汽車地帶 (AZO) 2023 Q1 法說會逐字稿

Good morning, ladies and gentlemen, and welcome to AutoZone's 2023 First Quarter Earnings Release Conference Call. (Operator Instructions). Before we begin, the company would like to read forward-looking statements. Before we begin, please note that today's call includes forward-looking statements that are subject to the safe harbor provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995.

女士們先生們，早上好，歡迎來到 AutoZone 的 2023 年第一季度收益發布電話會議。 （操作員說明）。在我們開始之前，公司想閱讀前瞻性陳述。在我們開始之前，請注意今天的電話會議包含前瞻性陳述，這些陳述受 1995 年《私人證券訴訟改革法案》安全港條款的約束。

Forward-looking statements are not guarantees of future performance. Please refer to this morning's press release and the company's most recent annual report on Form 10-K and other filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission for a discussion of important risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from expectations. Forward-looking statements speak only as of the date made, and the company undertakes no obligations to update such statements.

前瞻性陳述並非對未來業績的保證。請參閱今天上午的新聞稿和公司關於 10-K 表格的最新年度報告以及向美國證券交易委員會提交的其他文件，以討論可能導致實際結果與預期存在重大差異的重要風險和不確定性。前瞻性陳述僅代表截至作出之日的情況，公司不承擔更新此類陳述的義務。

Today's call will also include certain non-GAAP measures. A reconciliation of non-GAAP to GAAP financial measures can be found in our press release. It is now my pleasure to turn the floor over to Mr. Bill Rhodes, Chairman, President and CEO of AutoZone. Bill, the floor is yours.

今天的電話會議還將包括某些非 GAAP 措施。可以在我們的新聞稿中找到非 GAAP 與 GAAP 財務指標的對賬。現在我很高興將發言權交給 AutoZone 董事長、總裁兼首席執行官 Bill Rhodes 先生。比爾，地板是你的。

Good morning, and thank you for joining us today for AutoZone's 2023 First Quarter Conference Call. With me today are Jamere Jackson, Executive Vice President, Chief Financial Officer; and Brian Campbell, Vice President, Treasurer, Investor Relations and Tax. Regarding the first quarter, I hope you've had an opportunity to read our press release and learn about the quarter's results.

早上好，感謝您今天加入我們參加 AutoZone 的 2023 年第一季度電話會議。今天和我在一起的是執行副總裁兼首席財務官 Jamere Jackson； Brian Campbell，投資者關係和稅務副總裁兼財務主管。關於第一季度，我希望您有機會閱讀我們的新聞稿並了解該季度的業績。

If not, the press release, along with slides complementing our comments today, is available on our website, www.autozone.com, under the Investor Relations link. Please click on quarterly earnings conference calls to see them. As we begin, we'd like to thank and congratulate our AutoZoners across the enterprise for their commitment to taking care of our customers, which led to the strong results they continue to deliver.

如果沒有，請在我們的網站 www.autozone.com 的“投資者關係”鏈接下獲取新聞稿以及補充我們今天評論的幻燈片。請單擊季度收益電話會議以查看它們。在我們開始時，我們要感謝並祝賀我們整個企業的 AutoZoners 致力於照顧我們的客戶，這導致他們繼續交付強勁的成果。

It has been a busy first quarter of our new fiscal year as every day we strive to get back to normal and exit "pandemic mode". This quarter, we opened our new direct import distribution center on the West Coast, continued to improve our in-stock position. And we had our first full national sales meeting since the pandemic began. In fact, we returned to having national sales meetings in every country where we operate and at ALLDATA.

我們新財政年度的第一季度一直很忙碌，因為我們每天都在努力恢復正常並退出“流行病模式”。本季度，我們在西海岸開設了新的直接進口配送中心，繼續改善我們的庫存狀況。自大流行開始以來，我們舉行了第一次全國銷售會議。事實上，我們恢復了在我們開展業務的每個國家和 ALLDATA 召開全國銷售會議。

These meetings, they are critical to our success where we celebrate our past accomplishments and lay the groundwork for our future success. Most importantly, they allow us to inspire each other and grow and nurture our unique and powerful culture. For the quarter, as our teams delivered exceptional service, their efforts led to our overall sales growing 8.6% on top of 16.3% last year.

這些會議對我們的成功至關重要，我們在這裡慶祝過去的成就並為未來的成功奠定基礎。最重要的是，它們使我們能夠相互激勵，發展和培育我們獨特而強大的文化。在本季度，由於我們的團隊提供了卓越的服務，他們的努力使我們的整體銷售額在去年的 16.3% 的基礎上增長了 8.6%。

Our 2-year growth rate marks some of the highest ever. We could not have achieved this success without phenomenal contributions from across the organization. Our AutoZoners' efforts generated a positive and accelerating retail same-store sales comp, along with another strong commercial comp for the quarter. Thank you, AutoZoners for always putting customers first, which led to the success.

我們 2 年的增長率是有史以來最高的。如果沒有整個組織的非凡貢獻，我們不可能取得這一成功。我們的 AutoZoners 的努力產生了積極且加速的零售同店銷售業績，以及本季度另一個強勁的商業業績。感謝 AutoZoners 始終將客戶放在首位，這導致了成功。

This morning, we will review our Q1 same-store sales, DIY versus DIFM trends, our sales cadence over the 12-week quarter, merchandise categories that drove our performance and any regional discrepancies. We'll also share how inflation is affecting our cost and our retails and how we think inflation will impact our business for the remainder of FY '23.

今天早上，我們將回顧我們第一季度的同店銷售額、DIY 與 DIFM 趨勢、我們在 12 周季度的銷售節奏、推動我們業績的商品類別以及任何區域差異。我們還將分享通貨膨脹如何影響我們的成本和零售，以及我們認為通貨膨脹將如何影響我們 23 財年剩餘時間的業務。

Our domestic same-store sales comp was a solid 5.6% this quarter on top of last year's 13.6%. On a 2-year basis, we delivered a 19.2% comp. And on a 3-year basis, a 31.5% stacked comp. Our team once again delivered amazing results despite these difficult comparisons. Let me spend a few moments on growth dynamics in the quarter. Our growth rate for retail and commercial were both strong, with domestic commercial growth of 15%.

本季度我們的國內同店銷售額同比增長 5.6%，高於去年的 13.6%。在 2 年的基礎上，我們交付了 19.2% 的補償。在 3 年的基礎上，31.5% 的堆疊補償。儘管進行了這些艱難的比較，我們的團隊再次取得了驚人的成果。讓我花點時間談談本季度的增長動態。我們的零售和商業增長率都很強勁，國內商業增長率為 15%。

We set a first quarter commercial sales record and over $1 billion in sales, another impressive quarter as we generated $138 million more in sales than in Q1 last year. On a trailing 4-quarter basis, we delivered just under $4.4 billion in annual commercial sales, up an amazing $820 million over last year. We also set a Q1 record for average weekly sales per store at $16,000 versus 144 just last year.

我們創造了第一季度的商業銷售記錄和超過 10 億美元的銷售額，這是另一個令人印象深刻的季度，因為我們的銷售額比去年第一季度增加了 1.38 億美元。在連續 4 個季度的基礎上，我們實現了近 44 億美元的年度商業銷售額，比去年增長了驚人的 8.2 億美元。我們還創下了第一季度每家商店平均每週銷售額 16,000 美元的記錄，而去年僅為 144 美元。

Domestic commercial sales represented 29% of our domestic auto parts sales versus 27% last year. Our sales growth in the quarter was driven by transaction growth from new and existing customers, along with higher tickets as we price for inflation. Our commercial growth of 15% while still very impressive and well ahead of industry growth, did slow. And unfortunately, we broke our streak of 6 straight quarters of 20% plus sales growth.

國內商業銷售額占我們國內汽車零部件銷售額的 29%，而去年為 27%。我們本季度的銷售額增長是由新客戶和現有客戶的交易增長以及我們為通貨膨脹定價而增加的票價推動的。我們 15% 的商業增長雖然仍然非常可觀並且遠遠領先於行業增長，但確實放緩了。不幸的是，我們打破了連續 6 個季度超過 20% 銷售額增長的記錄。

While we could easily explain this resulted from a difficult comparison to last year's Q1 amazing growth of 29.4%, we also saw our transaction counts decline nearly 4 points from the pace we were growing in Q4 of fiscal '22. That said, we continue to be pleased with the results from the key initiatives we have been working on for the last several years, improved satellite store availability, Hub and Mega-Hub openings and improvements in coverage, the strength of the Duralast brand, better technology to make us easier to do business with, reduce delivery times, enhancing our sales force effectiveness and living consistent with our pledge by being priced right for the value proposition we deliver.

雖然我們可以很容易地解釋這是由於與去年第一季度 29.4% 的驚人增長進行了艱難的比較，但我們也看到我們的交易數量比我們在 22 財年第四季度的增長速度下降了近 4 個百分點。儘管如此，我們仍然對過去幾年我們一直致力於的關鍵舉措所取得的成果感到滿意，這些舉措包括衛星商店可用性的提高、Hub 和 Mega-Hub 的開業以及覆蓋範圍的擴大、Duralast 品牌的實力、更好的技術使我們更容易開展業務，減少交貨時間，提高我們的銷售人員效率，並通過為我們提供的價值主張定價而與我們的承諾保持一致。

We believe our offering to our customers is better than ever, and we continue to hear great things from our customers and prospective customers about the strength of our value proposition as we continue to execute our commercial acceleration strategy. Our goal remains, over time, to become the industry leader in both DIY and commercial in every geography where we operate. Our strategy, execution and market momentum give us tremendous confidence as we move forward.

我們相信我們為客戶提供的產品比以往任何時候都更好，並且在我們繼續執行我們的商業加速戰略的同時，我們繼續從我們的客戶和潛在客戶那裡聽到關於我們價值主張實力的好消息。隨著時間的推移，我們的目標仍然是在我們運營的每個地區成為 DIY 和商業領域的行業領導者。我們的戰略、執行力和市場動力給了我們前進的巨大信心。

We're also very proud of our organization's performance in domestic DIY. Our growth in retail since the beginning of the pandemic has been remarkable, representing the highest 3-year growth we have experienced in my 28-year tenure with the company. We delivered a positive 2.6% comp this quarter on top of last year's 9% And versus last year's quarter's growth, DIY grew on a 2-year basis and on a 3-year basis.

我們也為我們組織在國內 DIY 方面的表現感到非常自豪。自大流行開始以來，我們在零售業的增長非常顯著，這是我在公司 28 年任期內經歷的最高 3 年增長。在去年 9% 的基礎上，本季度我們實現了 2.6% 的正增長。與去年同期的增長相比，DIY 在 2 年和 3 年的基礎上增長。

While our ticket growth was similar to last quarter, of just over 7%, we are encouraged that our transaction count trend has improved, decreasing by 4%. These results are very strong considering the difficult comparison, driven by the lingering effects of stimulus last year. From the data we have available, we continue to retain the vast majority of the enormous dollar share gains we built during the initial stages of the pandemic.

