汽車地帶 (AZO) 2023 Q3 法說會逐字稿

Greetings. Welcome to AutoZone's 2023 Q3 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 年第三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. 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.

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。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 Third 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 年第三季度電話會議。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 third 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.

關於第三季度，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，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。

As we begin, I would like to thank our AutoZoners across the company for their commitment to providing our customers with WOW! Customer Service, which has been the secret to our long-term consistent success. For the third quarter, our team delivered total sales growth of 5.8%, which included a 1.9% domestic same-store sales comp.

在我們開始時，我要感謝整個公司的 AutoZoners 致力於為我們的客戶提供 WOW！客戶服務，這是我們長期持續成功的秘訣。第三季度，我們的團隊實現了 5.8% 的總銷售額增長，其中包括 1.9% 的國內同店銷售額。

While our top line results were below our expectations at the start of the quarter, our sales improved later in the quarter as we experienced improved weather. We were pleased to deliver operating profit growth north of 9% and EPS growth of 17.5%. Both our operating profit and EPS growth were the highest growth rates we've had in over a year.

雖然我們在本季度初的營收低於預期，但隨著天氣好轉，我們的銷售額在本季度後期有所改善。我們很高興實現超過 9% 的營業利潤增長和 17.5% 的每股收益增長。我們的營業利潤和每股收益增長都是一年多以來的最高增長率。

As many retailers have reported, March was a tough month as cool wet weather impacted customer traffic. In addition, snow accumulations were down significantly in February and March for much of the country, which also had some impact on our business. We mentioned in our last call that weather, particularly during tax refund season really matters. Unfortunately, it was unfavorable this year as our results reflect. We also, after rapid growth and extensive market share gains in commercial, experienced some headwinds this quarter, and our growth was disappointing to us. We were lapping tremendous growth last year and had some internal and external factors that impacted our growth this quarter. We have had some sectors of this business that have been extremely challenged with rising interest rates and high used car prices.

正如許多零售商所報告的那樣，3 月是一個艱難的月份，因為涼爽潮濕的天氣影響了客流量。此外，該國大部分地區 2 月和 3 月的積雪明顯減少，這也對我們的業務產生了一定影響。我們在上次電話會議中提到天氣，尤其是在退稅季節期間，確實很重要。不幸的是，正如我們的結果所反映的那樣，今年情況不利。在商業領域快速增長和廣泛的市場份額增長之後，我們在本季度也遇到了一些阻力，我們的增長令我們失望。去年我們取得了巨大的增長，並且有一些內部和外部因素影響了我們本季度的增長。我們有一些業務部門因利率上升和二手車價格高而受到極大挑戰。

Additionally, during our rapid growth over the last couple of years, we also unintentionally deemphasized some of our tried and true disciplines. As I've said for the last 6 months or so, as we exit pandemic mode, we must get back to our well-known and highly regarded flawless execution, which I believe will help us reignite top line growth.

此外，在我們過去幾年的快速發展過程中，我們也無意中淡化了一些久經考驗的真實學科。正如我在過去 6 個月左右所說的那樣，隨著我們退出大流行模式，我們必須回到我們眾所周知且備受推崇的完美執行，我相信這將幫助我們重振營收增長。

We have good initiatives in flight in both our retail and commercial businesses, and we are determined to move with urgency to reaccelerate our sales and share growth. Fortunately, as these difference between our domestic same-store sales growth and our total sales growth implies, our international team, particularly in Mexico, delivered very strong sales growth for the quarter. Our teams in Mexico and Brazil continue to do a great job offering differentiated customer experiences, which is leading to strong sales growth.

我們在零售和商業業務方面都有良好的舉措，我們決心採取緊急行動，重新加速我們的銷售和份額增長。幸運的是，正如我們國內同店銷售額增長與總銷售額增長之間的差異所暗示的那樣，我們的國際團隊，尤其是在墨西哥的團隊，在本季度實現了非常強勁的銷售增長。我們在墨西哥和巴西的團隊繼續出色地提供差異化的客戶體驗，這導致了強勁的銷售增長。

This morning, we will review our third 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'll also share how inflation is, in fact, impacting our cost in retails and how we think inflation will impact our business for the remainder of FY '23.

今天早上，我們將回顧我們第三季度的同店銷售、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和一些區域召集。我們還將分享通貨膨脹實際上如何影響我們的零售成本，以及我們認為通貨膨脹將如何影響我們在 23 財年剩餘時間內的業務。

Moving to the specifics for the quarter. Domestic same-store sales were up 1.9%. Our net income was $648 million, and our earnings per share was $34.12, increasing 17.5%. On a 2-year basis, we delivered a 4.5% domestic same-store sales comp. And on a 3-year basis, a 33.4% stacked comp. Our 3-year stacked comp was in line with what we've seen in the last 3 quarters.

轉向本季度的細節。國內同店銷售額增長 1.9%。我們的淨收入為 6.48 億美元，每股收益為 34.12 美元，增長 17.5%。在 2 年的基礎上，我們交付了 4.5% 的國內同店銷售額。在 3 年的基礎上，33.4% 的堆疊補償。我們的 3 年堆疊組合與我們在過去 3 個季度中看到的一致。

Domestic resale -- sales were up 2.2% and our domestic commercial growth was 6.3%. We continue to set commercial quarterly records with $1.11 billion in sales as we generated an additional $66 million in sales than in Q3 last year. On a trailing 4-quarter basis, we delivered $4.54 billion in annual commercial sales, up a strong 14.4% over last year. We also set another Q3 record for average weekly sales per store at $16,800.

國內轉售——銷售額增長 2.2%，國內商業增長 6.3%。我們繼續以 11.1 億美元的銷售額創下商業季度記錄，因為我們的銷售額比去年第三季度增加了 6600 萬美元。在連續 4 個季度的基礎上，我們實現了 45.4 億美元的年度商業銷售額，比去年強勁增長 14.4%。我們還在第三季度創下了每家商店平均每週銷售額 16,800 美元的另一項記錄。

As I've mentioned earlier, March was a bit of an outlier in the quarter's domestic sales results. We had a greater than 3% comp in February but fell to a negative 1% in March before recovering back to just under 4% in April and early May. On a regional basis, we experienced slower growth in the Northeastern and Midwestern markets than the rest of the country. This held true for both our DIY and commercial businesses. Our business on the West Coast was in line with our remaining markets. Average ticket grew 4% in retail and commercial for the quarter, decreasing 1% from last year.

正如我之前提到的，3 月份在該季度的國內銷售業績中有點異常。我們在 2 月份的薪酬高於 3%，但在 3 月份跌至負 1%，然後在 4 月份和 5 月初恢復到略低於 4%。在區域基礎上，我們在東北部和中西部市場的增長速度低於該國其他地區。這適用於我們的 DIY 和商業業務。我們在西海岸的業務與我們其餘的市場一致。本季度零售和商業平均票價增長 4%，比去年下降 1%。

After the most significant product cost inflation we have seen in decades, we are seeing those trends moderate and are negotiating some cost reductions from our vendors, as both product cost and freight inflation are slowing or have subsided. Additionally, while not anywhere close to historical norms, we saw wage inflation moderate to approximately 4%. While the staffing environment has substantially improved versus this time last year, we don't envision wage inflation pulling back much from these levels as there continues to be regulatory and market pressures.

在經歷了幾十年來最嚴重的產品成本上漲之後，我們看到這些趨勢正在緩和，並且正在與我們的供應商協商降低一些成本，因為產品成本和運費上漲都在放緩或已經消退。此外，雖然與歷史標準相差甚遠，但我們看到工資通脹溫和至約 4%。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從這些水平大幅回落。

While we've had to manage through external forces, our focus continues to be on driving profitable market share growth, particularly in units and transactions. Our growth initiatives did just that this past quarter and included 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.

雖然我們不得不通過外部力量進行管理，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。我們的增長計劃在上個季度做到了這一點，包括新店單位增長、衛星店可用性提高、Hub 和 Mega-Hub 開業、覆蓋範圍擴大、利用 Duralast 品牌的實力、增強技術使我們更容易與更高效，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踐行我們的承諾。

While our sales moderated this past quarter, we remain focused on growing our share over time and becoming the industry leader in both DIY and commercial. Digging deeper into our domestic DIY business this quarter, we delivered a 0.6% comp. As previously said, our ticket growth was up 4% versus last year, and our transaction count trends were down 3%. From the data we have available, we continue to gain both dollar and unit share during the quarter. Our sales floor outperformed hard parts with approximately a 3% difference between them.

雖然上個季度我們的銷售額有所放緩，但我們仍然專注於隨著時間的推移增加我們的份額，並成為 DIY 和商業領域的行業領導者。本季度深入研究我們的國內 DIY 業務，我們交付了 0.6% 的補償。如前所述，與去年相比，我們的門票增長了 4%，而我們的交易數量趨勢下降了 3%。根據我們現有的數據，我們在本季度繼續獲得美元和單位份額。我們的銷售區優於硬零件，它們之間的差異約為 3%。

Our relative outperformance in sales floor categories is attributable to both discretionary categories improving and the hard parts category slowing. It was encouraging to see our sales floor items performing so well, specifically batteries, oil and wiper categories performed well and successfully lapped very strong performance last year. These categories have exceeded our expectations all year.

