Joel Anderson: But gross margins in Q4 are relatively flat.
Kristy Chipman: But gross margin – is right.
Joel Anderson: And Paul, on ticket, just recall, we don’t see a big difference in ticket between Five Beyond format stores and non-Five Beyond stores, the increase is coming in transactions. And that’s something we’ve talked about a couple of times. Honestly, when we first started rolling this out a couple of years ago, that even surprised us. But what we’re seeing is, Five Beyond, is giving the customer another reason to come to Five Below. And so they’re relatively spending the same amount in a transaction, but they’re coming more often. So we’re seeing transactions increase, and tickets relatively flat overall – a person that puts a Five Beyond item in the store. That transaction is about double a non- Five Beyond transaction. And that’s been pretty consistent for the last two years ever since we started converting the stores. Thanks Paul.
Operator: Thank you. And our next question today comes from Joe Feldman with Telsey Advisory Group. Please go ahead.
Joe Feldman: Yes. Hi, thanks for taking my question guys. I want to also change topics here a little bit. On the real estate process, and you guys talked about streamlining the review process. I’m wondering if you could share a little more color there? Like how do you avoid the mistakes with a more streamlined process when you’re opening more stores than you did in the prior years, 225 to 235 is a lot of stores. So I don’t want to see the bad ones, basically? Thanks.
Joel Anderson: Yes. Joe, it’s a good question, a fair question. We’ve been on the streamlined process for quite some time, everything from – we’re using Placer AI now to help us evaluate stores, which allows us to do it quicker. The legal team has streamlined with some AI advantages, how quickly they’re able to approve leases. All those add into – add up to weeks not days. And so it’s less about the approval at the Rec committee level and it’s more about the individual components that get it to the Rec committee and then leases signed after the Rec committee. And this has been going on for a number of years with a extreme focus when we had the setback from the supply chain crisis, which impact real estate as well. And that’s when we really work to kind of perfect all these.
But Joe, we continue to see consistency in our stores. I think Chuck asked earlier about NSPs, the fact that continues in the mid-80s, again, looking at the full year, kind of sense some leading indicators that we continue to approve the right level of stores. But great question. And as we continue to move up, we got to keep that due diligence only. Thanks, Joe.
Operator: And our next question comes from [Andrew Casino] with Oppenheimer. Please go ahead.
Unidentified Analyst: Hi. Thank you for taking my question. My question is just going to be in terms of current demand trends that you’re seeing. So we extrapolate 53 week. Q4 was up about 15%. And I think guidance at the midpoint is calling for about the same top line strength. I know you called out this delayed to tax refund season. So I guess if you can maybe just expand on what you’re seeing within the consumer demand because obviously, you’re still calling for pretty strong Q1 despite this tax refund dynamic you’re seeing?
Joel Anderson: Yes. I mean, I think that just shows you that we really – the only change we’ve seen in consumer behavior overall it’s been the – due to the tax refund that really impacted the month of February, and we’re starting to see a catch-up here in March. But overall, I would attribute that to our customer sees the value in our stores. They continue to come to us to solve needs that they have. And we’ve also seen the last place when a consumer feel squeezed is cutting out on their kids. And so it’s great to see the families in there. The next two weeks really kicking off with this Friday will be a big surge in business for Easter. And that tradition given the early read on our Easter product seems to be very positive. And so I think the only thing we’ve seen different from our end has been the impact that tax refunds had. Thanks, Andrew.
Operator: Thank you. And this concludes our question-and-answer session. I’d like to turn the conference back over to Joel Anderson for closing remarks.
Joel Anderson: Hi, thanks, everybody, for getting on for our Q4 call. Obviously, a lot of questions about shrink, and we’re happy to continue that dialogue with you. But shrink aside, as I said earlier, a really strong quarter for us. We’re really pleased with the progress we’ve made on our long-term goals in 2023, that should continue to drive success in 2024 and beyond. Thanks, and have a great day.
Operator: Thank you. The conference has now concluded. We thank you all for attending today’s presentation. You may now disconnect your lines, and have a wonderful day.
