CarMax CFO says lowering headcount through attrition

Asked on the company’s earnings call why CarMax is not choosing to reduce expenses or headcount more quickly across other parts of the enterprise, CFO Enrique Mayor-Mora replied in part: "Yes. And what I’d say there is that we did. And so as sales got more challenged third quarter, we went deeper into the staffing levels in the field. And so it’s still through attrition, so it is take a little bit longer. But at the same time, we did lower our staffing targets to reflect the current sales environment… In addition to just slowing down some of the capacity initiatives that we have out there in terms of growing our capacity with lower volume, we’re just slowing down some of those investments." CEO William Nash then added: "And Daniel, the only thing I would add there is, look, we’re — and our culture is one that’s a people-first mindset. Our people are the reason for our success. And that’s the reason we’ve chosen to allow attrition to get us to where we need to be. We’ll obviously continue to monitor the situation, but we’re very comfortable with allowing attrition to get us to where we need to be."