汽車地帶 (AZO) 2022 Q2 法說會逐字稿

Good morning, ladies and gentlemen, and welcome to AutoZone's 2022 Second Quarter Earnings Release Conference Call. (Operator Instructions)

女士們，先生們，早上好，歡迎來到 AutoZone 的 2022 年第二季度收益發布電話會議。 （操作員說明）

Before we begin, the company would like to read some forward-looking statements.

在我們開始之前，該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 obligation to update such statements.

在我們開始之前，請注意，今天的電話會議包括受 1995 年《私人證券訴訟改革法案》安全港條款約束的前瞻性陳述。前瞻性陳述並非對未來業績的保證。請參閱今天上午的新聞稿和公司最近提交的 10-K 表格年度報告和其他提交給證券交易委員會的文件，以討論可能導致實際結果與預期大不相同的重要風險和不確定性。前瞻性陳述僅在作出之日發表，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公認會計原則的措施。在我們的新聞稿中可以找到非公認會計原則與公認會計原則財務指標的對賬。

It is now my pleasure to turn the floor over to your host, Bill Rhodes, CEO of AutoZone. Sir, the floor is yours.

現在我很高興將發言權交給您的主持人，AutoZone 的首席執行官 Bill Rhodes。先生，地板是你的。

Thank you. Good morning, and thank you for joining us today for AutoZone's 2022 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.

謝謝你。早上好，感謝您今天加入 AutoZone 的 2022 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；以及投資者關係和稅務副總裁兼財務主管 Brian Campbell。

Regarding the second 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.

關於第二季度，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，新聞稿以及補充我們今天評論的幻燈片可在我們的網站 www.autozone.com 的投資者關係鏈接下找到。請點擊季度收益電話會議查看它們。

As we begin, we want to continue to stress that our highest priority remains the safety and well-being of our customers and AutoZoners. Everyone, everyone across the organization takes this responsibility very seriously, and I am extremely proud of how our team has continued to respond to COVID-19 and the recent Omicron variant. Since the start of the pandemic, we have consistently recognized our AutoZoners in our stores and distribution centers for giving exceptional service in the face of all the challenges COVID-19 has presented. This quarter, we will start the same way by saying thank you to our AutoZoners for their dedication to providing exceptional customer service and helping our customers with their automotive needs.

在開始之際，我們要繼續強調，我們的首要任務仍然是客戶和 AutoZoners 的安全和福祉。整個組織的每個人，每個人都非常重視這一責任，我為我們的團隊如何繼續響應 COVID-19 和最近的 Omicron 變體感到非常自豪。自大流行開始以來，我們一直認可我們商店和配送中心的 AutoZoners，他們在面對 COVID-19 帶來的所有挑戰時提供卓越的服務。本季度，我們將以同樣的方式開始，感謝我們的 AutoZoners 致力於提供卓越的客戶服務並幫助我們的客戶滿足他們的汽車需求。

This morning, we will review our overall same-store sales, DIY versus DIFM trends, our sales cadence over the 12 weeks of the quarter, merchandise categories that drove our performance and any regional discrepancies. We'll also share how inflation is affecting our costs and retails and how we think they will impact our business for the remainder of the fiscal year. Lastly, I'll touch on the subject of pricing in the industry.

今天早上，我們將回顧我們的整體同店銷售額、DIY 與 DIFM 趨勢、本季度 12 週的銷售節奏、推動我們業績的商品類別以及任何地區差異。我們還將分享通貨膨脹如何影響我們的成本和零售，以及我們認為它們將如何影響我們在本財年剩餘時間內的業務。最後，我將談到行業定價的主題。

Our domestic same-store sales were an impressive 13.8% this quarter on top of last year's very strong 15.2%. Our team has once again executed an exceptionally high level and delivered amazing results despite the ongoing very challenging environment. In Q1 of this fiscal year, we reported 13.6% same-store sales on top of 2021's Q1 same-store sales of 12.3%. Impressively, very impressively, our team delivered accelerating 2-year comps in our second quarter. Our growth rates for retail and commercial were both strong with domestic commercial growth north of 32%. Commercial set a second quarter record with $844 million in sales, an incredible accomplishment. We generated $200 million more in sales this quarter than in Q2 last year.

我們的國內同店銷售額在去年非常強勁的 15.2% 的基礎上，本季度達到了令人印象深刻的 13.8%。儘管環境一直充滿挑戰，我們的團隊再次執行了異常高的水平並取得了驚人的成果。在本財年第一季度，我們報告了 13.6% 的同店銷售額，而 2021 年第一季度的同店銷售額為 12.3%。令人印象深刻，非常令人印象深刻的是，我們的團隊在第二季度提供了加速的 2 年補償。我們的零售和商業增長率均強勁，國內商業增長率超過 32%。 Commercial 以 8.44 億美元的銷售額創下了第二季度的紀錄，這是一項了不起的成就。我們本季度的銷售額比去年第二季度增加了 2 億美元。

On a trailing 4-quarter basis, we generated $3.8 billion in annualized commercial sales versus $2.9 billion just a year ago, up 30%. We also set a record in average weekly sales per store for any second quarter at $13,500 versus $10,500 last year. On a 2-year basis, our sales accelerated from last quarter, exceeding 46% in commercial. Domestic commercial sales represented 25% of our total company sales, another record for us, compared to 21.9% last year. Our commercial sales growth continues to be driven by a host, and I want to emphasize, a host of key initiatives we've been working on for the last several years.

在過去 4 個季度的基礎上，我們的年化商業銷售額為 38 億美元，而一年前為 29 億美元，增長了 30%。我們還創下了第二季度每家商店的平均每週銷售額為 13,500 美元的記錄，而去年為 10,500 美元。在 2 年的基礎上，我們的銷售額比上一季度有所加速，超過 46% 的商業銷售額。國內商業銷售額占我們公司總銷售額的 25%，這是我們的另一個記錄，而去年這一比例為 21.9%。我們的商業銷售增長繼續由東道主推動，我想強調的是，我們在過去幾年中一直在努力的一系列關鍵舉措。

We improved our satellite store inventory availability. We've had massive improvements in Hub and Mega-Hub coverage. We're leveraging the strength of the Duralast brand. We have better technology to make us easier to do business with. We have significantly improved our delivery times. We've enhanced our sales force's effectiveness, and we're living consistent with our pledge by being "priced right" for the value proposition that we deliver. We continue to execute very well in commercial, and we are extremely proud of our team and their performance.

我們提高了衛星商店的庫存可用性。我們在 Hub 和 Mega-Hub 的覆蓋範圍內有了很大的改進。我們正在利用 Duralast 品牌的實力。我們有更好的技術讓我們更容易做生意。我們顯著改善了交貨時間。我們提高了銷售團隊的效率，我們通過為我們提供的價值主張“定價正確”來履行我們的承諾。我們繼續在商業方面表現出色，我們為我們的團隊及其表現感到非常自豪。

We're also very proud of our organization's performance in domestic DIY. We ran at 8.4% comp this quarter on top of last year's 15.7%. As our DIY 2-year stacked comp accelerated from the first quarter, it's remarkable to reflect on 4 consecutive quarters of more than 20% 2-year comps in this more mature portion of our business. From the data we have available to us, we continue to not only retain the enormous 3 full points of share gains we've built during the initial stages of the pandemic but modestly continued to build on those gains. Our performance, considering the amount of time from the last stimulus and the ending of the enhanced unemployment benefits, has substantially exceeded our expectations and gives us more conviction on the sustainability of these sales levels.

我們也為我們組織在國內 DIY 方面的表現感到非常自豪。在去年的 15.7% 的基礎上，本季度我們的股價為 8.4%。隨著我們的 DIY 2 年堆疊補償從第一季度開始加速，在我們業務的這個更成熟的部分中，連續 4 個季度超過 20% 的 2 年補償是非常了不起的。從我們可用的數據來看，我們不僅繼續保持我們在大流行初期階段建立的巨大的 3 個完整點的份額收益，而且還在適度地繼續擴大這些收益。考慮到上一次刺激措施和提高失業救濟金結束的時間，我們的表現大大超出了我們的預期，使我們對這些銷售水平的可持續性更有信心。

Now let's focus on sales cadence. Our same-store sales decreased sequentially from late November through January and then accelerated again in the few days of the quarter we had in February. The deceleration through January could be deceiving as last year's comp strengthened as the quarter progressed as a result of the federal stimulus distributed around the first of last calendar year. Given the dynamics in the past 20 months, we, like others who've benefited from the pandemic, believe it has been more instructive to look at 2-year stacked comps. On this basis, the monthly results were almost identical and were very stable. For Q2, our 2-year comp was 29.1%, and the 4-week periods of the quarter increased 29.6%, 28.9% and 29.1%, respectively.

現在讓我們關註銷售節奏。從 11 月下旬到 1 月，我們的同店銷售額連續下降，然後在 2 月季度的幾天內再次加速。由於聯邦刺激計劃在上個日曆年的第一年左右分發，隨著季度的進展，去年的業績有所加強，到 1 月份的減速可能具有欺騙性。鑑於過去 20 個月的動態，我們和其他從大流行中受益的人一樣，認為查看 2 年的疊加組合更具啟發性。在此基礎上，每月的結果幾乎相同，並且非常穩定。對於第二季度，我們的 2 年比較為 29.1%，該季度的 4 週期間分別增長了 29.6%、28.9% 和 29.1%。

Regarding weather, until February, we experienced warmer-than-usual weather in the Northeastern U.S., while the remainder of the country experienced pretty normal winter trends. Overall, we feel weather did not play a material role in our sales performance. As we look forward to the spring months, we believe we will see normal weather trends, and therefore, weather is not planned to be a big story for this upcoming quarter or summer. As a reminder, historically extreme weather, either cold or hot, drives parts failures and accelerated maintenance.

