汽車地帶 (AZO) 2023 Q2 法說會逐字稿

Greetings. Welcome to AutoZone's 2023 Q2 Earnings Release Conference Call. (Operator Instructions) Please note, this conference is being recorded. Before we begin, the company would like to read some forward-looking statements.

問候。歡迎來到 AutoZone 的 2023 年第二季度收益發布電話會議。 （操作員說明）請注意，正在錄製此會議。在我們開始之前，公司想閱讀一些前瞻性陳述。

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. 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.

在開始之前，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。前瞻性陳述不是對未來業績的保證。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.

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。

I will now turn the conference call over to your host, Bill Rhodes, Chairman, President and Chief Executive Officer. Sir, you may begin.

我現在將電話會議轉交給你的東道主，董事長、總裁兼首席執行官 Bill Rhodes。先生，您可以開始了。

Good morning, and thank you for joining us today for AutoZone's 2023 Second Quarter Conference Call. With me today are Jamere Jackson, Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer; and Brian Campbell, Vice President, Treasurer, Investor Relations and Tax.

早上好，感謝您今天加入我們參加 AutoZone 的 2023 年第二季度電話會議。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。

Regarding the first quarter, I hope you've had an opportunity to read our press release and learn about the quarter's results. If not, the press release, along with slides complementing our comments today, are available on our website, www.autozone.com, under the Investor Relations link. Please click on Quarterly Earnings Conference Calls to see them.

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。如果沒有，可以在我們的網站 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。

As we begin, we'd like to thank and congratulate our AutoZoners across the company for their commitment to delivering exceptional customer service. For the second quarter, our team delivered total sales growth of 9.5% versus 8.6% in the first quarter, in line with our expectations. We were pleased with this performance as we were up against 15.8% total sales growth in last year's second quarter. We could not have achieved these results without phenomenal contributions from across the organization. Once again, our AutoZoners' efforts generated double-digit domestic commercial growth and single-digit domestic retail same-store sales growth.

在我們開始時，我們要感謝並祝賀我們公司的 AutoZoners 致力於提供卓越的客戶服務。對於第二季度，我們的團隊實現了 9.5% 的總銷售額增長，而第一季度為 8.6%，符合我們的預期。我們對這一業績感到滿意，因為我們在去年第二季度的總銷售額增長了 15.8%。如果沒有整個組織的非凡貢獻，我們不可能取得這些成果。我們的 AutoZoners 的努力再次帶來了兩位數的國內商業增長和個位數的國內零售同店銷售額增長。

As we move further and further away from the societal impacts experienced as a result of the pandemic, we are very pleased with our team's ability to not only retain the tremendous growth we experienced over the last 3 years, but continue to grow on top of those phenomenal levels. Our team is relentlessly focused on getting back to normal or, as I call it,quote-unquote "exiting pandemic mode". We must get back to our well-known and highly regarded flawless execution.

隨著我們越來越遠離大流行帶來的社會影響，我們對我們團隊的能力感到非常滿意，他們不僅能夠保持我們在過去 3 年中經歷的巨大增長，而且還能在此基礎上繼續發展驚人的水平。我們的團隊不懈地專注於恢復正常，或者用我的話說，引述“退出大流行模式”。我們必須回到我們眾所周知和備受推崇的完美執行。

In all candor, we still aren't there yet. But we also have to reignite our innovation engine. We have some very good initiatives in development in both Retail and Commercial, and we have some significant improvements underway in our supply chain as we modernize and expand it for the next decade of growth and beyond.

坦率地說，我們還沒有做到。但我們也必須重新點燃我們的創新引擎。我們在零售和商業發展方面有一些非常好的舉措，隨著我們為下一個十年及以後的增長對其進行現代化和擴展，我們的供應鏈正在進行一些重大改進。

We are halfway through our fiscal year, and we are pleased with our performance so far. More encouraging, we feel good about the balance of the year and know our AutoZoners are keenly focused on delivering great service and terrific performance.

我們的財政年度已過半，我們對迄今為止的表現感到滿意。更令人鼓舞的是，我們對今年的餘額感覺良好，並且知道我們的 AutoZoners 非常專注於提供優質的服務和出色的性能。

This morning, we will review our second quarter same-store sales, DIY versus DIFM trends; our sales cadence over the 12-week quarter merchandise categories that drove our performance; and some regional call-outs. We will also share how inflation is affecting our cost and retails and how we think inflation will impact our business for the remainder of our fiscal year. Let's now move into more specifics on our performance.

今天早上，我們將回顧我們第二季度的同店銷售、DIY 與 DIFM 趨勢；我們在 12 週的季度商品類別中的銷售節奏推動了我們的業績；和一些區域標註。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本財年剩餘時間的業務。現在讓我們更詳細地了解我們的表現。

Domestic same-store sales were up 5.3%. Our net income was $477 million, and our EPS was $24.64 a share, increasing 10.5%. Our domestic same-store sales comp was on top of last year's 13.8% and in line with last quarter's 5.6% comp. On a 2-year basis, we delivered a 19.1% comp. And get this, on a 3-year basis, a 34.3% stacked comp. Our team once again delivered amazing results despite the comparison to the last couple of years being the hardest quarterly compare for the entire fiscal year.

國內同店銷售額增長 5.3%。我們的淨收入為 4.77 億美元，每股收益為 24.64 美元，增長 10.5%。我們的國內同店銷售額高於去年的 13.8%，與上一季度的 5.6% 一致。在 2 年的基礎上，我們交付了 19.1% 的補償。並在 3 年的基礎上獲得 34.3% 的堆疊補償。儘管與過去幾年的比較是整個財政年度最艱難的季度比較，但我們的團隊再次取得了驚人的成績。

Now let me spend a few moments on growth, our growth dynamics in the quarter. Our growth rates for Retail and Commercial were both strong, with domestic retail sales up nearly 5% and domestic commercial growth north of 13%. We continue to set commercial quarterly records with $955 million in sales, another impressive quarter as we generated $111 million more in sales than in Q2 last year. On a trailing 4-quarter basis, we delivered just under $4.5 billion in annual commercial sales, up an amazing 19% over last year.

現在讓我花點時間談談增長，我們在本季度的增長動態。我們的零售和商業增長率都很強勁，國內零售銷售額增長近 5%，國內商業增長率超過 13%。我們繼續以 9.55 億美元的銷售額創下商業季度記錄，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二季度增加了 1.11 億美元。在連續 4 個季度的基礎上，我們實現了近 45 億美元的年度商業銷售額，比去年增長了 19%。

We also set another Q2 record for average weekly sales per store at $14,500 versus $13,500 last year. Domestic commercial sales represented 30% of our domestic auto parts sales versus 28% this time last year. It was encouraging to see our transaction trends improving from last quarter.

我們還在第二季度創下了每家商店平均每週銷售額 14,500 美元的另一項記錄，而去年為 13,500 美元。國內商業銷售額占我們國內汽車零部件銷售額的 30%，而去年同期為 28%。看到我們的交易趨勢比上個季度有所改善，這令人鼓舞。

Our Retail transactions meaningfully improved and were down just 2.2% for the quarter, while our Commercial transactions were up mid-single digits and improving. Our average ticket in both Retail and Commercial experienced solid mid-single-digit growth. Ticket growth decelerated from Q1 as we began to lap the acceleration in inflation we experienced this time last year. We're beginning to see signs of product cost and freight inflation slowing, and we expect to see these begin to return to historical norms over time.

我們的零售交易顯著改善，本季度僅下降 2.2%，而我們的商業交易則增長了中等個位數並有所改善。我們在零售和商業領域的平均票價都實現了穩健的中個位數增長。隨著我們開始應對去年這個時候經歷的通貨膨脹加速，門票增長從第一季度開始放緩。我們開始看到產品成本和運費通脹放緩的跡象，我們預計隨著時間的推移這些將開始恢復到歷史常態。

We are continuing to see -- to experience substantially higher wage inflation than historically in the mid-single-digit range, more than double our historical experience. While the staffing environment is substantially improved versus this time last year, we don't envision wage inflation abating soon as there continues to be regulatory and market pressures.

我們將繼續看到 - 經歷比歷史上中個位數範圍內更高的工資通脹，是我們歷史經驗的兩倍多。雖然員工環境與去年同期相比有了顯著改善，但由於監管和市場壓力持續存在，我們預計工資通脹不會很快減弱。

While we have to manage through these external forces, our focus, our focus continues to be on driving profitable market share growth, particularly in units and transactions. Our growth initiatives are doing just that and include: new store unit growth, improved satellite store availability, Hub and Mega-Hub openings, improvements in coverage leveraging the strength of the Duralast brand, enhanced technology to make us easier to do business with and more efficient, reducing delivery times, enhancing our sales force effectiveness and living consistent with our pledge by being priced right for the value proposition we deliver. Our goal remains over time to become the industry leader in both DIY and commercial. Our strategy, execution and market momentum give us confidence as we move forward.

雖然我們必須通過這些外部力量進行管理，但我們的重點仍然是推動盈利的市場份額增長，特別是在單位和交易方面。我們的增長計劃正是這樣做的，包括：新店單位增長、衛星店可用性提高、Hub 和 Mega-Hub 開業、利用 Duralast 品牌優勢擴大覆蓋範圍、增強技術使我們更容易開展業務等等高效，減少交貨時間，提高我們的銷售人員效率，並通過根據我們提供的價值主張定價來遵守我們的承諾。隨著時間的推移，我們的目標仍然是成為 DIY 和商業領域的行業領導者。我們的戰略、執行力和市場動力使我們在前進的過程中充滿信心。

Digging deeper into our domestic DIY business this past quarter, we delivered a positive 2.7% comp on top of last year's 8.4%. Our DIY results were similar to last quarter's results on a 1-year and 2-year basis and accelerated on a 3-year basis. As previously said, our ticket growth was up 5% versus last year. We're pleased with our transaction count trends improving as we reported transactions down just 2%. These results are very strong, considering the difficult comparison to last year.

