Our view is we want to flip the galleries sooner than later. We think this product €“ I mean, one of the reasons we haven’t split some more of the stores into contemporary quite frankly. And we are happy with contemporary. Contemporary in its first year is tracking to do more than modern in its first year. So €“ and that’s even in this environment. And the product that’s on its way is by far the best work we have ever done. I mean €“ and the breadth and depth of the assortment, the value proposition that we are going to have in the market that I think will be disruptive, not only at the high end, it’s going to be disruptive to people that are below us in the market just because we have the scale to buy and stock inventory. Many people don’t.
The platforms that are out there today, whether it’s Wayfair or others, you got to understand, they don’t take position in inventory. So they can’t really buy in volume. So they €“ because they can’t buy in volume, they can’t drive efficiencies. So a lot of people say, well, aren’t you worried about platforms? Well, I think platforms ought to be worried about us too. There is not a platform that’s made a dollar yet, I think. I mean Wayfair made money during the peak of the pandemic for God’s sake. And look, may Wayfair be able to hike their prices and make it. I don’t know. All I know is that we’ve got a really great model. We have got, I think, the most compelling vision in our industry. We are trying to do something that’s never been done.
So what the stock versus SPO, the spell mix for the business, special order mix for the business will be is kind of a really small rock, quite frankly. So those are just little nuances in the business. The key is really going to become I think €“ and it’s hard to communicate until you have seen it. I mean, I don’t know how many people on the phone have got the Outdoor book. But the Outdoor book to me, I mean just visually looking at it, looking at the cover, looking at the MAC coverage we have developed for all the other books, feeling the quality of the cover, the page, the map finish, it looks like a new brand and the Outdoor book has probably the smallest percentage of newness. Yet it’s a lot. It’s got 10 new collections, that’s €“ many of our competitors don’t have 10 collections.
So when you see what’s going to happen, this is a big €“ it’s the biggest move we have ever made in our history. It’s most exciting time in the history of our company, yet it’s the most uncertain time, I’d say, in this history of leading this business. I think it’s more uncertain than 2008-2009 since you didn’t have the inflation problem that we have today, you didn’t have some of the political unrest that you have today and the inflation issue is going to be an interesting one. If the Fed can navigate to the other side of that with a positive outcome with what I’d call any kind of landing any kind of landing is good, just land the plane on the other side, whether it’s hard, whether it’s bumpy, just don’t completely crash. A complete crash would look like the 70s and the €˜80s.
That will take over a decade to recover from. A recession, which people are worried about and afraid of, like we have recessions every 7 to 10 years in this country, it’s like we have had the longest economic expansion in our history. Don’t be afraid of the recession, I’d tell people. Recession is a temporal event. They usually last 12 to 18 months, maybe 24, pull up the history of the Federal Funds rate and zoom in to the €˜70s to €˜80s. That’s what we should be scared of.
Steven Forbes: Thanks, Gary. I’ll get back into queue.
Operator: Simeon Gutman with Morgan Stanley, your line is open.
