It looks like that number is tracking at 6.8 percent, slightly higher than what we expected, ... We did expect it would be a lot stronger but sales got pinched at the end of the month because of cooler temperatures in some parts of the country.

Michael Niemira

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It looks like an echo of the Katrina effect.

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Now there's a shock. It's not just a penny this week and two pennies higher the week before. And the shock comes on top of the cumulative effect of all those pennies over all those weeks.

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During the month of January, about 40 percent of gift cards are redeemed and that is exactly what consumers began to do this past week. As a result, chain stores saw their sales rise slightly.

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Any deviation from that 15 percent for the quarter is expected to be lower, not higher.

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It ate my butt up. On the year, we shoot 68 or 69 percent. You expect those to go in, especially when we have the right guys going to the line.

— Michael Scott