Question-and-Answer Session
Operator
(Operator Instructions) Your first question comes from John Hecht – JMP Securities
John Hecht – JMP Securities
Do you expect the tax rate, you mentioned for fourth quarter what to expect, but for next year settle to the average rate of this year?
Patrick O’Shaughnessy
No. This year we had a lot of one time advantages, benefits to taxes. We had re-filed several prior years’ state tax statements and given refunds so you recognize those as discrete items in the period that you re-file those returns. I think all of that is behind us so the tax rate clearly in the fourth quarter will be higher and I expect 2010 to be again back to previous levels. This year was really an anomaly with those lower tax rates.
John Hecht – JMP Securities
Can you guys comment on the same store sale patterns? I think this is one your normalize for regulatory activity book revenues and same store sales improved this quarter relative to prior year quarters. I think this is the first quarter in a few that we’ve seen that. You do refer to stabilizing and improved demand at the product level. Can you give us a little bit more detail how that maybe new customer trends, any regional activity, are same store sale comps getting easier, things of that nature?
Patrick O’Shaughnessy
I’ll take new customers first. As we mentioned on the last call, we saw an increase in new customers first. As we mentioned on the last call we saw an increase in new customers at the end of June and beginning of July on a year over year basis for the first time in several years. That trend continued through most of the summer months. I think we were ahead of last year on new customers in July and August.
We were back down to what I would call a normal seasonal trend in new customers. The benefit of that is that we have as many loans outstanding now as we had last year. We have that many loans on a smaller store base so that results in a higher same store sales count for the first time, you’re right, for the first time we’ve seen that in a while.
To the regional question, I don’t think there’s any; there are certainly areas where we have clearly large negative results versus last year, Ohio in particular, and states that had law changes. There’s not any areas that are single areas that are making up for that loss, its generally fairly broad across the country where we’ve shown improvement and a lot of that is from consolidating centers.
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