John Furner: So the first question is about units and general merchandise, and as prices have come down, are we seeing [indiscernible] units go up?
Chris Nicholas: Thanks for that, Krisztina (ph). So let’s talk about general merchandise first. Customers are responding to rollbacks. I mentioned one earlier in the Barbie category, which is the Malibu Dream House. So we see that consistently across other items in toys and toys is top of mind because it’s the Christmas, whether it’s the Melissa and Doug home set that’s rolled by $10 to $25. We have the old classic Furby. That’s $49 down for $59. Really good unit movements. We — we’re also happy to see, as I said earlier, the number of rollbacks that are across the entire store and the assortment of over 50% over last year. So customers are responding. But most importantly, our team is proud to offer great values and lower prices to customers.
We’ve been in a pretty steep inflationary environment the last couple of years, so it’s good to see some of these prices come back in line. And as far as how we think about that going forward, we mentioned this earlier that the results in e-commerce are quite encouraging at plus 24% for the quarter, and the breadth of the offer in e-commerce as it develops, I think is quite encouraging with growth of the marketplace, continued acceleration of the online pickup delivery business, and our first party business. And as we get into this holiday season, the team has worked really hard on inventory positioning, the condition in stores. Our MPS levels are at a really good spot and have continued to improve. And I think the result of that is we’ve had consistent traffic growth throughout the quarter and we continue to see that, which is a good sign for what may be to come.
Doug McMillon: I think it’s going to be interesting to watch how the dynamic plays out between general merchandise and food. So if you’ve got food prices, if you click — double click on that dry grocery versus fresh and think about where prices are compared to a year ago. In general, they’re still up and the two-year stack is high. But in some fresh categories, as we mentioned earlier, we are seeing prices come down. On the GM side as things have come down, it’s come down kind of steep in the last few weeks, maybe relative to what we had seen before. And so I think it’s to be seen if the food prices come down in dry grocery and consumables and we start seeing deflation in those categories, that’ll free up dollars to be spent in general merchandise.
And with the rollback positioning and some of the prices we’re hitting, it makes sense that people would be able to shift back to GM as they shop the box or the app. The great thing about our position is we don’t really care. Like, they can buy whatever they want to buy. We’re positioned for food, we’re positioned with fresh, we’re positioned with apparel and with hardlines and with holiday season, with categories like toys. So we’ve got a good value, regardless of which category and department you look at. And we’ll play the shift as it happens. And if we end up where both sides, food and GM are deflated, then we just need to focus on driving even more units to your point. But if they’ve got dollars to spend, they’ll spend them, and we’re there for that and we can do it in store club, we can do it with pickup, we can do it with delivery.
So we feel good about our position. We’ll just manage it as the weeks and months play out and are as fascinated to watch it as you are. Kath, how’s the job going?
Kathryn McLay: Yeah, Krisztina. Thanks for the question. I would say, first of all, it’s incredible that it’s only been a quarter since I stepped into the role. It’s — Judith and the team have honed a really exciting portfolio of businesses, and it’s been great to be able to get out into the markets. I’ve, over the last quarter, been in Mexico, China and India, and just looking at the pace of transformation and the way the teams rise to the challenge to be relevant in those local communities is extraordinary. And the ability to cross-learn between markets is such a great gift that we have in the international business. So I’ve been impressed by the strength of the teams that we have out there and also just really impressed by how they’re translating our purpose and mission to save people money so they can live better into being really relevant.
So whether it’s in Canada, where they were able to actually have a Thanksgiving meal at a price lower than last year, whether it was in Walmex — sorry in Mexico, where they’ve held down prices on basket — a basket of essential items, no matter where it is, where you are in the international portfolio, the teams are working really hard to be relevant and help those communities celebrate the holiday and festivals that are rolling out over this — over Q3 and into Q4. So excited to join the team.
Chris Nicholas: Okay. Thanks, Kathryn. And Krisztina, thanks for the question. I think probably I’d just like to start with the prerogative that I have of now running this business to thank the Sam’s Club associates for such a brilliant quarter and for the hard work that they have done to deliver that set of results. They’re a team I’m really proud of and I’m grateful to be part of that club, and honestly, it’s kind of a lot of fun to be here, and Kath knows that and told me that would be the case. I’m really grateful for the strong foundation that the Sam’s Club team has built. It’s a brilliant talent, a deep bench of merchant talent and it’s — I mean, it really is a merchant-led business. We’ve got an amazing member-led culture, fantastic clubs and associates, great items, strong brand in member’s mark, and the beginnings of a world-class e-commerce business.
