Question-and-Answer Session
Operator
(Operator Instructions) Your first question comes from Karen Short - Friedman Billings Ramsay.
Karen Short - Friedman Billings Ramsay
Wondering if we could talk a little bit about volume within the basket as it relates to inflation because it seems that, your results are great, but I’m just kind of wondering you’re seeing 5.7% basket size increase and kind of 5% to 6% inflation. Is it fair to say that units are kind of flat?
Bennett Nussbaum
That’s a good assumption. Units are kind of flat. The LIFO inflation isn’t exactly the same as our sales flow through inflation its more in the 3.5% range. So you could assume that the units are fairly flat.
Karen Short - Friedman Billings Ramsay
Wondering if you could give some color on what to expect from a remodel standpoint throughout the year like the timing of the remodels throughout the year and then maybe just elaborate on the offensive versus the defensive split throughout the year?
Peter Lynch
As far as timing goes we reiterated in our statement that we’ll do another 75 this year. We completed one in first quarter of ’09. We’ll have approximately 17 completed in the second quarter of ’09, probably 35 in the third and 22 in the fourth quarter is the way the thing is stacking up right now. There’s 57 of them right that are even started or under design. We’re well into our process for this year and expect continued good results as we move forward.
Karen Short - Friedman Billings Ramsay
The delay was basically hurricane related?
Peter Lynch
We got a little bit of buff with the hurricanes to delay but it wasn’t any big delay and we’re very much on track.
Karen Short - Friedman Billings Ramsay
I’m wondering if you could just comment a little bit on the competitive environment. There’s been a lot of news on Aldi and Wal-Mart obviously had their analyst day meeting yesterday and made some comments on their promotional stats. I’m wondering what you’re seeing out there.
Peter Lynch
In our markets Wal-Mart and Publix are two big ones in Florida and then we get some other various competitors throughout. Aldi has opened up a number of their stores. I’ve been in them; I think they’ve done a very good job with them. The hits that we’ve got are exactly what we anticipated. In fact in many it’s a little bit less. It’s too early to call on those, those have been up and running since maybe about a month right now.
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