Olivier Bron

Do you feel customers still want to come physically into stores like this, particularly department stores, I should say?

I want to talk about the relationship that you have with your brand partners, because when we talk about the evolution of the department store, one thing that hurt it was the idea that a lot of brands started selling on their own, whether their own stores or eventually obviously with their own e-commerce operation.

So there was another channel for people to get Burberry or to get Chanel or whatever other products they want.

But you've still maintained those partnerships in a very strong way.

And I am curious as to what the balance is in making sure that those dollars flow through Bloomingdale's.

I want to talk about this particular holiday season.

I mean, times are a little bit challenging economically, and there's been a lot of talk about how much capacity the consumer has to spend.

Are you feeling optimistic about what people will spend on this year?

How are you anticipating having to have any sort of meaningful discounts sort of above and beyond what would be normal for the holiday season?

This gets to the idea of what exactly you're selling, because when I hear you talk, you don't seem like you're selling a product.

You're selling an ethos or a lifestyle or whatever you want to do.

And that's got to be difficult because you're also selling something that can change in a minute.

Customers just decide they want to feel something different.

So how do you sort of do you keep up with that?

Do you follow them or do you try to lead?

I'm curious with some of the newer brands, the upstarts that are looking to sort of break in.

I know certainly here at the flagship, just walking through it, I've seen you've embraced a lot of, you know, what would normally be obscure brands and sort of brought them to the public's attention.

How do you find those folks?

Do they come to you or do you sort of search them out?

Is there a sense, when we talk about the reemergence of Bloomingdale's in terms of its sales growth, that that is sustainable long-term based on the current strategy you have in place?