Even though Albertson's down and the index is down from the 52-week high. Year to date, both the grocery industry and the drugstore industry are actually up. Year to date the grocery industry is up 9 percent and the drugstore industry is up about 12 percent and we've been seeing a lot of fear in the marketplace concerning interest rates and impact this will have on consumer spending. Consequently, there's been a lot of money that's been moving over to some of the staple companies like grocery chains and drugstore retailers. |
The consumer continues to feel confident. |
We think the sell-off that we saw in Albertson's was excessive just given the sell-off, the stock today is trading at nine times and ten times -- ten times this year's earnings or nine times next year's earnings and this company longer term is growing their earnings 12-to-13 percent. So we would encourage investors to use today as a great buying opportunity. |
When we listened to the third-quarter earnings (report), their credit card business was performing above expectations and they felt that that was going to mitigate the negative impact they were experiencing from their retail operation. |