BJ's Wholesale Club Holdings Inc (BJ) 2022 Q1 法說會逐字稿

Hello, everyone, and welcome to the BJ's Wholesale First Quarter 2022 Earnings Conference Call. My name is Victoria, and I will be coordinating your call today. (Operator Instructions) I'll now pass over to your host, Cathy Park, to begin. .

大家好，歡迎來到 BJ 的 2022 年第一季度批發收益電話會議。我的名字是維多利亞，今天我將協調你的電話。 （操作員說明）我現在請您的主人 Cathy Park 開始。 .

Good morning, and thank you all for joining BJ's Wholesale Club's First Quarter Fiscal 2022 Earnings Conference Call. Bob Eddy, (inaudible) and Chief Executive Officer; Laura Felise, Chief Financial Officer; and Bill Werner, Executive Vice President, Strategy and Development, are on the call.

早上好，感謝大家參加 BJ 批發俱樂部 2022 財年第一季度收益電話會議。 Bob Eddy，（聽不清）兼首席執行官； Laura Felise，首席財務官；戰略與發展執行副總裁比爾·沃納（Bill Werner）隨時待命。

Please remember that during this call, we may make forward-looking statements within the meaning of the federal securities laws. These statements are based on our current expectations and involve risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from our expectations described on this call. Please see the Risk Factors sections of our most recent Form 10-K and Form 10-Q filed with the SEC for a description of those risks and uncertainties.

請記住，在本次電話會議期間，我們可能會做出聯邦證券法含義內的前瞻性陳述。這些陳述基於我們當前的預期，涉及風險和不確定性，可能導致實際結果與我們在本次電話會議中描述的預期存在重大差異。請參閱我們最近向 SEC 提交的 10-K 表和 10-Q 表的風險因素部分，了解這些風險和不確定性的描述。

Finally, please note that, on today's call, we will refer to certain non-GAAP financial measures that we believe will provide useful information for investors. The presentation of this information is not intended to be considered in isolation or as a substitute for the financial information presented in accordance with GAAP. Please refer to today's press release posted on the Investors section of our website for a reconciliation of these non-GAAP financial measures to the most comparable measures prepared in accordance with GAAP. With that, I'll turn the call over to Bob.

最後，請注意，在今天的電話會議中，我們將參考某些非公認會計準則財務指標，我們認為這些指標將為投資者提供有用的信息。此信息的呈現不應孤立地考慮或替代根據公認會計原則呈現的財務信息。請參閱今天發佈在我們網站投資者部分的新聞稿，以了解這些非公認會計原則財務措施與根據公認會計原則編制的最具可比性的措施的對賬。有了這個，我會把電話轉給鮑勃。

Good morning. Thank you for joining us today. In the first quarter, we continued to build on the transformational gains we have driven over the last 2 years. Our membership continues to get stronger, achieving new all-time records in key membership metrics, including eclipsing 6.5 million members in the first quarter. Our digital business remains a key competitive advantage. We are quickly expanding our footprint, opening 3 clubs already this year. Our recent acquisition of our perishable distribution network from Burris Logistics will support our future growth efforts. And with this environment of high inflation and waning government stimulus stretching consumer wallets, value is becoming a necessity in purchasing decisions being made today. As a result, the club channel remains more relevant than ever and we are delivering more value to our members while executing on our key initiatives to drive membership lifetime value.

早上好。感謝您今天加入我們。在第一季度，我們繼續在過去 2 年推動的轉型收益的基礎上再接再厲。我們的會員人數不斷壯大，在關鍵會員指標上創下歷史新高，包括在第一季度超過 650 萬會員。我們的數字業務仍然是一個關鍵的競爭優勢。我們正在迅速擴大我們的足跡，今年已經開設了 3 個俱樂部。我們最近從 Burris Logistics 收購了易腐爛的分銷網絡，這將支持我們未來的增長努力。在這種高通脹和政府刺激措施減弱的環境下，消費者的錢包捉襟見肘，價值正成為當今購買決策的必要條件。因此，俱樂部渠道比以往任何時候都更加重要，我們正在為會員提供更多價值，同時執行我們推動會員終生價值的關鍵舉措。

Our performance in the first quarter was strong as we navigated what is already shaping up to be another dynamic year here in 2022. Our first quarter comp sales were up over 4%. Adjusted EBITDA grew 9% to $221 million, and adjusted EPS grew 21% to $0.87. Our comps were driven by significant gains in traffic and market share, and our sales were led by our grocery and perishable categories.

我們在第一季度的表現非常強勁，因為我們在 2022 年已經成為另一個充滿活力的一年。我們第一季度的銷售額增長了 4% 以上。調整後 EBITDA 增長 9% 至 2.21 億美元，調整後每股收益增長 21% 至 0.87 美元。我們的業績是由流量和市場份額的顯著增長推動的，我們的銷售額由我們的雜貨和易腐品類別引領。

The current consumer environment in the gasoline business drove continued increases in comp gallons, up 23% versus last year and up 51% on a 2-year stack basis. This dramatic increase in market share and the rapidly increasing price of gasoline during the first quarter drove traffic into our clubs as members continue to recognize the value of their BJ's membership.

汽油行業當前的消費環境推動了補償加侖的持續增長，與去年相比增長了 23%，在 2 年堆棧的基礎上增長了 51%。第一季度市場份額的急劇增長和汽油價格的迅速上漲推動了我們俱樂部的客流量，因為會員繼續認識到 BJ 會員資格的價值。

We made further progress in the first quarter on our strategic priorities, which are: growing and retaining members; delivering value; improving convenience with digital; and expanding our footprint. Let me briefly touch on each.

我們在第一季度在我們的戰略重點方面取得了進一步的進展，即：增長和留住成員；傳遞價值；通過數字提高便利性；並擴大我們的足跡。讓我簡要談談每一個。

Our membership stats are as strong as I've seen in my history with the company. In the first quarter, our member count grew 5% year-over-year, reaching 6.5 million members. We achieved this milestone earlier than expected driven by a combination of strong renewals as well as membership acquisition related to new club growth.

我們的會員統計數據與我在公司的歷史中所見的一樣強大。第一季度，我們的會員數量同比增長 5%，達到 650 萬會員。我們比預期更早地實現了這一里程碑，這得益於強勁的續約以及與新俱樂部增長相關的會員獲取。

In terms of membership quality, we made great progress here as well. Easy renewal enrollment was just shy of 76% compared to roughly 72% in the prior year quarter. Higher tier membership penetration grew to 36% in the first quarter, representing a 4-point improvement from the first quarter of last year. Higher tier members are more valuable to BJ's given higher spending and loyalty. Therefore, as the penetration of these members increases the quality of our membership improves meaningfully.

在會員質量方面，我們在這裡也取得了很大的進步。與去年同期的約 72% 相比，輕鬆續訂註冊率僅略低於 76%。第一季度高級會員滲透率增長至 36%，比去年第一季度提高了 4 個百分點。鑑於更高的消費和忠誠度，更高級別的成員對 BJ 更有價值。因此，隨著這些會員的滲透率提高，我們的會員質量顯著提高。

Not only are we driving growth in membership count and quality but in MFI per member as well. In fact, in the first quarter, our average MFI dollars per member crossed the $60 mark for the first time in the company's history, up 5% from last year. We're also taking meaningful strides toward achieving our targeted 90% tenured renewal rate, having hit a record 89% last year.

我們不僅推動了會員數量和質量的增長，還推動了每位會員的 MFI。事實上，在第一季度，我們每位成員的平均 MFI 美元在公司歷史上首次突破 60 美元大關，比去年增長了 5%。我們也在朝著實現 90% 的目標續訂率邁出有意義的步伐，去年達到了創紀錄的 89%。

Within the membership cohorts that we track, we see encouraging shopping behavior. Trips are increasing, and while we see some pressure on the lower end of the economic spectrum, that is more than offset by gains at the higher end as those members increasingly search for value. We will invest to continue delivering value in order to foster long-term growth. The gains in membership count, quality and rates over the past quarters and years will power us into the future.

在我們跟踪的會員群組中，我們看到了令人鼓舞的購物行為。旅行正在增加，雖然我們看到經濟頻譜的低端存在一些壓力，但隨著這些成員越來越多地尋求價值，這遠遠被高端的收益所抵消。我們將投資以繼續提供價值，以促進長期增長。在過去的幾個季度和幾年中，會員數量、質量和費率的增長將推動我們走向未來。

One of the many benefits of our membership model is that it allows us to truly focus on delivering unbeatable value to our members. Earlier this month, we closed on our acquisition of our perishable supply chain from Burris Logistics. I mentioned last quarter that our fresh foods are a major reason why our members shop at our clubs. Having full control over our perishable food supply chain will allow us to provide more value through network efficiencies and also opens the door to long-term growth of the business. There's a lot we can do here to elevate our fresh offering over the long run. But in the meantime, we are thrilled to welcome the over 800 new team members to our BJ's family.

我們會員模式的眾多好處之一是它使我們能夠真正專注於為我們的會員提供無與倫比的價值。本月早些時候，我們完成了從 Burris Logistics 收購易腐供應鏈的交易。我在上個季度提到，我們的新鮮食品是我們的會員在俱樂部購物的主要原因。完全控制我們易腐爛的食品供應鏈將使我們能夠通過網絡效率提供更多價值，並為業務的長期增長打開大門。從長遠來看，我們可以在這裡做很多事情來提升我們的新鮮產品。但與此同時，我們很高興歡迎 800 多名新團隊成員加入我們 BJ 的大家庭。

Improving our merchandising is a crucial element to providing great member experience, and the key is having the right talent. Over the past year, we have been very deliberate and focused on building a best-in-class merchandising team by promoting our star merchants from within as well as recruiting the best talent externally. In addition to Rachael Vegas, our Chief Merchant, we now have 2 incredibly talented individuals heading up our own brands and B2B initiatives. We also hired a fantastic new Head of General Merchandise. Growth in our general merchandise business is at the top of our list of merchandising improvements to come.

