Pier One What Does Strong Mean?

Pier One Imports (PIR) comes to the market and lets everyone know Sept same store sales are awful. Kudo’s to management for having the balls to tell the truth in a timely fashion. But you can still see how the spin management still creeps into the press release.

Sales declined 11.7%. Traffic declined 8%. OK that’s the unvarnished truth and given the state of the world investors should be expecting news like this. Then the spin master try’s to juice up the words and throws this quote in

“Despite the sharp decline in traffic in September, our underlying business remained strong.” The business is not strong; 11.7% sales declines are not strong fellows. You just had the Company’s President and Chief Executive Officer, Alex W. Smith say “If we continue to experience traffic levels like those seen in recent weeks, we will not meet the current consensus for earnings expectations for the back half of the fiscal year.”

Alex Smith, investors thank you for your sobering but realistic thoughts. But you need to slap someone in the Investor Relations Dept.