好市多 (COST) 2016 Q3 法說會逐字稿

Good morning, ladies and gentlemen. My name is Karen and I will be your conference operator today. At this time, I would like to welcome everyone to the Q3 earnings conference call. All lines have been placed on mute to prevent any background noise. After the speakers' remarks, there will be a question-and-answer session. (Operator Instructions). I would now like to turn today's call over to Mr. Richard Galanti, Chief Financial Officer. Mr. Galanti, you may begin.

女士們、先生們，早安。我叫凱倫，今天將由我擔任你們的會議接線生。此時此刻，我謹代表全體與會者歡迎參加第三季財報電話會議。所有線路均已靜音，以防止任何背景噪音。演講結束後，將進行問答環節。（操作說明）現在我將今天的電話會議交給財務長理查‧加蘭蒂先生。加蘭蒂先生，您可以開始了。

Thank you, Karen and good morning to everyone. Before I begin, please note that these discussions will include forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. These statements involve risks and uncertainties that may cause actual results, events and/or performance to differ materially from those indicated by such statements. The risks and uncertainties include, but are not limited to those outlined in today's call, as well as other risks identified from time to time in the Company's public statements and reports filed with the SEC.

謝謝你，凱倫，大家早安。在開始之前，請注意，這些討論將包含 1995 年《私人證券訴訟改革法案》所界定的前瞻性陳述。這些聲明涉及風險和不確定性，可能導致實際結果、事件和/或績效與此類聲明所指出的內容有重大差異。風險和不確定性包括但不限於今天電話會議中概述的風險和不確定性，以及公司不時在公開聲明和向美國證券交易委員會提交的報告中確定的其他風險和不確定性。

Forward-looking statements speak only as of the date they are made and we do not undertake to update these statements except as required by law.

前瞻性聲明僅代表其發布之日的情況，除法律要求外，我們不承擔更新這些聲明的義務。

Last night's press release reported our third-quarter and year-to-date fiscal 2016 operating results for the 12 and 36-week periods that ended this past May 8. For the quarter, our reported earnings per share came in at $1.24, up 6% over last year's third-quarter earnings per share of $1.17.

昨晚的新聞稿公佈了我們截至今年5月8日的2016財年第三季和年初至今的12周和36週期間的經營業績。該季度，我們公佈的每股收益為1.24美元，比去年第三季的每股收益1.17美元增長了6%。

In comparing our third-quarter results year-over-year, there are a few items of note. As usual, FX as compared to a year ago, during the quarter, the foreign currencies in the countries where we operate weakened overall versus the US dollar, primarily in Canada, Mexico and Korea. This resulted in our foreign earnings in Q3 when converted into US dollars for reporting purposes being lower by about $15 million, or $0.03 a share than they would have been had the various foreign exchange rates versus the dollar been flat year-over-year.

在將我們第三季的業績與去年同期進行比較時，有幾點值得注意。與去年同期相比，本季外匯市場走勢與往常一樣，我們營運所在國家的貨幣兌美元整體走弱，主要集中在加拿大、墨西哥和韓國。因此，第三季我們以美元計價的海外收益比上年同期減少了約 1500 萬美元，即每股減少 0.03 美元（假設各種外匯匯率與美元的同比持平）。

Gross margins. On a reported basis, it was higher by 34 basis points. This included a $19 million benefit from nonrecurring legal settlements. This represented 7 basis points of margin improvement, or about $0.03 a share.

毛利率。以報告數據計算，該數據上升了 34 個基點。其中包括來自一次性法律和解的 1,900 萬美元收益。這相當於利潤率提高了 7 個基點，或每股約 0.03 美元。

Number three, our co-branded credit card transition in the United States. With the transition to our new co-brand Citi Visa card next month, co-brand AMEX credit card sign-up stopped, as you know, late last calendar year, I think in October/November. The short-term negative earnings impact of the lost co-brand credit card sign-ups in the quarter year-over-year was about $11 million, or $0.02 a share to the negative.

第三，我們在美國的聯名信用卡轉型。隨著下個月我們將推出新的聯名花旗Visa卡，聯名美國運通信用卡的申請也已停止，正如您所知，該申請已於去年年底停止，我想應該是在10月/11月。本季聯名信用卡註冊量下降對短期收益的負面影響約為 1,100 萬美元，即每股虧損 0.02 美元。

We expect to have the new co-brand Visa cards in the hands of our members by the end of May, early June -- some of you may have already received them in the mail -- with a go live transition date of Monday, June 20.

我們預計將在 5 月底 6 月初將新的聯名 Visa 卡送到會員手中——你們中的一些人可能已經通過郵件收到了——正式上線過渡日期為 6 月 20 日星期一。

Number four, wages. As I mentioned on last quarter's -- second-quarter earnings conference call back in March, in addition to the -- we do a top-of-scale increase each year, which we generally again have done every year each March. This year, we also increased our bottom-scale hourly rates in the US and Canada, which is about 80% of our Company. Effective this past March 14, we increased our starting wage at $1.50 an hour to $13 and $13.50 an hour.

第四，工資。正如我在上個季度——也就是三月的第二季財報電話會議上提到的那樣，除了——我們每年都會進行規模上限的成長，而我們通常每年三月都會這樣做。今年，我們也提高了美國和加拿大最低工資標準的時薪，這部分薪資約占我們公司的 80%。自今年 3 月 14 日起，我們將起薪從每小時 1.50 美元提高到每小時 13 美元和 13.50 美元。

The new bottom of scale wage increase results in a year-over-year incremental payroll expense of about $6 million, or $0.01 a share in the quarter. We estimate that this will be anywhere from $0.01 to $0.02 a quarter in each of the next three quarters depending on which way it rounds.

新的最低工資成長導致本季工資支出年增約 600 萬美元，即每股增加 0.01 美元。我們估計，在接下來的三個季度中，每季的金額將在 0.01 美元到 0.02 美元之間，具體取決於四捨五入的方式。

Number five, IT modernization. IT modernization efforts negatively impacted SG&A expenses in Q3 on an incremental year-over-year basis by about $16 million, which is about 5 basis points, or $0.02 a share to SG&A. I believe in the first and second quarters this year that year-over-year delta of modernization expense was 7 basis points to the negative in Q1 and 3 in Q2. So it looks like it's averaging around 5 a quarter for the first three quarters of the year.

第五，IT現代化。IT 現代化工作對第三季的銷售、一般及行政費用產生了負面影響，年比增加了約 1,600 萬美元，相當於 SG&A 的 5 個基點，即每股 0.02 美元。我認為今年第一季和第二季度，現代化支出較去年同期變化分別為：第一季為負 7 個基點，第二季為負 3 個基點。所以看起來今年前三個季度的平均值約為每季 5 美元。

LIFO. This year in Q3, we picked up a little bit there from a LIFO credit. We recorded a pretax LIFO credit of $13 million in the quarter. Last year, it was also deflationary, but as you know deflation has continued. It was $7 million, so again about a $6 million, or a penny a share delta there. Those are the items I'd point out.

後進先出。今年第三季度，我們透過後進先出法貸項獲得了一些收益。本季我們確認了1,300萬美元的稅前後進先出法（LIFO）收益。去年也是通貨緊縮時期，但如你所知，通貨緊縮仍在持續。金額是 700 萬美元，所以又差了約 600 萬美元，也就是每股一美分。以上就是我想指出的幾點。

Turning to our third-quarter sales, total reported sales, as you know, as reported, was up 2% and our 12-week reported comp sales figure was flat or zero. Sales, of course, were negatively impacted by gasoline price deflation. That was almost 2 percentage points impact and about 190 basis points and by the weakening foreign currencies relative to the dollar that I just mentioned. That was about 145 basis points.

再來看我們第三季的銷售情況，如您所知，總報告銷售額成長了 2%，而我們 12 週報告的同店銷售額則持平或為零。當然，汽油價格下跌對銷量產生了負面影響。那影響接近 2 個百分點，約 190 個基點，這是由於我剛才提到的外幣兌美元走弱造成的。那大約是145個基點。

So excluding gas deflation, the flat US comp number we reported would have been a plus 3%. In Canada, the plus 1% reported Canadian comp would've been a plus 8% in local currency, excluding gas deflation and flat FX rates. And the reported minus 2% other international, excluding gas deflation and assuming flat over year FX, that would've been a plus 3%. So all told, our reported zero comp for the quarter, ex-gas and FX, would have been a plus 3%.

因此，如果不考慮天然氣價格下跌，我們報導的美國同業比較數據將為成長 3%。在加拿大，報告的加元同業成長 1% 如果以當地貨幣計算，則相當於成長 8%，這還不包括汽油價格下跌和外匯匯率持平的影響。據報道，其他國際因素下降了 2%，但不包括天然氣通貨緊縮，並假設匯率與去年持平，那麼實際的國際經濟成長率為 3%。綜上所述，若不計天然氣和外匯因素，本季報告的零比較結果將為正3%。

In terms of new openings, in the quarter, we opened 7 new locations and also completed one relo. So year-to-date for the first 36 weeks, we've opened a total of 19 new warehouses and 3 relos. For all of 2016, we have a current plan of 29 net new locations; a little over two-thirds of them, 21, will be in the US; two in Canada; two in Japan; and one each in the UK, Taiwan, Australia and Spain.

就新店開幕而言，本季我們開設了 7 家新店，並完成了一家搬遷店。今年前 36 週，我們總共開設了 19 個新倉庫，並進行了 3 次搬遷。2016 年全年，我們計劃新增 29 個地點；其中超過三分之二（21 個）將位於美國；2 個位於加拿大；2 個位於日本；英國、台灣、澳洲和西班牙各 1 個。

This morning, I will also, of course, review with you e-commerce activities, ownership trends and renewal rates, additional discussion about margins and SG&A in the quarter and a couple of other items.

今天上午，我當然也會和大家一起回顧電子商務活動、所有權趨勢和續約率，進一步討論本季的利潤率和銷售、管理及行政費用，以及其他一些事項。

So going down the P&L, again, for sales. Total sales were up 2%. Reported comps flat. Reported, up 3%, excluding gas and FX. Now the zero flat comp on a reported basis was a combination of an average transaction decrease of a little under 3%, minus 2.7%, on a reported basis, and again ex-gas and FX, the average transaction increase would've actually been up 0.5%. And the average shopping frequency increase was up 3% for the quarter, which is most of February, all of March, all of April and a little of May.

所以，我們又從損益表上看銷售額。總銷售額成長了2%。據報道，同店銷售額持平。據報道，上漲 3%（不包括天然氣和外匯）。現在，按報告計算的零增長是由於平均交易量下降了不到 3%（-2.7%），而如果扣除 Gas 和外匯費用，平均交易量實際上會增長 0.5%。本季（包括二月的大部分時間、整個三月、整個四月和五月的一小部分時間）平均購物頻率增加了 3%。

In terms of sales comparisons by geography, in the US, Texas, Midwest and South East regions were the stronger ones. Internationally in local currencies, better performing countries were Mexico, Canada and the UK.

從地理銷售比較來看，在美國，德州、中西部和東南部地區的銷售情況較為強勁。從國際來看，以當地貨幣計算，表現較好的國家為墨西哥、加拿大和英國。

In terms of merchandising categories for the quarter, within food and sundries, which was overall flattish year-over-year, sundries, foods and meat/deli were the leaders. Tobacco, as I think we mentioned a little bit on the April sales call, was negative in the low teens as we continue to eliminate tobacco from various locations.

就本季的商品類別而言，在食品和日用品類別中（總體上與去年同期持平），日用品、食品和肉類/熟食是領先者。正如我們在四月份的銷售電話會議上提到的那樣，菸草銷售額為負值，降幅在十幾個百分點左右，因為我們繼續從各個地點清除菸草。

For hardlines overall in the mid-single digits. The departments with the strongest results were sporting goods, toys, seasonal, automotive, consumer electronics and garden/patio. I think I will have to go look at what was down because those were all pretty good departments within hard lines.

強硬派整體人數在個位數中段。業績表現最突出的部門是體育用品、玩具、季節性商品、汽車用品、消費性電子產品和花園/庭院用品。我想我得去看看究竟是哪些部門出了問題，因為那些都是實力雄厚的部門。

Within low to mid-single softline comps, single-digit softline comps, small electrics, men's apparel and home furnishings were the standouts. And lastly, in fresh foods, comp sales overall in the low single digits. Produce and deli showed the best results. Of course, we probably had the most deflation I think in the meat, poultry and pork areas.

