好市多 (COST) 2001 Q3 法說會逐字稿

COSTCO WHOLESALE CONFERENCE CALL

好市多批發電話會議

Good morning and welcome to the Costco Wholesale third quarter earnings release conference call. At this time, all participants have been placed on a listen-only mode, and the floor will be open for questions and comments following the presentation. It is now my pleasure to turn the floor over to your host Richard Galanti. Sir, the floor is yours.

早上好，歡迎參加 Costco Wholesale 第三季度財報電話會議。目前，所有參與者都處於只聽模式，演講結束後將開放提問和評論。現在我很高興將發言權交給您的主持人 Richard Galanti。先生，地板是你的。

Thank-you [_______________] and good morning to everyone. This morning, as usual, we will go through a review of several items. To begin with of course our third quarter fiscal 2001 operating results for the 12 weeks ended May 13, 2001, with EPS coming in at 23 cents a share versus 26 cents a share last year. This is, by the way, in line with the previous guidance we gave back in April 24, 2001. Our review of sales trends, which have actually picked up a bit in the last few weeks, we of course will report our 4-week May sales results, next Thursday. Other usual topics of interest will include expansion plans both for the remainder of fiscal 2001, which ends September 2, 2001, as well as preliminary plans for 2002. Also other topics are our ancillary business operations including our gasoline business, which is one of the factors that affected downward both our third quarter operating results and possibly our fourth quarter. Other initiatives of interest Executive Membership, Amex, costco.com, our special order kiosk merchandising program, our balance sheet figures, a little update on the Canadian reorganization, upcoming merchandise passport program, and a little bit more about energy conservation issues. And lastly, I will give a little bit of an outlook for the fourth quarter, the 16 weeks, which will end on September 2, 2001. With respect to fiscal 2002 outlook and direction, we have really just begun our 2002 budgeting process, but I will attempt to give you our thoughts, they are very preliminary at this time. With that let me start by stating that these discussions we are about to have will include forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995 and that these statements involve risks and uncertainties that may cause actual events, results, and/or performance to differ from those indicated by such statements. The risks and uncertainties include but are not limited to those outlined in today's press release as well as other risks identified from time to time in the company's public statements

謝謝[_______________]，大家早上好。今天早上，像往常一樣，我們將審查幾個項目。當然，首先是我們 2001 財年第三季度截至 2001 年 5 月 13 日的 12 周經營業績，每股收益為每股 23 美分，而去年為每股 26 美分。順便說一句，這與我們在 2001 年 4 月 24 日給出的先前指導一致。我們對銷售趨勢的回顧，實際上在過去幾周有所回升，我們當然會報告我們的 4 週五月銷售結果，下週四。其他通常感興趣的主題將包括 2001 財年剩餘時間（截至 2001 年 9 月 2 日）的擴張計劃，以及 2002 年的初步計劃。其他主題還有我們的輔助業務運營，包括我們的汽油業務，這是我們的主要業務之一。影響我們第三季度和第四季度經營業績的因素。其他感興趣的舉措 行政會員、美國運通、costco.com、我們的特殊訂單亭商品銷售計劃、我們的資產負債表數據、加拿大重組的一些更新、即將到來的商品護照計劃，以及更多關於節能問題的信息。最後，我將對 2001 年 9 月 2 日結束的第 16 週的第四季度作一點展望。關於 2002 財年的展望和方向，我們實際上才剛剛開始 2002 年的預算編制過程，但是我將嘗試向您提供我們的想法，此時它們是非常初步的。讓我首先聲明，我們即將進行的這些討論將包括 1995 年《私人證券訴訟改革法案》含義內的前瞻性陳述，並且這些陳述涉及可能導致實際事件、結果和/ 或性能與此類聲明所指示的不同。風險和不確定性包括但不限於今天的新聞稿中概述的風險和公司公開聲明中不時確定的其他風險

and reports filed with the SEC. Now as many of you know, I didn't write that, but I am happy to report it. Okay, sales for the third quarter, 12 weeks ended May 13, 2001, increased to total of 12% to $7.56 billion up from $6.77 billion last year, and comps for the quarter coming back as I mentioned in the final few weeks of the quarter, so that the quarter overall was at 5% with the last few weeks of the quarter being at 7%. As compared to our original budget though, third quarter sales, they were below original budget, but not as below, if you will, as Q2 actual original to original budget. In Q2 versus original budget, we are about $380 million below our OB, whereas by comparison in Q2 we are $500 million for the quarter under our original budget, so we are picking up little bit there. Regarding sales let me give you also another quick geographic and merchandising sales breakdowns that I normally give. If you would, the first chart, right up here, two columns, third quarter and year to date, and for Norhtwest comps, this is geographic, by geographic region sales. The comps in the third quarter in the Northwest region were up 3, by comparison year-to-date they were up 1. California, in third quarter was up 6, year-to-date up 5, so again a pick up there. Northeast at 9 versus year-to-date of 6. Southeast at 12, versus year-to-date on 11. Midwest on 11 versus year-to-date 9. The US in the third quarter was 7 overall versus year-to-date of 5, and of course the year-to-date includes these third quarter numbers. Expressed in US dollars, Canada was at 0 in the third quarter and year-to-date of 1. Keep in mind the Canadian dollar relative to the US dollar has weakened over the last year, so in Canadian dollars we actually are doing okay at 6%

以及向 SEC 提交的報告。現在你們很多人都知道，這不是我寫的，但我很高興報告它。好的，第三季度（截至 2001 年 5 月 13 日的 12 週）的銷售額從去年的 67.7 億美元增加到 75.6 億美元，總額增長了 12%，正如我在本季度最後幾週提到的那樣，本季度的銷售額又回來了，因此該季度總體為 5%，而該季度的最後幾週為 7%。與我們的原始預算相比，第三季度的銷售額低於原始預算，但如果您願意，則不會低於原始預算，因為第二季度實際原始預算。在第二季度與原始預算相比，我們比我們的 OB 低了大約 3.8 億美元，而相比之下，在第二季度，我們在原始預算下本季度的 5 億美元，所以我們在那里略有回升。關於銷售，讓我給你另一個我通常給出的快速地理和商品銷售細分。如果你願意，第一張圖表，就在這裡，兩列，第三季度和年初至今，對於 Norhtwest comps，這是地理，按地理區域銷售。西北地區第三季度的業績增長了 3 倍，相比之下，今年迄今增長了 1 倍。加利福尼亞州在第三季度增長了 6 倍，今年迄今增長了 5 倍，所以那裡再次回升。東北部為 9，而年初至今為 6。東南部為 12，而年初至今為 11。中西部為 11 與年初至今 9。美國第三季度總體為 7，而年初至今日期為 5，當然年初至今包括這些第三季度的數字。以美元表示，加拿大在第三季度為 0，年初至今為 1。請記住，加元相對於美元在過去一年中已經走弱，所以以加元計算，我們實際上在6%

in the third quarter and 5% year-to-date. Same thing in the UK, the pound sterling relative to the dollar has weakened this past year such that in US dollars, UK was at 6% versus -1% year-to-date. But again parenthetically, the UK in the third quarter and pound sterling was a strong 17% versus a 10% year-to-date, so a good pickup in Q3. Other countries, I will sum up together, Taiwan, Korea, and Japan was -2 in the third quarter, and in local currency was actually +8, and year-to-date was +1 and again in local currency of +5. The thing I mentioned about those other countries is that we are doing in the mid teens in Taiwan. In Korea, where this past December and April we've opened our second and third units in the Seoul area, that's the South Korea market. Korea was down 19% in the third quarter, but again that's almost entirely indicative of the fact that we severely cannibalized our strongest volume unit in that market, but overall that's doing pretty well. Put all that together, total comps for the quarter were 5 and year-to-date 4. The one number that we don't consolidate in here of course is Mexico. In the third quarter, Mexico in dollars was at 21, in pesos essentially the same at 22 and year-to-date 20 and 21 in dollars and pesos, so again about a 20 plus in Mexico, a good economy, improving economy down there. In terms of comps by merchandising category, I will give you again, actually for some reason I wrote three columns here, the first quarter, the second quarter, and third quarter, and it is actually year-to-date. Food and sundries was at 4 in the first quarter and 3 in the second quarter and 6 in the third quarter. Nothing unusual there, the 6 reflects a little bit of tobacco increase, due to the recent price increase, but we've had the benefit of some tobacco price increases affecting Q1 and Q2 as well. Hardlines was at 1 in Q1, a -6 in Q2 and of course that was when we were

第三季度和年初至今的5%。在英國也是如此，過去一年英鎊兌美元匯率走弱，以美元計算，英國匯率為 6%，而年初至今為 -1%。但再次插話，第三季度英國和英鎊強勁上漲 17%，而年初至今為 10%，因此第三季度的回升良好。其他國家，我一起總結一下，第三季度台灣、韓國和日本是-2，以當地貨幣計算實際上是+8，年初至今是+1，再次以當地貨幣計算+5。我提到的那些其他國家的事情是我們在台灣的青少年時期正在做的事情。在韓國，去年 12 月和 4 月，我們在首爾地區開設了第二和第三個單位，這就是韓國市場。韓國在第三季度下降了 19%，但這幾乎完全表明我們嚴重蠶食了我們在該市場上最強勁的銷量單位，但總體而言表現相當不錯。綜上所述，本季度的總人數為 5 次，年初至今為 4 次。我們在這裡沒有合併的一個數字當然是墨西哥。在第三季度，墨西哥以美元計算為 21，以比索計價基本相同，為 22 美元和比索，年初至今為 20 美元和 21 美元和比索，因此墨西哥再次增長 20 多美元，經濟狀況良好，那裡的經濟正在改善.按商品分類的對比，我再給你，其實我這裡不知道什麼原因寫了三個欄目，第一季度，第二季度，第三季度，實際上是年初至今。食品和雜貨在第一季度為 4，在第二季度為 3，在第三季度為 6。沒有什麼不尋常的，6 反映了由於最近的價格上漲，煙草價格略有上漲，但我們也受益於影響第一季度和第二季度的一些煙草價格上漲。 Hardlines 在第一季度為 1，在第二季度為 -6，當然那是我們當時的情況

comparing to Y2K and that's a big part of that, and back up a little bit in Q3 to 3% positive. Again the Y2K was a big issue there. Categories of interest hardware and garden are strong, office and majors were still just slightly below zero, but actually that's an improvement from where they were in the last couple of months. Our softlines was at 4 in the first quarter, -2 in Q2, as well -2 in Q3, again nothing to speak up there. Apparels were slightly negative and some of the other bedding and things were also slightly negative. Fresh foods continue strong, which was 12 in Q1 and 9 in Q2 and 11 in Q3 and again fresh foods has been one of our strong points and certainly one of our Signature departments. Ancillary businesses was at 20 in Q1 and parenthetically about 7 without gasoline, it was at 16 in Q2 and parenthetically a 5 without gasoline, and in Q3 it was at 12 and parenthetically at 9 without gasoline implying that the gas I think in Q3 was about 19 and again the total was at 12 for Q3. So, again all told 5 in Q1 comps of the company, 2 in Q2, and a 5 in Q3. Overall, I'd have to say that our sales outlook looking forward today represents a little bit of an uptake from our forward-looking sales outlook on April 24, 2001, when we had our earnings conference call, we discussed our earnings revisions, but that's because sales had picked up a little over the last several weeks. We will see what tomorrow brings and hopefully this is a start of something little better, and I guess we are pleased with what we see so far. Continuing down the income statement line, our membership fees continue to be quite strong. We still consider this a good sign going forward. Our reported fee income in the third quarter was $155.4 million or 2.06%, up 23% from last year's $126 million and up 20 basis points, and again on a reported basis that represents nearly $30

與 Y2K 相比，這是其中很大一部分，並在第三季度略微回升到 3% 的正數。 Y2K 再次成為一個大問題。感興趣的硬件和花園類別很強大，辦公室和專業仍然略低於零，但實際上這比過去幾個月有所改善。我們的軟線在第一季度為 4，第二季度為 -2，第三季度為 -2，同樣無話可說。服裝略有負面，其他一些床上用品和東西也略有負面。新鮮食品繼續保持強勁勢頭，第一季度為 12 個，第二季度為 9 個，第三季度為 11 個，新鮮食品再次成為我們的強項之一，當然也是我們的標誌性部門之一。輔助業務在第一季度為 20，括號內為 7，沒有汽油，第二季度為 16，括號內為 5，沒有汽油，第三季度為 12，括號內為 9，沒有汽油，這意味著我認為第三季度的汽油約為19 次，第三季度的總數為 12 次。因此，公司第一季度的業績再次被告知為 5，第二季度為 2，第三季度為 5。總的來說，我不得不說，我們今天的銷售前景比我們 2001 年 4 月 24 日的前瞻性銷售前景有所提高，當時我們召開了收益電話會議，我們討論了我們的收益修正，但是那是因為過去幾週銷售額略有回升。我們將看到明天會帶來什麼，希望這是一個更好的開始，我想我們對目前所看到的感到滿意。繼續降低損益表，我們的會員費仍然相當強勁。我們仍然認為這是一個好兆頭。我們在第三季度報告的費用收入為 1.554 億美元或 2.06%，比去年的 1.26 億美元增長 23% 和 20 個基點，在報告的基礎上再次接近 30 美元

million increase in reported membership fee income. By comparison in Q2 year-over-year, we were up $23 million, and in Q1 up $19 million so again that strength continues and again that's partly a function of the $5 increase that we did last September-October, as well as increasing sales of our Executive Membership which I will discuss in a minute. Probably more importantly on a cash basis, again we report membership fees on a deferred basis, on a cash basis our membership fee income was a $162.2 million, up 31% from last year's $123.9 million or up $38 million year-over-year or 31 basis points. So again a very strong showing here and as you will see in our, some of that of course is an offset to the Executive Member reward program which I will discussed when I talked about on gross margins moving up. In terms of the number of members at third quarter end, we had 11.7 million Gold Star Members or about 300,000 more than at Q2 end. Primary business members up 100,000 from the prior quarter at a 4.3 million, and add-on members actually down about 100,000 at 4 million from 4.1. That's simply a function of some people converting from a business add-on member to their own Executive Membership, which [_______________] become an Executive Gold Star Member. All told, we are up about 250,000 members during the quarter to 19.95 million from 19.7 million at Q2 end and including spouse cards 35 million versus 34.3 million at Q2 end. Again you basically shave these numbers by about 14% given our 86% renewal rates since we keep people in the membership database for up to a year after their renewal date if they haven't renewed. At May 13, 2001, our paid Executive Members totaled 840,000 versus 682,000 at the prior quarter end.