我們在銷售場所類別中的相對優異表現歸因於非必需品類別的改善和硬零件類別的放緩。令人鼓舞的是，我們的銷售場內商品表現如此出色，特別是電池、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. We believe both our sales floor and hard parts businesses will continue to do well this summer as we expect miles driven improvements while our growth initiatives continue delivering strong results.

我們的 DIY 和商業摩擦類別表現低於我們的預期。我們相信我們的銷售部門和硬零件業務在今年夏天將繼續表現良好，因為我們預計里程數會推動改進，同時我們的增長計劃將繼續取得強勁成果。

Let me also address our pricing strategies. In Q3, we continued experiencing mid-single-digit pricing inflation in line with cost of goods. We believe both numbers will decrease in the fourth quarter as we are lapping the onset of high inflation last year. To be clear, we do not believe inflation is going away, especially wage inflation, but expected to slow as the economy slows.

讓我也談談我們的定價策略。在第三季度，我們繼續經歷與商品成本一致的中個位數定價通脹。我們相信這兩個數字都將在第四季度下降，因為我們正在應對去年的高通脹。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, increasing margin dollars. It is also notable that following periods of higher inflation, our industry has historically not meaningfully reduced pricing to reflect lower costs.

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。

We remain excited about our growth initiatives. Our team's focus on execution and the tremendous share gains we have achieved in both our retail and commercial businesses over the last few years. For our fourth quarter, we expect our sales performance to be led by our commercial business as we execute on opening additional Hub and Mega-Hub stores, have an improving in-stock position and improve customer service. We also believe our DIY business will remain resilient as the difficult macro environment is pointing customers to continue maintaining their vehicles. We will, as always, be transparent about what we are seeing and provide color on our markets and performance as trends emerge.

我們仍然對我們的增長計劃感到興奮。我們的團隊專注於執行，以及過去幾年我們在零售和商業業務中取得的巨大份額收益。對於我們的第四季度，我們預計我們的銷售業績將由我們的商業業務引領，因為我們將開設更多的 Hub 和 Mega-Hub 商店，改善庫存狀況並改善客戶服務。我們還相信我們的 DIY 業務將保持彈性，因為困難的宏觀環境導致客戶繼續維護他們的車輛。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 reiterate our plan on continuing to grow our business in Mexico and Brazil. With almost 800 stores combined across these 2 markets, as previously noted, 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.

在將電話轉給 Jamere 之前，我想重申我們繼續發展墨西哥和巴西業務的計劃。如前所述，這兩個市場共有近 800 家商店，這些企業在本季度再次取得了令人矚目的業績，並且在未來幾十年內它們將繼續成為銷售和利潤增長的主要貢獻者。

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 expand our store footprint significantly and aggressively over the next 5 years. We continue to be 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 successful.

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。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。我們繼續對我們在國際上的增長前景感到興奮。我們致力於在未來以有紀律和有利可圖的方式發展我們的業務，我們知道，在我們的 AutoZoners 的引領下，我們將繼續取得成功。

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. Good morning, everyone. As Bill mentioned, we had solid results for our third quarter. This quarter, we delivered a 1.9% domestic comp growth, a 9.3% increase in EBIT and a 17.5% increase in EPS. To start this morning, let me take a few moments to elaborate on the specifics in our P&L for Q3.

謝謝，比爾。大家，早安。正如 Bill 提到的，我們在第三季度取得了可觀的業績。本季度，我們實現了 1.9% 的國內收入增長，息稅前利潤增長 9.3%，每股收益增長 17.5%。從今天早上開始，讓我花點時間詳細說明我們第三季度損益表的具體細節。

For the quarter, total sales were just under $4.1 billion, up 5.8%, reflecting continued strength in our industry, solid execution of our growth initiatives. Let me give a little more color on our growth initiatives, starting with our commercial business for the third quarter. Our domestic DIFM sales increased 6.3% to just over $1.1 billion, and we're up just over 32% on a 2-year stack basis.

本季度，總銷售額略低於 41 億美元，增長 5.8%，反映出我們行業的持續實力，以及我們增長計劃的穩健執行。讓我從第三季度的商業業務開始，為我們的增長計劃提供更多色彩。我們的國內 DIFM 銷售額增長了 6.3%，達到略高於 11 億美元，並且我們在 2 年堆棧基礎上增長了略高於 32%。

Sales to our domestic DIFM customers represented 31% of our domestic auto part sales. Our weekly sales per program were $16,786, up 1.2%. We experienced growth across both our local customer base and national accounts with locals being the stronger of the 2 categories. Our results for the quarter set another record for highest weekly sales volume in the history of the chain at $92.5 million.

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 31%。我們每個節目的每週銷售額為 16,786 美元，增長 1.2%。我們在本地客戶群和國民賬戶方面都取得了增長，本地客戶在這兩個類別中表現更強。我們本季度的業績創下了該連鎖店歷史上最高的每週銷售額 9250 萬美元的紀錄。

I want to reiterate that our commercial business is strong, and we believe we grew share despite a deceleration in our growth rates this quarter. 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. This quarter, we opened 26 net new programs, finishing with 5,526 total programs. As expected, commercial growth continues to lead the way in FY '23, and we continue to focus on growing our business faster.

我想重申，我們的商業業務很強勁，儘管本季度我們的增長率有所放緩，但我們相信我們的份額有所增長。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。本季度，我們淨開設了 26 個新項目，項目總數達到 5,526 個。正如預期的那樣，商業增長在 23 財年繼續引領潮流，我們將繼續專注於更快地發展我們的業務。

Our strategy remains intact as we continue to gain share in the industry. And as I have 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. Once again, I'll add some color on our progress. We now have 85 Mega-Hub locations with 4 new ones opened in Q3. While I mentioned a moment ago, the commercial weekly sales per program average was roughly $16,800 the 85 Mega-Hubs averaged significantly higher sales than the balance of the commercial footprint and continue to grow significantly faster than our overall commercial business in Q3.

隨著我們繼續在行業中獲得份額，我們的戰略保持不變。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為更加光明的未來做好準備。再一次，我會為我們的進展添加一些色彩。我們現在有 85 個 Mega-Hub 地點，其中 4 個在第三季度新開。雖然我剛才提到過，每個節目的商業周平均銷售額約為 16,800 美元，85 個 Mega-Hub 的平均銷售額明顯高於商業足蹟的平衡，並且在第三季度的增長速度繼續明顯快於我們的整體商業業務。

These assets are not only performing well individually, but the fulfillment capability for the surrounding AutoZone stores is giving our customers access to tens of thousands of additional parts and lifting the entire network for both DIY and commercial. This strategy is working. We will open 22 to 25 new Mega-Hubs in FY '23, and we remain committed to our objective to reach 200 Mega-Hubs supplemented by 300 regular Hubs.

這些資產不僅單獨表現良好，而且 AutoZone 周邊商店的履行能力使我們的客戶能夠獲得數以萬計的額外零件，並提升整個 DIY 和商業網絡。這個策略正在奏效。我們將在 23 財年開設 22 到 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，輔之以 300 個常規 Hub。

Now many of you have heard me say that in the near term, our commercial business should grow double digits as far as the eye can see, and we've maintained that conviction despite this quarter's results. We are significantly underpenetrated with a 4 or 5 share in an addressable market that is approaching $100 billion. The investments that we have made in our Duralast brand, expanding our coverage and assortment, adding more Hubs and Mega-Hubs, building technologies and improving our customer service continue to pay significant dividends and have a long runway. Nothing has changed in our views on what we can accomplish going forward, although we still have work to do to get back to this performance.

現在你們中的許多人都聽我說過，在短期內，我們的商業業務應該會以兩位數的速度增長，儘管本季度取得了業績，但我們仍然堅信這一點。在一個接近 1000 億美元的可尋址市場中，我們的滲透率遠遠低於 4 或 5 個份額。我們對 Duralast 品牌進行的投資、擴大我們的覆蓋範圍和品種、增加更多的 Hub 和 Mega-Hub、構建技術和改善我們的客戶服務繼續帶來可觀的回報並且有很長的路要走。我們對未來可以取得的成就的看法沒有任何改變，儘管我們仍有工作要做才能恢復這種表現。

Moving to our domestic retail business. We delivered a 0.6% comp in Q3. Like our domestic commercial business, retail has been resilient, and we continue to grow share and deliver positive comp growth despite a dismal March. We exited the quarter much stronger, and we're focused on execution in Q4. We saw a 4% ticket growth, as Bill mentioned, and we saw traffic down 3% from last year's level. However, excluding the middle 4 weeks of the quarter, traffic was in line with last quarter when we were down only 2%. This past quarter, we continued to gain unit and dollar share across the retail segment, a reflection of the relative strength of our business.

