They're very demanding of the tenants. They shop us. If there's a problem with a sales associate, they call me in Rome.

Recent economic data gives us confidence that corporate spending is coming back to life, so I'm hoping sales could be above $5 billion. That would set a strong tone for the rest of the year,

Retail sales have shown tentative signs of a modest recovery from weak levels, but in our view a continuing threat remains the weakness of the labor market ... which may slow the pace of consumer spending.

If you look at the subcategories, you see a backlog in sales orders while inventory levels are down and purchasing commitments are up,

Is the competition really some mythical beast? No, not really. Knowing how to play your group of salespeople as a team, to overcome the group objective of winning the customers support, is the objective. The opposing team in proper viewpoint is not just the similar competing business to yours. Nor is it the competing franchises of your home office.
No, in order to really be effective in the market place as a surviving business, you must go beyond that philosophy. You must be willing to expand your viewpoint to fully understand who the competition truly is.
Your true competition is simply this: Anywhere that your customer would spend his or her dollars as opposed to spending them at your company or place of business.

It's a small market for us with much less than one percent of total sales and we have no sales offices or subsidiaries, so it's difficult to get a real picture.