DG, §1A diff (2018 → 2019)

ITEM 1A. RISK FACTORS You should carefully consider the risks described below and the other information contained in this report and other filings that we make from time to time with the SEC, including our consolidated financial statements and accompanying notes. Any of the following risks could materially and adversely affect our business, financial condition, results of operations or liquidity. These risks are not the only risks we face. Our business, financial condition, results of operations or liquidity could also be adversely affected by additional factors that apply to all companies generally or by risks not currently known to us or that we currently view to be immaterial. We can provide no assurance and make no representation that our risk mitigation efforts, although we believe they are reasonable, will be successful. Economic conditions and other economic factors may adversely affect our financial performance and other aspects of our business by negatively impacting our customers’ disposable income or discretionary spending, affecting our ability to plan and execute our strategic initiatives, increasing our costs of goods sold and selling, general and administrative expenses, and adversely affecting our sales or profitability. We believe many of our customers have fixed or low incomes and generally have limited discretionary spending dollars. Any factor that could adversely affect that disposable income would decrease our customers’ confidence, spending, and number of trips to our stores, and could cause our customers to shift their spending to products other than those sold by us or to our less profitable product choices, all of which could result in lower net sales, decreases in inventory turnover, greater markdowns on inventory, a change in the mix of products we sell, and a reduction in profitability due to lower margins. Factors that could reduce our customers’ disposable income and over which we exercise no influence include but are not limited to adverse economic conditions such as increased or sustained high unemployment or underemployment levels, inflation, increases in fuel or other energy costs and interest rates, lack of available credit, consumer debt levels, higher tax rates and other changes in tax laws, uncertainty regarding government mandated participation in health insurance programs, increasing healthcare and housing costs, and decreases in, or elimination of, government subsidies such as unemployment and food assistance programs. Many of the factors identified above that affect disposable income, as well as commodity rates, transportation costs (including the costs of fuel), costs of labor, insurance and healthcare, foreign exchange rate fluctuations, lease costs, measures that create barriers to or increase the costs associated with international trade (including increased import duties or tariffs), or changes in other laws and regulations and other economic factors, also affect our ability to plan and execute our strategic initiatives, our cost of goods sold, our selling, general and administrative expenses, and our real estate costs, and may have other adverse consequences which we are unable to fully anticipate or control, all of which may adversely affect our sales or profitability. We have limited or no ability to control many of these factors. Our plans depend significantly on strategies and initiatives designed to increase sales and profit and improve the efficiencies, costs and effectiveness of our operations, and failure to achieve or sustain these plans could affect our performance adversely. We have short-term and long-term strategies and initiatives (such as those relating to merchandising, marketing, real estate and new store development, digital, sourcing, shrink, private brand, inventory management, distribution and transportation, store operations, store formats, budgeting and expense reduction, and technology) in various stages of testing, evaluation, and implementation, upon which we expect to rely to continue to improve our results of operations and financial condition and to achieve our financial plans. These initiatives are inherently risky and uncertain, even when tested successfully, in their application to our business in general. It is possible that successful testing can result partially from resources and attention that cannot be duplicated in broader implementation, particularly in light of the diverse geographic locations of our stores and the decentralized nature of our field management. General implementation also may be negatively affected by other risk factors described herein. Successful systemwide implementation relies on consistency of training, stability of workforce, ease of execution, and the absence of offsetting factors that can influence results adversely. Failure to achieve successful implementation of our initiatives or the cost of these initiatives exceeding management’s estimates could adversely affect our business, results of operations and financial condition. The success of our merchandising initiatives, particularly those with respect to non-consumable merchandise and store-specific products and allocations, depends in part upon our ability to predict consistently and successfully the products that our customers will demand and to identify and timely respond to evolving trends in demographic mixes in our markets and consumer preferences, expectations and needs. If we are unable to select products that are attractive to customers, to timely obtain such products at costs that allow us to sell them at an acceptable profit, or to effectively market such products, our sales, market share and profitability could be adversely affected. If our merchandising efforts in the non-consumables area or the higher margin areas within consumables are unsuccessful, we could be further adversely affected by our inability to offset the lower margins associated with our consumables business. If we cannot open, relocate or remodel stores profitably and on schedule, our