改善我們的銷售是提供出色會員體驗的關鍵因素，關鍵是擁有合適的人才。在過去的一年裡，我們非常慎重，專注於通過內部提拔我們的明星商家以及外部招聘最優秀的人才來打造一流的營銷團隊。除了我們的首席商人 Rachael Vegas，我們現在還有 2 位才華橫溢的人領導我們自己的品牌和 B2B 計劃。我們還聘請了一位出色的新一般商品主管。我們日用商品業務的增長是我們即將進行的商品銷售改進的首要任務。

The transformation of this company over the last handful of years can be directly linked to attracting and retaining the best talent. Continuing those improvements is my first priority. With respect to our assortment improvement initiatives, we continue to make progress on our sundry simplification work in the first quarter. Our clubs typically carry more SKUs than our warehouse from peers yet compete in fewer categories, thus eroding our members' ability to efficiently shop our clubs. We're looking to change that by reducing SKUs in categories where we feel there is unnecessary choice and introducing new categories or increasing SKUs in categories where we feel there is too little choice. The simplified categories performed well in the first quarter and are much easier to shop and serve us.

這家公司在過去幾年的轉型與吸引和留住最優秀的人才直接相關。繼續這些改進是我的首要任務。關於我們的品類改進計劃，我們在第一季度的各項簡化工作上繼續取得進展。我們的俱樂部通常比我們的同業倉庫擁有更多的 SKU，但競爭的類別卻更少，從而削弱了我們的會員有效購買我們俱樂部的能力。我們希望通過減少我們認為沒有必要選擇的類別中的 SKU 並引入新類別或增加我們認為選擇太少的類別中的 SKU 來改變這種情況。簡化類別在第一季度表現良好，並且更容易購物和為我們服務。

As you know, one of our ongoing initiatives is increasing the penetration of our own brands, Wellsley Farms and Berkley Jensen. We continue to gain traction in the first quarter with own brands penetration up 200 basis points to an all-time high of 24%. I can't think of a better time that in these economic circumstances to lean into our own brands, showcasing value and deepening member loyalty.

如您所知，我們正在進行的一項舉措是提高我們自有品牌 Wellsley Farms 和 Berkley Jensen 的滲透率。我們在第一季度繼續獲得牽引力，自有品牌滲透率上升 200 個基點，達到 24% 的歷史新高。在這樣的經濟環境下，我想不出比這更好的時機來依靠我們自己的品牌，展示價值並加深會員忠誠度。

A recent example of success here is our new Wellsley Farms Wellefarm single-cup coffee pods, which we introduced in March. Based on an understanding of our members' needs and extensive benchmarking of competitive offerings, we invested in a better quality product and deliver savings for our members, bringing our price per cup down by 20% and giving our members more than 40% savings per comp against branded competitors. 8 weeks in, we're already seeing strong sales and repeat rate. This is just one example of our efforts to broaden our own brand's reach.

最近一個成功的例子是我們在三月份推出的新型 Wellsley Farms Wellefarm 單杯咖啡包。基於對會員需求的了解和對競爭產品的廣泛基準測試，我們投資了更優質的產品並為我們的會員節省了費用，將我們的每杯價格降低了 20%，並為我們的會員每份飲料節省了 40% 以上對抗品牌競爭對手。 8 週後，我們已經看到強勁的銷售和重複率。這只是我們努力擴大自有品牌影響力的一個例子。

On the digital front, we are driving robust growth across all of our digital channels, particularly in BOPIC and curbside. We also continue to expand the ways in which our members conveniently shop with us. We know that digitally engaged members tend to have higher average baskets and shop with us more frequently and members who make more trips have a higher likelihood of renewing. Our growth in digitally enabled sales continues as we develop new offerings like our partnership with DoorDash and strive towards frictionless shopping. We believe that adding convenient shopping offerings to the significant value offered by the club channel is a long-term winner.

在數字方面，我們正在推動我們所有數字渠道的強勁增長，特別是在 BOPIC 和路邊。我們還將繼續擴展會員方便與我們購物的方式。我們知道，參與數字化的會員往往擁有更高的平均購物籃，並且更頻繁地與我們一起購物，而進行更多旅行的會員更有可能續訂。隨著我們開發新產品（例如與 DoorDash 的合作夥伴關係）並努力實現無摩擦購物，我們在數字化銷售方面的增長仍在繼續。我們相信，在俱樂部渠道提供的重要價值基礎上增加便捷的購物服務是長期的贏家。

We also launched same-day select in the first quarter, which offers BJ's members the ability to pay a onetime fee for either unlimited or 12 same-day grocery deliveries over a 1-year period. While it's still in the early days, we are encouraged with the adoption rates and are thrilled to see our efforts resonating with our members.

我們還在第一季度推出了當日精選，讓 BJ 的會員能夠在 1 年內為無限製或 12 次當日雜貨配送支付一次性費用。雖然仍處於早期階段，但我們對採用率感到鼓舞，並很高興看到我們的努力與我們的成員產生共鳴。

Finally, we remain on track with our real estate plans, and our confidence in our expansion strategy continues to grow with each new club opening. Year-to-date, we have opened 3 new clubs and 2 new gas stations. This includes our small box pilot, BJ's market in Warwick, Rhode Island. BJ's market is about half the size of a typical club. It will serve as a place where we can test assortments, displays, product demonstrations and convenience initiatives and then apply those lessons across the broader portfolio to strengthen our operations over time. We continue to expect to open a total of 11 new clubs this year and see a path to opening another 10 next year.

最後，我們的房地產計劃仍然步入正軌，我們對擴張戰略的信心會隨著每個新俱樂部的開業而不斷增長。年初至今，我們開設了 3 個新俱樂部和 2 個新加油站。這包括我們在羅德島州沃里克的 BJ's 市場的小型試點。 BJ 的市場大約是典型俱樂部的一半。它將作為一個地方，我們可以測試分類、展示、產品演示和便利計劃，然後將這些經驗應用到更廣泛的產品組合中，以隨著時間的推移加強我們的運營。我們繼續預計今年將開設總共 11 家新俱樂部，並看到明年再開設 10 家的道路。

I'm proud of the significant transformation we've made at this company. We are a much stronger company with a clear path for sustainable long-term growth and value creation. This is evident in our membership base, digital business and footprint expansion, and our conviction is further validated by our share repurchases executed in the first quarter.

我為我們在這家公司所做的重大轉變感到自豪。我們是一家更強大的公司，擁有清晰的可持續長期增長和價值創造道路。這在我們的會員基礎、數字業務和足跡擴張中很明顯，我們在第一季度執行的股票回購進一步證實了我們的信念。

These are turbulent economic times. Inflation is continuing, gasoline prices are high and last year's stimulus benefits are winding down. In light of all this, we have continued to invest in our value proposition. In fact, our internal competitive pricing benchmarks show our pricing positions have improved over the past few quarters. A good example is our signature rotisserie chicken, which, at $4.99, maintains industry-leading pricing despite robust inflation impacting this item. We've made similar investments in select categories such as paper and water, which we know are key member value items.

這是動蕩的經濟時代。通貨膨脹仍在繼續，汽油價格居高不下，去年的刺激措施正在逐漸減少。鑑於這一切，我們繼續投資於我們的價值主張。事實上，我們的內部競爭定價基準顯示我們的定價狀況在過去幾個季度有所改善。一個很好的例子是我們的招牌烤雞，儘管強勁的通貨膨脹影響了這個項目，但它的價格為 4.99 美元，保持行業領先的價格。我們在紙張和水等特定類別進行了類似的投資，我們知道這些是關鍵的會員價值項目。

These are the times that our business and the club industry overall was made for. When consumer wallets are pressured, they search for value. When they search for value, they come to us. We believe we are well positioned for the future.

這些是我們的業務和整個俱樂部行業應運而生的時代。當消費者的錢包受到壓力時，他們會尋找價值。當他們尋找價值時，他們會來找我們。我們相信我們已經為未來做好了準備。

Our results remain a testament to the strength of our team members and their continued dedication to the company and serving our members. To our team members who are listening in today, thank you again for all of your hard work. With that, I will turn it over to Laura to provide more details on our results and outlook for the rest of the year. Laura?

我們的結果仍然證明了我們團隊成員的實力以及他們對公司和為我們成員服務的持續奉獻。對於今天收聽的我們的團隊成員，再次感謝你們的辛勤工作。有了這個，我將把它交給勞拉，以提供更多關於我們今年剩餘時間的結果和展望的細節。勞拉？

Thank you, Bob. First, I'd like to quickly share Bob's gratitude for our team members across our clubs, distribution centers and home office. The success of our company is the result of their hard work. .

謝謝你，鮑勃。首先，我想快速分享 Bob 對我們俱樂部、配送中心和家庭辦公室的團隊成員的感激之情。我們公司的成功是他們努力的結果。 .

Now let's dig into our results. Net sales for the first quarter were $4.4 billion, a 16% increase over the prior year quarter. Merchandise comp sales, which exclude sales of gasoline, increased by over 4% and were driven by traffic growth. Our 2-year stack was negative 1%, reflecting a 3-year stack of over 26% as our business continues to settle into a higher normal base than pre-pandemic levels.

現在讓我們深入研究我們的結果。第一季度的淨銷售額為 44 億美元，比去年同期增長 16%。不包括汽油銷售的商品補償銷售額增長了 4% 以上，並受到交通增長的推動。我們的 2 年堆棧為負 1%，反映了 3 年堆棧超過 26%，因為我們的業務繼續穩定在高於大流行前水平的正常基數。

Comps in our grocery, perishable and sundries division grew by 7% in the first quarter, which equates to down approximately 3% on a 2-year stack and up nearly 30% on a 3-year stack. This division was led by continued strength in our food business and particularly in grocery, where comps were approximately 15% in the first quarter and up 3% and nearly 36% on a 2-year and 3-year stack respectively.

