National Vision Holdings, Inc. Common Stock Barclays 19th Annual Global Consumer Conference

Yeah, we're not really seeing any difference now than we saw in what we reported in Q2 in terms of the value-seeking consumer still sitting a little bit on the sideline. Again, we're seeing it actually across all income demographics. It's not necessarily lower income households that are sitting out or participating less. It's really those consumers across all income demographics that would raise their hand and say, "We're value seekers." They're sitting out at the moment. We haven't necessarily seen any change as we've gone into Q3. Certainly, we believe it's tied to energy prices.

We saw it almost immediately once we Okay start to see the energy prices go up in the beginning of Q2.

When we look back at our data, that is when we started to see some of the delay in purchase cycle of the cash pay consumer in particular.

Yeah, for sure. We see almost 7 million Americans every year for eye care. You asked a question about what makes us so different. We employ over 2,000 optometrists. Close to half of our customer base, I think it is like 42% now, use some form of insurance in their purchase journey with us. That is a really fundamental difference from traditional retail, but it also makes us a lot more resilient. The managed vision care customer in particular who has an annual benefit that is use it or lose it, they are incentivized through their insurance plan to get an annual eye exam. They are incentivized through their insurance plan to deploy some of their benefit dollars against an optical purchase. That has really strengthened the resiliency of that consumer type.

On the healthcare side, having doctors that are building one-to-one relationships with their patient base, that creates a lot more stickiness between brand and consumer or patient than what you see in traditional retail. So we are a much more resilient business than, I would say, a traditional discretionary business is, because of those healthcare aspects.

Specifically, what I think today we are even having a lot of conversations around is the opportunity for mix and ticket evolution in this business. In traditional retail, you make some changes to the assortment, and maybe you get a year lap out of it, and then you have to do something new. In this business, because so much of it is employee driven, as associates get more comfortable and confident in selling anti-reflective lenses and selling more premium progressive lenses, and helping the consumer through a consultative journey on frames, it is almost as their competence and confidence grows with the new product introduction, you see ticket expansion, and that does not just happen in a year. In lenses in particular, it takes multiple years for your selling team to get really good and really confident at selling some of the more advanced materials.

I think that is a bit misunderstood, just like how long of a tail some mix-driven ticket strategies have to play out in this category. I think in particular, what is missed in our business is frankly, how far behind we were when Chris and I joined the company. We were laggards in almost every aspect of premiumization in the category. Although we had managed to, as I said, grow our managed care mix to over 40% of our customer base, we were not even matching those consumers well with the purchasing power that they had in their plans. That is a significant difference, I think, from us versus, again, discretionary typical retail. It is the healthcare component. It is the role that the doctor plays in the transaction. It is the role that the store associate plays in the transaction, helping consumers find products that meet their lifestyle needs from a lens perspective.