雖然我們的門票增長與上個季度相似，略高於 7%，但令我們感到鼓舞的是，我們的交易數量趨勢有所改善，下降了 4%。考慮到受去年刺激措施揮之不去的影響所驅動的艱難比較，這些結果非常強勁。根據我們現有的數據，我們繼續保留我們在大流行初期建立的巨大美元份額收益的絕大部分。

And more importantly, we continue to grow unit share, a critical measurement of success for us. And our recent performance gives us continued conviction about the sustainability for our fiscal year. In terms of sales cadence, our total same-store sales trends were very consistent, increasing in the mid-single-digit range for each of the 4-week periods.

更重要的是，我們繼續增加單位份額，這是我們成功的關鍵衡量標準。我們最近的表現讓我們對本財年的可持續性充滿信心。就銷售節奏而言，我們的同店總銷售額趨勢非常一致，在 4 週的每個週期中都在中等個位數範圍內增長。

In addition, for Q1, our 2-year comp was 19.2% and our 3-year comp was 31.5% and relatively consistent over the 4-week periods. We are incredibly pleased with the sustainability of the very large sales and share gains we generated since the beginning of the pandemic. Weather did not have a material impact on our sales this quarter. On a national basis, weather trends were very similar to last year. Regionally, we saw less rainfall in the West and Southeast in last year.

此外，對於第一季度，我們的 2 年期薪酬為 19.2%，我們的 3 年期薪酬為 31.5%，並且在 4 週內相對穩定。我們對自大流行開始以來產生的巨大銷售額和份額收益的可持續性感到非常高興。天氣對我們本季度的銷售額沒有產生重大影響。在全國范圍內，天氣趨勢與去年非常相似。從地區來看，去年西部和東南部的降雨量較少。

But overall, we didn't feel this drove our results materially. This winter's weather forecast calls for a slightly colder winter with, as we've recently experienced, cooler weather beginning sooner. As a reminder, historically, extreme weather, cold or hot drives parts failures and accelerated maintenance. During the quarter, there was geographic regions that did better than others as there always are.

但總的來說，我們認為這並沒有實質性地推動我們的結果。今年冬天的天氣預報顯示冬天會稍微冷一些，正如我們最近所經歷的那樣，涼爽的天氣會更快開始。提醒一下，從歷史上看，極端天氣、寒冷或炎熱會導致零件故障並加速維護。在本季度，有些地理區域一如既往地表現優於其他區域。

This quarter, we saw comp sales in the Northeastern and Midwestern markets underperform the [balance] of the company by about 260 basis points. We believe that our underperformance in these markets was driven by milder and wetter weather this year. For our second quarter winter weather is likely to meaningfully influence our results. As a reminder, our Q2 is historically by far in a way the most volatile sales quarter as weather patterns greatly vary week-to-week. And we have key holidays that fall on different days of the week.

本季度，我們看到東北和中西部市場的 comp 銷售額低於公司的 [balance] 約 260 個基點。我們認為，我們在這些市場表現不佳的原因是今年天氣更溫和、更潮濕。對於我們的第二季度，冬季天氣可能會對我們的業績產生重大影響。提醒一下，從歷史上看，我們的第二季度在某種程度上是最不穩定的銷售季度，因為天氣模式每週變化很大。我們在一周的不同日子都有重要的假期。

At the moment, our forecasting team is telling us winter will likely be colder than last year's Q2, and if that happens that would be a positive for our outlook. Now let's move into more specifics on our performance. Same-store sales were up 5.6%. Our net income was $539 million, and our EPS was $27.45 a share, increasing 6.9%. Regarding our merchandise categories in the retail business, our hard parts outperformed sales floor categories with approximately a 1% difference between them. With elevated gas prices, our discretionary categories remain soft.

目前，我們的預測團隊告訴我們，冬天可能會比去年第二季度更冷，如果發生這種情況，那將對我們的前景產生積極影響。現在讓我們更詳細地了解我們的表現。同店銷售額增長了 5.6%。我們的淨收入為 5.39 億美元，每股收益為 27.45 美元，增長 6.9%。關於我們在零售業務中的商品類別，我們的硬零件優於銷售場內類別，兩者之間的差異約為 1%。隨著汽油價格上漲，我們的可自由支配類別仍然疲軟。

The discretionary categories represented approximately 18% of our DIY sales and were down 2.5% versus up 8% last year. In general, the categories that are driven by failures performed well, and we were encouraged to see our battery category successfully lap very strong performance last year and again, exceed our expectations. We believe our hard parts business will continue to do well this winter as we expect miles driven to improve while our growth initiatives are delivering solid results. Let me also address inflation and pricing.

非必需品類別約占我們 DIY 銷售額的 18%，與去年的 8% 相比下降了 2.5%。總的來說，由故障驅動的類別表現良好，我們很高興看到我們的電池類別在去年取得了非常強勁的表現，並再次超出了我們的預期。我們相信我們的硬零件業務將在今年冬天繼續表現良好，因為我們預計行駛里程會有所改善，同時我們的增長計劃正在取得可觀的成果。我還要談談通貨膨脹和定價問題。

In Q1, we experienced 11% pricing inflation in line with cost of goods, which was also up 11%. We believe both numbers will decrease slightly in the current quarter as we begin to lap the onset of high inflation last year. But to be clear, we do not believe inflation is going away, specially wage inflation but expect it to slow a bit as the economy slows.

在第一季度，我們經歷了 11% 的定價通脹，與商品成本一致，也上漲了 11%。我們相信，隨著去年高通脹的開始，本季度這兩個數字都將略有下降。但需要明確的是，我們認為通脹不會消失，尤其是工資通脹，但預計它會隨著經濟放緩而放緩。

I want to highlight that our industry has been disciplined about pricing for decades, and we expect that to continue. Most of the parts and products we sell in this industry have low price elasticity because purchases are driven by failure or routine maintenance. Historically, as costs have increased, the industry has increased pricing commensurately to maintain margin rates, thereby increasing margin dollars.

我想強調的是，我們的行業幾十年來一直在定價方面受到嚴格約束，我們希望這種情況會繼續下去。我們在這個行業銷售的大部分零件和產品價格彈性較低，因為購買是由故障或日常維護驅動的。從歷史上看，隨著成本的增加，該行業會相應地提高定價以維持保證金率，從而增加保證金。

It's also notable that following periods of higher inflation, our industry has historically not meaningfully reduced pricing to reflect lower costs. While we continue to be encouraged with the current sales environment, it still remains challenging for us to forecast near to midterm sales as the economy impacts our customers. What I previously said on the past 6 quarterly calls is sales have been consistent on both a 2-year and 3-year stacked comp basis.

同樣值得注意的是，在通貨膨脹率較高的時期之後，我們的行業在歷史上並沒有有意義地降低定價以反映較低的成本。雖然我們繼續對當前的銷售環境感到鼓舞，但由於經濟影響我們的客戶，我們預測近期和中期的銷售仍然具有挑戰性。我之前在過去 6 個季度電話會議上所說的是，在 2 年和 3 年的堆疊補償基礎上，銷售額一直保持一致。

While it's difficult to predict sales going forward. We are excited about our growth initiatives, our team's execution and the tremendous share gains we have achieved in both sectors. Over the past 1.5 years, the overall macro environment has been favorable for our industry despite inflationary pressures for our customers. And even if these near-term trends fade, we believe that we are in an industry that is positioned for solid growth over the long term.

雖然很難預測未來的銷售情況。我們對我們的增長計劃、我們團隊的執行力以及我們在這兩個領域取得的巨大份額增長感到興奮。在過去的 1.5 年裡，儘管我們的客戶面臨通脹壓力，但整體宏觀環境對我們的行業有利。即使這些近期趨勢消退，我們相信我們所處的行業能夠實現長期穩健增長。

For our second quarter in 2023, we expect our sales performance to be led by the continued strength in our commercial business as we execute on our differentiating initiatives combined with the resilient DIY business. We will, as always, be transparent about what we are seeing and provide color on our markets and performance as trends emerge.

對於我們 2023 年的第二季度，我們預計我們的銷售業績將由我們的商業業務的持續強勁帶動，因為我們執行我們的差異化舉措與彈性 DIY 業務相結合。我們將一如既往地對我們所看到的保持透明，並在趨勢出現時為我們的市場和業績提供色彩。

Before handing the call over to Jamere, I'd like to give a brief update on a few of our key business priorities for the new fiscal year. First, we continue focusing on our supply chain with 2 initiatives that are in flight to drive improved availability. One is our expanded Hub and Mega-Hub rollouts. We know intelligently placing more inventory in local markets will lead to our ability to continue to say yes to our customers more frequently and, in turn, drive sales.

在將電話轉交給 Jamere 之前，我想簡要介紹一下我們新財政年度的一些關鍵業務優先事項。首先，我們繼續關注我們的供應鏈，並通過 2 項正在實施的計劃來推動可用性的提高。一個是我們擴展的 Hub 和 Mega-Hub 部署。我們知道，明智地在本地市場投放更多庫存將使我們能夠繼續更頻繁地對客戶說“是”，進而推動銷售。

Secondly, we are expanding our distribution center footprint. We announced the development of 2 new domestic DCs and one additional DC weeks ago. These DCs will allow us to not only reduce drive times to source, but also increase our capacity. Note that we didn't expect to grow our business 30-plus percent in 3 years as we have, and the additional capacity will enable us to carry more slower turning inventory that is not yet in high demand.

其次，我們正在擴大我們的配送中心足跡。幾週前，我們宣布開發了 2 個新的國內 DC 和 1 個額外的 DC。這些配送中心不僅可以讓我們減少運輸到貨源的時間，還可以增加我們的產能。請注意，我們並不期望在 3 年內將我們的業務增長 30% 以上，而額外的產能將使我們能夠承載更多需求不高的周轉速度較慢的庫存。

I'm also excited to announce that we opened a facility on the West Coast to handle direct import product on a timelier basis. This facility will flow products ordered abroad and distribute them to our other DCs to reduce safety stock and drive productivity. Our supply chain strategy is focused on carrying more products closer to the customer, and we believe it has been a significant contributor to our recent success, especially in commercial. And we have initiatives in place to continue our growth trajectories in both our domestic retail and commercial businesses.

我也很高興地宣布，我們在西海岸開設了一家工廠，以更及時地處理直接進口產品。該設施將在國外訂購的產品進行流通，並將它們配送到我們的其他配送中心，以減少安全庫存並提高生產率。我們的供應鏈戰略專注於讓更多產品更貼近客戶，我們相信這是我們最近取得成功的重要因素，尤其是在商業領域。我們已採取措施繼續我們在國內零售和商業業務中的增長軌跡。

Additionally, we plan on continuing to grow our mexico and brazilian businesses. And almost 800 stores combined, these businesses have had impressive performance again this quarter and should continue to be key contributors to sales and profit growth for decades to come. We are leveraging many of the learnings we have in the U.S. to refine our offerings in Mexico and Brazil. In Brazil, in particular, we are targeting to significantly and aggressively expand our store footprint over the next 5 years. We are very excited about our growth prospects internationally. Now I'll turn the call over to Jamere Jackson. Jamere?