報告的會員費收入增加 100 萬元。相比之下，我們在第二季度同比增長了 2300 萬美元，在第一季度增長了 1900 萬美元，所以這種實力仍在繼續，這部分是由於我們去年 9 月至 10 月增加了 5 美元，以及銷售額的增加我將在稍後討論我們的執行成員。可能更重要的是以現金為基礎，我們再次以遞延方式報告會員費，以現金為基礎，我們的會員費收入為 1.622 億美元，比去年的 1.239 億美元增長 31% 或同比增長 3800 萬美元或 31基點。因此，這裡再次表現出非常強勁的表現，正如您將在我們的文章中看到的那樣，其中一些當然是對執行會員獎勵計劃的抵消，我將在談到毛利率上升時討論該計劃。就第三季度末的會員數量而言，我們擁有 1170 萬金星會員，比第二季度末增加了約 30 萬。主要業務成員比上一季度增加了 100,000 人，達到 430 萬，而附加成員實際上從 4.1 減少了約 100,000 人，達到 400 萬。這只是一些人從業務附加會員轉換為他們自己的行政會員的功能，他們 [_______________] 成為行政金星會員。總而言之，我們在本季度的會員人數從第二季度末的 1970 萬增加到 1995 萬，其中包括 3500 萬與第二季度末的 3430 萬相比，本季度的會員人數增加了約 25 萬。同樣，鑑於我們 86% 的續訂率，您基本上將這些數字減少了約 14%，因為如果他們沒有續訂，我們會在續訂日期後將人們保留在會員數據庫中長達一年。 2001 年 5 月 13 日，我們的付費執行會員總數為 840,000 人，而上一季度末為 682,000 人。

That represents about 13,000 new conversions to the Executive Membership program per week in Q3, up from 10,000 a week in Q2, so again we're still getting some good sign ups there. Executive member sales penetration is approaching 13%. And in terms of the Executive member services which is the other part of this equation, in addition to the services that I have certainly discussed over the past several years, credit card processing, checks and forms printing for businesses at residential and business long-distance telephone services, small business loans, real estate marketing and mortgage services. We have a couple of new things on our plate. We have offered in the past in some markets auto and homeowners insurance. We have a new program, which we think is even better being offered by American Express Property and Casualty Company. It is currently rolled out in Oregon, it is a test, and we actually are also getting ready to roll out by August, just to our Executive Members, in 7 additional states and D.C. and including California and as well as a couple of East Coast states, Maryland, and Virginia. So far what we are seeing is an 85% quote rate when people request a quote which is again a relatively high number for quotes, and a 23% conversion rate of those people, again I am told those are very high numbers and we are seeing good savings there. Again this is a slow process as we have seen with member services, but we think that over time that this will continue to build. There are actually 4 more Executive Member Services that we plan to roll out in July and August, and as we get there I will let you know for competitive reasons. We will discuss those, of course, the next time, but I'll probably discuss them with you guys as we roll them out in July and August. I think what it says overall is that we are committing to making this work and we know that we are in here for the long haul and again we see signs of life, and the services although are small numbers to start with. Before I discuss third quarter gross margin results, just a couple of quick comments on Amex, in addition to the property casualty reinsurance offering. Overall the relationship is going fine and as planned, a very good partnership for both sides, we believe. We just

這代表第三季度每週約有 13,000 次新轉換為執行會員計劃，高於第二季度的每週 10,000 次，因此我們仍然在那裡獲得了一些不錯的註冊。執行會員的銷售滲透率接近 13%。至於行政會員服務，這是這個等式的另一部分，除了我在過去幾年中肯定討論過的服務，信用卡處理、支票和表格打印，用於住宅和商業長途電話服務、小企業貸款、房地產營銷和抵押服務。我們的盤子上有一些新東西。我們過去曾在一些市場提供汽車和房主保險。我們有一個新計劃，我們認為美國運通財產險公司提供的更好。它目前在俄勒岡州推出，這是一個測試，我們實際上也準備在 8 月之前推出，只針對我們的執行成員，在另外 7 個州和華盛頓特區，包括加利福尼亞和幾個東海岸州、馬里蘭州和弗吉尼亞州。到目前為止，我們看到的是 85% 的報價率，當人們要求報價時，這又是一個相對較高的報價數字，而這些人的轉化率為 23%，我再次被告知這些數字非常高，我們正在看到那裡有很好的儲蓄。正如我們在會員服務中看到的那樣，這是一個緩慢的過程，但我們認為隨著時間的推移，這將繼續建立。實際上，我們計劃在 7 月和 8 月推出另外 4 種高級會員服務，當我們到達那裡時，出於競爭原因，我會通知您。當然，我們會在下一次討論這些，但我可能會在 7 月和 8 月推出它們時與你們討論它們。我認為總體而言，我們正在致力於完成這項工作，並且我們知道我們在這里長期存在，並且我們再次看到了生命的跡象，並且服務雖然從一開始就很小。在我討論第三季度毛利率結果之前，除了財產意外再保險產品之外，我只對美國運通的一些快速評論。我們相信，總體而言，雙方的關係進展順利，並且按計劃進行，對雙方來說都是非常好的伙伴關係。我們剛剛

had our first annual meeting of the senior people and everybody felt pretty good about it. At third quarter end we had 1.2 million cobranded cards out there, about 9% to 10% increase from second quarter end. So again about 100,000 increase from just the last 12 weeks, and 1.8 million card holders overall including spouse cards. Amex represents both between cobranded acceptance as well as Amex acceptance overall 18% sales penetration of our company sales. We are seeing new membership sign ups. We are seeing new and continued cross marketing initiatives and one of the things I'll talk about when we discuss our Passport program later in the call, as well as good overall sales results. Moving on to the gross margin lines, gross margin as you saw was down 36 basis points to a 9.76% of sales in Q3 this year versus 10.11% last year. I'll go through the chart in a moment, as you'll see when I walked through the gross margin components, of course, the gross margin offset if you will due to the 2% Executive Member reward program, as well as one of the things that I talked about on the April 24th, conference call, the fact that with rising gasoline prices, we saw a big downturn in Q3 in the gross margin of our gasoline business. I am happy to say that it has come back and we will talk about that in a minute, but that alone represented 18 basis points, just for gasoline. I had absolutely no concern about this, [_______________] margins are, and we see the ability to upper current those underlying gross margins going forward, while maintaining our strong competitive position. If you would again, jot down a few numbers in this chart here and we'll just again have 2 columns Q2 and Q3, and the first line item would be the core warehouse business, which would be just basically food and sundry, hardlines and softlines in fresh foods. In Q2 that was +12 basis points, in Q3 year-over-year it was -1

召開了我們的第一次高級人員年會，每個人都對此感到非常滿意。在第三季度末，我們有 120 萬張聯名卡，比第二季度末增長了大約 9% 到 10%。因此，與過去 12 週相比，再次增加了約 100,000 人，包括配偶卡在內的持卡人總數為 180 萬。美國運通代表了聯合品牌接受度和美國運通接受度之間的整體銷售滲透率，占我們公司銷售額的 18%。我們正在看到新的會員註冊。我們看到了新的和持續的交叉營銷計劃，以及稍後在電話會議中討論我們的 Passport 計劃時我將談論的事情之一，以及良好的整體銷售業績。繼續看毛利率，如您所見，今年第三季度的毛利率下降了 36 個基點，佔銷售額的 9.76%，而去年為 10.11%。稍後我將瀏覽圖表，正如您在瀏覽毛利率組成部分時所看到的那樣，當然，如果您將由於 2% 的執行會員獎勵計劃以及其中之一的原因，毛利率會被抵消我在 4 月 24 日電話會議上談到的事情，隨著汽油價格上漲，我們看到第三季度汽油業務的毛利率大幅下滑。我很高興地說它已經回來了，我們將在一分鐘內討論這個問題，但這僅代表 18 個基點，僅用於汽油。我對此完全不擔心，[_______________] 利潤率是，我們看到未來有能力提高這些潛在毛利率，同時保持我們強大的競爭地位。如果你再想，在這裡記下這張圖表中的幾個數字，我們將再次有 2 列 Q2 和 Q3，第一個項目將是核心倉庫業務，基本上就是食品和雜貨、強硬派和新鮮食品中的軟線。第二季度為+12個基點，第三季度同比為-1

basis points or essentially flat, 2% reward program, detriment of 21 basis points in Q2 and a detriment of 23 basis points in Q3, again representing an increased sales penetration of those members, ancillary businesses +11 in Q2, and -14 in Q3, again that is gasoline, I'll talk about that in a minute. International +3 and +2, and [_______________] and other zeros and zeros. So total Q2 year-over-year, we showed a total gross margin improvement of 5 basis points and in Q3 a negative 36 basis points. Again let me go through these real quickly, in terms of the quarter being essentially flat, there is increased new market locations penetration year-over-year that cost us about 8 or 9 basis points, and in the delta unit from Q2 year-over-year was about 4 or 5 basis points, so we see that again trending. That has continued to hit the gross margin because we are going into new markets where we are being even more competitive to start off with. As we have seen historically, we are certainly competing in many of our markets with other competitors, and we see that improving each year in these new markets over a 3- to 4-year period. Within the core business, the food and sundries gross margins were actually a little better, offset by hardline and softline gross margins coming down a little bit, again that offset was a little more negative than the positive influence of sundries. And again that's where the weakness in sales is, the markdowns are actually pretty good, not being a big component, but again this is a little bit more competitive area. Again I see that core component bouncing back in Q4 and beyond. Next gross margin component with 2% reward, it's very straightforward, I think one thing that's comforting here is that if we look back year-over-year the detriment to gross margin in Q4 last year, it was -12 basis points, prior to that it was essentially 0 or -1 basis points

基點或基本持平，2% 的獎勵計劃，第二季度損失 21 個基點，第三季度損失 23 個基點，再次代表這些成員的銷售滲透率增加，輔助業務在第二季度 +11，在第三季度 -14 ，又是汽油，我一會兒再談。國際 +3 和 +2，以及 [_______________] 和其他零和零。因此，第二季度總毛利率同比增長 5 個基點，第三季度為負 36 個基點。再次讓我快速了解這些真實情況，就本季度基本持平而言，新的市場位置滲透率同比增加，這使我們損失了大約 8 或 9 個基點，並且從第二季度開始的三角洲單位-年約為 4 或 5 個基點，因此我們再次看到這種趨勢。這繼續影響毛利率，因為我們正在進入新市場，在那裡我們一開始就更具競爭力。正如我們從歷史上看到的那樣，我們肯定在我們的許多市場上與其他競爭對手競爭，我們看到這些新市場在 3 到 4 年的時間裡每年都在進步。在核心業務中，食品和雜貨的毛利率實際上要好一些，被硬線和軟線的毛利率略有下降所抵消，這種抵消再次比雜貨的積極影響更負面一些。這也是銷售的弱點所在，降價實際上相當不錯，不是一個很大的組成部分，但這也是一個更具競爭力的領域。我再次看到核心組件在第四季度及以後反彈。下一個毛利率為 2% 的部分，這非常簡單，我認為這裡令人欣慰的一件事是，如果我們回顧去年第四季度對毛利率的損害，它是 -12 個基點，之前基本上是0或-1個基點

because we are just starting the program. In Q1 year-over-year it was -17, in Q2 as I mentioned -21, and in Q3 -23. So whereas, in absolute terms, as we increase sales penetration, this should be a slight increase in the detriment to gross margin, but that detriment will start to decline in Q4, since we are now starting to compare against the detriment from a prior year, and the delta year-over-year will be less and I would again, much like the Amex card effecting SG&A over the last couple of years I would expect the year from now this to be a non-issue in terms of effective gross margin and much lesser issue in Q4 and Q1 going forward. Just one brief point on the Executive Membership program, for the year our original budget was on a book basis because of deferred accounting, because we have a lot history on any slippage of the rewards that we pay out, [_______________] cash. We budgeted at $16 million on a book basis, pretax P&L at about 2 cents a share and so basically it will be slightly profitable on a cash flow basis. The book is about where we see we are coming in and the cash flow is actually a little above breakeven, so again pretty much in line with what we expected. Now the ancillary component of gross margin, as I mentioned, in Q3 it was 14 basis points year-over-year down versus 11 up in Q2, so what happened there, again this is the factor I explained on the April 24th conference call, gasoline margins were way down in Q3 representing for the company overall, an 18 basis point drop year-over-year on gross margin. Again I am pleased to report that at least thus far our gas prices are not only stabilized but even the outlook for gas prices this summer have gone from ever increasing on the news every night to steadying. We will keep our fingers crossed for Q4, but at least for the first 21/2 weeks it looks a lot better, and it is profitable instead of unprofitable. Nothing really of import related to international with LIFO as I mentioned. In

因為我們剛剛啟動程序。第一季度同比為-17，第二季度為-21，第三季度為-23。因此，儘管從絕對值來看，隨著我們提高銷售滲透率，這應該會略微增加對毛利率的損害，但這種損害將在第四季度開始下降，因為我們現在開始與前一年的損害進行比較，並且同比增長會更少，我會再次，就像過去幾年影響 SG&A 的美國運通卡一樣，我預計從現在開始的一年，就有效毛利率而言，這不是問題第四季度和第一季度的問題要小得多。關於行政會員計劃的一個簡短點，由於遞延會計，這一年我們的原始預算是按賬面計算的，因為我們有很多關於我們支付的獎勵滑落的歷史，[_______________]現金。我們的預算為賬面價值 1600 萬美元，稅前損益約為每股 2 美分，因此在現金流基礎上基本上會略有盈利。這本書是關於我們看到我們進入的地方，現金流實際上略高於盈虧平衡點，因此再次與我們的預期幾乎一致。現在毛利率的輔助部分，正如我所提到的，第三季度同比下降 14 個基點，而第二季度上升 11 個基點，所以那裡發生了什麼，這也是我在 4 月 24 日電話會議上解釋的因素，代表公司整體的第三季度汽油利潤率大幅下降，毛利率同比下降 18 個基點。我再次高興地報告，至少到目前為止，我們的天然氣價格不僅穩定，而且今年夏天的天然氣價格前景也從每晚的新聞不斷上漲變為穩定。我們會為第四季度保持信心，但至少在前 21/2 週，情況看起來要好得多，而且它是盈利的而不是無利可圖的。正如我所提到的，與 LIFO 的國際關係並沒有什麼真正重要的意義。在

terms of LIFO inflationary areas, of course, the cigarettes which just had a price increase, beef and pork, butter and some of the nuts; deflationary electronics, coffee, apparel items, and vitamins and some of the nuts, and cashews instead of peanuts and walnuts. So overall I am not allowed to tell you there, historically we have tended to record a $2.5 million LIFO charge in the first 3 quarters each quarter, or 2.5 to 3 million, and than in Q4 we tend to recover some, if not all of that. At this point, we will expect to recover, probably recover some of that, half of that, but we will wait and see. Overall the outlook for gross margin, again we are not concerned with what we saw here, again gases coming back, the other things that really don't concern us, it should turn better over the next several quarters. Before going into SG&A, I'll briefly review our ancillary businesses. We ended the quarter with 267 pharmacies, we are up 7 from the prior quarter, 343 food courts, up 9, 340 mini labs, up 9, by the way we opened 9 warehouses during the quarter, 315 optical shops, up 8, 16 fruit and coffee centers, up 1, 79 hearing aid centers, up 4, and 131 gas stations, up 9. In terms of gas stations, we will probably work on another 9 or 10 prior to fiscal year to be about 140 year-end, and I think 3 months ago I said that our goal was to get to about 150 by fiscal year-end, that was an aggressive goal and some permitting delays, and we still plan to open several more. Overall, these businesses too have slowed. The third quarter comps for example for the food court, one-hour mini lab, and the optical were in the 1% to 5% range. Hearing aid is very strong, but also very new. Pharmacy

就 LIFO 通脹領域而言，當然是剛剛漲價的香煙、牛肉和豬肉、黃油和一些堅果；通貨緊縮的電子產品、咖啡、服裝、維生素和一些堅果，以及腰果而不是花生和核桃。所以總的來說，我不能在那裡告訴你，從歷史上看，我們傾向於在每個季度的前 3 個季度記錄 250 萬美元的 LIFO 費用，即 2.5 到 300 萬美元，與第四季度相比，我們傾向於收回一些，如果不是全部的話那。在這一點上，我們預計會恢復，可能會恢復一些，一半，但我們將拭目以待。總體而言，毛利率的前景，我們並不關心我們在這裡看到的情況，氣體又回來了，其他真正不關心我們的事情，在接下來的幾個季度應該會好轉。在進入 SG&A 之前，我將簡要回顧一下我們的輔助業務。我們在本季度結束時有 267 家藥店，比上一季度增加 7 家，343 家美食廣場，增加 9 家，340 家迷你實驗室，增加 9 家，順便說一下，我們在本季度開設了 9 家倉庫，315 家眼鏡店，增加 8 家，16 家水果和咖啡中心，增加1個，79個助聽中心，增加4個，加油站131個，增加9個。加油站方面，我們可能會在財政年度之前再工作9或10個，大約140個年底，我想 3 個月前我說過我們的目標是在財政年度結束前達到 150 家左右，這是一個激進的目標，有些允許延遲，我們仍然計劃再開幾個。總體而言，這些業務也放緩了。例如，美食廣場、一小時迷你實驗室和光學設備的第三季度補償在 1% 到 5% 的範圍內。助聽器很強大，也很新。藥店

actually, which is one of the old [_______________] numbers here, big business 1+ billion dollar business, we had it around for a number of years, it still came in strong in the third quarter, up 10%. All told, ancillary business sales last year in fiscal 2000 were $2.5 billion and our current estimate for this year is right at $3 billion. We are up 19% year-over-year and up 11% without gasoline. So, almost $500 million gain to sales this year related to ancillary business sales. Again, these are businesses that not only drive those businesses but help drive people [_______________] on a more frequent basis. Regarding SG&A, we actually did a little better than planned in Q3; partly, I think a little better focus on expenses and partly better comps. As you may recall in Q1, SG&A year-over-year was up higher by 48 basis points; in Q2, higher by 60 basis points; and of course here higher by 39. So, again an improving trend there, and I think this is the last chart I will ask you to jot down, again, if you would, two columns, Q2 and Q3. The first line item would be the core warehouse business, it was worse or negative, I will use negative signs for being worse or higher, negative 33 basis points in Q2, negative 24 in Q3. That by the way, the negative 24 is not the same; in fact, the utility costs overall are higher by 7 basis points year-over-year, so again a little better showing there relative to Q1 and Q2. Centrally, we also saw some good improvement relative to Q1 and Q2; in Q2, central expense is higher or negative 9 basis points; in Q3, higher by only one basis point and that -1, part of that is that the infrastructure is now in place relative to our ramp up and expansion [_______________] the 2 buying offices that we opened in Atlanta and Dallas last year essentially [anniversaried], and hopefully, a little more focus on that as well. Ancillary businesses, -13 basis points in Q2 and -11 in Q3,