關於天氣，直到 2 月，我們在美國東北部經歷了比往常溫暖的天氣，而該國其他地區則經歷了相當正常的冬季趨勢。總體而言，我們認為天氣對我們的銷售業績沒有起到重要作用。當我們期待春季月份時，我們相信我們將看到正常的天氣趨勢，因此，天氣不會成為即將到來的季度或夏季的大事件。提醒一下，歷史上的極端天氣，無論是寒冷還是炎熱，都會導致零件故障和加速維護。

Regarding this quarter's traffic versus ticket growth. In retail, our traffic was up slightly, while our ticket was up 7.8%. This slight transaction count growth continues to be a meaningful acceleration from pre-pandemic levels, although it decelerated versus last year, as expected, due to the elimination of stimulus and enhanced unemployment. In our commercial business, we saw most of the sales growth come from transaction growth from new and existing customers. It was encouraging for us to see sales trends remain strong, and we continue to be pleased with the momentum we are seeing in both domestic businesses heading into the spring months.

關於本季度的客流量與票務增長。在零售方面，我們的客流量略有上升，而我們的票價上漲了 7.8%。與大流行前的水平相比，這種輕微的交易數量增長繼續顯著加速，儘管由於刺激措施的取消和失業率的增加，與去年相比有所放緩，正如預期的那樣。在我們的商業業務中，我們看到大部分銷售增長來自新老客戶的交易增長。看到銷售趨勢保持強勁對我們來說是令人鼓舞的，我們繼續對我們在進入春季月份的國內業務中看到的勢頭感到滿意。

During the quarter, there were some geographic regions that did better than others as there always are. But this quarter, we saw a mere 15 basis points difference between the Northeast and Midwest compared to the balance of the country. As winter definitely came in late January in the Northeast and Midwest, we are expecting that gap will remain close. Also, the market share data suggests we continued to gain share in most of our markets.

在本季度，一些地理區域的表現一如既往地好於其他地理區域。但本季度，我們看到東北部和中西部與全國其他地區相比僅相差 15 個基點。由於東北部和中西部的冬天肯定在 1 月下旬到來，我們預計這一差距將繼續縮小。此外，市場份額數據表明我們在大多數市場中繼續獲得份額。

Now let's move into more specifics on performance for the quarter. Our same-store sales were up 13.8% versus last year's second quarter. Our net income was $472 million, and our EPS was $22.30 a share, increasing an impressive 49.4%.

現在讓我們進入有關本季度業績的更多細節。與去年第二季度相比，我們的同店銷售額增長了 13.8%。我們的淨收入為 4.72 億美元，每股收益為 22.30 美元，增長了 49.4%，令人印象深刻。

Regarding our merchandise categories in the retail business, our hard parts grew slightly faster than our sales for categories but not material, say, maybe less than 1%. As Americans get back to driving more, we've seen maintenance and failure-related categories perform well. We've been especially pleased with our growth rates in select failure-related businesses, like batteries, that have successfully lapped very strong performance last year. We believe our hard parts business will continue to strengthen as our customers drive more.

關於我們在零售業務中的商品類別，我們的硬零件增長略快於我們類別的銷售額，但不是物質的，比如說，可能不到 1%。隨著美國人重新開始更多地駕駛，我們已經看到與維護和故障相關的類別表現良好。我們對我們選擇的與故障相關的業務（例如電池）的增長率特別滿意，這些業務在去年成功地超越了非常強勁的表現。我們相信，隨著我們的客戶越來越多地駕駛，我們的硬零件業務將繼續加強。

Let me also address inflation and pricing. This quarter, we saw our sales increase by over 5% from inflation. While our cost of goods was up over 4% on a like-for-like basis, we believe both numbers will be slightly higher in the third quarter as cost increases and many key merchandise categories continue to work their way through the system. As rising raw material pricing, labor and transportation costs are all impacting us and our suppliers, inflation has been prevalent in the aftermarket space. We have no way to say how long this will last, but our industry has been disciplined about pricing for decades, and we expect that to continue. It is also notable that following periods of higher inflation, we typically do not see corresponding deflation.

讓我也談談通貨膨脹和定價。本季度，我們的銷售額因通貨膨脹而增長了 5% 以上。雖然我們的商品成本同比增長超過 4%，但我們相信隨著成本的增加和許多關鍵商品類別繼續通過系統運作，第三季度這兩個數字都將略高。由於原材料價格上漲、勞動力和運輸成本都在影響我們和我們的供應商，通貨膨脹在售後市場普遍存在。我們無法說這會持續多久，但我們的行業幾十年來一直在定價方面受到約束，我們預計這種情況會繼續下去。同樣值得注意的是，在通脹較高的時期之後，我們通常不會看到相應的通貨緊縮。

While we continue to be encouraged with the current sales environment, it remains difficult to forecast near to midterm sales. What I will say is that the past 4-quarter sales have all been consistent on a 2-year stacked comp basis and a 3-year basis, and that goes for both our DIY and our commercial businesses. While it's difficult to predict absolute sales levels going forward, we are excited about our growth initiatives, our team's exceptional execution and the tremendous share gains we have achieved in both sectors. Currently, the macro environment, while uncertain, remains very favorable for our industry. And even if these near-term trends fade, we believe that we are in an industry that is positioned for solid growth over the long term.

儘管我們繼續對當前的銷售環境感到鼓舞，但仍難以預測接近中期的銷售情況。我要說的是，過去 4 季度的銷售額在 2 年疊加補償和 3 年基礎上都是一致的，這對我們的 DIY 和我們的商業業務都是如此。雖然很難預測未來的絕對銷售水平，但我們對我們的增長計劃、我們團隊的出色執行以及我們在這兩個領域取得的巨大份額收益感到興奮。目前，宏觀環境雖然不確定，但對我們的行業仍然非常有利。即使這些近期趨勢消退，我們相信我們所處的行業有望實現長期穩健增長。

For FY '22, we expect our sales performance to be led by the strength in our commercial business as we continue executing on our differentiating initiatives. As we progress through the year, we will, as always, be transparent about what we are seeing and provide color on our markets and outlooks as trends emerge.

對於 22 財年，我們預計我們的銷售業績將由我們的商業業務實力引領，因為我們將繼續執行我們的差異化計劃。隨著這一年的進展，我們將一如既往地公開我們所看到的，並隨著趨勢的出現為我們的市場和前景提供色彩。

Before handing the call over to Jamere, I'd like to address the subject of pricing and if AutoZone's pricing disciplines or philosophies have changed from past practices. The short answer is a resounding no. While we initiated a retail pricing adjustment last year in Q1 and further adjusted some commercial pricing in quarters 2 through 4, these moves were done to be price competitive, but with other channels, not with our direct competitors. Specifically, in the retail business, we reduced our premiums to mass, particularly on highly visible commodity products.

在將電話轉給 Jamere 之前，我想談談定價主題，以及 AutoZone 的定價規則或理念是否與過去的做法有所不同。簡短的回答是響亮的不。雖然我們去年在第一季度啟動了零售定價調整，並在第 2 到第 4 季度進一步調整了一些商業定價，但這些舉措是為了具有價格競爭力，但針對其他渠道，而不是針對我們的直接競爭對手。具體而言，在零售業務中，我們將保費降至大眾，特別是在高度可見的商品上。

Regarding the more significant change in commercial, our prices have always, always been meaningfully higher than our WD competitors as our service level is superior. Our pricing changes over the last year or so have been too narrow. I emphasize narrow but not eliminate that gap. We must make sure we receive a premium for our service advantage, but we narrowed that premium by roughly half. While this has created some consternation in the investment community, we think our results have shown that this was a prudent and productive decision. We continue to see our industry as very rational when it comes to pricing strategies. And I want to be clear, crystal clear. I don't want anyone to conclude that our growth in commercial is solely due to pricing.

關於商業上更顯著的變化，我們的價格一直，一直比我們的 WD 競爭對手高得多，因為我們的服務水平更高。我們在過去一年左右的定價變化太窄了。我強調縮小但不消除這種差距。我們必須確保我們獲得服務優勢的溢價，但我們將溢價縮小了大約一半。雖然這在投資界引起了一些恐慌，但我們認為我們的結果表明這是一個謹慎且富有成效的決定。在定價策略方面，我們繼續認為我們的行業非常理性。我想清楚，晶瑩剔透。我不希望任何人得出結論，我們的商業增長完全是由於定價。

We launched a comprehensive new strategy about 3 years ago with improvements in assortments, local market availability with Hubs and Mega-Hubs. Our delivery times are dropping as we leverage new technologies that have been deployed. Our team's execution is enhanced. We've made ourselves easier to do business with, and we've improved our pricing versus WDs. We stated last year we didn't envision any additional pricing reductions beyond those deployed at the beginning of last year's Q4, and that remains our stance.

大約 3 年前，我們推出了一項全面的新戰略，通過 Hubs 和 Mega-Hubs 改進了分類、本地市場可用性。隨著我們利用已部署的新技術，我們的交付時間正在下降。我們團隊的執行力得到加強。與 WD 相比，我們讓自己更容易開展業務，並且我們改進了定價。我們去年表示，除了去年第四季度初部署的價格之外，我們沒有設想任何額外的降價，這仍然是我們的立場。

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

現在我將把電話轉給 Jamere Jackson。詹姆?

Thanks, Bill, and good morning, everyone. As Bill mentioned, we had a strong second quarter with double-digit comp growth, a 30% growth in EBIT and a 49% growth in EPS. Our results for the first half of the fiscal year have been remarkably strong as our growth initiatives continue to deliver great results and the efforts of our AutoZoners in our stores and distribution centers have enabled us to take advantage of robust market conditions.

謝謝，比爾，大家早上好。正如比爾所說，我們第二季度表現強勁，實現了兩位數的複合增長，息稅前利潤增長了 30%，每股收益增長了 49%。我們在本財年上半年的業績非常強勁，因為我們的增長計劃繼續取得巨大成果，我們的商店和配送中心的 AutoZoners 的努力使我們能夠利用強勁的市場條件。

To start this morning, let me take a few moments to elaborate on the specifics in our P&L for Q2. For the quarter, total auto parts sales, which includes our domestic, Mexico and Brazil stores, were $3.3 billion, up 15.6%.

從今天早上開始，讓我花點時間詳細說明我們第二季度損益表中的細節。本季度，包括我們的國內、墨西哥和巴西門店在內的汽車零部件總銷售額為 33 億美元，增長 15.6%。

Now let me give a little color on sales and our growth initiatives. Starting with our commercial business, for the second quarter, our domestic DIFM sales increased 32.1% to $844 million and were up 46.8% on a 2-year stacked basis.