此外，我們計劃繼續發展我們在墨西哥和巴西的業務。加之近 800 家門店，這些企業在本季度再次取得了令人矚目的業績，並將在未來幾十年繼續成為銷售額和利潤增長的主要貢獻者。我們正在利用我們在美國學到的許多知識來改進我們在墨西哥和巴西的產品。特別是在巴西，我們的目標是在未來 5 年內大幅和積極地擴大我們的門店足跡。我們對我們在國際上的增長前景感到非常興奮。現在我將電話轉給 Jamere Jackson。賈米爾？

Thanks, Bill, and good morning, everyone. As Bill mentioned, from a sales perspective, we had a strong first quarter stacked on top of an exceptionally strong first quarter last year with 5.6% domestic comp growth. We also had a 4.2% decrease in EBIT and a 6.9% increase in EPS. To start this morning, let me take a few minutes to elaborate on the specifics in our P&L for Q1.

謝謝，比爾，大家早上好。正如比爾所提到的，從銷售的角度來看，我們在去年第一季度異常強勁的基礎上取得了強勁的第一季度國內收入增長 5.6%。我們的息稅前利潤也下降了 4.2%，每股收益增長了 6.9%。從今天早上開始，讓我花幾分鐘時間詳細說明第一季度損益表的具體細節。

For the quarter [growth] sales 8.6%, reflecting continued strength in our industry and solid execution of our growth initiatives, let me give you a bit of color on growth initiatives. Starting with our commercial business for the first quarter, our domestic DIFM sales was increased nearly 15% to $1 billion and were up 44.3% on a 2-year stack basis. Sales to our domestic DIFM customers represented 29% of our domestic auto parts sales, our weekly sales were per program were $16,000, up 11.1% and our growth was broad-based as both national and local accounts performed well for the quarter.

對於本季度 [增長] 銷售額 8.6%，反映了我們行業的持續實力和我們增長計劃的穩固執行，讓我給你一些關於增長計劃的顏色。從我們第一季度的商業業務開始，我們的國內 DIFM 銷售額增長了近 15% 至 10 億美元，並且在 2 年堆棧的基礎上增長了 44.3%。我們國內 DIFM 客戶的銷售額占我們國內汽車零部件銷售額的 29%，我們每個項目的每週銷售額為 16,000 美元，增長 11.1%，我們的增長基礎廣泛，因為本季度國內和地方客戶都表現良好。

Our results for the quarter set a record for the highest first quarter weekly sales volume in the history of the [chain]. I want to reiterate that our execution on our commercial acceleration initiatives continues to deliver exceptionally strong results as we grow share by winning new business and increasing our share of wallet with existing customers. We have a commercial program in approximately 88% of our domestic stores, which leverages our DIY infrastructure, and we're building our business with national, regional and local accounts.

我們本季度的業績創下了 [連鎖店] 歷史上最高的第一季度每週銷量記錄。我想重申，隨著我們通過贏得新業務和增加我們與現有客戶的錢包份額來增加份額，我們對商業加速計劃的執行繼續帶來非常強勁的結果。我們在大約 88% 的國內商店都有商業計劃，利用我們的 DIY 基礎設施，我們正在與國家、地區和地方客戶建立業務。

This quarter, we opened 117 net new programs finishing with 5459 total programs. As i have said previously, commercial growth will lead the way in FY '23, and we continue to deliver on our goal of becoming a faster-growing business. Our strategy and execution continue to drive share gains and position us well in the marketplace, delivering quality parts, particularly with our Duralast brand, improved assortments in local market competitive pricing and providing exceptional service has enabled us to drive double-digit sales growth for the past 9 quarters.

本季度，我們淨開新項目 117 個，項目總數達到 5459 個。正如我之前所說，商業增長將引領 23 財年，我們將繼續實現成為增長更快的企業的目標。我們的戰略和執行繼續推動份額增長並在市場中佔據有利地位，提供優質零件，尤其是我們的 Duralast 品牌，在當地市場具有競爭力的價格改進產品組合，並提供卓越的服務，使我們能夠推動兩位數的銷售增長過去 9 個季度。

In addition, we are increasing the penetration of our market-leading ALLDATA shop management, diagnostic and repair software suite to new and existing commercial customers, which gives us yet another key competitive advantage. And as I've noted on past calls, our Mega-Hub strategy is driving strong performance and position us for an even brighter future in our commercial and retail businesses.

此外，我們正在提高我們市場領先的 ALLDATA 商店管理、診斷和維修軟件套件對新老商業客戶的滲透率，這給了我們另一個關鍵的競爭優勢。正如我在過去的電話會議中指出的那樣，我們的 Mega-Hub 戰略正在推動強勁的業績，並使我們在商業和零售業務中擁有更加光明的未來。

Let me add a little more color on our progress. As we've discussed over the last several quarters, our Mega-Hub strategy has given us tremendous momentum. We now have 80 Mega-Hub locations with 2 new ones opened in Q1. While I mentioned a moment ago, the commercial weekly sales per program average was $16,000, the 80 Mega-Hubs averaged significantly higher sales and are growing much faster than the balance of the commercial footprint.

讓我為我們的進展添加更多色彩。正如我們在過去幾個季度討論的那樣，我們的 Mega-Hub 戰略給了我們巨大的動力。我們現在有 80 個 Mega-Hub 地點，其中 2 個在第一季度新開。雖然我剛才提到過，每個節目的商業周平均銷售額為 16,000 美元，但 80 個 Mega-Hub 的平均銷售額要高得多，而且增長速度遠快於商業足蹟的平衡。

As a reminder, our Mega-Hubs typically carry 80,000 to 110,000 SKUs and drives tremendous sales lift inside the store box as well as serve as an expanded assortment source for other stores. The expansion of coverage and parts availability continues to deliver a meaningful sales lift to both our commercial and DIY business. What we're learning is that not only are these assets performing well individually, but the fulfillment capability for the surrounding AutoZone stores gives our customers access to thousands of additional parts and lift the entire network.

提醒一下，我們的 Mega-Hubs 通常攜帶 80,000 到 110,000 個 SKU，並在商店內推動巨大的銷售提升，並作為其他商店的擴展分類來源。覆蓋範圍和零件可用性的擴大繼續為我們的商業和 DIY 業務帶來有意義的銷售提升。我們正在學習的是，不僅這些資產單獨表現良好，而且周圍 AutoZone 商店的履行能力使我們的客戶能夠獲得數以千計的額外零件並提升整個網絡。

This strategy is working. And we remain committed to our objective to reach 200 Mega-Hubs supplemented by 300 regular Hubs. We're targeting at least 25 new Mega-Hubs in FY '23. We continue to leverage sophisticated data analytics to expand our market reach, placing more parts closer to our customer and improving our delivery times. We're determined to build on our strong momentum. Our domestic retail business comp was 2.6% in Q1. The business has been remarkably resilient as growth rates accelerated from Q4, and we have managed to continue to deliver positive comp growth despite underlying market headwinds.

這個策略正在奏效。我們仍然致力於實現我們的目標，即達到 200 個 Mega-Hub，輔之以 300 個常規 Hub。我們的目標是在 23 財年至少有 25 個新的 Mega-Hub。我們繼續利用複雜的數據分析來擴大我們的市場範圍，使更多零件更接近我們的客戶並縮短我們的交貨時間。我們決心在強勁勢頭的基礎上再接再厲。我們的國內零售業務在第一季度為 2.6%。隨著增長率從第四季度開始加速，該業務具有顯著的彈性，儘管存在潛在的市場逆風，我們仍設法繼續實現正增長。

As Bill mentioned, we saw traffic down 4% from last year's levels. However, they improved sequentially from Q4, where traffic was down 7%. We also saw 7% ticket growth as we continue to raise prices in an inflationary environment. Our DIY continued to strengthen competitively behind our growth initiatives. In addition, on a macro basis, the market is experiencing a growing and an [aging] car parts and a still challenging new and used car sales market for our customers.

正如 Bill 提到的，我們看到流量比去年的水平下降了 4%。然而，他們從第四季度開始連續改善，當時流量下降了 7%。隨著我們在通貨膨脹環境中繼續提高價格，我們還看到了 7% 的票價增長。在我們的增長計劃背後，我們的 DIY 繼續增強競爭力。此外，從宏觀上看，市場正在經歷一個不斷增長和[老化]的汽車零部件，以及對我們的客戶來說仍然具有挑戰性的新車和二手車銷售市場。

These dynamics, pricing, growth initiatives and macro car park tailwinds have driven a positive comp despite tough comparisons from last year's stimulus injection and consumer discretionary spending pressure from overall inflation in the economy. Our sales were steady through the quarter, and we're forecasting a resilient DIY business in 'FY 23. Now I'll say a few words regarding our international businesses. We continue to be pleased with the progress we're making in Mexico and Brazil.

儘管與去年的刺激注入和經濟整體通脹帶來的消費者可自由支配支出壓力進行了嚴格的比較，但這些動態、定價、增長舉措和宏觀停車場順風推動了積極的競爭。我們的銷售額在本季度保持穩定，我們預測 23 財年的 DIY 業務具有彈性。現在我將就我們的國際業務說幾句話。我們繼續對我們在墨西哥和巴西取得的進展感到高興。

During the quarter, we opened 3 new stores in Mexico to finish with 706 stores and 4 new stores in Brazil ending with 76. On a constant currency basis, we saw accelerated sales growth in both countries, in fact, at higher growth rates than we saw overall. We remain committed to our store opening schedules in both markets and expect both countries to be significant contributors to sales and earnings growth in the future.

本季度，我們在墨西哥開設了 3 家新店，總數達到 706 家，在巴西開設了 4 家新店，總數達到 76 家。按固定匯率計算，我們看到這兩個國家的銷售額都在加速增長，事實上，增長率高於我們整體看了。我們將繼續致力於我們在這兩個市場的開店時間表，並期望這兩個國家都能成為未來銷售和收入增長的重要貢獻者。

With 11% of our total store base currently outside of the U.S. and a commitment to continue expansion in a disciplined way, international growth will be an attractive and meaningful contributor to AutoZone's future growth. As Bill mentioned earlier, we expect significant growth in store count internationally over the next 5 years, and we are excited about the future. In the spirit of our growth in store count outside of the U.S., we will celebrate our chain's 7,000th store opening this week in Leon, Mexico.