我們的雜貨、易腐爛和雜貨部門的 Comps 在第一季度增長了 7%，這相當於在 2 年的堆棧中下降了大約 3%，在 3 年的堆棧中增長了近 30%。該部門由我們食品業務的持續實力引領，尤其是在食品雜貨領域，第一季度的銷售額約為 15%，2 年和 3 年分別增長 3% 和近 36%。

Our general merchandise and services division comps were down 10% for the first quarter and up 22% and up 19% on a 2-year and 3-year stack respectively. as discretionary spend normalizes towards a new higher base from the past 2 years. Weather also played a role in our first quarter comp as our core Northeast markets experienced cold and rainy weather.

我們的一般商品和服務部門的收入在第一季度下降了 10%，在 2 年和 3 年的堆棧中分別增長了 22% 和 19%。隨著過去 2 年的可自由支配支出朝著新的更高基數正常化。由於我們的核心東北市場經歷了寒冷和多雨的天氣，天氣也在我們的第一季度比較中發揮了作用。

General merchandise comps in our Southeastern clubs were 3 points better than the rest of the clubs across the chain.

我們東南部俱樂部的一般商品比整個連鎖店的其他俱樂部高 3 分。

As we discussed last quarter, and Bob reiterated in his remarks today, we are experiencing the highest levels of inflation in several decades. In fact, cost inflation accelerated sequentially in each month as we progress through the first quarter. We also saw significant increases in freight costs that corresponded to the increase in the price of diesel fuel. Despite these pressures, we manage margin rate well while making investments in key items to maintain outstanding value for our members.

正如我們上個季度所討論的，鮑勃在今天的講話中重申，我們正在經歷幾十年來最高水平的通貨膨脹。事實上，隨著第一季度的進展，每個月的成本通脹都在連續加速。我們還看到與柴油價格上漲相對應的貨運成本顯著增加。儘管存在這些壓力，我們仍能很好地管理保證金率，同時對關鍵項目進行投資，為我們的會員保持卓越的價值。

Digitally enabled sales for the first quarter grew 26% year-over-year and over 400% on a 3-year stack. Approximately 80% of our digitally enabled sales are fulfilled by our clubs with services like buy online pick up in club, curbside and same-day delivery.

第一季度的數字化銷售額同比增長 26%，連續 3 年增長超過 400%。我們大約 80% 的數字化銷售由我們的俱樂部完成，提供的服務包括在線購買俱樂部取貨、路邊和當日送達。

In our gasoline business, we continue to gain significant market share as retail prices increased. Gas gallons sold at comp clubs grew by approximately 23% in the first quarter outpacing the overall market by a wide margin. This growth, combined with higher-than-normal gas margins, resulted in gas profits that significantly outperformed our internal plan.

在我們的汽油業務中，隨著零售價格的上漲，我們繼續獲得重要的市場份額。第一季度在健身俱樂部銷售的汽油加侖增長了約 23%，大大超過了整體市場。這種增長，加上高於正常水平的天然氣利潤率，導致天然氣利潤大大超過了我們的內部計劃。

Membership fee income, or MFI, grew by 12% during the first quarter to $97 million and underscores the progress we have made improving the core of our business. We saw strong growth in new members, renewals trending well, and we are thrilled with the continued success we are seeing in our membership KPIs. As Bob noted, our penetration of higher-tier memberships increased to an all-time high of 36% as we continue to improve the quality of our membership base.

會員費收入或 MFI 在第一季度增長了 12% 至 9700 萬美元，突顯了我們在改善業務核心方面取得的進展。我們看到新會員的強勁增長，續訂趨勢良好，我們對我們在會員 KPI 中看到的持續成功感到興奮。正如 Bob 所指出的，隨著我們繼續提高會員基礎的質量，我們對高級會員的滲透率增加到了 36% 的歷史新高。

Moving on to gross margins. Excluding the gasoline business, our merchandise gross margin rate decreased by 30 basis points. While we passed on a majority of inflationary cost increases, we did make tactical investments in some key items. Rate was also pressured by increasing supply chain costs during the quarter. SG&A expenses for the quarter were $635 million. The year-over-year increase was primarily attributable to increased labor costs associated with the wage investments we made last year, higher occupancy expenses and other costs incurred to drive our strategic priorities.

繼續討論毛利率。剔除汽油業務，我們的商品毛利率下降了 30 個基點。雖然我們忽略了大部分通脹成本增加，但我們確實對一些關鍵項目進行了戰術投資。本季度供應鏈成本增加也給利率帶來壓力。本季度的 SG&A 費用為 6.35 億美元。同比增長主要歸因於與我們去年進行的工資投資相關的勞動力成本增加、更高的佔用費用和其他成本，以推動我們的戰略重點。

Our first quarter adjusted EBITDA grew by 9% to $221 million, reflecting sales growth and outsized gas profits. This quarter, we incurred nearly $8 million of onetime costs related to our Burris acquisition, which we closed on May 2. These costs were adjusted for in our adjusted EBITDA metric.

我們第一季度調整後的 EBITDA 增長 9% 至 2.21 億美元，反映了銷售增長和超大的天然氣利潤。本季度，我們因收購 Burris 而產生了近 800 萬美元的一次性成本，我們於 5 月 2 日結束收購。這些成本在我們調整後的 EBITDA 指標中進行了調整。

Adjusted net income for the first quarter was $118 million or $0.87 per share and reflected a 21% year-over-year growth on a per share basis. Our 21% tax rate within the quarter included a benefit of $8.4 million tax windfall compared to $3.1 million in the first quarter last year. We anticipate the tax rate for the remainder of the year will normalize at approximately 26%.

第一季度調整後的淨收入為 1.18 億美元或每股 0.87 美元，反映每股同比增長 21%。我們本季度 21% 的稅率包括 840 萬美元的稅收意外收益，而去年第一季度為 310 萬美元。我們預計今年剩餘時間的稅率將正常化約為 26%。

Our earnings growth continues to highlight our ability to prudently manage costs throughout our P&L in a highly inflationary environment as well as the benefits of a lower share count.

我們的盈利增長繼續突顯了我們在高通脹環境下在整個損益表中謹慎管理成本的能力以及減少股票數量的好處。

Our balance sheet remains strong as we ended the quarter with less than 1 turn of net leverage as measured by our net debt to adjusted EBITDA. With respect to our inventory levels, our teams have proactively worked to stay ahead of supply chain challenges that have hampered our business last year. We have also opportunistically made the decision to buy an inventory earlier than usual partially to combat inflation heading into the second quarter. These actions, combined with the impact of cost inflation, have resulted in a year-over-year increase in our balance sheet merchandise inventory net of accounts payable of $98 million.

我們的資產負債表仍然強勁，因為我們在本季度結束時淨槓桿率不到 1 圈，以我們的淨債務與調整後的 EBITDA 衡量。關於我們的庫存水平，我們的團隊積極努力，以領先於去年阻礙我們業務的供應鏈挑戰。我們還機會主義地決定比往常更早地購買庫存，部分是為了對抗進入第二季度的通脹。這些行動，加上成本通脹的影響，導致我們的資產負債表商品庫存在扣除應付賬款後同比增加 9800 萬美元。

As we allocate capital going forward, our first priority remains growing our business. Investments to support membership, digital and our real estate growth plan will be funded by these cash flows and enabled by our strong balance sheet. We also believe that share repurchases remain a good use of excess capital and expect to continue buying back shares opportunistically. At the end of the first quarter, we had $435 million remaining under our $500 million buyback authorization.

隨著我們向前分配資金，我們的首要任務仍然是發展我們的業務。支持會員、數字和我們的房地產增長計劃的投資將由這些現金流提供資金，並由我們強大的資產負債表提供支持。我們還認為，股票回購仍然是對過剩資本的良好利用，並預計將繼續機會主義地回購股票。在第一季度末，我們在 5 億美元的回購授權下剩餘 4.35 億美元。

Let me now touch on the current outlook for the year. Our first quarter results were generally in line with our expectations with the exception of a stronger-than-expected gas business. While our gasoline business has significantly exceeded our plans for the first quarter, as we sit here today, we are back to levels of profitability that are in line with long-term historical averages.

現在讓我談談今年的當前展望。除了天然氣業務強於預期外，我們的第一季度業績總體上符合我們的預期。雖然我們的汽油業務大大超出了我們第一季度的計劃，但正如我們今天坐在這裡的那樣，我們的盈利水平已經回到了與長期歷史平均水平一致的水平。

Given the lack of predictability in the drivers of gas, we continue to carry the same philosophical approach of modeling our gas business through the rest of the year, that is assuming normal profit per gallon with a slight year-over-year volume increase over the next 3 quarters.

鑑於天然氣驅動因素缺乏可預測性，我們在今年餘下時間繼續採用相同的哲學方法對我們的天然氣業務進行建模，即假設每加侖利潤正常，銷量同比略有增長接下來的3個季度。

As Bob mentioned in his remarks, we are navigating a dynamic macro environment that can create considerable variability in our operations, including record levels of inflation and waiting stimulus. That being said, these circumstances have also resulted in a stronger propensity for customers to gravitate towards value, and we believe our business is favorably positioned to continue to strengthen membership, gain market share and grow member traffic.

正如鮑勃在講話中提到的那樣，我們正在駕馭一個動態的宏觀環境，這可能會在我們的運營中產生相當大的可變性，包括創紀錄的通脹水平和等待刺激。話雖如此，這些情況也導致客戶更傾向於重視價值，我們相信我們的業務處於有利地位，可以繼續加強會員資格、獲得市場份額和增加會員流量。

Taking all of these factors into consideration, our fiscal year 2022 EPS outlook of flat year-over-year remains unchanged as we believe our first quarter excess gas profits will be largely offset by heightened margin pressures driven by growing supply chain costs.

