Sally Frame Kasaks
Oh yeah, I’m excited. I mean, if you could have seen me last week at the floor set, you would have thought I just -- I don’t know. I won’t get too carried away. But we’ve got to keep going because that’s what is going to turn on the customers -- newness, freshness, we just have to figure out what the right quantities are and to keep our stores and our customers and our people excited. That’s all we can do right now.
Marni Shapiro - The Retail Tracker
Right. And Mike, on the expense side?
Sally Frame Kasaks
We can do that, too.
Michael L. Henry
On the store payroll, you know, as I mentioned earlier, we’ve worked really closely with our field team to make sure that not just getting the number down but also looking at appropriate coverage at appropriate levels and that’s where I will leave it at that in terms of what we are looking at to contain that number as much as possible going forward.
Marni Shapiro - The Retail Tracker
But have you made changes in the organization over this period that you think you will be able to take through even when things are good, changes that really make a lot of sense for the organization that you’ve come to this conclusion because you were under pressure to make these changes?
Sally Frame Kasaks
Sometimes I think pressure makes you take a harder look and I think that’s all we can say because we are looking at every part of the -- we need to understand better because this could also be a trend line that is going on for a couple of years, not necessarily the sales but I don’t know what’s going to be a catalyst, all things aside and I think we are looking and saying gee, what does a 21st century company do in our space knowing we’ve got to build customer relations, we’ve got a lot to do but what is the right structure and I think we are learning as we go along and through our learnings, we are implementing and executing and with a little longer term view. We cannot just be short-term on these decisions though and I think that’s the question. Anybody can go out and do a slash-and-burn but we believe we are going to come out on the other side because we’ve taken so many -- we’ve done so many dramatic things over the past 18 months. Now we are looking at what is the right size organization and structure to make sure we are strong, even if this sort of goes on a bit longer than we would like it to.
Marni Shapiro - The Retail Tracker
Great. That’s what I wanted to hear. Thanks, guys. Good luck with the holiday season.
Sally Frame Kasaks
Thank you.
Michael L. Henry
Thank you.
Operator
Your next question comes from Linda Tsai of MKM Partners. |