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Microcap & Penny Stocks : Ames Department Stores (AMES) -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Arthur Tang who wrote (1848)	6/13/2001 9:29:20 AM
From: Art Baeckel	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 1911

This is a post from a long I follow on Raging Bull. Take it for what it's worth! ART y: caretaker1 $$$ Reply To: None Tuesday, 12 Jun 2001 at 9:01 PM EDT Post # of 404 the free coffee and quiche were about the best things at the meeting today. It had a turnout of about 75-100 people but a good 20-25 were either AMES management or folks from arthur andersen's. My first time meeting Joe and Roland (more about Roland later) and Joe is a positive "can do" speaker. Quick notes: "no one wants a turnaround more than me; value driven shoppers hurt my added $20 per week in family gas tank;layoffs have people spooked;weather,weather,weather;AMES stock is not for the skittish or faint at heart;" and on the positve side: "management is dedicated;adjusted inventory showing in the bottom line; new stores in the chicago area are hot,hot,hot; long term profitability will happen with an unshakable plan of success; it happened once under Joe's guidance and it will happen again; niche market is stong right for ames". Never said anything about bonds, only one question from the audience, a no-brainer that got the company line. As I didn't see anything coming from addressing joe himself I courted Roland after the meeting ended (a very impressive man) an asked him about the Hills bonds/GE credit restrictions and vendors. He stated "I would love to buy back the bonds but we have to maintain a 100 million credit/cash line and we don't wish to tie that up as that will make our vendors nervous, but yes, financially I would buy them back .17cents to .48cents in a New York Minute and we plan to but we need a quarter or two of good numbers so as long as we buy them back before the due date 2003 for Hills and 2005 for AMES then its still a plus for the company, he stated that for each .50 drop in fed rates AMES saves 5 million per year"......As I left the building I wondered if they need that last 100 million so bad and can't part with 25 million to save @75 million then is it that they are not looking for a long term savings but rather for a "lets make it until xmas" kind of attitude. and that my fellow stockholders kind of scares me. With hindsight I would have loved to ask Joe " why didn't you post a earnings warnings back in Feb. for 2000 instead of releasing such terrible information upon the stockholders?" ........I'm in for the long haul and hope the numbers change for the better but I gotta admit my gut tells me they ain't gonna make it. Overall a disappointing shareholders meeting stacked with "yes" clones........hope this helps and see you in the aisles, put this one away till september...........