William J. Walljasper - CFO, Senior VP & Head-Investor Relations Robert J. Myers - Chairman & Chief Executive Officer.

Shane P. Higgins - Deutsche Bank Securities, Inc. Irene Nattel - RBC Dominion Securities, Inc. Ben S. Bienvenu - Stephens, Inc. Kelly A. Bania - BMO Capital Markets (United States) Ben Brownlow - Raymond James & Associates, Inc. Chuck E. Cerankosky - Northcoast Research Partners LLC Anthony C. Lebiedzinski - Sidoti & Co. LLC Damian A. Witkowski - Gabelli & Co.

Keith Edward Howlett - Desjardins Securities, Inc..

Good day, ladies and gentlemen, and welcome to the Q3 2015 Casey's General Stores Earnings Conference Call. My name is Whitley and I'll be your operator for today. At this time, all participants are in listen-only mode. Later, we will conduct a question-and-answer session. As a reminder, this call is being recorded for replay purposes.

I would now like to turn the conference over to your host for today, Mr. Bill Walljasper, Chief Financial Officer. Please proceed, sir..

Good morning and thank you for joining us to discuss Casey's results for the quarter ended January 31. I'm Bill Walljasper, Chief Financial Officer. Bob Myers, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer is also here.

Before we begin, I'll remind you that certain statements may constitute forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995.

As discussed in the press release and the 2014 Annual Report, such forward-looking statements involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors that may cause actual results to differ materially from future results expressed or implied by those statements.

Casey's disclaims any intention or obligation to update or revise forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise. We'll take a few minutes to summarize the quarter and then open it up for questions.

As most of you have seen, diluted earnings per share in the third quarter were $1.01, compared to $0.33 a year ago. Year-to-date diluted earnings per share were $3.57 compared to $2.73.

The record third quarter earnings is the result of strong fuel margin environment that most all fuel retailers experienced and strong sales growth throughout our business. EBITDA in the third quarter was up 81% compared to a year ago. Year-to-date EBITDA was up 25.5%.

Before we go into each category in a bit more detail and what is driving our results, I'll remind everyone that we will release our February same-store sales results on Thursday, March 12.

During the third quarter, we experienced a decline in wholesale fuel cost environment that contributed to a record fuel margin of $0.22 per gallon, compared to $0.136 per gallon in the same period a year ago.

The third quarter margin also benefited from a $5 million increase in renewable fuel credits, commonly known as RINs, compared to the same period last year. During the quarter, we sold 14 million RINs for $8.4 million. This represented a $0.19 favorable impact to the fuel margin. Currently, RINs are trading at around $0.70.

Last year in the fourth quarter, the average RINs sold were $0.47. Year-to-date the fuel margin is $0.201 per gallon, well ahead of our annual goal. Lower retail fuel prices and favorable weather comparisons from last year drove same-store gallons up 2.2% during the quarter. Total gallons sold in the quarter increased 8.6% to $446.8 million.

The average retail price of fuel for the quarter was $2.36 a gallon, compared to $3.05 last year. Fuel gross profit for the quarter was up 76% to $98.4 million. Same-store gallons sold year-to-date were up 2.5% with total gallons sold for the year up nearly 9% to 1.4 billion.

In the Grocery & Other Merchandise category, same-store sales were above our annual goal, increasing 7.7% in the quarter. Total sales during this period rose 13.1% to $412.7 million. We experienced double-digit sales growth in nearly every area of this category, including cigarettes.

We were especially pleased with the growth in packaged beverages, as we expand the number of stores with increased cooler capacity throughout our store base. Overall, we are pleased with the gains in this category. Over the quarter, gross profit dollars rose 13.4% to $128.6 million.

And year-to-date same-store sales were up 7.3% with an average margin of 32%. Prepared Food and Fountain category continued its strong performance. Total sales were up 20.3% to $190.4 million for the quarter. Same-store sales in the quarter were up 14.1% with an average margin of 58.7%, down 210 basis points from the same period a year ago.

