Unidentified Participant: Thank you. That’s helpful. And I just also wanted to ask a question on the hunt business. What were the trends you saw in 3Q? Are you seeing any stock up or surge behavior? And do you expect the hunt and ammo momentum to continue through 4Q?
Steve Lawrence: Yeah. I mean, we talked a little bit about this in the prepared remarks. Definitely, that business has been one of our more challenged businesses. Through the first half of the year, it was down, I think, in the mid-teens. We certainly — it was — kind of it performed down in the mid-to-high single-digits in Q3, which would imply it got better than the first half trend. And if you track it through the quarter, it definitely got better towards the end of the quarter, both in the major categories of firearms and ammo. It feels like we’re starting to lap some softer comps. If you remember, we talked a lot about different surge activities that happened last year and certainly through the pandemic. It feels like we’re lapping a lot of those, and the business is starting to get more normalized. And our belief and hope is that, that business will start to stabilize from this point forward.
Carl Ford: Mattie, one thing I’d add there is, it was a little bit warmer than average. And so, that hunter that likes to get outside and mess with his lease prep activities and get ready for deer season didn’t see that amplification. And now that it’s gotten a little cooler here, we’re starting to see that turn on a little more.
Unidentified Participant: Okay. Great. Thank you. Best of luck this holiday season.
Carl Ford: Thank you.
Operator: Our next question comes from Anthony Chukumba with Loop Capital Markets. Please proceed with your question.
Anthony Chukumba: Good morning. Thank you so much for taking my question. Just wanted to get an update on some of the product newness. I know you guys have been excited about some of the new products that have come in recently and have been expanded like the OOFOS recovery sandals and Bogg Bags and Birkenstocks and Shadow Systems. So I just wanted to see if you have any update there. Thanks.
Steve Lawrence: Well, you listed a couple of them, Anthony. Thank you. Certainly, what we’ve seen this year, and we talked a little bit about it that the customer is gravitating towards newness. So the categories you talked about are all categories that we were well positioned in for this holiday. We’ve seen them continue into holiday. Other areas, we talked about our outdoor grilling business being really strong. There’s certainly a trend being fueled there by Blackstone and that flat grilling. That continues to be a great category for us. We talked in our last call about the addition of L.L.Bean, so we’re really excited about that and the addition to that to our assortments for this holiday. And when you think about it, that product is really strong in kind of fall, heavier weight products, so the weather is getting right for that right now just in time.
So we’re excited about that. But, yes, generally, across the board, newness is working for us. You called out several of the brands, and there’s other brands out there that are also working.
Anthony Chukumba: Got it. And just one quick follow-up on newness. Any update in terms of potentially getting on [indiscernible] for the footwear business?
Steve Lawrence: At this point, it is not in our plans in the next year. We continue to talk to them and work with them on getting access to those brands. But at this point, it’s not on our road map. That being said, we’ve got a lineup with the best brands in footwear. We’ve got a premier position with Nike, who’s our biggest brand across the total company, as well as in footwear. Strong businesses with brands like Adidas and Under Armour, new brands like Birkenstock that you mentioned. HEYDUDE doing really well for us. Crocs doing really well for us. Brooks doing really well for us. So our goal and what we’re focused on is winning with the brands that we have and being very successful with those.
Anthony Chukumba: Got it. Thank you.
Operator: Our next question comes from Chris Horvers with JPMorgan. Please proceed with your question.
Christopher Horvers: Thanks. Good morning, guys. So my question is on the strength that you saw at the end of October and quarter-to-date. I guess, how much of that do you think was helped by the Rangers-Astros World Series? Is that something that we need to contemplate as we look to the back half of 2024? And as you think about the guidance for the fourth quarter, can you share anything about what’s going on quarter-to-date? It seems like you’re bracketing about a down 6%. Are you trending in line with that? Are you expecting that extra day and that late surge to get you to that level? Anything there would be really helpful.
Steve Lawrence: Yes, I’ll answer the second part first. The performance we’ve seen quarter-to-date is embedded in the guidance that we gave. And I’ll refer you back to the commentary I gave you around November and Black Friday, and you can make inferences from that. In terms of the Astros versus Rangers, believe it or not, it actually was more of a negative to us than a positive to us. If you look at our store count and what the Astros mean as a percentage of our business and license relative to the Rangers, the Rangers business is smaller. So lapping the Astros World Series last year with the Rangers was actually a negative to our sales trend early in the month.
Christopher Horvers: Got it. And as you think about the hunt business, it’s really been such an indicator of the overall trend in the business. You think about the start of rifle season for deer in November 1 in Texas, obviously a big event. Carl, you talked about some shift of the weather. As you peel back what you saw over, let’s say, the past two months, how confident are you that, that business is actually bottoming? Because it’s sort of easy to focus on, like, hey, here’s what just happened when it got cold, and the season started and blamed the weather earlier. Like I guess, what’s your degree of confidence and how is that different from the last time you spoke to us in August?