在上個季度深入研究我們的國內 DIY 業務後，我們在去年的 8.4% 基礎上實現了 2.7% 的正增長。我們的 DIY 結果在 1 年和 2 年的基礎上與上一季度的結果相似，並在 3 年的基礎上加速。如前所述，我們的門票增長率與去年相比增長了 5%。我們很高興我們的交易數量趨勢有所改善，因為我們報告的交易量僅下降了 2%。考慮到與去年的艱難比較，這些結果非常強勁。

From the data we have available, we continued to retain the majority of the dollar share gains we've built during the pandemic, and we continue, continue to grow unit share, a critical measurement of our success. Our performance gives us continued conviction about the sustainability of our sales growth for the remainder of the year.

從我們現有的數據來看，我們繼續保留了我們在大流行期間建立的大部分美元份額收益，並且我們繼續，繼續增加單位份額，這是我們成功的關鍵衡量標準。我們的業績讓我們對今年剩餘時間的銷售額增長的可持續性充滿信心。

As we've shared forever, our second quarter is always the most volatile sales quarter due to the holidays; their timing shifts; and more importantly, weather, specifically extreme temperatures, which all can have a tremendous impact on our weekly sales. This quarter was no different with softer sales at the beginning of the quarter when the weather was mild and wet, followed by a large spike around Christmas with the very cold temperatures the country experienced.

正如我們永遠分享的那樣，由於假期，我們的第二季度始終是最不穩定的銷售季度；他們的時間變化；更重要的是，天氣，特別是極端溫度，都會對我們的每週銷售額產生巨大影響。本季度與本季度初天氣溫和潮濕時銷售疲軟沒有什麼不同，隨後在聖誕節前後出現大幅飆升，該國經歷了非常寒冷的氣溫。

We exited the quarter with normalized growth rates. We do believe we had enough harsh winter weather that we won't be talking about the lingering effects of a mild winter weather or mild winter for the next several months. Our attention has now turned to tax rebate season, which historically drives enormous demand in our category.

我們以正常的增長率退出了本季度。我們確實相信我們已經經歷了足夠嚴酷的冬季天氣，因此我們不會談論未來幾個月溫和冬季天氣或溫和冬季的揮之不去的影響。我們的注意力現在轉向了退稅季，這在歷史上推動了我們類別的巨大需求。

Regarding our retail merchandise categories, our sales floor outperformed hard parts with approximately a 1.5% difference between them. Our relative outperformance in sales for categories is attributable to the discretionary categories improvement. As gas prices naturally have come down and consumer has shown surprising resiliency, our discretionary categories performed better.

關於我們的零售商品類別，我們的銷售區表現優於硬零件，兩者之間的差異約為 1.5%。我們在類別銷售方面的相對優異表現歸因於可自由支配類別的改善。由於汽油價格自然下降且消費者表現出驚人的彈性，我們的可自由支配類別表現更好。

The discretionary categories represented approximately 18% of our DIY sales in the quarter. We were encouraged to see our battery, oil and wiper categories performed well and successfully lapped very strong performance last year. These categories have exceeded our expectations all year.

非必需品類別約佔本季度 DIY 銷售額的 18%。我們很高興看到我們的電池、機油和雨刷類別表現良好，並成功超越了去年非常強勁的表現。這些類別全年都超出了我們的預期。

Our friction category for both DIY and commercial performed below our expectations for much of the quarter. However, it bounced back late, and we are encouraged by our recent trends. We believe both our sales floor and hard parts businesses will continue to do well this spring, as we expect miles driven to continue improving, while our growth initiatives continued delivering solid results.

我們的 DIY 和商業摩擦類別在本季度的大部分時間都低於我們的預期。然而，它反彈較晚，我們對最近的趨勢感到鼓舞。我們相信我們的銷售部門和硬零件業務在今年春天將繼續表現良好，因為我們預計行駛里程將繼續改善，而我們的增長計劃將繼續取得可觀的成果。

Let me also address pricing. In Q2, we experienced high single-digit pricing inflation in line with cost of goods. We believe both numbers will decrease in the current quarter as we begin to lap the onset of high inflation last year. To be clear, we do not believe inflation is going away, especially wage inflation, but expect it to slow a bit as the economy slows.

讓我也談談定價。在第二季度，我們經歷了與商品成本一致的高個位數定價通脹。我們相信，隨著去年高通脹的開始，本季度這兩個數字都會下降。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有所放緩。

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, increasing margin dollars. It is also notable that following periods of higher inflation, our industry has historically not meaningfully reduced pricing to reflect lower cost.

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的價格彈性都很低，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利潤率，從而增加利潤。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。

Over the last 3 years, we've encouraged investors to keep a keen focus on our 2- and 3-year comparisons. As we return to normal, we believe our year-over-year comparisons will be more and more relevant. While it's difficult to predict sales, we are excited about our growth initiatives. Our team is improving execution and the tremendous share gains we have achieved in both sectors.

在過去 3 年中，我們鼓勵投資者密切關注我們 2 年和 3 年的比較。隨著我們恢復正常，我們相信我們的年度比較將越來越相關。雖然很難預測銷售額，但我們對我們的增長計劃感到興奮。我們的團隊正在改進執行力以及我們在這兩個領域取得的巨大份額收益。

For our third quarter 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.

對於我們的 2023 年第三季度，我們預計我們的銷售業績將由我們執行差異化計劃以及彈性 DIY 業務的商業業務的持續強勁帶動。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 to Jamere, I'd like to give a brief update on our supply chain initiatives. I'll start with our in-stock position. I spent several quarters talking about how we were not back to where we were pre-pandemic. I'm pleased to report, we are continuing to improve and are very close to our targets. Our merchandising and supply chain teams have worked diligently and creatively to get our levels back up, and we've made enormous progress. There are still a few categories where we are not where we want to be. But we will -- we have line of sight to putting this behind us. This has taken a lot of effort by our vendor community, and I'd like to publicly thank them for their tremendous efforts as well. We know this will pay future dividends.

在將電話轉給 Jamere 之前，我想簡要介紹一下我們供應鏈計劃的最新情況。我將從我們的庫存狀況開始。我花了幾個季度的時間談論我們如何沒有回到大流行前的狀態。我很高興地報告，我們正在繼續改進並且非常接近我們的目標。我們的銷售和供應鏈團隊通過勤奮和創造性的工作來恢復我們的水平，我們已經取得了巨大的進步。仍然有一些類別我們不是我們想要的。但我們會 - 我們有視線將其拋在腦後。我們的供應商社區付出了很多努力，我也想公開感謝他們的巨大努力。我們知道這將帶來未來的回報。

Second, our supply chain initiatives that are in flight to drive improved availability are on track. One we have often highlighted is our expanded Hub and Mega-Hub rollouts. We know intelligently placing more inventory in local markets closer to the customer will lead to our ability to continue to say yes to our customers more frequently and, in turn, drive sales.

其次，我們正在進行的旨在提高可用性的供應鏈計劃正在按計劃進行。我們經常強調的一項是我們擴展的 Hub 和 Mega-Hub 部署。我們知道，明智地將更多庫存放在更靠近客戶的本地市場將使我們能夠繼續更頻繁地對客戶說“是”，進而推動銷售。

Additionally, we've previously announced the development of 2 new domestic distribution centers and additional capacity in Mexico. All 3 efforts are under construction and are expected to be completed by early fiscal 2025. These distribution centers will allow us to not only reduce drive times to stores but also increase our capacity. With the tremendous sales growth we've experienced since 2020, the additional capacity will enable us to carry more, slower turning inventory that is not yet in high demand.

此外，我們之前已經宣佈在墨西哥開發 2 個新的國內配送中心和額外產能。這 3 項工作都在建設中，預計將在 2025 財年初完成。這些配送中心將使我們不僅可以減少開車到商店的時間，還可以增加我們的產能。隨著自 2020 年以來我們經歷的巨大銷售增長，額外的產能將使我們能夠承載更多、周轉速度較慢且需求不高的庫存。

I'm excited that -- I'm also excited we opened a facility on the West Coast recently to handle direct import product on a timelier and more effective and efficient basis. This new West Coast facility is already paying dividends by allowing products ordered abroad to be distributed 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 sales success, especially in commercial. Simply put, every time we intelligently add inventory to our network, our sales grow.

我很興奮——我也很高興我們最近在西海岸開設了一家工廠，以更及時、更有效和高效的方式處理直接進口產品。這個新的西海岸設施已經通過允許將在國外訂購的產品分配到我們的其他 DC 來減少安全庫存和提高生產率來支付紅利。我們的供應鏈戰略專注於將更多產品運送到更靠近客戶的地方，我們相信這對我們最近的銷售成功做出了重要貢獻，尤其是在商業領域。簡而言之，每次我們智能地向我們的網絡添加庫存時，我們的銷售額都會增長。

Lastly, we plan on continuing to grow our business in Mexico and Brazil at almost 800 stores combined across the 2 markets. These businesses had impressive performance again this quarter and they 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.

最後，我們計劃繼續發展我們在墨西哥和巴西這兩個市場的近 800 家商店的業務。這些業務在本季度再次取得了令人矚目的業績，它們應該會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。

In Brazil, in particular, we are targeting to expand our store footprint significantly and aggressively over the next 5 years. We are very excited about our growth prospects internationally. We are dedicated to growing our business in a disciplined and profitable manner well into the future. And we know, with our AutoZoners leading the charge, we will continue to be very successful.

