28 Quotes by Alan Lacy

We are concerned that speculation reported in the press may be misleading the market regarding our intentions.

We probably are going to become a little bit less of a department store, with less emphasis on apparel, ... I think the exit from cosmetics is an example of this. We are very much in the process of reworking our business model and how we go to market and how we spend money.

We recognize that we really don't make enough money in our retail business, ... If you look just at our retail segment we're not happy with our retail performance here.

We are moving away from a traditional department store business model. That has to change,

While revenues continue to be soft, our focus on gross margin, inventory levels and operating expenses is driving substantial profit improvement,

We knew that this would be our toughest quarter as we reached the height of our reposition efforts, ... This is a difficult environment with the possibility of war with Iraq and the West coast port lockout challenges we face in the critical holiday season.

We think in terms of pricing and assortment we have very good offerings, ... But we have not been able to break through consumers minds in terms of value perception.

An economy that was clearly bad has gone to worse after those (Sept. 11) tragedies took place,

As in the second quarter, we have been able to weather the difficult top-line environment by effectively managing our retail operating expenses and inventories.  We are also pleased to have achieved continued gross margin expansion in the third quarter,