考慮到所有這些因素，我們對 2022 財年每股收益同比持平的展望保持不變，因為我們認為，我們第一季度的超額天然氣利潤將在很大程度上被供應鏈成本增長帶來的利潤率壓力增加所抵消。

Finally, subsequent to the first quarter end on May 2, we closed on the acquisition of our perishable distribution centers from Burris . From an individual P&L line item view, we expect minimal impact for each quarter and remain confident the acquisition will deliver approximately $20 million of EBITDA and $0.07 of EPS for the year. As a reminder, this expectation is already embedded in our flat EPS guide for the year.

最後，在 5 月 2 日第一季度結束後，我們完成了從 Burris 收購易腐爛配送中心的交易。從單個損益項目的角度來看，我們預計每個季度的影響最小，並且仍然相信此次收購將帶來約 2000 萬美元的 EBITDA 和 0.07 美元的每股收益。提醒一下，這一預期已經包含在我們今年的扁平化每股收益指南中。

Before turning it back to Bob, I'd like to reiterate our confidence in the strength of our business and the transformation we have made at the company. As a result of the fundamental improvements in our membership, our footprint expansion strategy and the structural advantages of a warehouse club model, we believe we are positioned to deliver a better growth profile than prior to the pandemic. This should result in a long-term algorithm of mid-single-digit revenue growth. With that, I will turn it back to Bob for closing remarks.

在將其轉回給 Bob 之前，我想重申我們對我們的業務實力和我們在公司所做的轉型的信心。由於我們的會員資格、我們的足跡擴張戰略和倉儲俱樂部模式的結構優勢的根本改進，我們相信我們有能力提供比大流行之前更好的增長狀況。這應該會導致中個位數收入增長的長期算法。有了這個，我將把它轉回給鮑勃做結束語。

Thanks, Laura. I'd like to conclude with some final thoughts. I remain excited about the future of this company, anchored by the continued progress we are making in our core strategic priorities. We're growing the membership size and quality. We're providing great value and convenience to our members, further accelerated by our digital efforts. We are relentlessly working to improve our merchandising and we are broadening our reach into new markets and solidifying our brand in existing ones.

謝謝，勞拉。我想以一些最後的想法結束。我仍然對這家公司的未來感到興奮，這得益於我們在核心戰略重點方面取得的持續進展。我們正在擴大會員規模和質量。我們正在為我們的會員提供巨大的價值和便利，並通過我們的數字化努力進一步加速。我們正在不懈地努力改善我們的商品銷售，我們正在擴大我們對新市場的影響力，並在現有市場中鞏固我們的品牌。

Our efforts to fundamentally strengthen our business served us well through the pandemic, and I believe our business model will continue to resonate with members in the current environment as we remain focused on what we do best, delivering great value. This was evident in our growth in traffic across our clubs during the first quarter, and we believe we will remain favorably positioned to help our members stretch their purchasing dollars when times are tough. I'm incredibly proud of our team, and I'm honored to be working alongside them as we continue to serve our members, provide unbeatable value and grow our business. I'll now turn the call back over to the operator to begin the Q&A session.

我們為從根本上加強我們的業務所做的努力在大流行期間為我們提供了良好的服務，我相信我們的商業模式將在當前環境下繼續引起會員的共鳴，因為我們將繼續專注於我們最擅長的事情，創造巨大的價值。這在第一季度我們俱樂部的客流量增長中很明顯，我們相信我們將保持有利地位，以幫助我們的會員在困難時期擴大購買資金。我為我們的團隊感到無比自豪，我很榮幸能與他們一起工作，因為我們將繼續為我們的會員服務，提供無與倫比的價值並發展我們的業務。我現在將電話轉回給接線員以開始問答環節。

(Operator Instructions) And our first question is from Robert Ohmes at Bank of America.

（操作員說明）我們的第一個問題來自美國銀行的 Robert Ohmes。

Great quarter. Actually, 2 questions. One was, Bob, I think you mentioned that the -- you are seeing some lower end customer pressures. Can you talk more about the behavior changes that you're seeing and how that's different versus the higher-end customers? And then the second question is just maybe could we get a little more color on the buying inventory early and costs going up and more help on how to think about the timing of that impacting or not impacting margins in the -- as we move through the rest of the year.

很棒的季度。實際上，2個問題。一個是，鮑勃，我想你提到了——你看到了一些低端客戶的壓力。您能否詳細談談您所看到的行為變化以及與高端客戶相比有何不同？然後第二個問題是，也許我們能否儘早在購買庫存和成本上升方面獲得更多的色彩，並在我們通過今年剩下的時間。

Robbie, thanks for your questions. Look, we had a fantastic quarter. From a top line perspective. We thought an incredibly demanding environment our membership was off the charts, right? The membership count up 5% against last year, up 2% against Q4. The quality of the membership up incredibly in terms of higher tier penetration easy (inaudible) all the things that we track. If you sort of peel back and get to your core question in terms of what are these members doing, all of the income cohorts that we track were a little bit better than we thought they would be. The core hypothesis that we had going into the quarter was given the roll-off and stimulus, we would see some headwinds from a lower income perspective. But we would also see some tailwinds at the top of the house with higher income folks, and that's exactly what we saw.

羅比，謝謝你的提問。看，我們有一個很棒的季度。從頂線的角度來看。我們認為我們的會員資格要求極高的環境是超乎想像的，對吧？會員人數比去年增加了 5%，比第四季度增加了 2%。會員的質量在更高層次的滲透率方面令人難以置信地提高了（聽不清）我們跟踪的所有事情。如果你回過頭來回答這些成員在做什麼的核心問題，我們追踪的所有收入群體都比我們想像的要好一些。我們進入本季度的核心假設是減產和刺激，我們將從較低收入的角度看到一些不利因素。但我們也會在收入較高的人身上看到一些順風，這正是我們所看到的。

Every one of the income cohorts that we track is spending well versus our expectations. So we're very pleased to see that. We certainly saw more traffic in the higher income cohort as they search for value in these tough times. We also saw gas driving a tremendous amount of traffic. Certainly, it drives traffic in a normal world that drives renewal rates as well. But as you get to levels of the price of gasoline that we've seen in the past couple of weeks and months, certainly, people care more about saving money in gas, and we saw that in our gas clubs as well. So all in all, a pretty strong quarter from a traffic perspective from a spend perspective and certainly from a membership perspective.

我們跟踪的每個收入群體的支出都超出了我們的預期。所以我們很高興看到這一點。我們當然在高收入人群中看到了更多流量，因為他們在這些艱難時期尋找價值。我們還看到汽油驅動了大量的交通。當然，它推動了正常世界中的流量，同時也推動了續訂率。但是，當您達到我們在過去幾周和幾個月中看到的汽油價格水平時，當然，人們更關心在汽油上省錢，我們在汽油俱樂部也看到了這一點。總而言之，從流量的角度來看，從支出的角度來看，當然從會員的角度來看，這是一個相當強勁的季度。

Your second question on inventory, maybe I'll take quickly and then Laura can fill in. Our inventory was up about 30% year-over-year. A large portion of that is just the cost of inventory going up. We made some strategic choices to bring in extra supplies from a food business perspective. And about the last thing I'm worried about is more inventory in our food business given how strong that is. And then, certainly, from a general merchandise perspective, we've got more inventory. Last year was a little bit light. This year is probably a little bit heavy, but we don't see tremendous markdowns coming through our general merchandise business. And maybe I'll ask Laura to comment as well.

關於庫存的第二個問題，也許我會盡快回答，然後勞拉可以填寫。我們的庫存同比增長了約 30%。其中很大一部分只是庫存成本上升。我們做出了一些戰略選擇，從食品業務的角度引入額外的供應。關於我擔心的最後一件事是我們的食品業務中有更多庫存，因為這是多麼強大。然後，當然，從一般商品的角度來看，我們有更多的庫存。去年有點輕。今年可能有點沉重，但我們並沒有看到我們的日用百貨業務出現大幅降價。也許我也會請勞拉發表評論。

Yes. I think you got that right, Bob. The only thing I might add is a little context on the general merchandise comment you made. So that inventory, I think, Bob said we feel okay about. I would emphasize that we don't think that there's markdown risk on it as of right now. We feel well positioned. Our general merchandise inventory is not heavily fashion-based or something that we think about as risky as we look forward to the remainder of the year. .

是的。我認為你說得對，鮑勃。我唯一要補充的是關於你所做的一般商品評論的一點背景。因此，我認為，鮑勃說我們感覺還不錯。我要強調的是，我們認為目前不存在降價風險。我們感覺自己的位置很好。我們的一般商品庫存不是以時尚為基礎的，也不是我們認為像我們期待今年剩餘時間那樣有風險的東西。 .

Our next question comes from Peter Benedict at Baird.

我們的下一個問題來自 Baird 的 Peter Benedict。

I guess first one would just be around inflation. You talked about record levels. I'm not sure if you'd be able to quantify maybe what the inflation impact was on your merch comps. And then on MFI, on the fee income, obviously, great growth there. Any reason why those numbers wouldn't continue to build sequentially in dollars and just how you're thinking about the growth in MFI this year?

我想第一個只是圍繞通貨膨脹。你談到了創紀錄的水平。我不確定您是否能夠量化通貨膨脹對您的商品組合的影響。然後是小額信貸機構，收費收入，顯然，那裡有很大的增長。為什麼這些數字不會繼續以美元計價，以及您如何看待今年 MFI 的增長？

Pete, thanks for the questions. So certainly, inflation was a big impact on the quarter. I think, we had talked about 4 points of inflation. In Q4, it's meaningfully higher than that at this point. So think about maybe 7 points of inflation. As Laura talked about, it did increase in every month of the year. I think it's probably going to continue to increase from here, and that drives a tough operating environment. It drives a tough consumer environment. But frankly, I think our merchants and our team overall has done a fantastic job managing the inflation. We've been able to pass through most of it, but the higher it goes, the more time we have to spend with our suppliers, managing the cost and managing what we pass through, I think we need to continue to do what we can to help our members navigate this tough consumer environment.