尤其是在巴西，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。我們致力於在未來以一種有紀律和盈利的方式發展我們的業務。我們知道，在我們的 AutoZoners 引領下，我們將繼續取得巨大成功。

Now I'll turn the call over to Jamere Jackson. Jamere?

現在我將電話轉給 Jamere Jackson。賈米爾？

Thanks, Bill, and good morning, everyone. As Bill mentioned, we had a strong second quarter stacked on top of exceptionally strong comps from last year. This quarter, we delivered 5.3% domestic comp growth, a 6.9% increase in EBIT, and a 10.5% increase in EPS. To start this morning, let me take a few moments to elaborate on the specifics in our P&L for Q2.

謝謝，比爾，大家早上好。正如 Bill 所提到的，我們在第二季度表現強勁，加上去年異常強勁的表現。本季度，我們實現了 5.3% 的國內收入增長，息稅前利潤增長 6.9%，每股收益增長 10.5%。今天早上開始，讓我花點時間詳細說明我們第二季度損益表的具體細節。

For the quarter, total sales were just under $3.7 billion, up 9.5%, reflecting continued strength in our industry and solid execution of our growth initiatives. And let me give a little more color on those growth initiatives.

本季度，總銷售額略低於 37 億美元，增長 9.5%，反映了我們行業的持續實力和我們增長計劃的穩健執行。讓我對這些增長計劃進行更多說明。

Starting with our Commercial business for the second quarter. Our domestic DIFM sales increased just over 13% to $955 million and were up just over 45% on a 2-year stack basis. Sales to our domestic DIFM customers represented 30% of our domestic auto part sales. Our weekly sales per program were $14,500, up 7.4%, and our growth was broad-based as both national and local accounts performed well for the quarter. Our results for the quarter set another record for the highest second quarter weekly sales volume in the history of the chain.

從第二季度的商業業務開始。我們的國內 DIFM 銷售額增長略高於 13% 至 9.55 億美元，並且在 2 年堆棧基礎上增長略高於 45%。對我們國內 DIFM 客戶的銷售額占我們國內汽車零部件銷售額的 30%。我們每個項目的每週銷售額為 14,500 美元，增長 7.4%，我們的增長基礎廣泛，因為本季度全國和地方客戶都表現良好。我們本季度的業績又創下了該連鎖店歷史上第二季度每週最高銷量的記錄。

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。我們正在通過國家、地區和地方客戶建立我們的業務。

This quarter, we opened 41 net new programs, finishing with 5,500 total programs. As expected, commercial growth is leading 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. We've delivered double-digit sales growth for the past 10 quarters.

本季度，我們淨開設了 41 個新項目，項目總數達到 5,500 個。正如預期的那樣，商業增長在 23 財年處於領先地位，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，並使我們在市場中處於有利地位。我們在過去 10 個季度實現了兩位數的銷售增長。

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 positioning 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上指出的那樣，我們的 Mega-Hub 戰略正在推動強勁的業績，並為我們的商業和零售業務創造更加光明的未來。

Once again, I'll add some 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 81 Mega-Hub locations with one new one opened in Q2. While I mentioned a moment ago, the commercial weekly sales per program average was $14,500, the 81 Mega-Hubs averaged significantly higher sales than the balance of the commercial footprint and grew significantly faster than our overall Commercial business in Q2.

再一次，我會為我們的進展添加一些色彩。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 81 個 Mega-Hub 地點，其中一個在第二季度新開。雖然我剛才提到，每個節目的商業周平均銷售額為 14,500 美元，但 81 個 Mega-Hub 的平均銷售額明顯高於商業足蹟的平衡，並且增長速度明顯快於我們第二季度的整體商業業務。

As a reminder, our Mega-Hubs typically carry 80,000 to 100,000 SKUs and more in certain cases and drive 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. These assets are not only performing well individually, but the fulfillment capability for the surrounding AutoZone stores is giving our customers access to thousands of additional parks and lifting the entire network.

提醒一下，我們的 Mega-Hub 通常攜帶 80,000 到 100,000 個 SKU，在某些情況下甚至更多，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。這些資產不僅單獨表現良好，而且周圍 AutoZone 商店的履行能力使我們的客戶能夠訪問數以千計的額外公園並提升整個網絡。

This strategy is working. We're targeting 25 new Mega-Hubs for FY '23, and we remain committed to our objective to reach 200 Mega-Hubs, supplemented by 300 regular Hubs. We continue to leverage sophisticated data analytics to expand our market reach, placing more parts closer to our customers and improving our delivery times. We will build on our strong momentum over the remainder of the fiscal year.

這個策略正在奏效。我們的目標是在 23 財年建立 25 個新的 Mega-Hub，我們仍然致力於實現我們的目標，即達到 200 個 Mega-Hub，並輔之以 300 個常規 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。我們將在本財年的剩餘時間裡繼續保持強勁勢頭。

Our domestic retail comp was up 2.7% in Q2. This business has been remarkably resilient as growth rates remain solid, and we've managed to continue to deliver positive comp growth despite underlying market headwinds. As Bill mentioned, we saw our traffic down 2.2% from last year's levels. However, they improved sequentially from Q1 where traffic was down 4%. We also saw 5% ticket growth as we continue to raise prices in an inflationary environment. Our DIY business has continued to strengthen competitively behind our growth initiatives.

我們的國內零售業在第二季度增長了 2.7%。由於增長率保持穩健，該業務一直具有顯著的彈性，儘管存在潛在的市場逆風，我們仍設法繼續實現正增長。正如 Bill 提到的，我們發現我們的流量比去年的水平下降了 2.2%。然而，他們從第一季度開始連續改善，當時流量下降了 4%。隨著我們在通貨膨脹環境中繼續提高價格，我們還看到了 5% 的票價增長。我們的 DIY 業務在我們的增長計劃的支持下繼續增強競爭力。

In addition, on a macro basis, the market is still experiencing a growing and aging car park and a still challenging new and used car sales market for our customers. 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. We are forecasting a resilient DIY business for the remainder of FY '23.

此外，從宏觀上看，市場仍在經歷不斷增長和老化的停車場，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。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。我們預測 DIY 業務在 23 財年的剩餘時間裡會有彈性。

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. During the quarter, we opened one new store in Mexico to finish with 707 stores, and 5 new stores in Brazil, ending with 81. On a constant currency basis, we meaningfully accelerated our sales growth in both countries at higher growth rates than we saw in the overall business. 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. With 11% of our total store base currently outside the U.S. and a commitment to continued expansion in a disciplined way, international growth will be an attractive and meaningful contributor to AutoZone's future growth. We are bullish on international growth. And as Bill mentioned earlier, we're adding distribution center capacity in Mexico to improve our competitive positioning in the market.

下面我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。本季度，我們在墨西哥開設了一家新店，總數達到 707 家，在巴西開設了 5 家新店，總數達到 81 家。在固定匯率的基礎上，我們在這兩個國家以高於預期的增長率顯著加快了銷售增長在整體業務中。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。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。我們看好國際增長。正如比爾之前提到的，我們正在增加墨西哥的配送中心容量，以提高我們在市場上的競爭地位。

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 69 basis points and included a 27 basis point headwind stemming from a noncash $10 million LIFO charge. The difference for the quarter, a decline of 42 basis points in gross margin, was driven by supply chain costs and our faster-growing lower gross margin commercial business. With this quarter's LIFO charge, we have taken our LIFO credit balance to $106 million. As I mentioned last quarter, hyperinflation and freight cost is the primary driver for the charges. Both the first and second quarter actuals are below the outlook we gave at the start of each quarter as freight costs have continued to abate over the past few months, and we expect this trend to continue. As such, we anticipate having minimal, if any, LIFO charges during the third quarter.

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 69 個基點，其中包括 1000 萬美元的非現金後進先出費用帶來的 27 個基點的逆風。本季度的差異，毛利率下降了 42 個基點，這是由供應鏈成本和我們增長更快的低毛利率商業業務推動的。加上本季度的 LIFO 費用，我們的 LIFO 貸方餘額已達到 1.06 億美元。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。由於運費成本在過去幾個月持續下降，第一季度和第二季度的實際數據均低於我們在每個季度初給出的預期，我們預計這一趨勢將持續下去。因此，我們預計第三季度的 LIFO 費用（如果有的話）最少。

As spot rates have come down, we have renegotiated some of our long-term contracts, and the lower costs are reflected in our outlook. We expect freight costs to continue to abate. We expect to see these quarterly charges start to reverse during FY '24 and, quite possibly, as early as Q4. We plan to take P&L gains only to the extent of the charges we've taken thus far. And after we've taken P&L gains that fully reverse the charges we've incurred, we expect to rebuild our unrecorded LIFO reserve balance as we've done historically.

隨著即期匯率下降，我們重新談判了一些長期合同，成本降低反映在我們的前景中。我們預計運費將繼續下降。我們預計這些季度費用將在 24 財年開始逆轉，而且很可能最早在第四季度開始逆轉。我們計劃僅在我們迄今收取的費用範圍內收取損益收益。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未記錄的後進先出準備金餘額。

Now moving to operating expenses. Our expenses were up 8.8% versus last year's Q2 as SG&A levered 24 basis points versus 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. 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.

現在轉向運營費用。我們的費用比去年第二季度增長了 8.8%，因為 SG&A 比去年增加了 24 個基點。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。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。

Moving to the rest of the P&L. EBIT for the quarter was $670 million, up 6.9% versus the prior year's quarter. Excluding the $10 million LIFO charge, EBIT would have been up 8.5% over last year. Interest expense for the quarter was $65.6 million, up 54.5% from Q2 a year ago, as our debt outstanding at the end of the quarter was $7 billion versus $5.8 billion at Q2 end last year. We're planning interest in the $72 million range for the third quarter of fiscal 2023 versus $42 million in last year's third quarter. Higher debt levels and expected continuing higher borrowing costs are driving this increase.