轉向我們的國內零售業務。我們在第三季度交付了 0.6% 的補償。與我們的國內商業業務一樣，零售業一直具有彈性，儘管 3 月份表現不佳，但我們繼續擴大份額並實現正增長。我們以更強勁的勢頭結束了本季度，我們專注於第四季度的執行。正如 Bill 提到的，我們看到門票增長了 4%，而我們看到流量比去年的水平下降了 3%。然而，排除本季度的中間 4 週，流量與上一季度持平，當時我們僅下降了 2%。上個季度，我們繼續在零售領域獲得單位和美元份額，這反映了我們業務的相對實力。

Our DIY business has continued to strengthen competitively behind our growth initiatives. In addition, on a macro basis, the market is still experiencing a growing and aging car park with both the new and used car markets posing significant challenges for our customers. We expect these markets to remain challenged for a longer period of time than we originally assumed, which should be a tailwind for DIY. These dynamics, growth initiatives and macro car park tailwinds have driven a positive comp despite consumer discretionary spending pressure from overall inflation in the economy. We are forecasting a resilient DIY business for the remainder of 2023.

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。此外，從宏觀上看，市場仍在經歷不斷增長和老化的停車場，新車和二手車市場都對我們的客戶構成重大挑戰。我們預計這些市場將在比我們原先假設的更長的時間內保持挑戰，這應該是 DIY 的順風。儘管經濟整體通脹給消費者可自由支配支出帶來壓力，但這些動態、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 業務將在 2023 年剩餘時間裡保持彈性。

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 6 new stores in Mexico to finish with 713 stores and 2 new stores in Brazil, ending with 83. On a constant currency basis, we continue to accelerate our sales growth in both countries at higher growth rates than we saw in the overall business.

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 6 家新店，在巴西開設了 713 家新店和 2 家新店，最終為 83 家。在固定匯率的基礎上，我們繼續以高於預期的增長率加速我們在這兩個國家的銷售增長在整體業務中。

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 just over 11% of our total store base currently outside the U.S. and a commitment to continued expansion in a disciplined way, we are bullish on international growth, and we're adding stores and supply chain capacity in Mexico to improve our competitive positioning.

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。目前，我們在美國以外的門店總數略超過 11%，並承諾以有紀律的方式繼續擴張，我們看好國際增長，我們正在墨西哥增加門店和供應鏈能力，以提高我們的競爭地位。

Now let me spend a few minutes on the rest of the P&L and gross margins. For the quarter, our gross margin was up 56 basis points, including a $17 million LIFO credit, which drove 42 basis points of improvement. Excluding the LIFO benefit, our gross margin increase over last year's quarter was driven by higher merchandise margins, which more than offset a drag from the commercial business mix. With this quarter's LIFO gain, we have taken our remaining LIFO balance to $89 million.

現在讓我花幾分鐘談談其餘的損益和毛利率。本季度，我們的毛利率上升了 56 個基點，其中包括 1700 萬美元的 LIFO 信貸，這推動了 42 個基點的改善。排除後進先出的好處，我們去年第四季度的毛利率增長是由商品利潤率提高推動的，這大大抵消了商業業務組合的拖累。憑藉本季度的 LIFO 收益，我們已將剩餘的 LIFO 餘額達到 8900 萬美元。

As I mentioned over the last few quarters, hyperinflation and freight costs was the primary driver for the charges we took in the P&L. Freight costs have continued to abate over the past several months, and we expect this trend to continue and drive a similar LIFO benefit in the fourth quarter.

正如我在過去幾個季度提到的那樣，惡性通貨膨脹和運費是我們在損益表中收取費用的主要驅動因素。過去幾個月，運費持續下降，我們預計這一趨勢將持續下去，並在第四季度推動類似的後進先出法收益。

As a reminder, we plan to take P&L gains only to the extent of the charges we have taken thus far, and after we have taken P&L gains that fully reversed the charges that we've incurred, we expect to rebuild our unrecorded LIFO reserve balance as we have done historically.

提醒一下，我們計劃僅在迄今為止已收取的費用範圍內獲取損益收益，並且在我們獲取完全沖銷已發生費用的損益收益後，我們希望重建未記錄的後進先出準備金餘額正如我們在歷史上所做的那樣。

Moving to operating expenses. Our expenses were up 5.5% versus last year's Q3 as SG&A levered 10 basis points versus last year. As we've said previously, we're committed to being disciplined on SG&A growth as we move forward. We will continue to manage expenses in line with sales growth over time.

轉到運營費用。我們的費用比去年第三季度增加了 5.5%，因為 SG&A 比去年增加了 10 個基點。正如我們之前所說，我們致力於在我們前進的過程中遵守 SG&A 增長的紀律。隨著時間的推移，我們將繼續根據銷售增長來管理費用。

Now moving to the rest of the P&L. EBIT for the quarter was $858 million, up 9.3% versus the prior year's quarter. Excluding the $17 million LIFO credit, EBIT would have been up 7.1% over last year. Interest expense for the quarter was $74.3 million, up 77% from Q3 a year ago as our debt outstanding at the end of the quarter was $7.3 billion versus $6.1 billion at Q3 end last year. We are planning interest expense in the $105 million area for the fourth quarter versus $64 million in last year's fourth quarter.

現在轉到損益表的其餘部分。本季度的息稅前利潤為 8.58 億美元，比去年同期增長 9.3%。不包括 1700 萬美元的 LIFO 信貸，息稅前利潤將比去年增長 7.1%。本季度的利息支出為 7430 萬美元，比去年第三季度增長 77%，因為本季度末我們的未償債務為 73 億美元，而去年第三季度末為 61 億美元。我們計劃第四季度的利息支出為 1.05 億美元，而去年第四季度為 6400 萬美元。

Higher debt levels and higher borrowing rates, especially at the short end of the borrowing curve are driving the increase in interest expense. For the quarter, our tax rate was 17.4% below last year's third quarter rate of 20.3%. This quarter's rate benefited 595 basis points from stock options exercised, while last year's benefit was 284 basis points. For the fourth quarter, we suggest investors model us at approximately 23.4% before any assumption on credits due to stock option exercises.

更高的債務水平和更高的借貸利率，尤其是在藉貸曲線的短端，正在推動利息支出的增加。本季度，我們的稅率為 17.4%，低於去年第三季度的 20.3%。本季度的利率受益於行使的股票期權 595 個基點，而去年的收益為 284 個基點。對於第四季度，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%。

Moving to net income and EPS. Net income for the quarter was $648 million, up 9.3% versus last year's third quarter. Our diluted share count of 19 million was 7% lower than last year's third quarter. The combination of higher net income and lower share count drove earnings per share for the quarter to $34.12 up 17.5% versus a year ago. Excluding the LIFO credit, our net income would have increased 7.1% and our EPS growth would have been 15.2%.

轉向淨收入和每股收益。本季度淨收入為 6.48 億美元，比去年第三季度增長 9.3%。我們的稀釋後股票數量為 1900 萬股，比去年第三季度減少了 7%。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 34.12 美元，同比增長 17.5%。剔除後進先出法，我們的淨收入將增長 7.1%，每股收益增長 15.2%。

Now let me talk about our free cash flow for Q3. For the third quarter, we generated $554 million in free cash flow versus $682 million a year ago. Year-to-date, we've generated just over $1.4 billion versus just over $1.6 billion 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三季度的自由現金流。第三季度，我們產生了 5.54 億美元的自由現金流，而一年前為 6.82 億美元。今年迄今為止，我們的收入剛剛超過 14 億美元，而一年前剛剛超過 16 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 4.3% versus Q3 last year, and total inventory increased 7.4%, 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 $215,000 versus negative $216,000 last year and negative $227,000 last quarter. As a result, accounts payable as a percent of gross inventory finished the quarter at 126.5% versus last year's Q3 of 127.9%.

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。與去年第三季度相比，我們每家門店的庫存增加了 4.3%，總庫存增加了 7.4%，主要受通貨膨脹、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 215,000 美元，而去年為負 216,000 美元，上季度為負 227,000 美元。因此，本季度末應付賬款佔總庫存的百分比為 126.5%，而去年第三季度為 127.9%。

Lastly, I'll spend a moment on capital allocation and our share repurchase program. We repurchased $908 million of AutoZone stock in the quarter. And at quarter end, we had just under $850 million remaining under our share buyback authorization. Our strong earnings, balance sheet, powerful free cash generated this year have allowed us to buy back 6% of the company's total shares outstanding since the start of the fiscal year. 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 Q3 at 2.3x EBITDAR, and we remain committed to return to the 2.5x area.

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 9.08 億美元的 AutoZone 股票。在季度末，我們的股票回購授權剩餘不到 8.5 億美元。我們強勁的收益、資產負債表和今年產生的強大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 6%。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。我們的槓桿率以 2.3 倍的 EBITDAR 結束了第三季度，我們仍然致力於回到 2.5 倍的區域。

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 improving our competitive positioning in a disciplined way. Our strategy continues to work. As we look forward to the remainder of our fiscal 2023, we're bullish on our growth prospects behind a resilient DIY business and growing commercial and international businesses. I continue to have tremendous confidence in our industry, our business and the opportunity to drive long-term shareholder value.

總而言之，我們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。我們的策略繼續奏效。在我們展望 2023 財年的剩餘時間時，我們看好我們在有彈性的 DIY 業務和不斷增長的商業和國際業務背後的增長前景。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 this past quarter. We remain on track to deliver a solid 2023, but we must continue to be focused on superior customer service and flawless execution. Execution in our culture of always putting the customer first are what define us.