我們目前有 11% 的門店總數在美國以外，並承諾以有紀律的方式繼續擴張，國際增長將成為 AutoZone 未來增長的一個有吸引力和有意義的貢獻者。正如 Bill 之前提到的，我們預計未來 5 年國際門店數量將顯著增長，我們對未來感到興奮。本著我們在美國以外門店數量增長的精神，我們將於本週在墨西哥萊昂慶祝我們連鎖店的第 7,000 家門店開業。

I know Bill looks forward to being there to celebrate this historic event with our AutoZoners, and we couldn't be more proud to celebrate this occasion with our Mexico team. Now let me spend a few minutes on the rest of the P&L and gross margins. For the quarter, our gross margin was down 242 basis driven primarily by a 203 basis point headwind stemming from a noncash $81 million LIFO charge. The difference for the quarter, a decline of 39 basis points in gross margin, was primarily driven by our faster-growing lower gross margin commercial business.

我知道 Bill 期待與我們的 AutoZoners 一起慶祝這一歷史性事件，我們非常自豪能夠與我們的墨西哥團隊一起慶祝這一時刻。現在讓我花幾分鐘談談其餘的損益和毛利率。本季度，我們的毛利率下降了 242 個基點，這主要是由於 8100 萬美元的非現金 LIFO 費用導致的 203 個基點的逆風。本季度的差異，毛利率下降了 39 個基點，這主要是由於我們增長更快、毛利率較低的商業業務所致。

With this quarter's LIFO charge, we've taken our LIFO credit balance to $96 million. As I mentioned last quarter, hyperinflation and freight costs are the primary driver for the charges. We're still modeling for higher freight costs through the end of the calendar year, and we anticipate approximately $40 million in LIFO charges during the second quarter. Both the first quarter actuals and our second quarter outlook are below the outlook we gave last quarter as freight costs continue to abate over the past few months.

加上本季度的 LIFO 費用，我們的 LIFO 貸方餘額已達到 9600 萬美元。正如我在上個季度提到的，惡性通貨膨脹和運費是收費的主要驅動因素。我們仍在為到日曆年年底的更高運費建模，我們預計第二季度的 LIFO 費用約為 4000 萬美元。由於過去幾個月運費持續下降，第一季度的實際情況和我們的第二季度展望均低於我們上一季度的展望。

As spot rates have come down, we've also renegotiated some of our long-term contracts, and the lower costs are reflected in our outlook. We expect freight costs to continue to abate, and I want to remind everyone that at some point, we expect to see these quarterly charges reverse, and we will begin to rebuild our LIFO reserve balance. We plan to take P&L gains only to the extent of the charges we've taken thus far.

隨著即期匯率的下降，我們還重新談判了一些長期合同，成本的降低反映在我們的前景中。我們預計運費將繼續下降，我想提醒大家，在某個時候，我們預計這些季度費用會逆轉，我們將開始重建我們的 LIFO 儲備餘額。我們計劃僅在我們迄今收取的費用範圍內收取損益收益。

And after we've taken P&L gains that fully reverse the charges we've incurred, we expect to rebuild our LIFO reserve balances as we've done historically. Moving on to operating expenses. Our expenses were up 8.6% versus last year's Q1 as SG&A as a percentage of sales were flat with last year. Our operating expense growth has been purposeful as we continue to invest at an accelerated pace in IT and payroll to underpin our growth initiatives. These investments are expected to pay dividends and customer experience, speed and productivity.

在我們獲得完全抵消我們產生的費用的損益收益之後，我們希望像我們過去所做的那樣重建我們的 LIFO 儲備餘額。繼續經營費用。我們的費用比去年第一季度增長了 8.6%，因為 SG&A 佔銷售額的百分比與去年持平。我們的運營費用增長是有目的的，因為我們繼續加快對 IT 和工資單的投資，以支持我們的增長計劃。預計這些投資將帶來紅利和客戶體驗、速度和生產力。

We're committed to being disciplined on SG&A growth as we move forward, and we will manage expenses in line with sales growth over time. Moving to the rest of the P&L. EBIT for the quarter was $723 million, down 4.2% versus the prior year's quarter. Excluding the $81 million LIFO charge, EBIT would have been up 6.6% over last year's quarter. Interest expense for the quarter was $57.7 million up 33.4 from Q1 a year ago as our debt outstanding at the end of the quarter was $6.3 billion versus $5.3 billion in Q1 in last year, and our variable rates have increased significantly.

隨著我們的前進，我們致力於在 SG&A 增長方面受到約束，我們將根據銷售增長來管理費用。轉到損益表的其餘部分。本季度的息稅前利潤為 7.23 億美元，比上年同期下降 4.2%。不包括 8100 萬美元的後進先出費用，息稅前利潤比去年同期增長 6.6%。本季度的利息支出為 5770 萬美元，比一年前的第一季度增加了 33.4 美元，因為我們在本季度末的未償債務為 63 億美元，而去年第一季度為 53 億美元，而且我們的浮動利率顯著增加。

We're planning interest in the $60 million range for the second quarter of fiscal 2023 versus $42.5 million in last year's second quarter. Higher debt levels and expected higher bar across the curve are driving this increase. For the quarter, our tax rate was 18.9% and below last year's first quarter rate of 21.9%. This quarter's rate benefited 446 basis points from stock options exercised, while last year, it benefited 159 basis points.

我們計劃在 2023 財年第二季度產生 6000 萬美元的利息，而去年第二季度為 4250 萬美元。更高的債務水平和預期更高的曲線標準正在推動這一增長。本季度，我們的稅率為 18.9%，低於去年第一季度的 21.9%。本季度的利率因股票期權的行使而受益 446 個基點，而去年則受益 159 個基點。

For the second quarter of FY 2023, we suggest investors model us at approximately 23.4% before any assumption on credits due to stock option exercises. Moving to net income and EPS. Net income for the quarter was $539 million, down 2.9% versus last year's first quarter. Our diluted share count of $19.6 million was 9.1% lower than last year's first quarter. The combination of lower net income offset by lower share count drove earnings per share for the quarter to $27.45, up 6.9% over the prior year's first quarter.

對於 2023 財年第二季度，我們建議投資者在因股票期權行使而對信貸做出任何假設之前，將我們的模型假設為大約 23.4%。轉向淨收入和每股收益。本季度淨收入為 5.39 億美元，比去年第一季度下降 2.9%。我們的攤薄後股份數為 1,960 萬美元，比去年第一季度減少 9.1%。較低的淨收入被較低的股票數量所抵消，使本季度每股收益達到 27.45 美元，比去年第一季度增長 6.9%。

Excluding the LIFO charge, our net income would have increased 8.3%, and our EPS growth would have been 19.2%. Now let me talk about our free cash flow for Q1. For the fourth quarter, we generated $794 million of operating cash flow and spent $114 million in CapEx allowing us to generate $680 million in free cash flow versus $676 million a year ago. We expect to continue being in an incredibly strong cash flow generator going forward, and we remain committed to returning meaningful amounts of cash to our shareholders.

排除後進先出費用，我們的淨收入將增長 8.3%，每股收益增長將達到 19.2%。現在讓我談談我們第一季度的自由現金流。第四季度，我們產生了 7.94 億美元的運營現金流，並花費了 1.14 億美元的資本支出，使我們產生了 6.8 億美元的自由現金流，而一年前為 6.76 億美元。我們希望在未來繼續成為一個非常強大的現金流產生者，我們仍然致力於向我們的股東返還大量現金。

Regarding our balance sheet, our liquidity position remains very strong. Our leverage ratios remain below our historic norms. Our inventory per store was up 14.4% versus Q1 last year, and total inventory increased 17.6% over the same period last year, driven primarily by inflation, our growth initiatives and in-stock recoveries. Net inventory, defined as merchandise inventories less accounts payable on a per store basis was a negative $249,000 versus negative $207,000 last year and negative $240,000 last quarter.

關於我們的資產負債表，我們的流動性狀況仍然非常強勁。我們的槓桿率仍然低於我們的歷史標準。我們每家商店的庫存比去年第一季度增長了 14.4%，總庫存比去年同期增長了 17.6%，這主要是受通貨膨脹、我們的增長計劃和庫存恢復的推動。淨庫存（定義為每家商店的商品庫存減去應付賬款）為負 249,000 美元，而去年為負 207,000 美元，上季度為負 240,000 美元。

As a result, accounts payable as a percent of gross inventory finished the quarter at 131% versus last year's Q1 of 129.4%. Lastly, I'll spend a moment on capital allocation and our share repurchase program. We repurchased $900 million of AutoZone stock in the quarter. And at quarter end, we had just under $2.7 billion remaining under our share buyback authorization. The strong earnings, balance sheet and powerful free cash we generated this year has allowed us to buy back almost 2% of the shares outstanding at the start of the fiscal year.

因此，本季度末應付賬款佔總庫存的百分比為 131%，而去年第一季度為 129.4%。最後，我將花點時間談談資本配置和我們的股票回購計劃。我們在本季度回購了 9 億美元的 AutoZone 股票。在季度末，我們的股票回購授權剩餘不到 27 億美元。我們今年產生的強勁收益、資產負債表和強大的自由現金使我們能夠在本財年開始時回購近 2% 的已發行股票。

We have bought back well over 90% of the shares outstanding of our stock since our buyback inception in 1998, while investing in our existing assets and growing our business. We remain committed to this disciplined capital allocation approach that will enable us to invest in the business and return meaningful amounts of cash to shareholders. We finished Q1 at 2.2x EBITDA, which is below our historical objective of 2.5x.

自 1998 年開始回購以來，我們已經回購了超過 90% 的已發行股票，同時投資於我們的現有資產並發展我們的業務。我們仍然致力於這種有紀律的資本分配方法，這將使我們能夠投資於業務並向股東返還大量現金。我們以 2.2 倍的 EBITDA 結束了第一季度，低於我們 2.5 倍的歷史目標。

However, we remain committed to this objective, and we expect to return to the 2.5x target during FY '23. To wrap up, we remain committed to driving long-term shareholder value by investing in our growth initiatives, driving robust earnings in cash and returning excess cash to our shareholders. Our strategy continues to work. We're growing our market share and improving our competitive positioning in a disciplined way.

但是，我們仍然致力於實現這一目標，我們希望在 23 財年期間回到 2.5 倍的目標。總而言之，我們仍然致力於通過投資於我們的增長計劃、推動強勁的現金收益並將多餘現金返還給我們的股東來推動長期股東價值。我們的策略繼續奏效。我們正在以一種有紀律的方式擴大我們的市場份額並提高我們的競爭地位。

And as we look forward to FY '23, we're bullish on our growth prospects behind a resilient DIY business and fast-growing commercial and international businesses that are growing considerable share. I continue to have tremendous confidence in our industry, our business and the opportunity to drive long-term shareholder value. Before I turn it back to Bill, on December 5, we celebrated Bill's 28th year anniversary with the company. And I want to say congratulations to you, Bill, and it's been a remarkable run.

