Peter Saleh: Hey, great. Thanks for taking the question. I apologize if I missed this, but I know you guys commented on the traffic softness for the lower-income consumer and maybe by cohort. But can you maybe discuss the behavior of those consumers in terms of their check management? Are you seeing a lot of trade down for the consumers that are coming in within the menu or within brands? Or are they cutting alcohol or appetizers or desserts? Or just anything that suggests that those consumers that are coming in are also managing that check down? Thanks.
Raj Vennam: Yes. Interestingly, from a check management perspective, it’s not as much driven by income. The gap is more driven by older consumers, especially 65 plus is managing the check a little bit more. It’s not — irrespective of their income is what we’re seeing. And they are also, I think Rick mentioned earlier, they’re shifting more to lunch. So we’re seeing a couple of things. They’re getting a little bit less add-ons, but also managing the check. But also, like I said earlier, from Q2 to Q3, it’s actually less management of check. Now with a little bit less traffic, but that’s — but what’s happening is check management is actually getting better. In terms of negative mix, it’s not as big as it was in Q2.
Peter Saleh: Thank you very much.
Operator: Thank you. Next question is coming from Brian Vaccaro from Raymond James. Your line is now live.
Brian Vaccaro: Hi. Thanks and good morning. For my question, and sorry if I missed it, but could you share what traffic in the quarter was for Olive Garden and LongHorn? I know that’s usually in the queue, but did you or can you share that?
Raj Vennam: Yes, sure. Olive Garden check was 2% in the quarter. So basically, traffic would be negative 3.8%. And then LongHorn traffic was in the mid-negative 2s.
Brian Vaccaro: Okay, thank you for that. And I guess you’ve had this question a couple of times, but I’ll ask it this way. In an environment where you’re seeing softness on the lower-end consumer and maybe there’s just a broader backdrop where value seems increasingly important, I guess it’s interesting to see Olive Garden’s relative comp outperformance narrow, given the brand’s strong everyday value positioning. So I guess, how do you reconcile that? And is there any evidence that you’re starting to see some profitable guests to certain brands, not asking for names, but certain brands that are gaining share or have shifted their tactics in the last year?
Rick Cardenas: Yes, Brian. If you think about Olive Garden. So as Raj said, Olive Garden exceeded the industry benchmark for same-restaurant traffic by 270 basis points. They spent less in media at a time when many of their competitors ramped up discounts on television. So they exceeded by 270 with less media and when others were ramping up. Their two-year gap is 830 basis points, so that’s a big share gain over two years. So I’m really proud of the work that Dan and his team have done to improve the guest experience. They continue to focus on their key equity of never-ending, craveable, abundant Italian food, specifically focusing on ensuring every guest is offered a refill on their never-ending first course. And that’s a huge value.
I can’t tell you if our — if an Olive Garden guest has shifted over to one of those competitors, but I can tell you that we trade guests all the time. Some of our biggest — Olive Garden’s biggest competitors are the ones that are doing some of the discounting today. And so we’re really proud of the 270 basis point gap on top of the gap they had before. And if we’re seeding a profitable guest, I don’t think it’s a seed forever. It’s just because people shift and they move around. And so we’re going to keep focusing on what we can do to keep our guests coming back for one visit.
Operator: Thank you. We reached the end of our question-and-answer session. I’d like to turn the floor back over to management for any further or closing comments.
Kevin Kalicak: Thank you. That concludes our call. I’d like to remind you that we plan to release fourth quarter results on Thursday, June 20, before the market opens with the conference call to follow. Thanks again for participating in today’s call, and have a great day.
Operator: Thank you. That does conclude today’s teleconference and webcast. You may disconnect your line at this time, and have a wonderful day. We thank you for your participation today.
