Cheesecake Factory Inc (CAKE) 2022 Q2 法說會逐字稿

Good afternoon. My name is Emma, and I will be your conference operator today. At this time, I would like to welcome everyone to The Cheesecake Factory Second Quarter 2022 Earnings Conference Call. (Operator Instructions) Etienne Marcus, Vice President of Finance and Investor Relations, you may begin your conference.

下午好。我的名字是艾瑪，今天我將成為您的會議接線員。在這個時候，我想歡迎大家參加芝士蛋糕工廠 2022 年第二季度收益電話會議。 （操作員說明）財務和投資者關係副總裁 Etienne Marcus，您可以開始會議了。

Thank you. Good afternoon, and welcome to our second quarter fiscal 2022 earnings call. On the call with me today are David Overton, our Chairman and Chief Executive Officer; David Gordon, our President; and Matt Clark, our Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer.

謝謝你。下午好，歡迎參加我們的 2022 財年第二季度財報電話會議。今天與我通話的是我們的董事長兼首席執行官 David Overton；我們的總裁大衛·戈登；以及我們的執行副總裁兼首席財務官 Matt Clark。

Before we begin, let me quickly remind you that during this call, items will be discussed that are not based on historical fact and are considered forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Actual results could be materially different from those stated or implied in forward-looking statements as a result of the factors detailed in today's press release, which is available on our website at investors.thecheesecakefactory.com and in our filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. All forward-looking statements made on this call speak only as of today's date, and the company undertakes no duty to update any forward-looking statements.

在我們開始之前，讓我快速提醒您，在本次電話會議中，將討論不基於歷史事實且被視為 1995 年《私人證券訴訟改革法案》含義內的前瞻性陳述的項目。實際結果可能是重大的由於今天的新聞稿中詳述的因素，與前瞻性陳述中所述或暗示的不同，該新聞稿可在我們的網站 Investors.thecheesecakefactory.com 和我們向證券交易委員會提交的文件中查閱。本次電話會議上的所有前瞻性陳述僅在今天發表，公司不承擔更新任何前瞻性陳述的義務。

In addition, during this conference call, we will be presenting results on an adjusted basis, which exclude impairment of assets and lease terminations and acquisition-related contingent consideration, compensation and amortization expense. An explanation of our use of non-GAAP financial measures and reconciliations to the most directly comparable GAAP measures appear in our press release on our website as previously described.

此外，在本次電話會議期間，我們將公佈調整後的業績，其中不包括資產減值和租賃終止以及與收購相關的或有對價、補償和攤銷費用。如前所述，我們在我們網站上的新聞稿中解釋了我們使用非公認會計原則財務措施以及與最直接可比的公認會計原則措施的對賬。

David Overton will begin today's call with some opening remarks, and David Gordon will provide an operational update. Matt will then review our second quarter results and provide a financial update. Following that, we'll open the call to questions.

David Overton 將以一些開場白開始今天的電話會議，David Gordon 將提供運營更新。然後，馬特將審查我們的第二季度業績並提供財務更新。之後，我們將打開問題電話。

With that, I'll turn the call over to David Overton.

有了這個，我會把電話轉給大衛奧弗頓。

Thank you, Etienne. We were pleased with our overall sales performance with second quarter sales finishing within our expected range despite an increase in COVID-19 cases and consumer headwinds. Comparable sales at The Cheesecake Factory restaurants increased 4.7% in the second quarter of 2022 relative to the second quarter of 2021 and 13.1% versus the second quarter 2019. And once again, outperformed the broader casual dining industry. Our restaurants remain extremely busy with annualized unit volumes at The Cheesecake Factory restaurants, reaching $12.3 million for the quarter. These industry-leading volumes demonstrate that The Cheesecake Factory continues to be one of the most differentiated casual dining concepts.

謝謝你，艾蒂安。儘管 COVID-19 病例和消費者逆風有所增加，但我們對我們的整體銷售業績感到滿意，第二季度的銷售在我們的預期範圍內完成。與 2021 年第二季度相比，芝士蛋糕工廠餐廳的可比銷售額在 2022 年第二季度增長了 4.7%，與 2019 年第二季度相比增長了 13.1%。再次超越了更廣泛的休閒餐飲行業。我們的餐廳仍然非常忙碌，芝士蛋糕工廠餐廳的年化單位量達到了本季度的 1230 萬美元。這些行業領先的數量表明，芝士蛋糕工廠仍然是最具差異化的休閒餐飲概念之一。

Our unwavering focus on menu innovation, service, hospitality and operational excellence enables us to maintain broad demographic appeal and relevance. On Saturday, we're launching our newest flavor of Cheesecake, Classic Basque Cheesecake, a unique crustless cheesecake with a burnt top and an ultra-creamy custard-like center. The Cheesecake Factory's version is a classic recipe covered with fresh berries and with cream. In addition, our new summer menu rollout began this week as we lean into one of our key competitive differentiators, our distinctive menu to drive incremental sales.

我們堅定不移地專注於菜單創新、服務、款待和卓越運營，使我們能夠保持廣泛的人口吸引力和相關性。週六，我們將推出我們最新口味的芝士蛋糕，經典巴斯克芝士蛋糕，這是一款獨特的無殼芝士蛋糕，頂部有焦糊，中間有奶油般的奶油凍。芝士蛋糕工廠的版本是一個經典的食譜，上面覆蓋著新鮮的漿果和奶油。此外，我們在本週開始推出新的夏季菜單，因為我們傾向於利用我們的主要競爭優勢之一，即我們獨特的菜單來推動銷量增長。

Turning to development. All of the sites we have been working on remain active in our pipeline. However, opening dates continue to be affected by supply chain challenges and permanent approval delays. As such, we now expect to open as many as 15 new restaurants in fiscal year 2022, including 4 Cheesecake Factory restaurants, 4 North Italia's and 7 other FRC restaurants, including 3 Flower Child locations. We also currently expect one Cheesecake Factory restaurant to open internationally under our licensing agreement. Despite these timing challenges, which are out of our control, we remain on track to achieve our annual unit growth goal of 7% next year.

轉向發展。我們一直在努力的所有網站都在我們的管道中保持活躍。然而，開放日期繼續受到供應鏈挑戰和永久批准延遲的影響。因此，我們現在預計將在 2022 財年開設多達 15 家新餐廳，包括 4 家 Cheesecake Factory 餐廳、4 家 North Italia's 和 7 家其他 FRC 餐廳，其中包括 3 家 Flower Child 餐廳。我們目前還預計一家芝士蛋糕工廠餐廳將根據我們的許可協議在國際上開業。儘管存在這些我們無法控制的時間挑戰，但我們仍有望實現明年 7% 的年度單位增長目標。

As I stated on our last earnings call, I recognize that the environment is dynamic, and we continue to face substantial challenges marked by high commodity inflation, a tight labor market and further supply chain disruptions. Despite these headwinds, we remain committed to protecting our 4-wall margins over time, and we will adjust pricing to support this objective. To that point, we are in the process of implementing a 4.25% price increase with our summer menu change, and we will continue to closely monitor the inflationary environment to determine what level of additional pricing may be needed.

正如我在上次財報電話會議上所說，我認識到環境是動態的，我們繼續面臨以高商品通脹、勞動力市場緊張和供應鏈進一步中斷為特徵的重大挑戰。儘管存在這些不利因素，但我們仍致力於隨著時間的推移保護我們的 4 壁式利潤率，我們將調整定價以支持這一目標。在這一點上，我們正在通過夏季菜單更改實施 4.25% 的價格上漲，我們將繼續密切關注通脹環境，以確定可能需要什麼水平的額外定價。

With that, I'll now turn the call over to David Gordon.

有了這個，我現在將把電話轉給大衛戈登。

Thank you, David. Our solid sales results for the quarter highlights our best-in-class operators, proven capability to execute effectively and to capture incremental sales. Operationally, our teams managed their restaurants well, exceeding our expectations across key performance indicators, including food efficiency and labor productivity. Our ability to adequately staff restaurants has been imperative to our operational execution and to capturing those incremental sales.

謝謝你，大衛。我們本季度穩健的銷售業績突出了我們一流的運營商、有效執行和捕獲增量銷售的能力。在運營方面，我們的團隊很好地管理了他們的餐廳，在包括食品效率和勞動生產率在內的關鍵績效指標上超出了我們的預期。我們為餐廳配備充足員工的能力對於我們的運營執行和捕捉這些增量銷售至關重要。

While we continue to encounter some pockets of staffing challenges, our overall staffing levels continue to improve throughout the quarter. Specifically, June hourly applicant flow increased to record levels, well above pre-pandemic totals, contributing to the highest number of hourly new hires in any single month so far this year. Combined with improvement in our industry-leading retention, we now have 3% higher hourly staffing in pre-pandemic levels. And as of July, hourly staffing needs are at record lows.

雖然我們繼續遇到一些人員配備挑戰，但我們的整體人員配備水平在整個季度繼續提高。具體來說，6 月份的每小時申請人流量增加到創紀錄的水平，遠高於大流行前的總數，這是今年迄今為止任何單月每小時新員工人數最多的原因。再加上我們行業領先的保留率的提高，我們現在的時薪員工人數比大流行前的水平提高了 3%。截至 7 月，每小時的人員需求處於創紀錄的低點。

We believe our staffing success is a key contributor to the sequential improvement of our dine-in guest satisfaction scores. Industry research continues to confirm the importance of service to the guest experience and overall restaurant performance. The Cheesecake Factory off-premise channel trend remains solid, with second quarter sales accounting for 25% of total sales, and the annualized second quarter average weekly sales for this channel continued to trend close to twice the 2019 annual levels.

我們相信，我們的員工配備成功是我們就餐客人滿意度得分連續提高的關鍵因素。行業研究繼續證實服務對客人體驗和餐廳整體績效的重要性。 Cheesecake Factory 異地渠道趨勢保持穩健，第二季度銷售額佔總銷售額的 25%，該渠道的年化第二季度平均每週銷售額繼續接近 2019 年年度水平的兩倍。

Now turning to North Italia. Second quarter comparable sales grew 12% versus 2021 and 22% versus 2019, with improvements in all day parts and all geographies. Annualized unit volumes for North Italia mature locations averaged over $9 million for the quarter. Despite the impact of high inflation, the second quarter 4-wall margin improved to 16.4% for the adjusted mature locations. And for the total brand, 4-wall margin is near 13% as we made progress towards our goal as our pricing strategy is effectively 1 quarter ahead of The Cheesecake Factory's.