皮特，謝謝你的提問。因此，可以肯定的是，通貨膨脹對本季度產生了重大影響。我想，我們談到了 4 個通脹點。在第四季度，它明顯高於此時。所以想想可能有 7 個通脹點。正如勞拉所說，它確實在一年中的每個月都在增加。我認為它可能會從這裡繼續增加，這將推動艱難的運營環境。它推動了艱難的消費環境。但坦率地說，我認為我們的商家和我們的團隊總體上在管理通貨膨脹方面做得非常出色。我們已經能夠通過其中的大部分，但是它越高，我們與供應商花費的時間越多，管理成本和管理我們通過的東西，我認為我們需要繼續做我們可以做的事情幫助我們的會員度過這個艱難的消費環境。

Certainly, from a membership fee perspective, as I said earlier, we're very proud of the results that we had. Renewal rates are higher. We were able to get a ton of new members for the 3 new clubs that we opened during the year, and we exceeded our own expectations and pretty much in all things MFI-related, including the dollars per member, as you mentioned.

當然，從會員費的角度來看，正如我之前所說，我們為我們所取得的成果感到非常自豪。續訂率更高。正如您所提到的，我們能夠為我們在這一年開設的 3 個新俱樂部獲得大量新會員，我們超出了我們自己的預期，並且幾乎在所有與 MFI 相關的事情上，包括每位會員的美元。

I do think -- I don't want to jump in front of Laura's guidance, but I do think we should see a little bit better MFI performance than we initially thought, and that should carry through the remainder of the year as well. Maybe I'll let Laura pile on to that comment.

我確實認為——我不想跳到勞拉的指導面前，但我確實認為我們應該看到比我們最初想像的要好一點的小額信貸機構的表現，這也應該會持續到今年剩下的時間。也許我會讓勞拉繼續發表評論。

Yes. I think that's right, bob. The only thing I might add is to think about the timing of the MFI and how it rolls into the P&L. So some of that is from the record levels we had in the fourth quarter of last year, and we're getting the benefit from all those members that we added in the fourth quarter of last year rolling through. So I think all of -- everything that Bob said is a fair point from a full year and how to think about it. It should continue. And we're really happy with all of the membership steps that we talked about, including -- I think the one thing is easy renewal and all of our members that are included in that program, and that certainly helps.

是的。我認為這是對的，鮑勃。我唯一要補充的是考慮小額信貸機構的時間安排以及它如何計入損益表。因此，其中一些來自我們去年第四季度的創紀錄水平，我們從去年第四季度增加的所有成員中受益。所以我認為鮑勃所說的一切都是一整年的公平點以及如何考慮它。它應該繼續。我們對我們談到的所有成員資格步驟感到非常滿意，包括 - 我認為一件事很容易續訂，而且我們所有的成員都包含在該計劃中，這肯定會有所幫助。

No, that's super helpful. If I could -- just one quick follow-up. Just on the pricing and the inflation comments, Bob. You talked about some strategic price investment that was going on. I'm just curious maybe where you feel like that's most useful and how the gaps are right now in grocery and gas relative to maybe where they have been.

不，這非常有幫助。如果可以的話 - 只需快速跟進。就定價和通脹評論，鮑勃。你談到了一些正在進行的戰略性價格投資。我只是很好奇，也許你覺得這在哪裡最有用，以及現在食品雜貨和天然氣方面的差距與它們過去的差距如何。

Yes, no doubt. Thanks for asking that. But simply put, our price gaps are better than they've been in a while, better than last quarter better than last year. We spent a lot of time figuring that out. It's a very detailed analysis every day, every week, every quarter at this point, given the pace of inflation, but our team has done a wonderful job managing it. I feel great about where we are from a price gap perspective. And obviously, that's driving our traffic.

是的，毫無疑問。謝謝你這麼問。但簡單地說，我們的價格差距比過去一段時間好，比上一季度好，比去年好。我們花了很多時間來弄清楚這一點。考慮到通貨膨脹的速度，這是每天、每週、每個季度的非常詳細的分析，但我們的團隊在管理它方面做得非常出色。從價格差距的角度來看，我對我們所處的位置感覺很好。顯然，這正在推動我們的流量。

And you bring up gas, that's important as well. We sell lots of gasoline. It is not something we look to make a tremendous amount of money on but certainly something we look to provide a tremendous amount of value on to our members. And we did a nice job with that during the quarter, pricing our gasoline as low as we can do it and using that to drive traffic into our buildings.

而你帶來了汽油，這也很重要。我們賣很多汽油。這不是我們想要賺大錢的東西，但肯定是我們希望為我們的會員提供巨大價值的東西。我們在本季度做得很好，將我們的汽油定價盡可能低，並用它來推動交通進入我們的建築物。

We also have built our co-branded credit card portfolio to almost 1.5 million cardholders at this point. Those folks get $0.10 off a gallon every day at the pumps. We've done a number of different promotions to try and get people who are visiting our gas stations to get inside the club during the same trip. And I think our guns really show that, right, up over 20% during this quarter, up over 50% on a 2-year stack basis. Just a tremendous effort to merge those 2 businesses and really take that value that we show every day at the pumps and convert that into traffic on our registers inside the store.

目前，我們還為近 150 萬持卡人建立了我們的聯合品牌信用卡組合。這些人每天在加油站每加侖可減 0.10 美元。我們已經進行了許多不同的促銷活動，試圖讓訪問我們加油站的人在同一次旅行中進入俱樂部。而且我認為我們的槍支確實表明，對，在本季度增長了 20% 以上，在 2 年的基礎上增長了 50% 以上。只需付出巨大的努力，就可以合併這兩項業務，並真正利用我們每天在加油站展示的價值，並將其轉化為商店內收銀台上的客流量。

Our next question comes from Mike Baker at D.A. Davidson.

我們的下一個問題來自 D.A. 的 Mike Baker。戴維森。

Great. Thanks. So couple, I suppose, follow-ups. One, on the general merchandise and your lack of markdown risk. Maybe this is too short term of a question, but how much of that is seasonal. And a lot of other retailers have said that the weather has been better in May, and that's allowed them to work through some of the seasonal product and see a rebound there. Is that one reason why you don't see markdown risk? And how concerned are you that Target and Walmart, their inventories were up massively and they're going to start marking stuff down. Does that impact you at all from a competitive standpoint, even though you don't think you'll mark down stuff If they do, do you have to follow? .

偉大的。謝謝。所以，我想，跟進。一、關於一般商品和你缺乏降價風險。也許這是一個太短期的問題，但其中有多少是季節性的。許多其他零售商表示，5 月份的天氣已經好轉，這使他們能夠處理一些季節性產品並看到那裡的反彈。這是您看不到降價風險的原因之一嗎？你有多擔心塔吉特和沃爾瑪，他們的庫存大量增加，他們將開始降價。從競爭的角度來看，這是否會影響你，即使你認為你不會降價如果他們這樣做，你是否必須遵循？ .

Mike -- go ahead, Laura.

邁克——來吧，勞拉。

Okay. I'll jump in, Mike, and then maybe let Bob jump in after. My comment earlier on the general merchandise was pointed at it not being fashion, so no markdown risk. You got that right. I would say it is heavy from a seasonal perspective. So think about everything kind of spring, summer. Your comments on Target and Walmart and their markdown cadence, I think that's something we deal with on a regular normal operating basis. We will continue to watch the markets, figure out what's going on, make sure that we're delivering the right price and value to our members. But as of right now, we feel okay about where we are, and we'll see kind of where the quarter goes.

好的。我會加入，邁克，然後也許讓鮑勃在之後加入。我之前對一般商品的評論指出它不是時尚，所以沒有降價風險。你說對了。我會說從季節性的角度來看它很重。所以想想春天，夏天的一切。您對 Target 和 Walmart 及其降價節奏的評論，我認為這是我們在常規正常運營的基礎上處理的事情。我們將繼續關注市場，弄清楚發生了什麼，確保我們為會員提供合適的價格和價值。但就目前而言，我們對自己所處的位置感到滿意，我們將看到本季度的發展方向。

Okay. And if I could ask one more follow-up. Just on the lower-income customer, can you give a little bit more detail on what you're seeing there in terms of is there any trade-down? I know that maybe that's harder to see in your limited assortment, but is there a trade-down? Is there lower units per transaction? Is it fewer trips than you -- than others? What exactly are you seeing to -- for that lower income customer?

好的。如果我可以再問一個後續問題。就低收入客戶而言，您能否更詳細地說明您在那裡看到的情況，是否有任何折價？我知道這在你有限的分類中可能更難看到，但有折衷嗎？每筆交易是否有較低的單位？是不是比你少——比其他人少？對於低收入客戶，您到底看到了什麼？

Yes. Thanks, Mike. As I said earlier, we're seeing great shopping habits across the income cohorts. We're seeing more trips. We are seeing a little bit of trade down, right? Take a look at our own brands penetration up 200 basis points. That's certainly part of that is us driving that business, but part of it is undoubtedly people searching for value. And that doesn't necessarily surprise us. And then as I said, the higher income cohorts are shopping meaningfully more, and that's making up for any pressure we see at the bottom of the house.

是的。謝謝，邁克。正如我之前所說，我們在收入群體中看到了良好的購物習慣。我們看到更多的旅行。我們看到了一些貿易下降，對吧？看看我們自己的品牌滲透率上升了 200 個基點。這當然是我們推動這項業務的一部分，但毫無疑問，其中一部分是人們在尋找價值。這並不一定讓我們感到驚訝。然後正如我所說，收入較高的人群購物更有意義，這彌補了我們在房子底部看到的任何壓力。

I would characterize the pressure in the lower income cohorts as expected. It's not tremendous. It's not something that worries us. It's right in mind with what we thought would happen. And the benefit at the higher income cohorts is frankly a little better than what we expected, and that gets to the traffic gains that we saw during the quarter.

