Target Corporation (NYSE:TGT) Q3 2022 Earnings Call Transcript

Katharine McShane: Hi, thanks for taking our question. We just wanted to ask a couple of follow-up questions on the inventory position, just if there was any inventory left over from the issues that you experienced in the spring. And now that it sounds like maybe Q4 is going to be a little bit weaker, but I think the inventories you probably bought was for more of a low single-digit comp scenario, is the goal to be clean with regards to holiday inventory coming out of Q4 and into 2023?

Michael Fiddelke: I will answer that with where you ended your question, Kate, and that is we are committed to being clean at the end of the holiday season. And you’re also right in the first half of your question. We accomplished what we wanted to in the first half of the year. We feel good about that work, and you heard me quote some versus 2019 benchmarks. If you were to just look versus last year, you’ll see that Q2, out inventory was up 36% year-on-year; in Q3, it’s about 14%. And so we made good progress on the plans we had in place. Obviously, we’re looking at the change in the trends closely. If that trend we see persists, it will come with more markdowns to make sure we accomplish exactly that goal of ending the season clean.

Brian Cornell: Operator, that concludes our third quarter call. We wish everyone a safe and happy holiday season and look forward to seeing you in person in 2023. So thank you.