實際上，這是舊的 [_______________] 數字之一，大企業 1+ 十億美元的業務，我們已經存在多年了，它在第三季度仍然強勁，增長了 10%。總而言之，2000 財年的輔助業務銷售額為 25 億美元，而我們目前對今年的估計為 30 億美元。我們同比增長 19%，在沒有汽油的情況下增長 11%。因此，今年與輔助業務銷售相關的銷售額增加了近 5 億美元。同樣，這些企業不僅推動了這些業務，而且更頻繁地幫助推動人們 [_______________]。關於 SG&A，我們在第三季度的表現實際上比計劃好一點；部分，我認為更好地關注費用和部分更好的補償。您可能還記得，在第一季度，SG&A 同比增長了 48 個基點；在第二季度，上漲 60 個基點；當然這里高出 39。所以，這裡又是一個改善趨勢，我認為這是我會要求你再次記下的最後一張圖表，如果你願意的話，兩列，Q2 和 Q3。第一個項目是核心倉庫業務，它是更差或負數，我將使用負號表示更差或更高，第二季度為負 33 個基點，第三季度為負 24 個基點。順便說一句，負數 24 是不一樣的；事實上，公用事業成本總體上比去年同期高出 7 個基點，因此相對於第一季度和第二季度的表現再次好一點。總體而言，我們也看到了相對於第一季度和第二季度的一些良好改善；在第二季度，中央支出高於或負 9 個基點；在第三季度，僅高了一個基點，而-1，部分原因是基礎設施現在已經到位，相對於我們的加速和擴張 [_______________] 我們去年在亞特蘭大和達拉斯開設的 2 個採購辦事處基本上 [ anniversaried]，希望也能更加關注這一點。輔助業務，第二季度為-13 個基點，第三季度為-11，

nothing unexpected there, international -5 and -3, and others 0 and 0. So, again 60 basis points higher in Q2, 39 in Q3. In terms of Q4 SG&A outlook, if sales continue a little better level, we might see that 39 basis points detriment lessen a little bit. We also have going for us that in Q4 on June 5, 2001, we anniversary our $2 year-over-year wage increase. That should help us a little bit. The one thing that doesn't help us, that hurts us a little bit would be the fact that last year was a 17-week fiscal fourth quarter and with that there are certain annual expense accruals that you didn't have as much in that second quarter that helped Q4 a little bit last year. But we have got our fingers crossed and if sales continue then we should be fine there. Next, on the income statement line is preopening expenses, a big increase dollar wise. Last year in Q3, $6.7 million, up $6 million, just $12.8 million in Q3 this year. The math is pretty straightforward. Last year in Q3, we had two openings recognizing that some of that preopening last year to $6.7 million related to openings that were getting ready to happen in Q4, but this year in Q3, we had 9 openings; so, again nothing untoward there. The next line, provision for impaired assets and closing costs. You noticed that we took out the word "warehouse" before closing costs because this also includes the consolidation efforts we have going on in Canada, and again for both Q3, Q4, and Q1 of next year, we will segment those out to share with you where we are coming in on that. But all told, last year in Q3, we had a provision of $1.5 million on this line. This year, it's flat at 0. The three main line items that sum up to 0 are closing costs, such as upcoming relocations where we close on existing warehouse, gains on sales of real estate, and then the Canadian consolidation. We had about $5

沒有什麼意外的，國際 -5 和 -3，以及其他 0 和 0。因此，第二季度再次上漲 60 個基點，第三季度上漲 39 個基點。就第四季度的 SG&A 前景而言，如果銷售繼續保持較好水平，我們可能會看到 39 個基點的損失會有所減少。我們還希望在 2001 年 6 月 5 日的第四季度，我們會紀念 2 美元的工資同比增長。這應該對我們有一點幫助。對我們沒有幫助、讓我們有點受傷的一件事是，去年是一個為期 17 週的財政第四季度，並且有一些年度費用應計項目，而你沒有那麼多第二季度對去年第四季度有所幫助。但是我們已經祈禱了，如果銷售繼續，那麼我們應該沒問題。接下來，損益表上的費用是開業前費用，美元明智的大幅增加。去年第三季度為 670 萬美元，增加了 600 萬美元，今年第三季度僅為 1280 萬美元。數學很簡單。去年第三季度，我們有兩個空缺職位，其中一些去年的 670 萬美元與準備在第四季度發生的空缺職位有關，但今年在第三季度，我們有 9 個空缺職位；所以，那裡也沒有什麼不愉快的。下一行，減值資產和結算成本的準備金。你注意到我們在結賬成本之前去掉了“倉庫”這個詞，因為這也包括我們在加拿大正在進行的整合工作，而且對於明年的第三季度、第四季度和第一季度，我們將把它們分開來分享你在我們正在進入的地方。但總而言之，去年第三季度，我們在這條線上預留了 150 萬美元。今年，它與 0 持平。總和為 0 的三個主要項目是關閉成本，例如我們即將關閉現有倉庫的搬遷，房地產銷售收益，然後是加拿大合併。我們有大約 5 美元

million of closing costs in the quarter, and again that's partly in planning related to the upcoming planned 4-5 relocations we have got between September and calendar year-end, and again once we have committed to do something we have to impair what we know. We had $8.2 million of gains on properties. The big one there was one of the two Manhattan sites that we are selling. Again, this is where we went into Chelsea and also in the West 50s in Manhattan, and both instances we met with great opposition from everybody, residents, city people, and it was clear as well just the difficulty of operating there that it didn't make sense, and as dumb luck would have it, we picked up a nice gain on one of those, and we will pick up some more nice gain on the other one in the fourth quarter. Again, though I think that as we know more about the 4-5 relocations that we are doing that will just help offset that. In terms of Canada within this number, as you can tell from the $5 million closing costs to $8 million gains, we [_______________] 0. We have roughly 3 million of Canadian consolidation costs. The original budget was about 4 million, but that doesn't change our expectation for the whole. Looking forward to Q4 next year, there are no relocations planned in Q4. Again, there are 4-5 planned between September 1, 2001, and calendar year-end, first 4 months of fiscal 2002, and as I mentioned the good news is that between now and calendar year-end, we have a couple of planned gains on sales of properties and when I say planned, we know what the gains are that should help offset that. It's simply that the deals haven't closed yet there in contract and you can't book it until you close it. Again, nothing unusual there, the good news, I think we have managed that process pretty well. With respect to Canada reorganization costs of $3 million again was compared to, I think, our budget was about $4 million occurring in this quarter, about half a penny a share. We pretty much still expect the total Canadian reorganization cost about $26 million pretax, as we had stated in our press

本季度的關閉成本為 100 萬美元，這部分是與我們在 9 月至日曆年年底之間即將進行的 4-5 次搬遷計劃相關的計劃，而且一旦我們承諾做某事，我們就必須削弱我們所知道的.我們在房產上獲得了 820 萬美元的收益。最大的一個是我們正在出售的兩個曼哈頓站點之一。再一次，這是我們進入切爾西和曼哈頓西 50 年代的地方，在這兩種情況下，我們都遇到了所有人、居民、城市人的強烈反對，而且很明顯，在那裡經營的困難是它沒有說不通，就像愚蠢的運氣一樣，我們在其中一個上獲得了不錯的收益，我們將在第四季度在另一個上獲得更多不錯的收益。同樣，儘管我認為隨著我們對正在進行的 4-5 次搬遷了解得更多，這將有助於抵消這一點。就這個數字內的加拿大而言，從 500 萬美元的結算成本到 800 萬美元的收益，我們 [_______________] 為 0。我們有大約 300 萬美元的加拿大整合成本。最初的預算是400萬左右，但這並沒有改變我們對整體的預期。展望明年第四季度，第四季度沒有搬遷計劃。同樣，在 2001 年 9 月 1 日和日曆年末，即 2002 財年的前 4 個月之間計劃了 4-5 次，正如我提到的好消息是，從現在到日曆年末，我們計劃了房地產銷售收益，當我說計劃時，我們知道收益是什麼，應該有助於抵消這一點。只是合同中的交易還沒有結束，在你結束之前你不能預訂它。再一次，那裡沒有什麼不尋常的，好消息是，我認為我們已經很好地管理了這個過程。關於加拿大 300 萬美元的重組成本，我認為，我們本季度的預算約為 400 萬美元，約為每股 0.5 美分。正如我們在媒體上所說，我們幾乎仍然預計加拿大的總重組成本約為 2600 萬加元的稅前

release back in January or February, with $16 million pretax or 2 cents a share after tax in Q4 and roughly a penny a share or $6 to $8 million pretax in Q1. The reorganization is going well. A good number of our associates in both Burnaby, British Columbia, and Laval, Quebec near Montreal have decided to move to Nepean, which is in Ottawa, through our Central Canadian headquarters there. Of course, we will have some people still remaining in Burnaby and Laval, and basically, our plan is for consolidating these operations to be effective day one of our new fiscal year in early September. All told, operating income came in down about 11% at $174.6 million this year versus $197 million last year. Again, in line with our April 24th revised earnings estimate that we gave in our press release. Below the operating income line, we lost a little; reported interest expense was actually a little better or lower by $600,000 coming at $9 million in Q3 versus $9.6 million a year ago in Q3. The actual cash interest expense is about the same. What's happened is with the ramp up in expansion, we have an increase in capitalized interest to a tune of about $600,000 [_______________], so that's essentially the difference there. Interest expense in Q4, of course, it's 4 more weeks; it's 16 weeks instead of a 12-week quarter, and again I would take the account of precapitalized interest number and multiply by four-thirds, we would expect something in the $12 million to $12.5 million range for interest expense, which then will be reduced a little bit by again an increasing amount of capitalized interest as we go into again an additional ramp up in expansion in Q1 and early Q2 of fiscal 2002. The interest income and other in Q3 last

1 月或 2 月發布，第四季度稅前 1600 萬美元或每股稅後 2 美分，第一季度每股稅前約 1 美分或 6 至 800 萬美元。重組進展順利。我們在不列顛哥倫比亞省本拿比和蒙特利爾附近魁北克省拉瓦爾市的許多員工決定通過我們在加拿大中部的總部搬到位於渥太華的 Nepean。當然，我們仍有一些人留在本拿比和拉瓦爾，基本上，我們的計劃是整合這些業務，以便在 9 月初新財政年度的第一天生效。總而言之，今年的營業收入下降了約 11%，為 1.746 億美元，而去年為 1.97 億美元。同樣，與我們在新聞稿中給出的 4 月 24 日修訂後的收益預測一致。在營業收入線以下，我們損失了一點；報告的利息支出實際上略好或降低了 600,000 美元，第三季度為 900 萬美元，而一年前第三季度為 960 萬美元。實際現金利息支出大致相同。發生的事情是隨著擴張的加速，我們的資本化利息增加了大約 600,000 美元 [_______________]，所以這基本上就是那裡的差異。第四季度的利息支出，當然還有 4 週；這是 16 周而不是 12 週的季度，我再次考慮預資本化的利息數量並乘以三分之四，我們預計利息支出在 1200 萬美元到 1250 萬美元之間，然後將減少隨著我們在 2002 財年第一季度和第二季度初的擴張再次增加，資本化利息的數量再次增加。第三季度的利息收入和其他收入最後一次

year was $12.9 million. It was lower by $3.1 million to $9.8 million this year in the third quarter. This reflects a combination of three things; increased cash usage, of course, lower return on this cash given that interest rates will come down, as well as higher Mexico earnings, which help that line because that's where we put the equity accounting for earnings for Mexico. Again in Q4, this number two will come down year-over-year because of capital expenditures, reduced cash balances, and lower interest rates. So, I expect to see another reduction there. So, with interest expense and interest income together lowering pretax earnings by $2.5 million pretax, reported pretax income was down about 12.5% year-over-year or about $25 million to $175 million versus $200 million in last year's third quarter and commensurately earnings per share coming in at 23 cents versus 26 cents a year ago. In terms of the balance sheet, which is one of about 6 or 7 final topics of interest here, we give you a brief of balance sheet at May 13, 2001. Cash and short term investments $564 million, inventories $2.675 billion, other current assets $454 million, total current assets $3.693 billion, net PP&E $5.515 billion, other assets $368, total assets $9.576 billion. On the right hand side of the balance sheet short-term debt $16 million, accounts payable $2.662 billion, other current liabilities $1.210 billion, for total current liabilities of $3.888 billion, long-term debt of $828 million, deferred and other $95 million, for total liabilities of $4.811 billion, minority interest

年為 1290 萬美元。今年第三季度下降了 310 萬美元至 980 萬美元。這反映了三件事的結合；現金使用量的增加，當然，鑑於利率將下降，以及墨西哥收益的增加，這些現金的回報率會降低，這有助於這條線，因為這是我們將股權會計入墨西哥收益的地方。同樣在第四季度，由於資本支出、現金餘額減少和利率降低，這一第二名將同比下降。所以，我希望在那裡看到另一個減少。因此，由於利息支出和利息收入共同將稅前收益降低了 250 萬美元，報告的稅前收入同比下降約 12.5% 或約 2500 萬美元至 1.75 億美元，而去年第三季度為 2 億美元，每股收益相應減少價格為 23 美分，而一年前為 26 美分。關於資產負債表，這是這里大約 6 或 7 個最終感興趣的主題之一，我們為您簡要介紹 2001 年 5 月 13 日的資產負債表。現金和短期投資 5.64 億美元，庫存 26.75 億美元，其他流動資產4.54 億美元，總流動資產 36.93 億美元，淨 PP&E 55.15 億美元，其他資產 368 美元，總資產 95.76 億美元。資產負債表右側短期債務 1600 萬美元，應付賬款 26.62 億美元，其他流動負債 12.10 億美元，流動負債總額 38.88 億美元，長期債務 8.28 億美元，遞延和其他 9500 萬美元，為總負債 48.11 億美元，少數股東權益

of $110 million, stockholders' equity of $4.655 billion, for total right side of the balance sheet also of $9.576 billion, and from a balance sheet health standpoint, certainly we are very strong, that the GAAP ratio is now at 15%. I will mention one thing on the cash balance of $564 million, about $285 million of that is short-term investments and highly marketable stuff that we can get out quickly with no risk. About $205 million is credit and debit card receivables. Keep in mind that we always end our quarters on a Sunday, and so it's the weekend in the banking business, and so given that we're doing close to $100 million a day in sales and debit and credit cards represent probably half of that, that's essentially what that is. In terms of merchandize AP, as you can see here on the balance sheet, accounts payable to inventories is almost 100% financed. Actual merchandize AP to merchandize inventories is about 78% to 80%, little less than last year, but in line with what we see at this kind of seasonal profit at percentage at the end of third quarter, which is a seasonally slow time for us. Additional free flow, if you will, that we get is the fact that we mail our checks everyday and that takes time to get cashed which is not just normal management of our business here. At quarter end, that was about $320 million, and again that's just as we get bigger, every company benefits from that, but again including that, we are almost fully financed in our inventories. In terms of capex, our original budget for fiscal 2001 was right around $1.03 billion with about $650 million to $700 million being new warehouse construction, close to $200 million being in remodel activities, close to $200 million being international, and $200 million to $250 million being in other with close to 200 of that number