在低至中價位的軟裝類商品中，個位數價位的軟裝類商品、小型電器、男裝和家居用品表現突出。最後，生鮮食品方面，同店銷售額整體僅成長了個位數。蔬果和熟食類產品表現最佳。當然，我認為肉類、家禽和豬肉領域的價格通貨緊縮可能最為嚴重。

In the US, we continue to see deflation in the low single digit range for food and sundries, and as I mentioned fresh foods, and a little in some of the non-food areas as well, notably electronics.

在美國，食品和日用品繼續出現個位數低水準的通貨緊縮，正如我所提到的，新鮮食品也是如此，一些非食品領域也出現了一些通貨緊縮，特別是電子產品。

Moving down the income statement, membership fees came in -- in dollars were up 6% and up 7 basis points as a percent of sales, coming in up $34 million from $584 million last year to $618 million. Again, FX currencies, exchange rates impact this number. Without FX, we are assuming flat year-over-year FX. The $618 million would have been up $7 more million and so the 6% dollar increase year-over-year would have been up 7%. Same number of basis points, of course, up 7.

從損益表上看，會員費收入——以美元計算增長了 6%，佔銷售額的百分比增長了 7 個基點，從去年的 5.84 億美元增長了 3,400 萬美元，達到 6.18 億美元。同樣，外匯貨幣和匯率也會影響這個數字。不考慮匯率因素，我們假設匯率與去年同期持平。6.18 億美元將增加 700 萬美元，因此年比 6% 的美元成長率將達到 7%。當然，基點數相同，上升了 7 個基點。

In terms of renewal rates, we continue at strong renewal rates, 90% plus in the US and Canada, 88% worldwide. Continue increasing penetration of the executive membership and I will talk about that in a second. New member signups in the quarter companywide were at 15% year-over-year in part driven by strong sign-ups at our new openings in Taiwan and Japan. The Asia openings always have outsized new sign-ups. We also had very strong sign-ups in Tulsa, for that matter. Overall, in the US, in fact, it was up 15% as well.

續約率方面，我們持續保持強勁的續約率，美國和加拿大超過 90%，全球達到 88%。繼續提高高階主管的滲透率，我稍後會談到這一點。本季公司整體新會員註冊量年增 15%，部分原因是我們在台灣和日本新開業的會員註冊量強勁成長。亞洲地區的招募訊息總是吸引大量新用戶註冊。事實上，我們在塔爾薩的報名人數也非常多。事實上，在美國，整體漲幅也達到了 15%。

In terms of number of members at third quarter-end, Gold Star was 36.2 million, up from 12 weeks earlier at 35.4 million; primary business, the same at 7.2 million; business add-ons, the same at 3.5 million at the beginning and the end of the quarter. So all told, 46.9 million member households, up 800,000 from 46.1 million at Q2 end.

截至第三季末，Gold Star 的會員人數為 3,620 萬，比 12 週前的 3,540 萬有所增加；主要業務會員人數為 720 萬，與季度初持平；業務附加會員人數為 350 萬，與季度末持平。總計有 4,690 萬個會員家庭，比第二季末的 4,610 萬個增加了 80 萬個。

Total cardholders is 85.5 million, up 1.5 million from 84 million at the end of the second quarter. I mentioned executive memberships. We came in at the end of Q3 with right at 17 million executive members, which is an increase of actually 402,000 over the 12-week period, or 33,000 a week increase in the quarter. I think that tends to be on the high end of that weekly increase in many of the last recent quarters. Executive members are approximately 36% of our member base and about two-thirds of our sales and continues to improve penetration.

持卡人總數為 8,550 萬，比第二季末的 8,400 萬增加了 150 萬。我提到了高階主管成員資格。第三季末，我們的執行會員人數正好達到 1,700 萬，比前 12 週增加了 40.2 萬，也就是本季每週增加 3.3 萬。我認為這往往是最近幾季每週增幅的較高水準。高級會員約占我們會員總數的 36%，銷售額約占我們銷售額的三分之二，滲透率仍在增加。

In terms of renewal rates, business members were 94.4% at the end of the quarter, tweaked down from 94.5%; Gold Star, 89.6%, a tenth down also, 89.7%; and so total US and Canada, 90.4%, down from 90.5%. Worldwide, at 87.6% at the end of the quarter, again a tenth down as well. Within the US and Canada, of course, we've seen a bigger tickdown than a tenth of a percent in Canada. That has to do with as we anniversary now about 18 months when we initiated the change in credit cards up there, which was actually everybody having to sign up again. So I think part of that is the auto renewal. We see a little of that in the US since we haven't been adding on, accepting new applications for the current co-branded credit card since past October, but pretty much in line with what we thought.

就續約率而言，本季末企業會員續約率為 94.4%，略低於 94.5%；金星會員續約率為 89.6%，也略低於 89.7%；美國和加拿大的總續訂率為 90.4%，低於 90.5%。全球範圍內，季末的失業率為 87.6%，再次下降了十分之一。當然，在美國和加拿大，我們看到的降幅比加拿大的降幅（超過十分之一）大得多。這與大約 18 個月前我們啟動信用卡改革有關，當時實際上每個人都必須重新註冊。所以我覺得部分原因是自動續費。我們在美國也看到了一些類似的情況，因為自去年 10 月以來，我們沒有繼續增加現有聯名信用卡的申請，但情況基本上符合我們的預期。

In terms of gross margin, our reported gross margin, as I may have mentioned, was up 34 basis points, 11.43% this year versus 11.09% last year. And as usual, I will ask you to jot down four columns of numbers to provide a little edification here. The four columns would be Q2 2016. Columns 1 and 2 are both Q2 2016. These are year-over-year changes in basis points. First column would be reported figures for margin. Second would be without the impact of gas deflation since that tends to distort the numbers wildly. And then columns 3 and 4 would be Q3 2016 both reported and in column 4, Q3 2016 without gas deflation.

就毛利率而言，正如我之前可能提到的，我們報告的毛利率今年增長了 34 個基點，達到 11.43%，而去年為 11.09%。像往常一樣，我將請你記下四列數字，以便對此進行一些說明。這四列資料為 2016 年第二季。第 1 列和第 2 列均為 2016 年第二季資料。這些是同比變化，單位為基點。第一列將列出利潤率數據。其次，要排除天然氣通貨緊縮的影響，因為天然氣通貨緊縮往往會嚴重扭曲數據。然後，第 3 列和第 4 列分別是 2016 年第三季報告的數據和 2016 年第三季未報告的數據。

In terms of the line items, the first line item going across would be core merchandising, so Q2 2016, we reported a plus 5 basis point year-over-year. Ex-gas deflation, it was minus 3. In Q3, reported, plus 16 and ex-gas, minus 2. Ancillary, a plus 9 and a plus 7. And then columns 3 and 4, a plus 9 and a plus 4. 2% reward, minus 1 and 0. And in Q3, reported without gas, 0 and plus 2. LIFO in the second quarter, plus 4, plus 4; in the third quarter, plus 2, plus 2. Other, 0 and 0 in the first two columns and a plus 7 in columns 3 and 4, that's those nonrecurring legal settlements I talked about earlier.

就各項指標而言，第一個貫穿始終的指標是核心商品銷售，因此在 2016 年第二季度，我們報告稱同比增長了 5 個基點。剔除天然氣成本後，為-3。第三季報告顯示為+16，剔除天然氣成本後為-2。輔助性支出分別為+9和+7。然後是第3列和第4列，分別為+9和+4。2%的獎勵分別為-1和0。第三季報告顯示，剔除天然氣成本後，分別為0和+2。第二季度採用後進先出法（LIFO），分別為+4和+4；第三季度，分別為+2和+2。其他，前兩列均為0，第3列和第4列均為+7，這些是我之前提到的非經常性法律和解費用。

You add up those columns reported in Q2 year-over-year, we had an up 17 basis point margin and up 8 on an ex-gas deflation basis. And again, as well, we reported a plus 34. It's a plus 13 ex-gas deflation.

將第二季報告的各列年比數據加起來，我們的利潤率上升了 17 個基點，剔除天然氣通貨緊縮因素後上升了 8 個基點。此外，我們也報道了+34。剔除天然氣價格後，通貨膨脹率為+13%。

In terms of the core merchandise component, which again reported plus 16, but minus 2, if you look at the four key categories, which is 80% plus of our business, food and sundries, hardlines, softlines and fresh foods, as a percentage of their own sales, they were positive year-over-year by 16 basis points with food and sundries, hardlines and softlines all being up year-over-year and fresh foods being slightly down during the quarter year-over-year.

就核心商品部分而言，該部分再次報告成長 16 個基點，但下降 2 個基點。如果你看一下占我們業務 80% 以上的四個關鍵類別：食品和雜貨、五金、紡織品和新鮮食品，按其自身銷售額的百分比計算，它們同比增長了 16 個基點，其中食品和雜貨、五金和紡織品均同比增長，而新鮮食品在本季度同比略有下降。

Ancillary and other business -- by the way, those numbers exclude the non-recurring items that I mentioned -- ancillary and other business margins were up 9 basis points, up 4 without gas and within the quarter on their own sales, gas, optical and hearing aids all showed higher gross margins year-over-year as a percent of their own sales.

輔助業務和其他業務——順便說一下，這些數字不包括我提到的非經常性項目——輔助業務和其他業務的利潤率上升了 9 個基點，如果不包括汽油業務，則上升了 4 個基點。在本季度，汽油、光學產品和助聽器等產品的毛利率均較去年同期成長，佔其自身銷售額的百分比也更高。

I mentioned LIFO already. That was a 2 basis point benefit year-over-year and other, again a 7 basis point improvement year-over-year. So even ex that on an ex-gas deflation basis, margins were up a few basis points year-over-year.

我之前已經提到後進先出法了。這比去年同期成長了 2 個基點，而其他方面也比去年同期成長了 7 個基點。因此，即使剔除天然氣價格下跌的影響，利潤率也比去年同期上升了幾個基點。

Moving down to expenses, SG&A. On a reported basis, were higher by 33 basis points coming in at 10.44 compared to 10.11 a year ago. Again, we will do the same four columns, Q2 reported and without gas and then Q3 reported and without gas. Core operations, minus 22 reported year-over-year and a minus means higher year-over-year. Ex-gas in Q2 was a minus 16. Columns 3 and 4, minus 24 and minus 8. Central in Q2 was a minus 8 and minus 7; Q3, minus 6 and minus 4; stock compensation, minus 4 and minus 4 and then a minus 3 and a minus 2 and no quarterly adjustments. So all told, we reported year-over-year in Q2 SG&A higher by 34 basis points on a reported basis and 27 ex-gas. This quarter Q3 reported higher SG&A by 33, 14 higher ex-gas.

接下來是費用，銷售、一般及行政費用。據報道，與一年前的 10.11 相比，上漲了 33 個基點，達到 10.44。同樣，我們將進行相同的四列測試，Q2 報告氣體和未報告氣體，然後 Q3 報告氣體和未報告氣體。核心運營，年減 22%，負號表示年上升。第二季天然氣出口為-16。第 3 列和第 4 列分別為 -24 和 -8。第二季中心分別為 -8 和 -7；第三季分別為 -6 和 -4；股票補償分別為 -4 和 -4，然後分別為 -3 和 -2，沒有季度調整。綜上所述，我們報告稱，第二季銷售、一般及行政費用年增 34 個基點（按報告基準計算）或 27 個基點（不計天然氣費用）。本季（Q3）報告稱，銷售、一般及行政費用增加了 33%，不計天然氣費用增加了 14%。

Basically within the -- if you go back to the core operations or operations, the ex-gas deflation, the 8 basis points year-over-year higher, that consisted of higher payroll and benefits year-over-year, which impacted that minus 8 by minus 12, so more to the minus 8. These items were somewhat offset by a variety of other controllable expense items. Q2 is of course always the lowest volume quarter and of course, as we know, sales were a little weaker for a variety of reasons, including some inflation.

