Steve Burd Quotations

We believe we are setting the stage for further progress in 2006,

We use this technique more than some others we compete with and frankly, we think we use it to our competitive advantage, ... The fact that we are the only ones doing buyouts in Northern California, well frankly, we like that.

Our identical-store sales are the strongest they have been in over four years, ... We gained U.S. market share and our capital investments and lifestyle stores continue to exceed expectations.

Our strategy to differentiate our offering has resulted in broad-based sales improvement.

While the closure of the Texas stores results in an impairment charge, it does set the stage for fundamentally improving our Texas operations, ... The competitive environment has softened over the last couple of quarters, which has allowed us to improve our sales in that environment despite carrying these underperforming stores.

This transaction provides an outstanding opportunity for Safeway to continue on its growth path, while allowing us to enter the Chicago market for the first time.

While we are disappointed with our results, we firmly believe we can reverse current trends,

We are very pleased with our 2005 results.

These closings set the stage for fundamentally improving our Texas operation,

Taking into account the timing of the New Year's and Easter holidays, our identical-store sales increase of 1.5% is consistent with our guidance of 3% for the year. We also produced double-digit earnings growth while absorbing a number of significant cost increases.

The increased authorization of our stock repurchase program reflects the board's continued high level of confidence in the growth prospects of the company, ... Current market conditions provide an excellent opportunity for us to buy back our shares.