Item 1A. Risk Factors
Item 1A. Risk Factors
The COVID-19 coronavirus pandemic could have a material negative effect on our results of operations, cash flows, financial position, and business operations.
The COVID-19 pandemic has created significant public health concerns as well as economic disruption, uncertainty, and volatility which may negatively affect our business operations.
We are unable to predict the impact that COVID-19 will have on our results of operations, cash flows, financial position, and business operations due to numerous uncertainties. These uncertainties include, but are not limited to: the severity of the virus; the duration of the pandemic; governmental actions which include restrictions on our operations up to and including potential closure of our stores and distribution centers; the duration and degree of quarantine or shelter-in-place measures, including additional measures that may still occur; impacts on our supply chain which include suppliers of our products and our transportation vendors; the health of our workforce and our ability to maintain staffing needs to operate our business; how macroeconomic factors evolve including unemployment rates and recessionary pressures; the impact of the crisis on consumer shopping patterns, both during and after the crisis; volatility in the economy as well as the credit and financial markets during and after the pandemic; the incremental costs of doing business during the crisis as well as on a long-term basis; potential increases in insurance premiums, medical claims costs, and workers’ compensation claim costs; unknown consequences on our business performance and initiatives stemming from the substantial investment of time and other resources to the pandemic response; potential delays in growth initiatives including the timing of new store openings; potential adverse effects on our internal control environment and information security as a result of changes to a remote work environment; and the long-term impact of the crisis on our business.
In addition, we cannot predict the impact that the pandemic will have on our manufacturers and suppliers of our products and other business partners such as service vendors; however, any material effect on these parties could adversely impact our results of operations and our ability to operate our business effectively.
The COVID-19 coronavirus pandemic could have a material negative effect on our supply chain.
Circumstances surrounding and related to the COVID-19 pandemic have created unprecedented impacts on the global supply chain. Our business relies on an efficient and effective supply chain, including the manufacture and transportation of our products as well as the effective functioning of our distribution centers. Impacts related to the COVID-19 pandemic are placing strain on the domestic and international supply chain that could negatively affect the flow or availability of our products and result in higher out-of-stock inventory positions due to difficulties in timely obtaining product from the manufacturers and suppliers of our products as well as transportation of those products to our distribution centers and stores. Further, we may have to source products from different manufacturers or geographic locations which could result in, among other things, higher product costs, increased transportation costs, delays in receiving products or lower quality of the products.
Any of these circumstances could adversely affect our ability to deliver inventory in a timely manner, which could impair our ability to meet customer demand for products and result in lost sales, increased supply chain costs, or damage to our reputation.
Actions taken to protect the health and safety of our team members and customers during the COVID-19 coronavirus pandemic have increased our operating costs and may not be sufficient to protect against operational or reputational harm to our business.
In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, we have taken a number of actions across our business to help protect our team members, customers, and others in the communities we serve. These measures include personal protective equipment for our team members, a requirement to wear masks in our facilities, increased staffing in order to provide contact-free curbside pickup from stores, expansion of our capabilities to support delivery to customer homes, increased cleaning and sanitizing measures, and monitoring for “social distancing” directives, as well as additional cleaning materials in our facilities. Additionally, we have provided appreciation bonuses as well as permanent increases in compensation and benefits for our team members in our stores and distribution centers to further support them during and after the COVID-19 pandemic. Actions such as these have
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resulted in significant incremental costs and we expect that we will continue to incur these costs for the foreseeable future, which in turn will have an adverse impact on our results of operations.
The health and safety of our team members and customers are of primary concern to our management team. However, due to the unpredictable nature of this virus and the consequences of our actions, we may see unexpected outcomes notwithstanding our added safety measures. For instance, if we do not respond appropriately to the pandemic, or if our customers do not participate in “social distancing” and other safety measures, the well-being of our team members and customers could be jeopardized. Furthermore, any failure to appropriately respond, or the perception of an inadequate response, could cause reputational harm to our brand and subject us to claims and litigation from team members, customers and service providers.
Additionally, an outbreak of confirmed cases of COVID-19 in our stores or distribution centers could result in temporary or sustained workforce shortages or facility closures which would negatively impact our underlying business and results of operations.
There may be limitations on the effectiveness of our internal controls. Failure of our internal control over financial reporting could harm our business and financial results.
Proper systems of internal controls over financial accounting and disclosure are critical to the operation of a public company. Our management is responsible for establishing and maintaining effective internal control over financial reporting. Internal control over financial reporting is a process to provide reasonable assurance regarding the reliability of financial reporting for external purposes in accordance with accounting principles generally accepted in the United States. Internal control over financial reporting includes maintaining records that in reasonable detail accurately and fairly reflect our transactions; providing reasonable assurance that transactions are recorded as necessary for preparation of the financial statements; providing reasonable assurance that receipts and expenditures of our assets are made in accordance with management authorization; and providing reasonable assurance that unauthorized acquisition, use or disposition of our assets that could have a material effect on the financial statements would be prevented or detected on a timely basis. Any failure to maintain an effective system of internal control over financial reporting could limit our ability to report our financial results accurately and timely or to detect and prevent fraud.
Moreover, we do not expect that disclosure controls or internal control over financial reporting will prevent all error and all fraud. A control system, no matter how well designed and operated, can provide only reasonable, not absolute, assurance that the control system’s objectives will be met. Further, the design of a control system must reflect the fact that there are resource constraints and the benefits of controls must be considered relative to their costs. Because of the inherent limitations in all control systems, no evaluation of controls can provide absolute assurance that all control issues and instances of fraud, if any, have been detected. Failure of our control systems to prevent error or fraud could materially adversely impact us.
In connection with the evaluation of our internal control over financial reporting as of December 31, 2020 that was undertaken by management, management identified the following material weaknesses in our control activities: i) insufficient resources within the accounting and financial reporting department to review the accounting for warrant compensation accounting, share-based compensation accounting, and accounting for rebates; ii) inadequate segregation of duties within the bank accounts; and ineffective information technology general controls (ITGCs) in the areas of user access over certain information technology (IT) systems that support the Company’s financial reporting processes. Based upon the existence of such material weaknesses, management concluded that we did not maintain effective internal control over financial reporting as of December 31, 2020.
We have adopted a remediation plan and are in the process of implementing such plan. Remediation efforts will include but are not limited to new hires in critical positions to improve segregation of duties, supervision and oversight, as well as implementation of technologies to improve effective controls. Remediation of the identified material weaknesses and strengthening our internal control environment will require a substantial effort throughout 2021 and beyond, as necessary. We will test the ongoing operating effectiveness of the new and existing controls in future periods. The material weaknesses cannot be considered completely remediated until the applicable controls have operated for a sufficient period of time and management has concluded, through testing, that these controls are operating effectively.
While we believe the steps taken to date and those planned for implementation will improve the effectiveness of our internal control over financial reporting, we have not completed all remediation efforts identified herein. Accordingly, as we continue to monitor the effectiveness of our internal control over financial reporting in the areas affected by the material weaknesses described above, we have and will continue to perform additional procedures prescribed by management, including the use of manual mitigating control procedures and employing any additional tools and resources deemed necessary, to ensure that our consolidated financial statements are fairly stated in all material respects.
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If we are unable to assert that our internal control over financial reporting is effective, or, if applicable, our independent registered public accounting firm is unable to express an opinion on the effectiveness of our internal controls, we could lose investor confidence in the accuracy and completeness of our financial reports, which would cause the price of our Common Stock to decline.