基本上，如果你回到核心營運或營運層面，剔除天然氣價格下跌的影響，年比上漲 8 個基點，這主要是由於工資和福利同比增加，導致同比下降 8 個基點，實際下降幅度為 -12 個基點，也就是 -8 個基點。這些因素在一定程度上被其他各種可控費用項目所抵消。第二季度通常是銷量最低的季度，我們都知道，由於各種原因，包括通貨膨脹，銷售額略有下降。

Central expense was higher year-over-year in the quarter by 6, ex-gas by 4. IT is the 4 on an ex-gas basis. It was minus 5 on a reported, but essentially ex that. Central did a pretty good job in the quarter (inaudible). And again, stock compensation (inaudible), no surprise there.

本季中央支出較去年同期增加 6%，不計天然氣支出增加 4%。 IT 支出在不計天然氣支出的情況下為 4%。據報道是-5，但實際上並非如此。中央隊本季表現相當不錯（聽不清楚）。還有，股票補償（聽不清楚），這並不令人意外。

Next on the income statement, pre-opening, a little higher year-over-year, $18 million for the quarter versus $14 million a year ago, so up by a basis point. This year in the quarter, we had 8 openings, including one relo. Last year in the quarter, we had 4 openings, including 1 relo. Again, some of that is not necessarily related to those specific openings as it may include some right before the quarter opened as well. All told, operating income came in at $858 million for the 12-week quarter, up $37 million, or up 5% year-over-year from last year's $821 million.

接下來是損益表，開業前利潤同比略有增長，本季為 1800 萬美元，而去年同期為 1400 萬美元，增長了一個基點。今年本季度，我們有 8 個職位空缺，其中包括一個搬遷職位。去年同期，我們有 4 個職缺，其中 1 個是搬遷職位。此外，其中一些情況不一定與這些具體的開業有關，因為它可能包括季度開始前的一些情況。總的來說，本季（12 週）的營業收入為 8.58 億美元，比去年同期的 8.21 億美元增加了 3,700 萬美元，年成長 5%。

Below the operating [income], interest expense, interest expense came in at $30 million this year versus $31 million a year ago, essentially flat, no surprises there. Interest income and other this year was $7 million, lower by $2 million versus last year's $9 million. Actual interest income within interest income and other was essentially similar year-over-year at about $10 million; the balance of that delta was year-over-year it was the other category coming from small foreign exchange adjustments and slight year-over-year changes in whatever other is, other earnings. No big surprise there.

在營業收入之下，利息支出方面，今年的利息支出為 3,000 萬美元，而去年同期為 3,100 萬美元，基本上持平，這並不令人意外。今年的利息收入和其他收入為 700 萬美元，比去年的 900 萬美元減少了 200 萬美元。利息收入和其他收入中的實際利息收入與上年基本持平，約為 1000 萬美元；該差額的差額來自其他類別，即小額外匯調整和其他收入的輕微同比變化。這沒什麼好奇怪的。

Overall, pretax income was higher by 4.5%, or $36 million, coming in at $835 million, up from $799 million a year earlier. Our tax rate was a little lower or better year-over-year coming in at 34.2%, down from 35.0% last year in the third quarter. Basically, this year's third-quarter income tax percentage benefited from again just a few positive discrete items in the aggregate going our way. That's why it was a little lower. Our normalized rate is actually just a shade over 35% in both of those quarters.

總體而言，稅前收入成長了 4.5%，即 3,600 萬美元，達到 8.35 億美元，高於去年的 7.99 億美元。我們的稅率較去年同期略有下降，為 34.2%，低於去年第三季的 35.0%。基本上，今年第三季的所得稅率再次受益於少數幾個對我們有利的個別項目。所以價格才會略低一些。這兩個季度的正常化比率實際上都略高於 35%。

Overall, reported net income of $545 million for the quarter compared to last year's $516 million or up 5.5%.

總體而言，本季報告淨收入為 5.45 億美元，而去年同期為 5.16 億美元，成長 5.5%。

For a quick rundown of other topics, typical topics -- well, the balance sheet is included in the morning's press release. A couple of balance sheet info items that you may not see on there: depreciation and amortization in the quarter was $291 million and $847 million year to date. Accounts payable as a percent of inventories, on a reported basis it was 99%, a percentage point lower than a year ago at 100%. That of course includes non-merchandise payables, such as construction payables. Same kind of delta. The 99% reported this year would have been at 89%, the 100% would have been at 90%, so again right around the same year-over-year.

其他主題的簡要概述，典型主題——嗯，資產負債表包含在早上的新聞稿中。您可能看不到資產負債表上的幾個資訊項目：本季折舊和攤提為 2.91 億美元，年初至今為 8.47 億美元。根據報告數據，應付帳款佔存貨的百分比為 99%，比一年前的 100% 低一個百分點。這當然包括非商品應付款項，例如建築應付款項。同類型的增量。今年報告的 99% 的完成率相當於 89%，100% 的完成率相當於 90%，所以與去年同期相比，完成率仍然大致相同。

Average inventory per warehouse was actually down about $0.5 million, or down 4%. About a third of that is FX, so almost exactly a third, $173,000 of $516,000. The rest is pretty much spread across many categories, including the impact from deflation. If you assume, and again, you never know exactly what the deflationary cost amounts are, but if you assume a 1% deflation, you get somewhere about half of that remaining being gas and the rest being just a little lower inventories. But, again, lower year-over-year by about $0.5 million.

每個倉庫的平均庫存實際上下降了約 50 萬美元，即下降了 4%。其中約三分之一是外匯，所以幾乎剛好是三分之一，即 516,000 美元中的 173,000 美元。其餘部分則分散在許多類別中，包括通貨緊縮的影響。如果你假設（當然，你永遠無法確切知道通貨緊縮的成本是多少），但假設通貨緊縮率為 1%，那麼剩餘成本中大約一半是汽油，其餘部分只是庫存略微減少。但與上年同期相比，再次下降了約 50 萬美元。

In Q3 in terms of CapEx, we spent $460 million during the 12-week period and essentially year-to-date we are right at $1.8 billion. I would estimate for the year we will come in at around $2.5 billion to $2.7 billion compared to fiscal 2015 total expenditures of $2.4 billion. So up $100 million to $300 million from a year ago based on whatever timing we have left here and what expenditures are made.

第三季資本支出方面，我們在 12 週內花費了 4.6 億美元，而今年迄今為止，我們的支出已達到 18 億美元。我估計今年的總支出將在 25 億美元至 27 億美元左右，而 2015 財年的總支出為 24 億美元。因此，根據我們剩餘的時間和支出情況，比一年前增加了 1 億至 3 億美元。

In terms of Costco Online, as you know, we are now in six countries -- US, Canada, UK and Mexico, plus the recently launched countries of Korea and Taiwan. In the quarter, sales and profits are up. Sales were up on a reported basis 14% in the quarter, up about 15.5% ex-FX. On a comp basis, that would be 13% and 14% ex-FX.

如您所知，Costco Online 目前已涵蓋六個國家——美國、加拿大、英國和墨西哥，以及最近推出的韓國和台灣地區。本季銷售額和利潤均有所成長。本季銷售額按報告數據成長 14%，不計匯率因素，成長約 15.5%。以比較基準計算，不含匯率因素，分別為 13% 和 14%。

In terms of expansion, again, I mentioned in the quarter that we are in now, which is a 16-week quarter, we would expect to open 10 new openings plus 1 relo, and again, that would put us at 29 net new openings, 33 openings, but 4 of those were relos, so 29 overall.

就擴張而言，我再次提到，在我們目前的這個季度（16 週的季度）中，我們預計將開設 10 個新店面，加上 1 個搬遷店面，這將使我們淨增 29 個新店面，總共開設 33 個店面，但其中 4 個是搬遷，所以總共是 29 個店面。

In fiscal 2015, we added 23 net new units on a base of 663, so about 3.5% square footage growth. In 2016, the 29 on the new base would be about 4.5% square footage growth, slightly lower unit growth, but you tend to open a little bigger unit since you've got the relos as well.

2015 財年，我們在 663 套的基礎上淨增 23 套，建築面積成長約 3.5%。2016 年，新基地上的 29 平方英尺增長約 4.5%，單位增長略低，但由於還有搬遷，所以往往會開設一個更大的單元。

New locations by country again, 21 in the US, 2 in Canada, 1 each in the UK, Taiwan, Australia and Spain and 2 in Japan. As of third quarter-end, our total square footage was right above 100 million at 100.7 million square feet.

以國家劃分的新地點再次出現，美國 21 個，加拿大 2 個，英國、台灣、澳洲和西班牙各 1 個，日本 2 個。截至第三季末，我們的總建築面積略高於 1 億平方英尺，達到 1.007 億平方英尺。

In terms of stock buybacks, if you recall in Q1, we repurchased $130 million of our common stock; in Q2, $80 million. Both of those are, of course, 12-week quarters as well and in the 12-week third quarter, we purchased $136 million such that year-to-date we've spent about $346 million with an average price per share of $148.64.

就股票回購而言，如果你還記得的話，在第一季度，我們回購了價值 1.3 億美元的普通股；在第二季度，回購了 8,000 萬美元。當然，這兩個季度也都是 12 週的季度，在 12 週的第三季度，我們購買了 1.36 億美元，因此今年到目前為止，我們已經花費了大約 3.46 億美元，平均每股價格為 148.64 美元。

If you annualized those quarters, and again, we will see what we do this quarter, but if you annualize it, we are right at $0.5 billion for the year. We'd be right at $0.5 billion for the year. We will see where we come out.

如果將這些季度按年計算，我們再看看本季的情況，但如果按年計算，我們全年的收入正好是 5 億美元。今年的收入應該剛好是 5 億美元。我們拭目以待。

In terms of dividends, as you know, last quarter, we raised our quarterly dividend rate year-over-year to a quarterly amount of $0.45. I believe that was up from $0.40 for the prior year each quarter. That $1.80 a share annualized dividend represents a total cost to the Company of around $790 million.

關於股息，如您所知，上個季度，我們將季度股息率年增至每季 0.45 美元。我相信這比上一年每季的 0.40 美元有所增長。每股 1.80 美元的年度股息對公司而言總成本約為 7.9 億美元。

Before I turn the call back to Karen for Q&A, I want to mention a slight timing change each quarter when we report our quarterly results. Many of you have asked about the fact that we report earnings the night before, usually around 6:00 Pacific time, then you've get to wait until the next morning to hear the call. Beginning with our fourth-quarter earnings release, we are going to change the timing of that release and the conference call such that, for the fourth quarter, we will issue results after the market closes on Thursday, September 29, followed up shortly thereafter with a live conference call that afternoon and a Q&A session at the end of that call. This new schedule will be our plan for earnings releases going forward and I think it'll be helpful and certainly in response to several of your comments out there.

在將電話轉回給凱倫進行問答環節之前，我想提一下我們每季公佈季度業績的時間略有變化。很多人都問過，為什麼我們會在前一天晚上（通常是太平洋時間 6 點左右）公佈收益，然後你們要等到第二天早上才能聽到電話會議。從第四季財報發布開始，我們將改變財報發布和電話會議的時間表。第四季財報將於9月29日星期四股市收盤後發布，隨後在當天下午舉行現場電話會議，並在會議結束時進行問答環節。我們將以這個新時間表作為未來發布財報的計劃，我認為這將有所幫助，當然也回應了大家的一些意見。

The last quick item, next week, we report the four weeks of calendar May sales. This is the four weeks ending this coming Sunday, May 29. I will mention to you that, based on how Memorial Day falls year-over-year, this year, Memorial falls on day one of the June retail calendar month, so this year, we have 28 days versus last year's 27 days. So that will be a little benefit. Again, we'll all point that out.

最後一則簡訊，下週我們將公佈五月前四周的銷售數據。這指的是截至下週日（5月29日）的四周。我要告訴大家的是，根據陣亡將士紀念日每年的日期，今年陣亡將士紀念日恰逢六月零售日曆月的第一天，因此今年我們有 28 天，而去年是 27 天。所以這會有點好處。我們都會再次指出這一點。

June, there's really a wash. You've got a detriment related to Memorial Day. You've got a date pick up on the other end of June with how July 4 falls, and then finally we will get through that silliness in July where we report July sales. With that, I will open up to Q&A, and I will turn it back to you, Karen.