現在讓我談談銷售和我們的增長計劃。從我們的商業業務開始，第二季度，我們的國內 DIFM 銷售額增長 32.1% 至 8.44 億美元，兩年累計增長 46.8%。

Sales to our DIFM customers represented 25% of our total company sales, and our weekly sales per program were $13,500, up 28.6%, as we averaged just over $70 million in total weekly commercial sales. Once again, our growth was broad-based as national and local accounts both grew at approximately 32% for the quarter.

對我們的 DIFM 客戶的銷售額占公司總銷售額的 25%，我們每個項目的每週銷售額為 13,500 美元，增長 28.6%，因為我們平均每週總商業銷售額略高於 7000 萬美元。再一次，我們的增長是廣泛的，因為本季度全國和地方賬戶均增長了約 32%。

While the second quarter is seasonally our lowest selling quarter, our results for the quarter are exceptional and represent the highest-volume second quarter in the history of the chain. I want to continue to reiterate that our execution on our commercial acceleration initiatives is delivering better-than-expected results as we focus on building a faster-growing business. We are making tremendous progress in growing share in this highly fragmented portion of the market by winning new business and increasing our share of wallet with existing customers. We have our commercial program in approximately 86% of our domestic stores which leverages our DIY infrastructure, and we're building our business with national, regional and local accounts.

雖然第二季度是我們季節性銷售最低的季度，但我們本季度的業績非常出色，代表了該連鎖店歷史上銷量最高的第二季度。我想繼續重申，隨著我們專注於建立一個增長更快的業務，我們在商業加速計劃上的執行取得了好於預期的結果。通過贏得新業務並增加我們在現有客戶中的錢包份額，我們在這個高度分散的市場份額中取得了巨大進展。我們在大約 86% 的國內商店都有我們的商業計劃，利用我們的 DIY 基礎設施，我們正在與國家、地區和本地客戶建立業務。

This quarter, we opened 22 net new programs, finishing with 5,233 total programs. As I said at the outset of the year, commercial growth will lead the way in FY '22, and our results in the second quarter and the first half of the year reflects this dynamic. We remain confident in our strategies and execution and believe we will continue gaining share. Delivering quality parts, particularly with our Duralast brand; improved assortments; competitive pricing; and providing exceptional service has enabled us to drive double-digit sales growth for the past 7 quarters. Our core initiatives are accelerating our growth and position us well in the marketplace. And notably, our Mega-Hub strategy is driving strong performance and positioning us for an even brighter future in our commercial and retail businesses.

本季度，我們開設了 22 個淨新項目，總計 5,233 個項目。正如我在年初所說的那樣，商業增長將在 22 財年引領潮流，我們在第二季度和上半年的業績反映了這一動態。我們對我們的戰略和執行仍然充滿信心，並相信我們將繼續獲得份額。提供優質零件，尤其是我們的 Duralast 品牌；改進的分類；有競爭力的價格；並提供卓越的服務使我們在過去 7 個季度實現了兩位數的銷售增長。我們的核心舉措正在加速我們的發展，並在市場上佔據有利地位。值得注意的是，我們的 Mega-Hub 戰略正在推動強勁的業績，並使我們在商業和零售業務中擁有更加光明的未來。

Let me add a little more color on our progress. As I mentioned last quarter, our Mega-Hub strategy has given us tremendous momentum. We now have 64 Mega-Hub locations, and we expect to open approximately 14 more over the remainder of the fiscal year. While I mentioned a moment ago, the commercial weekly sales per program average was $13,500 per program, the 64 Mega-Hubs averaged significantly higher sales and are growing much faster than the balance of the commercial footprint. As a result, our Mega-Hubs typically carry roughly 100,000 SKUs and drive tremendous sales lift inside the store box as well as serve as an expanded assortment source for other stores.

讓我為我們的進展添加更多色彩。正如我在上個季度提到的，我們的 Mega-Hub 戰略給了我們巨大的動力。我們現在有 64 個 Mega-Hub 地點，我們預計在本財年剩餘時間內將再開設大約 14 個。雖然我剛才提到，每個程序的商業每周平均銷售額為每個程序 13,500 美元，但 64 個 Mega-Hub 的平均銷售額明顯更高，並且增長速度比商業足蹟的平衡要快得多。因此，我們的 Mega-Hubs 通常攜帶大約 100,000 個 SKU，並在商店盒子內推動巨大的銷售增長，並為其他商店提供擴展的分類來源。

The expansion of coverage and parts availability continues to deliver a meaningful sales lift to both our commercial and DIY business, and we are testing greater density of Mega-Hubs to drive even stronger sales results. What we are learning is that not only are these assets performing well individually but the fulfillment capability for the surrounding AutoZone stores gives our customers access to thousands of additional parts and lifts the entire network.

覆蓋範圍和零部件供應的擴大繼續為我們的商業和 DIY 業務帶來有意義的銷售提升，我們正在測試更高密度的 Mega-Hubs，以推動更強勁的銷售業績。我們正在學習的是，這些資產不僅單獨表現良好，而且周邊 AutoZone 商店的履行能力使我們的客戶能夠訪問數千個額外的零件並提升整個網絡。

By leveraging sophisticated predictive analytics and machine learning, we're expanding our market reach, driving closer proximity to our customers and improving our product availability and delivery times. We're building a meaningful competitive advantage, and we continue to have confidence in our ability to create a faster-growing business.

通過利用複雜的預測分析和機器學習，我們正在擴大我們的市場範圍，拉近與客戶的距離，並改善我們的產品可用性和交付時間。我們正在建立有意義的競爭優勢，並且我們繼續對我們創造更快增長業務的能力充滿信心。

On the retail side of our business, same-store sales for our domestic retail business was up 8.4% and up 24.1% on a 2-year stack. The business has been remarkably resilient as we have gained and maintained nearly 3 points of market share since the start of the pandemic. As Bill mentioned, we saw traffic up slightly to go along with 7.8% ticket growth as we continue to raise prices in an inflationary environment. Our growth initiatives are also leading to share gains as we improve the customer shopping experience, expand assortment and leverage our Hub and Mega-Hub network. These dynamics, along with favorable macro trends in miles driven, a growing and aging car part and a challenging new and used car sales market for our customers, have continued to fuel sales momentum in DIY.

在我們業務的零售方面，我們國內零售業務的同店銷售額增長了 8.4%，連續兩年增長了 24.1%。自大流行開始以來，我們已經獲得併保持了近 3 個百分點的市場份額，因此該業務具有顯著的彈性。正如比爾所說，隨著我們在通脹環境中繼續提高價格，我們看到客流量小幅上升，票價增長 7.8%。隨著我們改善客戶購物體驗、擴大產品種類並利用我們的 Hub 和 Mega-Hub 網絡，我們的增長計劃也帶來了分享收益。這些動態，加上行駛里程的有利宏觀趨勢、不斷增長和老化的汽車零件以及對我們的客戶來說充滿挑戰的新車和二手車銷售市場，繼續推動 DIY 的銷售勢頭。

Our in-stock positions, while still below where we were pre-pandemic, are continuing to improve as our supply chain and merchandising teams have made great progress in a challenging supply chain environment. We've been able to navigate supply and logistics constraints and have product available to meet our customers' needs. Our AutoZoners who are taking care of our customers give us a key competitive advantage that enables us to thrive in this market environment.

我們的庫存狀況雖然仍低於大流行前的水平，但隨著我們的供應鍊和銷售團隊在充滿挑戰的供應鏈環境中取得了長足進步，我們的庫存狀況正在繼續改善。我們已經能夠駕馭供應和物流限制，並提供滿足客戶需求的產品。照顧客戶的 AutoZoners 為我們提供了關鍵的競爭優勢，使我們能夠在這種市場環境中茁壯成長。

Now there's no question that DIY comps get tougher in the back half of the year due to exceptionally strong back half performance in both FY '20 and FY '21, but we remain confident that the fundamentals of our business remain strong, macro conditions are favorable for us, and we have had great execution by our teams.

現在毫無疑問，由於 20 財年和 21 財年的後半部分錶現異常強勁，DIY 比賽在後半段變得更加艱難，但我們仍然相信我們的業務基本面依然強勁，宏觀條件有利對我們來說，我們團隊的執行力非常出色。

Now I'll say a few words regarding our international business. We continue to be pleased with the progress we're making in Mexico and Brazil. During the quarter, we opened 3 new stores in Mexico to finish with 669 stores and 2 new stores in Brazil to finish with 55. And on a constant currency basis, we saw accelerated sales growth in both countries, in line with the growth rates we saw overall. We remain committed to our store opening schedules in both markets and expect both countries to be significant contributors to sales and earnings growth in the future.

現在我將就我們的國際業務說幾句話。我們繼續對我們在墨西哥和巴西取得的進展感到滿意。本季度，我們在墨西哥開設了 3 家新店，達到 669 家，在巴西開設了 2 家新店，達到 55 家。按固定匯率計算，我們看到這兩個國家的銷售增長加速，與我們的增長率一致整體看到了。我們將繼續致力於我們在這兩個市場的開店時間表，並預計這兩個國家都將成為未來銷售和盈利增長的重要貢獻者。

With only just over 10% of our total store base now outside the U.S. and our commitment to continue expansion in a disciplined way, international growth will be an attractive and meaningful contributor to AutoZone's future growth.

目前，我們在美國以外的門店僅佔總門店數的 10% 以上，而且我們承諾以有紀律的方式繼續擴張，因此國際增長將成為 AutoZone 未來增長的有吸引力且有意義的貢獻者。

Now let me spend a few minutes on the P&L and gross margins. For the quarter, our gross margin was down 59 basis points driven primarily by the accelerated growth in our commercial business, where the shift in mix, coupled with the investments in our initiatives, drove margin pressure but increased our total gross profit dollars 14.5%. I mentioned on last quarter's call that we expected to have our gross margin down in a similar range this quarter as we saw in the first quarter where we were down 65 basis points versus the previous year. Our merchandising team has been focused on driving margin improvements, primarily through pricing actions that offset inflation, resulting in slightly better performance than our initial expectations.