轉到損益表的其餘部分。本季度的息稅前利潤為 6.7 億美元，比上年同期增長 6.9%。不包括 1000 萬美元的後進先出費用，息稅前利潤將比去年增長 8.5%。本季度的利息支出為 6560 萬美元，比去年第二季度增長 54.5%，因為我們在本季度末的未償還債務為 70 億美元，而去年第二季度末為 58 億美元。我們計劃在 2023 財年第三季度的利息為 7200 萬美元，而去年第三季度為 4200 萬美元。更高的債務水平和預期的持續更高的借貸成本正在推動這一增長。

For the quarter, our tax rate was 21.2% and above last year's second quarter rate of 19.3%. This quarter's rate benefited 222 basis points from stock options exercised, while last year's benefit was 401 basis points. For the third quarter of FY 2023, we suggest investors model us at approximately 23.4% before any assumption on credits due to stock option exercises.

本季度，我們的稅率為 21.2%，高於去年第二季度的 19.3%。本季度的利率受益於行使的股票期權 222 個基點，而去年的收益為 401 個基點。對於 2023 財年第三季度，我們建議投資者在因股票期權行使而對信用做出任何假設之前，將我們模型化為大約 23.4%。

Now moving to net income and EPS. Net income for the quarter was $476.5 million, up 1% versus last year's second quarter. Our diluted share count of 19.3 million was 8.6% lower than last year's second quarter. The combination of higher net income and lower share count drove earnings per share for the quarter to $24.64, up 10.5% versus a year ago. Excluding the LIFO charge, our net income would have increased 2.6% and our EPS growth would have increased 12.3%.

現在轉向淨收入和每股收益。本季度淨收入為 4.765 億美元，比去年第二季度增長 1%。我們的稀釋後股票數量為 1,930 萬股，比去年第二季度減少了 8.6%。更高的淨收入和更少的股票數量共同推動本季度每股收益達到 24.64 美元，比去年同期增長 10.5%。排除後進先出費用，我們的淨收入將增長 2.6%，每股收益增長將增長 12.3%。

Now let me talk about our free cash flow for Q2. For the second quarter, we generated $210 million in free cash flow versus $260 million a year ago. Year-to-date, we've generated $900 million versus $930 million a year ago. We expect to be an incredibly strong cash flow generator going forward, and we remain committed to returning meaningful amounts of cash to our shareholders.

現在讓我談談我們第二季度的自由現金流。第二季度，我們產生了 2.1 億美元的自由現金流，而一年前為 2.6 億美元。今年迄今為止，我們已經產生了 9 億美元，而一年前為 9.3 億美元。我們希望在未來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 and our leverage ratios remain below our historic norms. Our inventory per store was up 10.7% versus Q2 last year, and total inventory increased 13.9% over the same period, 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 $227,000 versus negative $198,000 last year and negative $249,000 last quarter. As a result, accounts payable as a percent of gross inventory finished the quarter at 127.7% versus last year's Q2 of 126.8%.

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。與去年第二季度相比，我們每家門店的庫存增加了 10.7%，同期總庫存增加了 13.9%，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 227,000 美元，而去年為負 198,000 美元，上季度為負 249,000 美元。因此，本季度末應付賬款佔總庫存的百分比為 127.7%，而去年第二季度為 126.8%。

Lastly, I'll spend a moment on capital allocation and our share repurchase program. We repurchased 906 million of AutoZone stock in the quarter. And at quarter end, we had just under $1.8 billion remaining under our share buyback authorization. Our strong earnings, balance sheet and powerful free cash generated this year have allowed us to buy back 4% of the company's total shares outstanding since the start of the fiscal year. We 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 our disciplined capital allocation approach that enables us to invest in the business while returning meaningful amounts of cash to shareholders. Our leverage ratio finished Q2 at 2.3x EBITDAR, and we remain committed to return to the 2.5x area during FY '23.

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 9.06 億美元的 AutoZone 股票。在季度末，我們的股票回購授權剩餘不到 18 億美元。我們今年強勁的收益、資產負債表和強大的自由現金使我們能夠回購本財年開始以來公司已發行股票總數的 4%。自 1998 年開始回購以來，我們回購了超過 90% 的已發行股票，同時投資於現有資產並發展我們的業務。我們仍然致力於嚴格的資本分配方法，使我們能夠投資於業務，同時向股東返還大量現金。我們的槓桿率在第二季度結束時為 2.3 倍的 EBITDAR，我們仍然致力於在 23 財年恢復到 2.5 倍的水平。

So to wrap up, we continue to drive long-term shareholder value by investing in our growth initiatives, driving robust earnings and cash and returning excess cash to our shareholders. We're growing our market share, and we're improving our competitive positioning in a disciplined way. Our strategy continues to work. As we look forward to the back half of 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.

因此，總而言之，我們將繼續通過投資於我們的增長計劃、推動強勁的收益和現金並將多餘的現金返還給我們的股東來推動長期股東價值。我們正在擴大我們的市場份額，我們正在以一種有紀律的方式提高我們的競爭地位。我們的策略繼續奏效。當我們期待 23 財年的後半段時，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。

And now I'll turn it back to Bill.

現在我會把它轉回比爾。

Thank you, Jamere. We are proud of the results our team delivered in the second quarter. But we must, we must continue to be focused on superior customer service and flawless execution. Execution and our 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 remainder of the year. We will continue to invest in initiatives that drive an appropriate return on capital, and we continue investing where our returns are the highest.

謝謝你，賈米爾。我們為我們的團隊在第二季度取得的成果感到自豪。但我們必須，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，尤其是看好今年剩餘時間我們自己的機會。我們將繼續投資於能夠帶來適當資本回報的計劃，並且我們將繼續投資回報最高的領域。

For the remainder of fiscal '23, we are launching some very exciting initiatives. This year, not only we'd be opening roughly 200 stores across the U.S., Mexico and Brazil, but we will be opening many more Mega-Hub and Hub stores. And we're focused on initiatives to continue driving strong performance in both our Retail and Commercial businesses.

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。今年，我們不僅將在美國、墨西哥和巴西開設大約 200 家門店，而且還將開設更多的 Mega-Hub 和 Hub 門店。我們專注於繼續推動零售和商業業務強勁表現的舉措。

For the remainder of '23, we are keenly focused on relentless execution. We will not accept shortcuts. We remain focused on achieving our store opening goals, both domestically and internationally. We're working diligently to expand and enhance our supply chain, and we have to achieve this growth, all while managing our costs appropriately. Simply said, we have to focus on exceptional execution in order to drive continued share gains.

在 23 年的剩餘時間裡，我們非常專注於不懈的執行。我們不會接受捷徑。我們仍然專注於在國內和國際上實現我們的開店目標。我們正在努力擴大和加強我們的供應鏈，我們必須實現這種增長，同時適當地管理我們的成本。簡而言之，我們必須專注於出色的執行力，以推動持續的份額增長。

We know that investors will ultimately measure us by what our future cash flows look like in 3 to 5 years from now, and we welcome and accept that challenge. I continue to be bullish on our industry and, in particular, on AutoZone, which is led by AutoZoners.

我們知道，投資者最終將通過我們未來 3 到 5 年的現金流量來衡量我們，我們歡迎並接受這一挑戰。我繼續看好我們的行業，尤其是 AutoZones 領導的 AutoZone。

Now we'd like to open up the call for questions.

現在我們想打開問題的電話。

(Operator Instructions) Your first question for today is coming from Bret Jordan at Jefferies.

（操作員說明）您今天的第一個問題來自 Jefferies 的 Bret Jordan。

On the talk of lower transportation, supply chain costs but higher wage inflation, in this environment, where some of your inputs are going to come down and maybe you've got the opportunity to capture margin as customer prices stay firm, are we less likely to see this over for excess margin because we've got either price investment from peers or wage inflation that might offset some of the cost of good benefit?

談到運輸、供應鏈成本降低但工資通脹上升，在這種環境下，你的一些投入將會下降，也許你有機會在客戶價格保持堅挺的情況下獲取利潤，我們是不是不太可能因為我們從同行那裡獲得了價格投資或工資上漲可能會抵消一些良好收益的成本，所以為了超額利潤而看到這一點？

Yes. It's a fantastic question, Bret. I'll start and, Jamere, you're welcome to build on it if you want to. First of all, I think it's important for you all to understand, as we saw these enormous spikes in the freight cost, we did not pass all those costs along.

是的。這是一個很棒的問題，布雷特。我將開始，Jamere，如果您願意，歡迎您在此基礎上進行構建。首先，我認為大家都要明白，當我們看到運費大幅上漲時，我們並沒有轉嫁所有這些成本。

I'll use brake rotors, for instance. I mean the cost of shipping brake rotors from China to the U.S. were astronomical for a period of time. We couldn't pass all that costs on to the industry. So some of this is we will recoup some gross margin percentages that we didn't get in the midst of the freight issue. As we look forward, I think you have to separate the gross margin piece from the labor piece. We are going to continue to see elevated wage growth. We've seen it now for probably 5 years, Bret. We'll continue to monitor that.

例如，我將使用制動轉子。我的意思是，在一段時間內，將製動轉子從中國運往美國的成本是天文數字。我們不能將所有成本轉嫁給行業。所以其中一些是我們將收回我們在運費問題中沒有得到的一些毛利率百分比。在我們展望未來時，我認為你必須將毛利率部分與勞動力部分分開。我們將繼續看到工資增長加快。布雷特，我們已經看到它大概 5 年了。我們將繼續對此進行監控。

Our pricing is really more focused on what our product costs are and what those freight costs are. We will be mindful of labor costs. But generally, that's not a big driver of what we do with our pricing to the customer. What we need to do is make sure that we're finding ways to be as efficient as possible with the labor that we have. And over time, I think wage rates will go back to more normalized growth rates.