六月份，情況基本持平。你遇到了與陣亡將士紀念日相關的不利影響。六月底因為七月四日是假日，所以你得抓緊時間收尾，然後我們終於可以熬過七月份那段混亂的時期，公佈七月份的銷售數據了。接下來，我將進入問答環節，現在把問題交還給你，凱倫。

(Operator Instructions). Oliver Chen, Cowen and Company.

（操作說明）Oliver Chen，Cowen and Company。

Good morning. This is Steven Zaccone on for Oliver Chen. Thanks for taking our questions. Just two questions from us. Firstly, we wanted to get your take on the health of the customer base for you. There's been some different trends among retailers reported thus far in earnings. Wanted to just get your sense have you seen any changes in trends or spending habits?

早安.這裡是史蒂文‧札科內，替奧利佛‧陳報道。謝謝您回答我們的問題。我們只有兩個問題。首先，我們想了解您對客戶群健康狀況的看法。從目前公佈的零售商獲利情況來看，各家零售商的趨勢略有不同。想了解您的感受，您是否注意到消費趨勢或消費習慣方面有任何變化？

Second question, just wanted to get your thoughts on progress with some of the third-party partnerships in grocery delivery. How has growth in those channels performed relative to expectations and then just thoughts about expanding into new markets? Thanks very much.

第二個問題，我想了解您對一些第三方生鮮配送合作進展的看法。這些管道的成長情況與預期相比如何？關於拓展新市場，您有什麼想法？非常感謝。

Okay. Well, in terms of the customer, so far so good. We don't see any dramatic change. Many of you have asked questions or have had some concern about traffic coming down from this 4% plus number over seven years. We feel pretty good about where our numbers are. We don't really see a lot of different changes.

好的。就客戶而言，目前為止一切順利。我們沒有看到任何顯著的變化。許多人都詢問過或擔心，過去七年來，交通流量為何會從 4% 以上的降幅下降。我們對目前的各項數據都比較滿意。我們並沒有看到太多不同的變化。

Interestingly, when you look at nondiscretionary items like food and sundries versus discretionary items across the nonfoods categories, including big-ticket items like furniture, electronics and the like, we've actually had, relatively speaking, a little more strength in some of those nonfood categories. So that I think allays some of any concerns that some people have had.

有趣的是，當你比較食品和日用品等非必需品與非食品類別中的必需品（包括家具、電子產品等大件商品）時，你會發現，相對而言，我們在某些​​非食品類別中實際上表現得更強勁一些。我認為這可以消除一些人的疑慮。

But generally speaking, I'd have to say our customers are still pretty healthy and we are still getting good renewal rates notwithstanding a very small impact from some of the credit card transitions and so we feel pretty good at this point about that. And certainly I feel good about some of the merchandising stuff that we've got going on.

但總的來說，我認為我們的客戶狀況仍然良好，儘管一些信用卡調整帶來了一些微小的影響，但我們的續約率仍然很高，因此我們目前對此感覺相當不錯。當然，我對我們正在進行的一些週邊產品推廣活動感到滿意。

By the way, one of the other data points I've been asked several times in the last few weeks each time we've reported sales in the last couple of months is is it deflation, is it weakness, is it dotcom, whatever. The fact of the matter is, if you like at during the 12-week quarter on a year-over-year basis, if we just take the average items per unit in the basket going through the front end, US only, so US only, it was up 1.4%. So we are getting people to buy more items, if you will.

順便說一下，在過去幾周里，每次我們公佈過去幾個月的銷售數據時，我都會被問到另一個數據點，那就是這是通貨緊縮、經濟疲軟、還是網路泡沫破裂等等。事實是，如果你喜歡按年計算，在 12 週的季度內，如果我們只計算通過前端收銀台的每單位購物籃中的平均商品數量（僅限美國），那麼僅美國就增長了 1.4%。所以，我們這樣做是為了讓人們購買更多商品。

The average basket value is up 0.4%. The simple implication there is you've got deflation presumably -- deflationary pressures of about 1%. Now that's a good educated guess. There could be other impacts of sizes, but typically we go into bigger sizes, not smaller sizes and bigger pack sizes. So I think overall there's probably still a little bit more deflation that we've seen over the last couple of quarters spread to other items in the nonfood category as well as we've seen.

平均購物籃價值上漲0.4%。這簡單來說就是，你可能面臨通貨緊縮——通貨緊縮壓力約 1%。這真是個不錯的推測。尺寸可能還有其他影響，但通常我們會選擇較大的尺寸，而不是較小的尺寸和較大的包裝尺寸。所以我認為總體而言，過去幾季我們看到的通貨緊縮可能仍然加劇，而且這種趨勢也蔓延到了非食品類別的其他商品上。

In terms of third-party partnerships, we are pretty agnostic. We have good relationships with Google in regard to Google Shopping Express. We have Instacart, of course, Google's, in six large communities in the country -- the Bay area, the LA area and a few others and Instacart I think is now in well over 15, maybe even 20 markets where we participate with them. And also a few of the others out there.

對於第三方合作，我們持相當中立的態度。我們在 Google Shopping Express 方面與 Google 保持著良好的合作關係。當然，我們在全國六個大城市——灣區、洛杉磯地區和其他一些地區——都有 Instacart（Google旗下的物流公司）的合作。我認為 Instacart 現在已經進入了超過 15 個，甚至可能 20 個我們與之合作的市場。還有其他一些也一樣。

In terms of expectations, we didn't know what to expect. I believe that we generally are the anchor tenant, if you will, in many of these opportunities where there is more than just Costco items being purchased and sold just to provide to the end consumer, and so we think it's been good. It's still small relative to -- we still want you to come into the warehouse and we are going to still figure out how to continue to do that, but it's growing nicely and it's certainly on a small scale a bit of a help.

至於預期方面，我們不知道會發生什麼事。我認為，在許多這樣的機會中，我們通常是主要租戶，而不僅僅是 Costco 的商品被買賣給最終消費者，所以我們認為這很好。雖然規模仍然很小——我們仍然希望您能來倉庫，我們也將繼續想辦法做到這一點，但它發展良好，而且從小規模上來說，它肯定能提供一些幫助。

In terms of expansion plans, I think you asked about openings. Looks like our goal is still similar next year, about 30. We will shoot for something a little over 30 and end up about 30 if history repeats itself. We probably had a few more relative to that 30 number, a few more in the US this year than we would have anticipated if you would have asked me a few years ago. I think some of that is timing.

關於擴張計劃，我想你問的是職缺方面。看來我們明年的目標還是和去年差不多，大概30個。我們的目標是略高於 30，如果歷史重演，最終結果可能在 30 左右。與 30 例相比，我們今年的病例數可能略多一些；如果幾年前你問我的話，今年美國的病例數可能會比我們預期的要多一些。我認為部分原因是時機問題。

We've had success in the US and probably the expectation of some of the markets we've gone into in the last couple of years, if you asked me five years ago, would we be going into some of these markets where we have never been in and our competitors have been in for up to 30 years. We've had success in those markets, whether it's Mobile or Tulsa or Toledo or Rochester and New Orleans, and so probably there's a few more in those markets on top of the few that we opened like whatever [teep] number we have in the Puget Sound or LA, where they are harder to find because we are very specific locations to fill in markets. So I think that's probably one thing.

我們在美國取得了成功，而且可能符合過去幾年我們進入的一些市場的預期。如果你五年前問我，我們會不會進入一些我們從未涉足過，而我們的競爭對手已經進入這些市場長達 30 年的市場。我們在這些市場都取得了成功，無論是莫比爾、塔爾薩、托萊多、羅徹斯特還是新奧爾良，所以除了我們在普吉特海灣或洛杉磯開設的幾家分店之外，這些市場可能還有更多分店，我們在這些地方開設的分店比較難找，因為我們選擇的特定地點是為了填補市場空白。所以我覺得這大概是其中一點。

Looking at the 30 next year, and this is a guess, it's probably not two-thirds, not 21 over 29. If I had to guess, it's probably a little less than half, 50%, 52%. And again, that's a guess at this point.

展望明年的30歲，這只是我的猜測，可能不會是三分之二，也不會是21比29。如果讓我猜的話，大概不到一半，50%，52%。再次強調，這只是我目前的猜測。

Thanks very much.

非常感謝。

Simeon Gutman, Morgan Stanley.

西蒙古特曼，摩根士丹利。

Good morning. Simeon Gutman. Richard, the Visa transition besides the timing that started a little later, anything else to think about? Interchange fees probably start to go down when it happens, but are there other costs that make your SG&A or any other line items elevated temporarily?

早安.西蒙古特曼。理查德，除了簽證過渡期開始時間稍晚之外，還有其他需要考慮的嗎？這種情況發生時，交換費可能會開始下降，但還有其他成本會導致您的銷售、一般及行政費用或其他項目暫時增加嗎？

No, same old stuff that we've talked about in terms of some of those things like having not signed up new co-branded cards since last October, November. There's part of any of these equations are different pockets of income, including generating new sign-ups, new credit card sign-ups and that's been about 4 million to 5 million a month, which is easy. It used to be something and now it's nothing until June.

不，還是老一套，就像我們之前討論過的一些事情一樣，例如自去年十月、十一月以來就沒有申請過新的聯名信用卡。這些等式中都包含不同的收入來源，包括新用戶註冊、新信用卡註冊，這每月大約能帶來 400 萬到 500 萬美元的收入，這很容易做到。以前還挺熱鬧的，現在卻什麼都沒有，要等到六月才有。

Other than that, no, we've just got a lot of people on our side and on the issuer side doing a lot of work to make sure it goes as smoothly as possible and we are excited about it. It's a great reward for our members improvement-wise and we will keep a little of it ourselves in terms of merchant fee reduction and really there's not a whole lot -- (multiple speakers) -- cards are hitting right now in fact. They will continue to hit (multiple speakers) -- when you've got literally over 10 million pieces of mail going out, it's spread over a few week period, and I think they just started hitting.

除此之外，沒有，我們這邊和發行方都有很多人在努力工作，以確保一切盡可能順利進行，我們對此感到很興奮。就提升會員體驗而言，這是一項巨大的獎勵，我們自己也會從中節省一部分，例如商家手續費的降低。實際上，目前信用卡並沒有帶來太多好處──（多位發言者）──事實上。他們會繼續打擊（多位發言人）——當超過 1000 萬封郵件被寄出時，這會持續幾週的時間，我認為他們才剛開始打擊。

So cards should be in everybody's hands a few days to a week -- at least a few days to a week before the June 20th D day here. And we will be able to tell you more in September on the -- late September when we do the fourth-quarter earnings call, but again we are ready to go and we are excited about it.

因此，每個人應該在 ​​6 月 20 日決戰日之前幾天到一周內收到卡片——至少在決戰日之前幾天到一周內。我們將在 9 月下旬舉行第四季度財報電話會議時告訴大家更多信息，但我們已經準備就緒，並且對此感到興奮。

And then the marketing dollars, the in-store kiosks, like you said the mailing, that's -- we are not going to see a blip good or bad in the SG&A dollar run rate? There's nothing unusual that should happen as we sequence there?

還有行銷費用、店內自助服務終端，就像你說的郵寄費用，這些——我們不會看到銷售、管理及行政費用的運行率出現任何波動，無論是好是壞？我們在進行定序時，應該不會發生什麼異常情況吧？

Absolutely.

絕對地。

Okay. And then my follow-up on gross margin, I think you mentioned that looking at I think it was the gasoline with the optical business, I think you said it was higher year-over-year and if that's the case, can you explain I guess how you are doing -- I thought we were cycling the hump of some of the best performing gasoline gross margin quarters a year ago. Maybe it was the mix of optical, but figure that gas is a bigger input.

好的。然後，關於毛利率，我想您提到過，就汽油和光學業務而言，您說毛利率同比增長了。如果是這樣的話，您能解釋一下你們的業績表現嗎？我以為我們已經度過了去年汽油毛利率表現最好的幾季的高峰期。或許是光學因素的混合作用，但氣體因素的影響應該會更大。

Yes, it will come in Q4. This quarter was an odd quarter. It ended up being -- in the first part of the quarter, it was better than we expected and with gas prices going up and down -- going up right now, it's been a little weaker the last couple weeks, but it was probably a little stronger near the beginning and into the middle of the quarter than we had anticipated, and it's generally two things.