The margin was down primarily due to an increase in sales and higher supply cost on certain items, offset by slightly lower cheese costs. The average cost of cheese this quarter was $2.05 per pound compared to $2.17 a year ago.

The company recently took advantage of declining cheese costs and locked-in our cost of cheese at $1.89 per pound through December of 2015. Even though the margin was down in the quarter, we were able to increase gross profit dollars 16.1% to $111.7 million. Year-to-date same-store sales were up 12% with an average margin of 59.3%.

The increase in sales in both the quarter and year-to-date were driven by an increase in the number of stores and a continued benefit of our operational initiatives mentioned in the press release. At the nine-month mark, operating expenses were up 12.5%. For the quarter, operating expenses increased 11.2% to $238.8 million.

The majority of this increase was due a rise in wages, primarily related to operating 86 more stores this quarter, compared to the same period a year ago, and an increase in the rollout of the operational initiatives described in the press release. On the income statement, total revenue in the quarter was down 6.6% to $1.7 billion.

This is due to a 22.5% decrease in the retail price of fuel, offset by an increase in the number of stores in operation this quarter compared to the same period a year ago, and the addition of more stores with one or more of our operational initiatives.

Year-to-date total revenue was up 3.3%, primarily due to sales increases in the categories mentioned previously, offset again by lower retail fuel price. The effective tax rate in the quarter was up 210 basis points, primarily due to higher book income from a year ago in the same period without similar increases in permanent tax differences.

Our balance sheet continues to be strong. As of January 31, cash and cash equivalents were $43.6 million. Long-term debt net of current maturities was $845.8 million, while shareholder equity rose to $839.1 million, up $135.8 million from the fiscal year end. We generated $239.9 million in cash flow from operations.

At the nine-month mark, capital expenditures were $329.2 million, compared to $269.1 million a year ago in the same period. At the beginning of the year, our capital expenditure projection was between $360 million and $410 million and we expect the year to finish in that range.

This quarter, we opened 12 new store constructions, and completed three acquisitions. For the year, we have acquired 32 stores and completed 33 new store constructions. We're on pace to complete a total of 40 to 45 new store constructions by the end of the fiscal year. Year-to-date we have replaced 25 stores.

We currently have 26 new stores under construction and 11 replacement stores under construction. In addition to this, we have an additional 40 new sites under contract. Our store count at the end of the fiscal quarter was 1,869 corporate stores.

In addition to the unit growth, year-to-date we have converted 110 more locations to a 24-hour format, added 12 additional stores to the pizza delivery program and completed 17 major remodels. The combination of these initiatives accounts for approximately 35% of the same-store sales increases reported previously.

Lastly, the second distribution center in Terre Haute, Indiana is on schedule, with an opening date in early calendar year 2016. The estimated full build-out cost will be $50 million. This completes our review of the quarter. As I mentioned previously, we will release February same-store sales on Thursday, March 12.

We'll now go ahead and take your questions..

Our first question comes from the line of Karen Short with Deutsche Bank. Please proceed..

Yeah, good morning. It's actually Shane Higgins on for Karen. Guys, thanks for taking the questions..

Good afternoon, Shane..

Hey, just wanted to ask you guys a question about the federal excise tax on tobacco.

Is that something that you think is likely or is that something that might be imminent?.

Well, it's hard for us to really give clear guidance on that. We have had a federal excise tax in our time here and certainly there's discussion on a federal excise tax. So, for us to say it's imminent or not would be kind of so much speculative, but that's certainly is something we're keeping our eyes on..

And could you just remind us like what percent of your store base is located in the fair trade states that would be most impacted I think by that?.

Well, when you look at fair trade states and non-fair trade states, the ones that – states of Illinois and Missouri are the ones that are non-fair trade states..

Okay..

Are big movers..

And the rest of them are in fair trade states?.

Well, yeah. The majority the rest of the states would be in fair trade states..