我們的定價實際上更側重於我們的產品成本是多少以及運費是多少。我們會注意勞動力成本。但總的來說，這並不是我們為客戶定價的主要驅動力。我們需要做的是確保我們正在尋找盡可能高效地利用現有勞動力的方法。隨著時間的推移，我認為工資率將回到更正常化的增長率。

Yes. And we haven't seen the moves and actions by our nearing competitors impact our business, really at all. Most of those moves, quite frankly, were targeted in much the same manner as our moves were a couple of years ago, which was how do we all improve our competitive hand relative to the warehouse distributors. So we haven't seen much of an impact there. And as a result of that, we don't see a need to make pricing actions to sort of counter what's being done in the marketplace by some of our newer competitors.

是的。而且我們還沒有看到我們接近的競爭對手的舉動和行動真的影響了我們的業務。坦率地說，大多數這些舉措的目標與我們幾年前的舉措大致相同，這就是我們如何提高我們相對於倉庫分銷商的競爭力。所以我們在那裡沒有看到太大的影響。因此，我們認為沒有必要採取定價行動來對抗我們的一些新競爭對手在市場上所做的事情。

Okay. Great. And then a quick question on ALLDATA. I think you'd mentioned expanding the user base. Is there a way to make that a product selling tool as they use your shop management software? Is there a way to link it to your inventory or make it more transactional?

好的。偉大的。然後是一個關於 ALLDATA 的快速問題。我想你提到過擴大用戶群。有沒有辦法在他們使用您的商店管理軟件時使其成為產品銷售工具？有沒有辦法將它鏈接到您的庫存或使其更具交易性？

Yes. First of all, at ALLDATA, we're very focused on providing value via our ALLDATA offerings to our customers at ALLDATA. We also look for ways that we can enhance our commercial relationship at AutoZone with their customers. We've done a lot of that by cross-selling, leveraging our 2 sales teams to generate leads for each other. So far, we haven't really integrated a lot with the, call it, up and down the street customer, but we have made some really meaningful progress with some of our national accounts and have some exciting things underway right now that helps integrate us more and more with them. Over time, that's certainly the vision that we have, is how can we be on their desktop as both ALLDATA and AutoZone in a seamless way, but we got to make sure that we don't drive the customer to that, that instead, we have a product offering that the customer wants to adopt.

是的。首先，在 ALLDATA，我們非常專注於通過我們的 ALLDATA 產品為 ALLDATA 的客戶提供價值。我們還想方設法加強我們在 AutoZone 與其客戶的商業關係。我們通過交叉銷售做了很多這樣的事情，利用我們的 2 個銷售團隊為彼此創造潛在客戶。到目前為止，我們還沒有真正整合很多所謂的街頭客戶，但我們在一些國民賬戶方面取得了一些真正有意義的進展，目前正在進行一些令人興奮的事情，這有助於我們整合越來越多地和他們在一起。隨著時間的推移，這當然是我們的願景，即我們如何以無縫方式在他們的桌面上同時作為 ALLDATA 和 AutoZone，但我們必須確保我們不會將客戶推向那個，相反，我們提供客戶想要採用的產品。

Your next question for today is coming from Seth Sigman at Barclays.

您今天的下一個問題來自巴克萊銀行的 Seth Sigman。

My first question is just around the improvement in transactions or ticket count. I guess that coincides with less average ticket growth. But Bill, to your point, there really shouldn't be a lot of elasticity in this business since it's more need-based, right? So is there something else that you would point to that's driving that acceleration in transactions?

我的第一個問題是關於交易或票數的改善。我想這與平均票價增長較低相吻合。但是比爾，就你的觀點而言，這項業務真的不應該有很大的彈性，因為它更基於需求，對吧？那麼，您是否會指出其他因素正在推動交易加速？

It's a great question. Frankly, I don't have a great answer for you. As you know, you've been following this industry for a long time, one of the dirty little secrets of the industry is that for decades, and basically, for the 28 years that I've been in this business, there has been transaction count declines. And they've gone down over time because the technology that has gone into the parts and products that we sell have increased, and therefore, the price of those products have increased.

這是一個很好的問題。坦率地說，我沒有很好的答案給你。如你所知，你已經關注這個行業很長時間了，這個行業的一個骯髒的小秘密是，幾十年來，基本上，在我從事這個行業的 28 年裡，一直有交易計數下降。隨著時間的推移，它們已經下降，因為我們銷售的零件和產品所採用的技術有所增加，因此，這些產品的價格也有所上漲。

I often used the example of spark plugs. When I got in this business, we only sold copper clad spark bugs. And they were $0.59, and they would last 30,000 miles. Today, we sell Iridium spark plugs, it costs $11.99, and they'll last 100,000 miles. There's many, many, many examples like that.

我經常使用火花塞的例子。當我進入這個行業時，我們只賣銅包火花蟲。它們的價格為 0.59 美元，可行駛 30,000 英里。今天，我們銷售銥金火花塞，售價 11.99 美元，可以使用 100,000 英里。有很多很多這樣的例子。

2.2% decline in retail transaction counts is historically very good. I just -- I would caution everybody, as I've mentioned in my prepared remarks, Q2 is our most volatile quarter every year, and it is really driven by weather patterns. And so I don't want to read too much into an improvement in Q2. We were very excited to see it. Let's see how we do in Q2 and Q3.

零售交易數量下降 2.2% 從歷史上看是非常好的。我只是 - 我會提醒大家，正如我在準備好的發言中提到的那樣，第二季度是我們每年最動蕩的季度，它實際上是由天氣模式驅動的。所以我不想過多地了解第二季度的改進。我們很高興看到它。讓我們看看我們在第二季度和第三季度的表現。

We're also still going up against the massive surge in growth that we had since 2019 as a result of COVID. So what we're focused on is, we thought for a period of time, that some of the sales growth that we experienced during COVID, we would give back. We're sitting here and have been for the last year saying, "I don't think we're going to give it back." And now we're saying, "Look, we think we can grow from here and maybe have normalized growth rates and maybe even accelerated slightly growth rates to what we experienced historically because of our growth initiatives." That's the way we're thinking about it. Does that make sense?

由於 COVID，自 2019 年以來我們的增長大幅飆升，但我們仍在努力應對。所以我們關注的是，我們考慮了一段時間，我們會回饋我們在 COVID 期間經歷的一些銷售增長。我們坐在這裡，去年一直在說，“我不認為我們會歸還它。”現在我們說，“看，我們認為我們可以從這裡開始增長，並且可能有正常的增長率，甚至可能由於我們的增長計劃而略微加速到我們歷史上經歷的增長率。”這就是我們考慮的方式。那有意義嗎？

Yes, that's helpful. I appreciate that. Maybe just one follow-up is on the cost side. You did discuss some external cost pressures. I think you're probably referring to wages, and some of your competitors have also talked about wage investments. I guess when we look at your SG&A growth up high single digits, is it fair to assume that, that already reflects AutoZone investing in its people, investing in its infrastructure? Does that already reflect some of those cost pressures that you're referring to?

是的，這很有幫助。我很感激。也許只有一個跟進是在成本方面。您確實討論了一些外部成本壓力。我想你可能指的是工資，你的一些競爭對手也談到了工資投資。我想當我們看到您的 SG&A 增長高達個位數時，是否可以公平地假設，這已經反映了 AutoZone 對其人員的投資，對其基礎設施的投資？這是否已經反映了您所指的某些成本壓力？

It certainly does. I mean one of the things that we've been really clear about is that we're going to grow SG&A in a disciplined way as we create a faster-growing business. And the 2 ways that we've done that, one, is investing in labor to maintain high levels of customer service. You saw us do that throughout the pandemic, and it played -- It paid great dividends for us during that time frame.

確實如此。我的意思是，我們已經非常清楚的一件事是，隨著我們創建一個增長更快的業務，我們將以一種有紀律的方式增長 SG&A。我們這樣做的兩種方式，一種是投資勞動力以維持高水平的客戶服務。您看到我們在整個大流行期間都這樣做了，並且發揮了作用——在那段時間裡，它為我們帶來了巨大的回報。

The other thing we've talked about is investing in a disciplined way in IT, which is enabling growth in both our DIY and our Commercial business. Every one of our growth initiatives, whether it's on the Retail side of the business or the Commercial side of the business, includes some element of improving the customer experience. And those things have required us to accelerate some of our investments in IT. We like those investments. They are improving the customer experience. They're also improving the experience for our AutoZoners. And quite frankly, we think we'll get benefits in terms of productivity in the future.

我們談到的另一件事是在 IT 中以一種有紀律的方式進行投資，這使我們的 DIY 和商業業務都能實現增長。我們的每一項增長計劃，無論是在業務的零售方面還是在業務的商業方面，都包含一些改善客戶體驗的元素。這些事情要求我們加快對 IT 的一些投資。我們喜歡這些投資。他們正在改善客戶體驗。他們還改善了我們 AutoZoners 的體驗。坦率地說，我們認為我們將來會在生產力方面受益。

Your next question is coming from Zach Fadem at Wells Fargo.

你的下一個問題來自富國銀行的 Zach Fadem。

Could you walk us through the sequential performance for Commercial in a little bit more detail as last quarter stepped down a touch on a multiyear basis, while this quarter bounced back nicely. So the question is, could you walk us through what you think could be driving the fluctuation in the do-it-for-me transactions from Q1 to Q2? And then with the 3-year Commercial compare looking a bit tougher, is it fair to assume that double-digit growth can sustain in the second half of the year?

