Paul Lejuez – Credit Suisse
As you think about inventory do you think for the full year ’09, is that a source or use of cash? It seems like you might not be able to go lower per square foot but you are closing stores so I’m just wondering how you’re thinking about that on the cash flow statements?
Michael L. Henry
Well, I think if you track our inventory as we go through the year we will keep it down per square foot consistent to where it is now. Depending on exact timing of receipt close and other adjustments we might make it might move a few percentage points one way or the other at a given quarter but we expect to maintain significantly reduced inventory levels throughout the year until we see some kind of change in the average sales trend.
If we are to see an improvement, naturally we might ease up a little bit and chase some business but for the time being I would expect that we will maintain levels that are consistent with what you see and what we just announced.
Paul Lejuez – Credit Suisse
Even once you get to the fourth quarter though?
Michael L. Henry
Yes, because if you think about the third and fourth quarter we had way too much inventory, I mean that’s really what damaged our merchandise margins in the back half of the year. In the fourth quarter in particular more than anything is we just had way too much inventory and had to promote our way out of it. So we have considerable room to maintain significantly reduced inventories and still have a very good amount of inventory in the stores.
I would encourage you to go to a store today, even though inventory is down 30% in dollars and 19% in units, go to a store and have a look and you’ll see that there’s an appropriate amount of inventory in the store, we don’t look anorexic or anything of that nature.
Paul Lejuez – Credit Suisse
Great. Thank you and good luck.
Operator
Your next question comes from the line of Kimberly Greenberger with Citigroup.
Kimberly Greenberger – Citigroup
Great. Thanks. Good afternoon. I am sorry if you’ve addressed this question early on, I apologize, I hopped on a couple of minutes late. Sally, I was wondering if you could talk about spring, it seems like your guidance here for comps assumes that things will get worse in Q1 relative to Q4. Is that simply a function of having dramatically lower inventory levels or is there something about the spring merchandise execution that is troubling you?
Sally Frame Kasaks
No, it’s not that. I think certainly as Mike indicated, our inventories are more current now so we have less sales goods within our mix right now which is a good point to bear in mind. We also, don’t forget there was some footwear business last year so it’s an accumulation of things from an apparel point of view. Plus, there is a calendar shift and we just weren’t quite sure how to do the March/April plan. So, it’s not a function of assortments or inventory levels, we were just being conservative in Q1 and we believe that’s the right way to go. I feel very confident we did the right thing there.
Kimberly Greenberger – Citigroup
Thanks. That’s helpful. And as you look at the inventory levels, are there categories that are currently trending for you or that are performing where you feel like you’re under inventoried but you are in a position to chase goods? Or, do you think that the inventories were brought down pretty dramatically to just cushion the downside risk in the business and you’re sort of willing to forego those sales if they would materialize? I’m just asking for your high level thoughts on how you balance inventory management with sales opportunities? |