Question-and-Answer Session
Operator
(Operator Instructions) Your first question comes from Meredith Adler - Barclays Capital.
Meredith Adler - Barclays Capital
I heard something about you having more flexibility in pricing below $1.00, that similar to what $0.99 did, that you might sell two for $0.79. Is that true that you are doing something different now?
Bob Sasser
We are really not doing anything different. We sell everything for $1.00 or less and we have had some items that sold for three for $1.00 or two for $1.00 that recently we took some mark-ups on, two for $1.00 to $0.59 on some items, or three for a dollar to $0.39 on some items. But that’s just more in tune to the competitive environment out there. We shopped our competitors, they were selling it for 4 and we saw an opportunity to pick up a few pennies on that type of product. But I wouldn’t call it an initiative like $0.99 is doing at all. This is just shopping the competition and making a competitive price change accordingly. But everything is still $1.00 or less.
Meredith Adler - Barclays Capital
I know that your guidance includes a share count that is unchanged. I think you had said earlier in the year that depending on how things go and that if cash flow is good that you might consider buying back stock in the fourth quarter. Any update on your thinking in that area?
Bob Sasser
We have never been shy about buying back our stock. Over the past three year we have bought back almost $1.0 billion. You can check the numbers but it’s in that range. And we still see that as a way of creating shareholder value and giving back to the shareholders.
In the current environment, though, we have chosen to preserve cash. We started out the year a little lower in our cash reserves than we had in previous and we started out with the thought in mind that this would be with the uncertainty that we were facing, it would be a good time to build some cash reserves, and that turned out to be the right decision.
That was before we knew, by the way, that the financial markets were going to melt down. As it turns out, our position to build cash has been the right result. As we go forward, for the rest of the year, we are going to continue building cash, because it is still pretty uncertain out there. But going past that I think that share repurchase can again be a viable way of using our cash.
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