謝謝你，賈米爾。我們為我們的團隊在上個季度取得的成果感到自豪。我們仍有望在 2023 年取得穩固的成績，但我們必須繼續專注於卓越的客戶服務和完美的執行。在我們始終將客戶放在首位的文化中執行是我們的定義。

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. This upcoming quarter will be very busy for us. We'll be opening over 100 stores in the Americas. We also remain focused on those initiatives that we have underway to grow sales in both our retail and commercial businesses.

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。即將到來的這個季度對我們來說將非常忙碌。我們將在美洲開設 100 多家商店。我們還繼續專注於我們為增加零售和商業業務的銷售額而採取的那些舉措。

As we have mentioned previously, we are doubling down on execution and are focused on driving share gains. We know that investors will ultimately measure us by what our future cash flows look like 3 to 5 years from now, and we accept that challenge. I continue to be bullish on our industry and, in particular, on AutoZone and AutoZoners.

正如我們之前提到的，我們正在加倍執行並專注於推動份額增長。我們知道，投資者最終會根據我們未來 3 到 5 年後的現金流情況來衡量我們，我們接受了這一挑戰。我繼續看好我們的行業，尤其是 AutoZone 和 AutoZoners。

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) Our first question this morning is coming from Bret Jordan from Jefferies.

（操作員說明）我們今天早上的第一個問題來自 Jefferies 的 Bret Jordan。

Could you talk a little bit more about the internal factors that impacted growth? I think you said you'd deemphasized some internal disciplines in the prepared remarks. Could you maybe give us some more color there and maybe what the turnaround time on those disciplines might be?

您能否多談談影響增長的內部因素？我想你說過你在準備好的評論中不再強調一些內部紀律。你能不能給我們更多的顏色，也許這些學科的周轉時間可能是多少？

Yes, it's a great question, Bret. Thank you for it. Yes, I would -- I want to make -- be very careful how I say this. We unintentionally deemphasized some of the processes and procedures that we have in place, and that's not to be surprising. During the pandemic, we had to do a lot of things differently. And also in the commercial business, in particular, we were growing very, very rapidly. And we just got away from some of the process, procedures that we have in place. And we are going back to those and reemphasizing those.

是的，這是一個很好的問題，布雷特。謝謝你。是的，我會——我想——非常小心我怎麼說。我們無意中淡化了我們現有的一些流程和程序，這不足為奇。在大流行期間，我們不得不做很多不同的事情。尤其是在商業業務方面，我們的增長非常非常迅速。我們剛剛擺脫了我們現有的一些流程和程序。我們將回到那些並再次強調那些。

But to your point, that's not going to turn around in a day. It's going to turn around in months, not days or weeks. And we're working very diligently on it today. But it's some simple things like periodic -- how are we deploying our sales force, what our national account focus is? And just things like that, that we have very disciplined processes that just in the midst of the pandemic, we kind of turned our back on a little bit.

但就你的觀點而言，這不會在一天內扭轉局面。它會在幾個月內扭轉局面，而不是幾天或幾週。我們今天正在非常努力地工作。但這是一些簡單的事情，比如周期性的——我們如何部署我們的銷售隊伍，我們的全國客戶重點是什麼？就這樣，我們有非常有紀律的流程，就在大流行期間，我們有點背棄了。

Okay. And then a question on the Q4 outlook. Just given the call out of the weather impact in March, if we go back to past years like '17 or maybe 2012, where real mild winter negatively impacted the early summer. Are you seeing any of that as we go into the fourth quarter? Or was it really just sort of a one quarter event with the weather?

好的。然後是關於第四季度前景的問題。鑑於 3 月份天氣影響的呼籲，如果我們回到過去的幾年，比如 17 年或 2012 年，真正溫和的冬天對初夏產生了負面影響。當我們進入第四季度時，你看到了嗎？或者它真的只是一種與天氣有關的四分之一事件？

I think that's a great question, too, Bret. And you're exactly right. We've seen it in the past. The onetime that's different this year is we did have winter in December. So in 2017, we never had a winter. I also talked about that our brakes category has been a little bit softer. That can be a place where we see some lingering effects. I don't think it's going to be anywhere on the order of magnitude of what we saw in '17, but it might be a little bit softer.

我認為這也是一個很好的問題，布雷特。你是對的。我們過去見過。今年唯一不同的是我們確實在 12 月度過了冬天。所以2017年，我們沒有過冬天。我還談到了我們的剎車類別有點軟。這可能是我們看到一些揮之不去的影響的地方。我認為它不會達到我們在 17 年看到的那種數量級，但它可能會更柔和一些。

Your next question is coming from Christopher Horvers from JPMorgan.

你的下一個問題來自摩根大通的克里斯托弗霍弗斯。

So a couple of questions on the top line. The rebound that you saw in April and May, can you talk about how DIY and Do-It-For-Me performed in that rebound? And Jamere, you talked about the low double digit as far as the eye can see. Is your expectation that you can get back to that low double-digit pace in Do-It-For-Me in the fourth quarter?

所以最重要的是幾個問題。你在四五月份看到的反彈，你能談談DIY和Do-It-For-Me在那個反彈中的表現嗎？ Jamere，你談到了眼睛所能看到的低兩位數。您是否期望您能在第四季度恢復到 Do-It-For-Me 的低兩位數速度？

Chris, I'm going to let Jamere answer that second part if you don't mind. It was his statement. I think he's ready for that, too, and I am as well. And I think the businesses trended very similarly. I think one of the things that I also pointed out, it was not just that the weather was poor. The weather hit us at the worst time of the year for us during the all-important tax refund season.

克里斯，如果你不介意的話，我會讓 Jamere 回答第二部分。這是他的聲明。我認為他也為此做好了準備，我也是。我認為這些企業的趨勢非常相似。我認為我還指出的一件事，不僅僅是天氣不好。在最重要的退稅季節，天氣對我們來說是一年中最糟糕的時候。

You all have seen tax refunds were down a little bit this year. But to us, the bigger implication was the weather was just pretty awful. It was cold and wet and mild during that period of time. And so we saw both businesses trend down and they both have improved at some level, like I called out in the prepared remarks. Jamere?

你們都看到今年的退稅有所下降。但對我們來說，更大的影響是天氣非常糟糕。那段時間天氣又冷又濕又溫和。因此，我們看到這兩家公司都呈下降趨勢，但它們都在某種程度上有所改善，就像我在準備好的發言中所說的那樣。賈米爾？

Yes. So listen, as I said in my remarks, I mean, we're still committed to being a double-digit grower over time. We're underpenetrated; we have roughly a 4 to 5 share, and that gives us an opportunity to create a faster-growing business. We're executing our growth playbook and that growth playbook, quite frankly, still has a lot of runway associated with it, and we saw significant share gains over the past 3 years.

是的。所以聽著，正如我在發言中所說，我的意思是，隨著時間的推移，我們仍然致力於成為兩位數的增長者。我們滲透不足；我們大約有 4 到 5 的份額，這讓我們有機會創建一個增長更快的業務。我們正在執行我們的增長劇本和那個增長劇本，坦率地說，仍然有很多與之相關的跑道，我們在過去 3 年中看到了顯著的份額增長。

So things like improving the quality of our parts and our Duralast offerings, expanding our assortments with Mega-Hub, improving our delivery times, leveraging technology, the competitive pricing that we've done, all of those things still have a lot of legs associated with them. So when I think about what Bill talked about as it relates to execution.

因此，諸如提高我們的零件和 Duralast 產品的質量、通過 Mega-Hub 擴大我們的產品種類、縮短我們的交貨時間、利用技術、我們所做的具有競爭力的價格等事情，所有這些事情仍然有很多關聯跟他們。因此，當我想到比爾所說的與執行相關的內容時。

First, we believe that we grew share in commercial despite the growth rate deceleration. And secondly, we believe that those growth initiatives still have a lot of runway. And we have other initiatives in flight, as Bill mentioned, that we'll execute in Q4 and during FY '24 that we believe will accelerate growth. So nothing's changed in our strategy. Nothing has changed in our outlook as we move forward.

首先，我們相信儘管增長率放緩，但我們在商業領域的份額有所增長。其次，我們認為這些增長計劃仍有很多發展空間。正如比爾提到的，我們還有其他計劃正在實施，我們將在第四季度和 24 財年期間執行，我們相信這些計劃將加速增長。所以我們的策略沒有改變。在我們前進的過程中，我們的前景沒有任何改變。

I don't think anything has changed in our commitment. We need to be a double-digit grower in commercial. And we weren't this quarter.

我認為我們的承諾沒有任何改變。我們需要成為商業領域兩位數的增長者。我們不是這個季度。

Got it. And then on the gross margin line, so -- a 2-part question. So as input and freight costs come down from your vendors, how are you thinking about maybe passing along some of that back to the consumer? Is that different from prior cycles? And then understandably, you're not -- you're only going to get the LIFO back, but then ultimately, we get the turn of that inventory, and I know you're working hard to sort of leverage your increased scale with these vendors given the growth in Do-It-For-Me. So shouldn't we see -- have line of sight gross margin expansion beyond just recapturing the LIFO headwinds?

