Your next question comes from the line of Adrienne Tennant with FBR Capital Markets.
Adrienne Tennant – FBR Capital Markets
My first question is on the comps, the negative low 20% for Q1, can you help us think about the comp progression to the extent that obviously there’ll be the March kind of shift into April and I would assume if that’s the case then perhaps February is running lower than that at current levels. And then secondly, Sally can you talk about any macro shifts that you’re seeing with the customer in the active board sports arena? And, any changes that you’re making to merchandise categories to address maybe some of those changes for spring in particular? Thank you.
Michael L. Henry
With regard to comps we’re not going to comment on intra-quarter movement. As you know, we’re not reporting monthly comps anymore. We believe it just creates too short term a data point and we lose kind of the broader perspective and the broader picture of what’s going on with the business. I think we do expect some movement from March into April because of the Easter shift certainly but I wouldn’t want to get any more specific than that.
Over the course of the entire quarter we are expecting to be down low 20s. We tend to look at March and April together to take the whole shift discussion out of consideration. We look at February as a percentage of the quarter; we look at Q4 to Q1 historical builds, all those sorts of things in terms of level setting what our expectations are.
Adrienne Tennant – FBR Capital Markets
Okay, fair enough.
Sally Frame Kasaks
In terms of the macro shifts Adrienne, certainly our business, it’s still dependent on the board sports various activities there but, we’re also seeing the customer evolving in terms of what action sports look like and some of the references in some of the product lines. We’ve also seen a distinctive shift to our denim business.
So, we’re seeing shifts but I’m not so much certain it’s board shorts or something else. What we are just seeing is some custom preferences just moving in terms of the bottoms business right now. It is really very much a denims business. I think if you go in to our stores you’ll begin to see kind of an evolving assortment on the T-shirt business which was typically more around the more traditional board sports but that whole area is evolving in terms of art, in terms of reference points, in terms of the nature of the brand mix there.
Adrienne Tennant – FBR Capital Markets
Are there any categories in spring that we will notice as we walk the stores that are down trending or kind of getting bigger as a percentage of the floor or smaller?
Sally Frame Kasaks
Not really. I will say one thing, we sort of got a bit of a wrap and I know the Internet and the blogs were going crazy that we were getting out of the board shorts business and that’s not true. But, what we did do is we did reduce our dependence on those in most of the country for that February period both in terms of swimwear and board shorts. So, clearly that business is going got be a little bit less over the course of the six months but it was because we just opted not do as much as we had done in the past in those categories.
Today, I think you would find the appropriate level of board shorts and swimwear for both juniors and guys and I don’t think you will notice anything that is particularly down trending. You’ll see our T-shirt business getting larger and I think you’ll see our denim business about where it should be. We’re still looking at our shorts business overall and if we haven’t gotten a really clearly defined trend in young men’s or in juniors at this point but that’s more seasonal and we’ll deal with that as the season goes on.
Adrienne Tennant – FBR Capital Markets
Just my last follow up is what was the thought behind the board shorts for February and early spring?
Sally Frame Kasaks
Not, it’s not early spring, it was specifically February. Our goal was how do we use our inventory and frankly we hit with board shorts, we use to bring them in sometime in January/February and we’d sit with them until the third week of March, is that the best use of inventory? Now, certainly Florida and certain markets had them where they’re appropriate but we just absolutely thought that it was not worth the investment based on past sales and experience particularly over the past four or five years that I have been watching this business. |