1.1 億美元，股東權益 46.55 億美元，資產負債表右側總額也為 95.76 億美元，從資產負債表健康的角度來看，我們當然非常強大，GAAP 比率現在為 15%。我將在 5.64 億美元的現金餘額中提到一件事，其中約 2.85 億美元是短期投資和高度適銷對路的東西，我們可以在沒有風險的情況下快速退出。大約 2.05 億美元是信用卡和借記卡應收賬款。請記住，我們總是在星期天結束我們的季度，所以這是銀行業務的周末，鑑於我們每天的銷售額接近 1 億美元，借記卡和信用卡可能佔其中的一半，本質上就是這樣。就商品 AP 而言，正如您在資產負債表上所見，應付庫存賬款幾乎 100% 已融資。商品化庫存的實際商品 AP 約為 78% 至 80%，略低於去年，但與我們看到的這種季節性利潤在第三季度末的百分比一致，這對我們來說是一個季節性緩慢的時間.如果您願意，我們獲得的額外自由流動是我們每天郵寄支票的事實，並且需要時間才能兌現，這不僅僅是我們在這裡業務的正常管理。在季度末，這大約是 3.2 億美元，而且隨著我們的規模越來越大，每家公司都從中受益，但同樣包括這一點，我們的庫存幾乎已完全融資。在資本支出方面，我們 2001 財年的原始預算約為 10.3 億美元，其中約 6.5 億至 7 億美元用於新倉庫建設，近 2 億美元用於改造活動，近 2 億美元用於國際，2 億至 2.5 億美元在其他有接近 200 的那個數字

being our Depot expansion which we've talked about in the past. Through third quarter year-to-date, our capital expenditures have actually come in right at $979 million which is about a $100 million under our original cash budget with international being most of that, and again it's just timing delays. For the full year, we'll still be very close to that $1.3 billion capex number. Next topic of interest Costco Online. I think our original budget was about $170 million and to make a very small profit like less than a million dollars, and that of course, assume two critical things, that the free ISP services that we'd launched with Yahoo back in August or September of last year would be a big success, and of course, the world of free ISP changed very quickly and that was eliminated back in the fall. Although, we left on good terms with Yahoo and they were a good partner to have and came through with what they had promised. The other thing was that we anticipated our business-to-business site to be up and running by November, and that just got up and running about a month ago and of course, again no free ISP service. More likely, we'll do about $80 million in the Internet, and as I mentioned in the last quarterly conference call, probably it was half a penny share, nothing big relative to the company but continuing to grow. Next topic, Canada reorganization, I pretty much talked about that. We're in line with what we expected. Again the big thing there in our view is the people. Between the two offices, prior to the consolidation, we had 607 people, after the moves between the new office in Ottawa as well as the regional buying offices that we'll maintain in Laval and Burnaby, we would expect to have about 330 to 350 people. We've been fortunate that probably two-thirds of the staffing in Ottawa has come from existing employees at Burnaby and Laval. Certainly some of our employees will opt for severance as well, and some are going to be going into the local warehouses as well as I think we've got a handful 10 or 20 that are actually moving down to the

是我們過去討論過的倉庫擴展。截至今年第三季度，我們的資本支出實際上達到了 9.79 億美元，比我們最初的現金預算少了 1 億美元，其中大部分是國際支出，而且這只是時間上的延遲。全年，我們仍將非常接近 13 億美元的資本支出數字。 Costco Online 感興趣的下一個主題。我認為我們最初的預算大約是 1.7 億美元，並且為了賺取不到 100 萬美元的微薄利潤，當然，假設有兩個關鍵的事情，我們在 8 月或 9 月與雅虎一起推出的免費 ISP 服務去年的 ISP 將取得巨大成功，當然，免費 ISP 的世界變化非常快，並且在秋天就被淘汰了。儘管如此，我們與雅虎保持良好的關係，他們是一個很好的合作夥伴，並且兌現了他們的承諾。另一件事是，我們預計我們的企業對企業網站將在 11 月之前啟動並運行，而該站點在大約一個月前才啟動並運行，當然，再次沒有免費的 ISP 服務。更有可能的是，我們將在互聯網上賺到大約 8000 萬美元，正如我在上一個季度電話會議中提到的，可能只是半美分的份額，與公司相比沒什麼大不了的，但會繼續增長。下一個話題，加拿大重組，我幾乎談到了這一點。我們符合我們的預期。在我們看來，最重要的還是人。在合併之前，在這兩個辦事處之間，我們有 607 人，在渥太華的新辦事處以及我們將在拉瓦爾和本拿比維持的區域採購辦事處之間搬遷後，我們預計會有大約 330 到 350 人人們。我們很幸運，渥太華三分之二的員工來自本拿比和拉瓦爾的現有員工。當然，我們的一些員工也會選擇遣散費，有些人將進入當地倉庫，我認為我們有少數 10 或 20 名員工實際上正在轉移到

U.S. So we're pleased with that. In terms of merchandizing initiatives, two things I forgot to mention before, the special order kiosk program and then this summer's upcoming passport program. Again, not to beat a dead horse here, the kiosk program is working fine, we are learning from it. Our goal was to have this in at least 200 warehouses this year. We actually have it in 270 warehouses. This is where we've taken out [_______________] and dedicated those 20 power positions to items that you can't buy on site, you can see them on display, you fill an order form, you pay for it today, and then its typically shipped or installed as the case may be or delivered it to your house like a refrigerator or carpeting. That over 900 items now are on those 20 power displays. Everything from tires, wheels, to home furnishings, to bathroom fixtures like Grohe faucets, and core bathroom fixtures. Our goal here was to add to a typical $100 million warehouse and a million dollars of incremental business. We think we're probably accomplishing about 70% of that, so again we're off to a good start there. What I can assure you is that whatever we're selling today, not all will be existing six months from now as we are testing the things, but hopefully over time that thing will continue to expand. The passport program, this is our summer [_______________] mailing of a booklet of coupons in the form of a, that looks like a passport, with a variety of coupons. Each coupon being date sensitive, in other words, the first coupon is good for this 2-week period and the next several coupons are good for kind of a rolling 2-week period every week. This is an effort to get people in the door over the seasonally slow summertime, which is a little slower than, of course, the fall. We've been doing this for 4 or 5 years now, it works. This year's distribution has been upped to 19 million mailings versus 17.3 million mailings a year ago. The 19 million, by the way, includes about 4 million mailings to non-members, which is a combination of non-renewals over the last year as well as some cross-marketing efforts with our partners such as American Express. We

美國因此我們對此感到滿意。在商品化舉措方面，有兩件事我之前忘了提，特別訂購亭計劃和今年夏天即將推出的護照計劃。同樣，不要在這裡打死馬，信息亭程序運行良好，我們正在從中學習。我們的目標是今年在至少 200 個倉庫中擁有這個。我們實際上有 270 個倉庫。這就是我們取出 [_______________] 並將這 20 個電源位置專門用於您無法在現場購買的物品的地方，您可以在展示中看到它們，您填寫訂單，今天付款，然後它通常根據具體情況運送或安裝，或將其運送到您的房屋，例如冰箱或地毯。現在，這 20 個電源顯示器上有 900 多個項目。從輪胎、輪子到家居用品，再到高儀水龍頭等衛浴設備和核心衛浴設備，應有盡有。我們的目標是增加一個典型的 1 億美元的倉庫和 100 萬美元的增量業務。我們認為我們可能已經完成了大約 70% 的工作，因此我們再次有了一個良好的開端。我可以向你保證的是，無論我們今天賣什麼，在我們測試這些東西時，並不是所有的東西都會在六個月後存在，但希望隨著時間的推移，這種東西會繼續擴大。護照計劃，這是我們夏天 [_______________] 郵寄的一本優惠券小冊子，它的形式看起來像一本護照，帶有各種優惠券。每張優惠券都是日期敏感的，換句話說，第一張優惠券適用於這 2 週期間，接下來的幾張優惠券適用於每週滾動的 2 週期間。這是為了讓人們在季節性緩慢的夏季進入大門，當然，這比秋季要慢一些。我們已經這樣做了 4 或 5 年了，它確實有效。今年的郵件分發量已增加到 1900 萬封，而一年前為 1730 萬封。順便說一句，這 1900 萬封郵件包括大約 400 萬封發給非會員的郵件，這是去年未續訂以及與美國運通等合作夥伴進行的一些交叉營銷工作的結合。我們

think this will help sales this summer, as it did last summer, and add members as well. Next topic, I'm almost done here, I think, I have got two more, after this is energy costs. I went into a lot of detail regarding energy costs and the increases anticipated when we had our earnings revision on April 24th conference call. It suffices to say that rising energy cost is fairly a big factor going forward, and we think that in Q4 alone it will represent 1 cent to 1.5 cents a share, which again is in our numbers that we had stated before on April 24, 2001. We basically said at that time that assuming no energy usage conservation our best guess going forward over the next 12 months would be a $60 million to $70 million pretax increase in costs or about 7 cents to 9 cents after tax per share over the course of the year. With energy conservation, of course, which is happening throughout the organization, we would come down to perhaps $40 million pretax or about 5 cents a year. This is through a combination of conservation efforts, increased cooling set points is an example during the hot summer, reduced lighting, great benefit that we have is we've been putting a lot of sky lights for several years now. Actually the maximum allowable to keep the roof up, to still have the roof up. Again, I think we'll do a shade better than that, and so far we'll see where it goes, but again it's a little bit of a crapshoot, in the sense that we don't know what energy costs, what the various utilities are going to do, not only in California, but in the Northwest and elsewhere. The other thing that we've done from an operational standpoint is, we now have in all locations battery backup power for all California locations that is, to run our registers, given that there is the risk of rolling blackouts, starting now pretty much. We also have, I think, in about 20 locations in the LA region where we were subject to some other very inflationary potential price increases, we actually have

認為這將有助於今年夏天的銷售，就像去年夏天一樣，並增加會員。下一個話題，我差不多講完了，我想，我還有兩個，之後是能源成本。當我們在 4 月 24 日的電話會議上進行收益修正時，我詳細介紹了能源成本和預期的增長。可以說不斷上漲的能源成本是未來相當大的一個因素，我們認為僅在第四季度，它將代表每股 1 美分到 1.5 美分，這也是我們之前在 2001 年 4 月 24 日所說的數字. 我們當時基本上說，假設不節約能源，我們對未來 12 個月的最佳猜測是稅前成本增加 6000 萬至 7000 萬美元，或稅後每股約 7 美分至 9 美分。那一年。當然，如果整個組織都在節約能源，我們的稅前成本可能會降低到 4000 萬美元，也就是每年大約 5 美分。這是通過保護工作的結合，增加冷卻設置點是炎熱夏季的一個例子，減少照明，我們的巨大好處是我們已經放置了很多天燈好幾年了。實際上是最大允許保持屋頂，仍然有屋頂。再說一次，我認為我們會做一個比這更好的陰影，到目前為止，我們會看到它的去向，但這又有點像廢話，從某種意義上說，我們不知道什麼能源成本，什麼不僅在加利福尼亞，而且在西北部和其他地方，各種公用事業公司都將這樣做。從運營的角度來看，我們所做的另一件事是，我們現在在所有加利福尼亞州的所有地點都有備用電池，即運行我們的收銀機，因為從現在開始就存在輪流停電的風險。我認為，我們在洛杉磯地區的大約 20 個地點也有其他一些非常通貨膨脹的潛在價格上漲，我們實際上有

onsite generators for job rate refrigeration and cooling as well. Next, last topic, new openings overall in line within a couple of million dollars of our original budget and estimated P&L. Getting good response in those two markets overall, very quickly for the first three quarters year-to-date, we've opened 27 new warehouses and 5 relocations. So a total of 32 locations and that's where we consolidate and down in Mexico one additional location there as well this fiscal year-to-date. In the fourth quarter, we planned 5 new warehouses, as I mentioned no new relocations and a second unit in Mexico this year. So for the year, we would have 32 new, 5 relocations, for a total of 37 in the US, Canada, Europe, and Asia, plus and consolidated 2 more in Mexico. This 32 number, by the way, is I think 2 or 3 less then we said three months ago in our second quarter conference call. That is simply timing which will make for a busier fall back in the first quarter in the first half, first part of Q2 of 2002, all told, for 2001 again 32 new units. One thing I want to point out that was, one of the things that has affected our P&L this year and that we've known all along, and we've talked about as late as a year ago, was the fact that not only we're opening more units, we're opening more units both internationally and in new markets domestically. These tend to lose money more often than not in the first and second years. So, only six of the 32 units were in existing US and Canadian markets, and again that was one of the implications of the P&L detriment this year that we had budgeted into our numbers and that we talked to you about in the past. Looking forward to the first half of fiscal 2002, we are going to have, again we expect roughly 35 new units for the year, but about 24 to 25 of those in the first half of the fiscal year. So again kind of slated towards the beginning of the year. Of

用於工作率製冷和冷卻的現場發電機。接下來，最後一個主題，在我們最初的預算和估計損益的幾百萬美元之內的新空缺總數。總體而言，這兩個市場的反應良好，今年前三個季度非常迅速，我們開設了 27 個新倉庫和 5 個搬遷。所以總共有 32 個地點，這就是我們在墨西哥合併的地方，並且在本財年迄今為止還有一個額外的地點。在第四季度，我們計劃了 5 個新倉庫，因為我提到今年沒有新的搬遷和在墨西哥的第二個倉庫。因此，在這一年中，我們將有 32 處新的搬遷，5 處搬遷，總共 37 處位於美國、加拿大、歐洲和亞洲，另外還有 2 處位於墨西哥。順便說一句，我認為這個 32 數字比我們三個月前在第二季度電話會議上所說的少 2 或 3。這只是時間，這將使上半年的第一季度更加繁忙，即 2002 年第二季度的第一部分，總而言之，2001 年將再次增加 32 個新單位。我想指出的一件事是，影響我們今年損益的一件事是我們一直都知道的，並且我們直到一年前才討論過的事實是，不僅我們'正在開設更多單位，我們將在國際和國內新市場開設更多單位。這些往往在第一年和第二年經常虧損。因此，32 個單位中只有 6 個在現有的美國和加拿大市場，這也是今年損益損失的影響之一，我們已將其預算到我們的數字中，並且我們過去曾與您討論過。展望 2002 財年上半年，我們將再次擁有大約 35 台新設備，但其中大約 24 至 25 台在本財年上半年。因此，再次計劃在今年年初。的

those 24, we will call 24 new locations, 10 are in existing markets or 40% of them versus less than 20% of them last year. What that means is that we still plan to open lot of units, but this should improve the relative P&L, or the relative L if you will, of the class of 2002 openings in 2002 versus the class of 2001 openings in 2001. We will have to see, again we are just going through our budgeting process now. And the very last topic before I turn it back to [_______________] for Q&A, our outlook for Q4 in 2002. In our April 24, 2001, press release we brought expectations down to a range of 39 to 41 cents, this fiscal year, first fourth quarter versus last year's 43 cents or about an average around 10% reduction. Yes, our outlook on sales has improved, but we are only 21/2 weeks into the quarter, and yes, our gasoline P&L has also improved and what we hear in the news is that may be gas prices this summer won't increase as much as people feared, but again we are only 21/2 weeks into the quarter, and yes, energy costs are starting to increase, and to consumers in California, and we don't know what the effect of the consumer spending will be, but we will have to see. So, given the range of that 39 to 41 and if you did a range of a weak 39 to a strong 41, you are talking nearly 3 cents or $20 million pretax. Given that and despite the fact that we are starting the quarter well in the first few weeks, we will keep that range intact for now and hopefully at the higher end rather than the lower end but we will just have to see. In terms of the outlook for 2002 as I stated in our April 24, 2001, conference call, I was hoping to give some preliminary guidance today, but I am going to have to wait. We just started, as I mentioned, our Q2 budgeting process, and we are of course more then 3 months away from the beginning of 2002, and this will be an important summer with energy and gas prices. Qualitatively however, I do feel better today about 2002 than I did 5 weeks ago. As I mentioned, comps are a little better but the gasoline P&L, it's a P instead of