知道了。然後在毛利率線上，所以 - 一個由兩部分組成的問題。因此，隨著供應商的投入和運費成本下降，您如何考慮將其中的一部分轉嫁給消費者？這與之前的周期有什麼不同嗎？然後可以理解的是，你不會 - 你只會讓後進先出法回來，但最終，我們得到了那個庫存，我知道你正在努力工作以利用這些增加的規模供應商考慮到 Do-It-For-Me 的增長。那麼我們不應該看到——除了重新奪回後進先出法的逆風之外，視線毛利率是否會擴大？

Yes, I'll take the first part and turn it back to Jamere to talk about LIFO. As far as -- first of all, we have not seen meaningful reductions in product costs at this point in time. We have seen meaningful reductions in freight cost. But if you recall, we did not even attempt to pass on all the freight costs to our customers because we knew it was somewhat of an anomaly and would reverse course at some order of magnitude.

是的，我將把第一部分轉回給 Jamere 來談談後進先出法。至於——首先，我們目前還沒有看到產品成本有任何顯著降低。我們已經看到運費顯著降低。但是，如果您還記得的話，我們甚至沒有嘗試將所有運費轉嫁給我們的客戶，因為我們知道這有點反常，並且會以某種數量級改變方向。

So as we are beginning to see some product costs reductions, I don't anticipate that we will reduce pricing as a result of those. And for one really strong reason, our wage inflation has been more than double what we've experienced in my 28 years here. We have to somehow get paid for that wage inflation, too, in the P&L. And so if we get some reduction in product costs, I will anticipate that those will be used to offset some of that wage inflation.

因此，當我們開始看到一些產品成本降低時，我預計我們不會因此而降低價格。出於一個非常重要的原因，我們的工資漲幅是我在這里工作 28 年來經歷的兩倍多。在損益表中，我們也必須以某種方式為工資上漲付出代價。因此，如果我們降低產品成本，我預計這些將用於抵消部分工資通脹。

Jamere, you want to talk about LIFO?

Jamere，你想談談後進先出法嗎？

Yes. So as I mentioned, we were up 56 basis points and 42 basis points of that was a LIFO tailwind. The remaining margin was driven by, as I said, merchandising margin actions, which more than offset the natural mix drag that we had from commercial. So as we continue to see those freight costs abate, we'll see those gains come back through to the P&L.

是的。所以正如我提到的，我們上漲了 56 個基點，其中 42 個基點是後進先出法的順風。正如我所說，剩餘利潤率是由商品化利潤率行動推動的，這大大抵消了我們從商業中獲得的自然混合拖累。因此，隨著我們繼續看到這些運費成本下降，我們將看到這些收益回到損益表中。

And then as Bill said, what that means for us going forward is all of the things that we're working on in terms of merchandise margin actions will actually be accretive to the business, if you will, and we'll get back to our normal state of running the margin intensity playbook that we've run in the past. So we feel pretty good about that.

然後正如比爾所說，這對我們前進意味著我們在商品保證金行動方面所做的所有事情實際上都會增加業務，如果你願意的話，我們會回到我們的運行我們過去運行的保證金強度劇本的正常狀態。所以我們對此感覺很好。

We've seen some inflation cool off in the supply chain. But as Bill said, the stickiest portion of that are wages and wages, we don't anticipate going down. So there'll still be some cost pressures there. But it's good to actually be in a position to have some deflationary conversations now versus where we were when we were in the heart of the pandemic when quite frankly, everything was moving with red arrows in terms of inflation. So we think we have some opportunity there, and that should give us some margin tailwind as we move forward.

我們已經看到供應鏈中的通脹有所降溫。但正如比爾所說，其中最棘手的部分是工資和工資，我們預計不會下降。所以那裡仍然會有一些成本壓力。但是，與我們處於大流行中心時的情況相比，現在能夠進行一些通貨緊縮的對話是件好事，坦率地說，就通貨膨脹而言，一切都在朝著紅色箭頭移動。所以我們認為我們在那裡有一些機會，這應該會在我們前進的過程中給我們帶來一些利潤。

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。

Kind of a follow-up to the prior question. I wanted to ask what the commercial run rate looks like. It's going through some normalization. You both have said double digit. I assume that's comp, not just total sales. And that's going to be at least 2x what the industry grows at in theory, if we take the historic run rate. So why is that, call it, high single, even low double, why shouldn't that be the normalized run rate? Or how else are you thinking about it? Yes, I'll leave it at that.

對先前問題的一種跟進。我想問一下商業運行率是什麼樣的。它正在經歷一些正常化。你們都說了兩位數。我認為這是補償，而不僅僅是總銷售額。如果我們採用歷史運行率，這將至少是該行業理論上增長速度的 2 倍。那麼，為什麼說它是高單倍數，甚至是低雙倍數，為什麼不應該是標準化運行率呢？或者你還有什麼其他的想法？是的，我會保留它。

First of all, you said same-store. I don't think we said same-store, maybe Jamere did in his remarks. I just think, Simeon, we've got less than a 5% market share. We have over 15% in the retail business. We have a very fragmented industry in commercial with some competitors that, frankly, don't have a lot of the strengths that we have. I would anticipate us to grow meaningfully ahead of the market. In the market over long periods of time, you know DIFM is running 4%, 4.5%. So we -- to me, growing double that, seems like it makes sense.

首先，你說的是同店。我不認為我們說的是同店，也許 Jamere 在他的評論中說過。我只是想，Simeon，我們的市場份額不到 5%。我們在零售業務中擁有超過 15% 的份額。我們有一個非常分散的商業行業，有一些競爭對手，坦率地說，沒有我們擁有的很多優勢。我希望我們能夠領先於市場實現有意義的增長。在很長一段時間的市場中，你知道 DIFM 運行 4%、4.5%。所以我們——對我來說，增長兩倍，似乎是有道理的。

Frankly, we didn't do it this quarter. We've got some work to do to reaccelerate our growth, but we also were celebrating some 25% and 27% growth over this period of time. The other thing that Jamere worked on is we're not sitting here and sitting on our hands either. We're also working on what are the next generation of initiatives that we're going to deploy to make us provide better customer service for our commercial customers and be a better partner with them.

坦率地說，我們本季度沒有這樣做。我們需要做一些工作來重新加速我們的增長，但我們也在這段時間裡慶祝了大約 25% 和 27% 的增長。 Jamere 所做的另一件事是我們也不是坐在這裡，也不是坐在我們的手上。我們還在研究我們將要部署的下一代計劃，使我們能夠為我們的商業客戶提供更好的客戶服務，並成為他們更好的合作夥伴。

I'm excited about some of the things that we're working on. They're not even in test yet. And as you know, we will go off and test them. But we're committed not to a quarter's growth rate in commercial, we're committed to being the largest player in the commercial business over the long run.

我對我們正在做的一些事情感到很興奮。他們甚至還沒有進行測試。如您所知，我們將開始測試它們。但我們承諾不會在商業領域實現四分之一的增長率，我們致力於長期成為商業領域最大的參與者。

Yes. And my follow-up is, are you seeing anything with regard to price in terms of competitive posture? Is anything visible on the Street? And then thinking about it yourself, I know we talked about not engaging in it again, but it seems like the industry could go through another nice wave here with credit crunch and continued aging of the vehicle population?

是的。我的後續行動是，從競爭態勢的角度來看，您是否看到任何有關價格的信息？街上有什麼可見的東西嗎？然後你自己想想，我知道我們討論過不再參與它，但隨著信貸緊縮和汽車人口的持續老齡化，這個行業似乎可以在這裡經歷另一波美好的浪潮？

Yes. Great question. Yes. Have we seen things in the pricing environment in the commercial sector different than before? The answer is absolutely yes. One of our competitors well advertised that they had changed their pricing posture. But I want to back up and I want to remind everybody, we did something similar about 2 years ago. And when we did it, first of all, we had tested it in 6 markets and then 14 markets before we rolled it to the other 40-some-odd markets.

是的。很好的問題。是的。我們是否看到商業領域的定價環境與以往有所不同？答案是肯定的。我們的一個競爭對手很好地宣傳他們已經改變了他們的定價態勢。但我想備份，我想提醒大家，大約 2 年前我們做過類似的事情。當我們這樣做時，首先，我們已經在 6 個市場進行了測試，然後是 14 個市場，然後才將其推廣到其他 40 多個市場。

We knew what was going to work. And it had nothing to do with our pricing posture versus our close-end competitors. It had everything to do with trying to optimize our value proposition versus the warehouse distributors who hold the vast majority of share in this industry. As we've seen a competitor move their pricing, we see no indications that, that competitor has -- is lower than us on pricing. I think that they seem to have reduced that gap similar to what we did. We don't have perfect visibility to it, but that's what we're seeing at this point in time.