我將按預期描述低收入群體的壓力。這不是巨大的。這不是讓我們擔心的事情。我們認為會發生的事情是正確的。坦率地說，高收入人群的收益比我們預期的要好一些，這就是我們在本季度看到的流量增長。

Makes

使

Our next question comes from Edward Kelly at Welfare. .

我們的下一個問題來自福利公司的 Edward Kelly。 .

Can we just start with -- my first question is on merchandise margin. And can you talk about how you're thinking about second quarter and the rest of the year? As part of this, how does pass-through expectation of inflation changed as it's accelerating? And then you did mention incremental pressure on supply chain. Could you quantify that as well as part of all that?

我們可以開始 - 我的第一個問題是關於商品保證金。你能談談你對第二季度和今年剩餘時間的看法嗎？作為其中的一部分，隨著通脹的加速，對通脹的傳遞預期如何變化？然後你確實提到了供應鏈的增量壓力。你能量化它以及所有這些的一部分嗎？

Maybe maybe I'll sort of set the tone and let Laura fill on with any specifics. So certainly, pretty proud of where we landed from a membership -- sorry, a margin perspective during the quarter. We were able to make inflation very effectively and, as I said, pass it through on a pretty rational basis. We did make a bunch of tactical investments. We talked about the recosticken is probably the headline example where we haven't moved off the price given double-digit inflation in that particular item because it's such a meaningful thing to our members, smaller categories of paper and bottled water and things. We've been making investments all along and those things, and we'll continue to do that.

也許也許我會定下基調，讓勞拉補充任何細節。因此，當然，我們為我們從會員身份獲得的成就感到非常自豪——抱歉，從本季度的利潤率角度來看。我們能夠非常有效地製造通貨膨脹，並且正如我所說，在相當理性的基礎上通過它。我們確實進行了大量的戰術投資。我們談到 recosticken 可能是頭條新聞，鑑於該特定項目的兩位數通脹率，我們沒有降低價格，因為它對我們的會員、較小類別的紙張和瓶裝水之類的東西非常有意義。我們一直在進行投資和那些事情，我們將繼續這樣做。

But for the most part, we've been able to figure out ways to pass through the inflation that we're seeing so far. I do think we are seeing more supply chain costs. You can't take diesel fuel from $4 to $6 without seeing that. We certainly saw it in the first quarter, we anticipate seeing more of it in the second quarter and beyond if those prices continue. We will obviously work to cover that, but I think the risk is there, particularly the longer that goes.

但在大多數情況下，我們已經能夠找到克服目前所看到的通貨膨脹的方法。我確實認為我們看到了更多的供應鏈成本。你不能在沒有看到的情況下將柴油燃料從 4 美元降到 6 美元。我們當然在第一季度看到了它，如果這些價格繼續下去，我們預計在第二季度及以後會看到更多。我們顯然會努力解決這個問題，但我認為風險是存在的，尤其是時間越長。

And then we've talked a lot about potential for markdown risk, which we think is pretty limited based on what we see today. So with that as a starting point, let me kick it over to Laura, if you can sort of fill in where she thinks the second quarter might land, and we can go from there.

然後我們談了很多關於降價風險的可能性，根據我們今天看到的情況，我們認為這是非常有限的。因此，以此為起點，讓我把它交給勞拉，如果你能填寫她認為第二季度可能降落的地方，我們可以從那裡開始。

Yes. So I think -- as I think about the second quarter, I certainly think, as you compare it to last year, there is some pressure primarily from what Bob just said, as diesel prices rise, there's not much we can do about those. So certainly some pressure on merch margins in the near term.

是的。所以我認為——當我想到第二季度時，我當然認為，當你與去年相比時，主要來自鮑勃剛才所說的壓力，隨著柴油價格上漲，我們對此無能為力。因此，短期內商品利潤率肯定會受到一些壓力。

Two other things I would add in there. As you think about, we've talked about our import business we are relatively insulated from an import perspective just because, from a mix, we don't have a lot of product that we import on an annual basis. So think about all of the supply chain issues that continue there, and we feel pretty good about that as we look across our peers.

我要在其中添加另外兩件事。正如您所想的，我們已經談到了我們的進口業務，從進口的角度來看，我們相對隔離，因為從一個組合來看，我們每年進口的產品並不多。因此，想想所有持續存在的供應鏈問題，當我們審視同行時，我們對此感覺非常好。

And then the other thing I'd say is that while there are supply chain pressures on merch margin, the flip side of that is actually that consumers will feel that as well. Probably gas prices will continue to rise or at least stay where they are now, and that will continue to drive traffic. And we think the value that we can provide to our members, they will continue to see that. We saw it in Q1 with traffic patterns and we think that will continue in Q2. So

然後我要說的另一件事是，雖然商品利潤率存在供應鏈壓力，但另一方面實際上消費者也會感受到這一點。天然氣價格可能會繼續上漲，或者至少保持現在的水平，這將繼續推動交通。我們認為我們可以為會員提供的價值，他們將繼續看到這一點。我們在第一季度看到了流量模式，我們認為這將在第二季度繼續。所以

I think you've got the story on merch margin there. I think the only other thing is on your point about pass-through and how much of the inflation continue we can continue to pass through. That's something we'll watch. We watch it every day. We watch it weeks, months, and we'll continue to react where we can. And if we have to make investments in certain categories, we will continue to do that as we did in the first quarter. And

我認為您已經了解了關於商品保證金的故事。我認為唯一的另一件事是你關於傳遞的觀點以及我們可以繼續傳遞多少通脹。那是我們要注意的事情。我們每天都在看。我們觀看了數週、數月，我們將繼續盡可能做出反應。如果我們必須在某些類別上進行投資，我們將繼續這樣做，就像我們在第一季度所做的那樣。和

Maybe I'll just jump back in for one second and put a little bit of a finer point on what Laura said. We're expecting a little bit more margin rate pressure than we saw in the first quarter in the second quarter. So we were down 30 bps in the first quarter, we're sort of forecasting down a little bit more than that in the second quarter. But a chunk of the traffic that we saw in the first quarter was driven by gas. To the degree that gas prices stay high, I would think that benefits our sales line again in the second quarter.

也許我會跳回一秒鐘，對 Laura 所說的內容進行更詳細的說明。我們預計第二季度的利潤率壓力會比我們在第一季度看到的要大一些。因此，我們在第一季度下跌了 30 個基點，我們預計會比第二季度下跌一點點。但我們在第一季度看到的大部分流量是由汽油驅動的。就天然氣價格保持高位而言，我認為這將在第二季度再次有利於我們的銷售線。

So as we look at Q2, probably a little bit more sales than we initially thought, a little bit less margin rate and more or less the same bottom line.

因此，當我們查看第二季度時，銷售額可能比我們最初想像的要多一點，利潤率要低一點，底線或多或少相同。

Okay. Great. And then just a quick one for you. On new clubs, you've opened up 7 clubs in the last 6 months or so. Just kind of thoughts on what you're seeing there.

好的。偉大的。然後給你一個快速的。在新俱樂部上，您在過去 6 個月左右開設了 7 個俱樂部。只是對你在那裡看到的東西的想法。

Maybe I'll start off maybe I'll start it off and let fill in. We're incredibly proud of the progress of the real estate team. And our team overall has made in expanding our footprint. As you said, we've done a great job in the last 6 months. Great job this quarter, 3 clubs alone in this quarter since we last talked, and each of them is doing spectacularly well. We look forward to getting about 11 clubs in this year and see it grow to 10 more next year. And just very proud of what we've been able to accomplish. So Bill, why don't you take it from there?

也許我會開始也許我會開始並填寫。我們為房地產團隊的進步感到無比自豪。我們的團隊總體上已經擴大了我們的足跡。正如你所說，我們在過去 6 個月裡做得很好。本季度做得很好，自我們上次談話以來，本季度僅 3 家具樂部，他們每個人都做得非常好。我們期待在今年獲得大約 11 家具樂部，並看到它明年增長到 10 家具樂部。並且為我們能夠完成的工作感到非常自豪。那麼比爾，你為什麼不從那裡拿走呢？

Yes, sure. Listen, the results have been really good and capped off, I would say, over the last couple of weeks with probably what was our best membership campaign ever in our opening last week in Lady Lake, Florida. So both the membership as well as the sales levels and the clubs have been really, really promising so far. So as Bob mentioned, really happy with the results, really proud of the work the team has put in and excited for the call to going to get open here in the rest of the year.

是的，當然。聽著，結果非常好，我想說，在過去的幾周里，這可能是我們上週在佛羅里達州夫人湖開幕時有史以來最好的會員活動。所以到目前為止，會員、銷售水平和俱樂部都非常非常有希望。因此，正如 Bob 所說，對結果感到非常滿意，對團隊所做的工作感到非常自豪，並對在今年餘下時間在這裡開放的呼籲感到興奮。

Our next question comes from Kate McShane of Goldman Sachs.

我們的下一個問題來自高盛的 Kate McShane。

I was curious if you could talk a little bit about your thoughts around the cadence of comp throughout the year. I know last time when we spoke with you, I think Q3 was one of the quarters where you maybe had expected tougher compare, a tougher quarter. Just I know we kept the guidance for the year today, but just how you're thinking about each quarter when it comes to the top line, if anything has changed there.

我很好奇你能否談談你對全年比賽節奏的看法。我知道上次我們與您交談時，我認為第三季度是您可能預期比較艱難的季度之一，一個更加艱難的季度。只是我知道我們今天保留了今年的指導，但是當涉及到頂線時，你是如何考慮每個季度的，如果那裡有任何變化的話。

Yes. I think the general gist of it is about the same, and I'll kick it over to Laura in a second. We we thought that Q1 and Q4 would be our strongest and then followed by Q2 and then Q3 would be likely negative comp. I think that still holds albeit given the level of inflation and the traffic that we saw in Q1 were a little bit more bullish on the general comp trend of the business. Let me kick it over to Lars, he can sort of fill it in expectations for Q2.