這 24 個，我們將稱之為 24 個新地點，其中 10 個在現有市場或其中 40%，而去年不到 20%。這意味著我們仍然計劃開設許多單位，但這應該會改善 2002 年 2002 年的職位空缺與 2001 年 2001 年的職位的相對盈虧或相對 L。我們將有再看一遍，我們現在只是在進行預算編制過程。在我回到 [_______________] 進行問答之前的最後一個話題，我們對 2002 年第四季度的展望。在 2001 年 4 月 24 日的新聞稿中，我們將本財政年度的預期降低到 39 到 41 美分，第一季度與去年的 43 美分相比，平均減少了 10% 左右。是的，我們的銷售前景有所改善，但我們距離本季度只有 21/2 週，是的，我們的汽油損益表也有所改善，我們在新聞中聽到的是，今年夏天的汽油價格可能不會上漲，因為就像人們擔心的那樣，但是我們再次進入本季度只有 21/2 週，是的，能源成本開始增加，對於加利福尼亞的消費者來說，我們不知道消費者支出的影響會是什麼，但我們將不得不看到。所以，考慮到 39 到 41 的範圍，如果你的範圍是從弱的 39 到強的 41，那麼你說的稅前價格接近 3 美分或 2000 萬美元。鑑於此，儘管我們在前幾週的季度開局良好，但我們現在將保持該範圍不變，並希望在高端而不是低端，但我們只需要看看。正如我在 2001 年 4 月 24 日的電話會議上所說的，就 2002 年的前景而言，我希望今天能給出一些初步的指導，但我將不得不等待。正如我所提到的，我們剛剛開始了我們的第二季度預算流程，當然距離 2002 年初還有 3 個多月的時間，這將是能源和天然氣價格上漲的重要夏季。然而，從質量上講，我在 2002 年的今天確實比 5 週前感覺好多了。正如我所提到的，comps 稍微好一點，但是汽油 P&L，它是 P 而不是

an L, all those things are good. Other qualitative factors, the $5 fee increase that we did last September-October. The one nice thing about deferred membership accounting is that you get a 2-year benefit instead of a 1-year benefit on a reported basis. Whereas that represented probably 10 or 11 basis points of improvement this fiscal year, we will have an incremental probably 10 to 12 basis point or 11 to 12 basis points next year. The other thing, next year, we will have an easier comp comparison. Of course this year we are comparing against last years comps of 13, 14, 10, and 9 respectively in last years first and fourth quarters. This year so far we have got a 5, 2, and 5 in the first quarter, second quarter, and third quarter. So as we get into next year, the comparisons there will be easier. We are also [anniversarying] some of the things that related to the build up of infrastructure related to the ramp up in our expansion. As I mentioned to many of you over the past year, we are seeing our earnings in our Depot operations come down as we open new Depot operations and also affected by the lower comps this year. That is [_______________] of the anniversary and also noted in the regional offices that has just anniversaried and a little or no preopening increase, whereas this year versus last year, we probably will again have $12 million to $14 million preopening increase as we go to 30 plus units this year versus 21 last year. I think and I am hopeful there is nothing we haven't talked to any currency experts, but given that the UK and Canadian currency as relative to the dollar have weakened over the past year, we typically see that flattening out if not improving a little bit next year. Also, as I mentioned, slightly less cannibalization, and as I mentioned, the mix of the 35 warehouses gets a little better vis-a-vis existing versus new markets, but still with emphasis on new markets and again the gasoline P&L should improve a little bit, but the hurdles of course are energy costs and gasoline prices and sales levels related to energy costs and continued expansion. We have got a lot of units coming up and even

一個L，所有這些都很好。其他定性因素，我們去年 9 月至 10 月增加了 5 美元的費用。遞延會員會計的一個好處是，您可以獲得 2 年的福利，而不是報告的 1 年福利。雖然這可能代表本財年的 10 或 11 個基點的改善，但明年我們可能會增加 10 至 12 個基點或 11 至 12 個基點。另一件事，明年，我們將有一個更容易的比較。當然，今年我們正在與去年第一季度和第四季度分別為 13、14、10 和 9 的比賽進行比較。今年到目前為止，我們在第一季度、第二季度和第三季度分別獲得了 5、2 和 5。所以當我們進入明年時，那裡的比較會更容易。我們也在 [週年紀念] 一些與基礎設施建設相關的事情，這些事情與我們的擴張有關。正如我在過去一年中向你們中的許多人提到的那樣，隨著我們開設新的 Depot 業務，我們看到我們在 Depot 業務中的收益下降，並且還受到今年較低的薪酬的影響。那是 [_______________] 週年紀念日，並且在剛剛結束週年紀念的區域辦事處也注意到，開業前增加很少或沒有增加，而今年與去年相比，我們可能會再次增加 1200 萬至 1400 萬美元的開業前增加。今年有 30 多個單位，而去年是 21 個。我認為並且我希望我們沒有與任何貨幣專家進行過交談，但鑑於過去一年英國和加拿大貨幣相對於美元已經走弱，我們通常會看到即使沒有改善，也會趨於平緩明年有點。此外，正如我所提到的，自相殘殺略少，正如我所提到的，35 個倉庫的組合相對於現有市場與新市場相比要好一些，但仍然強調新市場，汽油損益表應該會再次改善一點點，但障礙當然是能源成本和汽油價格以及與能源成本和持續擴張相關的銷售水平。我們有很多單位即將推出，甚至

though the class of 2001 will show some improvement in 2002, they are open for a whole year instead of half year. So again that should be a flat or slight negative there. But again I am hopeful here given what we have seen lately. With that I will turn it back to [_______________] for Q&A.

儘管 2001 屆的班級在 2002 年會有一些進步，但他們開學的時間是一整年而不是半年。因此，這應該是一個平坦或輕微的負面影響。但鑑於我們最近看到的情況，我再次對此充滿希望。有了這個，我將把它轉回 [_______________] 進行問答。

Thank-you. The floor is open for questions. If you have a question or a comment please press the number '1' followed by '4' on you touch-tone phone. If at any point your question is answered, you may remove yourself from queue by pressing the '#' key. Questions will be taken in the order they are received. We do ask that while posing your question that you pick up your handsets to provide excellent sound quality. Please hold while I poll for questions. Our first question comes from Jonathan Ziegler. Please state your affiliation.

謝謝。地板是開放的問題。如果您有任何問題或意見，請在您的按鍵式電話上按數字“1”，然後按“4”。如果您的問題在任何時候得到解答，您可以按“#”鍵將自己從隊列中刪除。問題將按照收到的順序進行。在提出您的問題時，我們確實會要求您拿起手機以提供出色的音質。請稍等，我輪詢問題。我們的第一個問題來自 Jonathan Ziegler。請說明您的隸屬關係。

Deutsche Banc Alex Brown. Good morning Richard. I have really two questions. Could you review again the kiosk program. Did you say that they would contribute, your estimate was a about a million dollars per club, and are you disappointed with that 70% run rate, and I was wondering did I hear correctly that this is a kind of a free cash flow generator for you as you pick up the cash before you have to deliver the product and then secondly looking at your mature markets and opening existing clubs in existing markets, are you finding sites available here in California in the Northwest where you have very high productive clubs where you can do some purposeful self-cannibalization?

德意志銀行亞歷克斯布朗。早上好，理查德。我真的有兩個問題。您能否再次查看自助服務終端程序。你說他們會貢獻嗎，你的估計是每家具樂部大約 100 萬美元，你對 70% 的運行率感到失望嗎？當您在交付產品之前獲得現金，然後查看您的成熟市場並在現有市場開設現有俱樂部時，您是否在西北部的加利福尼亞州找到了可用的網站，在那裡您擁有非常高效的俱樂部可以做一些有目的的自我蠶食嗎？

Okay, first of all in terms of the kiosk, as you have known us for 10 or more years Jonathan, we always set the bar very high. We are pleased with the results. Still using that 70% of a million dollars on 200, not 270 on an annualized basis that is still $140 million of incremental business. We are learning from it. It is a nice cash flow business from the standpoint that we get the money today and pay for it later. But it is still small. Again you call it $200 million that's a rough number, 20 million a month, so may be there is 20 million or 30 million of cash flow this time, month or month and a half of payables. But that will grow and more importantly we can save an individual $200 on a Grohe faucet that normally retails for $500. We can save an individual a $1000 on a pool table or $300 on a set of chrome wheel covers. They are our members, and in terms of enhancing that customer loyalty is great because these are items that they no longer get a discount on. So, we think it is good and we will keep working on it. We think that again within our industry we have the potential to benefit most from it because it is selling upscale merchandize to arguably, we have the most upscale membership base. In terms of sites available, yes I mean, one of our focus is of course hopefully letting you know that it is not all [_______________] the torpedoes around here and just let whatever happens, happens. As we recognize that we have to increase if not even just a little bit, the percentage of new units that are in the existing markets versus new markets and we have focused on that. It is harder because we have already entered these markets and now we are getting ready, just the last budget meeting, we have been talking about it for 4 years internally, we finally found our 5th important site that's a no-brainer. It will cannibalize but it will be hugely successful in that market typically when we have added a new

好的，首先在售貨亭方面，正如你認識我們 10 年或更長時間的喬納森，我們總是把標准定得很高。我們對結果感到滿意。仍將 70% 的 100 萬美元用於 200，而不是按年計算的 270，這仍然是 1.4 億美元的增量業務。我們正在從中學習。從我們今天拿到錢然後再付款的角度來看，這是一項不錯的現金流業務。但它仍然很小。您再次稱其為 2 億美元，這是一個粗略的數字，每月 2000 萬美元，因此這次、一個月或一個半月的應付賬款可能有 2000 萬或 3000 萬的現金流。但這會增長，更重要的是，我們可以在一個通常零售價 500 美元的 Grohe 水龍頭上為個人節省 200 美元。我們可以為個人節省 1000 美元的台球桌或 300 美元的一套鍍鉻輪罩。他們是我們的會員，在提高客戶忠誠度方面非常棒，因為這些商品不再享有折扣。所以，我們認為這很好，我們會繼續努力。我們認為，在我們的行業內，我們有可能從中受益最大，因為它正在向可以說的高檔商品銷售，我們擁有最高檔的會員基礎。就可用站點而言，是的，我的意思是，我們的重點之一當然是希望讓您知道這不是所有 [_______________] 這裡的魚雷，只是讓發生的任何事情發生。我們認識到，即使不是一點點，我們也必須增加現有市場中新單位與新市場的百分比，我們一直專注於這一點。這更難，因為我們已經進入了這些市場，現在我們正在準備，就在上一次預算會議上，我們內部已經討論了 4 年，我們終於找到了我們的第 5 個重要站點，這是不費吹灰之力的。它會自相殘殺，但通常當我們添加新的產品時，它會在該市場取得巨大成功

unit in LA or the Bay area or Seattle, we will open up doing a 100 plus million dollars, in some instances in Southern California 150 plus million dollars, and cannibalize 25 or 30 million from nearby locations, if they offered a good. It is harder, there is still a lot of competition among other warehouse clubs, among other power discounters, among home improvement centers for sites. We think we are getting our share, we washed out a few but we have got a few coming as well.

在洛杉磯或灣區或西雅圖的單位，我們將開放 100 多萬美元，在某些情況下在南加州 150 多萬美元，並從附近地點蠶食 25 或 3000 萬美元，如果他們提供好的。更難的是，在其他倉庫俱樂部之間，在其他電力折扣店之間，在場地的家裝中心之間仍然存在很多競爭。我們認為我們正在獲得我們的份額，我們淘汰了一些，但我們也有一些即將到來。

Thanks very much.

非常感謝。

Our next question comes from [_______________]. Please set your affiliation.

我們的下一個問題來自 [_______________]。請設置您的隸屬關係。

[_______________]. I am curious regarding the stores you mentioned around LA where you bought generators. I have talked to a number of businesses that have been told by the AQMD that they will only be able to run it 24 [hours] a month due to smog regulations. How are you affected by that?

[_______________]。我很好奇你提到的你在洛杉磯附近買發電機的商店。我已經與 AQMD 告知的一些企業進行了交談，由於菸霧法規，他們將只能每月 24 [小時] 運行它。你是如何受到影響的？

I am not aware of that aspect of that. But generally speaking when there is a blackout it is a rolling blackout for an hour to an hour and half, and it is not everyday, and so I guess that if it was an hour, you can do it for 24 days under that scenario. What we will do, that being said, and I don't know the exact answer, but what we will do there is that we would just as we would do in the rest of California with the rolling blackout. We do have battery operation packs for our register system. We have skylights that in fact in many Southern California locations that between about 11 a.m. and 4 p.m. have no lights at all on inside because of the multitude of skylights and there's plenty light in there. What we do is, we just rope off the refrigerators and freezers and put blankets, I think, not blankets but some type of covering over the open [_______________] coffins, the [_______________] and basically let people shop and check out. So, we restrict them through that 10% of our merchandize areas, 10 or 15% of our merchandize areas, but we still operate and again the battery packs are something we haven't done until the last few months.

我不知道這方面的情況。但一般來說，停電是一個小時到一個半小時的輪流停電，不是每天，所以我猜如果是一個小時，你可以在這種情況下做24天。話雖如此，我們將做什麼，我不知道確切的答案，但我們將在那裡做的是，就像我們在加利福尼亞其他地區的輪流停電時所做的那樣。我們的註冊系統確實有電池操作包。事實上，我們在南加州的許多地方都有天窗，大約在上午 11 點到下午 4 點之間。裡面根本沒有燈，因為有很多天窗，而且裡面光線充足。我們所做的是，我們只是將冰箱和冰櫃拉上繩子，然後蓋上毯子，我認為，不是毯子，而是在敞開的 [_______________] 棺材、[_______________] 上蓋上某種覆蓋物，基本上讓人們購物和結賬。因此，我們將它們限制在 10% 的商品銷售區域，10% 或 15% 的商品銷售區域，但我們仍在運營，而且電池組是我們直到最近幾個月才完成的事情。

Okay, thanks.

好的謝謝。

The next question comes from David Schick. Please state your affiliations.

下一個問題來自 David Schick。請說明您的隸屬關係。

Hi Robinson-Humphrey, good morning. I am going to ask, I guess, 3 questions. Could you update us on any developments in the private label business just from a percentage standpoint or significant new products? The second would be international markets, if you could just update us on, we talked about sales for the 2001 profitability. And third, just a little more color on the wage comment, with the anniversary coming up in the fourth quarter, how do you see that playing out through the P&L? Thanks.

嗨羅賓遜漢弗萊，早上好。我要問，我猜，3個問題。您能否僅從百分比的角度或重要的新產品向我們介紹自有品牌業務的任何發展？第二個是國際市場，如果你能告訴我們最新情況，我們談到了 2001 年盈利能力的銷售。第三，在工資評論上增加一點色彩，隨著第四季度的周年紀念日即將到來，您如何看待通過損益表發揮作用？謝謝。

In terms of private label, I didn't get an exact percentage now, but I think as of the second quarter private label I'd say it is just 12 to 13, so I assume by now it's 13, maybe 13 plus a little. Recent new items that we just rolled out, would be in the baby area, Kirkland Signature baby wipes, significant savings over the leading national brands, good quality product, we expect annual sales of that to be in the mid-double digits. Also Kirkland Signature baby formula, again a very good savings over the 2 leading national brands, and a very high quality item, and that's the kind of stuff that once somebody tries it, and again some parents will not try the formula, but many others will, and once they try it, they'll keep to it because of the savings. There is also some additional private label, Health and Beauty aid items, I know in the vitamin area, which has been a big success for us in that area, small relative to the whole company. In terms of international, I'm not sure what was the question on international?

就自有品牌而言，我現在沒有得到確切的百分比，但我認為截至第二季度自有品牌我會說它只是 12 到 13，所以我假設現在是 13，也許是 13 加一點.我們最近推出的新產品將在嬰兒領域，Kirkland Signature 嬰兒濕巾，比領先的民族品牌節省大量資金，優質產品，我們預計年銷售額將達到兩位數左右。還有 Kirkland Signature 嬰兒配方奶粉，再次比 2 個領先的民族品牌節省了很多錢，而且質量非常高，這是一旦有人嘗試過的那種東西，同樣有些父母不會嘗試配方奶粉，但還有很多其他人會的，一旦他們嘗試了，他們會因為節省下來的錢而堅持下去。還有一些額外的自有品牌，健康和美容輔助產品，我知道在維生素領域，這對我們來說在那個領域取得了巨大的成功，相對於整個公司來說很小。在國際方面，我不確定國際的問題是什麼？

Just the profitability as you are adding UK clubs, etc., or Mexico you talked about a little bit.

