Laura Brown - Senior Vice President Communications and Investor Relations Bill Chapman - Senior Director of Investor Relations.

Analysts:.

Government and Retail were up in the low single-digits; Light Manufacturing was flat; Commercial and Heavy Manufacturing were down in the low single-digits; Contractor was down in the mid-single-digits and Natural Resources and Reseller were down in the low double-digits.

The benefit often seen from federal government customers at the September fiscal year end appears to have been realized a month early, as we saw strong growth to that end-market in August. In addition, the strong sales of seasonal products that benefited August did not continue into September. Sales in Canada for September were down 14% in U.S.

dollars and 15% in local currency. The 15% decrease was driven by a 15 percentage point decline in volume. All end-markets except Light Manufacturing were negative. From a geographic standpoint, sales in Alberta were down 22%, compared to all other provinces which were down 13% in aggregate.

As mentioned in the quarter recap, we are aggressively working through process standardization and change management related to the new IT system. Sales for our Other Businesses increased 17% percent in September, consisting of 14 percentage points from volume and price and 3 percentage points from foreign exchange.

September was the first month where Cromwell sales were already included in the base results. The organic sales increase was primarily due to strong revenue growth from Zoro U.S., MonotaRO in Japan and the business in Mexico. Sales growth in the month of October to-date is slightly below the sales performance in September.

Multiple branches in the southeast and the distribution center in Jacksonville, Florida were closed earlier this month due to Hurricane Matthew. We believe there may be an effect on October sales, but it is too early to quantify that impact or any possible cleanup benefit. Now I would like to turn the discussion over to Bill Chapman..

we will host our Annual Analyst Meeting on the morning of Friday, November 11th, which will be held at our headquarters in Lake Forest, Illinois. We also plan to release October sales on November 11th. On Tuesday, November 15th, we will participate in the Barclays Select Series Industrial Distribution Forum in New York, New York.

If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact Laura Brown at 847-535-0409, Michael Ferreter at 847-535-1439 or me, Bill Chapman, at 847-535-0881. Thank you for your interest in Grainger..

End of Q&A:.