Question-and-Answer Session
Operator
Thank you so much. (Operator Instructions) Your first question comes from Kate McShane - Citigroup.
Kate McShane - Citigroup
On the last call you had mentioned that you were planning on closing 25 stores, and I think at the time you had closed nine and that the 16 stores would close as soon as possible. Could you update us on that and then also if you're planning on any more store closures for 2009?
Joe Scirocco
I think that year to date we've closed somewhere on the order of seven or eight and that we have three more that are slated for closure in the current quarter.
As you may recall, we talked about 25 stores with 21 of them being in the U.S., however, it is proving very difficult to get to closure on the others without some cash to prime the pump. So we have been as aggressive as we can be as leases expire and that type of thing, but we have not taken the added steps of negotiating buyouts of leases. So we will proceed with the remaining stores in the normal course of things and see how the market evolves and our financing evolves over the next couple of months.
Kate McShane - Citigroup
And do you have any opportunity to renegotiate any of your other leases in the U.S. that may not have been part of that 25?
Joe Scirocco
Oh, absolutely, yes. Thanks for asking. We have been very aggressive in that area. As you know, a number of other retailers are in the same position, so the landlords are not always fully cooperative.
In many cases we've been able to reduce the cash outlay, which will not necessarily show up in our P&L just from the point of view that we're required under GAAP to straight line the rent, so we're still reflecting rent expense, but we've probably cut, I don't know, on the order of $1 million to $2 million in terms of cash outlays during the course of the remainder of this year.
Operator
Your next question comes from Sean Naughton – Piper Jaffray.
Sean Naughton – Piper Jaffray
Obviously a very tough environment out there, but can you talk about maybe specifically in the Americas, obviously, the gross margin was impacted quite significantly there in the first quarter. Can you talk about any of the differences within the distribution channels where your product is sold from? Are you seeing different trends in department store, independent, core or in your direct to retail stores?
- To read the full transcript on Seeking Alpha, click here »