planned future growth will be impeded, which would adversely affect sales. Our ability to open, relocate and remodel profitable stores is a key component of our planned future growth. Our ability to timely open stores and to expand into additional market areas depends in part on the following factors: the availability of attractive store locations; the absence of entitlement process or occupancy delays; the ability to negotiate acceptable lease and development terms; the ability to hire and train new personnel, especially store managers, in a cost effective manner; the ability to identify customer demand in different geographic areas; general economic conditions; and the availability of capital funding for expansion. Many of these factors also affect our ability to successfully relocate stores, and many of them are beyond our control. Delays or failures in opening new stores or completing relocations or remodels, or achieving lower than expected sales in these projects, could materially adversely affect our growth and/or profitability. We also may not anticipate all of the challenges imposed by the expansion of our operations and, as a result, may not meet our targets for opening new stores, remodeling or relocating stores or expanding profitably. In addition, our construction costs could increase as a result of economic factors discussed above. Some new stores and future new store opportunities may be located in areas, including but not limited to new states or metro urban areas, where we have limited or no meaningful experience or brand recognition. Those areas may have different competitive and market conditions, consumer tastes and discretionary spending patterns than our existing markets, as well as higher cost of entry. These factors may cause our new stores to be initially less successful than stores in our existing markets, which could slow future growth in these areas. Many new stores will be located in areas where we have existing stores. Although we have experience in these areas, increasing the number of locations in these markets may result in inadvertent oversaturation and temporarily or permanently divert customers and sales from our existing stores, thereby adversely affecting our overall financial performance. We face intense competition that could limit our growth opportunities and adversely impact our financial performance. The retail business is highly competitive with respect to price, store location, merchandise quality, product assortment and presentation, in-stock consistency, customer service, promotional activity, customers, market share, and employees. We compete with discount stores and with many other retailers, including mass merchandise, warehouse club, grocery, drug, convenience, variety, online retailers, and certain specialty stores. This competitive environment subjects us to the risk of adverse impact to our financial performance because of the lower prices, and thus the lower margins, that may be required to maintain our competitive position. Also, as a discount retailer, due to customer demographics and other factors, we may have limited ability to increase prices in response to increased costs without losing competitive position. This limitation may adversely affect our margins and financial performance. Certain of our competitors have greater financial, distribution, marketing and other resources than we do and may be able to secure better arrangements with suppliers than we can. If we fail to respond effectively to competitive pressures and changes in the retail markets, it could adversely affect our financial performance. Competition for customers has intensified as competitors have moved into, or increased their presence in, our geographic and product markets and increased the availability of mobile, web-based and other digital technology to facilitate a more convenient and competitive customer online and in-store shopping experience. We expect this competition to continue to increase. We remain vulnerable to the marketing power and high level of consumer recognition of larger competitors and to the risk that these competitors or others could venture into our industry in a significant way, including through the introduction of new store formats. Further, consolidation within the retail industry could significantly alter the competitive dynamics of the retail marketplace. This consolidation may result in competitors with greatly improved financial resources, improved access to merchandise, greater market penetration and other improvements in their competitive positions, as well as result in the provision of a wider variety of products and services at competitive prices by these consolidated companies, which could adversely affect our financial performance. Our profitability may be negatively affected by inventory shrinkage. We are subject to the risk of inventory loss and theft. We experience significant inventory shrinkage and cannot be sure that incidences of inventory loss and theft will decrease in the future or that the measures we are taking will effectively reduce the problem of inventory shrinkage. Although some level of inventory shrinkage is an unavoidable cost of doing business, if we were to experience higher rates of inventory shrinkage or incur increased security or other costs to combat inventory theft, our results of operations and financial condition could be affected adversely. Our cash flows from operations may be negatively affected if we are not successful in managing our inventory balances. Our inventory balance represented approximately 52% of our total assets exclusive of goodwill and other intangible assets as of February 2, 2018. Efficient inventory management is a key component of our business success and profitability. To be successful, we must maintain sufficient inventory levels and an appropriate product mix to meet our customers’ demands without allowing those levels to increase to such an extent that the costs to store and hold the goods unduly impacts our financial results or