They're narrowing down and putting more tonnage into strategic locations. They don't have to ship it 200 miles to store it. We're just on the property.

We're putting together lists of names and are narrowing it down. It's important in our minds to do this quickly. But it's more important that we get the right guy.

This also suggests that retailers may be better off targeting customers within a few-mile radius of their store locations rather than broadcasting a wider marketing net. Households with incomes under $49,000 and heads of households under 44 -- largely those groups whom you would expect to be undergoing life changes such as marriage, children, rising income, or possibly a new home -- were the most likely to report spending more this season.

The detailer was the one to offer putting him on the ship with me. Needless to say, I was pleasantly surprised.

There is a ship afloat without a captain,

It is definitely succeeding in putting the pressure on at the strategic and at the tactical level,