Question-and-Answer Session
Operator
Thank you. We will now begin the question and answer session. (Operator Instructions) And our first question comes from John Shanley with Susquehanna International Group. Please go ahead.
[Christopher Scuzzy] - Susquehanna International Group
Good morning, everyone. This is actually [Christopher Scuzzy] in for John. A couple of questions. I guess first, the level of At-Once that you did during the quarter was obviously at a much lower merchandise margin rate than you would I guess typically attain.
How much of that was inflicted by you trying to pull back on inventories? And how much of it may be related to the environment that we’re in right now and retailers obviously knowing that you have availability and inventory and looking for some level of concessions. I was just wondering if you can kind of break out how much is inflicted by yourself and how much is just retailers knowing you guys have available inventory right now.
Steven Nichols
Number one, we don’t negotiate prices with retailers so everything we sell is at the normal pricing policies we’ve had with them for years. So there was zero change there. We did a lot of close outs and we experienced in the earlier quarters cancellations and we sold these goods as we normally do to places that we distribute our distressed goods and that got us a little extra sales but certainly it diminished the blended margin. So the margin strictly was from us cleaning out inventory that either was obsolete or cancellation or things like that
[Christopher Scuzzy] - Susquehanna International Group
At this point, Steve, do you think you have the inventory at a level that you feel comfortable? Have you gotten through most of that close-out product? I assume most of that is obviously in the U.S. at this point. Or do you anticipate possibly more of that as you move into the fourth quarter?
Steven Nichols
I anticipate more of that. Our inventory is higher than we would like it to be. The good news is that much of our inventory is in very basic shoes that many times we can come very close to getting our original landed cost in it. So it is normally not a horrible blood bath when we get rid of inventory.
Our distribution policy still makes our goods scarce and when they go out to the people at properly handled distressed or out of season inventory, we get relatively good prices. But, no, our inventory is up 15% from the comparable reporting period and it should be down. So we have got a ways to go.
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