當我們期待 23 財年時，我們看好我們在彈性 DIY 業務和快速增長的商業和國際業務背後的增長前景，這些業務的份額正在增長。我繼續對我們的行業、我們的業務以及推動長期股東價值的機會充滿信心。在我把它轉回 Bill 之前，12 月 5 日，我們慶祝了 Bill 在公司工作 28 週年。我想向你表示祝賀，比爾，這是一次非凡的比賽。

Thanks, Jamere. Fiscal 2023 is off to a solid start, but we must continue to be focused on superior customer service and flawless execution. Execution and our culture, a culture of always putting the customer first is what defines us. As Jamere said a moment ago, we continue to be bullish on our industry and, in particular, on our own opportunities for the new year. Our team continues to work collaboratively with our suppliers. And together, we've done a good job improving our in-stock position.

謝謝，賈米爾。 2023 財年開局良好，但我們必須繼續專注於卓越的客戶服務和完美的執行。執行和我們的文化，始終把客戶放在第一位的文化是我們的定義。正如 Jamere 剛才所說，我們繼續看好我們的行業，尤其是我們自己在新的一年的機會。我們的團隊繼續與我們的供應商合作。我們一起在改善庫存狀況方面做得很好。

But we still are a couple of hundred basis points below our historical norms. We're also being smart about adding new inventory coverage. We're meeting the ever-growing needs of our customers, especially our commercial customers by being able to say, yes, we've got it. It's a requirement. For the remainder of fiscal '23, we are launching some very exciting initiatives. Not only will we be opening roughly 200 stores across the U.S., Mexico and Brazil, but we'll be opening more Mega-Hubs and Hub stores.

但我們仍然比我們的歷史標準低幾百個基點。我們也很聰明地增加了新的庫存覆蓋範圍。我們正在滿足客戶不斷增長的需求，尤其是我們的商業客戶能夠說，是的，我們已經得到它。這是一個要求。在 23 財年的剩餘時間裡，我們將推出一些非常令人興奮的舉措。我們不僅將在美國、墨西哥和巴西開設大約 200 家商店，而且還將開設更多的 Mega-Hubs 和 Hub 商店。

And we're focused on initiatives in place to continue driving strong performance in both our retail and commercial businesses. For the remainder of fiscal 2023, we are keenly focused on relentless execution. We will not accept shortcuts. Our vendors must return to providing us the right amount of merchandise at the right time. Every store has to be staffed right every hour of every day. And our processes need to function correctly, always.

我們專注於現有的舉措，以繼續推動我們零售和商業業務的強勁表現。在 2023 財年的剩餘時間裡，我們將專注於不懈的執行。我們不會接受捷徑。我們的供應商必須在正確的時間重新為我們提供正確數量的商品。每家商店都必須每天每小時都配備人員。我們的流程需要始終正確運行。

We have to meet our store opening goals and time lines. Simply put, we have to focus on exceptional execution. It has made a difference for us for decades. We know that investors will ultimately measure us on what our future cash flows look like 3 to 5 years from now, and we very much welcome that challenge. I continue to be bullish on our industry and, in particular, on AutoZone. Now we'd like to open up the call for questions.

我們必須滿足我們的開店目標和時間表。簡而言之，我們必須專注於出色的執行力。幾十年來，它對我們產生了影響。我們知道，投資者最終將根據我們未來 3 到 5 年後的現金流情況來衡量我們，我們非常歡迎這一挑戰。我繼續看好我們的行業，尤其是 AutoZone。現在我們想打開問題的電話。

(Operator Instructions). And the first question this morning is coming from Brian Nagel from Oppenheimer.

（操作員說明）。今天早上的第一個問題來自 Oppenheimer 的 Brian Nagel。

So the first question I have, just with respect to the freight costs, Jamere, you talked about this in your comments. And you mentioned the LIFO issues. But I guess the question I have is as we think about your freight costs now and what you're seeing, where are you now tracking, say, versus pre-pandemic? And then even maybe putting some of the accounting noise aside, at what point could this become a tailwind to gross margins as it really starts to work through the P&L?

所以我的第一個問題是關於運費，Jamere，你在評論中談到了這一點。你提到了後進先出問題。但我想我的問題是，當我們考慮您現在的運費以及您所看到的情況時，您現在在哪裡跟踪，比如說，與大流行前相比？然後甚至可能將一些會計噪音放在一邊，在什麼時候這會成為毛利率的順風，因為它真的開始通過損益表發揮作用？

Yes. Thanks, Brian. International freight rates are back at pre-pandemic levels. And one of the things that we discussed on last quarter's call was this notion that during the height of the pandemic to secure capacity, we entered into some longer-term contracts. We're now in a position where as the spot rates have come down, we've renegotiated some of those contracts and we have a pretty bullish outlook on where international freight rates are going to be for the balance of the year.

是的。謝謝，布萊恩。國際運費回到大流行前的水平。我們在上個季度的電話會議上討論的其中一件事是，在大流行病最嚴重的時候為了確保產能，我們簽訂了一些長期合同。我們現在所處的位置是，隨著即期運價下降，我們已經重新談判了其中一些合同，並且我們對今年餘下時間的國際運費走勢持樂觀態度。

Domestically, rates are still a little bit high. And as we work our way through the year. We expect those to start to abate a little bit. But domestically, the rates are still a little bit higher than what we would have anticipated. As it relates to LIFO, as you saw in the second quarter, we have lowered our outlook to be about a $40 million charge. And you could see in the back half of the year that abating completely.

在國內，利率仍然有點高。在我們努力度過這一年的過程中。我們預計這些會開始有所減弱。但在國內，利率仍然比我們預期的要高一點。由於它與後進先出法有關，正如您在第二季度看到的那樣，我們已將前景下調至約 4000 萬美元的費用。你可以在今年下半年看到完全減弱。

I won't be date certain about when we'll see this flip to gains rolling back through the P&L. But as we said last quarter, it could take the equivalent of 3 or 4 quarters before it all rolls through. And we see the gains come back through the P&L that offset the charges that we've taken. So our outlook is positive, and we're managing the business accordingly.

我不確定我們何時會看到這種轉變，收益回滾到損益表中。但正如我們上個季度所說，它可能需要相當於 3 或 4 個季度才能全部通過。我們看到收益通過損益表恢復，抵消了我們所承擔的費用。所以我們的前景是積極的，我們正在相應地管理業務。

Can I jump in and add a little color on one other element, not on LIFO, but on our normal product cost. Many of those freight costs are being capitalized as part of the inventory cost. So we're going to have elevated product cost outside of LIFO for -- in a business that's turning 1.5x a year for 9 months or a year, whatever the case may be, once those freight costs abate. So we'll continue to have pressure on product cost for foreseeable -- for an extended period of time.

我可以加入並在另一個元素上添加一點顏色嗎，不是在後進先出法上，而是在我們的正常產品成本上。其中許多運費被資本化為庫存成本的一部分。因此，我們將在後進先出法之外提高產品成本——在一家每年 1.5 倍，持續 9 個月或一年的企業中，無論情況如何，一旦運費下降。因此，我們將在可預見的很長一段時間內繼續對產品成本施加壓力。

That's very helpful. I appreciate the color there. And then as a quick follow-up. With respect to traffic, and also going back to the comments you made, so it's -- I think what you said was that the traffic in the stores, while still down in Q1, had improved from Q4, any comments on maybe the trajectory through the quarter? And then how are you thinking about traffic as we move into -- continue to progress through '23 here?

這很有幫助。我欣賞那裡的顏色。然後作為快速跟進。關於客流量，還要回到你發表的評論，所以它是 - 我想你所說的是商店的客流量雖然在第一季度仍然下降，但從第四季度開始有所改善，任何關於軌蹟的評論季度？然後你如何看待我們進入的交通 - 繼續在這里通過'23取得進展？

Yes, Brian. So when we're talking about traffic, we're predominantly talking about -- we're talking about our DIY business. I will be first to tell you that our DIY strength in Q1 was stronger than we expected, considerably stronger than we expected. And yes, our traffic counts are down 4%, but that was meaningfully better than -- I believe it was 8% in Q4. Remember, and you've been following this industry for a long time. There is a natural drag on DIY traffic counts that have been happening for 25 years.

是的，布萊恩。因此，當我們談論流量時，我們主要是在談論——我們在談論我們的 DIY 業務。我首先告訴大家，我們在Q1的DIY實力比我們預期的要強，比我們預期的要強很多。是的，我們的流量下降了 4%，但比第四季度的 8% 要好得多。請記住，您已經關注這個行業很長時間了。已經發生了 25 年的 DIY 流量計數自然會受到拖累。

As you know, technology has gotten better and better on the products that we sell, and so they last longer. But there's also inherent inflation in those product costs as technologies are added to the products. So a 4% traffic decline in the DIY business is not abnormal in normal times. And to see it down 4% after the growth that we've seen over the last 3 years was very encouraging to us.

如您所知，技術在我們銷售的產品上變得越來越好，因此它們的使用壽命更長。但隨著技術被添加到產品中，這些產品成本也存在固有的通貨膨脹。所以DIY業務4%的流量下滑在平時也不算異常。在我們看到過去 3 年的增長之後，看到它下降了 4%，這對我們來說非常令人鼓舞。

Your next question is coming from Simeon Gutman from Morgan Stanley.

你的下一個問題來自摩根士丹利的 Simeon Gutman。

Bill, congratulations on the anniversary. My question is actually a follow-up to what you just mentioned, Bill. The traffic or I guess we will look at -- we try to call it units, I don't know if you would say that they're synonymous. It did look like it improved sequentially on a single-year basis. We don't see what the stacks have looked like, I think, on traffic or units.

比爾，祝賀你結婚週年紀念日。我的問題實際上是你剛才提到的問題的後續問題，比爾。流量，或者我想我們會看看——我們試著稱它為單位，我不知道你是否會說它們是同義詞。它看起來確實在一年的基礎上連續改善。我認為，我們看不到堆棧在流量或單位上的樣子。

And curious if underlying stacks are also improving such that this is the rebasing and we are in the all clear in terms of units probably done reverting and the negative numbers are normalizing back to that negative 4% that you mentioned?

好奇底層堆棧是否也在改善，以至於這就是變基，我們很清楚單位可能已經完成恢復，負數正在正常化回到你提到的負 4%？

Well, that's a strong statement, Simeon, in the all clear. I think we still have a level of anxiety on what the next year or so is going to look like coming off of unprecedented growth over the last 3 years. If we were on this call last year, we had expectations that our sales -- our same-store sales would decline, and they didn't. They were up considerably, and they were positive in DIY.

好吧，這是一個強有力的聲明，Simeon，毫無疑問。我認為我們仍然對未來 3 年空前增長後的情況感到擔憂。如果我們去年參加這個電話會議，我們預計我們的銷售額——我們的同店銷售額會下降，但他們沒有。他們的漲幅很大，而且他們對 DIY 持積極態度。

Here we are again, comping off a positive DIY number with another positive DIY number. So I think the further we get away from the pandemic and the more resiliency we see in the DIY business, the more confidence we have that the gains that we picked up during the pandemic are sustainable. That said, I wouldn't characterize it as "all clear".