現在轉向意大利北部。第二季度可比銷售額與 2021 年相比增長了 12%，與 2019 年相比增長了 22%，全天部分和所有地區都有所改善。本季度意大利北部成熟地區的年化單位銷量平均超過 900 萬美元。儘管受到高通脹的影響，調整後的成熟地區第二季度的 4 壁式利潤率提高到 16.4%。對於整個品牌，4 壁式利潤率接近 13%，因為我們在實現目標方面取得了進展，因為我們的定價策略實際上比芝士蛋糕工廠的定價策略領先 1 個季度。

FRC drove similarly strong top line and profitability performance during the second quarter. And additionally, 2 weeks ago, FRC opened the first brick-and-mortar location of Fly Bye, their newest fast casual dining concept, offering Detroit enhanced stretch style pizza and crispy chicken. Fly Bye started as a pop-up ghost kitchen inside one of the existing FRC culinary dropout locations during their early stages of the pandemic. Sales for the first 2 weeks are exceeding our expectations, and FRC is planning to open one more Fly Bye later this year. Both locations that are currently open are in the Phoenix market. We continue to believe that differentiated concepts and emerging brands FRC develops will drive meaningful growth moving forward.

FRC 在第二季度推動了同樣強勁的收入和盈利表現。此外，兩週前，FRC 開設了第一家實體店 Fly Bye，這是他們最新的快速休閒餐飲概念，提供底特律增強型彈力披薩和脆皮雞。 Fly Bye 最初是在大流行的早期階段，在現有的 FRC 烹飪輟學地點之一內的一個彈出式幽靈廚房。前兩週的銷售額超出了我們的預期，FRC 計劃在今年晚些時候再開一家 Fly Bye。目前開放的兩個地點都在鳳凰市場。我們仍然相信 FRC 開發的差異化概念和新興品牌將推動有意義的增長。

And with that, I will now turn the call over to Matt for our financial review.

有了這個，我現在將把電話轉給馬特進行財務審查。

Thank you, David. During the second quarter, along with the broader restaurant industry, we faced substantially higher inflationary headwinds than we had initially anticipated. Specifically, commodity inflation was 200 basis points higher, primarily driven by spot pricing in the dairy and produce categories. In addition, hourly wage inflation, utilities and restaurant repairs and maintenance were higher than expected. These combined costs totaled approximately $13 million or $0.24 of EPS in the quarter and account for the majority of the variance to expectations.

謝謝你，大衛。在第二季度，與更廣泛的餐飲業一起，我們面臨的通脹阻力遠高於我們最初的預期。具體而言，商品通脹高出 200 個基點，主要受乳製品和農產品類別現貨定價的推動。此外，小時工資通脹、公用事業和餐廳維修保養高於預期。這些綜合成本在本季度總計約為 1300 萬美元或每股收益 0.24 美元，佔預期差異的大部分。

Turning to some specific details around the quarter. Second quarter comparable sales at The Cheesecake Factory restaurants increased 4.7% year-over-year. Revenue contribution from North Italia and FRC totaled $146.5 million. North Italia comparable sales increased 12% year-over-year. Sales per operating week at FRC, including Flower Child, were approximately $116,000. And including $14.2 million in external bakery sales, total revenues were $832.6 million during the second quarter of fiscal 2022.

轉向本季度的一些具體細節。 The Cheesecake Factory 餐廳第二季度的可比銷售額同比增長 4.7%。來自北意大利和 FRC 的收入貢獻總計 1.465 億美元。北意大利可比銷售額同比增長 12%。 FRC 每週營業的銷售額（包括 Flower Child）約為 116,000 美元。包括 1420 萬美元的外部麵包店銷售額在內，2022 財年第二季度的總收入為 8.326 億美元。

Now moving to expenses. Cost of sales increased by 250 basis points, primarily driven by significantly higher commodity inflation than menu pricing. Labor increased 90 basis points, predominantly driven by higher wages compared to the prior year period. Other operating expenses increased 40 basis points, primarily driven by higher utility costs, which are mostly inflation related and lapping lower general insurance claim activity. G&A as a percentage of sales declined 30 basis points primarily due to a lower bonus accrual. And preopening costs were $2.9 million in the quarter compared to $2.8 million in the prior year period.

現在轉向開支。銷售成本增加了 250 個基點，主要是由於商品通脹率明顯高於菜單定價。勞動力增加了 90 個基點，主要是由於與去年同期相比工資上漲。其他運營費用增加了 40 個基點，主要是由於公用事業成本增加，這主要與通貨膨脹有關，並且一般保險索賠活動減少。 G&A 佔銷售額的百分比下降了 30 個基點，主要是由於應計獎金減少。本季度的開業前成本為 290 萬美元，而去年同期為 280 萬美元。

We opened 2 restaurants during the second quarter versus 3 openings in the second quarter last year. And finally, in the second quarter, we reported an after-tax $0.8 million charge primarily associated with FRC acquisition-related items. Second quarter GAAP diluted net income per common share was $0.50. Adjusted net income per share was $0.52.

我們在第二季度開了 2 家餐廳，而去年第二季度開了 3 家。最後，在第二季度，我們報告了主要與 FRC 收購相關項目相關的 80 萬美元稅後費用。第二季度 GAAP 攤薄後每股普通股淨收益為 0.50 美元。調整後的每股淨收益為 0.52 美元。

Now turning to our cash flow and balance sheet. The company generated approximately $54 million of cash flow from operating activities during the second quarter, with ending total available liquidity of approximately $433 million, including a cash balance of about $195 million and over $238 million available on our revolving credit facility. Total debt outstanding remained at $475 million. CapEx totaled approximately $17 million during the second quarter for new unit development and maintenance. And we completed approximately $11 million in share repurchases and returned just over $14 million to shareholders via our dividend during the quarter.

現在轉向我們的現金流和資產負債表。該公司在第二季度從經營活動中產生了約 5400 萬美元的現金流，期末可用流動資金總額約為 4.33 億美元，其中包括約 1.95 億美元的現金餘額和超過 2.38 億美元的循環信貸額度。未償債務總額仍為 4.75 億美元。第二季度的資本支出總額約為 1700 萬美元，用於新設備的開發和維護。我們在本季度完成了大約 1100 萬美元的股票回購，並通過我們的股息向股東返還了超過 1400 萬美元。

While we will not be providing specific comparable sales and earnings guidance, given the operating environment continues to be very dynamic, we will provide our updated thoughts on our underlying assumptions for the balance of 2022, including some timing nuances similar to last quarter. Based on our second quarter performance, more recent trends and including the impact, the latest COVID-19 virus resurgence is having, we continue to anticipate total revenues for the year to be between approximately $3.32 billion to $3.37 billion, with Cheesecake Factory AUVs reaching $12 million. As a reminder, this includes the impact of a 53rd operating week in fiscal 2022. Taking a similar approach for the third quarter, we would anticipate total revenue to be between $785 million and $805 million.

雖然我們不會提供具體的可比銷售和盈利指導，但鑑於運營環境仍然非常活躍，我們將提供我們對 2022 年剩餘時間基本假設的最新想法，包括與上一季度類似的一些時間細微差別。根據我們第二季度的表現、最近的趨勢以及最新的 COVID-19 病毒捲土重來的影響，我們繼續預計今年的總收入將在 33.2 億美元至 33.7 億美元之間，芝士蛋糕工廠 AUV 達到 12 美元百萬。提醒一下，這包括 2022 財年第 53 個運營週的影響。對第三季度採取類似的方法，我們預計總收入將在 7.85 億美元至 8.05 億美元之間。

Next, for the year, we now expect commodity inflation of about 14% to 15% on an annual basis, which represents approximately a 200 to 300 basis point increase over our prior outlook and is directionally in line with headline CPI increases we observed during the quarter. We are now modeling year-over-year commodities pressure to be around 1% higher than the annual average in the third quarter and around 1% lower than the annual average for the fourth quarter.

接下來，對於今年，我們現在預計大宗商品的年通脹率約為 14% 至 15%，這比我們之前的展望增加了約 200 至 300 個基點，並且與我們觀察到的整體 CPI 增長方向一致四分之一。我們現在將大宗商品的同比壓力建模為比第三季度的年均值高出約 1%，比第四季度的年均值低約 1%。

The labor market also continues to be dynamic with many complex moving parts. Inclusive of known minimum wage increases, we are modeling net total labor inflation of about 5% for the back half when factoring latest trends in wage rates, channel mix as well as other components of labor. Given the inflationary outlook for energy and services, we now expect other operating expenses to be in the low to mid-26% range for the third quarter. And with the full benefit of pricing, we still anticipate ending the year at approximately 25% of sales in the fourth quarter.

勞動力市場也繼續充滿活力，有許多複雜的活動部分。包括已知的最低工資增長在內，在考慮工資率、渠道組合以及勞動力的其他組成部分的最新趨勢時，我們對後半部的淨勞動力總通脹率建模約為 5%。鑑於能源和服務的通脹前景，我們現在預計第三季度其他運營費用將在 26% 的中低位。憑藉定價的全部優勢，我們仍預計年底第四季度銷售額將達到約 25%。

As David mentioned, we remain committed to protecting our longer-term 4-wall margins. However, there remains measurable risk associated with cost fluctuations driven by the current environment. Given the additional inflationary pressures we are experiencing, we are in the process of implementing about a 4.25% menu price increase, which, as previously anticipated, is measurably above our current level and is supportive of our margin objectives. The additional menu price increase would put the year-over-year pricing close to 7.5% once fully deployed. Keep in mind, the third quarter will only receive about half of the benefit of the incremental price based on the timing of our menu rollout.

正如大衛所說，我們仍然致力於保護我們長期的 4 壁利潤。然而，當前環境驅動的成本波動仍然存在可衡量的風險。鑑於我們正在經歷的額外通脹壓力，我們正在實施約 4.25% 的菜單價格上漲，正如之前預期的那樣，這明顯高於我們目前的水平，並支持我們的利潤率目標。一旦完全部署，額外的菜單價格上漲將使同比價格接近 7.5%。請記住，根據我們推出菜單的時間，第三季度只會獲得大約一半的增量價格收益。

We now anticipate G&A for Q3 to be around $52 million and approximately $55 million to $56 million for the fourth quarter, which as a reminder, includes an extra week this year. Our preopening assumption remains unchanged at $18 million for the year to support our development plans with approximately $6 million in the third quarter and $7 million in the fourth quarter. Finally, we expect about $91 million in depreciation for the full year. And for modeling purposes, we're using a tax rate of 9% to 10% for the balance of the year.

