GSR: What is your biggest objective at the convention this year?

Podell: My No. 1 objective is to explain to everyone what's happening in terms of the changes. I want them to understand that how they perceived our business and our stores over the past 30 years in changing dramatically. From a mall owner standpoint it's going to benefit them tremendously because we'll have a much nicer-looking store. A lot of mall owners want to make sure that what build is very nice because they're putting a lot of money into their centers now. It's not the old days when you just put down a tile floor and sheetrock ceiling and that was it. The settings are much nicer today, and they're sensitive in that they want retailers to put their best foot forward with a store prototype.

GSR: In what ways are you going to push the new concept at the Spring Convention?