Linda Kristiansen Quotations

We remain skeptical of Sears' ability to turn around its apparel business.

In a sure sign of its resurgence, most department stores have just finished moving the business off the main floor to the mezzanine or top floor.

We believe overall sales performance was strong during the final week of the month and that July 4 business likely provided a boost to June results.

We believe it is likely that the sales recovery will be pushed out by a few months as we expect momentum to deteriorate in some of our indicators, particularly consumer confidence.

I'm fairly bearish on the sector and I think industry sales will be weak throughout the end of the year and possibly even into early 2001. So I'm not recommending very many stocks -- just one stock, actually, in the group right now.

They're gaining ever more share of women's apparel, which is a high margin business. They're growing rapidly at better than 20 percent in both square footage and earnings. In an environment where people are talking numbers, Kohl's could certainly meet the numbers and even exceed expectations, for example, in the third quarter.

I think its too soon to say. I think we need a little bit more time to see where things settle. There are no precedents.

So far the numbers have been on the soft side this month -- that's true across almost the entire industry. Everybody is blaming the weather.

I think they have reasonably good locations in the Northeast. There'll be a bidding process, but it just seems like a good fit. They've been more aggressive than some of the others in the region.