Employee Retirement Benefit Plans

12 Months Ended

Jan. 28, 2012

Employee Retirement Benefit Plans [Abstract]

Pension and Other Postretirement Benefits Disclosure [Text Block]

EMPLOYEE RETIREMENT BENEFIT PLANS

We provide a comprehensive retirement benefit program for our employees.  The program includes a 401(k) employee savings plan under which eligible participating employees may elect to contribute up to 80% of their compensation to an investment trust.  The 401(k) plan includes a provision for a matching company contribution.  As of the beginning of April 2009 we suspended the existing matching company contribution of 50% of the participant’s elective contribution on up to 6% of the participant’s compensation. Effective January 2012 we reinstated a matching company contribution of 50% of the participant's elective contribution on up to 2% of the participant's compensation. Participating employees are immediately vested in their own contributions.  Full vesting in the matching company contribution occurs on the earlier of the participant’s attainment of 5 years of service or upon retirement, death, or disability, as defined in the plan.  Company matching contributions are made in cash, and the available trust investment options do not include investment in our own common stock.  The program also provides for a noncontributory profit-sharing plan that covers substantially all full-time employees who meet age and service requirements.  Contributions to the profit-sharing plan plan are completely discretionary and are determined by our Board of Directors on an annual basis.  There were no contributions to the profit-sharing plan during Fiscal 2011, Fiscal 2010, or Fiscal 2009.

We also provide a non-qualified deferred compensation plan to officers and certain key executives.  Under this plan participants may contribute up to 77% of their base compensation and 90% of bonus compensation.  This plan includes a provision for matching company contributions.  As of the beginning of April 2009 we suspended the existing matching company contribution of 50% of the participant’s contribution on up to 6% of the participant’s compensation, less any matching contributions made for the participant under our 401(k) plan. Subsequent to April 2009, no matching company contributions have been made to the plan through January 28, 2012.

Through December 31, 2008 we also provided a non-qualified defined contribution supplemental retirement plan for certain management and key executives.  Under this plan we contributed amounts to participant accounts based on age and years of plan service, as well as earnings as defined in the plan. We discontinued the plan effective as of December 31, 2008 and ceased making retirement credits to the plan.  In addition, we reduced the interest rate to be credited on participants’ accounts under the plan to 3.5% and participants’ accounts became fully vested.  Distribution of participant accounts occur over one-to-three years based on the account balance.

The total expenses for our employee retirement benefit plans are as follows:

	Year Ended
(In thousands)	January 28, 2012		January 29, 2011			January 30, 2010
401(k) plan	$	88	$	0		$	145
Non-qualified deferred compensation plan	253		(138		)	248
Non-qualified supplemental retirement plan	0		36			357
Total retirement benefit plans expenses/(income)	$	341	$	(102	)	$	750

The accrued benefits liabilities for our non-qualified plans were as follows:

(In thousands)	January 28, 2012		January 29, 2011
Non-qualified deferred compensation plan	$	8,911	$	10,279
Non-qualified supplemental retirement plan	—		671
Total accrued non-qualified plan benefits	$	8,911	$	10,950