Good afternoon, and welcome to the Ross Stores Third Quarter 2021 Earnings Release Conference Call. The call will begin with prepared comments by management, followed by a question and answer session. To ask a question during the session, you will need to press star one on your telephone. Before we get started, on behalf of Ross Stores, I would like to note that the comments made on this call will contain forward-looking statements regarding expectations about future growth and financial results, including sales and earnings forecasts, new store openings, COVID-related costs, and other matters that are based on the company's current forecast of aspects of its future business. These forward-looking statements are subject to risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from historical performance or current expectations. Risk factors are included in today's press release and the company's fiscal 2020 Form 10-K and fiscal 2021 Form 10-Qs and 8-Ks on file with the SEC. Now I'd like to turn the call over to Barbara Rentler, Chief Executive Officer. Good afternoon. Joining me on our call today are Michael Hartshorn, Group President, Chief Operating Officer, and Connie Kao, Group Vice President, Investor Relations. I'd also like to welcome Adam Orvos, our recently appointed Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer. We'll begin our call today with a review of our third quarter performance, followed by an update on our outlook for the fourth quarter and fiscal year. Afterwards, we'll be happy to respond to any questions you may have. As noted in today's press release, third quarter sales and profitability significantly exceeded our expectations as consumers continued to respond favorably to our broad assortment of great bargains. We achieved these results despite waning government stimulus and uncertainty related to the spread of COVID variants. Earnings per share for the 13 weeks ended October 30th, 2021 were $1.09 on net income of $385 million. This compares to $1.03 per share on net earnings of $371 million for the 13 weeks ended November 2nd, 2019. Total sales for the quarter rose 19% to $4.6 billion, with strong comparable store sales increase of 14%. For the first nine months, earnings per share were $3.82 on net earnings of $1.4 billion, up from $3.32 per share on net income of $1.2 billion for the same period in 2019. Sales for the first nine months of this year rose 20% to $13.9 billion, with comparable store sales up 14%. For the third quarter at Ross, Children's and Men's were the best performing businesses, while the Midwest and Southeast were the top performing regions. dd's DISCOUNTS trends remained strong during the period as their sales performance also significantly exceeded our expectations. However, like Ross, dd's DISCOUNTS profitability was negatively impacted by cost pressures related to freight, wages, and COVID. At quarter end, total consolidated inventories were up 3%, while average selling store inventories were down 1% versus 2019. Packaway levels ended at 31% of the total, compared to 39% for the same period in 2019, as we continued to use a substantial amount of packaway merchandise to support ahead of planned sales. In addition, there were receipt delays due to supply chain congestion. Turning to store growth, we completed our expansion program for 2021 with the addition of 18 new Ross and 10 dd's DISCOUNTS in the third quarter. For the full year, we added 65 locations comprised of 44 Ross and 21 dd's DISCOUNTS. Additionally, we plan to close one store by year-end. As previously mentioned, we expect to return to our normal annual opening program of approximately 100 stores in 2022. Now Adam Orvos will provide further details on our third quarter results, fourth quarter guidance, and updated outlook for the year. Thank you, Barbara. As previously stated, comparable store sales were up 14% in the quarter. The increase was mainly driven by a larger average basket with traffic down slightly versus 2019. Operating margin of 11.4% was well above our guidance range. As expected, the decline in overall profitability versus 2019 was mainly due to ongoing headwinds from higher freight, wage, and COVID related costs. Cost of goods sold grew by 85 basis points in the quarter. Domestic freight expenses increased 125 basis points, while higher ocean freight costs negatively impacted merchandise margin, which declined by 40 basis points. Buying also rose by 10 basis points. These higher expenses were partially offset by occupancy and distribution leverage of 65 and 25 basis points, respectively. SG&A for the period grew 15 basis points as leverage from the strong sales gain was offset by COVID expenses and higher incentive costs given our better than expected third quarter results. Total net COVID related costs for the period were approximately 35 basis points, the vast majority of which impacted SG&A. During the third quarter, we repurchased 2.1 million shares of common stock for an aggregate cost of $241 million. We remain on track to buy back a total of $650 million in stock for the year. Now let's discuss our fourth quarter guidance. As a reminder, our projections compare to the same period in 2019. Looking ahead, while we are encouraged by the ongoing strength of consumer demand, there remains significant uncertainty related to the worsening industry-wide supply chain congestion as we enter the important holiday season. As a result, while we hope to do better, we are forecasting comparable store sales to be up 7%-9%, with earnings per share projected in the range of $0.83-$0.93 for the 13 weeks ending January 29, 2022. The operating