that subjects us to the risk of increased inventory shrinkage. If our buying decisions do not accurately predict customer trends, we inappropriately price products or our expectations about customer spending levels are inaccurate, we may have to take unanticipated markdowns to dispose of the excess inventory, which also can adversely impact our financial results. We continue to focus on ways to reduce these risks, but we cannot make assurances that we will be successful in our inventory management. If we are not successful in managing our inventory balances, our cash flows from operations may be negatively affected. Any failure to maintain the security of information we hold relating to proprietary business information or our customers, employees and vendors, whether as a result of cybersecurity attacks or otherwise, could expose us to litigation, government enforcement actions and costly response measures, and could materially disrupt our operations and harm our reputation and sales. In connection with sales, we transmit confidential credit and debit card information. We also have access to, collect or maintain certain private or confidential information regarding our customers, employees and vendors, as well as our business. Some of this information is stored digitally in connection with our e-commerce website and our mobile applications, some of which may leverage third-party service providers. Additionally, under certain circumstances, we may share information with vendors that assist us in conducting our business (for example, third-party service providers assist us in the transmittal of credit and debit card information in connection with sales), as required by law, or otherwise in accordance with our privacy policy. While we have implemented procedures and technology intended to protect and safeguard our information and require appropriate controls of our service providers, it is possible that cyberattackers might compromise our security measures or those of our technology and other vendors or service providers in the future and obtain the personal information of our customers, employees and vendors that we hold or our business information, as cyberattacks are rapidly evolving and those threats and the means for obtaining access to information in digital and other storage media are becoming increasingly sophisticated and may not immediately produce signs of intrusion. Moreover, employee error or malfeasance or other irregularities may result in a defeat of our or our third-party vendors’ security measures and breach our or our third-party vendors’ information systems. If customer passwords are obtained through unrelated third-party breaches, cyberattackers also could gain access to our customers’ accounts. Because we accept debit and credit cards for payment, we are subject to industry data protection standards and protocols, such as the Payment Card Industry Data Security Standards (“PCI DSS”), issued by the Payment Card Industry Security Standards Council. Additionally, we have implemented technology in our stores to allow for the acceptance of Europay, Mastercard and Visa (EMV) credit transactions and point-to-point encryption. Complying with PCI DSS standards and implementing related procedures, technology and information security measures require significant resources and ongoing attention. However, even as we comply with PCI DSS standards and offer EMV and point-to-point encryption technology in our stores, we may be vulnerable to, and unable to detect and appropriately respond to, data security breaches and data loss, including cybersecurity attacks or other breach of cardholder data. A security breach of any kind (whether experienced by us or one of our vendors), which could be undetected for a period of time, or any failure by us to comply with the applicable privacy and information security laws, regulations and standards could expose us to risks of data loss, litigation, government enforcement actions, fines or penalties, credit card brand assessments, and costly response measures (including, for example, providing notification to, and credit monitoring services for, affected customers, as well as further upgrades to our security measures) which may not be covered by or may exceed the coverage limits of our insurance policies, and could materially disrupt our operations. Any resulting negative media attention and publicity could significantly harm our reputation which could cause us to lose market share as a result of customers discontinuing the use of debit or credit cards in our stores or not shopping in our stores altogether and could have a material adverse effect on our business and financial performance. A significant disruption to our distribution network, to the capacity of our distribution centers or to the timely receipt of inventory could adversely impact sales or increase our transportation costs, which would decrease our profits. We rely on our distribution and transportation network to provide goods to our stores in a timely and cost-effective manner. Using various modes of transportation, including ocean, rail, and truck, we and our vendors move goods from vendor locations to our distribution centers. Deliveries to our stores occur from our distribution centers or directly from our vendors. Any disruption, unanticipated or unusual expense or operational failure related to this process could affect store operations negatively. For example, delivery delays or increases in transportation costs (including through increased fuel costs, increased carrier rates or driver wages as a result of driver shortages, a decrease in transportation capacity for overseas shipments, or work stoppages or slowdowns) could significantly decrease our ability to make sales and earn profits. Labor shortages or work stoppages in the transportation industry or long-term disruptions to the national and international transportation infrastructure that lead to delays or interruptions of deliveries or which would necessitate our securing alternative