessing our brand evaluation, brand positioning. Phase two is really thinking about that in-store experience, thinking about new ways to merchandise.
Christopher Kim (J.P. Morgan): Any comments on the repurchase program?
Andrew K. Moller: What we have is a $20 million program that is authorized currently. To date, we have made $12.1 million in purchases. We do report updates on our progress, either in our SEC filings or in our press releases.
The authorization that we put in place was put in place last May. It runs for one year. As a company, we do have to make purchases in our trading windows or under 10B51 plans, which are put in place in a trading window.
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