statement assumptions that support our fourth quarter guidance include the following. Total sales are projected to grow 10%-13%. We expect operating margin to be 8.1%-8.8%. This forecast primarily reflects ongoing pressure from the previously mentioned supply chain headwinds, as well as holiday pay incentives in our stores and distribution centers. In addition, COVID related costs are projected to negatively impact EBIT margin by approximately 30 basis points in the period. Net interest expense is estimated to be about $18 million. Our tax rate is expected to be approximately 22%-23%, and weighted average diluted shares outstanding are projected to be about 352 million. Based on our year to date results and fourth quarter guidance, we are now forecasting full year comparable store sales gains of 12%-13% and earnings per share in the range of $4.65-$4.75, compared to $4.60 in 2019. Now I'll turn the call back to Barbara for closing comments. Thank you, Adam. We're encouraged by our above plan sales year to date. As Adam noted, uncertainty remains on how industry-wide supply chain congestion may negatively affect our business in the fourth quarter. That said, we believe we are well positioned as a value retailer and are confident customers will find a broad assortment of great branded bargains in our stores for the holiday season. Moving forward, consumers' increasing focus on value and convenience, along with the large number of recent retail closures and bankruptcies, make us confident about our prospects for continued market share gains in the future. At this point, we'd like to open up the call and respond to any questions you may have. Thank you. At this time, I would like to remind everyone, in order to ask a question, press star then the number one on your telephone keypad. Again, that is star then number one on your telephone keypad. We'll pause for just a moment to compile the Q&A roster. We have our first question coming from the line of Matthew Boss with J.P. Morgan. Your line is open. Thanks and congrats on a nice quarter. Barbara, with three straight quarters of 13%-15% two-year comps, could you elaborate on market share gains tied to value and convenience that you're seeing? Given the closures and bankruptcies that you cited, how would you best characterize product availability in the marketplace today? Matthew, hi, it's Michael Hartshorn. On market share gains, longer term, we're very excited about the market share opportunity ahead of us. We're in a very healthy sector of retail with the consumer even more focused, as you mentioned, on value and convenience. We've clearly gained market share during the pandemic and are confident about our future prospects for further gains given the significant number of retail closures and bankruptcies. Matthew, in terms of product availability, I would put it this way, it's a good time to be a buyer. Maybe not in every category, but some areas are, you know, very good, others are inconsistent. Overall it's favorable, even with store closures. You know one would expect that over time, as you know, after COVID, as retail settles, that the market will get more bullish on creating more goods. Right now, we really feel good about market availability. That's great. Best of luck. Thank you. We have our next question coming from the line of Mark Altschwager with Baird. Your line is open. Thanks for taking the question and welcome, Adam. I'm curious, just with the more inflationary backdrop, are you seeing more opportunities to raise ticket while still maintaining the strong value proposition? Or, how are you thinking about this lever to offset some of the ongoing freight and expense pressures? Thank you. Sure. Look, our pricing model is really built off of other mainstream retailers, and then we provide a discount. You know, we're very aware of pricing at different levels of distribution and we watch it closely. With that, you know, we've continued to experiment with higher retail in all areas in the organization. In some cases, it's been absolutely fine, and in some cases not quite as fine. I wouldn't elaborate more on that in this forum, but what I would say is we would adjust pricing over time once we understand it. You know, we don't know where it's really all going at this point, but we are definitely experimenting with different retails. Thank you. We have our next question coming from the line of Paul Lejuez with Citi. Your line is open. Hey, guys, thanks. You referenced ongoing strength of consumer demand. I was curious if that was a comment on fourth quarter to date, if you were seeing that continue. You also referenced worsening industry-wide supply chain congestion, and I'm curious if that's hurting you thus far in Q4 to a greater degree than what you saw in Q3. Big picture, I'm wondering if you think that congestion will ultimately be good for your business, either in fourth quarter or into 2022. Thanks. Hi, Paul. We are seeing a very healthy consumer. You know, when we came into the quarter, we were worried about the Delta variant and also the receding government stimulus. We've continued to see a very healthy consumer with strong demand for us across geographies, merchandise areas, and you can see relatively across retail, one that is increasingly focused on price value. On the freight front, you know, we've taken a number of actions to ready ourselves for the holiday selling period, including adjusting our ordering times. We chartered our own ocean vessel, and we've been purchasing at market rate capacity to make sure we had enough ocean freight to move goods. You can see that certainly in our margins for the