Question-and-Answer Session
Operator
(Operator Instructions) Our first question will be coming from Todd Schwartzman with Sidoti & Co.
Todd Schwartzman - Sidoti & Co.
The magnitude of your cost cutting efforts I think is becoming apparent. I wanted to just focus on the demand side and demand metrics for a minute. Can you talk at least directionally about store traffic and average ticket within the system during the quarter and especially if you track a closing ratio of a percentage of consumers entering a store actually buy something and how that ratio has been growing, shrinking, or is it simply staying the same year over year?
Kurt L. Darrow
I’ll a stab at a couple of those questions. Our store traffic is down, it’s down consistent with our volume. Our team has done a reasonable job with adding on to the ticket. They have obviously more time to spend with customers and so they’re working them harder, we’re capturing names of people who have been in the stores who don’t buy, we are doing everything we can to garner a greater share of wallet out of every customer that we interact with, but they are reluctant right now to make discretionary purchases and getting them to commit is harder; I would say our close rates are down a little bit, typically the industry close rate is probably in the low 20s, that is lot of times measured on a manual basis and have sales people do the counting; in most of our stores we have door counters, and while there are some people who come into the door that aren’t customers, it would indicate that the closing rate is probably actually a little less than that. One of the big drivers there is that people do shop multiple stores before making a purchase. One of the things that we believe why the internet is becoming more important, particularly in light of the fuel issues as people are using the internet for more information than they are going from store to store. So, we believe you have to have an informative engaging website for people to use that may cut down on their visit to other stores, but very few customers buy on their first visit. And so I think that tends to add to the closing rate in the furniture industry compared to other retail businesses.
Todd Schwartzman - Sidoti & Co.
- To read the full transcript on Seeking Alpha, click here »