我們又來了，用另一個積極的 DIY 數字來抵消一個積極的 DIY 數字。因此，我認為我們離大流行病越遠，DIY 業務越有彈性，我們就越有信心在大流行病期間取得的收益是可持續的。也就是說，我不會將其描述為“完全清楚”。

Yes. The only thing I'd add to that is when we look at our business in our bread and butter failure and maintenance categories, our volume trends have been strong, as Bill mentioned in his prepared comments. The relative inelasticity of demand there gives us a lot of confidence about that business. But in our discretionary categories, we were down 2.5%. And if you think about where consumers are feeling the most pressure today and where that pressure actually manifests itself, it manifests itself in discretionary purchases.

是的。我唯一要補充的是，當我們在我們的麵包和黃油故障和維護類別中查看我們的業務時，我們的數量趨勢一直很強勁，正如比爾在他準備好的評論中提到的那樣。那裡需求的相對缺乏彈性使我們對該業務充滿信心。但在我們的可自由支配類別中，我們下降了 2.5%。如果你想一想當今消費者在哪些方面感受到的壓力最大，以及這種壓力實際體現在哪些方面，它就會體現在可自由支配的購買中。

And so the fact that our discretionary business trends actually improved quarter-over-quarter, give us a lot of confidence about the future. That being said, there's still a lot of volatility and uncertainty, as Bill mentioned. We'll continue to manage our business accordingly.

因此，我們的可自由支配業務趨勢實際上比上一季度有所改善，這讓我們對未來充滿信心。話雖這麼說，正如比爾提到的那樣，仍然存在很多波動性和不確定性。我們將繼續相應地管理我們的業務。

And then my follow-up is on used car prices. The empirical evidence tied to the industry's growth isn't great, statistically speaking. But it certainly has been a benefit. And it still feels like the industry is benefiting from the surge that we've seen. Are you finding there's sensitivity now on the way down? Do you feel like we're still benefiting from the surge? And then, if so, when does that tail off? And I don't know if it becomes a headwind or not in your minds?

然後我的後續行動是二手車價格。從統計學上講，與該行業增長相關的經驗證據並不充分。但這肯定是有好處的。而且仍然感覺該行業正在從我們所看到的激增中受益。你發現現在在下降的過程中有敏感性嗎？你覺得我們仍然從激增中受益嗎？然後，如果是這樣，那什麼時候結束？我不知道這是否會成為您心中的逆風？

I look at the macro in a pretty broad way. You've got a couple of dynamics going. One, you have an aging and growing car park. And used car prices, while they've started to abate, they're still up almost 30% over the last 2 years. New car prices are up closer to 20%. And you're in an environment where you have rising interest rates that have made financing more challenging. So we do believe that it is still a little bit of a tailwind for our business.

我以非常廣泛的方式看待宏觀。你有一些動態。第一，您有一個老化且不斷增長的停車場。二手車價格雖然開始下降，但在過去兩年中仍上漲了近 30%。新車價格上漲近 20%。而且您所處的環境中利率不斷上升，這使融資更具挑戰性。所以我們確實相信這對我們的業務來說仍然有點順風。

And more importantly, we've been managing our business to take advantage of all of the robust market opportunities that we have, and this is just one portion of that. I think as we've talked about our business and the growth that we're seeing, it's not just that macro strength, but inflation has been our friend to some extent, driving higher prices, volumes held up under those dynamics.

更重要的是，我們一直在管理我們的業務，以利用我們擁有的所有強大的市場機會，而這只是其中的一部分。我認為，當我們談論我們的業務和我們所看到的增長時，這不僅僅是宏觀力量，而且通貨膨脹在某種程度上一直是我們的朋友，推動價格上漲，在這些動態下保持銷量。

And our growth initiatives have helped us create a faster-growing business in both DIY and DIFM. So when you take the combination of what you're seeing from inflation, from our growth initiatives, from the work that we've done with Hubs and Mega-Hubs and this macro strength, those are all the things that are in the soup, if you will, in terms of how our business is growing.

我們的增長計劃幫助我們在 DIY 和 DIFM 領域創造了增長更快的業務。因此，當你把通貨膨脹、我們的增長計劃、我們對 Hubs 和 Mega-Hubs 所做的工作以及這種宏觀力量結合起來時，這些都是湯裡的東西，如果您願意，就我們的業務增長方式而言。

Your next question is coming from Kate McShane from Goldman Sachs.

你的下一個問題來自高盛的 Kate McShane。

You had mentioned at the beginning of the call about your improving in-stock position. I wondered if you could talk a little bit more about that and where you see yourself by the end of '23 from an in-stock position? And then I'll follow up with my second question.

您在通話開始時曾提到您的庫存狀況有所改善。我想知道你是否可以多談談這個問題，以及你在 23 年底從庫存位置看到自己的位置？然後我將跟進我的第二個問題。

Sure, Kate. Our in-stock position today is meaningfully better than it was at this time last year -- well, 18 months ago. It's up a little bit from this time last year. It's up a little bit from Q4, but we're still about 200 basis points below our historical expectations and experiences. When will it resolve? It still -- frankly, Kate, I would have thought it had been resolved by now. But there are certain product categories that are still a challenge, and we're looking to continue to find new sources in some of those categories and new geographies in some of those categories to help us get past it. But we feel pretty good about where we are. We feel very good about where we are competitively.

當然，凱特。我們今天的庫存狀況明顯好於去年這個時候——好吧，18 個月前。與去年的這個時候相比有所上升。它比第四季度略有上升，但我們仍比我們的歷史預期和經驗低約 200 個基點。什麼時候解決？它仍然— 坦率地說，凱特，我本以為它現在已經解決了。但某些產品類別仍然是一個挑戰，我們希望繼續在其中一些類別中尋找新資源，並在其中一些類別中尋找新的地理區域，以幫助我們克服困難。但是我們對自己的位置感覺很好。我們對自己的競爭力感到非常滿意。

And is there an expectation that you'll want to do better than the 200 basis points of where you are below those expectations? And in terms of how much your sourcing has changed, has it been meaningful since where you used to source pre-pandemic?

是否期望您比低於這些期望的 200 個基點做得更好？就您的採購發生了多少變化而言，自從您過去在大流行前採購來源以來是否有意義？

Yes. Our sourcing has not changed a significant amount at this point in time. We do have some objectives to diversify the geographies with which we source in basically every category. As far as having higher expectations for in-stock, right before the pandemic, we'd reached an all-time high, which was 100 basis points ahead of where we were historically. So our supply chain team -- need to remind them that we need to break our old high, which was 100 basis points higher. So that would be about 300 basis points ahead of where we are right now. And I think they'll get there. It may take a little more time.

是的。目前，我們的採購沒有發生重大變化。我們確實有一些目標，使我們基本上在每個類別中採購的地域多樣化。就對庫存的更高期望而言，就在大流行之前，我們達到了歷史最高水平，比歷史水平高出 100 個基點。因此，我們的供應鏈團隊——需要提醒他們，我們需要打破之前的高點，即高出 100 個基點。因此，這將比我們現在的水平高出約 300 個基點。我認為他們會到達那裡。可能需要更多時間。

Your next question is coming from Chris Horvers from JPMorgan.

你的下一個問題來自摩根大通的 Chris Horvers。

So my first question is just to check the math. On the LIFO, the headwinds being halved in the second quarter. So I guess, directionally, should we think about your gross margin headwind in the second quarter being roughly half of what you experienced in the first quarter?

所以我的第一個問題只是檢查數學。在 LIFO 上，第二季度的逆風減半。所以我想，從方向上講，我們是否應該考慮你第二季度的毛利率逆風大約是你第一季度經歷的一半？

Yes. I mean we expect LIFO charge in the second quarter to be somewhere in the $40 million-ish range, if you will. And so that will be significantly less pressure from a gross margin standpoint.

是的。我的意思是，如果您願意的話，我們預計第二季度的 LIFO 費用將在 4000 萬美元左右。因此，從毛利率的角度來看，這將大大減輕壓力。

Got it. And then is -- as a follow-up to that and then a question on the SG&A side, I mean, is there -- other than the mix headwinds of Do-It-For-Me in gross margin, is there anything else to consider? And then on the SG&A side, SG&A dollar growth year-over-year has been running in this 8% to 10% range over the past 4 quarters. How much of that is wage and benefit cost inflation versus investing during the good times? And then going forward, how are you thinking about inflation and wages and SG&A in the context of your overall leverage point?

知道了。然後是——作為對此的後續行動，然後是 SG&A 方面的一個問題，我的意思是，是否存在——除了 Do-It-For-Me 在毛利率方面的混合逆風，還有什麼可以解決的嗎？考慮？然後在 SG&A 方面，SG&A 美元的同比增長在過去 4 個季度一直在 8% 到 10% 的範圍內運行。其中有多少是工資和福利成本通脹與繁榮時期的投資？然後展望未來，您如何在整體槓桿點的背景下考慮通貨膨脹和工資以及 SG&A？

Yes. So from an SG&A standpoint, I mean, we're going to continue to grow SG&A in a disciplined way as we create a faster-growing business. As I said, we were flat as a percentage of sales this past quarter. But we've been investing, and we've been investing to maintain high levels of customer service. And we've been investing because many of our growth initiatives, both on the retail and the commercial side of our business, are underpinned by investments in IT.

是的。因此，從 SG&A 的角度來看，我的意思是，隨著我們創建增長更快的業務，我們將繼續以有紀律的方式增長 SG&A。正如我所說，上個季度我們佔銷售額的百分比持平。但我們一直在投資，我們一直在投資以維持高水平的客戶服務。我們一直在進行投資，因為我們在零售和商業方面的許多增長計劃都是以 IT 投資為基礎的。

So IT investments, in particular, are an enabler to what we're doing from a growth standpoint. As you know, wage pressure is a macro labor market issue, and we certainly haven't been immune to those dynamics. Historically, our wages have run in the, call it, the 2% ZIP code. It's been running closer to 5%. And so that's put some pressure on us. But what I'll say about SG&A over time is that we will continue to manage it in line with the top line.

因此，從增長的角度來看，尤其是 IT 投資是我們正在做的事情的推動者。如您所知，工資壓力是一個宏觀勞動力市場問題，我們當然也不能倖免於這些動態。從歷史上看，我們的工資在 2% 的郵政編碼中運行。它一直接近5%。所以這給我們帶來了一些壓力。但隨著時間的推移，關於 SG&A，我要說的是，我們將繼續按照頂線對其進行管理。

We've been opportunistic as our business has grown to invest at an accelerated pace in some areas to support the growth in our business and to maintain great levels of customer service, and we'll continue to be very disciplined about it going forward. And I'm sorry, what was the first part of your question again?

隨著我們的業務增長，我們一直在投機取巧，以加快在某些領域的投資速度，以支持我們的業務增長並保持高水平的客戶服務，我們將繼續對此保持嚴格的紀律。抱歉，您的問題的第一部分又是什麼？

Other than the mix of commercial versus DIY, is there any other variables that are different here in the second quarter in the context of that LIFO headwind being halved?