現在讓我花幾分鐘了解損益和毛利率。本季度，我們的毛利率下降了 59 個基點，主要是由於我們商業業務的加速增長，其中組合的轉變，加上對我們計劃的投資，推動了利潤率壓力，但我們的總毛利潤增加了 14.5%。我在上一季度的電話會議中提到，我們預計本季度的毛利率將下降到與第一季度相比下降 65 個基點的類似範圍內。我們的銷售團隊一直專注於推動利潤率的提高，主要是通過抵消通貨膨脹的定價行動，從而使業績略好於我們最初的預期。

As Bill mentioned earlier in the call, we are continuing to see cost inflation in certain product categories, along with rising transportation and distribution center costs. We're continuing to take pricing actions to offset inflation. And consistent with prior inflationary cycles, the industry's pricing remains rational. We would expect our margins in the third quarter to be down in the 50 bps range versus Q3 last year driven primarily by mix headwinds from our fast-growing commercial business.

正如比爾早些時候在電話會議中提到的，我們繼續看到某些產品類別的成本上漲，以及運輸和配送中心成本的上升。我們將繼續採取定價行動來抵消通貨膨脹。與之前的通脹週期一致，該行業的定價仍然合理。我們預計第三季度的利潤率將比去年第三季度下降 50 個基點，這主要是由於我們快速增長的商業業務帶來的混合阻力。

Moving to operating expenses. Our expenses were up 7.5% versus last year's Q2 as SG&A as a percent of sales leveraged 264 basis points. The leverage was driven primarily by our strong results and approximately $40 million or 137 basis points and prior year pandemic-related expenses. While our SG&A dollar growth rate has been higher than historical averages, we've been focused on maintaining high levels of customer service during a period of accelerated growth. We also continued to invest at an accelerated pace in IT to underpin our growth initiatives, and these investments will pay dividends in user experience, speed and productivity. We will continue to be disciplined on SG&A growth as we move forward and manage expenses in line with sales growth over time.

轉向運營費用。我們的費用與去年第二季度相比增長了 7.5%，因為 SG&A 佔銷售額的百分比提高了 264 個基點。槓桿作用主要是由我們強勁的業績和大約 4000 萬美元或 137 個基點以及上一年與大流行相關的費用推動的。雖然我們的 SG&A 美元增長率高於歷史平均水平，但我們一直專注於在加速增長期間保持高水平的客戶服務。我們還繼續加快在 IT 方面的投資，以支持我們的增長計劃，這些投資將在用戶體驗、速度和生產力方面帶來紅利。隨著時間的推移，我們將繼續對 SG&A 增長進行嚴格控制，並根據銷售增長管理費用。

Moving to the rest of the P&L. EBIT for the quarter was $627 million, up 30.1% versus the prior year's quarter driven by strong top line growth. Interest expense for the quarter was $42.5 million, down 7.7% from Q2 a year ago, as our debt outstanding at the end of the quarter was $5.8 billion versus just over $5.5 billion at Q2 end last year. We are planning interest in the $45 million range for the third quarter of fiscal 2022, roughly flat with Q3 last year. For the quarter, our tax rate was 19.3% versus 20.6% in last year's second quarter. This quarter's rate benefited 401 basis points from stock options exercised last year -- exercised. While last year, it benefited 265 basis points. For the third quarter of fiscal 2022, we suggest investors model us at approximately 23.6% before any assumption on credits due to stock option exercises.

轉到損益表的其餘部分。本季度息稅前利潤為 6.27 億美元，在收入強勁增長的推動下，較上年同期增長 30.1%。本季度的利息支出為 4250 萬美元，比去年第二季度下降 7.7%，因為我們在本季度末的未償債務為 58 億美元，而去年第二季度末剛剛超過 55 億美元。我們計劃在 2022 財年第三季度對 4500 萬美元感興趣，與去年第三季度大致持平。本季度，我們的稅率為 19.3%，而去年第二季度為 20.6%。本季度的利率從去年行使的股票期權中受益 401 個基點 - 已行使。去年，它受益了 265 個基點。對於 2022 財年第三季度，我們建議投資者在因股票期權行使而對信貸進行任何假設之前將我們建模為大約 23.6%。

Moving to net income and EPS. Net income for the quarter was $472 million, up 36.4% versus last year's second quarter. Our diluted share count of 21.2 million was 9% 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 $22.30, up 49.4% over the prior year's second quarter.

轉向淨收入和每股收益。本季度淨收入為 4.72 億美元，比去年第二季度增長 36.4%。我們稀釋後的股票數量為 2120 萬股，比去年第二季度減少了 9%。較高的淨收入和較低的股票數量共同推動本季度每股收益達到 22.30 美元，比去年第二季度增長 49.4%。

Now let me talk about our free cash flow for Q2. For the second quarter, we generated $362 million of operating cash flow and spent $106 million in capital expenditures, allowing us to generate $270 million of free cash flow, up 3.1% versus the prior year. Year-to-date, we have generated $960 million in free cash, up 12.4% versus the prior year. You should expect us to continue being 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 3.62 億美元的運營現金流和 1.06 億美元的資本支出，使我們能夠產生 2.7 億美元的自由現金流，比上年增長 3.1%。年初至今，我們已經產生了 9.6 億美元的自由現金，比上年增長 12.4%。您應該期望我們在未來繼續成為一個非常強大的現金流產生者，我們仍然致力於向我們的股東返還大量現金。

Regarding our balance sheet, through our share repurchase program and the prepayment of a bond due in April, we have exhausted our excess cash balance on the balance sheet, but rest assured our liquidity position remains very strong and our leverage ratios remain below our historic norms.

關於我們的資產負債表，通過我們的股票回購計劃和提前償還 4 月份到期的債券，我們已經用盡了資產負債表上的多餘現金餘額，但請放心，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.

We're also managing our inventory well as our inventory per store was up 3.3% versus Q2 last year. Total inventory increased 6.2% over the same period last year driven mainly by new stores and inflation. Net inventory, defined as merchandise inventories less accounts payable on a per-store basis, was a negative $198,000 versus negative $93,000 last year and negative $207,000 last quarter. As a result, accounts payable as a percent of gross inventory finished the quarter at 126.8% versus last year's Q2 of 113%.

我們也很好地管理了我們的庫存，因為我們每家商店的庫存比去年第二季度增長了 3.3%。總庫存比去年同期增長 6.2%，主要受新店和通貨膨脹的推動。淨庫存（定義為商品庫存減去每家商店的應付賬款）為負 198,000 美元，而去年為負 93,000 美元，上一季度為負 207,000 美元。因此，本季度應付賬款佔總庫存的百分比為 126.8%，而去年第二季度為 113%。

Lastly, I'll spend a moment on capital allocation and our share repurchase program. We repurchased nearly $1.6 billion of AutoZone stock in the quarter. As of the end of the fiscal quarter, we dropped below 20 million shares outstanding. As a point of emphasis, when we started our share repurchase program in 1998, we had 154 million shares outstanding. Now we have less than 20 million. At quarter end, we had just under $958 million remaining under our share buyback authorization. The powerful free cash we generated this year has allowed us to buy back over 6% of the shares outstanding since the beginning of the fiscal year. We have bought back over 90% of the shares outstanding of our stock since our buyback inception in 1998 while investing in our existing assets and growing our business. We remain committed to this disciplined capital allocation approach where we expect to return to our long-term leverage target in the 2.5x area and generate powerful free cash flows that will enable us to invest in the business and return meaningful amounts of cash to shareholders.

最後，我將花一點時間討論資本配置和我們的股票回購計劃。我們在本季度回購了近 16 億美元的 AutoZone 股票。截至本財季末，我們的流通股已降至 2000 萬股以下。作為一個重點，當我們在 1998 年開始股票回購計劃時，我們有 1.54 億股流通股。現在我們有不到2000萬。在季度末，我們的股票回購授權僅剩不到 9.58 億美元。我們今年產生的強大自由現金使我們能夠回購自本財年初以來超過 6% 的流通股。自 1998 年開始回購以來，我們已經回購了超過 90% 的流通股，同時投資於我們現有的資產並發展我們的業務。我們仍然致力於這種嚴格的資本分配方法，我們預計將回到我們在 2.5 倍區域的長期槓桿目標並產生強大的自由現金流，這將使我們能夠投資於業務並向股東返還大量現金。

To wrap up, we had another very strong quarter, highlighted by strong comp sales, which drove a 36.4% increase in net income and a 49.4% increase in EPS. We are driving long-term shareholder value by investing in our growth initiatives, driving robust earnings and cash and returning excess cash to our shareholders. Our strategy continues to work. We are growing our DIY and DIFM businesses at a significantly faster rate than the overall market, and we are committed to capturing our fair share while improving our competitive positioning in a disciplined way. I continue to have tremendous confidence in our ability to drive significant and ongoing value for our shareholders.

總而言之，我們又迎來了一個非常強勁的季度，特別是強勁的複合銷售，推動淨收入增長 36.4%，每股收益增長 49.4%。我們通過投資於我們的增長計劃、推動強勁的收益和現金以及將多餘的現金返還給我們的股東，從而推動長期股東價值。我們的策略繼續有效。我們的 DIY 和 DIFM 業務增長速度明顯快於整體市場，我們致力於在以有紀律的方式提高競爭地位的同時獲得公平份額。我繼續對我們為股東帶來重大和持續價值的能力充滿信心。

And now I'll turn it back to Bill.

現在我將把它轉回給比爾。

Thank you, Jamere. Fiscal 2022 is off to a very strong start, and we remain focused on superior customer service and flawless execution. Our culture is based on exceptional service, and that will continue to define our success.

謝謝你，傑米爾。 2022 財年開局非常強勁，我們仍然專注於卓越的客戶服務和完美的執行。我們的文化基於卓越的服務，這將繼續定義我們的成功。

I want to step back for a minute and talk about the big picture. Throughout the pandemic, each of us has had a very difficult time forecasting the future in light of all the uncertainties: the disease, the variants, consumer and government responses, competitive dynamics and on and on. But we are now nearly 2 years into this pandemic. What has happened to our business over those 2 years due to the tremendous contributions of our AutoZoners is nothing short of phenomenal.