labor or shipping suppliers could also increase our costs or otherwise negatively affect our business. We maintain a network of distribution facilities and are moving forward with plans to build new facilities to support our growth objectives. Delays in opening distribution centers could adversely affect our future financial performance by slowing store growth, which may in turn reduce revenue growth, or by increasing transportation costs. In addition, distribution-related construction or expansion projects entail risks that could cause delays and cost overruns, such as: shortages of materials or skilled labor; work stoppages; unforeseen construction, scheduling, engineering, environmental or geological problems; weather interference; fires or other casualty losses; and unanticipated cost increases. For these reasons, the completion date and ultimate cost of these projects could differ significantly from initial expectations, and we cannot guarantee that any project will be completed on time or within established budgets. Risks associated with or faced by our suppliers could adversely affect our financial performance. The products we sell are sourced from a wide variety of domestic and international suppliers, and we are dependent on our vendors to supply merchandise in a timely and efficient manner. In 2017, our largest and second largest suppliers each accounted for approximately 8% of our purchases. We have not experienced any difficulty in obtaining sufficient quantities of core merchandise and believe that, if one or more of our current sources of supply became unavailable, we would generally be able to obtain alternative sources. However, such alternative sources could increase our merchandise costs, result in a temporary reduction in store inventory levels, and reduce the quality of our merchandise, and an inability to obtain alternative sources could adversely affect our sales. Additionally, if a supplier fails to deliver on its commitments, whether due to financial difficulties or other reasons, we could experience merchandise out-of-stocks that could lead to lost sales and damage to our reputation. We directly imported approximately 5% of our purchases (measured at cost) in 2017, but many of our domestic vendors directly import their products or components of their products. Changes to the prices and flow of these goods for any reason, such as political unrest or acts of war, currency fluctuations, disruptions in maritime lanes, port labor disputes, and economic conditions and instability in the countries in which foreign suppliers are located, the financial instability of suppliers, suppliers’ failure to meet our standards, issues with labor practices of our suppliers or labor problems they may experience (such as strikes, stoppages or slowdowns, which could also increase labor costs during and following the disruption), the availability and cost of raw materials to suppliers, increased import duties, merchandise quality or safety issues, transport availability and cost, increases in wage rates and taxes, transport security, inflation, and other factors relating to the suppliers and the countries in which they are located or from which they import, are beyond our control and could adversely affect our operations and profitability. While we are working to diversify our sources of imported goods and reduce the percentage of goods imported from China, a substantial amount of our imported merchandise still comes from China, and thus, a change in the Chinese leadership, economic and market conditions, internal economic stimulus actions, or currency or other policies, as well as increases in costs of labor and wage taxes, could negatively impact our merchandise costs. In addition, the United States’ foreign trade policies, duties, tariffs and other impositions on imported goods, trade sanctions imposed on certain countries, the limitation on the importation of certain types of goods or of goods containing certain materials from other countries and other factors relating to foreign trade and port labor agreements are beyond our control. These and other factors affecting our suppliers and our access to products could adversely affect our business and financial performance. As we increase our imports of merchandise from foreign vendors, the risks associated with these imports also will increase, and we may be exposed to additional or different risks as we increase imports of goods produced in countries other than China. Product liability, product recall or other product safety or labeling claims could adversely affect our business, reputation and financial performance. All of our vendors and their products must comply with applicable product safety laws and regulations (including those relating to product labeling), and we are dependent on them to ensure that the products we buy comply with all applicable safety and labeling standards. However, product liability, personal injury or other claims may be asserted against us relating to product contamination, product tampering, product expiration, mislabeling, recall and other safety or labeling issues with respect to the products that we sell. We seek but may not be successful in obtaining contractual indemnification and insurance coverage from our vendors. If we do not have adequate contractual indemnification or insurance available, such claims could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition and results of operations. Our ability to obtain indemnification from foreign vendors may be hindered by our ability to obtain jurisdiction over such vendors to enforce contractual indemnification obligations. Even with adequate insurance and indemnification, such claims could significantly damage our reputation and consumer confidence in our products. Our litigation expenses could increase as well, which also could have a materially negative impact on our results of operations even if a product liability claim is unsuccessful or is not fully pursued. Our private brands may not be successful in improving