我們知道什麼會起作用。這與我們相對於我們的近端競爭對手的定價態勢無關。這一切都與試圖優化我們的價值主張有關，而不是在這個行業中佔據絕大多數份額的倉庫分銷商。正如我們看到競爭對手改變定價一樣，我們沒有看到任何跡象表明該競爭對手的定價低於我們。我認為他們似乎已經縮小了與我們所做的類似的差距。我們對它沒有完美的可見性，但這就是我們在這個時間點看到的。

And the other thing I'll remind you, just in terms of our initiatives, pricing was a leg of the stool, if you will. And pricing is a pretty dynamic environment. And what we've always said is we're going to be priced right in the marketplace. So if indeed, there was some action there that suggested we needed to go do something, we would certainly do that to continue on this journey, as Bill mentioned before, of growing our market share and growing our gross margin dollars. That's been a winning playbook for us.

我要提醒你的另一件事是，就我們的舉措而言，如果你願意的話，定價只是凳子的一條腿。定價是一個非常動態的環境。我們一直在說的是，我們將在市場上定價。因此，如果確實有一些行動表明我們需要去做一些事情，那麼我們肯定會這樣做以繼續這一旅程，正如比爾之前提到的那樣，增加我們的市場份額和增加我們的毛利率美元。這對我們來說是一個成功的劇本。

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

你的下一個問題來自富國銀行的 Zach Fadem。

Is there a way to size up the impact of internal factors versus external factors on the comp this quarter? And as you think about all the moving parts around tax refunds and weather and perhaps some deferred maintenance from a gradually slowing consumer, to what extent do you view these Q3 headwinds as a one-off or transitory versus the beginning of perhaps a bigger change in trend for the industry?

有沒有辦法衡量本季度內部因素與外部因素對公司的影響？當您考慮退稅和天氣的所有變化因素，以及消費者逐漸放緩的一些延期維護時，您認為這些第三季度的逆風在多大程度上是一次性的或暫時的，而不是更大變化的開始行業趨勢？

I don't necessarily know that the industry changed. We'll have to see as we get more visibility to what happened across the industry. Certainly, our results changed. I can't go through and parse it piece by piece. Clearly, the weather implications from March were an anomaly that should not repeat themselves. I don't anticipate in the summertime, there are usually not a lot of weather impacts in the summer or fall. They generally are more pronounced in winter and spring, when the weather is more volatile.

我不一定知道行業發生了變化。隨著我們對整個行業發生的事情有更多的了解，我們將不得不拭目以待。當然，我們的結果發生了變化。我無法逐一分析它。顯然，三月份的天氣影響是一種不應該重演的反常現象。我預計不會在夏季，夏季或秋季通常不會受到太多天氣影響。它們通常在冬季和春季更為明顯，此時天氣更加多變。

I think some of these internal things that we're talking about, as I said a minute ago, they're going to take us a little time because we can start doing the processes again. But the ramifications and the outcomes that come along with those processes, as I said, are going to take months but we'll get there. Again, we're playing for the long game.

正如我剛才所說，我認為我們正在討論的一些內部問題會佔用我們一些時間，因為我們可以重新開始流程。但是，正如我所說，這些過程帶來的後果和結果將需要幾個月的時間，但我們會實現的。再次強調，我們是在打持久戰。

Got you. And then on your SG&A per store, it stepped back down to that 2.5% range. To what extent was this planned versus a pivot from slowing sales? And then as we look forward, is it fair to say that we've now returned to a more normalized lower single-digit run rate from here? Or would you expect it to step back up as sales perhaps recover?

明白了然後在每家商店的 SG&A 上，它回落到 2.5% 的範圍。與銷售放緩的支點相比，這個計劃在多大程度上是有計劃的？然後，當我們展望未來時，可以說我們現在已經從這裡恢復到更正常化的較低個位數運行率嗎？還是您希望它會隨著銷售的恢復而回升？

Well, I think what we've said historically is we've been very disciplined on SG&A growth, and we've grown SG&A sort of in line with the top line. And you saw this quarter that as sales were a little bit lighter, we were able to deliver upon that. But what I'll also reiterate is that we're going to invest in SG&A in a disciplined way for the things that we need to do to create a faster-growing business.

好吧，我認為我們歷史上所說的是我們在 SG&A 增長方面一直非常自律，而且我們的 SG&A 增長與收入保持一致。你在本季度看到，由於銷售額略有下降，我們能夠實現這一點。但我還要重申的是，我們將以一種有紀律的方式投資於 SG&A，以完成我們需要做的事情，以創造一個更快增長的業務。

One of the areas that I've talked about in the past is the investments that we're making in IT, for example, to improve our speed, to improve our productivity, to improve the way that we're doing business in our stores and improve the experience that our customers have with us. And so to the extent that we need to lean in and invest a little bit more in SG&A to deliver upon that, we will. But this is a business that has been very, very disciplined about managing the SG&A line. And when we need to manage it to deliver a certain result, we'll do that, but we're not going to do that at the expense of our growth initiatives.

我過去談到的領域之一是我們在 IT 方面的投資，例如，提高我們的速度，提高我們的生產力，改善我們在商店開展業務的方式並改善客戶與我們的體驗。因此，就我們需要在 SG&A 上投入更多資金來實現這一點而言，我們會的。但這是一家在管理 SG&A 方面非常非常有紀律的企業。當我們需要對其進行管理以實現特定結果時，我們會這樣做，但我們不會以犧牲我們的增長計劃為代價來做到這一點。

Your next question is coming from Steven Forbes from Guggenheim Securities.

你的下一個問題來自古根海姆證券公司的史蒂文福布斯。

I wanted to focus on the domestic Mega-Hub initiative. So can you first just confirm the year-end target? I think you said 22 to 25 new Mega-Hub versus 7 year-to-date. But I just wanted a confirmation on that. And then can you speak to any bottlenecks or limitations that would potentially prevent a more accelerated ramp in 2024 and beyond? Or just any comment on how the Mega-Hub real estate pipeline looks today?

我想專注於國內的 Mega-Hub 計劃。那麼你能先確認一下年終目標嗎？我想你說的是 22 到 25 個新的 Mega-Hub，而今年迄今只有 7 個。但我只是想確認一下。然後你能談談任何可能阻止 2024 年及以後加速增長的瓶頸或限制嗎？或者只是對 Mega-Hub 房地產管道今天的樣子發表評論？

Yes. We've talked about our growth initiatives still having a lot of runways. And quite frankly, the Mega-Hub is one of those. Candidly, Bill talked about execution. We would like to open more, and we would like to open them sooner. And this is a matter of execution versus a macro or competitive issue. So we've got a big quarter plan for Q4 and the teams are working on all the things that we need to work on from site identification to streamlining our processes to get more open faster. But this very clearly is an execution point. I own store development inside our company. And when we talk about places where we need to exit pandemic mode and have better execution, this is certainly one of them.

是的。我們已經談到我們的增長計劃仍然有很多跑道。坦率地說，Mega-Hub 就是其中之一。坦率地說，比爾談到了執行力。我們希望打開更多，我們希望更快地打開它們。這是一個執行問題與宏觀或競爭問題。因此，我們為第四季度製定了一個大的季度計劃，團隊正在處理我們需要處理的所有事情，從站點識別到簡化我們的流程以更快地開放。但這很明顯是一個執行點。我在公司內部擁有商店開發。當我們談論我們需要退出流行病模式並更好地執行的地方時，這當然是其中之一。

And then maybe just a follow-up, staying on the footprint opportunities. You talked about international, but curious maybe if you could expand on how you sort of expect the footprint in both Brazil and Mexico to grow over the coming years. And then you also mentioned ROIC, so curious if you could just update us on how the return profile of the international location compares to the company average today.

然後也許只是一個後續行動，留在足跡機會上。你談到了國際化，但也許很好奇你是否可以擴展你對未來幾年巴西和墨西哥足跡增長的預期。然後你還提到了 ROIC，很好奇你是否可以向我們更新國際地點的回報率與今天公司平均水平的比較情況。

Sure. So in Mexico, excluding the pandemic, we've opened 40 stores a year for a very long period of time. We didn't open as many in the pandemic. Our team down there owes us a few of those openings. So hopefully, we will grow at a little bit faster rate on a store count basis in Mexico going forward.

當然。所以在墨西哥，除了大流行之外，我們在很長一段時間內每年開設 40 家商店。我們沒有在大流行中開放那麼多。我們那裡的團隊欠我們一些空缺。因此，希望我們在墨西哥的商店數量基礎上能夠以更快的速度增長。

A little over a year ago, we defined our test in Brazil as over and made Brazil a part of our ongoing strategic growth plan. And so they are now moving forward very rapidly. We're going to open 20 some-odd stores this fiscal year and hopefully, we'll grow from there. So it will become a bigger and bigger part of our organic -- sorry, of our organic growth.

一年多以前，我們將在巴西的測試定義為結束，並將巴西納入我們正在進行的戰略增長計劃的一部分。因此，他們現在正在非常迅速地前進。我們將在本財政年度開設 20 多家商店，希望我們能從那裡發展壯大。因此，它將成為我們有機增長的越來越大的一部分 - 抱歉，我們的有機增長。

On Brazil, the ROIC is negative. We've said it several times as -- until we get to scale, some level of scale, we are continuing to lose money in Brazil because of the overhead infrastructure and warehouse and delivery infrastructure. We clearly see a line of sight to profitability, and we see a line of sight to good returns.