我想退後一步，談談大局。在整個大流行期間，鑑於所有不確定性：疾病、變異、消費者和政府的反應、競爭動態等等，我們每個人都很難預測未來。但我們現在已經進入這場大流行將近 2 年了。由於我們的 AutoZoners 的巨大貢獻，我們的業務在這兩年中發生的事情簡直是驚人的。

On a trailing 12-month basis versus pre pandemic, our sales volumes have increased by over a remarkable 30%. And our profitability, expressed as EBIT, has increased nearly 50%. 6 to 9 months ago, if you would have asked us, our expectation was that some of those incremental sales and profits would go back closer to historic norms. While it is still very difficult to predict the next 6 to 12 months, our perspective has morphed. As we are nearly a year past the last stimulus and nearly 6 months from the suspension of enhanced unemployment, we believe most, if not all, of this growth is sustainable.

在過去 12 個月的基礎上，與大流行前相比，我們的銷量增長了 30% 以上。我們的盈利能力（以息稅前利潤表示）增長了近 50%。 6 到 9 個月前，如果您問我們，我們的預期是其中一些增量銷售額和利潤將回到更接近歷史標準的水平。雖然預測未來 6 到 12 個月仍然非常困難，但我們的觀點已經發生了變化。由於我們距離上一次刺激措施已經過去了將近一年，距離失業增加也有近 6 個月的時間，我們認為，如果不是全部，這種增長中的大部分是可持續的。

We believe our competitive positioning is improved as indicated by our significant share gains in both retail and commercial, and consumer behaviors may have permanently changed. If this holds true, it will be the fourth time in the last 30 years that the economy and society have had significant shocks, leading to material acceleration in our growth in sales and profits without a corresponding decline back to pre-recessionary or pre-pandemic levels.

我們相信，我們在零售和商業領域的顯著份額增長表明我們的競爭地位得到了改善，消費者行為可能已經永久改變。如果情況屬實，這將是過去 30 年來經濟和社會第四次受到重大衝擊，導致我們的銷售和利潤大幅加速增長，而沒有相應下降到衰退前或疫情前水平。

Our industry is unique, but it has a very long track record of strong performance with high return and cash flow characteristics. As we begin to lap the second anniversary of the pandemic, some of the measurements we've all used recently to measure our performance will become skewed. Remember, at the beginning of the pandemic, our sales dropped radically. Our retail sales rebounded quickly with the April 2020 stimulus, but commercials rebound lagged, and it took several months to recover.

我們的行業是獨一無二的，但它有很長的業績記錄，具有高回報和現金流的特點。隨著我們開始度過大流行兩週年，我們最近用來衡量我們績效的一些衡量標準將變得有偏差。請記住，在大流行開始時，我們的銷售額急劇下降。在 2020 年 4 月的刺激政策下，我們的零售額迅速反彈，但商業廣告的反彈滯後，需要幾個月的時間才能恢復。

For Q3, the 2-year stacked comp measurement holds reasonably well as we delivered basically flat overall comps in Q3 of 2020. However, that measure for our commercial business won't be as meaningful. And then in Q4, in light of the amazing performance in 2020, the 2-year comparison for overall comps won't be comparable. We would encourage you to migrate to 3-year comps.

對於第三季度，由於我們在 2020 年第三季度提供了基本持平的總體對比，因此 2 年的堆疊補償測量結果相當不錯。但是，該測量對我們的商業業務而言意義不大。然後在第四季度，鑑於 2020 年的驚人表現，整體組合的 2 年比較將無法比較。我們鼓勵您遷移到 3 年期補償。

We continue to be bullish on our industry, and in particular, on our opportunities for 2022. We believe the macro backdrop is in our favor for the near and long term. Our customers across the Americas want to get out and get out and drive, and we'll be there when they need helpful advice. Our team has worked diligently and collaboratively with our suppliers. And together, they have done a very good job dealing with the enormous supply chain challenges that exist for everyone. while our in-stock levels are improving and we expect that to continue, we also believe we are better in stock than most retailers. And our results, they support that belief.

我們繼續看好我們的行業，特別是看好 2022 年的機遇。我們相信宏觀背景對我們的近期和長期有利。我們遍布美洲的客戶想出去開車，當他們需要有用的建議時，我們會在那裡。我們的團隊一直在努力與供應商合作。他們一起在應對每個人都面臨的巨大供應鏈挑戰方面做得非常好。雖然我們的庫存水平正在提高並且我們預計這種情況會持續下去，但我們也相信我們的庫存比大多數零售商都要好。而我們的結果，他們支持這種信念。

For the remainder of fiscal 2022, we are launching some very exciting initiatives. We're focused on further growing share, but as always, doing so on a very profitable basis. In fiscal 2024, we plan to open a new distribution center in California to fuel continued growth of our domestic business. We just recently announced a new distribution center in Virginia, and we're now planning an additional distribution center in Mexico to allow us to service a growing store base in that country.

在 2022 財年的剩餘時間裡，我們將推出一些非常令人興奮的舉措。我們專注於進一步增加份額，但一如既往，這樣做是在非常有利可圖的基礎上。在 2024 財年，我們計劃在加利福尼亞開設一個新的配送中心，以推動我們國內業務的持續增長。我們最近剛剛宣佈在弗吉尼亞州建立一個新的配送中心，我們現在正計劃在墨西哥建立一個額外的配送中心，以便我們為該國不斷增長的商店基地提供服務。

This is a meaningful acceleration in our historic investments in distribution centers as during the pandemic, we have learned we need to have a bit more excess capacity in our supply chain. We're also targeting to open 14 more new domestic Mega-Hubs in the U.S. that will enhance our availability and support growth in our retail and commercial businesses. As we've mentioned many times before, our Mega-Hub strategy is at the core of materially improving our inventory availability. This strategy is expected to help us drive both commercial and retail sales for many, many years to come. We also will be leveraging our Hub and Mega-Hub strategy further in Mexico.

這是我們對配送中心歷史性投資的一次有意義的加速，因為在大流行期間，我們了解到我們需要在供應鏈中擁有更多的過剩產能。我們還計劃在美國再開設 14 個新的國內大型中心，這將提高我們的可用性並支持我們零售和商業業務的增長。正如我們之前多次提到的，我們的 Mega-Hub 戰略是實質性提高庫存可用性的核心。預計這一戰略將幫助我們在未來許多年推動商業和零售銷售。我們還將在墨西哥進一步利用我們的 Hub 和 Mega-Hub 戰略。

For the fiscal year, we expect to open more than 200 new stores throughout the Americas with notable acceleration in Brazil. These capacity expansion investments reflect our bullishness on our industry, and in particular, our own growth prospects. We're being disciplined, yet we're being aggressive.

在本財年，我們預計將在整個美洲開設 200 多家新店，並在巴西顯著加速。這些產能擴張投資反映了我們看好我們的行業，特別是我們自己的增長前景。我們受到紀律處分，但我們正在積極進取。

I also want to reiterate how proud I am of our AutoZoners across the stores and distribution centers, in particular, for their commitment to servicing our customers and doing so in a very safe manner. First and foremost, our focus will be on keeping our AutoZoners and customers safe while providing our customers with their automotive needs. And secondly, we must continuously challenge ourselves during these extraordinary times to position our company for even greater future success. We know that investors will ultimately measure us by what our future cash flows look like 3 to 5 years from now, and we very much, very much welcome that challenge. I continue to be bullish on our industry, and in particular, on AutoZone and AutoZoners.

我還想重申我為我們在商店和配送中心的 AutoZoners 感到多麼自豪，特別是他們致力於為我們的客戶提供服務並以非常安全的方式這樣做。首先，我們的重點將是確保我們的 AutoZoners 和客戶的安全，同時為我們的客戶提供他們的汽車需求。其次，我們必須在這個非常時期不斷挑戰自我，為我們的公司在未來取得更大的成功做好準備。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，我們非常非常歡迎這一挑戰。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.

現在我們想打開提問的電話。

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

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

On the Americas expansion, sort of thinking longer term, how do you see the potential size of Mexico and Brazil on a 3- to 5- or maybe even longer-term basis?

關於美洲的擴張，從長遠來看，你如何看待墨西哥和巴西的潛在規模在 3 到 5 甚至更長期的基礎上？

Sure. So we haven't given specific numbers, Bret, but what we have said repeatedly is in both the United States and Mexico, we believe we can continue to grow at the current kinds of levels for the foreseeable future. So in the U.S., that's 150, 170 stores. Mexico, it's 40 to 50 stores. We believe we can do that for the foreseeable future, so it's going to be much, much larger than it is today.

當然。所以我們沒有給出具體的數字，布雷特，但我們反复說的是在美國和墨西哥，我們相信在可預見的未來我們可以繼續以目前的水平增長。所以在美國，有 150、170 家商店。墨西哥，有 40 到 50 家商店。我們相信我們可以在可預見的未來做到這一點，所以它會比現在大得多。

As far as Brazil is concerned, we're just getting started. You all know we've been down there for over 9 years now, and we were very methodical and very thoughtful and careful about making sure that this model worked for us. Just about a year ago, we presented to our Board that we felt like Brazil was now at the stage where we're comfortable the model works. We knew it worked for the customers. We are now comfortable it works for us financially, and we will be stemming out and growing much faster in Brazil. I believe, over the long term, Brazil will end up being larger than Mexico for AutoZone. But with 50-some-odd stores, it's a long way to go.

就巴西而言，我們才剛剛開始。你們都知道我們已經在那里工作了 9 年多了，我們非常有條不紊、非常周到、小心翼翼地確保這個模型對我們有用。就在大約一年前，我們向董事會表示，我們覺得巴西現在處於我們對模型工作感到滿意的階段。我們知道它對客戶有用。我們現在對它在財務上對我們有用，我們將在巴西站出來並以更快的速度發展。我相信，從長遠來看，巴西的 AutoZone 最終將超過墨西哥。但對於 50 多家商店來說，還有很長的路要走。

Okay. Great. And then I guess, you called out share gains, obviously, and it's quantified your DIY at 3 points. Could you give us any more color on the commercial side of the business? And within the share gains, have you seen any either any meaningful contribution, national versus independent, recently?