我們現在預計第三季度的 G&A 約為 5200 萬美元，第四季度約為 5500 萬至 5600 萬美元，提醒一下，今年包括額外的一周。我們的開業前假設保持不變，全年為 1800 萬美元，以支持我們的發展計劃，第三季度約為 600 萬美元，第四季度約為 700 萬美元。最後，我們預計全年折舊約為 9100 萬美元。出於建模目的，我們對當年餘額使用 9% 到 10% 的稅率。

With regard to development, we plan to open as many as 15 new restaurants this year with 3 currently planned to open in the third quarter. We would now anticipate approximately $140 million in CapEx to support this level of unit development as well as required maintenance on our restaurants. Note that this includes some CapEx for locations that have shifted into 2023. In addition, keep in mind that we have reinstated our stock buyback program and have declared 2 dividends.

發展方面，我們計劃今年新開15家餐廳，目前計劃在第三季度開設3家。我們現在預計將有大約 1.4 億美元的資本支出來支持這種水平的單位開發以及我們餐廳所需的維護。請注意，這包括已轉移到 2023 年的地點的一些資本支出。此外，請記住，我們已經恢復了股票回購計劃並宣布了 2 次股息。

In closing, despite the many unprecedented challenges encountered during the first half of this year, we are still progressing towards our primary financial objectives for 2022. Specifically, we may be starting to see some early signs that inflation has peaked, including the lowest level of year-over-year wage inflation so far this year and a commodities outlook, in which we are more booked now about 75% for the back half and that calls for approximately 250 basis points of declining inflation between now and the end of the year. If these trends continue, coupled with our higher menu pricing, we will still be on track to exit this year with 4-wall margins at 2019 levels.

最後，儘管今年上半年遇到了許多前所未有的挑戰，但我們仍在朝著 2022 年的主要財務目標前進。具體而言，我們可能開始看到通脹已經見頂的一些早期跡象，包括最低水平的今年到目前為止的同比工資通脹和大宗商品前景，我們現在對下半年的預訂量增加了約 75%，這要求從現在到年底之間通脹下降約 250 個基點。如果這些趨勢繼續下去，再加上我們更高的菜單定價，我們今年仍有望以 2019 年水平的 4 壁利潤率退出。

In addition, even including the impact of sales, the latest virus resurgence appears to be having, not dissimilar to the earlier Omicron and Delta waves, the midpoint of our total annual sales outlook has remained unchanged from the beginning of the year at approximately $3.35 billion. Thus, with the strength of our operations team, our brands and our balance sheet, we believe we remain well positioned to take market share and grow shareholder value over time.

此外，即使包括銷售的影響，最新的病毒捲土重來似乎與早先的 Omicron 和 Delta 浪潮沒有什麼不同，我們年度總銷售額前景的中點與年初相比保持不變，約為 33.5 億美元.因此，憑藉我們的運營團隊、品牌和資產負債表的實力，我們相信我們仍處於有利地位，可以隨著時間的推移佔據市場份額並增加股東價值。

And with that said, operator, we'll now take questions.

話雖如此，接線員，我們現在將回答問題。

(Operator Instructions) Your first question today comes from the line of Nicole Miller with Piper Sandler.

（操作員說明）您今天的第一個問題來自 Nicole Miller 和 Piper Sandler。

And thank you so much for the update. Clearly, a lot, I guess, you should call it outside of your control, so asking a question in the bucket of inside of your control. Can you talk about development? I mean I was revisiting some past recession period and probably for different reasons at that time. It was Cheesecake growth, and it did slow. In this case now, it's North Italia that's really the growth engine. So how do we think about if things were to weaken, what you want to do in terms of the growth opportunity in the short term there, please?

非常感謝您的更新。顯然，很多，我猜，你應該在你的控制之外調用它，所以在你的控制範圍內問一個問題。能談談發展嗎？我的意思是我正在重新審視過去的經濟衰退時期，當時可能出於不同的原因。這是芝士蛋糕的增長，而且確實很慢。在這種情況下，真正的增長引擎是意大利北部。那麼我們如何考慮如果事情減弱，你想在短期內的增長機會方面做什麼？

Nicole, it's Matt. I'll just start kind of on a financial perspective. We have $195 million in the bank. We believe in the long-term unit economics of these brands. We are building on the margin improvements in all of them. And we believe that we're going to move forward with all of our development goals at this point in time. We have purposely kept the balance sheet remarkably strong. And we really believe that if there is a downturn, it will be shorter and shallower and that there will be a lot of market opportunity to take. And then maybe that will be a good turning point. And so all of the sites that we have, we continue to move forward with.

妮可，我是馬特。我將從財務角度開始。我們在銀行里有 1.95 億美元。我們相信這些品牌的長期單位經濟效益。我們正在所有這些方面都在提高利潤率。我們相信，我們將在這個時間點推進我們所有的發展目標。我們故意保持資產負債表非常強勁。而且我們真的相信，如果出現低迷，它會更短更淺，並且會有很多市場機會可以抓住。然後也許這將是一個很好的轉折點。所以我們擁有的所有網站，我們都會繼續前進。

And in aggregate, as we look at across the next couple of years, I don't think I have seen a time where we had more sites in total that we were moving forward with. So we really don't have any plans to pull back or see the need to do so at this point.

總的來說，正如我們在接下來的幾年中所看到的那樣，我認為我沒有看到我們總共擁有更多我們正在推進的網站的時候。因此，我們目前確實沒有任何撤退的計劃或認為有必要這樣做。

And then just can you remind us of the cohort, I guess, by income cross-sold income profile? I'm thinking specifically at cake, but if you have it for North Italia as well. Of course, cross-sell brands were trying to understand a lower income versus higher income user and then the frequency of those cohorts. Is there anything you could share on that, please?

然後你能提醒我們按收入交叉銷售的收入概況嗎？我特別想的是蛋糕，但如果你也有意大利北部的蛋糕的話。當然，交叉銷售品牌試圖了解收入較低的用戶與收入較高的用戶，然後再了解這些人群的頻率。請問有什麼可以分享的嗎？

Sure, Nicole, it's Matt again. I think the first thing is we definitely skew higher income, higher education, higher tech savvy. We're on average, over $100,000 in income. Obviously, for particularly for Cheesecake Factory, all of the locations are in the best neighborhoods in the entire country. And so we're surrounded by the best neighborhoods as well as usually business foot traffic. And so I think we're probably as insulated as anyone. And I would say the same actually for North and FRC. It shares a very similar cohort in that regard.

當然，妮可，又是馬特。我認為第一件事是我們肯定會偏向更高的收入、更高的教育、更高的技術知識。我們的平均收入超過 100,000 美元。顯然，特別是對於芝士蛋糕工廠來說，所有地點都位於全國最好的街區。因此，我們周圍環繞著最好的社區以及通常的商業步行交通。所以我認為我們可能和任何人一樣絕緣。對於 North 和 FRC，我也會這麼說。在這方面，它有一個非常相似的隊列。

We do get some special occasion guests. But what we've seen historically is those guests still want to come in for an anniversary or birthday regardless, right, because you still need to treat yourself even in a downtime. So I think that we are in a good position. And I'd just remind everybody, we still have tremendous value in The Cheesecake Factory menu too. We have items ranging from $5 or $6 to $30, and the large portions make it incredibly shareable. And so people can navigate with our menu, I think, in a very different way.

我們確實有一些特殊場合的客人。但是我們從歷史上看到的是，那些客人仍然想進來慶祝週年紀念日或生日，對吧，因為即使在停機時間你仍然需要犒勞自己。所以我認為我們處於一個很好的位置。我想提醒大家，我們在芝士蛋糕工廠菜單中仍然具有巨大的價值。我們的商品價格從 5 美元或 6 美元到 30 美元不等，而且大部分商品都非常易於分享。因此，我認為人們可以以非常不同的方式瀏覽我們的菜單。

And certainly, the last thing because I think this question will come up too, what we have seen historically, if there is a little bit of a dip is remind people that our #1 competitor are the white table cloth independent mom-and-pops. And I think we probably will be able to take some market share because we're keeping so much value in the prices that those groups have had to take in their menu is substantially more than what we're taking. And so if anything, we're in a better competitive spot than before.

當然，最後一件事，因為我認為這個問題也會出現，我們從歷史上看到的，如果有一點下降，就會提醒人們我們的第一名競爭對手是白色桌布獨立媽媽和流行音樂.而且我認為我們可能能夠獲得一些市場份額，因為我們在價格上保持瞭如此高的價值，以至於這些團體不得不在他們的菜單中接受的價格遠遠超過我們接受的價格。因此，如果有的話，我們比以前處於更好的競爭地位。

Your next question comes from the line of Sharon Zackfia with William Blair.

您的下一個問題來自莎朗·扎克菲亞（Sharon Zackfia）和威廉·布萊爾（William Blair）的台詞。

I guess just talking about the consumer demand perspective. I think you're the first call I've been on as mentioned the new variant impacting sales. So can you kind of provide some color on what you're seeing there and if there's any regionality to that? And then secondarily, within the quarter itself, it seems like you may have seen kind of a greater slowdown, if you will, towards the back half of the quarter than some of us had expected. Do you think you are starting to see some fallout from lower income consumers? Is there anything you can look at from an average check perspective to see if there's fewer appetizers or fewer beverage attached? And then I guess, lastly, just to kind of round all of this out, what are your thoughts right now on kind of price elasticity of demand as you go into this next price round?

我想只是談論消費者需求的角度。我認為您是我第一次接到電話，因為提到了影響銷售的新變體。那麼你能提供一些關於你在那裡看到的東西的顏色嗎？如果有任何地區性嗎？其次，在本季度本身，如果你願意的話，在本季度的後半段，你可能已經看到了比我們一些人預期的更大的放緩。您是否認為您開始看到來自低收入消費者的一些影響？您是否可以從平均檢查的角度查看是否有更少的開胃菜或更少的飲料？然後我想，最後，為了把所有這些都弄清楚，當你進入下一輪價格時，你現在對需求的價格彈性有什麼看法？

Sure. Sharon, it's Matt. So I think I took good enough notes to get to every point here. So if I -- no, no. I think they're all good questions, right? And I think they're all very relevant and tied together. So the first thing I would say is we went back and we looked at the last 16 months or so of sales. And there is a very high correlation that you can track to the movement of the virus. And when you see more cases, I mean, as I think it's been documented previously. But keep in mind, one, now cases are probably under counted by a factor of 10, if you read any of the medical journals because everybody is testing at home.