quarter. Merchandise margin was impacted by ocean freight that we weren't able to offset with merchandise margin down about 40 basis points. I wouldn't comment on the impact in the third quarter. The congestion right now is squarely focused on the port and getting goods out of the port. Thanks. The merchandise margin you said is down 40 basis points. What you said that was impacted by ocean. Can you separate the pure merch margin versus the ocean piece? We wouldn't break that out separately. Ocean freight is actually included in our merchant margin. Merchant margin ended up better than we expected for the quarter as we had more full price selling and faster turns with the inventory ahead of plan or sales ahead of plan. I would say as it pertains to the supply chain congestion, it should create more closeout opportunities for us in the future. Okay, thanks, guys. Good luck. Thank you. We have our next question coming from the line of Lorraine Hutchinson with Bank of America. Your line is open. Thank you. Barbara, I know you said it's a good time to be a buyer, but I just wanted to focus in on, you know, any risk around receipt timing ahead of holiday. What are you hearing from your vendors going into the spring of next year, vis-à-vis product availability in the categories you really wanna focus on? Receipt timing ahead of holiday. You know, I think we've taken all the appropriate actions as it pertains to receipt timing. You know, whether Michael just said, chartering a vessel, building in longer lead times, everything to get goods through the port. With that, you know, we have concerns. Not a given, but we have some concerns. As we think about product for spring, I think vendors have gotten very aggressive in terms of placing goods. I think there's some vendors that are really looking to gain some market share in this timeframe and have taken, you know, bigger risks in terms of making commitments. I think it's very much on who the vendor is and what their strategy is. In terms of timing for holiday, you know, we've taken the actions we think we need to take. You know, again, we have some concerns, but it's not a given. Thank you. Thank you. We have our next question coming from the line of Kimberly Greenberger with Morgan Stanley. Your line is open. Okay, great. Thanks so much. I just wanted to follow up on Lorraine's question just about holiday, Barbara, and just wanna make sure I understand you clearly. How are you feeling about your in-stock levels currently here, you know, call it middle of November? How do you feel about your inventory position here for the next sort of six weeks of holiday selling? You know, if you could just give us a little bit of color just on the short term, and then I wanted to ask a couple of other questions, if I could. Kimberly, on inventory position, currently, we're in good shape. We ended the quarter with average in-store inventories down about 1%, which is where we wanted them to be. We continue to have a fresh flow of product. There are a lot of receipts between now and the next six weeks, and there could be some risk in areas like home that, as Barbara mentioned, are not a given. We reflected that risk in our guidance at 7%-9%. Okay, got it. Are the freight risk concentrated at home because that's where you would have, you know, call it more of a direct import or more of the direct imports would be impacting that area and those would be the items that would be either stuck in ports or on ocean-going vessels? Correct. Okay. Mainly- Great. With six weeks left, mainly stuck in port. Mainly stuck in port. Okay, perfect. That is great. Okay. Then on the quarter, Michael or Adam, whoever wants to address this, you talked about larger basket size. I'm wondering if you can talk about the average unit retail versus the units per transaction, what's driving that. Then, you know, just longer term, following up on the question with regard to pricing, I'm not sure if you have taken a look at where you're sitting competitively versus peers, but is there. I know there are some of your peers looking at some surgical price increases in some categories. I'm just wondering if you've, you know, if you've taken a look at your pricing and re-benchmarked it recently and if you have any thoughts on that. Thanks so much. Yeah. This is Adam. Let me jump in on the first part of that question. Our strong comps were driven by size of basket, which was primarily driven by number of units per transaction. There, we did have a slight increase in AUR, driven by the better full price selling given the above plan sales. As we mentioned, there was a slight decline in traffic in the quarter. As it pertains to the pricing issue, you know, we are definitely experimenting with higher retails. I said, you know, some in some areas it's working, it's fine. In some areas it's not fine. I think, you know, we'll continue to do that, Kimberly, and fine tune what the customer, you know, what the customer's willing to accept as we watch what goes on in mainstream retailers and where their AURs sit. After we get comfortable, you know, over time, we would consider adjusting the pricing once we really understand it. As we get ready to enter into Q4, you know, we're not expecting mainstream retailers to promote, but we don't really know that as you get into Q4 and there's really this compressed period of time. With that, again, merchants are out there trying new things, trying retail, seeing what the customer's willing to accept. You know, we kind of need to see both of those things to take a, I would say, you know, a larger step. Perfect. Makes perfect sense. Thanks, Barbara. Thank