our gross profit rate and may increase certain of the risks we face. The sale of private brand items is an important component of our sales growth and gross profit rate enhancement plans. We have invested in our development and procurement resources and marketing efforts relating to these private brand offerings. We believe that our success in maintaining broad market acceptance of our private brands depends on many factors, including pricing, our costs, quality, customer perception and the timely development and introduction of new products. We may not achieve or maintain our expected sales for our private brands. The sale and expansion of our private brand offerings also subjects us to certain risks, such as: potential product liability risks and mandatory or voluntary product recalls; potential supply chain and distribution chain disruptions for raw materials and finished products; our ability to successfully protect our proprietary rights and successfully navigate and avoid claims related to the proprietary rights of third parties; our ability to successfully administer and comply with applicable contractual obligations and legal and regulatory requirements; and other risks generally encountered by entities that source, sell and market exclusive branded offerings for retail. An increase in sales of our private brands may also adversely affect sales of our vendors’ products, which, in turn, could adversely affect our relationship with certain of our vendors. Any failure to appropriately address some or all of these risks could have a significant adverse effect on our private brand initiatives and on our reputation, business, results of operations and financial condition. We are subject to governmental regulations, procedures and requirements. A significant change in, or noncompliance with, these regulations could have a material adverse effect on our financial performance. Our business is subject to numerous and frequently changing federal, state and local laws and regulations. We routinely incur significant costs in complying with these regulations. The complexity of the regulatory environment in which we operate and the related cost of compliance are increasing due to additional legal and regulatory requirements, our expanding operations, and increased enforcement efforts. Further, uncertainties exist regarding the future application of certain of these legal requirements to our business. New laws, regulations, policies and the related interpretations and enforcement practices, particularly those dealing with environmental compliance, product safety or labeling, food safety, information security and privacy, and labor and employment, among others, or changes in existing laws, regulations, policies and the related interpretations and enforcement practices, particularly those governing the sale of products or employee wages, may result in significant added expenses or may require extensive system and operating changes that may be difficult to implement and/or could materially increase our cost of doing business. Untimely compliance or noncompliance with applicable regulations or untimely or incomplete execution of a required product recall, can result in the imposition of penalties (including loss of licenses, eligibility to accept certain government benefits such as SNAP or significant fines or monetary penalties), class action litigation or other litigation, in addition to reputational damage. Additionally, changes in tax laws, the interpretation of existing laws, or our failure to sustain our reporting positions on examination could adversely affect our overall effective tax rate. Litigation may adversely affect our business, results of operations and financial condition. Our business is subject to the risk of litigation by employees, consumers, suppliers, competitors, shareholders, government agencies and others through private actions, class actions, administrative proceedings, regulatory actions or other litigation. The outcome of litigation, particularly class action lawsuits and regulatory actions, is difficult to assess or quantify. Plaintiffs in these types of lawsuits may seek recovery of very large or indeterminate amounts, and the magnitude of the potential loss relating to these lawsuits may remain unknown for substantial periods of time. In addition, certain of these lawsuits, if decided adversely to us or settled by us, may result in liability material to our financial statements as a whole or may negatively affect our operating results if changes to our business operations are required. The cost to defend future litigation may be significant. There also may be adverse publicity associated with litigation that could negatively affect customer perception of our business, regardless of whether the allegations are valid or whether we are ultimately found liable. As a result, litigation may adversely affect our business, results of operations and financial condition. See Note 7 to the consolidated financial statements for further details regarding certain of these pending matters. Our current insurance program may expose us to unexpected costs and negatively affect our financial performance. Our insurance coverage reflects deductibles, self-insured retentions, limits of liability and similar provisions that we believe are prudent based on the dispersion of our operations. However, there are types of losses we may incur but against which we cannot be insured or which we believe are not economically reasonable to insure, such as losses due to acts of war, employee and certain other crime, certain wage and hour and other employment-related claims, including class actions, actions based on certain consumer protection laws, and some natural and other disasters or similar events. If we incur these losses and they are material, our business could suffer. Certain material events may result in sizable losses for the insurance industry and adversely impact the availability of adequate insurance coverage or result in excessive premium increases. To