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through our new store growth, rebranding process, and renovation efforts. Our customers run the show. They tell us what they want and we work very diligently to make it happen. It's about meeting their goals and needs. That's important to us. Brad: I agree. Our renovation initiative is a big thing for us moving forward. Family Dollar has been around for more than 50 years, so it's nice to go back and bring all of our stores up to these new standards. What is today's customer looking for? Brad: We do a lot of customer focus groups with our customers in certain markets. We listen to what they want and study what they are looking for when they visit our stores to shop. They are looking for quick and convenient at a good value. They want name brands, and Private Brand merchandise, and we offer both. Talk about your growth and refresh strategies. Brad: From a new store perspective, we are targeting 5 to 7 percent, annual net new store growth. That includes openings and closings. We haven't set the exact number for that yet this year. Our renovation strategy includes that 800 total we mentioned earlier, which includes renovations, relocations and expansions. We expect comparable numbers to what we did this year in 2014. "We renovated and expanded around 800 stores this year, too, so when you look at that kind of activity in the pipeline, that's a huge number." – Brad Rogers Are there any parts of the country that are more opportunistic? Brad: We are growing across the whole footprint. We are seeing high growth rates in California, which we just entered into about a year and half ago. We also just opened up our frst store in the Montana market (Billings), which has gone very well. We expect more growth to follow there. What's interesting about Family Dollar is that we cater to a lot of different markets. It can be in a small, rural Montana town with very few houses or a borough in New York City. We are all across the board, which is one of things that is really great about what we offer. What's driving the growth, i.e., demand, market availability, etc.? Brad: There are plenty of markets out there that are available to us, which is very encouraging. You have small markets, which are underserved and don't have a lot of services and can use a store that offers what we do. And then you have an urban market like Brooklyn (N.Y.), which has underserved markets within it. These areas are looking for everyday items at a low cost – a place where people don't want to drive a long way to a large parking lot to get what they need. CirCle No. 15 September : OctOber 2013 — CommerCial ConstruCtion & renovation 29