除了商業與 DIY 的混合之外，在後進先出逆風減半的情況下，第二季度這裡是否還有其他變量不同？

No. We've said that our faster-growing commercial business is likely going to put 35 to 45 basis points of pressure on our gross margins. You saw that in this quarter. And we continue to expect our commercial business to grow significantly faster than our DIY business. And those are the kinds of headwinds that you'll see from a margin standpoint as we move forward.

不會。我們說過，我們增長更快的商業業務可能會給我們的毛利率帶來 35 到 45 個基點的壓力。你在本季度看到了這一點。我們繼續期望我們的商業業務的增長速度明顯快於我們的 DIY 業務。隨著我們前進，從保證金的角度來看，這些都是你會看到的逆風。

Your next question is coming from Michael Lasser from UBS.

你的下一個問題來自瑞銀的 Michael Lasser。

Bill, your tax in the commercial business remains quite consistent, but it did slow on a 1-year basis. Do you think that's more related to something happening out of AutoZone where the log diminishing returns are taking over such that you're still generating similar amount of incremental sales, but it's just on a larger base? Or is there something happening in the underlying trend of the commercial segment itself?

比爾，你在商業業務中的稅收仍然相當穩定，但它確實在 1 年的基礎上有所放緩。您是否認為這與 AutoZone 發生的事情更相關，在 AutoZone 中，對數收益遞減正在接管，以至於您仍然產生類似數量的增量銷售，但它只是在更大的基礎上？還是商業板塊本身的潛在趨勢發生了什麼？

It's a great question, Michael. And one that, frankly, I'm not sure that I can factually answer. I will start with 15% growth in our commercial business, we are all excited about that, especially coming off of the growth that we've had in the last couple of years. So we are pleased with the performance in our commercial business. It's widespread. The slowdown, the slight slowdown that we've experienced is across the board. It's not national accounts, it's not up and down the street.

這是一個很好的問題，邁克爾。還有一個，坦率地說，我不確定我能否如實回答。我將從我們的商業業務增長 15% 開始，我們對此都很興奮，尤其是在過去幾年的增長之後。因此，我們對我們商業業務的表現感到滿意。它很普遍。放緩，我們經歷的輕微放緩是全面的。這不是國民賬戶，不是大街上的。

It's not our ProVantage customers. We've seen a general slowdown across different customer bases and across geographies. So I don't think that it's anything that we've done at AutoZone. I think it's -- we've grown very fast, and we grew 15% on top of it, and we're pleased with that.

這不是我們的 ProVantage 客戶。我們已經看到不同客戶群和不同地區的普遍放緩。所以我不認為這是我們在 AutoZone 所做的任何事情。我認為這是 - 我們增長非常快，我們增長了 15%，我們對此感到滿意。

And is this now a more realistic run rate? It will still grow double digits? Is it hard to maintain that 20% that you have been achieving? And my follow-up is one of your competitors recently announced that they're going to make some price investments. This comes on the heels of another competitor emulating what you had done and make price investments. At what point should we call this a trend and increased price transparency is just leading to a little bit more price competition within the commercial segment of the auto part retail sector?

這是現在更現實的運行率嗎？它還會增長兩位數嗎？保持你已經達到的 20% 很難嗎？我的後續行動是你的一個競爭對手最近宣布他們將進行一些價格投資。這是在另一個競爭對手效仿您所做的並進行價格投資之後發生的。在什麼時候我們應該稱這是一種趨勢，價格透明度的提高只會導致汽車零部件零售業商業領域內的價格競爭更加激烈？

Yes, I'll leave it to you guys to define the trends that you want to do. What I can tell you is our pricing investments that we made about 18 months ago we had nothing to do with our close-in competitors. They were focused on looking at our value proposition versus the 80% of the market that's outside of our close end competitors, and trying to make sure that we were priced right for the value proposition that we were delivering.

是的，我會留給你們來定義你們想要做的趨勢。我可以告訴你的是，我們在大約 18 個月前進行的定價投資與我們的近距離競爭對手無關。他們專注於研究我們的價值主張與我們的近端競爭對手之外的 80% 的市場，並試圖確保我們的定價適合我們提供的價值主張。

We've been very pleased with that and pleased with we're believing that our outside growth over the last couple of years has been driven not by taking share from our close end competitors by taking share from the broader market. And so I'm not seeing anything by any indications based upon either of our close end competitors, pricing that we see anything very different.

我們對此感到非常高興，並且很高興我們相信過去幾年我們的外部增長不是通過從更廣泛的市場中獲取份額來從我們的終端競爭對手中獲取份額來推動的。因此，基於我們的任何一個近端競爭對手，我沒有看到任何跡象表明我們看到任何非常不同的定價。

Your next question is coming from Daniel Imbro from Stephens.

你的下一個問題來自 Stephens 的 Daniel Imbro。

I wanted to start on the commercial side. Bill, in your prepared remarks, you talked more about some tech investments you're making to make it easier. I think you said easier to do business with you guys. Could you provide more detail on what those initiatives are? And then where are we -- what inning are we in, in terms of the rollout of these different tech programs on the commercial side?

我想從商業方面開始。比爾，在你準備好的發言中，你更多地談到了你正在進行的一些技術投資，以使其變得更容易。我想你說和你們做生意更容易。您能否提供更多有關這些舉措的詳細信息？然後我們在哪裡 - 就在商業方面推出這些不同的技術計劃而言，我們處於什麼階段？

Sure, Daniel. Thank you. One of the things that we've rolled out over the last couple of years is handheld devices for everybody that's in the store, picking the products and everybody that's delivering to a commercial customer. And that helps us ensure that we have the exact right product, and it helps us manage delivery times, which we have brought our delivery times down about 20% since we deployed that technology.

當然，丹尼爾。謝謝你。我們在過去幾年推出的其中一件事是為商店裡的每個人提供手持設備，挑選產品以及向商業客戶交付的每個人。這有助於我們確保我們擁有完全正確的產品，並幫助我們管理交貨時間，自部署該技術以來，我們已將交貨時間縮短了約 20%。

The other big part of it -- and there's a lot of different technology things that we're doing along the way. But the other big one that we've done is really how we interact digitally with our commercial customers and -- from providing them access to invoices to making us more seamless to operate together, just trying to take the pressure points out and make a frictionless transaction with us. The handheld pieces have been deployed. We're continuing to refine the technology.

它的另一大部分——我們正在做很多不同的技術事情。但我們所做的另一件大事實際上是我們如何與我們的商業客戶進行數字化互動——從為他們提供發票訪問權限到讓我們更無縫地一起運營，只是試圖消除壓力點並創造一個無摩擦的環境。與我們交易。手持件已部署。我們正在繼續完善這項技術。

And I suspect that those refinements will probably take up to another year or so. I think the digital integration is less far along. We have more newer ideas that we have yet to embark on, on the digital integration with our customers. And so that's got to probably have 2 or 3 years of legs to it.

我懷疑這些改進可能還需要一年左右的時間。我認為數字集成還沒有那麼遠。在與客戶的數字集成方面，我們還有更多尚未著手的新想法。因此，這可能需要 2 或 3 年的時間。

And then I want to follow up on Chris' question earlier on LIFO. So Jamere, you provided a helpful color on 2Q. But I think in your prepared remarks, you said you expected to recognize some LIFO benefits in the back half of this year that would offset it. So if we just think about the $40 million you're now guiding for 2Q and LIFO headwind, should we assume there's about $120 million of a LIFO benefit that's going to flow through the gross margin line in the back half of the year? And then what would the cadence be that you'd expect to recognize that $120 million benefit?

然後我想跟進克里斯早些時候關於後進先出的問題。所以 Jamere，你在 2Q 上提供了有用的顏色。但我認為在你準備好的發言中，你說過你希望在今年下半年認識到一些 LIFO 的好處，這將抵消它。因此，如果我們只考慮您現在為第二季度和後進先出逆風指導的 4000 萬美元，我們是否應該假設後半年將有大約 1.2 億美元的後進先出收益流經毛利率線？然後，您期望確認 1.2 億美元收益的節奏是什麼？

Yes. Well, there are lots of things that will impact when we actually see the reversal of the charges that we take. The biggest one, as we mentioned, is the pace with which freight comes down, and we get out of some of the contracts that we're in. And as I said before, we won't be date certain about when that actually happens, but we do anticipate that happens. So it's moving in the right direction for us. And given that our inventory turns at, call it, 1.5x, you should expect it to take 2 or 3 quarters potentially for us to have all of those costs work their way through in us to see it turn the other way.

是的。好吧，當我們實際看到我們收取的費用發生逆轉時，會有很多事情會產生影響。正如我們提到的，最大的一個是運費下降的速度，我們退出了我們所簽訂的一些合同。正如我之前所說，我們無法確定實際發生的時間，但我們確實預計會發生這種情況。所以它正朝著我們正確的方向發展。鑑於我們的庫存周轉率為 1.5 倍，您應該預計我們可能需要 2 或 3 個季度才能讓所有這些成本在我們身上發揮作用，才能看到它轉向另一個方向。

So we'll give a more fulsome update on our next quarter call. And as I said before, we'll be very transparent about what we're seeing.

因此，我們將在下一個季度電話會議上提供更全面的更新。正如我之前所說，我們將對我們所看到的情況非常透明。

Your next question is coming from David Bellinger from MKM Partners.

您的下一個問題來自 MKM Partners 的 David Bellinger。

The first one on commercial. It seems like the transaction counts maybe have been a bit slower this quarter. So is there anything to read into that? And what type of consumer or customer activity are you seeing? Is there some type of deferral coming into play? Any other details around the commercial counts would be helpful?

第一個關於商業的。似乎本季度的交易數量可能有點慢。那麼有什麼可以解讀的嗎？您看到什麼類型的消費者或客戶活動？是否有某種類型的延期發揮作用？有關商業計數的任何其他詳細信息會有幫助嗎？

Yes. We're doing a lot of studying on both our retail and commercial customers because if you think about it, this is a pretty unprecedented environment. I know I've never seen inflation rates in the upper single digits and lower double digits. So we're paying particular attention to what customer behaviors are happening. As a reminder -- and we certainly have more experience in the DIY business than we do in the commercial business, in the last economic shocks, the last 4 economic shocks in the U.S., our business has significantly outperformed normal periods of time.

是的。我們正在對我們的零售和商業客戶進行大量研究，因為如果你仔細想想，這是一個前所未有的環境。我知道我從未見過高個位數和低兩位數的通貨膨脹率。因此，我們特別關注正在發生的客戶行為。提醒一下——我們在 DIY 業務方面的經驗肯定比我們在商業業務方面的經驗更多，在最近的經濟衝擊中，在美國的最後 4 次經濟衝擊中，我們的業務明顯優於正常時期。

So we're monitoring that to make sure we understand, particularly what's going on with the low-end consumer. And then I think the expectation -- and we don't have near the evidence here at this point in time, but I believe that there's an expectation that some commercial customers or some jobs that a commercial customer would normally be done DIFM, can trade down into the DIY sector. And so we're watching those kind of trends, but we don't see anything yet that is alarming to us. We continue to monitor it. And again, we're pretty darn pleased with the 15% growth in our commercial business.