是的，將在第四季推出。本季是個不尋常的季度。最終結果是——在本季度的前半段，情況比我們預期的要好，而且汽油價格一直在上漲，最近幾周有所下滑，但在本季度初和中期可能比我們預期的要強一些，這通常是兩方面因素造成的。

I think the bigger factor is is when there's daily price changes up and down in the cost of -- procurement cost of both us and other gas station operators and then when it goes down, we seem to feel that we get a little extra margin in part because our competitors don't give as much back as fast as we do. So we still give way more back and it helps us a little bit. And so I think part of that new normal, if you will, over the last couple of years in that regard, it's probably on average a little better.

我認為更重要的因素是，我們和其他加油站業者的採購成本每天都在波動，當成本下降時，我們似乎感覺能獲得一些額外的利潤，部分原因是我們的競爭對手沒有像我們一樣迅速地讓步。所以我們仍然投入更多資源回饋社會，對我們也略有幫助。所以我覺得，從某種意義上來說，近幾年來，這方面已經逐漸形成了某種新常態，而且平均而言可能略有改善。

Okay, thank you.

好的，謝謝。

You will see it in Q4 though. I say that today. Day-to-day sometimes it changes relative to what -- just when we think we are smart and it's safe to go out, it goes the other way. But so far I guess it'll impact us in Q4.

不過你會在第四季看到它。我今天就是這麼說的。有時，情況每天都在改變──就在我們認為自己很聰明，覺得出門很安全的時候，情況卻恰恰相反。但就目前來看，我估計它會在第四季對我們產生影響。

But in Q4 being the hump and then it gets easier after that?

但第四季是難關，之後就會好轉嗎？

Yes.

是的。

Okay, great.

好的，太好了。

Matthew Fassler, Goldman Sachs.

馬修法斯勒，高盛。

Good morning, Richard. My first question relates to margin. Can you just talk about the degree to which moving food prices, I guess a deflation issue, and/or FX would've contributed to margin rate in any way?

早上好，理查德。我的第一個問題與利潤率有關。您能否談談食品價格波動、通貨緊縮問題和/或匯率波動在多大程度上對利潤率產生了影響？

Well, the only thing that FX does is -- needless to say, in most other countries, some of their goods are US-sourced or US-dollar payable. In Canada, it is substantial, frankly. And we manage that and we lock in in a way natural hedges during the quarter once the buyers are comfortable with that exchange rate and what they're going to be able to price it at.

嗯，FX 唯一做的就是——不言而喻，在大多數其他國家，他們的一些商品是美國製造的，或者可以用美元支付。坦白說，在加拿大，這相當可觀。我們對此進行管理，並在買家對該匯率以及他們能夠定價的價格感到滿意後，在該季度內以某種方式鎖定自然對沖。

But my guess is they are still -- when you've got (multiple speakers) -- when you look at -- let's say in Canada year-over-year the Canadian dollar is 17% weaker, incrementally just in the quarter 5% weaker from the previous month. So you've got that kind of stuff going on from the previous quarter. You are going to have probably a little margin pressure there. Notwithstanding the margins are up a little. I think generally we try to bring down prices when there's deflation and probably doesn't impact us as much because -- it impacts us a little sooner than others and that's pretty much it.

但我猜想，當有（多位發言者）時，情況仍然如此——比如說，在加拿大，加元同比貶值 17%，光是本季就比上個月貶值了 5%。所以，上個季度就出現了這類問題。你可能會面臨一些利潤率壓力。儘管利潤率略有上升。我認為，通貨緊縮時期我們通常會努力降低物價，但這可能不會對我們造成太大影響，因為——它對我們的影響比其他人來得早一些，大概就是這樣。

Got it. And then LIFO, I guess, it's I think the seventh consecutive quarter where this has gone your way and I know you market to the best of your expectations at the end of every quarter. How much of this is food, and if we think about commodity prices, I know once again this should be zero in a normative environment. Any sense of whether there's more momentum that could prove helpful to you here?

知道了。然後，我想，LIFO（後進先出）策略，這應該是連續第七個季度對你有利了，我知道你在每個季度末都盡力做到最好。其中有多少是食物？如果我們考慮商品價格，我知道在正常情況下，這個數字應該是零。您覺得目前是否還有其他有利因素在起作用？

I don't think -- again, deflation from the end of the year is down about 0.8 of a percent in terms of a LIFO index. And the other comment I made, it was about 1%. Ask the question again. I was looking at one thing. Go ahead.

我不認為——再說一遍，以後進先出法（LIFO）計算，年底的通貨緊縮率下降了約 0.8%。我發表的另一則評論，大概佔1%。再問一遍。我當時在看一樣東西。前進。

I guess the question is how much of the movement in LIFO, the ongoing credits, relate to food and based on commodity prices that you see, any desire to venture a guess as to where LIFO goes next?

我想問的是，LIFO（後進先出）政策的變動，以及持續的信貸，有多少與食品相關？根據你看到的商品價格，你是否願意猜測一下 LIFO 政策的下一步？

We don't know. If you talk to our fresh foods buyers, they are continuing to expect some deflation. I get different answers from some of the non-foods buyers. Mind you, when we look at fresh foods year-over-year, those margins were down slightly in the low double-digit basis points year-over-year. So again not a big impact there. It's the other categories where it was up a little bit. And so the net of all those four main categories, it was up 16 basis points. I don't think (inaudible).

我們不知道。如果你和我們的生鮮食品採購員談談，他們仍然預計會出現通貨緊縮。我從一些非食品採購商那裡得到了不同的答案。請注意，如果我們從同比角度來看新鮮食品，這些利潤率同比略有下降，降幅在兩位數的低點。所以，這方面影響不大。其他類別略有上升。因此，綜合這四個主要類別，淨增加 16 個基點。我不認為（聽不清楚）。

And then, finally, any sense thinking about the very long run about whether your food -- how your food marketshare moves if at all when prices are deflationary and perhaps consumers see some of the prices that they had only seen at Costco for a long time at other retailers?

最後，從長遠角度考慮一下，當價格通貨緊縮，消費者可能在其他零售商那裡看到一些他們長期以來只在 Costco 才能看到的價格時，你的食品市場份額會如何變化（如果有的話）？

Well, first and foremost, I think we continue to believe that we will continue to see increasing penetration of the stuff we sell in fresh foods. Nobody doesn't like us. The quality levels and the values are awesome and some of the things we are doing with global sourcing initiatives and poultry plants and organic -- our pounds in beef are way up, but you've got deflation in beef more than some of the other protein categories. We are the first to go down in some of those items when there is deflation.

首先，我認為我們仍然相信，我們銷售的產品在新鮮食品領域的滲透率會持續提高。沒有人不喜歡我們。品質水平和價值觀都很棒，我們在全球採購計劃、家禽加工廠和有機食品方面所做的一些事情——我們的牛肉銷量大幅增長，但牛肉價格的通貨緊縮程度比其他一些蛋白質類別要嚴重。當通貨緊縮出現時，我們往往會率先在某些商品和服務上降價。

So I think our numbers have actually -- the deflation in some of the fresh food categories I think mask some of the pound strength, if you will or the unit strength that we have whether it's protein or produce. And I would never be so arrogant to say that nobody can catch us, but we've got some great things going on in terms of again global sourcing, working with vendor partners.

所以我認為，我們的一些數據實際上——某些新鮮食品類別的通貨緊縮掩蓋了我們擁有的磅數強度，或者說單位強度，無論是蛋白質還是農產品。我絕對不會狂妄到說沒有人能趕上我們，但我們在再次進行全球採購、與供應商合作夥伴合作方面確實取得了一些不錯的成績。

And we looked at our produce today, which is I think a $6 billion business now, approaching a $6 billion business, which is as big as protein. I don't think many retail food places do those kind of numbers, and so I think it has more to do with that than, yes, there's probably going to be a little bit of a macro shift, whatever. I think what we do and how we do it dwarfs those other impacts.

今天我們檢視了農產品業務，我認為它現在已經是一個價值 60 億美元的產業，即將達到 60 億美元的規模，這與蛋白質業務的規模相當。我認為很少有零售食品店能達到這樣的銷售額，所以我認為這更多地與此有關，而不是，是的，可能會有一些宏觀層面的變化之類的。我認為我們所做的事情以及我們做事的方式，其影響遠遠超過了其他那些影響。

Now there's other players coming into the market. I think just this week you've got a 365 opening and you've got other people coming to town with different health-related organic-related types of retail formats. We are pretty good at that stuff too and again, you've got to like bigger sizes, but we are pretty awesome in the fresh area and I think that will continue to -- should be for us an increased sales penetration area and something that'll keep driving our members (multiple speakers).

現在又有其他玩家進入市場了。我認為就在本週，365 即將開業，而且還有其他人帶著各種與健康相關的有機零售業態來到這座城市。我們在這方面也很擅長，而且，你必須喜歡大尺寸，但我們在新鮮領域非常出色，我認為這將繼續——應該會成為我們銷售滲透率不斷提高的領域，並且會繼續推動我們的會員（多位演講者）的發展。

Thank you so much. Appreciate it. Thanks, Richard.

太感謝了。謝謝。謝謝你，理查。

Matt Lasser, UBS.

瑞銀集團的馬特·拉塞爾。

Richard, you sized the P&L impact of the credit card transition at $11 million. Presumably, that's just from lost sign-up -- credit card sign-ups. Are you able to tease out any impact from spending as a result of this transition? So for example, maybe some of the holders don't know that they can still use their card and so they put it away and that changes their behavior (inaudible).

理查德，你估計信用卡轉型對損益表的影響為 1100 萬美元。據推測，這僅僅是由於註冊遺失造成的——信用卡註冊遺失。您能否分析出此次轉型對支出造成的任何影響？例如，有些持卡人可能不知道他們仍然可以使用自己的卡，所以他們就把卡片收起來，這改變了他們的行為（聽不清楚）。

There's always going to be a little confusion. To the extent that we haven't signed up new co-brand credit card members, I don't think many members -- many people coming into sign up for a Costco membership have walked away because we don't -- they can't sign up for the new AMEX card. If they have an AMEX card in their wallet, they can use that one. Now, to the extent that they don't have an AMEX card in their wallet, or to the extent that they -- keep in mind, not everybody that signed up for one over the last 16 years got it. It was still a credit eligibility decision that the issuer made and it'll be that way in the future.

總會有些小誤會。就我們尚未發展出新的聯名信用卡會員而言，我認為很多會員——很多來註冊 Costco 會員的人——因為我們沒有——他們無法註冊新的美國運通卡而放棄了。如果他們的錢包裡有美國運通卡，就可以用那張卡。現在，如果他們的錢包裡沒有美國運通卡，或者——請記住，過去 16 年裡申請美國運通卡的人並非都拿到了卡。這仍然是發卡機構做出的信用資格決定，將來也會如此。

The fact of the matter though is is that, to the extent that they signed up as a member, and again I don't think it was that impactful, somebody walking away because they can't get an AMEX card, they have to use a debit card in their wallet or cash or check. Now, on a macro basis, does that impact some of the big-ticket items? Yes, it probably does. Although our TV sales have been pretty darn strong. So I can talk out of both sides of my mouth on this one.

但事實是，即便他們註冊成為會員，而且我認為這並沒有造成多大的影響，有人因為無法獲得美國運通卡而放棄，他們就只能使用錢包裡的借記卡、現金或支票。那麼，從宏觀角度來看，這是否會對一些大宗商品產生影響？是的，很可能是如此。雖然我們的電視銷售一直非常強勁。所以在這個問題上，我可以自相矛盾。

So does that mean that some of the comp slowdown just may be a function of the law of diminishing returns mass taking over?

那麼，這是否意味著部分競爭放緩可能只是邊際效益遞減法則導致大規模競爭的結果？

It could be. Again, the ones we can quantify easily we look at. We can drive ourselves crazy. We know that -- let's face it, in April sales when we tried to -- when we shared with many of you on our audio, it's everything. It's deflation, it's a little of the AMEX. Maybe it's getting closer to the line of maximizing marginal whatever. At the end of the day, we are still rolling out gas stations. We are still rolling out some of the ancillary businesses. We are still opening up new warehouses. We are expanding fresh foods as we have over the last several years.