當然。莎倫，我是馬特。所以我認為我做了足夠好的筆記來理解這裡的每一點。所以如果我——不，不。我認為他們都是很好的問題，對吧？我認為它們都非常相關並且聯繫在一起。所以我要說的第一件事是我們回去看看過去 16 個月左右的銷售額。並且您可以跟踪病毒的移動具有非常高的相關性。當您看到更多案例時，我的意思是，因為我認為之前已經記錄過了。但請記住，如果您閱讀任何醫學期刊，因為每個人都在家裡進行測試，現在病例可能被低估了 10 倍。

But when you see the cases move up, you see sales come down. And then when you see the cases go down, you see the sales go up, probably higher than what is the sustainable level. We've seen this happen over time when it's like holidays get moved. And people will go out on the holiday and then maybe they don't go out as much the next day or the next week. And it's kind of the same phenomenon. So we ran a regression against the trend by week over the last 16 months. And what we see for our business is that we keep returning to 2019 plus pricing levels. So back when we had our last call, I think in April, we were running above that. And we said that. We said we don't anticipate that we can continue to run 3% to 4% above that level because that's just not what the trends are pointing to.

但是，當您看到案件數量增加時，您會看到銷售額下降。然後當你看到案件下降時，你會看到銷售額上升，可能高於可持續水平。我們已經看到這種情況隨著時間的推移而發生，就像假期一樣。人們會在假期外出，然後可能第二天或下週他們就不會出去了。這是一種相同的現象。因此，我們在過去 16 個月中按週對趨勢進行了回歸。我們看到我們的業務是我們不斷回到 2019 年加上定價水平。所以當我們最後一次打電話時，我想是在四月份，我們已經超越了這一點。我們是這麼說的。我們說我們預計我們不能繼續在該水平之上運行 3% 到 4%，因為這不是趨勢所指向的。

And then the same thing, I think, happens on the downside when we've -- in the first quarter in January, we ran measurably below where we ended up, but it rebounded as we went through the quarter and people were able to get back out. So for example, in the quarter, in the second quarter in June, we pretty much ran at 2019 plus pricing. We were right on our plan, right? And so I think it's just a matter of comparison one of those periods to the other period where it might be hot or might be not. And when we look at the trends, I think we're able to see those pockets that are moving up and down based on case counts, whether it's in California and here in L.A. County, they're talking about going back on a mass mandate, if you can believe it. And we can see the sales performance, both in the beginning when it starts to go down, but also when it starts to come back up.

然後，我認為，同樣的事情也會發生在不利的一面，因為我們在 1 月份的第一季度，我們的運行水平明顯低於最終的水平，但隨著我們整個季度的過去，它反彈了，人們能夠得到退出。因此，例如，在本季度，在 6 月的第二季度，我們幾乎以 2019 年的價格運行。我們的計劃是對的，對吧？所以我認為這只是將其中一個時期與另一個可能很熱或可能不熱的時期進行比較的問題。當我們觀察趨勢時，我認為我們能夠看到那些根據病例數上下移動的口袋，無論是在加利福尼亞還是在洛杉磯縣，他們都在談論重新執行大規模任務，如果你能相信的話。我們可以看到銷售業績，無論是在開始下降時，還是在開始回升時。

And so when we see a recession, we see much more broad-based, but even sort of smaller declines. And this has been much more regional pockets to kind of go up and down a little bit based on that. What we haven't seen is any trade down. The check averages remains right on the year-over-year trend. The attachments are all right on. Desserts continue to be a big driver for us. I would imagine that would be true of our new Cheesecake. So I mean, I think that we feel like it reverts to the mean over time depending on the scenario, and that's what we've seen happen at each of the last 5 quarters.

因此，當我們看到經濟衰退時，我們會看到範圍更廣、甚至更小的跌幅。在此基礎上，這已經是更多的區域性口袋可以上下波動了。我們還沒有看到任何交易下降。檢查平均值保持在同比趨勢上。附件都正常了。甜點仍然是我們的一大推動力。我想我們的新芝士蛋糕也是如此。所以我的意思是，我認為我們感覺它會隨著時間的推移恢復到平均值，這取決於情景，這就是我們在過去 5 個季度的每個季度都看到的情況。

I think with price elasticity, as I mentioned in Nicole's question, we have so much flexibility in the menu that historically, we were able to capture price and guests can decide how much they're going to spend and they can share. The other thing importantly, we remain -- even as we move to the 7.5% pricing, that will put us about 1.5% below the full service average in June, which guarantee will go higher based on everybody needing to catch up a little bit more. So I think competitively, we remain in a really good spot. And again, as I'll just reiterate, as we compete against the independents, who likely have even more inflation because they don't have the scale of The Cheesecake Factory, I think we'll probably be even more competitive and be able to fully capture our pricing and keep those guest trends such that we see that 2019 plus pricing trend.

我認為價格彈性，正如我在妮可的問題中提到的，我們在菜單上有很大的靈活性，從歷史上看，我們能夠捕捉價格，客人可以決定他們要花多少錢，他們可以分享。另一件重要的事情是，我們保持不變——即使我們轉向 7.5% 的定價，這將使我們比 6 月份的全面服務平均水平低 1.5% 左右，根據每個人都需要趕上一點，這保證會更高.所以我認為在競爭中，我們仍然處於一個非常好的位置。再說一次，正如我要重申的那樣，當我們與獨立企業競爭時，他們可能會有更多的通貨膨脹，因為他們沒有芝士蛋糕工廠的規模，我認為我們可能會更有競爭力並且能夠完全捕捉我們的定價並保持這些客人趨勢，以便我們看到 2019 年以上的定價趨勢。

Your next question comes from the line of Jared Garber with Goldman Sachs.

您的下一個問題來自高盛集團的 Jared Garber。

Matt, I was wondering if you could just help frame for us the components of the comp, just to make sure we have the price and the traffic mix understood for The Cheesecake Factory. I know that the traffic and the mix components separately are driving a little bit different just on the -- as the off-premise business normalizes. But I was hoping you could give us a little bit more color there, just so we can understand maybe if there is some declines in traffic. And then I wanted to follow up with some of the commentary from the last couple of quarters about a loyalty program or a CRM program that you guys have been working on and maybe where you are with that, and how that might help stem potential future traffic losses in an environment where consumer spending is decelerating.

馬特，我想知道你是否可以幫助我們構建組合的組件，以確保我們了解芝士蛋糕工廠的價格和流量組合。我知道，隨著場外業務的正常化，流量和混合組件分別在驅動方面略有不同。但我希望你能給我們更多的色彩，這樣我們就可以理解流量是否有所下降。然後我想跟進過去幾個季度的一些評論，關於你們一直在研究的忠誠度計劃或 CRM 計劃，也許你們在哪裡，以及這可能如何幫助阻止潛在的未來流量在消費者支出減速的環境中造成損失。

Sure, Jared. This is Matt. I'll answer the first part and then hand it to David Gordon. It is a little bit of a funny math, as you pointed out with the whole to go business and the way that we count it as one guest per transaction versus in-restaurant, it's butts and seats. That being said, for the quarter, Cheesecake Factory pricing was 4.8%, and then traffic was actually then reported as a positive 5.7% and the mix as a negative 5.7%. There were direct washout because essentially, our comp was equal to the pricing.

當然，傑瑞德。這是馬特。我將回答第一部分，然後將其交給 David Gordon。這是一個有點有趣的數學，正如您指出的那樣，整個業務以及我們將其視為每次交易的一位客人而不是餐廳內的方式，它是屁股和座位。話雖如此，本季度芝士蛋糕工廠的定價為 4.8%，然後流量實際上報告為正 5.7%，混合為負 5.7%。有直接淘汰，因為本質上，我們的補償等於定價。

I can tell you that we continue to get a little bit more on-premise. So I mean, actually, it is true. We have greater traffic in Q2 of this year than we did last year. So I think that, that continues to happen. I think also when we've looked at some of the research, there's a good percentage, maybe 1/3 of our lapsed guests or more are still not even comfortable coming back in. So when we look at that gap, and we talked about that being around 90-ish percent, give or take, what point in time you're looking at it, of what the on-premise traffic recovery has been.

我可以告訴你，我們繼續獲得更多的內部部署。所以我的意思是，事實上，這是真的。我們今年第二季度的流量比去年更大。所以我認為，這種情況還在繼續發生。我還認為，當我們查看一些研究時，有一個很好的百分比，也許我們的 1/3 或更多的失效客人仍然不願意回來。所以當我們看到這個差距時，我們談到了大約 90% 左右，給予或接受，你正在查看的時間點，本地流量恢復的情況。

If you look at the gap, it's really the lapsed guess that still may not be comfortable. So even as we've talked about the movement between on-premise and off-premise, so long as we track to that $12 million AUV, we're going to be happy. We're agnostic, and we just want to give great guest experiences. And so overall, we seem to still be tracking to the number that 6 months ago we laid out.

如果您查看差距，那確實是失敗的猜測仍然可能不舒服。因此，即使我們已經討論了內部部署和外部部署之間的移動，只要我們追踪到 1200 萬美元的 AUV，我們就會很高興。我們是不可知論者，我們只想為客人提供出色的體驗。總體而言，我們似乎仍在追踪 6 個月前製定的數字。

Jared, this is David Gordon. Just on the rewards program, we launched our pilot in mid-June. So we're about 30 days into the pilot thus far in the Houston market, which is comprised of 5 restaurants. And our pilot objectives were really to measure our ability to train the program well, to make sure all of the technology was working effectively that guests could redeem and the methodology that we want them to have a great guest experience, and most importantly, understand the enthusiasm for the program.