只是您添加英國俱樂部等的盈利能力，或者您談到的墨西哥。

So Mexico has been very profitable this year. I think it's up 50 plus percent in profitability. UK is up a little bit in profitability this year, but that includes the preopening related to the new units there, so we're doing fine there. Japan of course in terms of dollars is the big loser, but we planned that. We just opened our second unit, our first big city unit, right outside of Tokyo. That unit is doing substantially better than the unit that was opened a year earlier, but in the southern part of Japan. And we've got a full compliment of central office there, costing us 5 plus million dollars. Taiwan actually, I think was profitable last month, for the first time as a company. And Korea, given that we've just opened 2 units in the last 6 months, both of which severely cannibalized our strongest unit by a long shot there in Seoul, is unprofitable this year, but should be profitable next year. So again we're growing it, UK, relatively speaking UK, Mexico is best, UK is probably the biggest potential given that we are just starting to add 3 to 4 units a year to a small base, and Japan's a longer term issue, in terms of we have got to see where it goes. Last thing is your wage increase, if you recall, last year effective June 5, 2001, we took the [_______________] scale wage through out our company everywhere, but I was talking about the dollars in US here, up $2 from $8 to $10 an hour, and a commensurate increase up in Canada, in Canadian dollars, best in Canadian dollars. Companywide, that was about $30 million to $32 million hit to us. Recognizing that we do something every year to our wage structure, so we estimated that probably two-thirds of that or $20

所以墨西哥今年一直很賺錢。我認為它的盈利能力增加了 50% 以上。英國今年的盈利能力略有上升，但這包括與那裡的新單位相關的預開業，所以我們在那裡做得很好。以美元計，日本當然是最大的輸家，但這是我們計劃好的。我們剛剛在東京郊外開設了第二個單元，我們的第一個大城市單元。該單位的表現比一年前開設的單位要好得多，但在日本南部。我們在那裡得到了一個完整的中央辦公室，花費了我們五百萬美元。實際上，我認為台灣上個月是盈利的，這是公司第一次。而韓國，鑑於我們在過去 6 個月中剛剛開設了 2 個單位，這兩個單位都嚴重蠶食了我們在首爾最強大的單位，今年不盈利，但明年應該可以盈利。所以我們再次增長它，英國，相對而言，英國，墨西哥是最好的，英國可能是最大的潛力，因為我們剛剛開始在一個小基地每年增加 3 到 4 個單位，而日本是一個長期問題，就我們而言，我們必須看看它的去向。最後一件事是你的工資增長，如果你還記得，去年從 2001 年 6 月 5 日起，我們在我們公司的所有地方都採用了 [_______________] 規模工資，但我在這裡談論的是美國的美元，從 8 美元上漲到 10 美元一個小時，在加拿大相應增加，以加元計，最好以加元計。在全公司範圍內，這對我們造成了大約 3000 萬到 3200 萬美元的損失。認識到我們每年都會對我們的工資結構做一些事情，所以我們估計可能是其中的三分之二或 20 美元

million was additional first year [_______________] in the program. That's what we're [anniversarying]. Offsetting that a little bit is, is that every 3 years, we review our whole wage structure at top of scale, we just put it into effect the upcoming three years every 3rd March, if you will. That's a much smaller and that again, we've had that every year, even if in the last three years, that represents about a 2.5% to 3.5% wage increase each year going forward. But again, that's nothing new; we've done that in each of the last three years as well. So overall, again I think more of it relates to the $2 increase, call it $20 million of paying annualized on anniversary June 5, 2001, or about one-fourth delay into Q4.

百萬是該計劃的第一年 [_______________]。這就是我們[週年]。抵消這一點的是，每 3 年，我們會在規模上審查我們的整個工資結構，如果你願意的話，我們只是在每年 3 月 3 日將其實施接下來的三年。這要小得多，而且我們每年都有這樣的情況，即使在過去三年中，這也代表著未來每年大約 2.5% 到 3.5% 的工資增長。但同樣，這並不是什麼新鮮事。在過去的三年中，我們每年都這樣做。所以總的來說，我認為更多的是與 2 美元的增長有關，稱之為 2001 年 6 月 5 日週年紀念日支付的 2000 萬美元，或大約四分之一延遲到第四季度。

Thanks a lot.

非常感謝。

Our next question comes from John [_______________], please state your affiliation. Mr. [_______________] your line is live. Our next question comes from Daniel Barry, please state your affiliation.

我們的下一個問題來自 John [_______________]，請說明您的隸屬關係。 [_______________] 先生，您的線路已上線。我們的下一個問題來自 Daniel Barry，請說明您的隸屬關係。

Merrill Lynch. Good morning Richard. Could you give us some more color on the California, I see it improved a little bit. Do you see any particular weakness in areas where you have had a few rolling blackouts that have started. And also is there any difference in the business-individual mix, has that changed any in California versus rest of the country?

美林證券。早上好，理查德。你能給我們更多關於加利福尼亞的顏色嗎，我看到它有所改善。您是否在已經開始了幾次輪流停電的地區看到任何特別的弱點。企業與個人的組合有什麼不同嗎？加州與美國其他地區有什麼不同嗎？

In terms of the latter question Dan no, the mix seems like week-in and week-out other than holiday times or holiday weekend, it's about 57% to 58% business members in the US and about 42% Gold Star.

至於後一個問題，Dan no，除了假期或假期週末之外，這種組合似乎是一周又一周，美國的商業會員約佔 57% 到 58%，金星會員約佔 42%。

I was asking if there is any change in California.

我在問加利福尼亞是否有任何變化。

No, but in California, we don't see a big change there either. We really haven't seen any big, we haven't had that many, in terms of, I know in the Bay area let's say where we have 30 locations, and let's say over a 30-day period, that will be 900 potential blackout days. You're talking about less than 10 or 15 blackout days. When we have a blackout, I know what happens. Even when the registers weren't running, most people just leave their car and leave and we got to spend time in putting it up for that hour and a half, and some of them come back, and some of them don't later in the day. With the battery tax on the registers, I think that would be greatly reduced, and so it's more of an inconvenience, if I had a guess you pick up 90% of it, so it's an hour and a half a day, 90% of that you can pick up later, that's a guess on my part.

不，但是在加利福尼亞，我們也看不到那裡有很大的變化。我們真的沒有看到任何大的，我們沒有那麼多，就我所知，在灣區，假設我們有 30 個地點，假設在 30 天內，這將是 900 個潛力停電的日子。你說的是少於 10 或 15 天的停電。當我們停電時，我知道會發生什麼。即使收銀機沒有運行，大多數人只是離開他們的車離開，我們必須花時間在那個半小時內把它放好，他們中的一些人回來了，有些人後來沒有那天。有了收銀機上的電池稅，我想那會大大降低，所以這更不方便，如果我猜你拿了90%，所以一個半小時，90%你可以稍後再接，這是我的猜測。

And you say there are 900 blackout days?

你說有900個停電日？

No, I'm saying in a given month and let's say just look at Northern California, you have got 30 warehouses, over a given month of 30 days, that'll be 900 potential blackout days.

不，我是說在一個給定的月份，讓我們看看北加州，你有 30 個倉庫，在一個給定的 30 天的一個月內，這將是 900 個潛在的停電天。

Okay

好的

And we have maybe 10 or 15.

我們可能有 10 或 15 個。

I understand.

我明白。

It's not a big issue yet, we'll have to wait and see this summer.

這還不是什麼大問題，我們將不得不在這個夏天拭目以待。

Thanks Richard.

謝謝理查德。

Our next question comes from Jeff Feiner, please state your affiliation.

我們的下一個問題來自 Jeff Feiner，請說明您的隸屬關係。

Jeff Feiner from Lehman Brothers. Richard, a couple of brief questions, could you talk a little bit about pricing in food versus non-food, may be talk briefly but elaborate a little bit more, and where you see those trends going, and why you don't want to give any guidance for the fiscal year 2000 outlook beyond? Do you expect an improvement in the overall macro environment, at least talk to that point as it relates to Costco's business mix.

雷曼兄弟的傑夫·費納。理查德，幾個簡短的問題，你能談談食品與非食品的定價嗎？可能會簡短但詳細一點，你看到這些趨勢在哪裡，以及為什麼你不想對 2000 財年以後的展望提供任何指導嗎？您是否期望整體宏觀環境有所改善，至少談到這一點，因為它與 Costco 的業務組合有關。

Okay, in terms of pricing in food versus non-food, the improved margin again we're talking basis points here, 10 and 20 basis points, which is how we manage our business. But relatively speaking, that's not a whole lot of change. The strong fresh foods business and the fresh food comps dramatically helps your gross margins there. I think we're finding them on a global basis, we are able to find some better deals and again as has been our case over the last year, year and a half, when we save money by better buying, we keep some of it, not all of it, we pass on a good chunk of it to the member in the form of lower pricing, but we've been able to keep a little of that. And I think there's probably been a few more global deals on the food and sundry side versus the hardline side to date. But we're working on that hard, we think there are some big opportunities over the next several years, not only from the Canadian consolidation, where we think we can get some significant benefits up there, but overall global pricing. Just in the last 6 months, we hired a gentleman who worked for one of the leading consumer products companies, and actually worked on our account for 10 plus years, who has a great expertise in understanding the global buying practices of not only his company which we don't see, there's nothing extra there, but every global manufacturer out there. So we think that will help us a little bit. On the non-food side, the mark downs are not big, maybe there was an extra basis point or two but nothing that meaningful. Just overall, you've got electronics sales and computer sales were down 10%, instead of up 20% and you work on a couple of less percentage points. In terms of no guidance, yes, I think we've come back from our nadir of expectations here, up a little bit, but again we'll have to see. I do feel a little better about it. Clearly, we expect to see an improvement in P&L next year, but we also know, as I mentioned, we have got 24 new openings and 28 or 29 total openings just in the first 4 months. So that will hurt us a little bit. I think what'll help us a little bit is the fact that we're not going into the year, again hindsight is a great perspective here, but we know we're not going to be 4 and 5 percentage points below budget on comps. I think we feel a little more confident about that given that we'll be comparing as weaker comps and we're seeing some improvement. That sounds like a weatherman reporting the weather; it's indefinite maybe, but we're positively inclined right now.

好的，就食品與非食品的定價而言，利潤率的提高我們在這裡再次談論基點，10 和 20 個基點，這就是我們管理業務的方式。但相對而言，這並沒有太大的變化。強大的新鮮食品業務和新鮮食品組合極大地幫助了您在那裡的毛利率。我認為我們正在全球範圍內找到它們，我們能夠找到一些更好的交易，就像過去一年、一年半的情況一樣，當我們通過更好的購買來省錢時，我們會保留一些，不是全部，我們以較低價格的形式將很大一部分傳遞給會員，但我們已經能夠保留其中的一部分。而且我認為迄今為止，與強硬派相比，食品和雜貨方面可能還有更多的全球交易。但我們正在努力工作，我們認為未來幾年會有一些巨大的機會，不僅來自加拿大的整合，我們認為我們可以在那裡獲得一些顯著的好處，還有整體的全球定價。就在過去的 6 個月裡，我們聘請了一位先生，他曾在一家領先的消費品公司工作，實際上在我們的賬戶上工作了 10 多年，他不僅在了解他的公司的全球採購實踐方面擁有豐富的專業知識，而且我們沒有看到，那裡沒有任何額外的東西，但每個全球製造商都在那裡。所以我們認為這會對我們有所幫助。在非食品方面，降價幅度不大，也許有一兩個額外的基點，但沒有什麼意義。總體而言，您的電子產品銷售額和計算機銷售額下降了 10%，而不是上升了 20%，而且您的工作量減少了幾個百分點。就沒有指導而言，是的，我認為我們已經從這裡的預期最低點回來了，稍微提高了一點，但我們必須再次看到。我確實對此感覺好一些。顯然，我們預計明年的損益表會有所改善，但我們也知道，正如我所提到的，僅在前 4 個月，我們就有 24 個新職位空缺和 28 或 29 個新職位空缺。所以這會傷害我們一點。我認為對我們有一點幫助的是我們不會進入這一年，事後看來是一個很好的觀點，但我們知道我們不會比預算低 4 個和 5 個百分點.我認為我們對此更有信心，因為我們將作為較弱的組合進行比較並且我們看到了一些改進。這聽起來像是天氣預報員報告天氣。可能是不確定的，但我們現在很積極。

Our next question comes from Teresa Donahue; please state your affiliation.

我們的下一個問題來自 Teresa Donahue；請說明您的隸屬關係。

Hi, Richard, it's Neuberger Berman. Couple of questions, what was the impact on the gross margin of competitive markets first of all, and secondly, the energy conservation initiatives, do they go beyond California, because I was in a couple of your Dallas locations yesterday, and they had the power down signs, and I know it was kind of warm and half the lights were out.

嗨，理查德，我是 Neuberger Berman。幾個問題，首先對競爭市場的毛利率有什麼影響，其次是節能計劃，它們是否超出了加利福尼亞，因為我昨天在你們達拉斯的幾個地方，他們有權力向下的標誌，我知道它有點溫暖，一半的燈都熄滅了。

Okay, well first I will ask you, was it still bright in there?

好的，首先我會問你，那裡還亮嗎？

Yeah, the only reason I noticed the lights were out was because it was kind of warm but the lighting was, but you know, the appearance of the store was fine.

是的，我注意到燈熄滅的唯一原因是因為它有點暖和，但燈光是，但你知道，商店的外觀很好。

In terms of the relative effect of new market openings, when we go into Dallas or 4 years ago when we went to Atlanta, I think Atlanta is probably a better example because we got 3 or 4 years of experience here, when we went into that market, we probably saw our warehouse gross margin, 150 to 200 basis points lower than our company average.

就新市場開放的相對影響而言，當我們進入達拉斯或 4 年前我們去亞特蘭大時，我認為亞特蘭大可能是一個更好的例子，因為我們在這裡獲得了 3 或 4 年的經驗，當我們進入那個市場上，我們可能看到我們的倉庫毛利率比我們公司的平均水平低 150 到 200 個基點。

Okay.

好的。

In comparison, by definition half of our units in our whole company are always going to be below the average and half are going to be above the average. In a regular competitive market, when we compete with Sam's and BJ's in plenty of markets already, you probably are 50 basis points below average of those markets versus being 50 basis points above average in [_______________] Montana or [_______________] Seattle. So, the 150 to 200 is 100 to 150 higher than that.

相比之下，根據定義，我們整個公司中有一半的單位總是低於平均水平，而一半則高於平均水平。在常規競爭市場中，當我們已經在許多市場與 Sam's 和 BJ's 競爭時，您可能比這些市場的平均水平低 50 個基點，而在 [_______________] 蒙大拿州或 [_______________] 西雅圖的平均水平高出 50 個基點。因此，150 到 200 比這高 100 到 150。

Okay.

好的。

After 3 or 4 years, we see that come back such that Atlanta is not that dramatically different than being 50 basis points lower.

3 或 4 年後，我們看到這種情況的回歸使得亞特蘭大與下跌 50 個基點相比並沒有太大的不同。

Okay.

好的。

And the first hurt is the hardest, is the biggest hurt, and of course we've got a lot of that right now. In Q3, Bob Nelson did a little analysis that showed that on a year-over-year basis, if we just took out the new market openings from both of those quarters, Q3 last year and Q3 this year, it's about 9 basis points. The gross margin delta would be 9 basis points better.

第一次傷害是最嚴重的，也是最大的傷害，當然我們現在有很多這樣的傷害。在第三季度，Bob Nelson 做了一個小分析，顯示與去年同期相比，如果我們從這兩個季度（去年第三季度和今年第三季度）中剔除新的市場開放，大約是 9 個基點。毛利率增量將好 9 個基點。

Excluding new stores and new markets?

不包括新店和新市場？

Excluding new markets last year and excluding new markets this year.

去年不包括新市場，今年不包括新市場。

Okay, thanks.

好的謝謝。

In Q2 you had some of that also, but a little less, maybe 3 or 4 basis points, maybe or 6 instead of 9.

在第二季度，你也有一些，但會少一點，可能是 3 或 4 個基點，可能是 6 個而不是 9 個。

Okay.

好的。

I did not do it for Q2 but I assume it has come up a little bit, and that delta will probably again, maybe it was 9 in Q3, maybe it will be 11 or 12 in Q1 before it starts to improve the other way. The big improvement in deltas and gross margin again will be the [anniversarying] of the big push of our Executive Member reward program when we start showing [anniversarying] over that negative delta.

我沒有為第二季度做這件事，但我認為它已經上升了一點，並且這個增量可能會再次出現，可能在第三季度是 9，在第一季度開始改善之前可能會是 11 或 12。當我們開始在該負增量上顯示 [週年紀念] 時，增量和毛利率的巨大改善將再次成為我們執行會員獎勵計劃大力推動的 [週年紀念]。

And when is that Richard?

那理查德是什麼時候？

Well in Q4, it starts in Q4 actually and probably half of Q4 and half of it in Q1.

那麼在第四季度，它實際上是在第四季度開始的，可能是第四季度的一半，第一季度的一半。

Okay, thanks and the power down initiative, is that companywide?

好的，謝謝和斷電計劃，是全公司範圍的嗎？

I'm sorry yes, that is absolutely companywide, in fact preparing for the conference call last night, I decided with three little kids at home I have decided to stay here and at about 7 I said, man it's hot, I realized that at 5 o'clock the air conditioning goes off in our building.

很抱歉，是的，這絕對是全公司範圍的，事實上，昨晚準備電話會議，我決定和三個小孩在家，我決定留在這裡，大約 7 點我說，伙計，天氣很熱，我意識到在5 點鐘，我們大樓的空調關閉。

Okay, thanks.

好的謝謝。

Our next question comes from Linda Kristiansen; please state your affiliation.

