Item 2. Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations
Business Overview
Foot Locker, Inc. leads the celebration of sneaker and youth culture around the globe through a portfolio of banners including Foot Locker, Lady Foot Locker, Kids Foot Locker, Champs Sports, Eastbay, Footaction, and Sidestep. Foot Locker, Inc. and its subsidiaries hereafter are referred to as the “Company,” “we,” “our,” or “us.” We operate primarily mall-based stores, as well as stores in high-traffic urban retail areas and high streets, in 27 countries including the United States, Canada, Europe, Australia, New Zealand, and Asia. Our purpose is to inspire and empower youth culture around the world, by fueling a shared passion for self-expression and creating unrivaled experiences at the heart of the global sneaker community.
We use our omni-channel capabilities to bridge the digital world and physical stores, including order-in-store, buy online and pickup-in-store, and buy online and ship-from-store, as well as e-commerce. We operate websites and mobile apps aligned with the names of our store banners (including: footlocker.com, kidsfootlocker.com, champssports.com, footaction.com, footlocker.ca, footlocker.eu and related e-commerce sites in the various European countries that we operate, footlocker.com.au, footlocker.nz, sidestep-shoes.de, side-stepshoes.nl, footlocker.hk, footlocker.sg, footlocker.mo, footlocker.my, and footlockerkorea.kr). These sites offer some of the largest online product selections and provide a seamless link between e-commerce and physical stores. We also operate the websites for eastbay.com and eastbayteamsales.com.
Store Count
At July 31, 2021, we operated 2,911 stores as compared with 2,998 and 3,100 stores at January 30, 2021 and August 1, 2020, respectively.
Franchise Operations
A total of 134 franchised stores were operating at July 31, 2021, as compared with 127 and 138 stores at January 30, 2021 and August 1, 2020, respectively. Revenue from franchised stores was not significant for any of the periods presented. These stores are not included in the operating store count above.
COVID-19 Update
In March 2020, the World Health Organization designated COVID-19 a pandemic. COVID-19 had a significant effect on overall economic conditions in the various geographic areas in which we have operations. Our top priority is to protect our team members and their families, our customers, and our operations. We have made best efforts to comply with all precautionary measures as directed by health authorities and local, state, and national governments.
Beginning in March 2020 and through the remainder of the first quarter of 2020, we temporarily closed substantially all of our retail store locations in response to governmental orders related to the COVID-19 outbreak. Throughout 2020, the pandemic and the shelter in place orders negatively affected customer traffic into the stores that were operating, and certain stores required additional closures during the remainder of the year. For the second quarter of this year, we operated approximately 94 percent of the possible operating days, as compared with 70 percent in the second quarter of 2020. Our stores in Canada, Sidestep stores and our stores operating in Australia were adversely affected during the second quarter. Our distribution centers have been operating relatively unaffected during this time. In order to mitigate the effects of the temporary closures, we have been operating in-store fulfillment activities while stores were closed to customers. Given the dynamic nature of these circumstances, the duration of business disruption, reduced customer traffic in our stores, and potential effects related to evolving safety protocols and requirements for proof of vaccination, the related financial effect cannot be reasonably estimated at this time but may materially affect our business for the remainder of 2021.