you. We have our next question coming from the line of Chuck Grom with Gordon Haskett. Your line is open. Hey, thanks very much. One of you guys could speak to the trend of your comp during the quarter, and if you think weather had any impact, adverse impact, particularly in September and October, and any early thoughts on the first couple of weeks of November. It sounds like the trend has stayed strong, but just wanted to confirm that. This is Adam. I can take that. Comps were strong throughout the quarter. Really, no weather impact was very immaterial in the quarter. We wouldn't comment on inter-quarter trends. Got it. Thank you. Thank you. We have our next question coming from the line of Michael Binetti with Credit Suisse. Your line is open. Hey, guys. Thanks for taking all our questions here. I'm just curious, as you look at the guidance, what you guys are seeing in the business, that helped you build to a 7%-9% guidance for fourth quarter. I think the last prior two quarters was 5%-7%. Just any change in how you built up with it. Then I guess, Michael, can you help. I know you won't give us a number, to Paul's question earlier, but when you think about what you baked into freight in the fourth quarter, maybe just some directional idea of how that looks relative to third quarter. As you look out, maybe just thinking about when your contracts roll, how much visibility you have into the first half of next year and help us understand if we should think that that's still gonna be an incremental headwind into the first half based on what you guys know today. Sure, Michael. Let me generally talk about the fourth quarter guidance. Obviously, in these uncertain times, we believe it's prudent to be conservative as we always have with our guidance and hope to exceed these estimates. Obviously, the large difference between Q3 is a cautious comp estimate given the potential impact of unpredictable supply chain congestion. The guidance also includes ongoing freight pressure related to the congestion. I would say it's not significantly worse than it was in Q3. It also includes elevated wage related costs due to holiday incentives in both our stores and distribution centers to acknowledge our associates' extraordinary dedication throughout the pandemic. What we'd expect on that is above sales above the estimates, we'd expect 15-20 basis points of leverage. On freight congestion, I think our view at this point is, we would not expect freight to subside probably through the first half of next year, and then we'll have to see how it trends after that. In terms of what impact that could have, we'll have more to say in our year-end call as we finish up wrapping up our budget cycle. Okay, if I could follow that with, you know, just as you look at some of the AUR initiatives that you are seeing success with Barb, do you feel like you have enough at this point to combat that freight pressure in the first half as needed? No, I think where we are now is that we're gonna continue to test the AUR and then and make you know probably slower moves till we really understand what that looks like in mainstream retailers. Got it. Okay. Thanks a lot everybody. Thank you. We have our next question coming from the line of Jay Sole with UBS. Your line is open. Great. Thank you so much. I just wanna know if you can just share with us high level, not looking for any specific guidance, but, you know, going into first quarter next year, lapping the stimulus, you know, how much of a benefit do you think you got from the stimulus in the first quarter of this year? And how do you think it might play out next year as you lap that, what kind of impact would it have on sales? Yeah, at this point, we wouldn't comment on next year. As I said, we'll have more to say after we wrap up the fourth quarter and provide guidance in our year-end call in early March. Okay. Maybe if I can just ask one more then. You know, there's a lot of talk about, you know, how the pandemic has changed shopping and, you know, consumers may be adopting more of an omni-channel method. If you look at the operating income growth for your department store competitors over the last three quarters, it's up over 100%, versus, you know, off-price, it's up more like 10%. You know, do you feel at all like something has changed where, you know, maybe the department stores are catching up a little bit? And if not, why not? Catching up in what regard? Just catching up in the way that like, you know, you've outgrown them in terms of sales. You mentioned the market share gains that you've taken, outgrown them in terms of profit, but maybe they're, you know, getting closer to competing and being able maybe not necessarily maintain the same level of sales, but maybe getting more profitable, which ultimately could be at an advantage they could use to sort of catch up in other ways as well. Yeah, I think overall we'll have to see how it plays out. I mean, we're still in this burst of economic activity where demand is exceeding supply. I think we'd have to understand what happens when it's a greater balance between supply and demand, which you know, we'll see when if that's first quarter or second quarter of next year. So it's hard to say at this point. Okay. Thank you so much. Thank you. We have our next question coming from the line of Marni Shapiro with Retail Tracker. Your line is open. Hey, guys. Congratulations. Can we just talk a little bit about two things? As the consumers back out and about, working events, parties, have you seen a shift in what she's buying or are you continuing to see strength across the board? If you can also just touch on, with