Ernie Herrman : Do you want to take — I’ll start with actually wages. I’ll start with wage. Wages, we continue to see that as a headwind in our wages. We’re going to be competitive in our wages in every market that we’re in. And when we look at our attrition rates, our attrition rates are in line or improving with where they were last year. So we feel really good at where our wage is right now and our ability to attract associates to our company.
John Klinger : On the ticket query. So yes, in Q2, we actually didn’t moderate. It kind of came in pretty much where we expected. It’s as we move to the back half, the ticket, we think, is going to moderate, which is to be down a little less than we were in Q2. However, I always like to qualify this that we do not — and again, I’ve talked this way for years, we do not top down, drive our average ticket. So the average ticket, which is really ultimately voted on by the customers, who determine which categories we need to drive hard in the store by supplying them. And we can tell by the way they’re selling. And by the way, the market looks so that we’ll go after them. It’s driven by down at the buyer and merchandise manager level, which is where we really generate.
We don’t dictate to those teams which categories to have more or less of. That’s really driven by consumer demand, which then drives our ticket sometimes because of the mix of the apartments. So right now, we look like we’re moderating based on the on order. But if certain opportunities or certain categories get hotter, that could be lower or higher ticket, that could move a little on us. Obviously, Q3, we can project a little better than Q4. So it’s always a bit of a touchy one where we don’t want to overcommit how firm we are and where the AUR is heading because it’s so bottom up by customer demand and buyer driven. Does that make sense?
Dana Telsey : Yes. That’s very helpful.
Ernie Herrman : Yes. But we — right now, it looks like it is moderating or certainly Q3.
John Klinger : And what we mean by moderating, mean down less.
Ernie Herrman : Is down less.
John Klinger : And you can see the impact of our top line on the strategy that we’ve had. I mean, we’re offering the customers what they want, and they’re coming back.
Operator: And our final question of the day comes from Adrienne Yih.
Adrienne Yih: Great. And it’s great to see the acceleration in all divisions actually. So Ernie…
Ernie Herrman : Thanks you.
Adrienne Yih : You’re welcome. Obviously, my question is, talking about inventory. So I actually want to ask not so much about the composition of it, but the buying strategy, off-price buys little bit upfront. We’ve got great visibility on the open to buy forward looking and then you do a lot of buying sort of intra-season. And so just can you contextualize sort of how that is so different from last year and the advantageous position that is putting you in as you headed to holiday?
Ernie Herrman : Sure, Adrienne. I like the way you framed it all up. So we do not — obviously, we won’t give the percentages by those types of buying pours the way we buy by each one, however, we do buy all those different ways. Right now, we are mission as always, is to pace ourselves on the buying of the in-season closeouts because the market is so loaded. So as we move forward, right now, what we’re thinking, Adrienne, is we will pull back even a little bit more on any of the buys that we tend to buy earlier or upfront because all indicators are there will be a continued additional supply, at least over the next six to 12 months of what you were just referring to as the in-season closeout type of situation. The packaways is kind of varied.
