Joel Anderson: It’s a great question. It’s a really great observation on your part. I think there’s several retailers out there doing a great job of in their own space, trying to communicate value. And they’re doing that through price point, they’re doing it to product. They’re doing it through features and benefits. And it’s certainly, I would assume, resonate with the customer. That’s something we’ve done since the day we started this business. And you marry that value message up in a Five Below with a great experience. And we’re not always perfect, we’ve got some stores that struggle. But overall, we deliver a really great experience for our value customer. And then layer in on that for us, it’s about being trend right. And I think you’ll see some great trends in our stores this year.
So, hopefully, that gives you some example. I think it is certainly resonating with a lot of competitors out there in the retail space. And then we got to bring it home in our stores with some fun. Appreciate it. Thanks.
Operator: The next question is from Jason Haas with Bank of America. Please go ahead.
Jason Haas: Hi good afternoon. Thanks for taking my question. So, I think previously, you were expecting to have stronger comps in 4Q relative to 3Q. And I look at what’s implied by the guidance now. It looks like we’re now going to see – you’re expecting to see comps that are similar in 4Q to 3Q. So, – and cognizant of the fact that you’re calling out a strong start to the quarter. I think you’ve cited that there’s been a dynamic where people are shopping closer to need so they’re buying closer to holidays. So, I’m curious if that’s just conservatism or is it possible that we will see even stronger demand as we get closer to the holiday season here?
Joel Anderson: Yes. Kristy, I might need you to help me out in thinking through that. But my recollection is we – I think Q4 certainly isn’t lower than what we thought it was a quarter ago. And I think we – if you take our prior guidance to the full year, Kristy was, what, 1% to 3%. And now we’ve taken it up to 2.5% on the year. So you’re going to have to help me jog my memory there, Jason, on what you’re referring to.
Jason Haas: Yes, I just meant that from 3Q to 4Q, I think the implication was more like we go from like we go from, I don’t remember exact numbers, was like a 1% comp to a 2% comp or something like that. So, there’s going to be an acceleration. It sounds like you have seen that acceleration. So, why not raise 4Q isn’t really my question.
Joel Anderson: Yes. I think it’d be really irresponsible of us to raise it any higher than we’ve got it right now. We’ve still got 70%, 75% of the quarter in front of us. And so – but I’ll tell you what this would be a really great quarter kind of finishing in the 2 to 3 range. Thanks, Jason.
Operator: The next question is from Anthony Chukumba with Loop Capital. Please go ahead.
Anthony Chukumba: Congrats as well on the strong quarter and thanks for taking my question. So we’re starting to get some questions about Temu and whether that’s a threat to Five Below. I certainly have my opinion on that, but would love your perspective on that. Thank you.
Joel Anderson: Yes. Look, I think I’ve answered a Temu question probably every quarter here. And what’s amazing, when you look at our comp consistency, quarter-on-quarter-on-quarter, we’ve been within tens of basis points of 2.5% comp Q1, Q2, Q3, thinking about Jason’s question a little bit further. Last question, part of Q4 is don’t forget we’re up against a much harder compare than we were those other three quarters. And so that layers into Q4 on a two-year stack even being better. So – but we watch Temu as much as anybody else. I think they’re an online player and the natural place to go is for people to shift their online purchases from retailer A to Temu. Our online presence is – penetration is so low. It’s probably why we haven’t seen a big impact in our business from that perspective. But we’ll continue to watch them and see where they go. But as you can see in the consistency of our results, it really hasn’t had an impact for us yet.
Operator: [Operator Instructions] The next question is from Joe Feldman with Telsey Advisory Group. Please go ahead.
Joe Feldman: Hi, good afternoon, guys. Thanks for taking the question. I wanted to ask one more on real estate. And just curious what you guys are seeing in terms of real estate costs in terms of lease costs or rental rates or – and also the cost to build. Are there – is that easing at all? Or because I know it was a bit of pressure the past year or two. And I’m just wondering go forward if you’re seeing that easing up at all? Thanks.
Joel Anderson: Yes, thanks, Joe. I think it continues to increase slightly year-over-year. But I think overall, our rents are pretty close to flat. It certainly hasn’t risen at the same rate that we saw inflation rise. I think the bigger challenge has been just the last couple of years, landlords just weren’t building. And so I think with the number of bankruptcies that happened this year, that was really positive and starting to fill up the pipeline of stores and I think may continue into next year as well. But we really taken much more control of our destination, are building many more ourselves than relying just on the landlord. And as we get into ICR and the likes we’ll be able to give you kind of specific numbers on next year.
But you can tell from my prepared remarks, Joe, the 2024 pipeline is pretty full. Our rate of first half to second year has improved significantly over this year. And we’re feeling like the hardest part of real estate is behind us. Thanks, Joe.
Operator: This concludes our question-and-answer session. I would like to turn the conference back over to Joel Anderson for closing remarks.
Joel Anderson: Thank you, operator, and thank you everybody for joining us for our Q3 call and our holiday outlook. Look, in summary, our teams are focused on delivering incredible value trend-right products and a really fun shopping experience for the holidays as well as building for the long-term future. I hope to see you all in our stores. I wish all of you and your families a terrific holiday. We will look forward to speaking with you again at the ICR conference in January. Thanks and have a great December. Bye.
Operator: The conference has now concluded. Thank you for attending today’s presentation. You may now disconnect.
