I want to express my appreciation to our team for their efforts and hard work through this transition. We still have work to do and the near-term will likely remain challenging as we work through the ongoing margin pressure from our EDLP investments and a continued adverse mix shift.
However, we are beginning to see positive results from the proactive steps we have taken to reposition the business. I continue to believe that we are on the right track to improve our long-term performance.
This concludes our prepared remarks. And now operator, we are ready to take questions.
Question and Answer Session:
Operator
Thank you so much, sir. We are now ready to begin the question and answer session. (Operator instructions). We’ll take our first question from Daniel Binder with Jefferies.
Daniel Binder, Jefferies Group LLC
Hi. Good morning.
Howard Levine, Chairman and CEO, Family Dollar Stores Inc
Good morning.
Daniel Binder, Jefferies Group LLC
I was wondering if you could comment on the price investment, specifically what parts of the store are getting most of that price investment and how much more you think you need to do to get to where you want to be?
Howard Levine, Chairman and CEO, Family Dollar Stores Inc
Sure, Dan. In terms of the price investments, as everyone recalls, we initiated those back in April of last year and introduced it from a marketing campaign through the year. We are seeing some nice traction in those SKUs. It is mostly all in the consumable categories, food and household primarily, and it has been a pretty consistent ride in terms of the mid single-digit unit growth that we are also seeing in those items.
As I mentioned, we will be lapping that investment coming in April, have a little more stability in terms of how that impact will be impacting our business, as well as we work through the balancing act of our promotional strategy. We have got most of that heavy lifting behind us. We still have a few tweaks to go, but we feel we are getting more balanced where we need to be and hopefully, as we work through the second quarter into the balance of the fiscal year, we will start to see some margin stabilization.
Daniel Binder, Jefferies Group LLC
Do you think that the improvement that you saw in December had more to do with those initiatives or just — I forgot — I’m guessing in comparison last year, it was probably easy with the weather? Do you think it was more the weather or more the initiatives?
Howard Levine, Chairman and CEO, Family Dollar Stores Inc
Dan, I do not know exactly how to break it down. But candidly, there was a rough holiday season last year. We had a lot of things going on and I think having a more stable environment here internally was a benefit. I think the economic backdrop started to improve a little bit. I think our strategy is starting to take hold. As I talked about in the last call, I was really concerned and focused about holiday. We were cautiously optimistic. We worked through the season in a pretty good way.
We would like to have seen a bigger comp than we did, but given the fact that we reduced promotional marks, we should see improved profitability as a result of that. I think it is a combination of a lot of different things, really difficult to break down one thing. I think it is encouraging to us to see not only the comp, but importantly, the consumable category saw some stabilization during the month of December and we would like to see that continue as we work our way through the calendar year.
Daniel Binder, Jefferies Group LLC
Okay. Thank you.
Howard Levine, Chairman and CEO, Family Dollar Stores Inc
You are welcome.