傑瑞德，這是大衛·戈登。就獎勵計劃而言，我們於 6 月中旬啟動了試點。因此，到目前為止，我們在休斯頓市場進行了大約 30 天的試點，該市場由 5 家餐廳組成。我們的試點目標實際上是衡量我們培訓項目的能力，確保所有技術都能有效地發揮作用，客人可以兌換，以及我們希望他們有良好的客人體驗的方法，最重要的是，了解對節目的熱情。

And the good news there is that we have over 20,000 members just in that Houston market, which exceeds our own expectations. And our plan is to continue to measure the data and the ROI of the program throughout the remainder of this year. Whether we decide to do another small beta this year is still to be determined. But our plan would still be to move forward at some point next year with a full launch of the program if all continues to go well.

好消息是，我們在休斯頓市場就有超過 20,000 名會員，這超出了我們的預期。我們的計劃是在今年剩餘時間內繼續衡量該計劃的數據和投資回報率。我們是否決定今年再做一個小測試還有待確定。但如果一切繼續順利，我們的計劃仍是在明年某個時候全面啟動該計劃。

Your next question comes from the line of Brian Bittner with Oppenheimer.

您的下一個問題來自 Brian Bittner 與 Oppenheimer 的對話。

Matt, I do just want to flush out the trends that you're seeing, just given all the uncertainty we all have with where the consumer is headed and whether the consumer could or could not pull back. Since your disclosure on April trends, there was a pretty marketed slowdown in comps and your revenue came in at the very low end for 2Q of what you expected. And your third quarter revenue guide, I think, implies trends do continue to slow. From the second quarter, you can confirm that if you'd like. But the question is, are you saying that this is simply just a reversion to the mean and perhaps a return to normal seasonality as well, maybe? And you just simply do not believe anything you're seeing in your business relates to more softness economically.

馬特，我只是想消除你所看到的趨勢，只是考慮到我們對消費者的發展方向以及消費者是否可以或不能撤退的所有不確定性。自從您披露 4 月份的趨勢以來，comps 的市場營銷放緩，您的第二季度收入處於您預期的極低端。我認為，您的第三季度收入指南暗示趨勢確實會繼續放緩。從第二季度開始，您可以根據需要確認。但問題是，你是說這只是回歸均值，也許也回歸正常的季節性？而且您只是根本不相信您在業務中看到的任何事情都與經濟上的更加疲軟有關。

Brian, it's Matt. I mean, first of all, who knows what really -- I mean that's why you're asking the question. That's what everybody asks the trillion dollar question is what is the consumer going to do and how are they behaving. I don't know that it's any scarier out there today than it was in March when the war was announced or when gas prices reached the all-time high in April. I mean, certainly, those indicators have actually only gotten better over time. The job market remains 2 job openings for every one person looking. Anybody that wants to work and get a job. So -- and we're seeing that, that lower income cohort is coming back to work based on our -- so there's other ways that the money will potentially move around to support the economy.

布賴恩，我是馬特。我的意思是，首先，誰知道真正的——我的意思是這就是你問這個問題的原因。這就是每個人都會問的萬億美元問題，即消費者將要做什麼以及他們的行為如何。我不知道今天的情況比三月份宣布戰爭或四月份汽油價格達到歷史最高點時更可怕。我的意思是，當然，這些指標實際上只會隨著時間的推移而變得更好。就業市場仍然為每個尋找的人提供 2 個職位空缺。任何想工作並找到工作的人。所以 - 我們看到，基於我們的低收入群體正在恢復工作 - 所以資金可能會通過其他方式轉移以支持經濟。

I think for us, a couple of things. We do believe that if you track over the last 5 quarters that it reverts to the mean. I mean, there have been periods of time that are well documented that last December and January were significantly slower in casual dining. I would say down double digits for most people, but then it recovered remarkably and just has moved around based on a lot of these factors. We look back at probably the only good comparison that people might be thinking about for our size of company and the timing, which was the great financial recession or catastrophe or whatever it stands for.

我認為對我們來說，有幾件事。我們確實相信，如果您跟踪過去 5 個季度，它會恢復到平均值。我的意思是，有一些時間段有據可查，去年 12 月和 1 月的休閒餐飲明顯放緩。對於大多數人來說，我會說兩位數，但隨後它顯著恢復，並且基於許多這些因素而發生了變化。我們回顧一下，人們可能會考慮的唯一一個很好的比較可能是我們公司的規模和時機，這是一場巨大的金融衰退或災難，或者它所代表的任何東西。

And when we saw the data, when we looked at that data, the trends there were much more moderated over time and broad based across all of our restaurants. You could see a pretty linear movement, negative 1% to negative 2% to negative 3%, 10% negative, 20% negative. But not these pockets that we're seeing today that don't seem to indicate -- when you have a geography that is still running the same level that it was running 3 months ago, that wouldn't tell me that's economics. That just tells me there's another factor in play, right? Otherwise, you'd see it in every state of the country. That being said, there could be a little bit of a slowdown. I mean I think the media has fueled that tremendously. And the scare factor alone probably is what is creating as much as anything else.

當我們看到數據時，當我們查看這些數據時，隨著時間的推移，趨勢更加緩和，並且在我們所有的餐廳中都有廣泛的基礎。你可以看到一個非常線性的變化，負 1% 到負 2% 到負 3%，負 10%，負 20%。但不是我們今天看到的這些口袋似乎並沒有表明——當你的地理位置仍然與 3 個月前的運行水平相同時，這不會告訴我這是經濟學。這只是告訴我還有另一個因素在起作用，對吧？否則，您會在該國的每個州看到它。話雖如此，可能會有一點放緩。我的意思是，我認為媒體極大地推動了這一點。單獨的恐懼因素可能與其他任何東西一樣多。

Our guide for the third quarter factors in that we are a couple of points below where we were in June, and we believe most of that is due to the virus moving through different parts of the geography. The latest week we had is better than the weeks we had before that. So we're actually seeing it come back up already. And so that's what tells me it's not so much the consumer pulling back. But when I see the latest week better than 2 weeks ago, well, that doesn't indicate a downward trend. But our net guide for the quarter is a couple of points down, but to accommodate kind of that starting point. But if you think about it again, and we'll just go back to our perspective. The full year revenue guide hasn't changed from us, right? And so I think that just points to how we think about it right now.

我們對第三季度的指導因素是，我們比 6 月份的水平低了幾個點，我們認為這主要是由於病毒在不同地區傳播。我們最近的一周比之前的幾週要好。所以我們實際上已經看到它已經恢復了。所以這就是告訴我，消費者退縮的原因並不多。但是當我看到最近一周比兩週前好時，這並不表示下降趨勢。但是我們本季度的淨指南下降了幾個點，但要適應這種起點。但如果你再想一想，我們就會回到我們的觀點。我們的全年收入指南沒有改變，對吧？所以我認為這只是表明我們現在是如何看待它的。

No, that's super helpful. And just second question is as you exit 2022 with 4-wall margins that match 2019, which is kind of where you're leading us, if that does indeed occur, I guess, are you saying that 2023 EBIT margins would be positioned to nicely exceed 2019 EBIT margins? Is that kind of where you're going with this?

不，這非常有幫助。第二個問題是，當您以與 2019 年相匹配的 4 壁利潤率退出 2022 年時，這就是您正在引領我們的地方，如果確實發生這種情況，我猜，您是說 2023 年息稅前利潤率將很好地定位超過 2019 年息稅前利潤率？這就是你要去的地方嗎？

That's been our objective from the get go. If we can get the 4-wall margins back to 2019 levels -- you can see the math. I mean, G&A is better and depreciation is better. And so the net enterprise EBIT margin should be measurably better. And as we noted in the prepared remarks, if the commodity inflation doesn't get worse again and if the labor stays on track to where we've seen it today, we believe that we can accomplish that. As David Overton mentioned, we will continue to note inflation. And if we have to, we'll keep up. We have -- I will say it's really important. We have -- kind of like the Fed, we have a dual mandate. We want to grow market share, and we want to protect 4-wall margins. Sometimes those are at odds with each other, and it's like threading the needle. And I think that's what we're trying to accomplish.

這就是我們從一開始的目標。如果我們能夠將 4 牆邊距恢復到 2019 年的水平——你可以看到數學。我的意思是，G&A 更好，折舊更好。因此，企業淨息稅前利潤率應該會更好。正如我們在準備好的評論中指出的那樣，如果商品通脹不再惡化，並且勞動力保持在我們今天看到的水平，我們相信我們可以做到這一點。正如大衛奧弗頓所說，我們將繼續關注通貨膨脹。如果必須，我們會跟上。我們有——我會說這真的很重要。我們有 - 有點像美聯儲，我們有雙重任務。我們想增加市場份額，我們想保護 4-wall 的利潤。有時這些是相互矛盾的，就像穿針引線一樣。我認為這就是我們正在努力實現的目標。

Your next question comes from the line of Jeffrey Bernstein with Barclays.

你的下一個問題來自巴克萊銀行的杰弗裡伯恩斯坦。

Great. First question, just following up on the last one, just because I think you did just benchmark your third quarter comp assumption relative to June. If you can maybe just share what the comp trends were by month through the second quarter and what they were running in July, just to frame the trend you saw through the second quarter and what you're assuming for the third quarter?

偉大的。第一個問題，只是對最後一個問題進行跟進，只是因為我認為您確實只是對相對於 6 月份的第三季度比較假設進行了基準測試。如果您可以分享第二季度的每月對比趨勢以及它們在 7 月份的運行情況，只是為了勾勒出您在第二季度看到的趨勢以及您對第三季度的假設？

Yes. So I don't remember April. We could go back and check that, but we -- in June, Jeff, we're basically thinking about 2019 plus pricing is we were kind of right on our plan, which is sort of that reversion to mean. And in July, we're running a few points below that at this point. And our assumption for the third quarter is that we get back a little bit. We've seen the trend improve recently and that we would move back to being close to that level essentially by the end of the quarter. So it's a little bit of a U-shape.

是的。所以我不記得四月了。我們可以回去檢查一下，但是我們 - 在 6 月，傑夫，我們基本上在考慮 2019 年加上定價是我們的計劃是正確的，這有點回歸到意思。而在 7 月，我們的運行速度低於這一點。我們對第三季度的假設是我們會有所回升。我們最近看到這一趨勢有所改善，我們將在本季度末基本回到接近該水平。所以它有點像U形。

Got it. Okay. And then just to clarify, I know you said you're taking 4.25 points maybe with the summer menu and that would get you to 7.5% ultimately, but I guess, consider further increases. I'm just wondering, well, one, if you could just share what you think the pricing will be in the third and fourth quarter. But I know you mentioned managing the business for the long term. I get the sense that means we're not in a rush to necessarily fully offset all the inflation that wouldn't necessarily be right for the business long term. So how do you think about how much of the inflation you want to offset in that framework of, again, managing the business for the long term?