好的。偉大的。然後我猜，很明顯，你提到了股票收益，它把你的 DIY 量化為 3 點。你能給我們更多關於商業方面的色彩嗎？在股票收益中，你最近有沒有看到任何有意義的貢獻，國家的還是獨立的？

Bret, I wish I could. We just don't have -- in the DIY business, we have very specific data. We have POS data for all front-of-store items, so it's crystal clear and we are comfortable sharing that with you. And that's where we said during the height of the pandemic, we gained over 3%, which was 10% growth in share. Never seen that before personally. And we suspect that we would give some of that back up as the economy reopened. We have not. In fact, we continued to grow marginal amounts of share on top of that, which we've been very, very pleased with.

布雷特，我希望我能。我們只是沒有——在 DIY 業務中，我們有非常具體的數據。我們擁有所有店面商品的 POS 數據，因此非常清晰，我們很樂意與您分享。這就是我們在大流行高峰期間所說的，我們獲得了超過 3% 的份額，即 10% 的份額增長。以前從未親眼見過。我們懷疑隨著經濟的重新開放，我們會提供一些支持。我們還沒有。事實上，除此之外，我們繼續增加邊際份額，我們對此非常非常滿意。

On the commercial side of the business, we don't have a tool that gives us the direct insight. But when we look at it at the rates that we're growing, I think 46% on a 2-year basis, we are quite comfortable that we're growing share exponentially many times what the industry is growing. But we don't have specifics, and so we can't tell you this is how we're doing against this sector or that sector.

在業務的商業方面，我們沒有一個工具可以給我們直接的洞察力。但是，當我們以我們正在增長的速度來看待它時，我認為在 2 年的基礎上達到 46%，我們很滿意我們的份額呈指數增長，是行業增長的許多倍。但是我們沒有具體細節，所以我們不能告訴你這就是我們針對這個或那個部門的做法。

Do you have a feeling whether it's -- is national account or up and down the street business stronger than the other? Or are they both sort of comparable growth rates?

您是否有一種感覺——國民賬戶或街頭業務是否比另一個更強大？或者它們都是可比的增長率？

They're very comparable growth rates right now. That changes over times during the depths of the pandemic. The nationals weren't growing as fast as the up and down the street. I think that's changed now. They're both growing at really high rates. I think Jamere even mentioned like 32% for both sectors during the quarter. So we're really, really pleased. We've really developed some very nice relationships with our national account partners. And we have a specific program for our up and down the street that we call ProVantage, and both of those sectors are really, really doing well.

它們現在的增長率非常相似。在大流行最嚴重的時期，這種情況會隨著時間而變化。國民的增長速度沒有街道上下的那麼快。我認為現在已經改變了。他們都以非常高的速度增長。我認為 Jamere 在本季度甚至提到了這兩個行業的 32%。所以我們真的，真的很高興。我們確實與我們的國民賬戶合作夥伴建立了一些非常好的關係。我們有一個專門的項目，我們稱之為 ProVantage，這兩個部門都做得非常非常好。

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

您的下一個問題來自富國銀行的 Zach Fadem。

So for your Do-It-For-Me customers, can you talk a bit about your historical price gap versus your peers, as well as WDs, and how that's been trending over the last couple of years? And as you think about the drivers of sales for national, regional and local accounts, where do you think the biggest drivers of share is today across price, availability or simply the fact that you're now able to serve certain customers that you historically weren't able to serve?

因此，對於您的 Do-It-For-Me 客戶，您能否談談您與同行以及 WD 的歷史價格差距，以及過去幾年的趨勢如何？當您考慮國家、地區和本地客戶的銷售驅動因素時，您認為當今最大的份額驅動因素是價格、可用性，還是僅僅因為您現在能夠為過去沒有的某些客戶提供服務這一事實不能服務？

Yes, I'll start. I think that there's a misnomer by many that our pricing strategies are at the core of our growth. They are an element, not the element of our growth. What we did about 4 years ago is we embarked on a new strategy in commercial, and we looked at all elements of our offering. We changed the assortment methodology in every store in the United States. Every store has a different product assortment that leans further into the commercial business today than it did 4 years ago.

是的，我會開始的。我認為許多人誤稱我們的定價策略是我們增長的核心。它們是一個元素，而不是我們成長的元素。大約 4 年前我們所做的是我們開始了一項新的商業戰略，我們研究了我們產品的所有元素。我們改變了美國每家商店的分類方法。每家商店都有不同的產品分類，與 4 年前相比，如今這些產品更傾向於商業業務。

We also said how we're going to get significant increase in local market availability, and we came up with this concept called a Mega-Hub store. We've now had over 60 Mega-Hubs. We've said publicly we're going to have at least 110. I think Jamere and I both feel like it's going to be closer to 200 than it will be 100 and maybe even more than that as we're testing -- one of the things about the Mega-Hubs, every time we measure them, they do better than our projections, period, every single time. So we've done these Mega-Hub improvements.

我們還談到了我們將如何顯著提高當地市場的可用性，並且我們提出了這個稱為 Mega-Hub 商店的概念。我們現在擁有超過 60 個 Mega-Hub。我們已經公開表示我們將至少擁有 110 個。我認為 Jamere 和我都覺得它會接近 200 個而不是 100 個，甚至可能比我們正在測試的更多——其中之一關於 Mega-Hubs 的事情，每次我們測量它們時，它們都比我們的預測、週期、每一次都做得更好。所以我們已經完成了這些 Mega-Hub 的改進。

We've taken our sales for, which was relatively immature and frankly brand new, a decade ago. And as they mature and develop tenure, they're getting more professional, better at doing their sales techniques. We've deployed those single largest technology endeavor of the company's history in the commercial business. We've enhanced how we interact with our customers digitally. We've also rolled out handheld devices to all stores and all drivers so that when they're picking the products, we make sure we've got the right products. When we deliver the products, we can understand delivery times. We're driving our delivery times down about 15% so far, and that's nowhere near our goal. So we're improving our service on that front.

十年前，我們的銷售額相對不成熟，坦率地說是全新的。隨著他們的成熟和任期的發展，他們變得更加專業，更擅長銷售技巧。我們已經在商業業務中部署了公司歷史上最大的技術努力。我們改進了與客戶進行數字化互動的方式。我們還向所有商店和所有司機推出了手持設備，以便在他們挑選產品時，我們確保我們得到了正確的產品。當我們交付產品時，我們可以了解交付時間。到目前為止，我們正在將交貨時間縮短約 15%，而這與我們的目標相去甚遠。因此，我們正在改善這方面的服務。

The Duralast brand continues to be become stronger and stronger across the board and really excited about that. And then we've lowered our price gaps. We didn't -- we don't have the same level of transparency in the commercial business that we have in retail. Everybody can see everybody's retails prices every day. In the commercial business, we're going to have different pricing philosophies with certain of our national account customers, and then up and down the street customers that penetrate this category are going to be priced different from somebody else. So you don't have the level of transparency.

Duralast 品牌繼續變得越來越強大，對此感到非常興奮。然後我們降低了價格差距。我們沒有——我們在商業業務中沒有與零售業相同的透明度。每個人每天都能看到每個人的零售價格。在商業業務中，我們將與我們的某些國民賬戶客戶有不同的定價理念，然後滲透到這一類別的街頭客戶的定價將與其他人不同。所以你沒有透明度。

We talked about it at length about a year ago that we were focused on making sure that our total value proposition, including price, was a strong value proposition versus a different set of competitors called the warehouse distributors. And we cut, as I said in the prepared remarks, our gap versus them. We've always been premium priced to them because our service offering is premium priced. Then we cut the gap after about a year of testing, so we knew it worked. We cut the gap by about half, so call it 15% to 8%-ish, 8.5-ish kind of percent. And we've been extraordinarily pleased with how that has worked over time.

大約一年前，我們詳細討論了它，我們專注於確保我們的總價值主張，包括價格，是一個強大的價值主張，而不是一組不同的競爭對手，稱為倉庫分銷商。正如我在準備好的評論中所說，我們縮小了我們與他們的差距。我們一直對他們高價，因為我們的服務價格高。然後我們在大約一年的測試後縮小了差距，所以我們知道它有效。我們將差距縮小了大約一半，所以稱之為 15% 到 8% 左右，8.5 左右的百分比。隨著時間的推移，我們對它的運作方式感到非常滿意。

Zach, did I answer all your questions? You had a few of them embedded in there.

扎克，我回答了你所有的問題嗎？您將其中一些嵌入其中。

Yes. No, no. So that was great. I just wanted to follow up on just your expectations for industry growth as a whole in 2022. How are you thinking about DIY versus Do-It-For-Me in terms of volume versus price inflation? And I presume you still see room to build on the 3 points of market share that you've taken since the pandemic.

是的。不，不。所以那太好了。我只是想跟進您對 2022 年整個行業增長的預期。您如何看待 DIY 與 Do-It-For-Me 在數量與價格通脹方面的關係？而且我認為你仍然看到在大流行以來你所佔據的 3 個市場份額的基礎上繼續發展的空間。

Yes. I would say a few things. One, if you look at our results specifically, there are really 4 dynamics. The first is, to a certain extent, inflation has been our friend. It's helped us drive higher pricing, and the volumes are actually holding. And if you look at where we've seen pricing grow, I mean, we're up mid-single digits in retails for the first half. And quite frankly, if we see that same level of inflation in the back half, which is reasonable, then you could expect us to take pricing up in a similar dynamic.

是的。我想說幾句。一，如果你具體看我們的結果，真的有4個動態。首先，在一定程度上，通貨膨脹一直是我們的朋友。它幫助我們推動了更高的定價，並且銷量實際上保持不變。如果你看看我們看到價格增長的地方，我的意思是，我們上半年的零售額增長了中個位數。坦率地說，如果我們在後半部分看到同樣水平的通脹，這是合理的，那麼你可以預期我們會以類似的動態定價。

The share gains we've talked about are driving our business. We're up nearly 3 points versus pre-pandemic. We've hung on to those share gains. And the growth initiatives that Bill talked about, both in DIY and commercial, are giving us a lot of confidence that we'll maintain those shares as we go forward.