有可能。同樣，我們只關注那些容易量化的因素。我們可能會把自己逼瘋。我們知道——說實話，在四月份的銷售中，當我們嘗試——當我們透過音訊與你們中的許多人分享時，它就是一切。這是通貨緊縮，有點像美國運通卡。或許它正越來越接近最大化邊際效益的界限。歸根結底，我們仍在建造加油站。我們仍在逐步推出一些輔助業務。我們仍在開設新的倉庫。和過去幾年一樣，我們正在擴大新鮮食品的供應。

People ask us about what are some of our new areas and certainly what we do with ticketing and executive member services, all those things -- wine and spirits I think we've been surprised by that -- these are all small things, they are all needle movers, but small movements. But I've always said there's lots of little things that help us here.

人們會問我們有哪些新領域，當然還有我們在票務和高級會員服務方面所做的一切——葡萄酒和烈酒，我認為我們對此感到驚訝——這些都是小事，它們都能帶來改變，但只是小的改變。但我一直都說，有很多小事對我們很有幫助。

My last question is, to the extent that you've already seen some of your existing AMEX cardholders clip up their card and switch to Visa, and it's having an impact on your sales, do you think that's going to only intensify as you get closer to the June 20 transition date? So for example, are you seeing even slower trends in base so far?

我的最後一個問題是，鑑於您已經看到一些現有的美國運通卡持卡人剪掉他們的卡並轉而使用 Visa 卡，並且這對您的銷售產生了影響，您認為隨著 6 月 20 日過渡日期的臨近，這種情況只會加劇嗎？例如，您是否觀察到目前為止基數成長趨勢甚至更加緩慢？

Well, first of all, I don't think anybody's clipped up anything. They still have to use that co-brand AMEX card through June 19, and nobody can actually use the new card even if you got it in the mail until June 20. That's part of our original agreement with our previous service provider. And that's fine.

首先，我認為沒有人剪輯過任何東西。他們仍然需要使用該聯名美國運通卡至 6 月 19 日，即使你已收到郵寄的新卡，也必須等到 6 月 20 日才能使用。這是我們與先前服務提供者簽訂的原始協議的一部分。這樣也很好。

So all stuff will happen June 20 and beyond. And rest assured there's going to be a lot of stuff happening in terms of our continued communication, of course, to our members, but there's a lot of members out there that don't have (inaudible). About a little over 40% of our US sales were done on AMEX with I think over two-thirds of that, a little over two-thirds to half of that being on the co-branded card. Some people tend to want Delta points or Starwood points, so they are using a different one.

所以所有事情都將在6月20日及之後發生。請放心，我們將繼續與會員保持溝通，但有許多會員沒有（聽不清楚）。我們在美國銷售額的 40% 以上是透過美國運通卡完成的，其中超過三分之二到一半是透過聯名卡完成的。有些人想要獲得達美航空積分或喜達屋積分，所以他們使用不同的平台。

The same thing will happen with Visa. Our goal is to get that co-branded card, as we did successfully with the AMEX co-branded card, that to be your top-of-wallet card. We think that there's going to be a lot of things that drive that, including the people out there on blogs independently and others that look at what is currently a 3, 2, 1 is going to be a 4, 3, 2, 1. That's huge. So my personal view is it'll be something that's not going to all hit on day one. Let's get through day one and the transition first, but it'll be something that will continue for a couple to several years.

Visa也會面臨同樣的問題。我們的目標是讓這張聯名卡（就像我們成功推出的 AMEX 聯名卡一樣）成為您錢包裡的首選卡。我們認為有很多因素會推動這一趨勢，包括獨立部落客和其他一些人認為目前的 3、2、1 將會變成 4、3、2、1。這意義重大。所以我個人認為，這件事不會在第一天就全部發生。我們先度過第一天和過渡期，但這將會是一個持續兩到幾年的過程。

Okay. Good luck. Thank you.

好的。祝你好運。謝謝。

(Operator Instructions). John Heinbockel, Guggenheim Securities.

（操作說明）John Heinbockel，古根漢證券。

So Rich, do you think this 30 annual openings, is that -- certainly you have the people and the capital to do more. Is it a real estate bottleneck, or you are comfortable at that level? Can you go solidly beyond that? And I think internationally outside of North America as you go into more countries, you would think that there is an opportunity to do 15, 20 a year comfortably. Can you ever get to that level?

所以 Rich，你認為每年 30 家新店開幕就是這麼多嗎？當然，你們有足夠的人力和資金來做更多的事情。這是房地產瓶頸問題，還是您對目前的房價水準感到滿意？你能在此基礎上更進一步嗎？我認為，在北美以外的國際市場上，隨著你進入更多國家，你會覺得每年輕鬆完成 15 到 20 項任務是有可能的。你能達到那個水平嗎？

Well, first of all, it clearly is not capital; we have plenty of capital. I would argue we have too much capital out there. We like it that way. It's people. It is people. Years ago, I didn't depreciate it as much as I do now, particularly in these countries. If you think about in Japan, I think there was an 18-month period a few years ago where we went from 9 to 20 units in about a year and a half, two years.

首先，這顯然不是資金問題；我們資金充足。我認為我們目前市場上的資本過剩了。我們喜歡這樣。是人。是人。幾年前，我並沒有像現在這樣貶低它，尤其是在這些國家。如果你想想日本，我想幾年前曾經有18個月的時間，我們在大約一年半到兩年內從9個單位增加到20個單位。

It's not like we are sending a bunch of experienced warehouse managers to go open and operate and be warehouse managers in Japan from different countries. So you do that a few at the beginning and you may do it occasionally on a onesie basis, but at the end of the day, you are growing from within and developing those local country people.

我們並不是從不同國家派出一大批經驗豐富的倉庫經理去日本開設、營運和管理倉庫。所以，一開始你會做幾次，偶爾也會做一些連身衣之類的，但最終，你是在內部成長，並培養當地的鄉村人民。

And first and foremost from an international standpoint, you've got that. That can be a little bit of a challenge, and then you've got things take longer there. There are some countries that I understand are very difficult just because of zoning and restrictions that are in place, not just on us, but any big-box, even local company big boxes in the hypermarket area and the like. So it's going to take a little longer there.

首先，從國際角度來看，你已經具備了這一點。這可能會有點挑戰性，而且事情也會花費更長時間。我知道有些國家的情況非常複雜，因為那裡有區域劃分和限制，不僅針對我們，也針對任何大型超市，甚至是大型超市區域內的本地公司大型超市等等。所以那邊還需要更長。

The other thing -- do I think we can go above 30? Look, we shoot for low 30s and then next year we will shoot for mid-30s and you've certainly heard me say that we want to be around 30 and five years from now we should be doing 35. Maybe we will fall a little short of that, maybe we won't. But we've got more feet on the ground real estate-wise in other countries, as well as the US, than we've ever had. It does take a little longer, but we also -- could we physically open more? Sure. But we like what we do and the way we do it. And probably we also have a comfort level that it's not like we are going to miss out. We are, in our view, the preferred [flood] out there, and so when we go into a market, if we take a little longer to get there, people are waiting for us. It might be a little harder, but the fact of the matter is is we feel comfortable how we are doing it.

還有一件事——你覺得我們可以超過 30 嗎？你看，我們今年的目標是30歲出頭，明年目標是30歲中段，你們一定也聽我說過，我們希望達到30歲左右，五年後我們應該能達到35歲。或許我們會略有不足，或許不會。但是，我們在其他國家以及美國，在房地產方面的人員配備比以往任何時候都多。確實需要更長時間，但是——我們能否在物理上開放更多空間？當然。但我們喜歡我們所做的事以及我們做事的方式。而我們可能也有一種安心感，覺得我們不會因此錯過什麼。在我們看來，我們是市場上最受歡迎的[洪水]，所以當我們進入一個市場時，即使我們到達的時間稍長一些，人們也會等待我們。或許會稍微困難一些，但事實是我們覺得目前的做法很舒服。

And then, as the traffic in the US has moderated, back to what -- maybe you said you were at a level that couldn't be sustained, back at a level that can be, are there discussions internally that it is just a natural moderation, or because you talked about within the categories the 16 basis point improvement in margin that there are things you can do proactively to give more back to the member, and would that do anything to traffic? So that discussion internally about the balance of earning versus trying to maybe drive traffic a little more, can that be done?

然後，隨著美國流量的緩和，回落到什麼程度——也許您說過流量已經達到無法持續的水平，又回落到可以持續的水平，內部是否有討論認為這只是自然的緩和，或者因為您談到了各類別利潤率提高了 16 個基點，所以您可以主動採取一些措施來回饋會員，而這樣做會對流量產生任何影響？所以，公司內部可以討論一下，在獲利和努力提升流量之間取得平衡，這樣做可行嗎？

First quarter was -- and if you haven't seen this slide before, it's reiterated and put out here internally every day of the year and at our managers meeting, Jim used to and Craig does now, we are a top-line company. We want to drive sales. The fact that margins year-over-year are up on those categories up 16 basis points, we are not smart enough to figure out how to get there all the time. We are always going to drive margin a little bit where we can, but we do it the right way by giving most of any savings back to the customer.

第一季是——如果你以前沒看過這張幻燈片，它每天都會在公司內部以及我們的經理會議上重申和發布，吉姆以前會這樣做，現在克雷格也會這樣做，我們是一家營收領先的公司。我們希望促進銷售。儘管這些類別的利潤率比去年同期上升了 16 個基點，但我們還不夠聰明，無法一直做到這一點。我們總是會在力所能及的範圍內提高利潤率，但我們會以正確的方式進行，將大部分節​​省下來的成本回饋給客戶。

If I look at our competitive stance, our pricing competitive stance, versus our direct competitors, the gap has never been wider. We could make a little more of this, but we don't. At the end of the day, we are always looking for ways to do that. When we do membership fee changes, historically, we are always looking to give some of that back. So all of those things go into it. But at the end of the day, what helps margins? Private label, fresh food strength, some of the ancillary businesses.

如果我看一下我們的競爭地位，我們的定價競爭地位，與我們的直接競爭對手相比，差距從未如此之大。我們本可以在這方面做得更多，但我們沒有。歸根結底，我們一直在尋找實現這一目標的方法。從歷史上看，當我們調整會員費時，我們總是希望將部分收益回饋給會員。所以所有這些因素都考慮進去了。但歸根究底，什麼才能提高利潤率？自有品牌、生鮮食品實力、一些輔助業務。

All of those things are helping as well, and again, we feel -- we don't necessarily -- I got to tell you, we don't look at it and say, hey, frequency came down a little bit, or the comp is a new normal or a little bit lower. We want to do more. Even when we were doing a 4% shopping [fee], how do we get it higher even though that was kind of tough. So we are going to continue to do things in that direction and we don't necessarily worry about, well, that came down a little bit so we need an extra few basis points of margin. That's never the case around here.

所有這些因素也都有幫助，而且，我們感覺——我們不一定——我必須告訴你，我們不會去看它，然後說，嘿，頻率下降了一點，或者比較是一個新的常態或略低一點。我們還想做得更多。即使我們當時收取 4% 的購物費，我們該如何提高它？雖然這有點困難。所以我們會繼續朝著這個方向努力，我們不一定擔心，嗯，利潤率下降了一點，所以我們需要額外的幾個基點利潤率。我們這裡從來不會發生這種情況。

All right. And then, lastly, is KS having any kind of real impact that you can see on basket size or not really?

好的。最後，KS 對購物車大小是否有任何實際影響，或者根本沒有影響？

I don't know. We keep adding -- well, we subtract and add KS items, so they live and die by the same metrics. If it's not a great item, we stop it. But there aren't any giant items like toilet paper and water, those types of things or disposable diapers, several years ago, but there are lots of little ones. I think, again, we would see that continue, the increased penetration, but at a slower rate of growth in the future as well for the same reasons.

我不知道。我們不斷地添加——或者說，我們不斷地增減 KS 項目，所以它們的興衰都取決於相同的指標。如果商品不好，我們就停售。但是，幾年前還沒有像衛生紙、水之類的大件物品，也沒有一次性尿布，但現在有很多小件物品。我認為，未來滲透率還會繼續提高，但出於同樣的原因，成長速度會放緩。

Okay, thanks.

好的，謝謝。

I don't think, getting back to your question, I don't think that's a big reason of why the basket size has changed. If anything, many of those items, it's a lower price point. If we are doing brand only and we brought in the (inaudible) next to it, in many instances, it may be the same because we go to a bigger pack size. In many instances, you've got a lower price point on the same number of units.