Got it. Got it. Thanks. And then, just switching gears real quick, you guys had a nice quarter on the operating expense side. Can you just go through some of the initiatives that's driving that? I know you mentioned that wages have been going up, but just talk about maybe some of the – what you guys have been doing to manage those expenses..

Well, we're always obviously cognizant of managing expenses. And so, when you look at the operating expenses in the quarter and you'll probably see more of this as you head into the fourth quarter, but the retail fuel price certainly is driving some of those downward.

So if you look at credit card fees for the quarter, they were basically flat Q3-over-Q3. Fuel expense that we utilize in our operation was actually down and then utilities was also – was kind of more of a flattish number as well. So, some of those things are driven by the lower retail fuel price.

But again, we are very cognizant of trying to manage our wages. We have budgeted hours at every store and certainly manage to that..

Are you guys seeing any wage pressures that have cropped up in recent months or what's your outlook for the next several months?.

The only wage pressure – there has been a couple of states that have had minimum wage increases. In most all those cases we were already paying above minimum wage, so they're really not affected in our business, but typically at least in my time, Shane when we had minimum wage increases, those are typically pass-throughs – through the business.

And so, to the extent, that we see further minimum wage pressure either state or federal, you'll see those as typically a pass-through..

Okay. And is there any benefit from – and you guys completed the expansion of the DC in Ankeny.

Any expense benefits over the next couple quarters from that?.

We're certainly going to keep our eye on that. It's very recent though. We just got it up and operational here in the last few months. So it's probably too early to tell at this point..

Okay, great. Thanks so much..

Thank you..

Your next question comes from the line of Irene Nattel with RBC Capital Markets. Please proceed..

Thanks and good morning. Just looking at prepared food margins, you mentioned that there was a higher stales in the quarter.

I'm just wondering, what was going on there?.

Yeah. No, great question. I'm glad you asked the question. And so for us Irene, our business we always manage the gross profit dollars. So we don't get too worked up on a same-store sales move and our margin move and as long as the gross profit dollar is coming in where we think it should come in.

And so, what you're seeing in this quarter and probably in the last several quarters, as we're certainly placing a greater focus on making sure we have the right products out in the warmers at the right time in a day to match the consumer demand. And so, that's part of the reason why you saw sales up over 20% in the third quarter.

That's the highest it's been in the last three years. I think gross profit obviously up over 16%, again one of the highest levels we've had in the last two years to three years.

So to specifically answer your question on the 210 basis point drop, when you look at stales, obviously when you're doing that, you're going to throw some product away, because our products since they're made fresh have a shelf-life of roughly about an hour in the warmer. So you're going to discard product to meet that demand.

And so, that's what we're seeing. The majority of that 210 basis point drop was due to an increase in stales. We did have some increases year-over-year with respect to some of the toppings of pizza primarily the meat.

Coffee was up about 46% Q3-over-Q3, however, that has now since subsequently come down and we should be seeing a tailwind in the coffee here for the next several quarters. We also had some supply cost increases. The biggest supply cost was in our cups which we switched over to a new cup that was a little more expensive.

And so, you roll all that up and that would be the answer to the 210 basis point drop. The other thing I want to point out is, I mean – I mentioned the cheese cost was $2.05 relative to $2.17, and so, I think there might have been an indication there or maybe an assumption that the cheese cost will be a much greater differential.

We did have very high cheese costs early in the third quarter and cheese cost did not come down till the tail end of the quarter. You should start to see some of that benefit as we locked in at $1.89.

I'll remind everyone that last year in the fourth quarter, our average cheese cost was $2.58, and so definitely we're going to see a tailwind in the third quarter with respect to that as well as the coffee. The last thing on the margin with respect to cheese cost would be there is a tail factor with respect to the cost of cheese.

So when the cheese cost comes down or goes up, you typically won't see that probably for three or four weeks that product getting onto a pizza into the store due to inventory we have at the store and in the warehouse. Hope that explains the downward movement in the margin..

