Question-and-Answer Session
Operator
Your first question comes from David Magee - SunTrust Robinson Humphrey.
David Magee - SunTrust Robinson Humphrey
First congrats on the stable numbers during the tough fourth quarter. The question I have is, do you think that the book demand is more or less tied to the overall retail trends now versus say the holiday period? My thought is that maybe now that we’re past the holidays that you’re not quite as dependent on just the overall macro trends right now? Is that an accurate statement to make?
Sandra B. Cochran
I don’t think so. We believe that books in general as a category are more recession resistant than other products we believe are so therefore not much of what we sell is not as discretionary as some other retailers. But in a very tough economic environment, we still struggle to generate traffic and we still see the consumer very focused on promotion and the level of promotional activity we continue to see to remain challenging.
David Magee - SunTrust Robinson Humphrey
Are you seeing any relief with regard to real estate cost as you look for new store sites, is that a positive factor to this?
Sandra B. Cochran
We have been focused on our real estate costs and we have noticed that some landlords have been more willing to have conversations about rent levels and reducing rent and right we think that there’s a lot of retailers who pulled back and so we are looking hard at those centers to be sure that we still have the co-tenancy we need, in addition to the rents we need in what we are looking out to see as a challenging market.
Operator
Mr. Markham, we have no other questions in the queue. So I would like to turn it back to you for any closing comments.
Douglas G. Markham
Great. If there are no further questions I’d like to thank everyone for your participation on today’s call.
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