There's a BIG difference between "opening 1000 stores" and "beginning to open 1000 stores."

Opening 1000 of any kind of store by next January would not only be impossible, but monumentally stupid.

Think about it - the average cost of building and stocking a new A&F, aKids, or HCo store is around $800,000. You can safely assume that the costs to open a GH will be similar. Multiply that by 1000 stores and you are easily talking about $800 million dollars. And remember... A&F still has four other brands to run.

I don't remember hearing any solid capex guidance last quarter, but I'm pretty sure Kramer hinted at a 2007 number of around $350 million for the entire company... and there's only around $400 million in cash on the balance sheet. A&F isn't going to drop a billion dollars on anything in one year.

I would expect GH to start at a pace similar to what HCo did... and that's if initial results are good. HCo exceeded expectations when it was launched, but still only opened around 90 stores in the first two years.