Absolutely, that's very helpful.

And can you just please remind us, Bill though what the EPS sensitivity is on the cheese cost?.

Well, I can say what the margin is, I mean, every $0.10 per pound swing is about 35 basis points to 40 basis points to the overall prepared food margin..

So clearly very strong tailwind in Q4. But just coming back to the sort of the higher scale, as you look at – as you do your analysis of which parts of the day or which products, you're seeing the highest stales.

Do you think that that's something that you can sort of grind down a little bit as you go through the next few quarters or is that something that we should expect to be sort of a phenomenon going forward?.

Well, I mean, we did create a new position roughly starting this year, a food service manager position that places more focus in the prepared food area. So again, their task is to optimize a prepared food category. And for us, optimizing means gross profit dollars.

So, I mean we're always cognizant with stale factor, because we're certainly cognizant that it does impact the margin, but to say where that will come down or not, might be a little bit more difficult at this point. But it's something that we're very focused on obviously evident by creating the position that focuses on that area..

That's very helpful. Thank you, Bill. And just one final question, in the press release, you did call out on the cigarette side a shift up to premium.

That's something you did mention on the last call, as with the gas prices meaningfully lower, how are you seeing that play out inside the store, just in terms of consumer purchasing patterns?.

Yeah. Definitely we have seen over the last quarter, the two quarters, a shift to more premium brand of cigarettes, we believe is a function of more discretionary income in our consumers' pocket. In a sense, maybe trading up into a premium brand.

Most of those brands are typically a little bit lower margin, but a higher penny profit, so that's also coming into part of the reason why you see the flattish margin in grocery and general merchandise.

We have seen obviously in the last – probably for the two quarters a nice uptick in same-store customer count, that's a function of several things, the primary function would be the lower retail fuel price driving customers. But also back in late January and February, we did see a very high Powerball jackpot.

You might recall that anytime we see that type of environment, we do see an increased foot traffic in our stores, but definitely lower retail fuel price is helping customer traffic..

That's great. Thank you..

Your next question comes from the line of John Lawrence with Stephens Inc. please proceed..

Thanks, good morning. It's actually Ben Bienvenu for John..

Hi, Ben..

Hey.

So just finishing the thought on the Prepared Food & Fountain margin, in light of the increased stales, how are you thinking about your full year guidance of the 60% range, is that still achievable, or what should we expect there?.

Yeah. I mean, I think there is certainly a shock (18:41) coming. We're, obviously, a little bit lower than that with only one quarter left, but given the tailwind that I just mentioned, I think there is certainly very reasonable shot at being very close to achieving that or maybe even getting above that, so....

Okay. Shifting gears a little bit towards the distribution center, it's a February 2016 event. When we look at that, obviously there should be some cost savings there.

But, as it relates to the acquisition strategy, is that a jumping off point or a launch pad for potentially increased acquisitions, as you move into a different marketplace or is it simply a cost reduction for acquisitions you may be making in that marketplace?.

That's a good question, Ben. We see it really as a potential for both. I mean, we think there is opportunity once the facility gets up and operational, have some efficiencies generated from that.

Secondly though to answer your question, we do believe that it does open a different area of geography for us to looking not only at new store construction, but acquisitions. We have recently added staff to our store development area and are looking to add even more staff in that regard.

And so certainly, we're very focused on that and we believe there will be some opportunities from that..

Okay, great.

Lastly, just a housekeeping item on the cheese hedge, is that 100% of your cheese input cost that are hedged or is there any floating component as well?.

Yeah. I'll clarify. It's really not a hedge per se, it's a forward buy. So we don't have any hedge accounting in that regard. But, yes, to answer your question yes, it would be that our cheese cost completely locked in through December of 2015..

Okay. Thanks. Best of luck..

You bet..

Your next question comes from the line of Kelly Bania with BMO Capital. Please proceed..

Hi, good morning and thanks for taking my question..

