The following is excerpted from the question-and-answer section of the transcript.
(Questions from industry analysts are provided in full, but answers are omitted - download the transcript to see the full question-and-answer session)
Question: Atul Maheswari - UBS Investment Bank, Research Division - Analyst
: This is Atul Maheswari on for Michael Lasser. Granted that sales were down in the first quarter as planned, can you provide more color on the
retention rate of the new customers that you picked up over the last couple of years? And are you seeing those customers shop for new categories
at Academy versus what they were doing previously?
Question: Atul Maheswari - UBS Investment Bank, Research Division - Analyst
: Okay. Got it. That's helpful. And then as my follow-up, it sounds like you're resuming modest increase in promotions over the rest of the year in
your guidance. A, is that right? And then, b, what if some mass merchants or other players are meaningfully more aggressive where they're
discounting and clearance activity later in the year, would you have to follow suit? Or do you believe that a product overlap with some of these
competitors is more limited, such that you would not have to raise your promotions beyond a point, even if those competitors are much more
promotional?
Question: John Edward Heinbockel - Guggenheim Securities, LLC, Research Division - Analyst
: I wanted to start with -- Ken, if you think -- your business, technically, right, is all discretionary. But when you really think about your core customer
what percent of the business do you think is really discretionary, right? We're in a -- maybe in a normal downturn, they would actually defer a
purchase. I'm curious how you think about that. And then if you did think that we were headed for a recession next year, other than inventory
management, what would you do tactically, right, from a merchandising standpoint? Would you lean into good a little more? What would you do?
Question: John Edward Heinbockel - Guggenheim Securities, LLC, Research Division - Analyst
: And I think just maybe as a follow-up to that, right, your philosophy on seasonal product, right, is to -- or I think more recently write market down
and get it out as opposed to pack it up and sell it the following year, correct? That's the philosophy on seasonal. And seasonal as sort of a percent
of your business, the way you would characterize it, take the fourth quarter, right, that would probably be what percent of your business do you
think?
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