Operator: Our next question comes from John Lawrence with Benchmark.
John Lawrence: David, not to beat a dead horse here on the weather, et cetera. But the stores are in the South, I mean, the weather situation — am I correct that if you looked at the planogram with the weather, you only had about 10 days to two weeks of weather correct merchandise that match the weather in the quarter?
David Makuen: John, you’re referring to kind of an estimate on the number of days, weeks in the quarter that was more suitable to sell Fall goods, is that what you’re asking?
John Lawrence: Yes, that’s correct.
David Makuen: You’re not far off. And we made this comment in the prepared remarks. The weather impact was felt across the entire quarter. I mean, we had stores in the heart of our chain in Louisiana, Texas that were 10, 15, 20 degrees hotter for prolonged periods of time with zero rain, people were staying inside, et cetera, et cetera, or just wearing short sleeves and shorts all day long. And so when the weather snapped, which you got your math generally right, John, it was a couple of weeks max that snapped and we saw an appropriate, almost immediate bounce back to a much better trend than the quarterly trend. And that’s what prompted me to share that comment in the last question from Chuck in that the sensitivity is even more heightened. But I really believe that’s brought on by a lot of macro, too. But the weather is certainly not helping to be in our favor.
John Lawrence: And once again, just briefly here that — my checks in stores saw, for instance, the NBA hoodies or the NFL hoodies really didn’t fly until that, obviously, til that first of November, first week of November. And once it was weather correct, they flew off the shelf and was the hottest item in the store. Can you explain to me, am I looking at that right? So when the customer has the need, as you talk about to come get a hoodie, does that spread then to picking up to making other purchases around the store for home, et cetera, because of the need for that hoodie?
David Makuen: John, thanks for being in our stores. And then second question in a row, you’re right on, yes. I mean, I don’t have a lot to add to your findings. We are really confident in our assortment. I mentioned our ladies assortment being on trend better than anything I’ve ever seen in my tenure here. I can probably ditto that for some of the other businesses. Men’s is another example. We are just — we’re nailing it with team apparel, branded apparel and then a terrific assortment like we do in ladies, of made for the African American customer. So we’re out there with the right inventory. And you’re right, when the weather snaps, boy oh boy, they come on in and flow into our stores, our conversion goes up in those weeks, up from already a high, high level.
And you’re absolutely right. Generally, all boats rise, it’s not like they come only in for the guys’ stuff if I’m a guy and I walk out. They’re walking around getting other stuff, building a basket, same for mom, same for the young singles that come into our stores, Gen Z and young millennials, et cetera. So we watch it like clockwork. And what you said is true. And so where we are in Q4, I’ll maybe dovetail you in November comments, we’ve got a bunch of really important moments. We just got through Black Friday and Black — we call Black Wednesday and now we’re going into massive stock up on gifts mode and make sure you got enough under the tree. And we’ve taken our prices down, John, in some cases. So we’ve got like-for-like items, QI versus [indiscernible], down $3 and $5 and $10, in some cases.
So team has done just an amazing job, frankly, responding to the pressure that the customer is under and offering important vignettes within our assortments that are like, they’re unbeatable and stoppable values. So we think that also helps garner engagement and continues to fuel our conversion and should fill the basket we hope in the rest of the quarter.
John Lawrence: Just the tough subject, and I’ll leave it alone, but the shrink situation. I know, as you’re indicating you’re all over it. But is there any parts or any stores that have gotten significant or difficult enough that you might consider closing?
Heather Plutino: Yes, we’re not there yet, John. I appreciate the question. We’re not there yet from a shrink perspective. I know other retailers have made the difficult decision based on the environment. That is it’s not — if we close the store, there are bigger factors going into it. Shrink, for us, as you know, particularly in the market that you know very well, Memphis, right, is something that we’re very keenly aware of and are managing closely. For us, the external stuff happens. We’re not — I feel like I shouldn’t say this out loud because I’m going to tempt the universe, right, but we’re not subject to some of the smash and grab that you’ve seen in headlines that you see for others. Knock on wood that that doesn’t come to us, but it’s more small.
It happens on occasion, and you know that, you’ve seen that, but it’s not like broad based. So we’re really focusing on what can we control, right? And we say that a lot, right, control the controllable. True to and shrink, what can we control? We make sure we have the right people on the team that we’ve got solid citizens who are looking out for the Citi Trends family that we’ve got reporting that helps us on [Technical Difficulty]. We’ve got concerns that need to be addressed. We partner with local law enforcement to make sure that we’re aware of what the environment is, et cetera, et cetera. So that’s a long way of saying no, shrink is not causing us to determine that we need to close some stores.
John Lawrence: And last question for me. David, you’ve mentioned about the rebuilds. I mean, back several months ago, you were talking about — and I think toys is one of those areas that there were opportunities for freshness and new brands, et cetera, I assume across the platform, I assume that continues to be the case?