all of the late deliveries in the market, have you been able to still get in the very holiday rich type of items, you know, Christmas themed items, or were you able to tap into packaways from last year's holiday to make sure that that was on the floor in time? Sure, Marni. We have seen a shift to the customer. You know, look, we've always had a big casual business. Let me start with that 's always been a big business for us. Certainly during the pandemic, you know, that business got even bigger and stronger for us. What we have seen is the customer make a shift back into what you're looking for as holiday glitz, dress up, social, going out. We have seen the customer make that shift into holiday products and also just more into mainstream sportswear. A little bit of both. Casual is still very good, still a business that we believe in and it'll expand and get greater, but she is making a shift, whether it's back to work or she's going out for evening, whatever she's doing, we have seen that, yes. What about like in the home and like bags, like those kinds of bags to go back to work or the home area, if she's going back to work and not thinking about her home as much? I don't know. You're saying like in handbags? Yeah. Has she shifted, you know, into handbags as she's going out again or out of home and into apparel more? Those kinds of, you know, bigger shifts as well. I think anything where she's leaving her house in on the apparel side has taken a shift, whether it's in footwear, whether it's in handbags. You know, she hasn't replenished, replaced a lot of those products in a long time. Exactly. Yes, we are seeing a shift back into some of those businesses, as she, you know, goes out and she wants new things. Yeah. Whether it's home or apparel though, Marni, I would say, you know, both businesses, you know, have been, you know, relatively similar in sales gains. She's kind of toggling between both worlds now. I think the surge in, you know, apparel is because she just doesn't own it. Yeah, that makes sense. Just on the packaway. Oh, on packaway, just do me a favor, just remind me that piece again on packaway, because I think I might have interpreted it as the holiday piece. Tell me your packaway question again. Marni? Thank you. We have our next question coming from the line of Laura Champine with Loop Capital. Your line is open. Should we hold up and try to get Marni back, or would you prefer I fire away? Fire ahead. We'll follow up tomorrow. Go ahead. We'll find love later. Okay, here goes. I thought the SG&A expense level was really impressive given that I think you're saying that COVID is still an incremental hit. Is this kind of a base level that we can look at as we start to model for next year? Or what are kind of some of the puts and takes that are keeping despite, you know, really strong top line that SG&A expense is staying fairly flat? Yeah. Oh, go ahead. Yeah, no, I was just gonna jump in and say, COVID's been pretty consistent impact throughout the year, and it will be in fourth quarter. We talked about the actions we've taken from a wage standpoint and from an incentive standpoint in our DCs and our stores, that those are clearly kind of the biggest movers within SG&A. Okay. Obviously, I would say the 14 comp helps us leverage the SG&A significantly. Got it. Thank you. Again, to ask a question, press star, then one on your telephone keypad, and please do limit yourself to one question only. Thank you. We have our next question coming from the line of Bob Drbul with Guggenheim. Your line is open. Hi, good afternoon. Just wondering if you could maybe spend a little bit more time on the labor component, you know, and just sort of the wage pressures that you're seeing and labor availability. Maybe just give us some insights on that. That would be helpful. Thanks. Sure, Bob. It's a very competitive market for talent, and we've seen the most competition in our distribution centers. We made some permanent wage increases early this year. We also have some retention and incentives to get us through the peak. We're in really good shape. We've been able to staff up the peak. The distribution centers are where they need to be. In the stores, obviously, we have holiday selling ahead of us. We also have hiring incentives there to make sure we can staff up for peak, and we're confident that we're in a good place there as well. Given the competition, we'll remain competitive with our pay to make sure we can attract talent, and we feel really good about the workforce right now. Great. Thank you. Thank you. We have our next question coming from the line of Adrienne Yih with Barclays. Your line is open. Congratulations on the progress on top line in the quarter. Barbara, you made a comment during the prepared remarks. You said you should see improvement in kind of closeout buying and I'm wondering, are you seeing any incrementality in that in increased supply flow from either canceled orders or stranded inventory that could be used for short stay buys and redeployed, you know, earlier next year? Just a clarification question on the freight, Adam, on the freight. The 160 basis points of freight pressure this quarter, fourth quarter is similar, and then carrying that same level through the first half of 2022, is that the implication that you were intending? Thank you. I'll start with the freight. I was making no commentary on what the freight cost level will be next year. I was really- Got it. answering that in terms of what congestion could look like. Obviously, we'll have some options. Gotcha Different options first quarter versus the fourth. Yeah. In terms of the content of