回到你的問題，我不認為這是籃子尺寸改變的主要原因。如果說有什麼差別的話，那就是很多商品的價格都更低了。如果我們只做品牌產品，並且我們引入了旁邊的（聽不清楚）產品，在許多情況下，結果可能是一樣的，因為我們採用了更大的包裝規格。很多情況下，相同數量的產品價格較低。

Greg Melich, Evercore ISI.

Greg Melich，Evercore ISI。

This is Mike Montani on for Greg. Thanks for taking the question. Wanted to ask, first of all, Richard, you mentioned that there was obviously a little bit of extra strength maybe in some of the discretionary versus nondiscretionary categories and that was something that gave you comfort that the consumer hadn't changed that much. Can you provide any updates -- obviously, early on here, but like from May results so far, have you seen sequential improvement in traffic versus even April trend?

這裡是麥克‧蒙塔尼，替格雷格報道。感謝您回答這個問題。首先我想問一下，理查德，你提到在某些非必需品類別中，需求似乎比非必需品類別略微強勁一些，這讓你感到欣慰，因為消費者並沒有發生太大變化。您能否提供一些最新進展——當然，現在談論這些還為時過早，但就目前五月份的業績來看，您是否看到流量比四月份的趨勢有所改善？

Well, we really can't talk to anything about May yet. There's no giant surprises in either direction. But, at the end of the day -- and again, the comfort level -- I think I was -- earlier in the call, I was responding to many calls that I received from both institutional investors and analysts out there about the concern. And again, when we look back at it, and we reported April sales and we said, okay, what are the reasons why it came down a bit, was a little weaker. What again gave us comfort, one little data point of comfort, was the fact that some of those discretionary categories are actually doing a little better than one would have thought given the total number. And so that's about as much as I would read into that.

目前我們還真的無法談論五月的事情。雙方都不會有太大的意外。但歸根結底——而且再次強調，我的舒適度——我認為——在電話會議的早些時候，我正在回應許多來自機構投資者和分析師的電話，他們都表達了對此事的擔憂。再一次，當我們回顧過去，公佈了四月份的銷售數據後，我們說，好吧，是什麼原因導致銷售額略有下降，略顯疲軟。再次讓我們感到欣慰的是，雖然數據上略有波動，但其中一些可自由支配的類別實際上比人們根據總數預想的要好一些。這就是我對這件事的全部解讀。

Okay, thank you.

好的，謝謝。

We will tell you next Wednesday for May.

我們將在下週三公佈五月的安排。

And if I could, just to follow up on gas a little bit, could you provide the price per gallon for the quarter and also the comp gallon trends and if there was any material impact to EPS that I may have missed?

如果可以的話，我想再補充一下汽油方面的情況，您能否提供一下本季度的每加侖汽油價格，以及同店汽油價格的走勢，並說明是否存在我可能遺漏的對每股收益的重大影響？

The price per gallon was down for the quarter 19.7%, basically $2.59 a year ago and $2.08 this year. And what was the last part?

本季每加侖汽油價格下降了 19.7%，基本上是去年同期的 2.59 美元和今年同期的 2.08 美元。最後一部分是什麼？

Just asking about what was the comp gallon percentage change and then also was there any material EPS impact on this quarter and if you could help us size up exactly what we are up against in next quarter?

請問一下同店銷售額的百分比變化是多少？另外，本季每股盈餘是否受到了實質影響？能否幫我們評估下個季度我們將面臨的具體挑戰？

I think year-to-date we are up in the low single digits in terms of comp gallons. Again, the big comparison was it was a year ago when it was really outsized comp gallons up 7%, 8%. I know in April I think a year ago it was 8% in the US, and so that was part of that impact of why sales, in our view, sales were a little weaker particularly in California in April.

我認為今年迄今為止，我們在汽油銷量方面只成長了個位數。再次強調，最大的對比是一年前，當時的競爭非常激烈，加侖數增加了 7%、8%。我知道去年四月美國的成長率是 8%，所以我們認為，這就是導致四月加州銷售額略顯疲軟的部分原因。

And just the EPS impact, Richard, I'm sorry, on (inaudible) per gallon.

還有 EPS 對每加侖的影響，理查德，抱歉，（聽不清楚）

It was within a penny or two, really no change year-over-year. I think it might have been a penny (inaudible).

實際變化只差一兩便士，與去年同期相比並無太大變化。我想那可能是一便士（聽不清楚）。

Thank you.

謝謝。

Peter Benedict, Robert Baird.

彼得·本尼迪克特，羅伯特·貝爾德。

Thanks for taking the question. One on gas and another on a different subject. You've been adding 20 to 30 gas stations a year the last several years. I think your penetration is like 70% across the clubs. How do we see that going forward? Is that pace of growth going to continue? Where do you think you can get the penetration of gas stations call it a few years out?

感謝您回答這個問題。一篇是關於天然氣的，另一篇是關於其他主題的。過去幾年，你們每年都在新增 20 到 30 個加油站。我認為你們在各個俱樂部的滲透率大約是 70%。我們如何看待未來的發展？這種成長速度會持續下去嗎？你認為幾年後加油站的滲透率能達到多少？

Well, in the US -- first of all, every new unit we do where it's possible, we put in a gas station and we are even doing a few in countries like Japan and Australia, which we hadn't done historically. We relocated a few units in the US. We just moved Hackensack to Teterboro. The Hackensack became I think our 11th, 10th or 12th business center and the new Teterboro one is a big new Costco with a gas station, with better parking and great.

嗯，在美國——首先，我們每新建一個單元，只要條件允許，我們都會安裝一個加油站，我們甚至在日本和澳大利亞等國家也建了一些，這是我們以前從未做過的。我們搬遷了美國境內的一些單元。我們剛把哈肯薩克搬到了泰特伯勒。哈肯薩克商業中心應該是我們的第 11、10 或 12 個商業中心了，而新的泰特伯勒商業中心則是一家大型的 Costco，配有加油站，停車更方便，非常棒。

So if we did three or four -- I don't have it in front of me -- but if we did 4 relos this year, my guess at least 3 of them have gas stations and those three [don't]. But we are starting to max that out. In the US, we have -- at the end of the quarter, we had 420 gas stations out of 481 warehouses. In Canada, 55 out of 90. I'm guessing in Canada we still have a little bit more room to grow because we started there later.

所以如果我們今年進行了三四次搬遷——我手頭上沒有具體數據——但如果我們今年進行了 4 次搬遷，我猜其中至少有 3 次有加油站，而另外 3 次沒有。但我們已經開始達到極限了。在美國，截至本季末，我們在 481 個倉庫中擁有 420 個加油站。在加拿大，90人中有55人。我猜想，在加拿大我們還有一定的成長空間，因為我們起步較晚。

Again, in the UK, we had none a couple years ago, now we have 4. Japan we have 5. Spain, 50% of them, 1 out of 2, and Australia, 5 out of 8 I believe. And so again it's not like five years ago in terms of just adding a bunch of gas stations, but it still, I think, moves the needle a little bit.

同樣，英國幾年前一個也沒有，現在有 4 個。日本有 5 個。西班牙有 50% 的國家，也就是二分之一的國家，澳洲我記得是八分之五。所以，雖然它不像五年前那樣只是簡單地增加一堆加油站，但我認為它仍然起到了一定的作用。

Okay. That's helpful. And then can you take a minute and discuss the senior management ranks at Costco? There's been some turnover lately. Doug, I think his last day may be tomorrow I guess; but just talk about what's going on in terms of transition, future transitions and maybe what changes, if any, these new leaders have implemented. I understand it would be only marginal, but just curious your thoughts on all that.

好的。那很有幫助。那麼，您能否花一分鐘時間談談 Costco 的高階主管組成？最近人員變動比較大。道格，我想他最後一天可能就是明天了；但請談談過渡時期的情況、未來的過渡計劃，以及這些新領導人是否實施了任何變革。我知道這可能只是微乎其微的影響，但我只是好奇你對此有何看法。

Well, look, you talked about shopping frequency staying at 4% for 7 years. People have stayed for 30, including me. So you are having some turnover, of course. Over the last few years, you've had people that are retiring in their early 70s that have worked together starting 55 years ago at FedMart in San Diego.

你看，你之前說過購物頻率連續7年維持在4%。有人住了30天，包括我。所以你們當然會有一些人員流動。過去幾年裡，我們看到一些七十出頭的老人在聖地牙哥的 FedMart 工作了 55 年，現在都退休了。

But I think from a merchandising and operations standpoint, that's been well thought out. Let's face it, the first big concern was what's going to happen when Jim leaves. I think while we were comfortable here internally, I think we've shown and certainly Craig has shown that the transition and the maintaining of the culture has continued without missing a beat.

但我認為從商品銷售和營運的角度來看，這是經過深思熟慮的。說實話，我們首先擔心的是吉姆離開後會發生什麼事。我認為，雖然我們內部一直很適應這種環境，但我們已經證明，克雷格也肯定證明了，過渡和文化的維護一直在順利進行。

In merchandising over the last few years, we've took certain [carriers] like we used to be with non-foods, which is a combination of hardlines and softlines and Dennis Knapp, who was a senior executive over that and has since retired, we promoted two people and have broken out hardlines and softlines.

在過去幾年的商品銷售中，我們採取了一些措施，就像我們以前在非食品領域一樣，包括硬線和軟線商品。丹尼斯·克納普（Dennis Knapp）曾是這方面的高級主管，後來退休了。我們提拔了兩個人，並將硬線和軟線商品分開了。

In operations, we've made several promotions and changes of people again, typically low-tenured people like they've only been here 20 to 25 years that are going from VP to Senior VP levels on -- I think we've got about 16 Senior VPs of Operations in the US geographically.

在營運方面，我們又進行了幾次人事晉升和變動，通常是一些資歷較淺的人，例如在這裡工作了 20 到 25 年的人，他們從副總裁晉升到高級副總裁——我認為我們在美國各地大約有 16 位運營高級副總裁。

Now in terms of Doug, Doug, as you know, has been head of US merchandising and certainly involved in a lot of merchandising beyond that as well. Doug is great. He's leaving for -- no negative issues both internally or with himself, and we are all kind of jealous. He's more on the younger side of the senior management team.

至於道格，如你所知，他曾擔任美國商品銷售主管，當然也參與了其他許多商品銷售工作。道格很棒。他要離開──公司內部和自己都沒有任何負面問題，我們都有點羨慕他。他是高階管理團隊中比較年輕的成員。

Craig has a plan, but he's looking at a few things and over the next few months, we will be announcing how that changes. But we've got good people in place and we don't think that there's an issue at all there. In Asia, Richard Chang, who goes back to the Price Club days probably 25 plus years ago, ran operations for Taiwan, was promoted as Senior VP over Asia and we've brought some new people in there as well, new people meaning existing Costco people, of course, from the US.

克雷格有一個計劃，但他還在考慮一些事情，在接下來的幾個月裡，我們將宣布計劃的改變。但我們已經安排了優秀的人才，我們認為這方面完全沒有問題。在亞洲，Richard Chang（他可能在25多年前就加入了Price Club）負責台灣地區的運營，後來被提拔為亞洲高級副總裁。我們也從那裡引進了一些新人，當然，這些新人指的是來自美國的現有Costco員工。

And so I think we feel pretty good about the change. It's sped up because it was at zero. In the last couple of years, it's been a few, a couple and now it's a few and a few more. But I think we are pretty well-positioned for that. I don't see a big change in what we do and how we do it.

所以我覺得我們對這個改變感到相當滿意。因為初始值為零，所以速度加快了。前幾年，數量從幾個增加到幾個。但我認為我們在這方面已經做好了相當充分的準備。我認為我們的工作內容和工作方式不會有太大變化。

Okay, great. Thanks, Richard.

好的，太好了。謝謝你，理查。

Bob Drbul, Nomura.

Bob Drbul，野村證券。

I was wondering if you could comment a little bit more around some of the geographic trends that you are seeing and just update us on your thoughts around the trends in California?

我想請您再詳細談談您觀察到的一些地理趨勢，並更新您對加州趨勢的看法？

We pointed out California last month for April because it was -- while US overall again was a little weaker than it had been, it was really California. California is about a third of our US company operations and it's probably a little bit more penetrated gas-wise. And again, a year ago, we had gallon comps, which not only drives gasoline, but more importantly drives people in the parking lot and 52 or 53 of every 100 come into shop. And so that was where we saw a bit of a distortion, California versus the rest of the US.