您能否更詳細地介紹一下商業的連續表現，因為上個季度在多年的基礎上略有下降，而本季度則反彈得很好。所以問題是，您能否向我們介紹一下您認為可能導致從第一季度到第二季度的“為我做”交易波動的因素？然後與 3 年商業比較看起來有點艱難，假設下半年可以維持兩位數的增長是否公平？

Yes. Great question. So a couple of things I'll highlight. As I've mentioned, we've had 10 straight quarters of double-digit sales growth. And quite frankly, 6 of the last 8 have been above 20%. We like the competitive dynamics in the marketplace today. We also like the fact that we're underpenetrated. We are a 4 to 5 share in a huge market that's approaching $100 billion. So there's a tremendous opportunity for us to create a faster-growing business.

是的。很好的問題。所以我要強調幾件事。正如我所提到的，我們已經連續 10 個季度實現了兩位數的銷售增長。坦率地說，過去 8 次中有 6 次超過 20%。我們喜歡當今市場上的競爭動態。我們也喜歡我們未被充分滲透的事實。我們在一個接近 1000 億美元的巨大市場中佔有 4 到 5 的份額。因此，我們有巨大的機會來創建一個增長更快的業務。

If we look at our business on a 2-year basis, on a 2-year stack basis, we're over 45%. So we like where we are from a commercial standpoint and all the initiatives that we have in place, improving the quality of our Duralast brand, expanding our assortments with our Mega-Hubs, improving our delivery times, leveraging technology. And the competitive pricing dynamics that we saw in the marketplace a couple of years ago that we addressed give us a lot of confidence about it. So we've been comfortably double digits. You've heard us say that our goal is to continue to grow that share, and growing that share means that we aspire to have a business that's growing double digits really as far as the eye can see.

如果我們以 2 年的基礎來看我們的業務，以 2 年的堆棧為基礎，我們超過 45%。因此，從商業角度來看，我們喜歡我們所處的位置以及我們已採取的所有舉措，提高我們 Duralast 品牌的質量，通過我們的 Mega-Hubs 擴大我們的品類，改善我們的交貨時間，利用技術。幾年前我們在市場上看到的競爭性定價動態給了我們很大的信心。所以我們一直輕鬆地保持兩位數。您已經聽過我們說過，我們的目標是繼續擴大這一份額，而擴大這一份額意味著我們渴望擁有一家在目之所及範圍內實現兩位數增長的業務。

Got it. That's helpful. And Jamere, just to clarify your gross margin commentary. You mentioned no negative LIFO impact in Q3. Does that mean your LIFO balance of $106 million remained stable in Q3 and Q4? Or is it fair to expect that line to gradually or maybe more drastically shrink sequentially? And then big picture, is it fair to say that 52% gross margin is a fair run rate for the business going forward?

知道了。這很有幫助。 Jamere，只是為了澄清你的毛利率評論。您提到第三季度沒有後進先出的負面影響。這是否意味著您的 1.06 億美元後進先出法餘額在第三季度和第四季度保持穩定？或者期望這條線逐漸或更大幅度地連續收縮是否公平？然後是大局，可以說 52% 的毛利率對未來的業務來說是一個合理的運行率嗎？

Yes. So first, on LIFO, what we said is that we anticipate minimal, if any, LIFO charges in 3Q. And by the fourth quarter and certainly into FY '24, we could potentially see that $106 million balance start to burn down, which means we'd actually take gains through the P&L. It will take several quarters for us to work our way through $106 million based on our current forecast today. But we'll be very transparent about what we're seeing.

是的。因此，首先，關於後進先出法，我們所說的是我們預計第三季度的後進先出法收費最低（如果有的話）。到第四季度，當然到 24 財年，我們可能會看到 1.06 億美元的餘額開始耗盡，這意味著我們實際上會通過損益表獲利。根據我們目前的預測，我們需要幾個季度才能完成 1.06 億美元。但我們會對我們所看到的情況非常透明。

And what gives us this confidence, quite frankly, is that as I mentioned before, we're seeing freight moderate. And as such, in the back half of this fiscal year, barring any disruptions like we've seen in the past, we're not expecting to take any charges and again, possibly see us flipping back to gains.

坦率地說，讓我們有這種信心的是，正如我之前提到的，我們看到運費適中。因此，在本財政年度的下半年，除非出現我們過去看到的任何中斷，否則我們預計不會再收取任何費用，並且可能會看到我們重新獲得收益。

In terms of our gross margin run rate, we've said that our Commercial business is going to grow faster than our DIY business. And that's going to put, let's call it, 35 to 40 basis points of headwind on our gross margins going forward. Now that doesn't mean that you can expect our gross margins to deteriorate in the perpetuity. We're still running the same play with intensity inside the company to drive margin improvement that will mute some of that, if not offset all of it. So we feel pretty good about those initiatives. Our merchants and our supply chain teams are doing a tremendous job, as Bill mentioned before, not only working on in-stocks, but driving margin improvement. And as some of the cost pressures ease in the marketplace and some of the cost pressures that our vendors and suppliers have been seeing, it gives us an opportunity to go work on margins in a more fulsome way going forward.

就我們的毛利率而言，我們說過我們的商業業務將比我們的 DIY 業務增長得更快。這將給我們未來的毛利率帶來 35 到 40 個基點的逆風。現在這並不意味著您可以期望我們的毛利率永遠惡化。我們仍在公司內部以同樣的強度進行同樣的遊戲，以推動利潤率的提高，這將削弱其中的一部分，如果不能抵消全部的話。所以我們對這些舉措感覺很好。正如比爾之前提到的，我們的商家和我們的供應鏈團隊做得非常出色，不僅致力於庫存，還推動利潤率的提高。隨著市場上的一些成本壓力有所緩解，以及我們的供應商和供應商已經看到的一些成本壓力，這讓我們有機會以更全面的方式在未來努力提高利潤率。

Your next question for today is coming from Scott Ciccarelli at Truist Securities.

您今天的下一個問題來自 Truist Securities 的 Scott Ciccarelli。

I just had a quick question on your outlook for same SKU inflation for the rest of the year. I know you've said you think it's going to moderate somewhat. Just wondering do you think that would get to like the mid-single digits or low single-digit range?

我剛剛有一個關於今年剩餘時間相同 SKU 通脹前景的快速問題。我知道你說過你認為它會有所緩和。只是想知道您認為這會喜歡中個位數還是低個位數範圍？

Yes. That's a great question. I wish I could answer. There's just so many pushes and pulls right now in the economy with our cost that I'm not sure we can answer that. That seems like a reasonable assessment, but we're just going to manage through it, just like we have. We've gone through some pretty big cycles over the last 24 months, and we're going to manage our business appropriately. Whether it's 5% or 7%, we're just going to manage through it.

是的。這是一個很好的問題。我希望我能回答。現在我們的成本在經濟中有太多的推動和拉動，我不確定我們能否回答這個問題。這似乎是一個合理的評估，但我們將設法解決它，就像我們所做的那樣。在過去的 24 個月裡，我們經歷了一些相當大的周期，我們將適當地管理我們的業務。無論是 5% 還是 7%，我們都會設法應對。

Got you. That makes a lot of sense. And then just a follow-up on an earlier question. I know you mentioned transactions kind of accelerated in the quarter kind of -- and it really kind of offset some of the ticket decel. Do you think that could continue to happen? Or is there any data points that you think that, that might not happen again in the second half?

明白了這很有意義。然後只是對先前問題的跟進。我知道你提到過本季度的交易有點加速——它確實抵消了一些票務減速。你認為這種情況會繼續發生嗎？或者有沒有你認為下半場可能不會再發生的數據點？

I think that's a reasonable assumption. We hope that we can continue to -- we want to grow transactions. I talked about the challenges that are related to that, but our goal is to grow transactions. I also mentioned in the prepared remarks that we're very focused on unit growth. We believe that's the lifeblood of this organization, and we're focused on how do we grow units over the long term in both our Retail and Commercial business. And we've been very pleased with the unit market share gains that we've had over the last 3 years. And we're continuing to grow unit share, even after the growth we've had over the last 3 years.

我認為這是一個合理的假設。我們希望我們能夠繼續——我們希望增加交易。我談到了與此相關的挑戰，但我們的目標是增加交易。我還在準備好的評論中提到，我們非常關注單位增長。我們相信這是該組織的命脈，我們專注於如何在零售和商業業務中長期發展單位。我們對過去 3 年的單位市場份額增長感到非常滿意。即使在過去 3 年的增長之後，我們仍在繼續增長單位份額。

Your next question for today is coming from Brian Nagel at Oppenheimer.

您今天的下一個問題來自 Oppenheimer 的 Brian Nagel。

So my first question, it's a bit of a follow-up to a prior question. But just with respect -- with regard to the Commercial growth, we've seen substantial growth there for a while. As you move past the effects of the pandemic, the growth rates moderated but still stayed very healthy. I guess how -- the question is how do you think about that longer-term trajectory Commercial growth? And if you look at some of the markets that are maybe more mature for AutoZone, do they always give you insight into either from a market share perspective or more closer to a terminal type growth rate for that business?

所以我的第一個問題是對先前問題的跟進。但就商業增長而言，我們已經看到了一段時間的大幅增長。隨著大流行病的影響過去，增長率有所放緩，但仍保持非常健康。我想如何 - 問題是您如何看待商業增長的長期軌跡？如果你看看 AutoZone 可能更成熟的一些市場，它們是否總是讓你從市場份額的角度或更接近該業務的終端類型增長率的角度洞察？

Well, terrific questions. I want to be clear about one thing. I don't believe the vast majority of the growth that we've seen in the Commercial business over the last 3 years was a result of the pandemic. There's no question, the outside growth in our DIY business was mainly attributable to the pandemic. I don't think that was the case with Commercial. I'm sure it had some positive effects. But I think what -- the strategy that we began to deploy about 4 years ago have really been the driver of our Commercial performance.