You bet..

Just wondering if I could follow-up on the operating expenses, you called out the store level operating expenses, the ex-initiative stores, running up, I guess 2% to 3%, big improvement from the kind of 4% to 5% trend it had been.

So, is that all due to the lower fuel credit card utility that you mentioned or was there any change in how some of the initiatives or store labor is impacting that run rate that we should think about going forward?.

Yeah. Really it's a combination of all of those things you just mentioned, Kelly. Certainly on the unchained store base we see a decrease in the credit card utilization as well as fuel expense as the company as a whole, but really the credit card utilization is the one that's running through that one.

But in addition to that, we are becoming much more efficient with respect to managing in the different initiatives. The 24 hours, the major remodels and the pizza delivery. We also mentioned in the last conference call, we did scale back some of the pizza delivery in some stores, as well as modifying some of the hours.

We believe that we are starting to see some benefits from that on the operating expense side of it. It's a little too early to give any type of real information on that, but probably look for us to make some comments on that at the next conference call. It is something that we are being very cognizant and mindful of..

Okay. That's helpful.

And then, I guess just on pizza delivery, I mean, how do you feel about the potential for more stores, just a more refined analysis on where that can go or is that kind of reaching capacity in where that makes sense to add it to the existing store base?.

No. It has not reached capacity by any stretch. To give you a little bit of thought process on the pizza delivery area, right now we have roughly about 330 or 340 or so stores that are delivering pizza. We've only added 12 this fiscal year and that right now will be the only ones that will add for the remaining part of this fiscal year.

Coming into the fiscal year, the thought process was about 80 or so stores to add to pizza delivery. We're actually deferring those until the beginning or shortly after the beginning of the next fiscal year. The reason for that is we are in the process of rolling out online ordering. We have that now in stores here in the metro – Des Moines metro area.

We like what we see. If we continue to like what we see, we plan on expanding that next fiscal year. So we like to get that up and operational before we start rolling out the pizza delivery any more. But however, to answer your question, we think there is tremendous opportunity in pizza delivery.

So you will see more stores coming online next fiscal year..

Great.

And in terms of online ordering is the app now available or is that just web-based at this point?.

It would be both. Just in the stores that I mentioned here in the Des Moines metro area. So when we roll this out to the remaining parts of our store base, it will be an app as well as web-based..

Got it.

And then, if I could just ask one more about the cooler capacity, how many stores now have that expanded cooler capacity and how many more over time could accommodate that?.

Yeah. And so, when we talk about cooler capacity, we're talking about any store that we actually touch from a construction standpoint, so all new stores, all replacements and major remodels will get the expanded cooler capacity.

So when you just take a step back and look at that, we have about 235 major remodels that we completed, and so, all of those will have the expanded cooler capacity. And then, the new stores over the last three to four fiscal years would have that. So you roll that up.

We're only talking probably about 500, 600 locations that have the expanded cooler capacity. So we will continue to get greater penetration. And especially when you start looking at the potential of accelerating new type of major remodels, that's one of the areas that we're looking at.

The major remodels now are our double-digit ROI and certainly looking to enhance that program..

Great. Thank you..

You bet, Kelly..

Your next question comes from the line of Ben Brownlow with Raymond James. Please proceed..

Hi, good morning..

Hi, Ben..

You commented on the new DC and adding to the real estate development team.

Are there any significant items we should expect running through the OpEx, does that facility is built obviously most of it will be capitalized, but just trying to get a sense of kind of the OpEx items there?.

No, I wouldn't look for any type of significant operating expense items there that would be meaningful..

Okay. Great. And then, on the outlook for this year sounds like you're going to be towards the low-end of the new store build or store additions for this year kind of in the mid-70s.

Is there are any possibility that you have additional acquisitions you're working on or just an update on the acquisition environment?.

I mean, acquisition environment, we continue to get a lot of opportunities to take a look at. We do have 10 acquisitions under contract in addition to the ones we mentioned in the press release. We also have four; like I mentioned the 40 new sites are under contract with respect to new store constructions. So we have a lot going on there.