在巴西，ROIC 為負。我們已經說過好幾次了——直到我們達到規模，某種程度的規模，我們在巴西繼續虧損，因為開銷基礎設施以及倉庫和交付基礎設施。我們清楚地看到了盈利能力的視線，我們看到了良好回報的視線。

In Mexico, our returns are better than they are in the United States. It's been a very good performing market for us for 25 years now. And the most exciting part is as we get further and further in the growth spectrum, we see more and more growth in front of us in Mexico. So we don't see any slowing down anytime soon.

在墨西哥，我們的回報比在美國要好。 25 年來，這對我們來說一直是一個表現非常好的市場。最令人興奮的部分是，隨著我們在增長范圍內越來越遠，我們在墨西哥看到越來越多的增長。所以我們不會很快看到任何放緩。

Your next question is coming from Scot Ciccarelli from Truist Securities.

你的下一個問題來自 Truist Securities 的 Scot Ciccarelli。

It makes sense that some of these execution issues can't be fixed in days or weeks, but it would also imply that they've been going on for a while. So I guess my question is like why would the slowdown show up so starkly this quarter? I guess I would have expected more of a trend line rather than a step function change in, let's call it, stack growth trends.

有些執行問題無法在幾天或幾週內解決是有道理的，但這也意味著它們已經持續了一段時間。所以我想我的問題是，為什麼本季度經濟放緩會如此明顯？我想我會期待更多的趨勢線而不是階躍函數變化，讓我們稱之為堆棧增長趨勢。

I think it's a fair question. And I want to be careful and not say that all of this was due to those processes. I think that that's an element. We talked about weather. And there's other things that are happening in the marketplace. So I don't want to pin at all on that. And you're right. Those things have been going on for probably a year to 2 years. They're just going to take some -- it's not putting those processes back in place. It's going to change it. It's the outcomes that come along with those processes weeks and months later.

我認為這是一個公平的問題。我要小心，不要說所有這一切都是由於這些過程造成的。我認為這是一個要素。我們談到了天氣。市場上還有其他事情正在發生。所以我根本不想強調這一點。你是對的。這些事情已經持續了大概一年到兩年。他們只是採取一些措施——而不是讓這些流程恢復原狀。它會改變它。數周和數月後，這些過程會帶來結果。

Yes. And I think what you're hearing from our tone here is that, number one, we believe that the industry is healthy, and they're very healthy industry dynamics. Number two, we're continuing to grow share, but we have set a very ambitious goal to grow our business faster, particularly in commercial, where we said our business should grow double digits. And as we look at the path forward, while we don't see an immediate snap back to that potentially, we think all the growth initiatives that we have in place, all the new things that we have in flight, give us a lot of confidence that we'll be able to go do that.

是的。我想你從我們的語氣中聽到的是，第一，我們相信這個行業是健康的，而且它們是非常健康的行業動態。第二，我們正在繼續增加份額，但我們已經設定了一個非常雄心勃勃的目標來更快地發展我們的業務，特別是在商業領域，我們說我們的業務應該增長兩位數。當我們展望未來的道路時，雖然我們沒有看到可能立即恢復到那種狀態，但我們認為我們已經實施的所有增長計劃，我們正在開發的所有新事物，給了我們很多相信我們能夠做到這一點。

So these are not things, to Bill's point, where we're saying we're pinning everything on some macro issue or pinning everything on execution. But we control our own destiny and the things that we've talked about from an execution standpoint are things that will help us drive better performance as we move forward.

因此，在 Bill 看來，這些不是我們所說的將所有事情都固定在某個宏觀問題上或將所有事情都固定在執行上的事情。但我們掌握著自己的命運，我們從執行的角度討論的事情將幫助我們在前進的過程中取得更好的表現。

And the only thing I'd add further, we're playing the long game. Yes, we're disappointed with a 6% growth. That's not going to deter us. In fact, it makes us hungrier and work harder, so we're looking at this over the very long term.

我唯一要補充的是，我們正在打一場持久戰。是的，我們對 6% 的增長感到失望。這不會阻止我們。事實上，它讓我們更加飢餓並更加努力地工作，所以我們從長遠來看來看待這個問題。

That's helpful. And then just a quickie, hopefully. How big of a sales gap in sales performance did you see in different markets that may help us better kind of gauge the impact of weather in the quarter.

這很有幫助。然後只是一個快速的，希望如此。您在不同的市場看到銷售業績的銷售差距有多大，這可能有助於我們更好地衡量本季度天氣的影響。

Yes. I mean, we saw mixed results. We talked a little bit about the comments about the Northeast and the Midwest that clearly where we underperformed and those are markets that, quite frankly, if we get some decent weather here over the next quarter or so, we could see that rebound and produce a better result. But those are probably 2 areas regionally where we saw slightly lower performance than we saw across the rest of the chain.

是的。我的意思是，我們看到了不同的結果。我們談了一些關於東北部和中西部的評論，這些評論顯然是我們表現不佳的地方，坦率地說，如果我們在下個季度左右的天氣里天氣不錯，我們可以看到反彈並產生更好的結果。但這些可能是區域性的 2 個區域，我們在這些區域中看到的性能略低於我們在整個鏈條中看到的性能。

Your next question is coming from Michael Lasser from UBS.

你的下一個問題來自瑞銀的 Michael Lasser。

So Rhodes, your commercial business decelerated at the same time there was a meaningful acceleration in the performance of the commercial businesses of one of your peers. What does that tell you about structural limitation in terms of your commercial business's ability to gain market share?

因此，Rhodes，您的商業業務在減速的同時，您的一位同行的商業業務的表現也出現了有意義的加速。就您的商業企業獲得市場份額的能力而言，這說明了哪些結構性限制？

It's an interesting way to put it, Michael. Yes, I'll be crystal clear. That is not lost on us what you just pointed out. I'll also point out that, as I mentioned in the pricing discussion, they embarked on a pivot in their strategy a little over a year ago and not dissimilar to what happened to us 2 years ago was they changed their competitiveness versus other sets of customers -- competitors in the marketplace. And obviously, that strategy has worked. And it so happened to coincide with the slowdown for us. I don't necessarily pin those 2 things together.

這是一種有趣的表達方式，邁克爾。是的，我會很清楚。您剛才指出的內容並沒有讓我們迷失。我還要指出的是，正如我在定價討論中提到的那樣，他們在一年多前就開始了戰略調整，這與 2 年前發生在我們身上的情況沒有什麼不同，他們改變了與其他公司相比的競爭力客戶——市場上的競爭對手。顯然，該策略奏效了。這恰好與我們的經濟放緩相吻合。我不一定要把這兩件事放在一起。

From my vantage point, Michael, I mean, again, as we've said before, they grew share, and those results were very impressive, but we also grew share as well. And our focus, again, is on how do we grow faster and win even larger shares than what we've grown over the past quarter or so. And that focus hasn't changed.

從我的角度來看，邁克爾，我的意思是，正如我們之前所說，他們增加了份額，這些結果非常令人印象深刻，但我們也增加了份額。同樣，我們的重點是如何比過去一個季度左右的增長速度更快並贏得更大的份額。而且這個重點沒有改變。

And a follow-up on your prior statement, Jamere. In order to get back to the double-digit growth for your commercial business, does that mean you need to see an improvement in sales per existing customers or an increase in your total customer count to get to that level?

Jamere，你之前的發言跟進。為了讓您的商業業務恢復兩位數的增長，這是否意味著您需要看到每個現有客戶的銷售額有所提高或客戶總數有所增加才能達到該水平？

Well, we clearly, as we've talked about, we're a 4 or 5 share in what's approaching a $100 billion market. So -- and that opportunity for us is to grow our share of wallet with our existing customers. And it's also to grow new business, both in national and with locals are up and down the Street as we affectionately call them in-house. And we believe that opportunity is still in front of us.

好吧，我們很清楚，正如我們所說的，我們在這個接近 1000 億美元的市場中佔有 4 或 5 個份額。所以 - 我們的機會是增加我們與現有客戶的錢包份額。這也是為了發展新業務，無論是在全國還是在當地，我們都親切地稱他們為內部人士。我們相信機會仍然在我們面前。

So as we look at our commercial business going forward, what gives us a tremendous amount of confidence, the things that we put in place have worked. We know that we have some things that are in flight today that are very, very promising that we're launching in Q4 and over the next year or so. And we think those things are going to pay dividends for us as well, but it's clearly an opportunity for us to go deeper in the wallets of our existing customers and grow new customers at the same time.

因此，當我們展望未來的商業業務時，讓我們充滿信心的是，我們所做的事情已經奏效。我們知道我們今天正在開發一些非常非常有希望的東西，我們將在第四季度和明年左右推出這些東西。我們認為這些事情也會為我們帶來紅利，但這顯然是我們深入現有客戶錢包並同時發展新客戶的機會。

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

您的下一個問題來自 Roth MKM 的 David Bellinger。

So if we look back at this quarter, 3% comp in February, close to 4% in April and May as you move past some of these weather and tax refund fluctuations. So is that a good sustainable run rate to think about for comp sales growth from here and as you hold on to price and continue to make these underlying investments in the business?