好吧，很棒的問題。我想明確一件事。我不認為過去 3 年我們在商業業務中看到的絕大部分增長是大流行的結果。毫無疑問，我們 DIY 業務的外部增長主要歸功於大流行。我認為 Commercial 並非如此。我相信它有一些積極的影響。但我認為 - 我們大約 4 年前開始部署的戰略確實是我們商業業績的驅動力。

Now as we continue to further and further mature on that strategy, we have seen some deceleration in our Commercial growth. It's still fantastic, but it's not growing in the 20s. Our goal now is what's next? And we're working on that even as we speak. What are the next levers that we're going to pull to continue to grow in the Commercial business?

現在，隨著我們繼續在該戰略上進一步成熟，我們已經看到我們的商業增長有所放緩。它仍然很棒，但它在 20 年代沒有增長。我們現在的目標是下一步是什麼？就在我們說話的時候，我們正在努力。我們要拉動的下一個槓桿是什麼以繼續在商業業務中增長？

Now just a reminder, we've got mid-teens market share in the Retail business, and we have about 25% or about 4% total market share in the Commercial business. So we've got a tremendous runway in front of us. When you talk about certain markets and what do we see, we certainly have some markets that are more mature than others. I would say the most encouraging thing to me is to see how broad-based the acceleration has been in our 61 regions that we have across the United States.

現在提醒一下，我們在零售業務中佔據了十幾歲的市場份額，在商業業務中我們擁有大約 25% 或大約 4% 的總市場份額。所以我們面前有一條巨大的跑道。當你談論某些市場和我們所看到的時，我們肯定有一些市場比其他市場更成熟。我想說對我來說最令人鼓舞的事情是看到我們在美國 61 個地區的加速發展有多麼廣泛。

But I was in a market last week. Arguably our most mature market, I'm not going to tell you where that is, and it has significant Hub coverage, and it has significant Mega-Hub coverage. And in that market, we continue to grow at very rapid rates. And so I am particularly optimistic, as we continue to deploy the strategy of Mega-Hubs, so we still have -- we have roughly a little over 80 Mega-Hubs today. We're going to 200 and hopefully, in short order. And then we're going to get to 300 Hub stores. So that will be 500 stores in the United States with materially different product assortments than we've had historically. To me, that is the biggest part of our strategy.

但我上週去了一個市場。可以說這是我們最成熟的市場，我不會告訴你它在哪裡，它有重要的 Hub 覆蓋，它有重要的 Mega-Hub 覆蓋。在那個市場，我們繼續以非常快的速度增長。所以我特別樂觀，因為我們繼續部署 Mega-Hubs 戰略，所以我們仍然有 - 今天我們大約有 80 多個 Mega-Hubs。我們將達到 200，並希望在短時間內完成。然後我們將進入 300 家 Hub 商店。因此，這將是美國的 500 家商店，其產品種類與我們以往的產品種類大不相同。對我來說，這是我們戰略中最重要的部分。

That's very, very helpful. I appreciate it. And then as a quick follow-up, a different topic, you've mentioned in the prepared comments that you think the winter, I guess, it was harsh enough to drive that typical spring type business. You made that comment. The question I have is, as you look at the weather, and it seemed to be very variable across the United States this year, are you seeing it much in the way of as kind of spread your comps between those markets which have been weather-impacted versus those that have been less impacted?

這非常非常有幫助。我很感激。然後作為一個快速跟進，一個不同的話題，你在準備好的評論中提到你認為冬天，我猜，它足以推動典型的春季業務。你發表了那個評論。我的問題是，當你看天氣時，今年美國各地的天氣似乎變化很大，你是否看到它在那些已經天氣的市場之間分散你的補償的方式 -受影響的與那些受影響較小的？

Yes, I mean, we always see that. But what my point was, we've been through years where we just didn't have a winter. And it's not just the spring. Frankly, it's as much in the summertime where we just don't see the parts failures on the failure side of the business that we do historically and the maintenance side. It's snow and ice and cold or all put stress on automobiles, and we generally see that over the next 6 to 8 months once the winter subsides. So that's what I was really getting at.

是的，我的意思是，我們總是看到這一點。但我的意思是，我們經歷了很多年，只是沒有冬天。不僅僅是春天。坦率地說，在夏季，我們只是看不到我們歷史上所做的業務故障方面和維護方面的零件故障。冰雪和寒冷或所有這些都會給汽車帶來壓力，一旦冬季消退，我們通常會在接下來的 6 到 8 個月內看到這種情況。這就是我真正要表達的意思。

I do have a bit of caution right now. I talked about tax rebates that are flowing right now. The one thing that I worry about a little bit is we haven't had great weather in the last week or so. We need to get some good weather, so DIY-ers can crawl underneath their cars while these tax rebates are flowing, because we see a massive surge during this time of the year when our customers have more discretionary dollars.

我現在確實有點謹慎。我談到了現在流動的退稅。我有點擔心的一件事是我們在過去一周左右的時間里天氣不好。我們需要一些好天氣，這樣 DIY 愛好者就可以在這些退稅流動的時候爬到他們的車底下，因為我們看到一年中的這個時候我們的客戶有更多可自由支配的美元時會出現大幅激增。

Your next question for today is coming from Simeon Gutman at Morgan Stanley.

您今天的下一個問題來自摩根士丹利的 Simeon Gutman。

This is Jackie Sussman on for Simeon. Congrats on a good quarter. I guess, first, just on the used car cycle, that kind of seems to be this ongoing tailwind for the industry. Is there any way to assess where we are in that cycle? And I guess just lapping this higher mix of used cars or an older car fleet become a challenge at some point? Or do you guys expect a softer landing?

這是 Jackie Sussman 代替 Simeon。祝賀一個好的季度。我想，首先，就二手車週期而言，這似乎是該行業持續的順風。有什麼方法可以評估我們在那個週期中所處的位置嗎？而且我想只是在某些時候將這種更高混合的二手車或舊車隊變成一個挑戰？還是你們期待軟著陸？

Yes. So clearly, used cars are still in tight supply, and prices are up. We've seen prices moderate a little bit year-over-year, but they're still up 24% or so over a 2-year basis.

是的。很明顯，二手車供應仍然緊張，價格上漲。我們看到價格同比略有下降，但在 2 年的基礎上仍上漲了 24% 左右。

I think the second dynamic associated with that is the fact that financing costs have gone up fairly significantly as well. So you've got interest rates that have made financing a vehicle, whether it's new or used, significantly more expensive. I think the combination of those 2 dynamics puts tremendous pressure on consumers.

我認為與此相關的第二個動力是融資成本也大幅上升。所以你的利率已經使車輛融資，無論是新的還是二手的，都非常昂貴。我認為這兩種動力的結合給消費者帶來了巨大的壓力。

And what we've seen historically is that when the consumer is under pressure, whether it's a recessionary cycle or it's a cycle where new and used car prices spike, they tend to hang on to their vehicles longer, invest in repairing those vehicles and ride to the other side of tougher market conditions. And we certainly think that, that's going to be the case. So while the prices have come down, we still see a very tight market that's out there today and, quite frankly, a market that's significantly more expensive than what consumers experience prior to the pandemic.

我們從歷史上看到的是，當消費者面臨壓力時，無論是經濟衰退週期還是新車和二手車價格飆升的周期，他們往往會更長時間地持有他們的車輛，投資維修這些車輛並乘坐到更嚴峻的市場條件的另一面。我們當然認為，情況將會如此。因此，雖然價格已經下降，但我們仍然看到今天的市場非常緊張，而且坦率地說，這個市場比消費者在大流行之前所經歷的要貴得多。

Got it. That's really helpful. And just quickly, another on the wage inflation. I guess that kind of feels like the most stubborn cost pressure, as you mentioned in your prepared remarks. Is the way to think about it that the cost of business seems structurally higher as a result? Or are there efficiencies within the labor and fulfillment model you have that you could focus on as an offset?

知道了。這真的很有幫助。很快，另一個關於工資通脹的問題。正如您在準備好的發言中提到的，我想這種感覺就像是最頑固的成本壓力。結果是業務成本在結構上似乎更高嗎？或者在您擁有的勞動和履行模型中是否存在可以作為抵消重點的效率？

There's no question that the cost of doing business are structurally higher. And I just want to make sure I amplify this point. Our wage rates are up double, more than double what they normally are. And that is stick-to-your-ribs inflation. It will be with us forever, but that's going to continue. And it's been going on for 5 years, not at this level, but we had acceleration before the pandemic. And once the pandemic hit, it went up significantly more.

毫無疑問，經營成本在結構上更高。我只是想確保我強調了這一點。我們的工資率上漲了一倍，是正常水平的兩倍多。那就是堅持你的肋骨通貨膨脹。它將永遠與我們同在，但這將繼續下去。它已經持續了 5 年，不是在這個水平上，但在大流行之前我們已經加速了。一旦大流行來襲，它就會顯著上升。

But we've been able to manage it. We're looking for creative ways, like always, to be more and more efficient, but we can't, we can't drive that level of efficiency in a 43-year-old business without some kind of structural change, which we'll be looking for, but we haven't identified at this point in time.