closeout buying, certainly our expectation is that there will be the fall product as retailers have canceled goods because they're late and they can't get to the selling floor. That would be real packaway for fall, you know, for Q3, Q4 of next year. We do see opportunities on, I would guess what you're thinking of is kind of seasonless apparel that we could flow now through Q1. I believe there's a combination of both. Okay, fantastic. Last question, if you would. Where is the average hourly rate? I think I recall a few years ago, maybe 2018 or 2019, you had sort of committed to this $12 number, and that was typically about almost a dollar higher than the average across the nation. I know you were at the better end of pay. I'm just wondering, you know, where that number sits today, maybe relative to where Walmart, Target, and some others are in that mid-teen range. Thanks. Yeah. We don't disclose the specific wage. We do have a base level at $11, but significant portion of the chain is above minimum wage. California, for instance, is at, you know, $15. Yep The average wage is well above that baseline. Fair enough. Thank you very much, and best of luck for holiday. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. We have our next question coming from the line of Simeon Siegel with BMO Capital Markets. Your line is open. Hi. Thanks, everyone. Sorry if I missed it. Did you say where you expect inventory to end for Q and then over the next few quarters? To the earlier point about outperforming despite waning stimulus, have you guys quantified what you think the benefit was from stimulus and just how you're thinking about the potential impacts as we cycle through that early next year? Thanks a lot. On next year, we wouldn't comment. We'll comment again at year-end. On inventory, we typically don't guide ahead on inventory levels. I guess for the stimulus, have you quantified what it was this year? How you think about the benefit this year? It's really hard 'cause there's a lot of moving parts. 'Cause it's not only stimulus, but it's customer pent-up demand. You know, we'll end up developing plans around it as we move into next year, but we haven't quantified that. Understood. Thanks a lot, guys. [audio distortion]. Thank you. Thank you. We have our next question coming from the line of Ike Boruchow with Wells Fargo. Your line is open. Hi, everyone. This is Jesse Sobelson on for Ike. I was just wondering, as we look forward and begin to model next year, would you guys be able to quantify timing of when COVID costs might be able to revert, or are you expecting that to sustain and these costs to just kinda be a part of the business going forward? We wouldn't comment specifically on next year, but I will say generally, we would expect COVID costs to come down. They are not wholly permanently part of the cost center. Very good. Thank you. Thank you. We have our next question coming from the line of John Kernan with Cowen. Your line is open. Thanks, good afternoon. Thanks for taking my question. Just curious on the margin picture. You know, you obviously outperformed your comp guidance, and EBIT margin was down roughly 100 basis points from the pre-COVID base in 2019. You're guiding it much lower than that albeit on lower comp guidance for the fourth quarter. Just curious, what do you think the biggest levers are to recapture that low teens operating margin that you generated in 2019? There's a lot of inflation across retail, the factories, your vendors, supply chain. Just curious how you think you're gonna recapture that pre-COVID level of profitability. Is it really just through more comp store sales gains? How do we quantify that? Sure, John. As I said, obviously we're in a very healthy sector of retail and are confident in our prospects for further market share gains. As we sit here today, it's difficult to predict how much of the inflationary cost headwinds we're experiencing from the burst of economic activity are transitory versus permanent. Margin recovery will be dependent on where and when those costs stabilize and, of course, our sales volume, where we once again we believe we have a long range, large market share opportunity ahead of us. Over time, we would expect to return to double-digit EPS growth on a 3%-4% comp. We do have initiatives in the company to try to increase efficiencies in our big areas of expense, including our stores and distribution centers, but it's gonna be largely dependent on the transitory nature of the inflation that we're seeing today. Got it. Thank you. Thank you. We have our last question coming from the line of Tim Vergano with Northc oast Research. Your line is open. Thank you. Can you guys remind us of how you're thinking about store footprint and unit growth? Maybe highlight for us, you know, if that, you know, environment or setup is getting easier or more difficult, you know, as you look forward. Thank you. Sure. On the real estate front, as we said in our comments, we wrapped up our program for this year. We opened 65 stores. We also said that we expect to return to historical annual program in 2022 of opening 100 stores annually. Overall, the real estate market is good. We would expect there to be increased supply of available sites given the level of store closures. All right. Thanks. Sorry, I missed that. Thank you. There are no further questions in queue. I would now like to turn the call back over to Barbara Rentler for any closing remarks. Thank you for joining us today and for your interest in Ross Stores. Happy holidays. Thank you. This concludes today's conference call. Thank you for participating. You may now disconnect.