We're looking at a lot. The higher – we're certainly very aware of the higher fuel margin environment that most of the nation has experienced over the last three to four months. And so, we're not going to necessarily go out and purchase something on maybe a non-sustainable gas margin. Right now the multiple still are in that 5 times to 7 times.

But we still think there's a lot of opportunities and as I mentioned that were alluded to earlier, once the second distribution center gets up and operationally, it will open up different and expanded geographies..

Okay. Great. And just last one for me.

The Affordable Care Act and that impact on 2015 OpEx, is that tracking as you expected so far this year – calendar year?.

Yeah. So far it is. Yes..

Great. Thanks, guys..

Thank you..

Your next question comes from the line of Chuck Cerankosky of Northcoast Research. Please proceed..

Good morning, Bill..

Good morning, Chuck..

If you can talk a little bit about pricing of fuel right now, we're seeing some bounce off the bottom.

It's our observation that it looks like there's a quick move upward on any negative news in fuel and how that's affecting the dynamics of the fuel margin in your business?.

Well, certainly we've had a nice run over the last three to four months with the wholesale cost declining and obviously its benefited our fuel margin because the retailers in our market area were certainly slow to respond to that, obviously expanded the margin.

I would say here recently and you probably alluded to that is that we have seen an uptick in the wholesale cost of fuel, and we have recently seen a corresponding movement in the retail prices. So, now to sustain a $0.20-plus gas margin if wholesale costs continue to rise, that might be a little more challenging.

So we'll have a little bit more information on the fuel margin for February here in a few days..

All right. Going back to the stales challenge with the increased number of products and depth in the warmers.

Do you have the data to watch by store in day part to determine how much is too much and where you should be increasing?.

Absolutely, yeah. We have the ability to drill down on hour-by-hour, real-time basis if we choose to. So, we definitely have the data and we have production planners, they get tweaked on a very regular basis on a store-by-store basis to match the consumer demand in that particular location. So we're very cognizant.

And I will say this to increased stale factor, we do not see as a negative. I mean, we see that as a positive. We are getting the product out in the warmers and selling that product. And again the focus is of gross profit dollars..

All right. Thanks a lot..

Thanks, Chuck..

Thanks, Chuck..

Your next question comes from the line of Anthony Lebiedzinski with Sidoti & Co. Please proceed..

Good morning.

Could you just remind us, please as to how many 24-hour locations you guys have right now and what is your outlook longer term with that initiative?.

Yeah. Currently right now, Anthony, we have about 825 stores that are 24 hours. So far this year we've done 110 as I mentioned looking currently to another batch for 24 hours. We still think there is quite a more opportunity in the 24-hour..

Okay.

And as far as the new stores that you're opening, are they generally going to be mostly operating on 24-hour basis?.

It's a side-by-side decision the store operations will make. I can tell you over the last several years about two-thirds of the stores we've opened up is 24-hour locations..

Okay.

And also can you give us an update as to how your stores are performing in some of your newer states like Kentucky, Arkansas, Tennessee, for example?.

Absolutely. I'm glad you asked the question, because we have over the last several months, and granted it's a short period of time, but we definitely have seen a marked improvement in our brand recognition in the newer states. Arkansas obviously would be the biggest state there as far as the new state and number of stores.

But, we are seeing same-store sales in the stores in Arkansas in the very high teens across all categories. So, we are definitely seeing a upward movement relative to the rest of the change in those different areas. So we're encouraged by that. We anticipated that coming into new states.

Something we typically experience, that your brand is not quite as well known. It does take a little bit longer time to get that out there. And we have been very pleased over the last several months..

Okay. Thanks for the color.

And also, can you just remind us if you have locked in the coffee prices or is that only for cheese that you locked-in, forward buy?.

Yeah. We've bought coffee out through July..

Okay. Got it. Okay. Well, thank you very much..