offset negative insurance market trends, we may elect to self-insure, accept higher deductibles or reduce the amount of coverage in response to these market changes. In addition, we self-insure a significant portion of expected losses under our workers’ compensation, automobile liability, general liability (including claims made against certain of our landlords) and group health insurance programs. Unanticipated changes in any applicable actuarial assumptions and management estimates underlying our recorded liabilities for these losses, including expected increases in medical and indemnity costs, could result in materially different expenses than expected under these programs, which could have a material adverse effect on our results of operations and financial condition. Although we continue to maintain property insurance for catastrophic events at our store support center and distribution centers, we are effectively self-insured for other property losses. If we experience a greater number of these losses than we anticipate, our financial performance could be adversely affected. Natural disasters and unusual weather conditions (whether or not caused by climate change), pandemic outbreaks, terrorist acts, and global political events could disrupt business and result in lower sales and otherwise adversely affect our financial performance. The occurrence of one or more natural disasters, such as hurricanes, fires, floods, tornadoes and earthquakes, unusual weather conditions, pandemic outbreaks, terrorist acts or disruptive global political events, such as civil unrest in countries in which our suppliers are located, or similar disruptions could adversely affect our business and financial performance. Uncharacteristic or significant weather conditions can affect consumer shopping patterns, which could lead to lost sales or greater than expected markdowns and adversely affect our short-term results of operations. To the extent these events result in the closure of one or more of our distribution centers, a significant number of stores, or our corporate headquarters or impact one or more of our key suppliers, our operations and financial performance could be materially adversely affected through an inability to make deliveries or provide other support functions to our stores and through lost sales. In addition, these events could result in increases in fuel (or other energy) prices or a fuel shortage, delays in opening new stores, the temporary lack of an adequate work force in a market, the temporary or long-term disruption in the supply of products from some domestic and overseas suppliers, the temporary disruption in the transport of goods from overseas, delay or increased transportation costs in the delivery of goods to our distribution centers or stores, the inability of customers to reach or have transportation to our stores directly affected by such events, the temporary reduction in the availability of products in our stores and disruption of our utility services or to our information systems. These events also can have indirect consequences such as increases in the costs of insurance if they result in significant loss of property or other insurable damage. Material damage or interruptions to our information systems as a result of external factors, staffing shortages or challenges or difficulties in maintaining or updating our existing technology or developing or implementing new technology could have a material adverse effect on our business or results of operations. We depend on a variety of information technology systems for the efficient functioning of our business, including, without limitation the processing of transactions and the management of our employees, facilities, logistics, inventories, stores and customer-facing digital operations. We are continually improving our information processes and computer systems to better run our business. These technology initiatives may not deliver desired results or may do so on a delayed schedule. Additionally, such systems are subject to damage or interruption from power outages, facility damage, computer and telecommunications failures, computer viruses, cybersecurity breaches, cyber attacks (including malicious codes, worms, phishing and denial of service attacks, and ransomware), software upgrade failures or code defects, natural disasters and human error. Damage or interruption to, or defects of design related to, these systems may require a significant investment to fix or replace them, and we may suffer interruptions or disruptions in our operations in the interim, may experience loss or corruption of critical data and may receive negative publicity, all of which could have a material adverse effect on our business or results of operations. We also rely heavily on our information technology staff. Failure to meet these staffing needs may negatively affect our ability to fulfill our technology initiatives while continuing to provide maintenance on existing systems. We rely on certain vendors and service providers to maintain and periodically upgrade many of these systems so that they can continue to support our business. The software programs supporting many of our systems were licensed to us by independent software developers. The inability of these vendors, developers or us to continue to maintain and upgrade these information systems and software programs might disrupt or reduce the efficiency of our operations if we were unable to convert to alternate systems in an efficient and timely manner and could expose us to greater risk of a cybersecurity breach or other cyber attack. In addition, costs and potential problems and interruptions associated with the implementation of new or upgraded systems and technology or with maintenance or adequate support of existing systems could also disrupt or reduce the efficiency of our operations. Failure to attract, train and retain qualified employees while controlling labor costs, as well as other labor issues, could adversely affect our financial