是的。我認為它的一般要點大致相同，我會在一秒鐘內將它交給勞拉。我們認為 Q1 和 Q4 將是我們最強的，然後是 Q2，然後 Q3 可能是負競爭。我認為這仍然成立，儘管考慮到通脹水平和我們在第一季度看到的流量對業務的總體競爭趨勢更加樂觀。讓我把它交給拉斯，他可以在某種程度上填補對第二季度的期望。

Yes. That's right, Keith. So I think the framing of it that Bob just gave is right from a cadence perspective. I think there is a big piece that will come from rising prices or inflation. So I would think about it from a cadence off of Q1, Q2 kind of hanging around where Q1 was. And then Q4, certainly will be higher. Q3, we continue to think we'll have pressure from a TI -- perspective as we lap kind of what we talked about last year, that sundries pull forward, so lowest in Q3 as we review it now. .

是的。沒錯，基思。所以我認為鮑勃剛剛給出的框架從節奏的角度來看是正確的。我認為價格上漲或通貨膨脹將帶來很大一部分。所以我會從 Q1 的節奏來考慮，Q2 就在 Q1 的位置。然後第四季度，肯定會更高。第三季度，我們仍然認為我們將面臨來自 TI 的壓力——從我們去年談到的那種觀點來看，雜項向前推進，在我們現在回顧的第三季度中處於最低水平。 .

Our next question comes from Chuck Grom at Gordon Haskett Research Advisors. .

我們的下一個問題來自 Gordon Haskett Research Advisors 的 Chuck Grom。 .

Can you just provide some comment on the cadence of the comp throughout the period? And then if seasonal started to lift now in the month of May, now that the weather started to improve. And you talked about traffic driving the comp. I was wondering if you could unpack the comp between traffic and ticket.

您能否就整個期間的比賽節奏發表一些評論？然後如果季節性開始在 5 月份開始解除，那麼現在天氣開始好轉。你談到了交通推動比賽。我想知道你是否可以解開交通和票務之間的補償。

So Chuck, so you think the Q1 comp, it was fairly ratable across the quarter, although the first month, February and the last month, April, were better than March. I wouldn't say it's a meaningful difference, but certainly, March was a touch lower. As we sit here in May, the comps look good, but it is very early and may service. I mean, it's a Q2 service range quarter where the 2 holidays, Memorial Day and the 4th of July in there. So it comes in -- the sales come in chunks, you have to hit both of those holidays hit the quarter really well. So I'm not sure I would read anything into where we are at this point, although, as I said, they are looking fine. And remind me what your second question was.

所以查克，所以你認為第一季度的比較，儘管第一個月（2 月）和最後一個月（4 月）比 3 月好，但它在整個季度中都相當可觀。我不會說這是一個有意義的差異，但可以肯定的是，3 月要低一些。當我們在五月坐在這裡時，比賽看起來不錯，但現在還很早，可能會服務。我的意思是，這是一個 Q2 服務範圍季度，其中有 2 個假期、陣亡將士紀念日和 7 月 4 日。所以它進來了——銷售是大塊的，你必須把這兩個假期都打得很好。所以我不確定我是否會讀到我們目前所處的位置，儘管正如我所說，他們看起來很好。並提醒我你的第二個問題是什麼。

Just the traffic versus ticket composition in the quarter.

只是本季度的流量與票務構成。

That's right. That's right. So the comp was denominated almost entirely in traffic growth. basket was about flat. And so the rest of it is all traffic. We're really pleased with that, obviously, driven by our membership gains driven by the higher income cohorts within membership spending more making more trips and denominated in the gas benefit that we saw as well.

這是正確的。這是正確的。因此，補償幾乎完全以流量增長計價。籃子幾乎是平的。所以剩下的都是流量。顯然，我們對此感到非常高興，因為我們的會員收益是由會員中收入較高的群體推動的，他們花費更多的旅行次數，並以我們看到的汽油福利計價。

Okay. Great. And it does seem like you guys are amplifying the gas conversion more than maybe you have in the past. And Costco has talked about how roughly 50% of people who buy gas shop the club and like like-for-like hours. I guess, is that the case for you guys? And I guess why do you think you're gaining share now in gas prices more maybe than you've seen in the past?

好的。偉大的。看起來你們比過去更多地放大了氣體轉換。 Costco 談到了大約 50% 的購買汽油的人在俱樂部購物並喜歡類似的時間。我想，你們是這樣的嗎？我猜你為什麼認為你現在在汽油價格中獲得的份額可能比你過去看到的要多？

Yes. It starts with value, Chuck, right? We have the best gas prices around. You layer you layer on the co-brand credit card benefit, you layer on some of the things we're doing promotionally to tie the club together with the gas station. Those all are really what's driving it. Certainly, we didn't really have the gas business flag in the beginning of the pandemic. Like the entire industry, we've been growing it for a couple of years. Undoubtedly, the beginning of that was people consolidating trips from a safety perspective. But I do think that allowed people to give us a try, I understand our value proposition from a gas perspective, understand that we're a one-stop shop where you can get your gas and get everything you need inside the box.

是的。它從價值開始，查克，對吧？我們有最好的汽油價格。您將聯合品牌信用卡優惠分層，您將我們正在做的一些促銷活動分層，以將俱樂部與加油站聯繫在一起。這些都是真正的驅動力。當然，在大流行開始時，我們並沒有真正擁有天然氣業務的旗幟。像整個行業一樣，我們已經發展了幾年。毫無疑問，這始於人們從安全角度整合旅行。但我確實認為這讓人們可以嘗試一下，我從汽油的角度理解我們的價值主張，了解我們是一站式商店，您可以在其中獲得汽油並在盒子內獲得所需的一切。

And we're very pleased with the 20% gallon growth during the quarter actually was totally unexpected. We didn't model that at all. 50% -- more than 50% 2-year stack gallon growth. So very pleased to see that and it all ties back to value. These times are tough for our consumers, and this is the -- this is the type of environment that the club business and our business specifically was made for. We give great value every day and do it on a one-stop shop basis.

我們對本季度 20% 的加侖增長感到非常滿意，這實際上是完全出乎意料的。我們根本沒有建模。 50% - 超過 50% 的 2 年堆疊加侖增長。很高興看到這一點，這一切都與價值息息相關。這些時代對我們的消費者來說很艱難，這就是俱樂部業務和我們的業務專門為這種環境而設計的。我們每天都提供巨大的價值，並在一站式服務的基礎上做到這一點。

Okay. Great. And then just one quick for me would be just you're not underwriting an improvement -- continued improvement in gas gallons gained, correct, for the balance of the year?

好的。偉大的。然後對我來說只是一個快速的問題就是你沒有保證改善 - 在今年的餘額中獲得的汽油加侖持續改善，對嗎？

We're not. We're not. We're sort of modeling gateway, we always model it from a profitability perspective. We do think some increase in gallons is warranted to model, but we haven't continued to model 20% gains in gallons. And as Laura said in her prepared remarks, we're sort of back to normal from a per gallon profitability perspective as we sit here today. So not modeling a huge windfall in gas prices. But usually, as you know, we don't tend to make a lot of money when when gas prices rise, and in fact, in parts of the first quarter as we were losing money every day. If gas prices were to fall, they typically yield higher margins when we fall. So we'll see what happens. We're not modeling anything greater than our normal historical stance at this point.

不是。不是。我們是某種建模網關，我們總是從盈利的角度對其進行建模。我們確實認為有必要對加侖數增加一些建模，但我們沒有繼續對加侖數增加 20% 進行建模。正如勞拉在她準備好的講話中所說，從我們今天坐在這裡的每加侖盈利能力的角度來看，我們有點恢復正常。因此，不要模擬天然氣價格的巨額意外之財。但通常，如您所知，當汽油價格上漲時，我們往往不會賺很多錢，事實上，在第一季度的部分時間裡，我們每天都在虧損。如果天然氣價格下跌，當我們下跌時，它們通常會產生更高的利潤率。所以我們會看看會發生什麼。在這一點上，我們沒有模擬任何比我們正常的歷史立場更大的東西。

Our next question comes from Paul Lejuez at Citi. Unfortunately, we're still (inaudible) in audio from line. So we will move on to the next question having from Stephanie Wissink at Jefferies..

我們的下一個問題來自花旗的 Paul Lejuez。不幸的是，我們仍然（聽不清）線路中的音頻。因此，我們將繼續討論 Jefferies 的 Stephanie Wissink 提出的下一個問題。

It's Blake on for Steph. I wanted to ask first on the ticket versus traffic. Just a follow-up on that. I was wondering how the flattish ticket growth was versus your expectations? And just how we should think about that in terms of overall inflation? I didn't know if there's a tough compare or any mix impacts that might have affected that number as well.

這是斯蒂芬的布萊克。我想先問一下車票與交通的關係。只是對此的跟進。我想知道持平的票價增長與您的預期相比如何？以及我們應該如何考慮總體通脹？我不知道是否有一個艱難的比較或任何可能影響該數字的混合影響。

Blake, so when you look underneath the cover, certainly, traffic growth was very strong. It exceeded our estimate for the quarter. And I would expect that to continue given the environment that we're all facing together. Certainly, with the ticket flat, if traffic is up, that means units are down a bit as you unpack that your point on unfavorable lapse comes to the 4, where you see categories like PPE and cleaning driving pretty significant unit declines as folks aren't wearing masks any longer. They're not buying sanitizing products all over the place. And certainly, our general merchandise units were down a bit given the comp there. Outside of that, units are doing fine and more or less in line with our plan. So I think the business is pretty healthy. I'd love to see the traffic gains continue. And given the membership growth that we've seen, I think that's probably a good bet.