但我們已經能夠管理它。我們正在尋找創造性的方法，一如既往地提高效率，但我們不能，如果不進行某種結構性改變，我們就無法在一家擁有 43 年曆史的企業中提高效率水平，我們會尋找，但我們目前還沒有確定。

And I just think, from a macro standpoint, if you look at unemployment being at 3.4% or so and wage rates being in the -- with a 5 handle on them, I mean we're in a dynamic where the combination -- as Bill said in his remarks, the combination of market pressures and regulatory pressures, which is an increasing push to raise minimum wage rates, this is an environment that we have to plan for in the future. The good news, again, about our industry is that as we've seen inflationary impacts, whether it's product cost or it's wages or it's freight, I mean we have typically seen this be an industry that is very disciplined about passing those costs along to consumers. And given the relative inelasticity of the demand for our bread-and-butter products, we expect that to not cause our business to wobble at all.

我只是認為，從宏觀的角度來看，如果你看看失業率在 3.4% 左右，而工資率在 - 有 5 個句柄，我的意思是我們處於一個動態的組合 - 作為比爾在發言中表示，市場壓力和監管壓力相結合，正在越來越多地推動提高最低工資率，這是我們未來必須規劃的環境。關於我們行業的好消息是，正如我們看到的通脹影響，無論是產品成本、工資還是運費，我的意思是我們通常看到這個行業非常有紀律地將這些成本轉嫁給消費者。鑑於對我們的麵包和黃油產品的需求相對缺乏彈性，我們預計這不會導致我們的業務出現任何波動。

Your next question for today is coming from David Bellinger at ROTH MKM.

您今天的下一個問題來自 ROTH MKM 的 David Bellinger。

First one on the sequential improvement in discretionary categories. Why do you think that's happening now? Was there anything unique within the Q2 period? And are you seeing differences across demographics? Meaning is the discretionary improvement also occurring with your lower or, call it, the lowest income customer base as well?

第一個關於酌情類別的連續改進。為什麼你認為現在會發生這種情況？ Q2 期間有什麼獨特之處嗎？您是否看到人口統計數據之間的差異？意思是酌情改善是否也發生在您的較低收入或最低收入客戶群中？

Yes. I mean what we've seen in total is that our business has been remarkably resilient across both our upper-income consumers, but also the lower-end consumers. And again, that's because the lion's share of our business, our bread-and-butter categories, if you will, or brake fix/failure, maintenance-related sort of categories, the knock-on effect of that is that to the extent that folks are making purchases for those bread-and-butter products, if you will, then the discretionary categories tend to ride along with that as the basket gets built. So we've been fortunate in that regard.

是的。我的意思是，我們總體上看到的是，我們的業務在高收入消費者和低端消費者中都具有顯著的彈性。再一次，那是因為我們業務的最大份額，我們的麵包和黃油類別，如果你願意，或者剎車修復/故障，與維護相關的類別，其連鎖反應是在某種程度上人們正在購買那些麵包和黃油產品，如果你願意的話，那麼隨著購物籃的建立，可自由支配的類別往往會隨之而來。所以我們在這方面很幸運。

And the other thing that I don't want to underestimate, and I actually want to underscore, is the fact that we've been very focused on our growth initiatives. And our growth initiatives are about driving more customers and more purchase occasions for AutoZone. And as a result of that, we're seeing the opportunity for us to continue to win some market share. So some of that sequential improvement that you're seeing in traffic is actually the impact of some of the things that we've been doing from a growth initiative to drive more customers into our store.

我不想低估的另一件事，實際上我想強調的是，我們一直非常關注我們的增長計劃。我們的增長計劃旨在為 AutoZone 帶來更多客戶和更多購買機會。因此，我們看到了繼續贏得一些市場份額的機會。因此，您在流量中看到的一些連續改進實際上是我們從增長計劃中一直在做的一些事情的影響，以吸引更多顧客進入我們的商店。

And my follow-up on the 4% market share you highlighted before in Commercial, do you have a sense of where the more mature markets are tracking in terms of market share? And should we think about that as potentially in the double digits at this point and a path to where some of these newer programs can get to in due time?

我跟進了您之前在 Commercial 中強調的 4% 的市場份額，您是否了解更成熟的市場在市場份額方面所追踪的位置？我們是否應該考慮在這一點上可能達到兩位數，以及其中一些新程序可以在適當的時候到達哪裡的路徑？

Yes, we're definitely not in double digits in any markets that I'm aware of. I would think maybe we're at 6%, in that kind of ballpark. But look, if we have 16% or whatever share in Retail, my thing is why can't we have that in Commercial? And that's the kind of thought process we need to have.

是的，在我所知道的任何市場中，我們絕對不是兩位數。我想在那種情況下我們可能只有 6%。但是，如果我們在零售業中擁有 16% 或任何份額，我的問題是為什麼我們不能在商業中擁有它？這就是我們需要的思維過程。

I think one of our challenges is sometimes, we think about where we are, and it limits what we think about the possibilities. We're trying to eliminate some of those glass ceilings and say, "Why don't we have the same amount of share in both, which would mean the Commercial business would be meaningfully larger than the Retail business?"

我認為我們面臨的挑戰之一是，有時我們會考慮自己所處的位置，這會限制我們對可能性的思考。我們正試圖消除其中一些玻璃天花板，並說，“為什麼我們不在兩者中擁有相同數量的份額，這意味著商業業務將比零售業務大得多？”

And the good news for us is it's not just focused on new customers, but it is increasing our share of wallet with our existing customers. And to Bill's point, that's where we're focused as a company at getting what we believe our fair share or what our entitlement should be. We're pretty excited about those initiatives going forward.

對我們來說，好消息是它不僅關注新客戶，而且還增加了我們與現有客戶的錢包份額。對於 Bill 的觀點，這就是我們作為一家公司專注於獲得我們認為我們的公平份額或我們應該享有的權利的地方。我們對未來的這些舉措感到非常興奮。

Your next question for today is coming from Michael Lasser at UBS.

您今天的下一個問題來自瑞銀的 Michael Lasser。

This is Atul Maheswari on for Michael Lasser. The first question is on the Commercial business. Compared to last year, when you were regularly doing 20%-plus to now growing in 13% to 15%, so what has changed? Is it just fewer new customer additions or less ticket per customer?

我是 Michael Lasser 的 Atul Maheswari。第一個問題是關於商業業務。與去年相比，當你經常做 20% 以上到現在增長 13% 到 15% 時，有什麼變化？是新客戶增加的數量減少了，還是每位客戶的票數減少了？

Well, I think as I said before, I think part of what's changed is some of the massive improvements that we've made in our -- from our new strategy on Commercial acceleration have matured more, but they're not mature. And so we are -- I would just say it this way, we are very pleased with the Commercial growth that we've experienced over the last 6 months. And as I also said, we're looking for those next items that are in the next part of our strategy, they're going to drive accelerated growth.

好吧，我認為正如我之前所說，我認為部分改變是我們在我們的商業加速新戰略中所做的一些重大改進已經更加成熟，但它們還不成熟。所以我們 - 我只想這樣說，我們對過去 6 個月的商業增長感到非常滿意。正如我也說過的，我們正在尋找我們戰略下一部分的下一個項目，它們將推動加速增長。

Yes. We're continuing to win market share. I mean, I would venture to say that the commercial market is not growing as fast as we're growing, which the knock-on to that is that we're growing market share, and we're pleased with our progress.

是的。我們正在繼續贏得市場份額。我的意思是，我敢說商業市場的增長速度沒有我們的增長速度快，這意味著我們正在擴大市場份額，我們對自己的進步感到滿意。

Got it. It makes sense. And then as a quick follow-up, I know you talked about tax refunds. But how are you thinking about near-term trends given some of the data source that tax refunds are lower year-over-year, and then there's potentially some headwinds from Snap as well?

知道了。這說得通。然後作為快速跟進，我知道你談到了退稅。但是，鑑於某些數據源表明退稅額同比較低，而且 Snap 也可能帶來一些不利因素，您如何看待近期趨勢？

Yes, look, we've never talked about Snap. I don't think that, that's a big part driver for our business. The data we have available to us shows that tax refunds are remarkably similar to the way they were last year and are slightly up. We look at that data. It usually comes out on Mondays, and we see where the big drops happened last week. Last week was a big drop as it was last year on tax refunds. So as far as we're concerned, we see everything on track. We're hoping that we get some great weather that's very conducive to DIY, and that those customers come to us.

是的，看，我們從未談論過 Snap。我不認為，這是我們業務的重要驅動力。我們掌握的數據顯示，退稅與去年的情況非常相似，而且略有上升。我們查看該數據。它通常在星期一發布，我們會看到上週出現大跌的地方。上週的退稅與去年一樣大幅下降。因此，就我們而言，我們看到一切都在軌道上。我們希望我們能得到一些非常有利於 DIY 的好天氣，並且那些客戶會來找我們。

Thank you. Good luck to the rest of the year.

謝謝。祝你在今年剩下的時間裡好運。

Thank you very much. Well, before we conclude -- sorry, I thought you were -- I'll go ahead. Before we conclude the call, I want to take a moment to reiterate, we believe 2023 will continue to be a solid year for our industry and our business model is working. We must 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 that this is a marathon and not a sprint. 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 successful. Thank you for participating in today's call. Have a great day.

非常感謝。好吧，在我們結束之前——抱歉，我以為你是——我會繼續。在我們結束電話會議之前，我想花點時間重申，我們相信 2023 年對我們的行業來說將繼續是豐收的一年，我們的商業模式正在發揮作用。我們不能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。我們有激動人心的計劃，應該可以幫助我們在未來取得成功，但我想強調的是，這是一場馬拉松，而不是短跑。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。感謝您參加今天的電話會議。祝你有美好的一天。

This concludes today's conference. You may disconnect your lines at this time. Thank you for your participation.

今天的會議到此結束。此時您可以斷開線路。感謝您的參與。