A: One of the biggest challenges we face is the circumstances facing our low to low-income customer with high gas prices. We've done a lot to position our inventory to be more basic and be the things people use and need every day. We rolled out coolers to sell perishable foods like milk and eggs. Rolled out about 1,000 stores this year and and we'll have about half of our chains completed by the end of our fiscal year. Another thing we're doing is something called a treasure hunt where people will find surprises at great values in our stores like toys. They have a higher unemployment rate. And they don't have the disposable income.

Q: Who or what is your biggest competition? Why?

A: Wal-Mart… In an industry where you're dealing with the largest company in the world, you have to figure out how to compete with them. We have a niche of smaller stores within in the neighborhoods where our customers live. But when W< does something it affects us and others.

Q: What is the biggest issue facing the state?

A: My concerns are education, not secondary education but high school education. Attracting industry to the state and continuing to be competitive in terms of attracting strong employers to the state to keep our employment levels up.

Q: North Carolina sees biotechnology and service companies as a key to its future. Is that the right path? Should we be giving incentives to attract them here?

A: I'm not sure I'm qualified to answer that question. But I know when Family Dollar looks to build a distribution center across the country, where we go we are offered incentives. North Carolina has to be competitive with other states.

Q: What's the biggest change in business today compared to when you started?

A: For us it's probably just the size of the company and the growth we had. We started with one store in Charlotte. We just opened our 6,000th store last month. The biggest challenge is managing the growth properly. It creates a lot of opportunity but also a lot of challenges as well. What we've been able to do is build a strong management team to handle both the opportunities and the problems.

Q: Why should an investor invest in your stock today?

A: I think we've demonstrated a very strong history of long term profitable growth. We've had a couple ups and downs over that long history but if you look at the success of our company and someone who invested a long time ago, they'd probably be a pretty happy investor today. We're looking at the long-term. We're concerned about the quarterly results but the decisions we make are for the long-term. I think our history speaks for itself. We continue to build for the future and invest back in our business.

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