我們的下一個問題來自 Linda Kristiansen；請說明您的隸屬關係。

UBS Warburg. Hi Richard, two questions, could you elaborate a little bit more, first of all on why you think the core gross margin will bounce back in the fourth quarter, and then secondly, do you know how much the real estate gain is going to be in the fourth quarter, you said, I guess you are selling another property in the fourth quarter.

瑞銀華寶。嗨，理查德，兩個問題，您能否詳細說明一下，首先您認為核心毛利率會在第四季度反彈的原因，其次，您知道房地產收益將是多少在第四季度，您說，我猜您在第四季度出售另一處房產。

The real estate gain in the fourth quarter I think will be, I don't have it in front of me, I think it is 4 million, maybe a little better, but again we will have also some closing, forgetting about Canada, leaving that separately, because that will be a big number, close to 16 million is our estimate for Q4, because that's when everything happens. But leaving that aside, I think we'll also have some increased relocation costs given that the commitments we're just making to relocations, once you have the formal commitment, you know with certainty, if we are demolishing a building, or our real estate department feels that they're going to take a loss on an old site, which doesn't always happen of course, that will be offset, so the best guess is excluding the 16 million budget for Canada reorganization, a wash, to positive or maybe a million or two negative.

我認為第四季度的房地產收益將是，我面前沒有，我認為是 400 萬，也許會好一點，但我們也會有一些收盤，忘記加拿大，離開另外，因為這將是一個很大的數字，我們對第四季度的估計接近 1600 萬，因為那是一切都發生的時候。但撇開這個不談，考慮到我們剛剛對搬遷做出的承諾，我認為我們還會增加一些搬遷成本，一旦你做出正式承諾，你就可以肯定地知道，如果我們正在拆除一座建築物，或者我們真正的房地產部門認為他們要在舊地塊上虧損，當然這並不總是發生，這將被抵消，所以最好的猜測是排除加拿大重組的 1600 萬預算，洗牌，轉為正數或者可能有一百萬或兩個負數。

Okay, and on the gross margin in the fourth quarter?

好的，關於第四季度的毛利率？

I am confident, honestly part of my confidence is, I was taking to Jim about it yesterday and he said, because I was asking him to help me explain what does he see going on, and his view was that Q3 was a little bit of an anomaly and that things were fine, and I think we have a commitment to improve our earnings without cheating, and we're not going to just raise prices, but we're going to get all the margin where we can, and also there are new deals coming all the time, and I guess we've, our merchandising initiatives have placed a greater emphasis on letting Bob and I know where those deals are, and we feel pretty good about Q4 at this juncture. I'd like to add that it would be nice if gross margin was a little better in Q3 year-over-year but none of it, other than the new market stuff that I just talked about, none of it has increased levels of competitive pressure.

我有信心，老實說，我的信心的一部分是，我昨天向吉姆提出這件事，他說，因為我要求他幫助我解釋他看到的情況，他的觀點是第三季度有點一個異常情況，一切都很好，我認為我們承諾在不作弊的情況下提高我們的收入，我們不會只是提高價格，但我們會盡可能地獲得所有利潤，而且還有新交易一直在到來，我想我們已經，我們的營銷計劃更加強調讓鮑勃和我知道這些交易在哪裡，我們在這個時刻對第四季度感覺很好。我想補充一點，如果第三季度的毛利率比去年同期好一點，那就太好了，但是除了我剛才談到的新市場之外，沒有一個提高了競爭水平壓力。

Okay in existing markets?

在現有市場好嗎？

Yeah.

是的。

Okay, thank-you Richard.

好的，謝謝你，理查德。

Our next question comes from Shari Eberts; please state your affiliation.

我們的下一個問題來自 Shari Eberts；請說明您的隸屬關係。

JP Morgan. Richard given the front end loaded openings for the first half for fiscal 2002, can you talk a little bit about when you might expect to see earnings actually start to grow at a more normalized pace?

摩根大通。 Richard 考慮到 2002 財年上半年的前端負載空缺，您能否談談您預計何時會看到收益實際上開始以更正常的速度增長？

Well, the easy answer is it is Q2, Q3, and Q4, you know a little bit of tongue-in-cheek there, but that's the reality of it. I think Q2 will have some improvement, Q1 is the big question mark, and I have to wait and see. Q1 maybe okay with the exception of preopening, but again we're just starting the budgeting process and I don't want to be too optimistic, I'm crossing my fingers though, I mean comp stores are again a little better, gasoline doesn't hurt us, I mean this is the [anniversarying] of the wage, and those are the things that are helping us, but if I were to be a conservative betting person right here, I'd probably say Q1's no, Q2 yes, Q3 and 4 absolutely.

嗯，簡單的答案是它是 Q2、Q3 和 Q4，你知道那裡有點半開玩笑，但這就是現實。我覺得Q2會有一些提升，Q1是個大問號，還得拭目以待。 Q1 可能除了開業前還可以，但我們才剛剛開始預算編制過程，我不想太樂觀，但我正在祈禱，我的意思是綜合商店再次好一點，汽油沒有'不要傷害我們，我的意思是這是工資的 [週年]，這些都是幫助我們的事情，但如果我在這裡是一個保守的投注者，我可能會說 Q1 不，Q2 是，Q3和4絕對。

Okay, and can you just talk a little bit more about whether the new clubs for this year are annualizing in terms of sales volumes versus what you would have expected and also just how the profitability or the loss is coming out versus plans on the new clubs for this year, both in new markets and existing markets?

好的，您能否多談談今年的新俱樂部在銷售量方面是否按年計算與您的預期相比，以及與新俱樂部的計劃相比，盈利或虧損如何出現今年，無論是在新市場還是現有市場？

Okay, in terms of new markets, I think I gave a number out in the second quarter conference call which scared everybody, what I did was, I listed all the new market units for the prior 2 weeks to that conference call, so whatever was end of February or early March conference call was the last 2 weeks of February, and I annualized that number and I think it was like $45 million and [_______________], oh my god it's down from $50 million and $55 million and no it's not, one it's mid February which is a crappy time of year saleswise, it's probably the low point of the year and two, it's all new markets, it does include the Norwalk, Connecticuts of the world, or the Burlington and [_______________] Washingtons of the world. I just overlooked that, I don't think there is any big change since that time, maybe a little improvement seasonally. One of the things we did for our board meeting a month ago, is we looked at the first 32 weeks, not the first 36 weeks, but essentially I don't think there has been any big change there. In the first 32 weeks, we had opened a total of 20 new units. These are new market units. Our budgeted P&L, original budget from back in last August and the actual is about $1.8 million higher, so lets say for the year, it's close to $3 million higher loss, so again not a big deal. Sales were essentially in line, and again I think that's indicative of the fact that we aggressively budget sales, we get there, margins we do a little worse because of these many new markets, we are going to [_______________].

好的，就新市場而言，我想我在第二季度電話會議上給出了一個讓每個人都感到害怕的數字，我所做的是，我列出了電話會議前兩週的所有新市場單位，所以不管是什麼2 月底或 3 月初的電話會議是 2 月的最後兩週，我將這個數字按年計算，我認為它大約是 4500 萬美元和 [_______________]，天哪，它從 5000 萬美元和 5500 萬美元下降，不，不是，一個是 2 月中旬，這是一年中銷售的糟糕時期，這可能是今年的最低點，第二個，這是所有新市場，它確實包括世界康涅狄格州的諾沃克，或者伯靈頓和華盛頓的 [_______________]世界。我只是忽略了這一點，我認為自那時以來沒有任何大的變化，也許季節性有所改善。我們在一個月前的董事會會議上做的一件事是，我們查看了前 32 週，而不是前 36 週，但基本上我認為那裡沒有任何大的變化。在最初的 32 週內，我們共開設了 20 個新單位。這些是新的市場單位。我們的預算損益表是去年 8 月的原始預算，實際要高出約 180 萬美元，所以今年的損失接近 300 萬美元，所以這也沒什麼大不了的。銷售基本上是一致的，我再次認為這表明我們積極預算銷售，我們到達那裡，由於有許多新市場，我們的利潤率稍差，我們將 [_______________]。

Okay, and then just last question, BJ's had talked about entering certain Florida market where both you and Sam's Club already have clubs and that they're going to be building a little bit on sort of the outside of where you are located, closer to where the population is growing, and I was just wondering if you could comment on any impact you would expect in Florida, Florida markets from them and just how you think about relocating your existing units in general to try and make sure you are in the right location?

好的，然後是最後一個問題，BJ 曾談到進入某些佛羅里達市場，您和山姆俱樂部都已經擁有俱樂部，並且他們將在您所在的地方以外的地方建造一點點，更靠近人口正在增長的地方，我只是想知道您是否可以評論一下您對佛羅里達州和佛羅里達州市場的預期影響，以及您如何考慮總體上重新安置現有單位以確保您處於正確的位置地點？

Sure, first of all we respect BJ's, in fact in some locations we actually compete across the street from them. I'm happy to hear that they're going further out. I think they would acknowledge too that there is a reason why our unit does a 100 million and theirs does 40 to 45 million. We think we have a little bit of different customer, we think that they have found their niche and we have found our niche, and we can profitably coexist. But I'd like nobody to come into any of our markets sure, but we find ourselves that a combination of, we've been good competitors, even though both of us sell Snicker's bars from vending machines and both of us sell Tide detergent, both of us sell soda pop, the fact is that there is probably less overlap of like items with BJ's than there are with Sam's. Keep in mind the average Costco has 4,000 items roughly, the average BJ's has close to 6,000 items, I believe. That means a lot of smaller sized queues, certainly different private label items. The other thing that I think, we all have going for us is as we have seen in many markets as we have opened in other people's markets, the market for warehouse clubs is still expanding and that's the good news.

當然，首先我們尊重 BJ，事實上在某些地方我們實際上與他們在街對面競爭。我很高興聽到他們走得更遠。我想他們也會承認，我們的部門做到了 1 億，而他們的部門做到了 40 到 4500 萬，這是有原因的。我們認為我們有一些不同的客戶，我們認為他們找到了自己的利基市場，我們也找到了自己的利基市場，我們可以共存盈利。但我不希望任何人肯定進入我們的任何市場，但我們發現自己結合在一起，我們一直是很好的競爭對手，儘管我們都從自動售貨機銷售士力架，我們都銷售 Tide 洗滌劑，我們倆都賣汽水，事實是與 BJ 的同類商品的重疊可能比 Sam 的少。請記住，我相信 Costco 平均大約有 4,000 件商品，而 BJ 平均有接近 6,000 件商品。這意味著很多較小的隊列，當然是不同的自有品牌商品。我認為，我們所有人都在為我們爭取的另一件事是，正如我們在許多市場上看到的那樣，正如我們在其他人的市場上開設的那樣，倉庫俱樂部的市場仍在擴大，這是個好消息。

Okay, and is there any comment on how you think about once you relocate to make sure you are on the right location?

好的，對於您搬遷後的想法是否有任何評論，以確保您在正確的位置？

Well, as you know, we have not been shy about relocating. We probably average 5 to 7 units a year for the last 4 or 5 years. We are constantly looking at it. Every operator wants to do it because they get a nice too big shiny location that's going to comp 30% to 50% instead of 0% to 10% and 3 years from now it's going to be great, one year from now it's going to be great. So we are always looking at that and I don't know any detail in there, I know that Jeff Brotman particularly, and Jim as well, but Jeff with his real estate department spent a lot of time looking at relocations and at any given time we probably have 25 or 30 locations that are considered for relocations, and we are looking for a way out though, that's not like we are only doing 5 of them, why aren't we doing all 30. The fact is that we are looking at several of them knowing that Sam's or BJ's is in the market looking around and that 3 years from now we got to think about doing something.

好吧，如你所知，我們並不羞於搬遷。在過去的 4 或 5 年中，我們可能平均每年生產 5 到 7 個單位。我們一直在關注它。每個運營商都想這樣做，因為他們得到了一個漂亮的太大的閃亮位置，它將佔 30% 到 50% 而不是 0% 到 10% 並且 3 年後它會很棒，一年後它會偉大的。所以我們一直在關注這個問題，我不知道其中的任何細節，我知道尤其是 Jeff Brotman，還有 Jim，但是 Jeff 和他的房地產部門在任何給定時間都花了大量時間研究搬遷我們可能有 25 或 30 個考慮搬遷的地點，但我們正在尋找出路，但這並不是說我們只做其中的 5 個，為什麼我們不做全部 30 個。事實是我們正在尋找他們中的一些人知道 Sam's 或 BJ's 在市場上四處張望，並且 3 年後我們必須考慮做點什麼。

Okay great, thanks a lot.

好的很好，非常感謝。

Our next question comes from Michael Exstein. Please state your affiliation.

我們的下一個問題來自 Michael Exstein。請說明您的隸屬關係。

Credit Suisse First Boston. Good morning, just quickly Richard, when you get to the third quarter, you think there is a shot that you can start having positive year-over-year comparisons in SG&A percents, thanks.

瑞士信貸第一波士頓。早上好，很快，理查德，當您進入第三季度時，您認為您可以開始在 SG&A 百分比方面進行積極的同比比較，謝謝。

Yeah, Michael that's a good question. I think so recognizing that you will be a year and half into the class of 2001 units, so that should definitely be positive. We have [anniversaried] all these other things I have talked about, the new units will hurt it. I think the net of that will be a positive, and I am going on the gut here, and I am also going with the fact that Bob was contemplating and also shook his head in the affirmative. So yes.

是的，邁克爾這是個好問題。我認為認識到你將進入 2001 單元的班級一年半，所以這絕對應該是積極的。我們已經 [週年紀念] 我談到的所有其他事情，新單位會傷害它。我認為這將是一個積極的結果，我在這裡直言不諱，我也同意鮑勃正在考慮並搖頭肯定的事實。所以是的。

Perfect.

完美的。

Our next question comes from Michelle [_______________]. Please state your affiliation.

我們的下一個問題來自 Michelle [_______________]。請說明您的隸屬關係。

Hi, this is Michelle [_______________] from Salomon Smith Barney, I was wondering if you could comment on the impact on consumer demand and energy sensitive regions like California specifically on the small business and retail customers?

嗨，我是 Salomon Smith Barney 的 Michelle [_______________]，我想知道您能否評論一下對消費者需求和能源敏感地區（如加利福尼亞州）的影響，特別是對小企業和零售客戶的影響？

Well, we really haven't seen a big change yet, again recognize the energy costs are just hitting their [_______________] this month and next for the first time, although, it's been on the news everyday for the last several months. California again has a kind of bucked the trend. California is relatively speaking has improved more than other regions. The one region that has continued to be a little weak relatively speaking is the Northwest, although, there is no competitive issue here and again that sure has improved a little bit but California has actually comeback nicely. So the answer is that I don't have any answers for you yet. We haven't seen anything to suggest that it's going to go down, although, we are just starting to see the way the energy increases.

好吧，我們真的還沒有看到大的變化，再次認識到能源成本剛剛達到他們的 [_______________] 這個月和下個月第一次，雖然，在過去的幾個月裡，它每天都在新聞上。加州再次逆勢而上。加州相對來說比其他地區有改善。相對而言，繼續表現稍弱的一個地區是西北地區，雖然，這裡並沒有出現競爭問題，這肯定有所改善，但加利福尼亞實際上已經很好地捲土重來。所以答案是我還沒有給你任何答案。我們還沒有看到任何跡象表明它會下降，儘管我們才剛剛開始看到能量增加的方式。

Okay, thank-you.

好的謝謝你。

Our next question comes from [_______________]. Please state your affiliation.

我們的下一個問題來自 [_______________]。請說明您的隸屬關係。

[_______________]. It's [_______________]. Good morning Richard, looking at some of the new programs you put in place over the past year like the 2% reward, Amex, and not the wage increases review program, but just if you could talk about outside of just [anniversarying] those increases and the easy comparisons, how they contributed? And is that contribution on plan, and if you can give us some evidence, for example, wage increases have you seen a higher retention rate, lower training costs, anything, any kind of evidence that you could point to that these programs are working.