我們上個月特別提到了加州，因為雖然美國整體經濟再次略顯疲軟，但真正表現疲軟的是加州。加州約占我們美國公司業務的三分之一，就天然氣而言，加州的滲透率可能更高一些。一年前，我們進行了加侖競品促銷活動，這不僅帶動了汽油銷量，更重要的是帶動了停車場的客流量，每 100 人中就有 52 或 53 人進店。因此，我們看到了加州與美國其他地區之間存在一些偏差。

I believe there was a -- I don't have the number in front of me -- but to get to a 1, the other US was at a 2 and California was a minus 1, and I'm off by a little bit there, but it is that kind of direction. And so that was a little unusual.

我相信有一個——我手頭沒有具體數字——但是要達到 1，美國其他地區是 2，加州是 -1，我可能有點記錯了，但大概就是這個方向。所以這有點不尋常。

Again, I can't predict what that means for the future, but other than that, there are some markets where -- I think the positive that we see is we've been successful in some of these new medium-size markets. We had the most new sign-ups I believe in many years in terms of a new market, new medium-size market in Tulsa just a few weeks ago. Through opening day, we had more sign-ups than we've had. Now I'm not talking about Asia; that's a whole different story in terms of sign-up levels.

我無法預測這對未來意味著什麼，但除此之外，在一些市場中——我認為我們看到的積極方面是，我們在一些新的中型市場中取得了成功。就在幾週前，我們在塔爾薩這個新興中型市場迎來了多年來最多的新用戶註冊。開幕當天，我們的報名人數就比以往任何時候都多。我說的不是亞洲；就註冊人數而言，亞洲的情況完全不同。

So again, things look pretty good. I don't know if there's a lot of geographic changes other than the thing we called out on California. I personally believe a lot of that related to some of the gas issues.

所以，情況看起來相當不錯。除了我們提到的加州的情況之外，我不知道地理上是否還有很多其他變化。我個人認為這很大程度上與天然氣問題有關。

Got it. I saw that you are doing -- what is it, a pickup truck with GMC in terms of -- and are you getting other vendors that are coming to you to look for marketing opportunities given the success of the business?

知道了。我看到你們在做──是什麼來著，是和 GMC 合作的皮卡車嗎？鑑於業務的成功，有沒有其他供應商來找你們尋求行銷機會？

Well, sure. In the car business, I think last year just in the US, we did just under 0.5 million new cars. We've always done -- when car manufacturers have come out with something new, we could do -- by putting one of those cars in front of our trucks in front of each of our locations and doing some type of extra amount of incentive, we can drive a ridiculously large percentage of those six weeks of sales in that car or truck.

當然可以。在汽車產業，我認為去年僅在美國，我們就賣出了不到 50 萬輛新車。我們一直以來都是這樣做的——當汽車製造商推出新產品時，我們可以——把其中一輛新車放在我們每個門市的卡車前面，並提供一些額外的激勵措施，這樣我們就可以在六週內大幅提高這款車或卡車的銷量。

In this case, we've toyed with the idea for several years and talked to all the manufacturers about doing a KS vehicle. A great vehicle with all the bells and whistles and an even better value than you'd get as a Costco member or as a Costco executive member. So I know we had started and stopped a couple times with a couple different manufacturers. We are pleased with it. We think the manufacture is. The dealers are. And sure there will probably be more in the future, but we will see.

在這種情況下，我們已經考慮這個想法好幾年了，並且與所有製造商都談過製造 KS 車輛的事宜。這是一款配置齊全、性能卓越的汽車，而且比 Costco 會員或 Costco 高級會員購買的車輛更划算。所以我知道我們之前和幾家不同的製造商有過幾次合作，但又幾次都終止了。我們對此很滿意。我們認為製造商是。經銷商是。未來肯定還會有更多，但我們拭目以待。

Great. Thank you very much.

偉大的。非常感謝。

We back those with auto products too. We just keep bringing it to a different level. Why don't we take two more questions?

我們也為那些提供汽車產品的人提供支援。我們只是不斷地把它提升到一個新的水平。我們何不再回答兩個問題呢？

Paul Trussell, Deutsche Bank.

保羅‧特魯塞爾，德意志銀行。

Just want to clarify a few things, if you don't mind. First, on the new member sign-ups, I think you said up 15%. Certainly international store openings has a lot to do with that, but you are also seeing success in the US. If you can maybe just give us a little bit more detail around what's driving that.

如果您不介意的話，我想澄清幾件事。首先，關於新會員註冊人數，我想你說過成長了 15%。當然，國際門市的開設與此有很大關係，但在美國也取得了成功。如果您能再詳細解釋一下背後的原因就太好了。

Well, I don't know what's driving it. We do a pretty good job of getting people in the door, opening in some of these new markets help. It's just been overall strong. If the US is 15% and the whole Company is 15%, where was it down? It was up relative to the 15% of course in the end and places like Taiwan and Spain of course was huge, but it's huge on a base of one. And then it was a little lower in Canada where we had very few new openings.

我不知道是什麼原因導致的。我們在吸引顧客方面做得相當不錯，在一些新市場開設分店也很有幫助。整體表現一直很強。如果美國市場佔 15%，整個公司佔 15%，那麼下跌的幅度在哪裡？最終，相對於 15% 的增幅，這個數字當然有所上升，像台灣和西班牙這樣的地方的增幅當然非常大，但即便如此，這個數字在 1% 的基數上仍然非常大。而在加拿大，情況則更糟一些，因為那裡的新職缺非常少。

And Mexico same thing. Mexico last year we had a huge opening on a base of about 34 or 35 units, a huge opening, which had outsized numbers, so we are comparing against that with no new openings this year. Same thing in Canada. We had a huge opening in a location there a year ago in the quarter versus none.

墨西哥的情況也一樣。去年我們在墨西哥開設了一家規模龐大的門市，大約有 34 或 35 家，開業規模非常大，客流量也異常高，所以我們今年沒有新店開業，只能與去年的開業規模進行比較。加拿大的情況也是一樣。一年前，我們在該地段的一個季度裡有一個很大的空缺，而去年同期卻一個都沒有。

Got it. And then on core merchandise margins, just wanted to make sure the 16 basis point gain you are referring to, that's kind of the true core merchandise margins on the four categories that compares to the 11 basis points. Is that correct? And then also you made a comment earlier in the call regarding AUR. Is your view of total store deflation around 1%?

知道了。關於核心商品毛利率，我想確認您提到的 16 個基點的增長，這是否是與 11 個基點相比，四個類別中真正的核心商品毛利率。是這樣嗎？而且，您在之前的通話中也提到了 AUR。您認為整體商店通貨緊縮幅度在 1% 左右嗎？

Well, if I look at my LIFO index -- we don't know exactly. If I look at my LIFO index, which is 70% of our inventory, it's a US accounting principle, from the beginning of the year to now, that's about a percentage point, 0.9 of 1%. If I look at the just the total through the US front-end registers, number of items in the basket was up year-over-year 1.4 percentage points, the average basket was up 0.4 percentage points, so a 1.0 percentage point delta there. That again I think just affirms that roughly 1% deflationary number on average. But it's educated art, not complete science here. And the margins, the 16, is on its own sales, each of those categories, by each of those four categories' sales.

嗯，如果我看一下我的後進先出指數——我們並不完全清楚。如果我看一下我的後進先出指數（LIFO 指數），它占我們庫存的 70%，這是一項美國會計原則，從年初到現在，大約是百分之一，0.9 個百分點。如果只看美國前台收銀機的總數，購物籃中的商品數量年增了 1.4 個百分點，平均購物籃商品數量年增了 0.4 個百分點，因此增加了 1.0 個百分點。我認為這再次證實了平均通縮幅度約為 1% 的說法。但這屬於科學範疇，而非純粹的科學。利潤率，也就是 16，是按其自身銷售額、每個類別的銷售額以及這四個類別的銷售額計算得出的。

Great. Thank you and good luck.

偉大的。謝謝，祝你好運。

Scot Ciccarelli, RBC Capital Markets.

Scot Ciccarelli，加拿大皇家銀行資本市場部。

Richard, can you remind us where you are in the IT modernization investment program, when some of those pressures may start to ease? And secondarily, are there any other investment bubbles we should be mindful of as we think about the next two to three years?

理查德，你能否提醒我們一下，你們的IT現代化投資計畫進行到什麼階段了？什麼時候這些壓力可能會開始緩解？其次，在展望未來兩到三年時，我們是否還應該注意其他投資泡沫？

IT is the gift that keeps on giving. We started at about 3.5, 4 years ago. As we look at it today, what we thought might take four or so years to do the big chunks of this will take six. As we thought it would cost X, it cost 1.5X to 2X, or whatever it is, which is typical. Our guess is that it'll still be slightly detrimental in fiscal 2017 and actually technically it may be even flat to improved a little in 2017, but you've got a 53-week year, so there is a little cheat there.

IT 真是一份取之不盡用之不竭的禮物。我們大約在3.5到4年前開始。今天看來，我們原以為需要四、五年才能完成的大部分工作，實際上需要六年。我們原本以為花費 X，結果實際上花了 1.5X 到 2X，或是其他什麼數，這很正常。我們猜測，2017 財年仍將略有不利影響，實際上從技術上講，2017 年甚至可能持平或略有改善，但一年有 53 週，所以這其中存在一些變通之處。

But generally speaking, flat to up a little in 2017, maybe up a little in 2018 or flat, maybe down a little. We don't know yet. But we are starting to get to that inflection point and my guess is that inflection point will come sometime towards the end of 2017 or into 2018.

但總的來說，2017 年持平或略有上漲，2018 年可能略有上漲，或持平，甚至可能略有下降。我們目前還不知道。但我們正開始接近那個轉折點，我猜測那個轉折點會在 2017 年底或 2018 年的某個時候到來。

Keep in mind, these numbers don't assume anything -- this is necessity first and foremost. We believe it will help us in different ways, in many ways, and there will be other things we'll add to it. But the bulk of it, of course, is getting behind us and we will go from there.

請記住，這些數字沒有任何假設——這首先是必要性。我們相信它將在很多方面幫助我們，而且我們還會添加其他內容。當然，大部分的困難正逐漸被我們克服，我們將以此為起點繼續前進。

Okay. And any other incremental expenses that we should be mindful of, like you finish one program and typically there's another one waiting or lurking right behind it?

好的。還有其他需要注意的額外費用嗎？例如，你完成一個專案後，通常會有另一個專案緊跟在後？

I don't think there's anything big out there [that way]. We just did the bottom of the scale increase, which is a little unusual, not a big number, but it's $0.06 or so a year. And there's no giant changes coming to healthcare. We still give great health, medical, dental and vision benefits to everybody.

我不認為（那方面）有什麼大事發生。我們剛剛進行了最低級別的增長，這有點不尋常，雖然增幅不大，但每年大約是 0.06 美元。醫療保健領域不會發生巨大變化。我們仍然為所有員工提供優厚的健康、醫療、牙科和視力福利。

If we increased the sales penetration outside of the US, certain structural expenses help us. Healthcare in the US is easily 20 to 60 basis points as a percent of sale higher than every other country in the world and so just by doing more elsewhere that'll help that number a little bit. Same thing with labor costs. We pay similarly great labor wages relative to whatever in-country norms are, but certainly the numbers in the US and Canada are higher than some of the countries. And so those things will help us a little bit.

如果我們提高美國以外地區的銷售滲透率，某些結構性支出將對我們有所幫助。美國的醫療保健支出佔銷售額的百分比比世界上任何其他國家都高出 20 到 60 個基點，因此，只要在其他方面投入更多，就能稍微改善這個數字。勞動成本也是如此。我們支付的勞動工資相對於各國的標準而言都很高，但美國和加拿大的工資水準肯定高於某些國家。所以這些事情會對我們有幫助。

Now I don't think -- there's nothing huge going on out there that -- I don't think we have any big shocks to the system.

現在我不認為——外面沒有什麼大事發生——我不認為我們會受到任何重大衝擊。

Got you. Thanks a lot, guys.

抓到你了。非常感謝各位。

Thank you, guys. We will be around. Have a good day.

謝謝大家。我們會一直都在。祝你有美好的一天。