The customer is going to take us where they want to take us. We’re giving them now the option. They can do Doordash, they can do Uber Eats and Instacart have been great partners for us as well. So we’re very, very pleased with the partnerships we’ve got with all three of the e-com providers. So going forward, it will be what it’s going to be, but it’s within the guidance that Curtis talked. I was wondering if you want to build on that?
Curtis Valentine: Yes. I just think, Bill, the timing of it is pretty close, right? I think we launched Uber about one year after DoorDash, and DoorDash ramped up throughout the year. And so they’ll continue to contribute to the comp, not to the same degree, clearly, as last year. But Uber has basically launched, right, one year later. So those two things should kind of neutralize themselves.
Bill Kirk: Okay. Awesome. And then as a follow-up, it seems to me like produce input prices are a bit more deflationary than maybe your produce prices on the shelf. First, I guess, is that fair? And then if it is, is that dynamic in place as a way to refine a customer base towards more profitable households? Or would it be more of a like a temporary industry-wide dynamic and the two would eventually match?
Jack Sinclair: Well, as we’ve talked a lot about in projects, there’s a lot of volatility in pricing, and it’s difficult to kind of be very definitive about exactly what’s happened from one week to the next, never mind one year to the next on that. Our produce business has been very — we’ve been really pleased with organic produce, and that’s something that we can — we kind of own the mix that we have in organic of our total produce business is very different to how you would see in a conventional grocer or even in Walmart or club channel. We’re seeing a really strong organic business. And that’s where pricing — we think we’ve got really good long-term relationships with the vendor base and inorganic produce, and I think we’re in a strong place to kind of manage the ups and downs effectively in terms of what happens to the volatility of prices.
I’m not sure if I’m answering your question, but certainly, organic produce and the differentiation of price that we have in organic produce, we think stands us in good stead going forward. And we’re doing a lot of work to improve the quality and freshness of our produce, both in terms of investment in physical distribution and investment in our systems and our replenishment systems and our forecasting systems to make sure that we get even better in terms of freshness for our customers. So again, it’s probably too volatile for us to give a definitive kind of answer to your question there.
Curtis Valentine: And I’ll just add, Bill, we’re going to look just a bit different because of that organic mix than everybody else. And so that will play a part in that, too.
Bill Kirk: Okay, very helpful. Thank you guys.
Jack Sinclair: Thanks.
Curtis Valentine: Thanks.
Operator: Thank you. One moment for our next question. And our next question comes from Kendall Toscano from Bank of America. Your line is now open.
Kendall Toscano: Hi. Thanks for taking my question. Congrats on a great quarter. My question was just basically about inflation and what you’re seeing on center store. And I guess what you would expect heading into 2024, is there anything from suppliers that they’re pushing back on price at all? Any color there?
Curtis Valentine: I think, I assume when you say center store, you mean in the nonperishables, which is different for us.
Kendall Toscano: Yeah.
Curtis Valentine: But I think certainly, fresh is the more volatile piece, as Jack just alluded to. And so as we think about the nonperishables, I think that’s a little bit more in line with what the macro newsprint is on that, and our fresh business tends to be the more volatile piece. As I mentioned earlier, we’re on the higher end of low single digits is what we’re experiencing currently in Q4, and we’ll watch that stabilize here in 2024.
Jack Sinclair: And there remains a volatility in commodity pricing. I think if you look at things like cocoa and sugar. And people that are saying that those prices are going up pretty dramatically. And I think that will flow — maybe flow through. Other commodities are going in the opposite direction. But certainly, the one difference with our business in center store, which is again, it’s not really a Sprouts expression center store, but for our nonperishable business, we have got a lot of differentiation in what we sell, and it’s very unlikely that a lot of the drivers for commodities that are hitting the big CPG items being sold in conventional will affect us one way or the other. We’ve kind of managed to navigate our way through that without being dramatically affected by some of those swings and roundabouts.
Kendall Toscano: Got it. That’s really helpful. And then as a follow-up, just could you remind me of the 35 stores you’re opening next year, what the focus is between new and existing markets?
Curtis Valentine: Kendall, it’s about fifty-fifty, about half in kind of existing established markets and then half on really the East Coast and Florida and the Mid-Atlantic as the drivers there.
Jack Sinclair: We’ve opened four this year. One is that we — when I think about it, we just opened a really nice store, which we’re very pleased within Cuddy in Los Angeles. We’ve got a really nice store in Miami. So we’re kind of opening stores all over the country at the moment, in Maryland. And so it’s actually quite exciting to see us building the Sprouts brand from sea to shining sea.
