Alan Rifkin Quotes (13 Quotes)

We are accustomed to seeing troubled companies pruning their staff and letting people go, but Best Buy is really hitting on all cylinders.

Lowe's remains one of our favorite names. Despite concern of a softening housing market in 2006, we believe Lowe's solid results are indicative of trends in the broader home improvement industry.

If you look at the four hurricanes last year, which had combined insured losses of 23 billion, both Home Depot and Lowe's benefited by about 100 basis points on their same-store sales,

We believe that, with current sales trends still weak, the company's holiday selling season could very well be hampered,

I think people on the street were a little surprised that we weren't given full warning. Gift cards are increasing in importance and we think this season will represent 16 percent of sales.

We remain very positive on the home improvement sector and Home Depot's prospects, particularly given current valuation levels. Home Depot shares are currently trading in line with the five-year historic low forward price-to-earnings ratio, based on consensus estimates.

AutoZone's retail market for auto parts is already quite mature. So it's really difficult to improve business in that segment,

At the end of the day, with oil touching 70 a barrel, that is not good for the consumer. When we are all paying more at the pump to fill our cars, that's less disposable spending that we all have to spend at retailers.

This change basically affects the timing of when the rebates are accounted for, ... The way Best Buy will do it now is typically a more conservative approach.

While we were impressed with the long-term initiatives to drive top-line sales and control costs, we sensed a more conservative outlook from management. As such, we take a more cautious view to reflect the broad-based consumer slowdown that has impacted retailers as a whole,

Despite limited console availability, we believe that Xbox 360 boosted comp growth as traffic trends benefited from the excitement generated by the new product. Enhanced TV sales were also strong during December and January, which also aided same-store sales.

People are increasingly concerned, given what Wal-Mart said, that higher gas prices are going to hurt the spending power of the consumer.

With gas prices already nearing the post-summer peak from last year, there is real concern that gas prices will be significantly higher than what we saw last year.