布萊克，所以當你從封面下面看時，當然，流量增長非常強勁。它超出了我們對該季度的預期。鑑於我們共同面臨的環境，我希望這種情況會繼續下去。當然，在票價持平的情況下，如果交通量上升，這意味著單位會有所下降，因為你打開包裝，你對不利失誤的觀點來到 4，在那裡你看到 PPE 和清潔駕駛等類別相當顯著的單位下降，因為人們不是' t 不再戴口罩了。他們不會到處購買消毒產品。當然，考慮到那裡的競爭，我們的一般商品部門有所下降。除此之外，單位做得很好，或多或少符合我們的計劃。所以我認為這個業務非常健康。我希望看到流量繼續增長。鑑於我們看到的會員人數增長，我認為這可能是一個不錯的選擇。

That's super helpful. And just a follow-up on that, and then I have one more. On the general merch, I didn't know if you could talk any more about -- you just mentioned some of the PPE categories. I didn't know if you could talk any more about some of the other categories within general merch and maybe how those trended throughout the quarter. Maybe anything along the lines of electronics or bigger ticket or maybe any things that you're trying to really increase the penetration of as you build out that business?

這非常有幫助。只是對此的跟進，然後我還有一個。關於一般商品，我不知道您是否可以再談一談——您剛剛提到了一些 PPE 類別。我不知道您是否可以再談談一般商品中的其他一些類別，以及這些類別在整個季度的趨勢如何。可能是電子產品或更大票的任何東西，或者可能是您在建立該業務時試圖真正增加滲透率的任何東西？

Look, I think GM jams up against a tough comp with all the free money that was flying around last year. So certainly, the negative comp was expected, came across the business, particularly in the home categories that you would expect given one happened last year. So whether you think about seasonal or home or furniture or electronics those categories had a tougher go than some of the other ones. They were not meaningful below our expectations. And given the membership and the traffic that we've talked about, I think they're perfectly fine for the future, and we look forward to showing our members the best value in those categories as we go through the rest of the year.

看，我認為通用汽車用去年飛來飛去的所有免費資金來應對一場艱難的比賽。因此，可以肯定的是，負面補償是意料之中的，是在業務中出現的，尤其是在您預期的家庭類別中，因為去年發生了一次。因此，無論您考慮季節性、家居、家具還是電子產品，這些類別都比其他類別更難。低於我們的預期，它們沒有意義。考慮到我們談到的會員和流量，我認為它們對未來來說非常好，我們期待在今年剩下的時間裡向我們的會員展示這些類別中的最佳價值。

Got it. And then last one was on gas. I know you've mentioned profit has kind of normalized here into the second quarter. I don't know if you talked about -- are you still seeing a traffic benefit from gas in May? I don't know if you could talk about that.

知道了。然後最後一個是加油的。我知道你已經提到利潤在第二季度已經正常化了。我不知道您是否談到過——您是否仍然看到 5 月份加油帶來的交通收益？我不知道你能不能談談這個。

And the gas benefit on traffic tends to correlate to the absolute price of gas, not to the profitability of gas. So certainly, gas prices remain high. And in fact, they've been going up for the past week or so. And so certainly, we're still seeing folks in our gas stations and improving gallons and improving cross shop where people come in to get gas and then come into our buildings. We continue to see that happening here in May so far.

交通上的天然氣收益往往與天然氣的絕對價格相關，而不是與天然氣的盈利能力相關。所以當然，天然氣價格仍然很高。事實上，他們在過去一周左右的時間裡一直在上漲。所以當然，我們仍然在我們的加油站看到人們，並改進加侖和改進交叉商店，人們進來取油然後進入我們的建築物。到目前為止，我們繼續在 5 月看到這種情況發生。

Our next question comes from Krisztina Katai at Deutsche Bank.

我們的下一個問題來自德意志銀行的 Krisztina Katai。

Congrats on a good quarter. I do have a follow-up on gas. I mean we did see you running several promotions on the fuel side. So I was curious if there is any way to quantify gas' contribution to traffic in the quarter and what kind of a customer it is bringing in, if it's any different versus your average customer that's signing up right now?

祝賀一個好季度。我確實有關於氣體的後續行動。我的意思是我們確實看到你在燃料方面進行了幾次促銷活動。所以我很好奇是否有任何方法可以量化天然氣對本季度流量的貢獻以及它帶來了什麼樣的客戶，如果它與你現在註冊的普通客戶有什麼不同？

And then secondly, as you're building inventory and accelerating receipts, you did say limited markdown risk based on what you're seeing today. But I was just wondering how much have you factored in a potential further weakening of the consumer, both at the lower end but also potentially at the mid- to higher-end consumers.

其次，當你建立庫存和加速收貨時，你確實根據你今天所看到的情況說降價風險有限。但我只是想知道你在多大程度上考慮了消費者可能進一步走弱的因素，無論是在低端消費者還是潛在的中高端消費者。

Yes. Thanks, Krisztina. Let me take the gas question first. So we've seen tremendous gains in gallons and traffic. As you see that, we expect that to continue going forward. And it's it's about -- as I said earlier, it's about showing members the best value we can every day. I don't particularly care if we make a ton of money in the gas business in any week or day or a quarter or a year. I care that we use that as an avenue to get people into our buildings, right? And it is the most understood commodity in the world because there's a price in on every street corner. So people understand what a good gas price is and what a bad one is. We try and put good ones up there every single day.

是的。謝謝，克里斯蒂娜。讓我先回答一下煤氣問題。因此，我們已經看到加侖和流量的巨大收益。正如你所看到的，我們預計這種情況會繼續向前發展。它是關於 - 正如我之前所說，它是關於向會員展示我們每天所能提供的最佳價值。我並不特別關心我們是否在任何一周、一天、一個季度或一年內在天然氣行業中賺了一大筆錢。我關心我們用它作為讓人們進入我們的建築物的途徑，對嗎？它是世界上最廣為人知的商品，因為每個街角都有價格。所以人們明白什麼是好的gas價格，什麼是壞的。我們每天都嘗試把好的東西放在那裡。

The big thing for us over the past periods of time is how do you show even more value. Are there ways to tie the box together with the gas station in a more meaningful way? Bill's great ideas several years ago of giving people a $0.10 per gallon gas discount with the co-branded credit card has been a stalwart in that effort. When we get people into our co-branded credit card, we effectively get all of their gas purchases. They really love that benefit. And as you said, we've done several promotions for a couple of years now, actually, trying to further that tie between the box and the club. So we have promotions where you buy particular items inside the box and you can get $0.10 per item off -- at the pumps. Those are funded by our suppliers. We do other ones where if you have a certain basket size. You get a certain discount on gas. Again, some of those are funded by our suppliers. It's really all about showing the best value, knowing that people sometimes make on economic decisions about gas, it's a very emotional purchase, and we're trying to take advantage of that by showing great value every day and then even better value when you get into the store.

在過去的一段時間裡，對我們來說最重要的是你如何表現出更大的價值。有沒有辦法以更有意義的方式將盒子與加油站綁在一起？比爾幾年前提出的用聯合品牌信用卡為人們提供每加侖汽油 0.10 美元的折扣的好主意一直是這項努力的堅定支持者。當我們讓人們使用我們的聯名信用卡時，我們有效地獲得了他們購買的所有汽油。他們真的很喜歡這種好處。正如你所說，我們已經進行了幾年的促銷活動，實際上，試圖進一步加強盒子和俱樂部之間的聯繫。因此，我們推出了促銷活動，您可以在包裝盒內購買特定商品，每件商品可享受 0.10 美元的折扣——在泵上。這些由我們的供應商資助。如果您有一定的籃子尺寸，我們會做其他的。您可以獲得一定的汽油折扣。同樣，其中一些是由我們的供應商資助的。這真的是為了展示最大的價值，知道人們有時會做出關於天然氣的經濟決策，這是一個非常情緒化的購買，我們試圖通過每天展示巨大的價值來利用這一點，然後當你得到更好的價值時進店。

So we'll continue to do that. We'll continue to balance the traffic and membership gains that we get from that with the overall profitability of the business. But again, we're always going to bet on membership and traffic, not gas profit.

所以我們將繼續這樣做。我們將繼續平衡我們從中獲得的流量和會員收益與業務的整體盈利能力。但同樣，我們總是會賭會員資格和流量，而不是汽油利潤。

As you think about inventory, again, we've talked about being a little bit higher than we would have liked. Again, some of that inflation, some of it the food business, which was wholly intentional, the GM business is a touch high at this point but not dramatically so. And we don't see tremendous markdown liability at this point in time. We have taken our best look at that given what we see from our membership cohorts at this point in time. And that continues to be our best guess. We are modeling Q2 to look a little bit like Q1 from a spending perspective. So a little bit of weakness in the bottom part of the house and then some strength in the top part of that. So that's how we thought the year would play out. It's certainly how it's going now. And I don't think that's different in Q2 than what we saw in Q1.

當您再次考慮庫存時，我們已經談到了比我們希望的要高一點。再一次，有些通貨膨脹，有些是食品業務，這完全是故意的，轉基因業務在這一點上有點高，但不是很明顯。而且我們目前還沒有看到巨大的降價責任。鑑於我們目前從會員群體中看到的情況，我們已經對此進行了最佳研究。這仍然是我們最好的猜測。從支出的角度來看，我們正在對 Q2 進行建模，使其看起來有點像 Q1。所以房子底部有一點弱點，然後頂部有一些力量。所以這就是我們認為這一年會如何結束的方式。這肯定是現在的情況。而且我認為第二季度的情況與我們在第一季度看到的情況沒有什麼不同。

We will now terminate our Q&A session, and this concludes today's call. I would like to thank everybody for joining. You may now disconnect.

我們現在將結束我們的問答環節，今天的電話會議到此結束。我要感謝大家的加入。您現在可以斷開連接。