因此，如果我們回顧本季度，2 月份為 3%，4 月和 5 月接近 4%，因為您已經過了一些天氣和退稅波動。那麼，當您堅持定價並繼續對業務進行這些基礎投資時，考慮從這裡開始銷售增長的良好可持續運行率是不是？

As you know, David, we "don't give guidance." But we pointed out and called out March as the anomaly. So your supposition is generally in line with that thinking.

如你所知，大衛，我們“不提供指導”。但我們指出並稱三月為反常現象。所以你的假設大體上是符合那個思路的。

Got it. And then just a follow-up on your prepared remarks. You talked about the sales floor and some discretionary categories, believe improving, I believe, is what you said. So that seems that odds with some of the other retailer comments out there. Anything to read into that? Is there more of a trade-down benefit behind it? And maybe a positive for those types of categories, if we see more indications of just a broader spending slowdown? Just how do you think about those specific categories?

知道了。然後只是跟進您準備好的評論。你談到了銷售現場和一些可自由支配的類別，相信改進，我相信，就是你所說的。所以這似乎與其他一些零售商的評論不一致。有什麼要讀的嗎？它背後是否有更多的折價優惠？如果我們看到更多跡象表明支出放緩範圍更廣，那麼這可能對這些類型的類別有利？您如何看待這些特定類別？

Yes. If you recall, the categories that I called out were not necessarily discretionary. They're sales floor categories, but batteries, oil and wipers, none of those are discretionary. I don't think we've seen a big rebound in our discretionary business, except we've seen it a little bit improved at times as we've gotten back into in stock. Those are some places we didn't have the in-stock levels that we would have liked. But generally, the places where we've seen the sales floor recover were more maintenance-oriented categories.

是的。如果你還記得的話，我提到的類別不一定是自由裁量的。它們是銷售區類別，但電池、油和雨刷，這些都不是隨意的。我認為我們的全權委託業務沒有出現大幅反彈，只是隨著我們重新進貨，有時情況會有所改善。這些是我們沒有我們想要的庫存水平的一些地方。但總的來說，我們看到銷售現場恢復的地方是更多以維護為導向的類別。

Your next question is coming from Greg Melich from Evercore ISI.

您的下一個問題來自 Evercore ISI 的 Greg Melich。

My first question is on inflation. Thanks for giving us the ticket up 4 and traffic down 2 for the company. Was it fair to say that inflation might be up [6%] and that the difference might be items of basket or trade down or mix if we look at average ticket?

我的第一個問題是關於通貨膨脹。感謝您為我們提供了 4 票和 2 票。如果我們看平均票價，說通貨膨脹率可能上升 [6%] 並且差異可能是一攬子項目或降價交易或混合，這是否公平？

Yes, that's the right zip code. We saw inflation up kind of in the mid-single digit-ish range, if you will. And then there's always things in the basket and mix that can cause you to have a slightly different ticket print than that.

是的，這是正確的郵政編碼。如果您願意的話，我們看到通貨膨脹率處於中等個位數範圍內。然後籃子裡總會有一些東西和混合物會導致你的票打印與那略有不同。

Greg, I'd also like to remind you that historically for a long time, this industry has a trajectory that has pressure on customer count and growth in average ticket because of the technological innovations that are happening in components on a vehicle. So we've seen our ticket growth 3%, 3.5%, 4% basically since I've been in this business with generally a drag on transaction counts. So the gap between where we are today and where we are historically has closed considerably.

格雷格，我還想提醒你，從歷史上看，很長一段時間以來，由於汽車零部件的技術創新，這個行業的發展軌跡對客戶數量和平均票價的增長產生了壓力。因此，自從我從事這項業務以來，我們已經看到我們的門票增長了 3%、3.5%、4%，這通常會拖累交易數量。因此，我們今天所處的位置與歷史上所處位置之間的差距已經大大縮小。

Got it. And then my second question is, you went through weather and geographies. Is there any difference on how the more urban or densely populated stores are performing versus rural? I'm just thinking that's one thing we've seen from de-densification over COVID and with shrink, particularly impacting some retailers, a lot of retailers.

知道了。然後我的第二個問題是，你經歷了天氣和地理。城市或人口稠密的商店與農村商店的表現有何不同？我只是在想，這是我們從 COVID 的去緻密化和收縮中看到的一件事，特別是影響了一些零售商，很多零售商。

I think shrink would be a different story than sales. We don't see any big significant difference in our sales trajectory in rural versus urban environments. Clearly, it's a tough environment out there on the shrink front. Our team is managing shrink okay. We have some trends that are a little bit worse than what they have been, and we're focused on that. But as you know, a lot of retailers are talking about organized retail crime and it's a real problem. Fortunately for us, they are, a lot of times, focused on more consumable items, which are not necessarily available in an AutoZone store.

我認為收縮與銷售不同。我們在農村和城市環境中的銷售軌跡沒有發現任何重大差異。顯然，在收縮方面，這是一個艱難的環境。我們的團隊正在管理縮水。我們有一些趨勢比以前更糟，我們專注於此。但如您所知，許多零售商都在談論有組織的零售犯罪，這是一個真正的問題。對我們來說幸運的是，他們很多時候都專注於更多的消耗品，這些物品不一定在 AutoZone 商店中有售。

And in certain areas, you haven't like chain store hours to sort of either protect employees or anything you have to go to that extreme?

在某些地區，您不喜歡連鎖店的營業時間來保護員工或任何您必須走極端的事情？

Absolutely not. Now we do put guards in certain stores to make sure that we do control the environment.

絕對不。現在我們確實在某些商店設置了警衛，以確保我們確實控制了環境。

Our final question this morning is coming from Steven Zaccone from Citi.

我們今天早上的最後一個問題來自花旗銀行的 Steven Zaccone。

I wanted to ask on pricing. If we think about mid-single digits in the third quarter, what will it be in the fourth quarter? And as we look to next year, would you still expect it to be a slight tailwind to comps? Or could it, in fact, be flattish?

我想問一下定價。如果我們考慮第三季度的中個位數，那麼第四季度會是多少？當我們展望明年時，您是否仍然希望它對 comps 有輕微的推動作用？或者它實際上可能是平淡的？

We expect the fourth quarter to be generally in the same zip code as what we saw in Q3. And then as we look to next year, there are several things that are at play here. But the one that I think ought to spend the most time thinking about as you're looking to correlate that to what you see in pricing is what we've talked about in the wage environment where wages are still stubbornly high. Let's call it, in the 4% to 5%-ish kind of zip code. And I think that sort of translates to at a minimum, what you see -- you ought to see from a pricing environment.

我們預計第四季度的郵政編碼與我們在第三季度看到的大致相同。然後當我們展望明年時，這裡有幾件事在起作用。但我認為應該花最多時間思考的是，當你希望將其與你在定價中看到的聯繫起來時，我們在工資仍然居高不下的工資環境中談到了這一點。讓我們用 4% 到 5% 左右的郵政編碼來稱呼它。我認為這至少可以轉化為你所看到的——你應該從定價環境中看到的。

And there are puts and takes, obviously, from pricing. As Bill mentioned, there will be some categories where we'll see some deflation, some that will see some inflation. But generally speaking, we're fading more to the historical norms than we have in the past.

顯然，定價有賣有賣。正如比爾所提到的，在某些類別中我們會看到一些通貨緊縮，一些類別會出現一些通貨膨脹。但總的來說，我們比過去更傾向於歷史規範。

Okay. Great. And then I hate to go back to commercial, but I did want to clarify something and just given your commentary about some of these internal factors, is it fair to think the time line to return to double-digit commercial growth may take a couple of quarters? Anything you can say on the time line would be helpful for us as we assess our models.

好的。偉大的。然後我不想回到商業，但我確實想澄清一些事情，只是根據你對其中一些內部因素的評論，認為恢復兩位數商業增長的時間線可能需要幾個時間是否公平？宿舍？在我們評估我們的模型時，您在時間線上可以說的任何內容都會對我們有所幫助。

Yes, I think we'll stick with what we've already said. This is not going to turn around in the weeks. It's going to take months. Is that 4, is that 8, I don't know until we get into it.

是的，我認為我們會堅持我們已經說過的話。這不會在幾週內扭轉局面。這將需要幾個月的時間。是 4 還是 8，在我們開始討論之前我不知道。

Okay. 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 continue to succeed, 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, we are confident AutoZone will continue to be successful.

好的。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穩健的一年，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。我們有令人興奮的計劃，應該可以幫助我們繼續取得成功，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優化股東價值，我們相信 AutoZone 將繼續取得成功。

Lastly, as we celebrate Memorial Day next Monday, we should all remember our country's heroes both past and present. We owe these Americans a tremendous debt of gratitude.

最後，在我們下週一慶祝陣亡將士紀念日時，我們都應該記住我們國家過去和現在的英雄。我們欠這些美國人巨大的感激之情。

Thank you for participating in today's call. Have a great day.

感謝您參加今天的電話會議。祝你有美好的一天。

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

謝謝。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。再次感謝您的參與。