我們談到的股票收益正在推動我們的業務。與大流行前相比，我們上漲了近 3 個百分點。我們一直堅持這些股票收益。比爾談到的 DIY 和商業增長計劃讓我們充滿信心，相信我們會在前進的過程中保持這些份額。

And then the last dynamic for us that we've talked at length about is this macro strength that we're seeing. It's -- I mean, you have an aging and growing car part. You have used car prices that are up 60% versus pre-pandemic, and you're seeing many new cars that are actually selling higher than the sticker prices. And if you look at the used car price dynamic, just in general, I mean, those higher residual values are actually encouraging our customers to invest in maintaining their vehicles because they're comfortable that the value is actually holding.

然後我們詳細討論的最後一個動態是我們看到的這種宏觀力量。這是 - 我的意思是，你有一個老化和不斷增長的汽車部件。與大流行前相比，您使用的汽車價格上漲了 60%，並且您看到許多新車的實際售價高於標價。如果您查看二手車價格動態，我的意思是，總的來說，那些較高的剩餘價值實際上是在鼓勵我們的客戶投資維護他們的車輛，因為他們對實際持有的價值感到滿意。

So when you mix all of those things together, it suggests that the industry as a whole is not going back to pre-pandemic sales levels. And while we won't be date-certain about when you'll see comps move one direction or the other, what we'll say is that the fundamentals are strong. We don't expect to return to the levels that we saw prior to coming into the pandemic. So our growth dynamics and the industry backdrop gives us a lot of confidence about the future.

因此，當您將所有這些因素混合在一起時，這表明整個行業不會回到大流行前的銷售水平。雖然我們不能確定你何時會看到組合向一個方向或另一個方向移動，但我們要說的是基本面是強大的。我們預計不會恢復到大流行之前的水平。因此，我們的增長動力和行業背景使我們對未來充滿信心。

Your next question is coming from Brian Nagel from Oppenheimer.

您的下一個問題來自 Oppenheimer 的 Brian Nagel。

Nice quarter. Congratulations.

漂亮的季度。恭喜。

Thank you.

謝謝你。

Thanks, Brian.

謝謝，布賴恩。

I guess I have 2 questions. I'll kind of merge them together. I mean, so first off, Bill, in your opening comments, you talked about just the strength in the business. Is there anything -- as you look at the acceleration in sales from fiscal Q1 into fiscal Q2, is there anything specific to point to? I mean, is inflation, your ability to pass along those inflationary prices, so to say, a factor there?

我想我有2個問題。我會把它們合併在一起。我的意思是，首先，比爾，在你的開場白中，你只談到了企業的實力。有什麼 - 當你看到從第一財季到第二財季的銷售加速時，有什麼具體要指出的嗎？我的意思是，通貨膨脹，你傳遞這些通貨膨脹價格的能力，也就是說，是一個因素嗎？

And then my second question is just on the gas price front. I mean, I know you're not -- AutoZone does not provide guidance, but what we are seeing here is gas prices are again climbing due to, I guess, issues in the United States and now probably, more importantly, geopolitical issues. Do these higher gas prices concern you at all in terms of sales and the kind of the health of your consumer?

然後我的第二個問題是關於汽油價格的。我的意思是，我知道你不是——AutoZone 不提供指導，但我們在這裡看到的是汽油價格再次攀升，我猜是由於美國的問題，現在可能更重要的是地緣政治問題。就銷售和消費者的健康狀況而言，這些較高的汽油價格是否讓您擔心？

Yes. So 2 great points, Brian. First of all, what changed versus Q1 and Q2, there's a lot of different things that changed. I think our -- we're going to hang our head a lot on our execution and our team's execution. But clearly, this inflation has a lagging effect, and we had more inflation in our sales growth in Q2 than we did in Q1, not material but maybe a point or so. So that is an element of our acceleration, and we didn't accelerate that much. I think we accelerated 2 or 3 points on a 2-year basis.

是的。所以 2 點很好，布賴恩。首先，與第一季度和第二季度相比發生了什麼變化，有很多不同的事情發生了變化。我認為我們的 - 我們將在我們的執行和我們團隊的執行上低頭。但很明顯，這種通貨膨脹具有滯後效應，我們在第二季度的銷售增長中的通貨膨脹比第一季度的要高，不是實質性的，但可能是一個點左右。所以這是我們加速的一個因素，我們沒有加速那麼多。我認為我們在 2 年的基礎上加快了 2 或 3 個點。

Then as far as gas prices, as you know, you've followed this industry for a long, long time. Gas prices fluctuate, and they fluctuated very significantly during my tenure here. What we've said historically is that there's not a ton of correlation between gas prices and our business until it hits a magic point. And historically, and I don't know what that magic point will be now because it's been a long time since we hit it. But historically, when it hit $4 a gallon, it seemed to impact miles driven, and you could almost see a direct correlation once it hit that $4 a gallon in miles driven. We don't know if that will hold true if it gets to $4 a gallon again.

然後就汽油價格而言，如您所知，您已經關注這個行業很長時間了。天然氣價格波動，在我任職期間波動非常大。我們在歷史上所說的是，汽油價格與我們的業務之間沒有太大的相關性，直到它達到一個神奇的點。從歷史上看，我不知道那個神奇的點現在會是什麼，因為我們已經很久沒有達到它了。但從歷史上看，當它達到每加侖 4 美元時，它似乎會影響行駛里程，一旦它達到每加侖 4 美元的行駛里程，你幾乎可以看到直接相關性。我們不知道如果它再次達到每加侖 4 美元，這是否會成立。

But for us, it goes up and it goes down. There's nothing we change in our business as a result of gas prices. So sometimes we're going to have industry tailwinds like we've had. Sometimes, we're going to have industry headwinds. We need to just manage this business through both environments and make sure that we optimize our performance based upon the macro environment.

但對我們來說，它上升，它下降。由於汽油價格，我們的業務沒有任何改變。所以有時我們會像以前一樣遇到行業順風。有時，我們會遇到行業逆風。我們需要通過這兩種環境來管理這項業務，並確保我們根據宏觀環境優化我們的績效。

That's very helpful. Congratulations again.

這很有幫助。再次祝賀。

Thank you.

謝謝你。

Your next question is coming from Christopher Horvers from JPMorgan.

您的下一個問題來自摩根大通的 Christopher Horvers。

It's Christian Carlino on for Chris. Could you just help us lay out some of the drivers of the inflation, whether that be product or supply chain costs, and how you're thinking about that going ahead this year? I'm understanding you're not giving guidance. And do you expect it to be a potential lift to sales in the second half of calendar 2022?

克里斯是克里斯蒂安·卡利諾（Christian Carlino）。您能否幫助我們列出一些通貨膨脹的驅動因素，無論是產品成本還是供應鏈成本，以及您如何看待今年的未來？我理解你沒有提供指導。您是否認為這會在 2022 年下半年潛在地提振銷售？

Yes. As we mentioned before, I mean, we are seeing cost inflation in certain categories. We're also seeing higher transportation costs. We're seeing higher labor costs across the board. But I think the important point is that the industry pricing has remained rational, and we are pricing like our competitors to recover inflationary impacts, just as we've done in the past.

是的。正如我們之前提到的，我的意思是，我們看到某些類別的成本膨脹。我們還看到更高的運輸成本。我們看到全面上漲的勞動力成本。但我認為重要的一點是行業定價保持理性，我們像競爭對手一樣定價以恢復通脹影響，就像我們過去所做的那樣。

And if you look at the history of this industry, it's been very disciplined about passing along inflation. And typically, what we see is that the demand doesn't fall off, just given the essential nature of the goods that we're providing. We've raised retail prices in line with inflation. As we mentioned, it's been mid-single digits. We expect that you could see similar dynamics in the back half of the year, and we'll be disciplined to raise prices accordingly.

如果你看看這個行業的歷史，它在傳遞通貨膨脹方面非常自律。通常，我們看到的是需求並沒有下降，只是考慮到我們提供的商品的基本性質。我們已經根據通貨膨脹提高了零售價格。正如我們所提到的，它是中個位數。我們預計您會在今年下半年看到類似的動態，我們將自律相應地提高價格。

The other dynamics as it relates to this is that we're seeing broad-based inflation. It isn't just in our industry. But if you look at transportation, you look at labor, you look at wage rates, there's another side of the coin, which is our customers are benefiting from higher wage rates, and particularly that lower-end customer is benefiting from higher wage rates. And that, quite frankly, has provided a little bit of a safety net, probably more so than in the past. And we're filling that inflation, even in our own business.

與此相關的另一個動態是我們正在看到基礎廣泛的通貨膨脹。這不僅僅是在我們的行業。但是如果你看看交通，你看看勞動力，你看看工資率，硬幣的另一面，我們的客戶正在從更高的工資率中受益，特別是低端客戶正在從更高的工資率中受益。坦率地說，這提供了一點安全網，可能比過去更多。我們正在填補通貨膨脹，即使是在我們自己的業務中。

If I think about what we're seeing in terms of wage inflation, it's probably -- on a percentage basis, it goes up maybe low single digits every year. We're probably seeing inflation 2x that. As we look to take care of our AutoZoners in an inflationary environment, our customers are seeing that.

如果我考慮一下我們在工資通脹方面看到的情況，它可能是 - 按百分比計算，它每年可能會上升一個低個位數。我們可能會看到 2 倍的通脹率。當我們希望在通貨膨脹的環境中照顧我們的 AutoZoner 時，我們的客戶也看到了這一點。

So those dynamics have made the lower-end consumer a little bit more resilient than probably they would have been in the past in an inflationary environment. So we're not seeing any wobbles at this point, but it is something that we're keeping our eye on.

因此，這些動態使低端消費者比過去在通脹環境中可能更具彈性。所以我們目前沒有看到任何波動，但這是我們一直在關注的事情。

Got it. That's really helpful color. Appreciate that. And then I guess you're clearly doing a lot to leverage technology, to improve fulfillment on the commercial side of the business. Could you speak to the opportunity to build out technology on the pricing front? Maybe through all data, are you able to -- do you have better pricing visibility across the commercial market than, say, some of your peers? How should we think about that opportunity?