Thanks, Anthony..

Thanks, Anthony..

Your next question comes from the line of Damian Witkowski with Gabelli & Company. Please proceed..

Hi, Bill. Congrats on a nice quarter..

Thank you..

Just wanted to follow-up on credit card fees. You said, I think, they were flattish in the quarter. And just, help me understand so, I think on average, fuel prices were down about 22% for the quarter, and then your fuel gallons increased by about 8.5% or so.

So, is it just higher utilization or I would have expected actually credit card fees to be down based on that formula?.

No, great question. And you are typically, your math is correct there. No, for us, in the quarter, utilization of credit cards actually increased about 14%, 14.5%. And so, I think that might answer your question there..

Yeah.

But it's too – so what is it now? Do you disclose that number?.

Credit card, you want to know what credit card fees are?.

Meaning, what percentage of your transactions is done on a credit or a debit card?.

Yeah. Right now, about 61% of the sales that you saw in the third quarter are ran through some form of a card..

Okay..

That actually is down from about 63% in the corresponding quarters..

For the – sorry, go ahead..

That is down a little bit, but not necessarily meaningful. But the utilization just didn't track down where people continued to use the credit card, and it's probably a function of the same-store gallons, people utilizing, getting out and about, more discretionary driving..

Okay. And why would, I mean, the consumer is in better shape obviously with lower fuel prices at the pump.

So why do you think they're using a credit card more often, is it for points or...?.

Well, no, I don't know about the points. That could very well be. But I think it's from a perspective of once you get accustomed to using the credit card, it's not an automatic switch when the retails get to a certain level they switch over to cash.

And so they tend to switch over there and a lot of it has to do with convenience with pay-at-the-pump, it's prevalent everywhere. So, I don't necessarily think that the lower retail would sway everybody over to a cash position..

Okay..

I think it does help customer traffic however..

Yeah.

And then lastly, I'm not sure if I saw this right, but I could have swore where Tim Cook presented yesterday with a new Apple Watch, I could have sworn that I saw Casey's in one of the slides as one of the merchants that accepts Apple Pay, did I see that right?.

That I don't know..

Okay..

I can't answer that one..

No, I mean, but do you accept Apple Pay at your stores?.

Right. No, we do not – right, well, I am not aware that we do right now....

Okay..

...that's some of those different types of technology initiatives..

And I was just curious how much, if you did, how much is it an incremental investment in any of the point of sales equipment, but it doesn't sound like you are currently, okay. Congrats again. Thank you..

Thanks, Damian..

Your next question comes from the line of Keith Howlett with Desjardins Securities. Please proceed..

Yes.

I was wondering if you had any of your stores in the same trade area or direct competition with a Walmart Express Store and whether that's any different than any other competitor from how your stores perform?.

We have a handful. I mean, obviously the Express format that you mentioned for Walmart, they only have one or very few of those locations. We do have several stores that I would say are in proximity. We don't necessarily notice any notable difference in those stores relative to that market area..

And then, I just had a question on, are you able to measure whether the number of people who fill up and then go into the store and does it pickup as people have more discretionary income or not?.

Well, unfortunately we don't have the ability to do that. I'm not sure anybody in our business would. The reason because of that would be, it's very common for somebody to come in and clear a transaction at the pump with a credit card, come into the store and purchase something with cash and we don't have a way to tie the two together.

Now I can tell you this however, our basket ring inside the store has increased this quarter relative sequentially to prior quarters. And so I think that's a function of the lower retail price with more discretionary income. So we have seen that uptick..

Thanks very much..

Thank you..

There are no further questions in queue. I'll now turn the call back over to Mr. Walljasper for closing remarks..

Well, I'd like to thank everyone for joining us this morning. Just as another reminder, we will release same-store sales this Thursday on the 12th and everybody have a great week. Thank you..

Ladies and gentlemen that concludes today's conference. Thank you for your participation. You may now disconnect. Have a great day..