performance. Our future growth and performance, positive customer experience and regulatory compliance depends on our ability to attract, train, retain and motivate qualified employees, many of whom are in positions with historically high rates of turnover. Our ability to meet our labor needs, while controlling our labor costs, is subject to many external factors, including competition for and availability of qualified personnel in a given market, unemployment levels within those markets, wage rates within particular markets, minimum wage laws, health and other insurance costs, changes in employment and labor laws (including changes in the process for our employees to join a union) or other workplace regulations (including changes in employee benefit programs such as health insurance and paid leave programs), employee activism, and our reputation and relevance within the labor market. If we are unable to attract and retain adequate numbers of qualified employees, our operations, customer service levels and support functions could suffer. In addition, to the extent a significant portion of our employee base unionizes, or attempts to unionize, our labor costs could increase. Our ability to pass along labor costs to our customers is constrained by our everyday low price model, and we may not be able to offset such increased costs elsewhere in our business. Our success depends on our executive officers and other key personnel. If we lose key personnel or are unable to hire additional qualified personnel, our business may be harmed. Our future success depends to a significant degree on the skills, experience and efforts of our executive officers and other key personnel. The unexpected loss of the services of any of our executive officers could have an adverse effect on our operations. There can be no assurance that our executive succession planning, retention or hiring efforts will be successful. Competition for skilled and experienced management personnel is intense, and our future success will also depend on our ability to attract and retain qualified personnel, and a failure to attract and retain new qualified personnel could have an adverse effect on our operations. Because our business is somewhat seasonal, adverse events during the fourth quarter could materially affect our financial statements as a whole. Primarily because of sales of Christmas-related merchandise, our most profitable sales mix generally occurs in the fourth quarter. In anticipation of this holiday, we purchase substantial amounts of seasonal inventory. Adverse events, such as deteriorating economic conditions, high unemployment rates, high gas prices, public transportation disruptions, or unusual or unanticipated adverse weather could result in lower-than-planned sales during the Christmas selling season, which in turn could reduce our operating profit. Additionally, an excess of seasonal merchandise inventory could result if our net sales during the Christmas selling season fall below seasonal norms or expectations, which could adversely affect our financial performance and operating results as a result of unanticipated markdowns. Deterioration in market conditions or changes in our credit profile could adversely affect our business operations and financial condition. We rely on the positive cash flow we generate from our operating activities and our access to the credit and capital markets to fund our operations, growth strategy, and return of cash to our shareholders through share repurchases and dividends. Changes in the credit and capital markets, including market disruptions, limited liquidity and interest rate fluctuations, may increase the cost of financing or restrict our access to these potential sources of future liquidity. Our continued access to these liquidity sources on favorable terms depends on multiple factors, including our operating performance and our credit ratings. Our debt securities currently have an investment grade rating, and a downgrade of this rating likely would negatively impact our access to the debt capital markets and increase our cost of borrowing. As a result, any disruptions or turmoil in the debt markets or any downgrade of our credit ratings could adversely affect our business operations and financial condition and our ability to return cash to our shareholders. There can be no assurances that our ability to obtain additional financing through the debt markets will not be adversely impacted by economic conditions or that we will be able to maintain or improve our current credit ratings. New accounting guidance or changes in the interpretation or application of existing accounting guidance could adversely affect our financial performance. The implementation of new accounting standards could require certain systems, internal process and other changes that could increase our operating costs, and also will result in changes to our financial statements. In particular, the implementation of accounting standards related to leases, as issued by the Financial Accounting Standards Board (“FASB”) are requiring us to make significant changes to our lease management and other accounting systems, and will result in a material impact to our consolidated financial statements. Additionally, the FASB has issued accounting standards related to intra-entity transfers that will result in changes to our financial statements. U.S. generally accepted accounting principles and related accounting pronouncements, implementation guidelines and interpretations with regard to a wide range of matters that are relevant to our business involve many subjective assumptions, estimates and judgments by our management. Changes in these rules or their interpretation or changes in underlying assumptions, estimates or judgments by our management could significantly change our reported or expected financial performance. The outcome of such changes could include litigation or regulatory actions which could have an adverse effect on our financial condition and results of operations. ITEM 1B.