Jeremy Fletcher: Yes. Just from the – I guess, further down the income statement as we think through the balance of the year, Michael, I’d tell you, nothing really changes about our expectation on how and the degree to which we can respond to different market conditions than really we’ve had for a long time within our business. From our history that – that we really do truly manage the business from a long-term perspective and will not overreact in short periods of time to fluctuations and cognizant of the volatility we’ve seen in the first quarter, but also understanding that we’re in an election year and there’s just a little bit more uncertain backdrop that we could face some puts and takes as we move through the year.
It’s important for us to maintain a high level of service and to prioritize that as we move through the business. While at the same time, we’ve got a pretty long-standing expense control culture, and we will – we will address how we manage the business, we think, appropriately to the right market environment and feel good about how the teams have performed in that way, as Brent mentioned, during the course of this year so far.
Michael Lasser: Thank you very much and good luck with the quarter.
Brad Beckham: Thanks, Michael.
Operator: Thank you. Your next question is coming from Greg Melich from Evercore ISI. Your line is live.
Greg Melich: Hi thanks. I wanted to circle back on the inflation commentary and also the decline in acquisition costs. So have we cycled all the unusual parts of inflation where that now we pretty much expect that to be steady the cadence each quarter going forward. And on the cost side, can we still get some acquisition cost relief if interest rates start to back up? And how does that come into the equation?
Brent Kirby: Yes. Hey, Greg. Good morning. This is Brent. I’ll start and then let the other guys jump in. But in terms of the cost environment, as I mentioned in the script, we kind of saw what we’d expect some typical puts and takes on cost. But I mean, in terms of inflation and what’s out there, I think we kind of guided and felt like going into this year is going to be around 1%. It’s kind of what we saw in Q1, kind of what we anticipate for the rest of the year. So we don’t really see that changing a whole lot. Now with that said, the good news is, we continue to be able to diversify our supply chain. Our merchandise team has done a fantastic job with that. We’ve done a fantastic job with our proprietary brand portfolio and continue to grow that.
It’s resonating with our customers. So that gives us an aid [ph] ability to control cost in some respects by dual sourcing and multi-sourcing different lines. And we continue to see that as a competitive strength of where we are and how we’re positioned. But that’s kind of the outlook we have in terms of cost and where we are going into this year.
Greg Melich: Great. And I’d love to just make sure I got the comp trend correct there. The traffic in the first quarter, was that positive or negative or kind of flat if you look at the whole quarter?
Brent Kirby: It was positive.
Jeremy Fletcher: It was a contributor.
Greg Melich: It was a contributor to comp. And so if presumably where that would have been negative in DIY by the exit rate, and that the gap between do-it-for-me and DIY that happened through the quarter at the end was basically traffic and therefore, weather-driven. I just want to make sure I’m interpreting what you guys are seeing.
Jeremy Fletcher: Yes. Yes. I would tell you the traffic even on the DIY side of the business was still positive for the quarter. That was pretty significantly impacted by the strength that we saw in January, which we’ve talked about that side of the business is more volatile around the refund and the – and just the spring impacts. But yes, we were positive, both sides of – in both traffic and ticket.
Greg Melich: And so now as consumer – as DIYers come in, you mentioned, I think there’s no trade down. It’s actually still a trade up. But I’m curious, are items in basket under pressure. Is that a sign of any pressure on the consumer there?
Jeremy Fletcher: Yes. Again, volatility there, Greg, as we saw within in the first quarter. Some of that is similar to the – what we’ve seen from an accessory perspective and oftentimes, those are the add-on type things that hit when somebody is coming in to change our brakes or to do that type of oil change. Not having a perfect read on how tax refund money flows through that can also affect size it to get in certain instances. But a little bit choppy there to be able to draw any really strong conclusions. But for sure, some of the – some of what we’ve seen is that number not being a contributor, a little bit of a headwind for us in the quarter.
Brad Beckham: Greg, maybe just to build on that basket question a little bit, kind of parse it out a little bit. An example of what we’re not seeing is any issue with – if somebody is doing a great job, we still feel with that something they need to do. They’re still – our teams are still able to work that customer from a DIY standpoint through having everything they need to do the job right. We don’t see any basket issues in terms of not buying the hard parts they need to do the job and normally the things that go along with that. An example, it may be what we’re seeing a little bit with some of the discretionary is maybe like tools, for example, on the DIY side is the customer where they normally may have bought that specialty tool they need to do that break job.
They may be renting it from us, which they can do for free through our loaner tool program. So that would be an example of some of the things that we’re seeing a little bit of pressure to, but not necessarily on the hard parts side.
Greg Melich: That’s great color. And good luck guys, and we’ll be praying for some sunshine.
Brad Beckham: We appreciate it, Greg.
Operator: Thank you. Your next question is coming from Simeon Gutman from Morgan Stanley. Your line is live.
Simeon Gutman: Hey, good morning, everyone. Brad and Jeremy, you’ve mentioned that it’s been choppy, and there isn’t a clean weather and nonweather market spread. Can I ask, is that because of tax refund season or there’s – we’re lapping used cars, the consumers under pressure. Are you thinking it’s possible there are other variables at play? Or how convicted is this weather and weather turns and we’re in the clear?
