William Zolezzi: So clearly, you guys are performing at a much different level. And I guess I’ll just end with a comment, which is I think you guys have done a great job buying back stock this year. It looks like we have taken about 10% of the share count down. And there was certainly an argument to be made that who knows what the macro would do. But you guys have proven you are pretty resilient to that. And as we kind of look forward to next year, this year, the high end of your guidance applies and it’s about $3.20 in earnings and that’s what the average share count for the year, obviously, the share counts gone down through the year. So we have some built in earnings growth, as we look at next year, just from the lower share count, never mind the initiatives that you guys are working on in the freight.
So I guess just with the stock right around 20 bucks. And we’re doing 320 in earnings this year with a path to a much higher number next year. And we’ve kind of proven we can be resilient in this macro environment, I would encourage you guys to take a hard look at the buyback and continue to pick away at the fair count as you guys have done this year. So I’m up there and thanks for doing a great job this year.
Operator: Our next question is from the line of David Kanen with Kanen Wealth Management.
David Kanen : The previous caller actually posed the question that was on my list about transportation costs and inflation, non-labor inflation, seemingly going your way. So that’s already checked off. But if you could talk about in the quarter the improvement in revenue, and margin. How much of that is volume versus price increase? And is there room potentially to take a little bit more price?
Voin Todorovic: Yes, we definitely have seen growth in revenue, we’ve seen an increase in transactions across all geographies. And we did see the impact of us, increasing strategically increasing prices, as well as you know, offsetting some of the inflationary pressures. But within the quarter, as I mentioned, in my remarks, we had about 200 basis point negative impact of incremental freight compared to last year that we were able to offset as we managed our distribution costs. We leveraged our occupancy costs, and also we manage that promotions, our promotional activity has been very low. So we are driving average unit retail in our store. So it’s all the signs of a healthy business, and the strategies and things that we are putting in place are working and customers resonating to the product that we are selling in our stores.
And also, as Sharon mentioned in her remarks, we saw really strong performance on some of the key products like Halloween had record quarter, and like we saw, like 60% improvement year-over-year. So those are some of the drivers that helped drive top-line revenue, but we managed our expenses and our cost. And that resulted in mostly offsetting this has been that we had from trade that we also said is going to be expected, we are expecting to continue to improve and see some additional improvement in Q4.
Sharon John: And to the second part of that question, David. We’re always looking at our pricing strategy, looking for places where there could be an opportunity to increase the pricing from a strategic perspective that we would think, would not be offset by any sort of volume decline, or just from a basic elasticity perspective. And we’re always very careful as you know, to keep that addressable price, they accept, the acceptable price point for the entry level. And it’s important that is a part of our strategy to keep that broad consumer base engaged in Build-A-Bear.
David Kanen : Okay. And by the way, I just quick comment, I do agree with the previous callers comment. It being that were 10 times earnings and you add that cash, our stock would be probably $33, 35 if you include the value of the distribution center. So it seems like the market still has not really recognize the great job that you’ve done. And I think another way to grow earnings is through the continuing buyback of shares. Just a quick follow-up on e-com. I know things are sort of post COVID returning to normal people are going back to the stores. What have you seen thus far in the quarter? In e-com, is it starting to flatten out or is it still running at a decline — double-digit decline rate year-over-year?
Sharon John: As we noted in the remarks it has, it’s currently up in the quarter, and we had a strong Black Friday and Cyber Monday.
Operator: Thank you. At this time, we’ve reached the end of our question-and-answer session. I’ll now turn the call over to Sharon John for closing remarks.
Sharon John : Thanks to everyone for joining us today. We wish you a happy and healthy holiday season and look forward to seeing you and speaking with you at our upcoming investor conferences.
Operator: This will conclude today’s conference. You may disconnect your lines this time and we thank you for your participation.
