We believe that a number of things that we’re doing with a multi-price point will allow us to lean into the discretionary even more and hopefully continue to balance out that end of the business also. So it’s really a combination of the two. And it depends on how the customer is in their behaviors and their needs, and we are able to provide them across that broad continuum.
Edward Kelly: Okay. Thank you.
Operator: Thank you. We will take the next question from the line Michael Lasser from UBS. Your line is open now. Please go ahead.
Michael Lasser: Good morning. Thanks a lot for taking my question. Jeff, just within your last answer, you mentioned mid-30% gross margin moving forward for the Dollar Tree banner. Dollar Tree banner has $0.5 billion of costs that were negatively impacted from all the significant amount of freight and transportation over the last few years, especially container costs. Container costs are now back to where they were in 2019 levels? So understanding that there could be some mix pressure as the consumer focuses on consumables, why would you not get a more significant benefit to Dollar Tree’s gross margin from the significant decline in freight cost moving into next year? Should we interpret that to mean that you have to make more sizable investments in Dollar Tree in order to maintain the sales productivity of that banner, especially now that you see how those stores that were early to raise prices last year are performing once they lap that? Thank you very much.
Jeff Davis: Yes. As I look at this, there is definitely the opportunity as freight rates start to turn back around. That — we are on contract. Most of our business we do is on contracted carriers versus spot rates. So there’s going to be a little bit of a lag in that time frame. And at this point, we’re not giving any guidance for 2023 as of yet. But to the extent that we continue to see the freight rates and the other transpacific rates coming down and staying down, that will be reflected in our longer-term contract rates. We will then have the opportunity to balance that with giving back to the customer as well as the shareholder. But having said that — that’s only one component. The other component is underlying product cost.
And right now, there is as much pressure and many times in the product cost, underlying vendor product costs as there is in freight. So we have to balance the two. And definitely keep an eye on, in my mind, is how we create value for the overall organization is balancing that being priced right in the marketplace for our customer as well as providing a higher return to our shareholders.
Michael Lasser: And if I could just follow up on that, Jeff. As of November 2022, you have 312 stores that are now anniversarying the rollout of the $1.25 price point from last year. Are those stores comping positively in the range with the rest of the Dollar Tree banner performance?
Jeff Davis: Yes. So we’re in the new quarter here, we’re not going to give you intra-quarter guidance. And it’s really early for us to tell. So I think that when we release our fourth quarter results, we’ll be able to tell you a little bit more about that.