[_______________]。它的 [_______________]。早上好，理查德，看看你在過去一年中實施的一些新計劃，比如 2% 的獎勵、美國運通，而不是加薪審查計劃，但只要你能在 [週年紀念] 那些加薪之外談論以及簡單的比較，它們是如何貢獻的？是對計劃的貢獻嗎？如果你能給我們一些證據，例如，工資增長，你是否看到更高的保留率，更低的培訓成本，任何你可以指出這些計劃正在發揮作用的證據。

Oh yeah, in terms of wages, we have seen an improvement. Historically, even though nearly half of our employees are part time hourly and the other nearly are full time hourly, despite that, we enjoyed low 20% or 21%, 22%, turnover rates and a year ago that was up to 27% to 28%, I believe, now it's about 23%, and so yes it has come back down probably that is because nobody is leaving their job. A year ago, people were going to dotcoms and now they are calling us to come back. So I think it's a combination of the two, but we also thought that it was a right thing to do. In terms of the Executive Member program, I know we like many of you do these wonderful matrices, about 5 years ago, when we announced the Executive Membership program which had no membership reward aspect, it was just an extra $55 or $60, and boy, this is going to be the do all end all. The fact is that they take time. Basically, we are right on target with our budget, actually maybe a shade better, in terms of what we think we can do, but it's no guarantee. At best even right now and over the next few years we think it will be a positive. It trends towards positive, but it enhances loyalty, and more importantly, if we have a little under a million members now, then we have 3 million members, 5 years from now, and we build these service programs; we make money on these services we give our [vendor]; we are locking those members in for a lot of other reasons. They may move and not even have a Costco near them, but they are going to still be a member because of their auto insurance. So long-term, we think it's a good program but it's by no means a slammed on big positive. Actually, right now it's a booked negative. So again nothing out of the ordinary, they are pretty much in line with what we have stated.

哦，是的，在工資方面，我們看到了進步。從歷史上看，儘管我們近一半的員工是每小時兼職，而另一半幾乎是全職每小時，儘管如此，我們享受了 20% 或 21%、22% 的低流動率，而一年前這一比例高達 27% 28%，我相信，現在大約是 23%，所以是的，它已經回落了，這可能是因為沒有人離開他們的工作。一年前，人們會去網絡公司，現在他們呼籲我們回來。所以我認為這是兩者的結合，但我們也認為這是正確的做法。關於行政會員計劃，我知道我們喜歡你們中的許多人做這些美妙的矩陣，大約 5 年前，當我們宣布沒有會員獎勵方面的行政會員計劃時，它只是額外的 55 美元或 60 美元，男孩，這將是全部結束。事實是他們需要時間。基本上，我們的預算是正確的，實際上可能會更好，就我們認為我們可以做的而言，但這並不能保證。充其量是現在和未來幾年，我們認為這將是積極的。它趨向於積極，但它提高了忠誠度，更重要的是，如果我們現在有不到 100 萬會員，那麼從現在起 5 年後我們有 300 萬會員，我們會建立這些服務計劃；我們通過提供給 [供應商] 的這些服務來賺錢；我們出於許多其他原因鎖定這些成員。他們可能會搬家，附近甚至沒有 Costco，但由於他們的汽車保險，他們仍將成為會員。所以從長遠來看，我們認為這是一個很好的計劃，但絕不是大肆抨擊。實際上，現在它是預訂的負數。所以再一次沒有什麼不尋常的，它們幾乎與我們所說的一致。

Okay, what about Amex?

好吧，美國運通呢？

Amex again it's hard to remember, it's an up scale member. We have been surprised on the upside by the number of new signups got through the Amex marketing efforts for the cobranded Amex Costco card. We have seen a little bit of an increase in the average spend of these members, although, that fluctuates each month, but net of that has been increase for sure over the last year. I think the biggest positive there is that both sides really feel honestly good about it, and it's going in the right direction for both sides. Again, its not a big giant leap for mankind here, bottom line it's a net positive and it will grow from there.

美國運通再次很難記住，它是一個高檔會員。我們對通過美國運通聯合品牌的美國運通好市多卡的營銷工作獲得的新註冊數量感到驚訝。我們已經看到這些會員的平均支出略有增加，雖然每個月都有所波動，但除此之外，去年肯定有所增加。我認為最大的積極因素是雙方都對此感覺非常好，而且雙方都朝著正確的方向發展。再說一次，這對人類來說並不是一個巨大的飛躍，最重要的是，它是一個淨積極因素，它將從那裡成長。

Have you [_______________] numbers to figure out when you might be recoup those investments or the costs associated with it [_______________]?

您是否有 [_______________] 個數字來確定何時可以收回這些投資或與之相關的成本 [_______________]？

No, they are all in line with what we expect, again I think the Executive Membership is long-term. The Amex is long-term, I mean, more than recoup the investment. We think the [_______________] program is a net positive, right now first year, it's a small net positive and it will grow from there. As an example of the first year, I think we have got about 300,000 new members and these are people that had already not renewed for more than 6 months from us but were still Amex members, and they came back and when they got a cobranded card, they had to pay us $45 to be a Costco member, that's 12 million bucks and that's people that are going to come in and shop and hopefully a good percentage of those will pay us another 12 million bucks next year. So again, I think those were all net positives, and it's kind of like the old commercial [_______________] these programs are making money the old fashioned way over the long-term.

不，它們都符合我們的預期，我再次認為行政成員是長期的。美國運通是長期的，我的意思是，不僅僅是收回投資。我們認為 [_______________] 計劃是一個淨正面，現在第一年，它是一個小的淨正面，它會從那裡增長。作為第一年的一個例子，我認為我們有大約 300,000 名新會員，這些人已經超過 6 個月沒有從我們這裡續訂，但仍然是美國運通會員，當他們獲得聯名卡時，他們回來了，他們必須向我們支付 45 美元才能成為 Costco 會員，這是 1200 萬美元，這就是那些會進來購物的人，希望其中很大一部分人會在明年再向我們支付 1200 萬美元。再說一次，我認為這些都是淨積極因素，有點像舊的商業廣告[_______________]，這些程序在長期內以老式的方式賺錢。

Great, thank-you.

太好了謝謝。

Our next question comes from [_______________]. Please state your affiliation.

我們的下一個問題來自 [_______________]。請說明您的隸屬關係。

Hi, Dain Rauscher. Richard you mentioned earlier, you talked a little bit about, you made some comments to the effect that the warehouse club market has still a lot of growth left in there, can you talk a little bit about how you size that potential and what the outlook is there and then secondly, I have a question on the long-term trends in gross margin particularly on new stores and how that impacts return on capital, looking at that equation?

嗨，戴恩·勞舍爾。你之前提到的理查德，你談了一點，你發表了一些評論，說倉庫俱樂部市場還有很大的增長空間，你能談談你如何衡量這個潛力以及前景如何其次，我對毛利率的長期趨勢有疑問，尤其是新店的毛利率，以及這如何影響資本回報率，看看這個等式？

Okay, let's see where do I start, first of all, on the return on the capital stuff it hurts return on capital in short-term. We plan to be in Atlanta, I mean again, I will use Atlanta. Atlanta is a good example because it has done well. Those units had a cash-on-cash return on assets, negative in the first year or two, it's now completing its fourth year in the first couple of units, and they are in the low teens, and by next year, it will be in the high teens based on what we see so far. That actually ain't so bad because we are going to be there for a long time.

好的，讓我們看看我從哪裡開始，首先，關於資本回報率的東西，它在短期內會損害資本回報率。我們計劃在亞特蘭大，我的意思是，我將使用亞特蘭大。亞特蘭大就是一個很好的例子，因為它做得很好。這些單位的資產現金回報率在第一年或兩年為負，現在前幾個單位已經完成了第四年，而且它們處於低位，到明年，它將是根據我們目前所看到的，在青少年時期。這實際上並沒有那麼糟糕，因為我們將在那裡待很長時間。

Are they in line with the long-term trends, Richard, from where you were say 5 years ago?

他們是否符合長期趨勢，理查德，你 5 年前所說的那樣？

Oh, I think years ago, there was more low-lying fruit, and it does take a little more time. Have we replaced a little bit greater emphasis on making sure we get some more existing market units? Yes and again that doesn't happen overnight, but as I mentioned I know we have got a couple of more of California units in the existing markets, we have got I think another Phoenix unit, another Maryland unit, another Virginia unit, we just opened Norwalk, Connecticut, we have got another New York unit, and a Port Chester, we have got another Portland unit, so all these things again relatively speaking that will help that a little bit, but the old status we are building for the long-term, we recognize it's a little painful short-term, but we think it's the right thing to do. As it relates to that, we are confident that we can improve the P&L. Some of that improvement comes from an improving gross margin and an improving gross margin each year for the next few years, but that's doing it Jim's way. Jim [_______________] way which means not cheating and again we think we can get there with some of the goals for buying deals of what we are doing with private label, with better buying, and not by just saying let's take something from 649 up to 679.

哦，我想幾年前，有更多的低窪水果，確實需要更多的時間。我們是否已經不再強調確保我們獲得更多現有的市場單位？是的，這不會在一夜之間發生，但正如我所提到的，我知道我們在現有市場上有更多的加利福尼亞單位，我認為我們有另一個鳳凰城單位，另一個馬里蘭單位，另一個弗吉尼亞單位，我們只是康涅狄格州諾沃克開業，我們有另一個紐約單位，還有一個切斯特港，我們還有另一個波特蘭單位，所以所有這些事情相對而言都會有所幫助，但我們長期建立的舊狀態-term，我們承認這在短期內有點痛苦，但我們認為這是正確的做法。與此相關，我們有信心可以改善損益。其中一些改善來自毛利率的提高和未來幾年每年毛利率的提高，但這是吉姆的方式。吉姆 [_______________] 方式，這意味著不作弊，我們再次認為，我們可以通過購買自有品牌的一些目標來實現目標，更好地購買，而不是僅僅說讓我們從 649 到679.

And when you look at the sizing the long-term market potential?

當您查看長期市場潛力的規模時？

Long-term market potential, Jim just went through one of his back of [_______________] exercises when we had some people visiting a few weeks ago. I think we have got about 260 locations in the US. He feels that 10 years from now we could have 500. Now the assumption is that there is more infill, which is happening and that we have gone into all these new states, I mean, two years ago, we had just opened our first two units in Atlanta. We are just getting ready to open our fifth unit this summer, and we have got two more planned. A year ago, we had nothing in Dallas; we now have four with a fifth in Dallas, Fort Worth Metroplex by August, and two more units in Houston and Austin. So just two years ago, we had 1 or 2 units in Chicago, we just opened our 5th with 2 or 3 more planned in the short term. So the part of it is that assumption as well. What it means is we got over 23 units a year for 10 more years in the US, and we are going to do everything we can to do that and that's what we think. And certainly a part of it is that our equation is a little different. We are not a fashion statement, and we are not just in retail apparel, we are not just in consumer electronics, we are not just in home improvement, we are not just in toys, and we have got a big draw with fresh foods, and we have got a big draw with saving people's money on every item they buy. So hopefully, that will help and again, I get back to fresh foods, more than anything I believe fresh foods is what keeps people coming because once they tried [_______________] steak or muffins or cake, they come back because they love the size and the quality and the price.

長期市場潛力，幾週前我們有一些人訪問時，吉姆剛剛完成了他的 [_______________] 練習之一。我想我們在美國有大約 260 個地點。他認為 10 年後我們可以擁有 500 個。現在假設有更多的填充物，這種情況正在發生，我們已經進入了所有這些新州，我的意思是，兩年前，我們剛剛開設了前兩個亞特蘭大的單位。我們正準備在今年夏天開設我們的第五個單元，我們還有另外兩個計劃。一年前，我們在達拉斯一無所有；我們現在有四個單元，其中五分之一在達拉斯，到八月份在沃思堡大都會，在休斯頓和奧斯汀還有兩個單元。所以就在兩年前，我們在芝加哥有 1 或 2 個單位，我們剛剛開設了第 5 個單位，短期內計劃再增加 2 或 3 個。所以它的一部分也是這個假設。這意味著我們每年在美國獲得超過 23 個單位，再持續 10 年，我們將盡我們所能做到這一點，這就是我們的想法。當然，其中一部分原因是我們的方程式有點不同。我們不是時尚宣言，我們不只是零售服裝，我們不只是消費電子產品，我們不只是家居裝修，我們不只是玩具，我們對新鮮食品有很大的吸引力，我們在人們購買的每一件商品上都節省了錢，這是一個很大的吸引力。所以希望，這會有所幫助，我再次回到新鮮食物，最重要的是，我相信新鮮食物是吸引人們前來的原因，因為一旦他們嘗試了 [_______________] 牛排、鬆餅或蛋糕，他們就會回來，因為他們喜歡這種大小和質量和價格。

Okay, and do you know what capex would be in the 2002 at this point. Can you comment on that?

好的，您知道此時 2002 年的資本支出是多少嗎？你能對此發表評論嗎？

Yeah, I think it will be about the same as this year about $1.3 billion.

是的，我認為這將與今年大致相同，約為 13 億美元。

Okay, and what will that workout to in square footage increases for 2001, Richard.

好的，那麼 2001 年的鍛煉面積會增加多少，理查德。

Well, I think, this year we started the year with, how many units Bob, 313, we started the year with 313 and we'll end with 32 more, so we will end with 345. That would be a unit increase of exactly 10% or 10.2%, rough number you can add a percentage point to that on a square footage basis.

嗯，我想，今年我們從一年開始，有多少單位 Bob，313，我們從 313 開始，我們將以 32 結束，所以我們將以 345 結束。這將是一個單位增加10% 或 10.2%，粗略的數字，您可以在平方英尺的基礎上添加一個百分點。

Great.

偉大的。

And next year on a base of 345 to start with, you would add lets say 35, I'll be aggressive there that's maybe a little bit on the high end but 35 should be 380 on 345 is also a 10.1%, so that would be 11% square footage growth.

明年在 345 的基礎上開始，你會加上讓我們說 35，我會很激進，可能有點高端，但 35 應該是 380，345 也是 10.1%，所以這將面積增長 11%。

Great, thanks very much.

太好了，非常感謝。

Our next question comes from Todd Slater. Please state your affiliation.

我們的下一個問題來自 Todd Slater。請說明您的隸屬關係。

Hi, Lazard and my questions have been answered, thank-you.

嗨，拉扎德和我的問題已經得到解答，謝謝。

Why don't we take two more questions since it's now approaching 90 minutes. Go ahead.

既然現在已經接近 90 分鐘，我們為什麼不再回答兩個問題。前進。

Our next question comes from Teresa Donahue. Please state your affiliation.

我們的下一個問題來自 Teresa Donahue。請說明您的隸屬關係。

Neuberger, my question was answered, thanks.

Neuberger，我的問題得到了解答，謝謝。

Once again if you have a question or comment please press the number '1' followed by '4' on your touch-tone phone at this time. Our next question comes from Barry [_______________].

再次，如果您有任何問題或意見，此時請在您的按鍵式電話上按數字“1”，然後按“4”。我們的下一個問題來自 Barry [_______________]。

Hi it's actually, [_______________] from [_______________] Asset Management. I missed the beginning of the Q&A so excuse me if this has been answered already, but the last conference call you had made some comments on categories that were weak or strong, I was wondering if you could give some color on that as well.

您好，實際上是 [_______________] 來自 [_______________] 資產管理公司。我錯過了問答的開始，如果已經回答了，請原諒，但是上次電話會議您對弱或強的類別發表了一些評論，我想知道您是否也可以對此進行說明。

I am sorry could you ask that again.

很抱歉你能再問一次嗎？

Categories for like last conference call you had said jewelry was particularly weak, I was wondering if you are seeing the same weakness in the same categories for this past quarter.

像上次電話會議一樣，您說珠寶特別弱的類別，我想知道您是否在過去一個季度的相同類別中看到了同樣的弱點。

Yes, but a little less weakness. The jewelry which I think in April, March or April was [_______________] down 15% to 17% it was down to 4% or 5% of late, computers which have been down as much as 20 plus percent is down a little less, although that has been helped by some really low priced e-machines that we have for 399. Apparel was down 8 or 9, now it's flat to down 2, probably one thing that is stronger than expected in the high single digits was lawn and garden and sporting goods.

是的，但弱點少了一點。我認為在 4 月、3 月或 4 月的珠寶 [_______________] 下降了 15% 到 17%，最近下降到了 4% 或 5%，下降了 20% 以上的計算機下降了一點點，雖然這得到了一些非常低價的電子機器的幫助，我們擁有 399 美元。服裝下降了 8 或 9，現在下降到 2，可能在高個位數中比預期強的一件事是草坪和花園和體育用品。

Thank-you.

謝謝。

Sir, there appears to be no further questions at this time.

先生，目前似乎沒有其他問題。

Okay, [_______________] thank you very much to everyone, and Bob and I will be around if you have any further questions.

好的，[_______________] 非常感謝大家，如果您有任何進一步的問題，我和 Bob 都會在附近。

Thank-you, this does conclude today's teleconference. You may disconnect at this time.

謝謝，今天的電話會議到此結束。此時您可以斷開連接。