And our opportunity is to look at how can we increase that to get seven-day coverage and what does that look like. And we’re doing some experimentations of adding either a designer to additional stores where it makes sense to make sure we got that coverage in our bigger showrooms and then we’ll continue to see how we can expand that out. So I do think we’ll increase that number as we go forward into 2024, so that we can have that coverage in our bigger stores. So we probably could push toward 1.5 per showroom on average as you go forward into 2024. And then as far as the margins on the outdoor furniture, I don’t anticipate it to be any different than our regular margins that we get and attending. So it won’t be a hindrance on our margins, and it won’t be a plus.
It will be in line with all other merchandise. I hope that answers your questions.
Michael Legg: Yes. Thanks. And then just a follow-up on the designer piece; when you look at that – is there an opportunity to get higher scale furniture with that? I mean it’s almost like you’re getting into a different category of custom designing. And does that change the price point at maybe the high end of furniture you may start to carry longer term?
Steve Burdette: We are carrying – we do have access and have more products available to our designers that are special order that they have access to. Our sales consultants do as well. We think that’s an important piece to fill in, and that is on the better end side of the product line that we see. But I do think our opportunity there is getting into the home. And so if we can get into the home, we will see our average tickets continue to increase. We know that, that is the largest average ticket is when we get to the home. If we involve designer in the showroom, we know that that’s obviously increased about 50% from where it is on average for the company. We’re running about 3,300 now. So there is opportunity to grow it, and it is an opportunity we’re looking at better products, not necessarily that we’ll bring into the lineup, but that we can access the special order to be able to meet their needs.
Michael Legg: Great. Thanks and congratulations.
Steve Burdette: Thank you.
Operator: Our next question comes from the line of Cristina Fernández with Telsey Group. Please proceed with your question.
Cristina Fernández: Hi. Good morning. I had a couple of questions. The first one is on the ticket trends you’re seeing. The up 2%, still good to see it up year-over-year, but it’s decelerating, even with the designer penetration going up, so I wanted to see what’s the offset on the ticket side? And do you think ticket can continue to move up as we go through the next couple of quarters?
Steve Burdette: Yes, Cristina, I definitely do. I think we can continue to increase that. Is it going to be at the same rate we did over the – from 2019 as we came out now? So obviously, I think it will stay in that low single-digits, but I think the opportunity lies with our designer and us continuing to increase and drive that. I talk about it, the number of customers. We’re really focused on trying to engage more of our customers. And so we’re seeing that increase, and I think we still have a lot of legroom there to go and opportunities. So yes, we have seen maybe with some smaller tickets that drove a little bit of that decrease that you saw, you’re looking at being in the 2% range, but we’re not. We see it long-term as an opportunity for us to continue to grow, but it will be in the low single-digit range.
Clarence Smith: I think it’s not just the designers. We’re also adding some better lines to our whole collection here, some upper end product that allows for more customization than we’ve ever had before, and I think it will be well received. So the combination, I believe, will help us continue to drive average ticket up.
Cristina Fernández: And then following on that comment, Clarence, you mentioned earlier on the call about the teams going to be a NAM [ph] and coming up to new collection. So should we think about the newness that’s coming in next year, higher than what you saw this year? Or is it just kind of the same overall percentage of the timing a little bit different?
Clarence Smith: I think we’re emphasizing the better end of the market across our lineup. And we’re getting great results from it. And I think we’re getting more workability with the vendors to do customization across the line. For instance, we’re now – we’re bringing in leather from China actually on some of our best-selling upholstery that is custom and we’re getting it in a quick ship from China. But I think the overall trend is towards the upper end with us and where we’re having the most success.
Cristina Fernández: Then the second question I had was around the store openings for next year, particularly the Bed Bath & Beyond stores. How are the retrofits progressing? And is the timing still to open those stores in the first quarter of next year?
Steve Burdette: It’s going to stretch a little bit, Cristina, this is Steve. We’ve had a little bit of a delay in some permitting, especially in Florida. It’s taken us a little bit longer than anticipated. And if you remember, when we acquired those stores we talked about, I believe, on the last call, we basically brought in the Halloween Spirit stores for a temporary period to help offset some cost. And so we took those stores back over here. We in the next couple of weeks here, and we’ll start the redo process and then working on the permitting as part of that. But it will start – one of the stores will open up, we anticipate late first quarter and the other three will come in the second quarter.
Cristina Fernández: Thank you. And then last question on the buybacks. It was good to – first, to see you buying back stock; you hadn’t done it in the three prior quarters. So what gave you the confidence to go ahead and do that this quarter?
Clarence Smith: Well, our cash position and the fact that we feel our position in the marketplace is strong. I mean, sales are tough, but we know that we’re able to gain share. We like all of our work. We think that we’re in a position to grow our business. So the main thing is that we’ve got the cash and the opportunity to do it. The stock did drop some, and we were back in the market. Now we meet next Friday with our Board, and we go over this, every single Board meeting, and that will be clearly a conversation that we’ll bring back up as far as giving cash back to our shareholders.
Cristina Fernández: Thank you and best of luck this quarter.
Clarence Smith: Thank you.
Richard Hare: Thanks Clarence.