因此，我們正在對此進行監控，以確保我們了解，尤其是低端消費者的情況。然後我認為期望——我們目前還沒有接近證據，但我相信有一些商業客戶或商業客戶通常會完成 DIFM 的一些工作，可以交易進入DIY領域。所以我們正在觀察這些趨勢，但我們還沒有看到任何令我們擔憂的事情。我們繼續監測它。再一次，我們對商業業務增長 15% 感到非常高興。

Got it. And then just on the commercial program growth, that seemed to step up a little in Q1. It was about 5% year-over-year. Can you give us an update on how those programs are maturing? Is it still something like 3 to 5 years for those units to gain some material traction? Or are you now seeing an accelerated pace in ramp-up, just given all the progress in the commercial business and the Mega Hub strategy?

知道了。然後就商業計劃的增長而言，第一季度似乎有所加快。同比增長約 5%。您能否向我們介紹一下這些項目的成熟情況？這些單位是否仍然需要 3 到 5 年的時間才能獲得一些實質性的吸引力？或者，鑑於商業業務和 Mega Hub 戰略的所有進展，您現在是否看到加速增長的步伐？

Sure. Well, we certainly stepped up openings in the first quarter. But remember, we're at about 88% of our stores have the commercial program today. There's no vision that we're going to be 100% or anywhere close to that. As you would imagine, the per store and per program economics of our commercial business over the last couple of years have changed pretty meaningfully. So there are programs that now make sense to be open that 2 years ago, we might want to service them from another program.

當然。好吧，我們當然在第一季度增加了空缺。但請記住，我們今天大約 88% 的商店都有商業計劃。沒有我們會 100% 或接近 100% 的願景。正如您想像的那樣，在過去幾年中，我們商業業務的每家商店和每項計劃的經濟效益發生了相當大的變化。因此，有些程序現在開放是有意義的，而在 2 年前，我們可能希望通過另一個程序為它們提供服務。

So that's what you're seeing. We may open another 100 or so, but I wouldn't expect for massive growth rates in commercial openings. And you're exactly right. It typically takes 4 or 5 years for those programs to mature. I think as we've gotten stronger, they come out of the box higher than they did before. And we'll see what -- if the maturity lasts as long as it used to, the one place that is very different, they mature -- we don't know how long it takes for them to mature, but they come out of the gates much higher are our Mega-Hubs. It's amazing to see the volumes that we do almost day 1 coming out of a Mega-Hub.

這就是你所看到的。我們可能會再開 100 家左右，但我預計商業開業不會出現大幅增長。你是對的。這些程序通常需要 4 或 5 年才能成熟。我認為隨著我們變得更強大，他們開箱即用，比以前更高。我們會看到——如果成熟持續的時間和過去一樣長，一個非常不同的地方，他們成熟了——我們不知道他們需要多長時間才能成熟，但他們從更高的大門是我們的巨型樞紐。看到我們第一天幾乎完成的工作量來自 Mega-Hub，真是太棒了。

The next question is coming from Mike Baker at D.A. Davidson.

下一個問題來自 D.A. 的 Mike Baker。戴維森。

Okay. A couple of questions. The spread between the ticket growth and inflation widened a little bit. It's now -- I think it was 4 percentage points in retail versus 3 last quarter. Remind us, is that -- are you seeing -- is it fewer units per transaction? Is it a trade down to less expensive items? Just any color on what's going on there?

好的。幾個問題。票價增長與通貨膨脹之間的差距略有擴大。現在——我認為零售業增長了 4 個百分點，而上個季度為 3 個百分點。提醒我們，那是——你看到了嗎——每筆交易的單位數量減少了嗎？它是一種降價到更便宜的物品的交易嗎？那裡發生了什麼事的任何顏色？

Yes. It's primarily basket mix that's impacting that. One of the things we've been very disciplined about is moving retails. As we see cost and we've been very transparent about what we're seeing there and been very disciplined about what we're doing. This is the entire industry.

是的。影響這一點的主要是籃子組合。我們一直非常自律的事情之一是移動零售。正如我們看到的成本，我們對我們在那裡看到的東西非常透明，並且對我們正在做的事情非常有紀律。這是整個行業。

So when you say basket mix, does that mean people trading down to lower more entry-level price points or private label? Just what exactly do you mean by basket mix?

所以當你說一攬子組合時，這是否意味著人們會降價交易以降低更多的入門級價格點或自有品牌？籃子組合到底是什麼意思？

It could actually mean the types of products that are being purchased relative to what we saw in the previous period.

它實際上可能意味著相對於我們在前一時期看到的正在購買的產品類型。

Okay. And do you see that as any kind of sign of the consumer being strapped? Or is it just sort of a random situation? What would cause that, I guess?

好的。你認為這是消費者被束縛的任何跡象嗎？或者這只是一種隨機情況？我猜是什麼原因造成的？

Again, as we talked about the consumer, if you think about it from a macro standpoint, I mean, clearly, the consumer is filling the pinch of inflation on multiple fronts. And quite frankly, inflation is going to erode consumer spending overall. But in our business, where we see the primary pressures in our discretionary categories and our bread-and-butter failure and maintenance categories, the demand has been there. And the actions that we've taken from a pricing standpoint have not impacted volume in a meaningful way.

同樣，當我們談到消費者時，如果你從宏觀角度考慮，我的意思是，很明顯，消費者正在從多個方面填補通貨膨脹的壓力。坦率地說，通貨膨脹將侵蝕整體消費者支出。但在我們的業務中，我們看到我們的可自由支配類別和我們的麵包和黃油故障和維護類別的主要壓力，需求一直存在。我們從定價的角度採取的行動並沒有以有意義的方式影響銷量。

So -- the other thing I'll say about just the consumer in general is it's clearly a 2-speed world. The middle and upper end consumers have stronger balance sheet, and they're continuing to spend in a meaningful way in the lower end consumer is pitched. So what we're seeing from our business standpoint is quite frankly, consumers when they have an opportunity, as Bill mentioned, to potentially trade into DIY from DIFM for certain things, they will do that.

所以——關於一般消費者，我要說的另一件事是，這顯然是一個 2 速的世界。中高端消費者擁有更強大的資產負債表，他們繼續以有意義的方式在低端消費者中消費。因此，從我們的業務角度來看，坦率地說，當消費者有機會時，正如比爾提到的那樣，他們可能會從 DIFM 交易某些東西到 DIY，他們會這樣做。

And these are the kinds of things that we'd expect consumers to do over time. But I wouldn't read anything into the fact that tickets are a point or 2 below what we've seen historically, most of that again is mix related.

這些是我們希望消費者隨著時間的推移會做的事情。但我不會讀到門票比我們歷史上看到的低 1 點或 2 點這一事實，其中大部分再次與混合相關。

Well, if I could ask one more, how about the opposite now? Gas prices, believe it or not, are now lower than they were prior to the Russia-Ukraine situation and essentially flat year-over-year. Historically, can you remind us how much relief does that provide to your customers? And can that help offset some of those pressures that you just talked about?

好吧，如果我可以再問一個，現在相反的怎麼樣？不管你信不信，天然氣價格現在低於俄羅斯-烏克蘭局勢之前的價格，並且同比基本持平。從歷史上看，您能否提醒我們這為您的客戶提供了多少緩解？這是否有助於抵消您剛才談到的一些壓力？

For sure, Mike. No question about it. If you recall -- you followed us for a year. So one thing that we said that really does matter to our customer is gas prices and particularly when they get over $4 a gallon. We've said that for the last 15 years, there just seems to be something special about that $4 a gallon. Obviously, we're below that level now. But there's a lot of puts and takes that are going on with the customer today.

當然，邁克。毫無疑問。如果你還記得——你跟隨我們一年了。因此，我們說過對我們的客戶真正重要的一件事是汽油價格，尤其是當汽油價格超過每加侖 4 美元時。我們說過，在過去的 15 年裡，每加侖 4 美元似乎有些特別之處。顯然，我們現在低於該水平。但是今天有很多與客戶進行的交易。

We've never seen this kind of combination. You got near double-digit inflation. You've got low-end wage inflation that's up 5%, 6% across the marketplace. You've got gas prices that went up exponentially and then quickly came back down. So we're spending a lot of time looking at different stratus of our customer bases, particularly on the DIY side. And while we see some people trading down into -- on the good, better, best spectrum, we're not seeing any significant moves at this point in time. But we're obviously paying a lot of attention to it because these are kind of unprecedented underlying factors that are going into it.

我們從未見過這種組合。你的通貨膨脹率接近兩位數。整個市場的低端工資上漲了 5%、6%。你的汽油價格呈指數上漲，然後迅速回落。因此，我們花了大量時間研究客戶群的不同階層，尤其是在 DIY 方面。雖然我們看到一些人正在交易——在好的、更好的、最好的頻譜上，但我們目前沒有看到任何重大舉措。但我們顯然非常關注它，因為這些都是前所未有的潛在因素。

And that is all the time we have for questions today. I would now like to turn the floor back to Mr. Bill Rhodes for closing remarks.

這就是我們今天所有的提問時間。我現在想請 Bill Rhodes 先生髮言結束。

Great. Thank you. Before we conclude the call, I want to take a moment to reiterate, we believe our industry is strong, and our business model, in particular, is solid. We will take nothing for granted as we understand our customers have alternatives to shopping with us. We have exciting plans that should help us succeed for the future. But I want to stress again that this is a marathon and not a sprint.

偉大的。謝謝你。在我們結束電話會議之前，我想花點時間重申一下，我們相信我們的行業很強大，尤其是我們的商業模式是穩固的。我們不會認為任何事情都是理所當然的，因為我們知道我們的客戶除了在我們這裡購物之外還有其他選擇。我們有令人興奮的計劃，可以幫助我們在未來取得成功。但我要再次強調，這是一場馬拉松，而不是短跑。

As we continue to focus on the basics and strive to optimize shareholder value for the future, we are confident AutoZone will continue to be very successful. I want to wish everyone a happy and healthy holiday season, and thank you for participating in today's call and for your interest in our company. Have a great day.

隨著我們繼續專注於基礎並努力為未來優化股東價值，我們相信 AutoZone 將繼續取得成功。我想祝大家節日快樂、身體健康，感謝您參加今天的電話會議以及對我們公司的關注。祝你有美好的一天。

Thank you, ladies and gentlemen. This does conclude today's conference call. You may disconnect your phone lines at this time, and have a wonderful day. Thank you for your participation.

謝謝你們，女士們，先生們。這確實結束了今天的電話會議。此時您可以斷開電話線，度過美好的一天。感謝您的參與。