知道了。好的。然後澄清一下，我知道你說你可能會在夏季菜單中獲得 4.25 分，這最終會讓你達到 7.5%，但我想，考慮進一步增加。我只是想知道，一個，如果你能分享你認為第三季度和第四季度的定價。但我知道你提到了長期管理業務。我覺得這意味著我們並不急於完全抵消所有不一定適合長期業務的通貨膨脹。那麼，您如何看待在長期管理業務的框架中要抵消多少通貨膨脹？

Yes. Jeff, it's Matt. It's a good question. So I may have to check my math on this. So just -- I just want to clarify, the fourth quarter pricing will be 7.5%. The third quarter pricing will be around 6% on a weighted basis because of when the menu rolls out. It's kind of in the middle, okay. So 6% in the third quarter and 7.5% in the fourth quarter. And our intention is that we're going to fully price for all of inflation. We think our business model is right on. All of the other factors, productivity, et cetera, the guest demand, obviously, is there. And so we're executing the business model.

是的。傑夫，我是馬特。這是個好問題。所以我可能不得不檢查我的數學。所以只是 - 我只是想澄清一下，第四季度的定價將為 7.5%。由於菜單推出的時間，第三季度的加權定價將在 6% 左右。有點中間，好吧。因此，第三季度為 6%，第四季度為 7.5%。我們的意圖是我們要為所有通貨膨脹定價。我們認為我們的商業模式是正確的。顯然，所有其他因素，生產力等，客人的需求都在那裡。所以我們正在執行商業模式。

So when you have input costs that are the sole reason that margins are being pressured, it's logical to pass that pricing on in an environment where we're still below full-service dining well below grocery. So we still have room to make that happen. And I would say, keep in mind too, from sort of a strategic perspective, we may be a little bit behind, but that's kind of traditionally our way. We're more of a fast follower. You can see the progress in the North Italia margins. They're about 1 quarter ahead of Cheesecake on the pricing. And as we noted, the goal for that brand was about 14% for the year to get to by the end of the year because it's going to be a couple of points behind Cheesecake because of the growth.

因此，當您的投入成本是利潤率受到壓力的唯一原因時，在我們仍遠低於雜貨店的全方位服務餐飲的環境中傳遞該定價是合乎邏輯的。因此，我們仍有實現這一目標的空間。我要說的是，請記住，從某種戰略角度來看，我們可能有點落後，但這是我們傳統的方式。我們更像是一個快速的追隨者。您可以看到意大利北部邊緣的進展。他們的定價比芝士蛋糕高出大約 1 個季度。正如我們所指出的，該品牌的目標是到今年年底達到 14% 左右，因為由於增長，它將落後芝士蛋糕幾個點。

So it's getting pretty close. And so it's working. We believe the pricing for Cheesecake will work. And we are pricing to these costs. If we see some degree of give back, if natural gas can revert back to at least somewhere between an all-time high, which is where it was, if some of the commodities stabilize, if our overtime gets better because we remain fully staffed, then we have some room to grow on top of that.

所以它變得非常接近。所以它正在工作。我們相信芝士蛋糕的定價會奏效。我們正在為這些成本定價。如果我們看到某種程度的回饋，如果天然氣至少可以恢復到歷史最高水平之間的某個地方，如果一些商品穩定下來，如果我們的加班變得更好，因為我們仍然配備齊全，那麼我們還有一些成長的空間。

Understood. And just lastly, I know you mentioned you're pretty well positioned with a higher-income consumer and in pretty more affluent neighborhoods, I guess. But the fact that you're a heavily mall based, is there any change or the malls impacted any differently than just the broader well-to-do neighborhoods? I mean, I guess, from a mall traffic perspective, are they back to pre-COVID levels or occupancy levels at the malls back to full strength just so that being within the mall within those well-to-do neighborhoods? I don't know if you're any better or worse off than anybody else in that neighborhood.

明白了。最後，我知道你提到你在高收入消費者和相當富裕的社區中處於有利地位，我猜。但事實上，您是一家大型購物中心，與更廣泛的富裕社區相比，是否有任何變化或購物中心受到的影響有什麼不同？我的意思是，我想，從商場交通的角度來看，它們是否回到了 COVID 之前的水平，或者商場的入住率恢復到了全部強度，以便在那些富裕社區的商場內？我不知道你是比那個街區的其他人好還是壞。

Jeff, this is David Gordon. I don't know that we've seen any market change from mall-based locations versus the rest of our locations. They remain consistent and strong. The tenancy in the malls remains consistent. We haven't seen any drop off in actually retailers as far as occupancy goes. And traffic has remained really strong and consistent.

傑夫，這是大衛戈登。我不知道我們已經看到購物中心位置與我們其他位置的任何市場變化。他們保持一致和強大。商場的租約保持一致。就入住率而言，我們沒有看到實際零售商的任何下降。流量仍然非常強勁和穩定。

That's great clarity. If -- right, no big difference between your mall stores and your non-mall stores that would like that question out.

這是非常清晰的。如果——是的，你的商場商店和你想要這個問題的非商場商店之間沒有太大區別。

Your next question comes from the line of John Glass with Morgan Stanley.

您的下一個問題來自摩根士丹利的 John Glass。

Recognizing you may not think you're there yet, but if the consumer continues to slow, what are the contingency plans? I remember from a late '09 if this is the correct timing, small plates or small bites was introduced, I think that was pretty successful. That may still be around, forgive me for not knowing that. Maybe that gets refreshed. How do you think about responding -- understanding there's uncertainty out there and you must have a plan if you need it is? What might that look like this time around?

認識到你可能認為你還沒有到達那裡，但如果消費者繼續放緩，應急計劃是什麼？我記得從 09 年末開始，如果這是正確的時機，引入了小盤子或小塊，我認為那是相當成功的。那可能仍然存在，請原諒我不知道。也許這會刷新。您如何看待回應 - 了解存在不確定性，如果需要，您必須制定計劃？這次會是什麼樣子？

John, it's Matt. I think it's definitely a relevant point. And rest assured that the management team is constantly evaluating our strategic responses to the environments. I think just to remind everybody that -- we came out of that recession with better margins and better sales than we went in. And I think the key -- obviously, there's 2 sides of the coin. One is to ensure that you have value and you remain relevant, and we are able to put out menu items on a special card at different price points whenever David wants to do that. And so we'll watch the environment and certainly, that's an easy thing for us to deploy again if that's what we wanted to do.

約翰，是馬特。我認為這絕對是一個相關點。請放心，管理團隊會不斷評估我們對環境的戰略反應。我想只是想提醒大家——我們從經濟衰退中走出來的利潤率和銷售額都比我們進去時要好。我認為關鍵——顯然，硬幣有兩面。一個是確保您具有價值並保持相關性，並且我們能夠在大衛想要這樣做時以不同的價格點將菜單項放在一張特殊的卡片上。因此，我們將觀察環境，當然，如果這是我們想要做的，那對我們來說很容易再次部署。

As David Gordon talked about earlier, we're in the midst of piloting a rewards program. That would certainly be a new vehicle for us to be able to deploy that type of activity very surgically if we wanted to. And the third thing I would say on the value side is we were very successful during the pandemic running promotions when we never done that before. And so it is something where we've built up a little bit more muscle. And if that were the case, we certainly could pull that as well. So I think we're going to have more at our disposal than we did before. We have more learnings than we did before and the ability to reach specific guests. So I feel confident that we can respond there.

正如大衛戈登之前所說，我們正在試行獎勵計劃。如果我們願意，那肯定會成為一種新工具，讓我們能夠非常靈活地部署這種類型的活動。在價值方面，我要說的第三件事是，我們在大流行期間進行促銷活動非常成功，而我們以前從未這樣做過。所以這是我們建立了更多肌肉的地方。如果是這樣的話，我們當然也可以這樣做。所以我認為我們將擁有比以前更多的東西。我們比以前有更多的學習和接觸特定客人的能力。所以我有信心我們可以在那裡做出回應。

On the margin side, the key is that most expenses in the restaurant space are variable over time. And so it's the degree and the speed at which you can recover the variability of those margins, right? So even with rent, for example, that we're on percentage rent in every case. And so it's going to move with sales. There are some moderately fixed components over the medium term. But the most important thing from an operations standpoint is to get alignment around that variability and to recapture that margin. So if we're shooting for 2019 margins, that would be our goal. Now it depends on how deep and how long any pullback is, but our goal would be to maintain that same level of margin over the medium term.

在利潤方面，關鍵是餐廳空間的大部分費用都會隨著時間的推移而變化。因此，這是您可以恢復這些邊際可變性的程度和速度，對嗎？因此，即使有租金，例如，我們在每種情況下都是按百分比租金計算的。所以它會隨著銷售而變化。中期有一些適度固定的成分。但從運營的角度來看，最重要的是圍繞這種可變性進行調整併重新獲得利潤。因此，如果我們要爭取 2019 年的利潤率，那將是我們的目標。現在這取決於回調的深度和持續時間，但我們的目標是在中期內保持相同的利潤率水平。

John, it's David Gordon. Sorry, I would just add operationally that a good portion of our operations team, especially the field leadership team, experienced the 2008, 2009, 2010 recession. They're very nimble. We have best-in-class retention. So our operators, if we ever were at a point where we need to make any structural changes to how we were operating, are the best in the business, and then we'll be able to flex appropriately if we ever got to that point in time.

約翰，是大衛·戈登。抱歉，我只想在運營上補充一點，我們運營團隊的很大一部分，尤其是現場領導團隊，經歷了 2008 年、2009 年、2010 年的經濟衰退。他們非常靈活。我們擁有一流的留存率。所以我們的運營商，如果我們需要對我們的運營方式進行任何結構性改變，他們是業內最好的，如果我們到達那個點，我們將能夠適當地靈活調整時間。

Your next question comes from the line of Brian Vaccaro with Raymond James.

您的下一個問題來自 Brian Vaccaro 和 Raymond James 的台詞。

It sounds like some of the sales decline or moderation you're seeing, you're attributing it to reemerging COVID concerns. And I guess, looking across regions, are there certain regions where that's less of an issue? And if so, are you seeing any changes in behavior or ordering patterns, et cetera, when customers are in your restaurants? And then also within the off-premise channel, can you comment on how delivery versus takeout is performing?