知道了。這顏色真的很有幫助。感謝。然後我猜你顯然在利用技術方面做了很多工作，以提高業務商業方面的成就。您能否談談在定價方面構建技術的機會？也許通過所有數據，您是否能夠在整個商業市場上擁有比某些同行更好的定價可見性？我們應該如何看待這個機會？

One of the things I'm really excited about is the investments that we're making in technology, and you typically don't hear CFOs say that because, typically, they're only thinking about the cost side of that. But the investments that we're making in technology are really underpinning the growth strategy. And the sophisticated nature with which we're able to figure out what we're doing on the store development side, how we're using AI and machine learning to help us think about pricing and get a lot more surgical from a pricing standpoint are all things that I'm really excited about to help us drive growth and improvements in our business.

我真正興奮的一件事是我們在技術方面的投資，你通常不會聽到首席財務官這麼說，因為他們通常只考慮成本方面。但我們在技術方面的投資確實是增長戰略的基礎。並且我們能夠弄清楚我們在商店開發方面正在做什麼，我們如何使用人工智能和機器學習來幫助我們考慮定價並從定價的角度獲得更多的外科手術的複雜性質是我真的很高興能幫助我們推動業務增長和改進的所有事情。

So indeed, we are using technology to do that. It's a little bit more difficult sometimes on the commercial side of the business. But you combine that technology with the on-the-ground intelligence that we're receiving from our AutoZoners in the field, and I like our capabilities there. And it's given us a competitive advantage as we think about what we're doing from a pricing standpoint.

所以事實上，我們正在使用技術來做到這一點。有時在業務的商業方面有點困難。但是您將這項技術與我們從該領域的 AutoZoners 那裡獲得的實地情報相結合，我喜歡我們在那裡的能力。當我們從定價的角度考慮我們正在做的事情時，它給了我們競爭優勢。

Got it. Congrats on a great quarter.

知道了。祝賀一個偉大的季度。

Thank you.

謝謝你。

Thank you.

謝謝你。

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

您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 great quarter. My first question is just on product availability. Kind of how much of an advantage has been in the stock over the last 2 years? Has in stock -- does it narrow as supply chains come back? Kind of what is your outlook there?

這是西蒙的傑基·蘇斯曼。祝賀一個偉大的季度。我的第一個問題只是關於產品的可用性。在過去的 2 年中，該股票的優勢有多大？有庫存——隨著供應鏈的恢復，庫存是否會縮小？你的前景如何？

Yes. It's a fantastic question, Jackie. And frankly, we don't have really, really good data on how our in-stock position compares to our direct competitors or with retail, in general, except for walk-in stores, and which we've done a lot of over time. I'm really, really proud of the way that our supply chain team, our merchandising team and our suppliers, they've worked at unprecedented levels during this past couple of years.

是的。這是一個很棒的問題，傑基。坦率地說，我們沒有非常非常好的數據來說明我們的庫存狀況如何與我們的直接競爭對手或零售店進行比較，一般來說，除了步入式商店，我們已經做了很多隨著時間的推移.我為我們的供應鏈團隊、我們的銷售團隊和我們的供應商在過去幾年中以前所未有的水平工作的方式感到非常非常自豪。

And we've gotten very creative. Our logistics team has done an amazing job with all the challenges getting merchandise from the Far East to the United States and to our distribution centers. Our belief is we've had an improved in-stock position versus others. But our in-stock position, even today, is a couple of hundred basis points below where it is normally. And it's been a little bit of a game of whack-a-mole. We solve it in this category, then it moves into that category, then it moves into another category.

我們變得非常有創意。我們的物流團隊在將商品從遠東運到美國再到我們的配送中心的所有挑戰中做得非常出色。我們的信念是，與其他人相比，我們的庫存狀況有所改善。但即使在今天，我們的庫存頭寸仍比正常水平低幾百個基點。這有點像打地鼠遊戲。我們在這個類別中解決它，然後它移動到那個類別，然後它移動到另一個類別。

Overall, we're getting better and better and better on a weekly basis, just about. But we still got a ways to go before we get back to that level. Trying to quantify how much of that has been embedded in our share gains and sales lift, it's just -- it's too much art for us to figure that out.

總的來說，我們每週都在變得越來越好，差不多。但在回到那個水平之前，我們還有很長的路要走。試圖量化其中有多少嵌入了我們的股票收益和銷售增長中，這只是 - 我們無法弄清楚這一點。

Got you. Understood. And you talked a bit about the Duralast brand. Have you disclosed kind of Duralast penetration by product category? Which products are kind of over indexed and which are under?

得到你。明白了。您還談到了 Duralast 品牌。您是否按產品類別披露了 Duralast 的滲透率？哪些產品索引過度，哪些產品索引不足？

Yes. We haven't done it by product category. We obviously said it's over half of our hard part sales and continues to grow. We continue to introduce it in different categories or line extensions. Not too long ago, we introduced the Duralast Elite brake pad program which is doing really well. We've added Duralast Gold chassis, which has done extremely well. A couple of years ago, we added Duralast shocks and struts.

是的。我們還沒有按產品類別這樣做。我們顯然說這是我們硬零件銷售額的一半以上，並且還在繼續增長。我們繼續在不同的類別或線擴展中引入它。不久前，我們推出了 Duralast Elite 剎車片計劃，效果非常好。我們添加了 Duralast Gold 底盤，它的表現非常好。幾年前，我們添加了 Duralast 避震器和支柱。

It's interesting, we did some market research as part of our commercial strategy development about 4 years ago, and we went by in the commercial business. And we said, "What are the top 3 brands by product category?" And the Duralast brand was listed in 2 categories as the #2 brand, and we had never sold 1 piece in that category. So it just shows you the overall power of the Duralast brand. And if you turn back the clock a decade, it was interesting, people would have said we couldn't have been successful in commercial because we had private label. We don't have private label. We got the Duralast brand, and it's high-quality products that our customers continue to turn to and trust.

有趣的是，大約 4 年前，我們作為商業戰略發展的一部分進行了一些市場調查，然後我們就在商業業務中走了過去。我們說，“按產品類別劃分的前 3 大品牌是什麼？” Duralast 品牌在 2 個類別中被列為 #2 品牌，我們從未在該類別中售出一件。所以它只是向您展示了 Duralast 品牌的整體實力。如果時光倒流十年，這很有趣，人們會說我們不可能在商業上取得成功，因為我們有自有品牌。我們沒有自有品牌。我們獲得了 Duralast 品牌，這是我們的客戶繼續轉向和信任的高品質產品。

Great. Congrats on a great quarter.

偉大的。祝賀一個偉大的季度。

Thank you, Jackie.

謝謝你，傑基。

Your next question is coming from Scot Ciccarelli from Truist.

您的下一個問題來自 Truist 的 Scot Ciccarelli。

This is Jo Civello on the line for Scot. I just had a quick question. Given the success you guys have shown in the Mega-Hub strategy, do you think we could see an acceleration of these rollouts next year and going forward? And what does that look like for margins?

這是蘇格蘭人線上的喬·西韋洛。我有一個簡短的問題。鑑於你們在 Mega-Hub 戰略中所取得的成功，您認為我們會在明年和未來看到這些部署的加速嗎？利潤率如何？

Well, Jamere is in charge of store development, so I'll answer it for him. The answer is yes. Jamere, you want to add some color?

嗯，Jamere負責店面開發，我來替他解答。答案是肯定的。 Jamere，你想加點顏色嗎？

You're writing my development plan for this year and next year. Thanks. The key for us is making sure that we leverage these assets. As Bill mentioned, every time we've doubled down on our Mega-Hub strategy, it's paid dividends for us, and the Mega-Hubs are outperforming our expectations. The ability to put these assets in the market, provide a lift to the overall network benefit both our DIY and our DIFM business, has a very strong business building proposition for us, and we're going to go further and faster.

你在寫我今年和明年的發展計劃。謝謝。對我們來說，關鍵是確保我們利用這些資產。正如比爾所提到的，每次我們在 Mega-Hub 戰略上加倍努力，它都會為我們帶來紅利，而且 Mega-Hub 的表現超出了我們的預期。將這些資產投放市場的能力，為我們的 DIY 和我們的 DIFM 業務提供整體網絡收益的能力，對我們來說具有非常強大的業務建設主張，我們將走得更遠更快。

One of the things I mentioned we're testing is higher density of Mega-Hubs in a marketplace. You typically are worried about cannibalization if you get stores or assets too close from a proximity standpoint. But what we're finding is when we put more parts into those markets, and we do that in a disciplined way based on the analysis that we're doing and the research that we've done and the actual results that we're seeing, it's exceeded our expectation. Cannibalization is lower. It's a lift to the overall marketplace, and that's why we're so bullish, and that's why we're going to double down on it.

我提到我們正在測試的其中一件事是市場中更高密度的 Mega-Hub。如果從鄰近的角度來看，如果商店或資產離得太近，您通常會擔心會被蠶食。但是我們發現，當我們將更多零件投入這些市場時，我們會根據我們正在做的分析、我們所做的研究以及我們看到的實際結果，以一種有紀律的方式做到這一點，超出了我們的預期。同類相食較低。這是對整個市場的提振，這就是我們如此看漲的原因，這就是我們要加倍努力的原因。

Thank you, Joe.

謝謝你，喬。

Before we conclude the call, I want to take a moment to reiterate. We believe our industry is in a strong position, and our business model is solid. We are excited about our growth prospects for the year, and we will take nothing for granted as we understand our customers have alternatives to shopping with us. As we continue to focus on the basics and strive to optimize shareholder value for the remainder of FY 2022, we are confident AutoZone can continue to be successful.

在結束通話之前，我想花點時間重申一下。我們相信我們的行業處於強勢地位，我們的商業模式也很穩固。我們對今年的增長前景感到興奮，我們不會認為任何事情都是理所當然的，因為我們了解我們的客戶可以選擇與我們一起購物。隨著我們繼續專注於基礎並努力在 2022 財年剩餘時間內優化股東價值，我們相信 AutoZone 可以繼續取得成功。

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

非常感謝您參加今天的電話會議。祝你有美好的一天。