This has everything to do with making sure we have people who have the skills to carry out our mission. It does not signal any change in our strategy. |
This time of year, it's all about delivering for the customers. We contract with a number of temp agencies to provide us with seasonal help. People are screened by the temp agencies and hired by them if qualified. It doesn't bother me that a very capable worker like Jamie spent a day working at Amazon helping us meet our commitments to customers. |
Those of us who did it for a while probably appreciate it most, because we know how hard it is. They didn't get to this exalted status because they were lucky. Both of them know what works. Both of them have the guts to stay the course. They have the energy to convince 18-year-olds they can be part of something big. |
We are absolutely committed to being profitable by the end of this year, and one way to do this is to make sure that every item contributes to profitability. |
We are focused right now on profitability. Our mantra was to get big fast, and we did get very big very fast. Our emphasis is to get an operating profit in the fourth quarter. |
We feel it's what any company would do, that it's part of their business. In the event that there's a sale in the future, the customer records go with the company, as part of the company. We're being forthright in disclosing it, and we're getting criticism for being candid. |
We know as much about running a retail store as brick-and-mortar companies know about running a Web site. |
We tried to have some productive dialog with them on several occasions. |
What we are doing is a broad initiative to make sure that every product we sell contributes to profitability. But we have not changed one bit our mission to provide people a place where they can find and discover anything on the map. |