聽起來您看到的一些銷售下降或放緩，您將其歸因於重新出現的 COVID 擔憂。而且我想，縱觀各個地區，是否有某些地區的問題不那麼重要？如果是這樣，當顧客在您的餐廳時，您是否看到行為或訂購模式等發生任何變化？然後在場外渠道中，您能否評論一下外賣與外賣的表現？

Sure, Brian, this is Matt. For example, we saw a sort of initially more pressure in Southern California and the Northeast. And that is where the greatest number of reported cases have been. We've seen less impact initially in places like Florida and Texas. Now it moves around. I was just looking at another geography and noted that we had seen this past week a little bit of pressure. And sure enough, I googled it in the news. And this particular city, the headline in the local paper was the summer surge is back and they were talking about a whole bunch of cases. So we could almost be like a sounding board for the CDC. You can track it. I mean it's -- people can't go into restaurants when they're sick or they're home taking care of people.

當然，布賴恩，這是馬特。例如，我們在南加州和東北部看到了一種最初更大的壓力。那是報告病例最多的地方。我們最初在佛羅里達州和德克薩斯州等地看到的影響較小。現在它四處移動。我只是在查看另一個地理位置，並註意到我們在過去一周看到了一點壓力。果然，我在新聞中搜索了它。而這個特殊的城市，當地報紙的頭條是夏季潮又回來了，他們正在談論一大堆病例。因此，我們幾乎可以成為 CDC 的共鳴板。你可以追踪它。我的意思是——人們生病或在家照顧人時不能去餐館。

We saw a statistic that there are twice as many people out of work now than at the Omicron surge back in the holidays. There's like 4 million people, right? So that's pretty meaningful. In those areas where it's been more stable, we haven't seen any change really in the behavior of the guests with respect to check average, et cetera. So that gives us a lot of confidence that nobody is trading down, at least in our restaurants. It's really about purely foot traffic at this point in time in those geographies.

我們看到一項統計數據表明，現在失業的人數是 Omicron 在假期期間激增時的兩倍。大概有400萬人吧？所以這很有意義。在那些比較穩定的區域，我們沒有看到客人在檢查平均值等方面的行為有任何真正的變化。所以這給了我們很大的信心，沒有人會降價，至少在我們的餐廳是這樣。在這些地區的這個時間點，這真的是純粹的人流量。

And the off-premise mix of that 25% remains very, very consistent. Delivery comprises 11%, phone and walk up is 8% and online ordering is 6%, so almost right in line with the previous couple of quarters.

這 25% 的場外組合仍然非常非常一致。送貨佔 11%，電話和步行佔 8%，在線訂購佔 6%，與前幾個季度幾乎一致。

All right. Great. That's helpful. And then I think on the labor front, I think you said you expect net wage inflation of around 5% in the second half. Can you remind us how does that compare to the wage inflation you've experienced in the second quarter or the first half?

好的。偉大的。這很有幫助。然後我認為在勞動力方面，我想你說過你預計下半年的淨工資通脹率約為 5%。您能否提醒我們，這與您在第二季度或上半年經歷的工資通脹相比如何？

Yes. We went into the year thinking it would be about 5%. It bumped up to around 6% to 7% for the first half of the year. So the 5% would represent an improvement of about 1% to 2% net in the back half. And as we noted, we have seen the year-over-year wage inflation moderate. And so looking at that trend and all of the other components combined.

是的。我們進入這一年時認為這將是大約 5%。今年上半年上漲了6%到7%左右。因此，5% 將代表後半部分淨提高約 1% 至 2%。正如我們所指出的，我們已經看到同比工資通脹溫和。所以看看這個趨勢和所有其他組件的結合。

Okay. And then I think, Matt, overtime and outsized training and other costs has been a pretty significant headwind for you. Are those costs starting to ease more recently? And I guess, if not, why? And when do you expect some normalization in those areas?

好的。然後我認為，馬特，加班和超額培訓以及其他費用對你來說是一個相當大的逆風。這些成本最近是否開始降低？我想，如果不是，為什麼？你預計這些領域什麼時候會實現正常化？

Yes. I mean I would tell you it kind of comes in waves still. I mean, no pun intended with the virus. But when we hit March and April and even in May, as business really took off again coming out of the winter, we had to hire a lot of people. So you're running ads to hire people and you're training people and then you have newer people and you have higher overtime. So what we've seen is that in an environment where the labor side is a little bit more stable, which maybe we'll get to in this most recent stage because our staffing levels are at a better point and that everybody knows that back-to-school with casual dining, the aggregate sales levels dip. That's a pretty known seasonal pattern that we might just see some of those, Brian, ease in the late third and fourth quarter.

是的。我的意思是我會告訴你，它仍然是一波又一波的。我的意思是，對病毒沒有雙關語。但是當我們到了三月和四月，甚至是五月，隨著冬天的到來，生意真的再次起飛，我們不得不僱傭很多人。因此，您正在投放廣告來招聘人員，並且正在培訓人員，然後您會擁有新人，並且加班時間會更長。所以我們所看到的是，在勞動力方面更加穩定的環境中，也許我們會在最近的階段達到這一點，因為我們的人員配備水平處於更好的水平，而且每個人都知道後面-上學與休閒餐飲，總體銷售水平下降。這是一個眾所周知的季節性模式，我們可能會看到其中一些，布賴恩，在第三季度末和第四季度有所緩解。

Your next question comes from the line of Jon Tower with Citi.

您的下一個問題來自 Jon Tower 和 Citi。

Great. A few follow-ups. And yes, I was hoping to run through here. Just hitting on the COVID flare up stuff, you had mentioned that certain markets, obviously, it's showing up, but you didn't call out whether or not that's actually impacting your own staffing levels at the stores. So I'm curious if that is the case. And then I've got a few more questions, if you don't mind.

偉大的。一些後續。是的，我希望能通過這裡。剛剛談到 COVID 爆發的東西，你已經提到某些市場，顯然，它正在出現，但你沒有指出這是否真的影響了你自己在商店的人員配備水平。所以我很好奇是不是這樣。然後我還有幾個問題，如果你不介意的話。

Yes, Jon, this is Matt. There's no question. I don't know that we have -- I could give you a specific number, but what I can tell you is that our 6 time is running well above what we anticipated it would and there's only one real driver of that. We also, on our operations leadership calls, I can tell you anecdotally, it's one story after another as it kind of moves through a market and you'll talk about our restaurants, and these 3 managers and 8 staff members called in this week. And so we are definitely seeing that. Fortunately, we're able to be in a slightly better spot to buffer it, but we are seeing that move through the restaurants too.

是的，喬恩，這是馬特。沒有問題。我不知道我們有——我可以給你一個具體的數字，但我可以告訴你的是，我們的 6 時間遠遠超出了我們的預期，而且只有一個真正的驅動因素。我們也，在我們的運營領導電話會議上，我可以告訴你，這是一個接一個的故事，因為它在市場中移動，你會談論我們的餐廳，這 3 名經理和 8 名員工本週打來電話。所以我們肯定看到了這一點。幸運的是，我們能夠在一個稍微好一點的地方來緩衝它，但我們也看到了餐廳的變化。

Okay. And then just kind of following up, I think, to John's question earlier in terms of your ability to respond to changes in the marketplace with calls to action. I mean, I think, Matt, you had mentioned earlier in the call, you're seeing scenarios where cases move up, sales seemed to go down. So how do you fight this going forward? I mean you do have a much bigger media presence, social media presence than in the past. And you have utilized promotions in the past, I think coming out of COVID to drive some traffic. So how quickly can you respond? And are you doing any of that yet?

好的。然後，我認為，就您通過號召性用語應對市場變化的能力而言，只是對約翰早些時候的問題進行了跟進。我的意思是，我認為，馬特，你在電話中早些時候提到過，你看到的情況是案件上升，銷售額似乎下降。那麼，您將如何應對這種情況呢？我的意思是你確實擁有比過去更大的媒體影響力、社交媒體影響力。而且您過去曾利用促銷活動，我認為從 COVID 中出來可以吸引一些流量。那麼你能多快做出反應呢？你還在做這些嗎？

Well, I'll tell you there's a couple of things. One, we just completed some consumer research, and so we'll be digesting that to understand a little bit more about how consumers are behaving and what they're thinking and particularly around our brands. So we felt the timing was good to get back out and understand because, right, it's sort of a new paradigm with people. So I think we'll learn a little bit more about what we think would be effective. I think in aggregate, it's about understanding the trends in the individual markets and adjusting operationally to them.

好吧，我會告訴你有幾件事。第一，我們剛剛完成了一些消費者研究，因此我們將對其進行消化，以更多地了解消費者的行為方式以及他們的想法，尤其是圍繞我們的品牌。所以我們覺得現在是退出並理解的好時機，因為，對，這是一種與人相處的新範式。所以我認為我們會更多地了解我們認為有效的方法。我認為總的來說，這是關於了解各個市場的趨勢並在運營上進行調整以適應它們。

Because at the end of the day, if we hit the $12 million AUV, which we're still believing we're on track to do, the volumes are there, whether it moves up or down 2% or 3% in any given month, that's really not going to dictate a big change in strategy for us other than potentially operationally, right? We need to get the margins. So if that causes us to be more or less efficient, we have to learn and we have to adjust to that. But in aggregate, if we continue to trend as we believe we are to the 2019 plus pricing levels, then I think that the volumes are there. We just have to navigate around the ups and downs a little bit.

因為在一天結束時，如果我們達到 1200 萬美元的 AUV，我們仍然相信我們有望實現這一目標，那麼無論在任何給定月份，無論是上升還是下降 2% 或 3%，交易量都在那裡，除了可能在運營上，這真的不會對我們的戰略做出重大改變，對吧？我們需要獲得利潤。因此，如果這導致我們或多或少的效率，我們必須學習，我們必須適應它。但總的來說，如果我們繼續按照我們認為的趨勢達到 2019 年以上的定價水平，那麼我認為數量就在那裡。我們只需要在起伏中導航一點。

Jon, I would just add, this is David. On the promotions front that we meet on a weekly basis and look at the status of where we're at, and we can pull the lever on a promotion within 2 weeks, whether that's something that we want to do off-premise, DoorDash only or something for online ordering. So I think all of our learnings, as Matt talked about earlier, from the pandemic and the flexibility of our current playbook versus what we had prior to the pandemic puts us in a pretty strong place to be able to react pretty quickly to whatever fluctuations we see.

喬恩，我想補充一下，這是大衛。在我們每週見面的促銷活動方面，看看我們所處的狀態，我們可以在 2 週內拉動促銷活動的槓桿，這是否是我們想要在場外做的事情，僅限 DoorDash或用於在線訂購的東西。所以我認為，正如馬特之前所說，我們從大流行中學到的所有知識，以及我們當前的策略與大流行之前相比的靈活性，使我們處於一個非常強大的位置，能夠對我們的任何波動做出快速反應看。

Okay. And then just lastly, I think you just hit on DoorDash. I believe you still have a fairly exclusive relationship with them, and I believe the economics are pretty favorable to you. But given how other brands, 3PD partners, in particular or 3PD brands have grown, have you explored the potential to move on to other platforms and/or consider taking even more price in the delivery channel? I think today, you said at something like 3% or so differential between in-store menus and delivery menus, but -- and competitors are much higher than that. So I'm curious why you wouldn't -- or if you've considered taking pricing there.

好的。最後，我認為您剛剛點擊了 DoorDash。我相信你和他們仍然有相當排他的關係，我相信經濟對你非常有利。但考慮到其他品牌、3PD 合作夥伴，尤其是 3PD 品牌的發展情況，您是否探索過轉移到其他平台的潛力和/或考慮在交付渠道中採取更高的價格？我認為今天，您說店內菜單和送貨菜單之間存在 3% 左右的差異，但是 - 競爭對手遠高於此。所以我很好奇你為什麼不這樣做——或者你是否考慮過在那裡定價。

Certainly, as we continue to take pricing on the menu, it's also a conversation we have around our competitive advantage for delivery. And if we feel like we can hit the margin targets that were set out for in the sales without taking more than that 3%, that's what we would prefer to do. If we find that we need to take more than that 3% differential to a differential to protect margins, we'll certainly discuss that and have the ability to do it moving forward if we wanted to.

當然，隨著我們繼續在菜單上定價，這也是我們圍繞我們在交付方面的競爭優勢進行的對話。如果我們覺得我們可以在不超過 3% 的情況下達到銷售中設定的利潤率目標，那就是我們更願意做的事情。如果我們發現我們需要採取超過 3% 的差價來保護利潤，我們肯定會討論這個問題，並且如果我們願意的話，我們有能力繼續前進。

As far as the relationship with DoorDash, we do have an exclusive agreement, and we're still very happy with that agreement. Some of the marketing and our ability to pull the lever on that marketing as quickly as we like is because of that relationship, and their nimbleness and working with us to get promotions launched and then communicate it out to the consumer. So we're still very happy. Yes, as you said, the economics are very favorable for us, and we like the relationship and our continued plan is to stay down that path for now.

至於與 DoorDash 的關係，我們確實有一個獨家協議，我們仍然對該協議感到非常滿意。一些營銷和我們能夠以我們喜歡的速度盡快拉動營銷槓桿的能力是因為這種關係，以及他們的敏捷性以及與我們合作推出促銷活動，然後將其傳達給消費者。所以我們還是很開心的。是的，正如你所說，經濟對我們非常有利，我們喜歡這種關係，我們的持續計劃是暫時保持這條道路。

Your next question comes from the line of Andy Barish with Jefferies.

您的下一個問題來自 Andy Barish 與 Jefferies 的對話。

I hopped on a little late, but I heard David G's comments just on food and labor efficiency, yet obviously some of the margin shortfall. Can you just kind of match that up? And is there something additional that could be worked on from a productivity perspective? Or was it just the input cost higher than expected with less pricing?

我跳得有點晚了，但我聽到大衛 G 的評論只是關於食品和勞動效率，但顯然有一些利潤不足。你能匹配一下嗎？從生產力的角度來看，還有什麼可以做的嗎？還是只是投入成本高於預期而定價較低？

Andy, it's Matt. It was 100% related to the input costs versus the pricing. So the spot market in dairy and produce kind of went through the roof and natural gas and particularly some of the R&M services, the supply and demand imbalance is so significant right now to get someone to come out and take care of the equipment is just costing that much more than what we had.

安迪，我是馬特。它與投入成本與定價 100% 相關。因此，乳製品和農產品的現貨市場經歷了頂峰和天然氣，尤其是一些 R&M 服務，供需失衡現在非常嚴重，要找人來維護設備只是成本這比我們擁有的要多得多。

Got you. And then just following up on the logic beyond call-outs and the virus surges. Last year, obviously, around this time, Delta with surging, which did cause some sales issues and increased call-outs with less staffing? How are you kind of baking the comparison into the projections here? I know there's a lot of noise, obviously, from the last couple of years, but just thoughts on that.

得到你。然後只是跟進呼叫和病毒激增之外的邏輯。去年，很明顯，大約在這個時候，達美風起雲湧，這確實導致了一些銷售問題，並在人員減少的情況下增加了上門服務？您如何將比較烘焙到這裡的預測中？我知道有很多噪音，顯然，從過去幾年開始，但只是想一想。

Yes. I mean I think that's why -- and Andy, it's Matt. So it's been a sort of back and forth debate over the past 6 to 9 months of that benchmark. What we have really seen mathematically now is that 2019 is the best benchmark and then adding the pricing to that. And so using that sort of eliminates the up and down last year and this year in those comparisons because you're exactly right. I mean what we saw last year and some of the lapping, if you think about just purely the year-over-year comp is that June and July were probably the highest months of the year. And they were kind of through the roof.

是的。我的意思是我認為這就是為什麼——安迪，是馬特。因此，在過去 6 到 9 個月的基準測試中，這是一種來回的辯論。我們現在在數學上真正看到的是，2019 年是最好的基準，然後再加上定價。因此，在這些比較中使用這種方法可以消除去年和今年的上下波動，因為你是完全正確的。我的意思是我們去年看到的情況和一些重疊，如果你只考慮同比比較的話，6 月和 7 月可能是一年中最高的月份。他們有點穿過屋頂。

And then Delta hit and it came back. It probably dropped from the peak of early July to the trough of late August. It probably declined 5% or 6% just in that period of time. And so we see that, that is the established kind of trend of how it goes through. And so that, we're really looking at sort of 2019 plus pricing as being the best way to evaluate it.

然後三角洲擊中並回來了。它可能從 7 月初的高峰下降到 8 月底的低谷。就在那段時間裡，它可能下降了 5% 或 6%。所以我們看到，這是它如何經歷的既定趨勢。因此，我們真的將 2019 年加上定價視為評估它的最佳方式。

Your last question today comes from the line of Brian Mullan with Deutsche Bank.

您今天的最後一個問題來自德意志銀行的 Brian Mullan。

Just a question on capital allocation. Just wondering if you could speak to the current parameters you're looking at. When executing on the share repurchase program, anything is different versus perhaps the pre-COVID philosophy? Just wondering if you want to be opportunistic when you think of the stocks undervalued or maybe just more programmatic and consistent.

只是關於資本配置的問題。只是想知道您是否可以說出您正在查看的當前參數。在執行股票回購計劃時，與新冠疫情之前的理念有何不同？只是想知道當您認為股票被低估或者可能只是更加程序化和一致時，您是否想投機取巧。

Brian, it's Matt. I mean, I think it's both, right. I mean, I think we're sort of putting our toe in, but we also believe it's a very opportunistic time to do it with where equities have traded based on our conviction on a long term for the brand. And so I would say we have your typical type of 10b5-1 that we put in place, and it's going to perform where you buy more when the stock is lower, but also that we do it a little bit over time because we can't figure out the market, right? That's not our jobs. And so we don't want to be in 1 month and out the next month. We want to be able to sort of build it over time. But certainly, we're buyers in this market.

布賴恩，我是馬特。我的意思是，我認為兩者兼而有之，對。我的意思是，我認為我們正在採取行動，但我們也相信這是一個非常機會主義的時機，基於我們對品牌的長期信念，在股票交易的地方進行交易。所以我想說我們有你典型的 10b5-1 類型，我們已經到位，當股票較低時，它會在你購買更多的地方執行，但隨著時間的推移，我們會做一點點，因為我們可以'不了解市場，對吧？那不是我們的工作。因此，我們不想在 1 個月內進入下個月。我們希望能夠隨著時間的推移構建它。但可以肯定的是，我們是這個市場的買家。

Okay. And just as a follow-up. I wonder if you could just give an update on the Flower Child brand. The key priorities there over, say, the next year or 2. What factors are you watching most closely you're looking at to see before you might want to accelerate the unit growth there or maybe separate it out like you have for North Italia?

好的。並且只是作為後續行動。我想知道您是否可以提供有關 Flower Child 品牌的最新信息。那裡的關鍵優先事項，例如，明年或 2 年。在您可能想要加速那裡的單位增長或可能像北意大利那樣將其分開之前，您最密切關注哪些因素？

Brian, this is David. We continue to be very bullish on Flower Child. The recent openings continue to perform well. I'd say that, that's our priority is to continue to move into some newer markets and see what the guest reception is in different geographies. And thus far, it's remained very positive. The team there has done a good job moving their margins in the right direction. We're focused on trying to leverage continued supply chain capability at Cheesecake Factory. And then on the people growth development side, we want to ensure that we have the right leadership in place, if and when we decide to pull that lever and grow it a little bit quicker clip. But all signs for now remain very positive, and we feel good about the future of the brand.

布萊恩，這是大衛。我們繼續非常看好Flower Child。最近的開業繼續表現良好。我想說的是，我們的首要任務是繼續進入一些新市場，看看不同地區的客人接待情況如何。到目前為止，它仍然非常積極。那裡的團隊做得很好，他們的利潤朝著正確的方向發展。我們專注於嘗試利用芝士蛋糕工廠的持續供應鏈能力。然後在人員成長發展方面，我們希望確保我們有正確的領導，如果我們決定拉動槓桿並更快地發展它。但目前所有跡像都非常積極，我們對品牌的未來感覺良好。

This concludes today's question-and-answer session and conference call. Thank you very much for attending. You may now disconnect.

今天的問答環節和電話會議到此結束。非常感謝您的出席。您現在可以斷開連接。