好市多 (COST) 2016 Q4 法說會逐字稿

Good afternoon. My name is Amanda and I will be your conference operator today. At this time, I would like to welcome everyone to the Q4 earnings call.

午安.我叫阿曼達，今天將由我擔任你們的會議接線生。此時此刻，我謹代表大家歡迎參加第四季財報電話會議。

(Operator Instructions)

（操作說明）

I would now like to turn the conference over to Mr. Richard Galanti. Please go ahead.

現在我將把會議交給理查德·加蘭蒂先生。請繼續。

Thank you, Amanda, and good afternoon to everyone. As you know, 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 events, results 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 written reports filed with the SEC. 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.

謝謝你，阿曼達，大家下午好。如您所知，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，可能導致實際事件、結果和/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提交給美國證券交易委員會的書面報告中確定的其他風險和不確定性。前瞻性聲明僅代表其發布之日的情況，除法律要求外，我們不承諾更新這些聲明。

Today we reported our fourth quarter and year-to-date FY16 operating results for the 16- and 52-week periods ended this past August 28. For the quarter, earnings came in at $1.77 a share, up 2%, or $0.04, over last year's fourth quarter earnings of $1.73 a share. In comparing the year-over-year fourth quarter earnings results, a couple of items of note, in looking at a comparison.

今天，我們公佈了截至今年 8 月 28 日的 2016 財年第四季和年初至今的 16 週和 52 週期間的經營業績。本季每股收益為 1.77 美元，比去年第四季每股收益 1.73 美元成長 2%，即 0.04 美元。在比較去年同期第四季收益結果時，有幾點值得注意，以便進行比較。

FX. As compared to a year ago during the fourth quarter, foreign currencies in the countries and other areas where we operate were weaker overall versus the US dollar, primarily in Mexico, Canada, UK and Korea. This resulted in our foreign earnings in Q4, when converted into US dollars, being lower by about $13 million after tax, or $0.03 a share, had exchange rates been flat year-over-year.

FX。與去年第四季相比，我們開展業務的國家和其他地區的貨幣對美元整體走弱，主要集中在墨西哥、加拿大、英國和韓國。如果匯率與去年同期持平，那麼我們第四季的海外收益（以美元計算）稅後將減少約 1,300 萬美元，即每股減少 0.03 美元。

Gasoline profitability. Our profits from gasoline during the quarter as compared to last year's fourth quarter were lower by about $27 million pre tax, or $0.04 a share, primarily a function of last year's very strong profit results in the fourth quarter. Our numbers were fine this quarter, but did pretty well last year, as well.

汽油獲利能力。本季汽油業務利潤與去年第四季相比稅前減少了約 2,700 萬美元，即每股 0.04 美元，這主要是由於去年第四季利潤非常強勁所致。我們本季的業績還不錯，去年同期也表現相當出色。

IT modernization. That was about a $0.02 year-over-year impact. I'm not going to go through the detail on that. But that was about $16 million pre tax, or 4 basis points, primarily to the SG&A line.

IT現代化。這比去年同期影響約為 0.02 美元。我不打算贅述細節。但稅前金額約 1,600 萬美元，即 4 個基點，主要計入銷售、一般及行政費用。

Income taxes. Both this year and last year's fourth quarter results had several positive, net positive tax benefits that, in the aggregate, benefited each of the fourth quarters' earnings-per-share figures by $0.05. Excluding those positive tax items, this year's underlying Q4 tax rate was about 0.6 of a percentage point higher than last year's. That would have been about $0.02 a share. But again, year-over-year in the quarter, each of those fiscal quarters benefited by about $0.05 a share from positive items.

所得稅。今年和去年的第四季業績都有幾項積極的、淨為正的稅收優惠，這些優惠加起來使每個第四季的每股收益增加了 0.05 美元。在剔除這些積極的稅收項目後，今年第四季的實際稅率比去年同期高出約 0.6 個百分點。那大概就是每股0.02美元。但與上年同期相比，每季的獲利項目都使每股收益增加了約 0.05 美元。

LIFO. This year in the fourth quarter, we reported pre-tax LIFO credit of $31 million. That compares to last year in the fourth quarter of $14 million. So both deflationary, although we've all talked about the increased levels of deflation of recent time. So a year-over-year delta of $17 million, or about $0.02 a share, related to the higher deflation and LIFO credit in the quarter, up higher by that amount.

後進先出。今年第四季度，我們報告了稅前後進先出法抵免額為 3,100 萬美元。相比之下，去年第四季為 1400 萬美元。所以兩者都是通貨緊縮，儘管我們都討論過近期通貨緊縮程度加劇的情況。因此，與上年同期相比，差額為 1,700 萬美元，即每股約 0.02 美元，這與本季通貨緊縮加劇和後進先出法信貸增加有關，增幅為 1,700 萬美元。

In terms of sales for the fourth quarter, total reported sales were up 2%. Our 16-week reported comparable sales figures were flat year-over-year. Comparable sales were negatively impacted by gas price deflation -- that was a little over 200 basis points of impact to the Company -- and by weaker foreign currencies relative to the US dollar. The latter, about 1 percentage point of impact to sales. Excluding deflation, the flat US comp sales figure for the fourth quarter would have been plus 2. The reported Canadian comp figure of plus 2 would have been plus 5, ex gas and FX, and the reported minus 2 other international comp figure, ex these two factors, would have been plus 1.

第四季銷售額方面，報告總銷售額成長了 2%。我們報告的16周同店銷售額與去年同期持平。同店銷售額受到汽油價格通貨緊縮的負面影響——這對該公司造成了略高於 200 個基點的影響——以及外幣兌美元貶值的影響。後者對銷售額的影響約為 1 個百分點。如果不考慮通貨緊縮，美國第四季同店銷售額持平，實際成長2個百分點。加拿大報告的同店銷售額成長2個百分點，如果剔除汽油和匯率因素，實際成長5個百分點；其他國際同店銷售額下降2個百分點，如果剔除這兩個因素，實際成長1個百分點。

Total comps were reported at zero for the quarter. And again, excluding gas and FX, would have been plus 3. And of course, the plus 3, that plus 3 adjusted figure is still being impacted by a bit of increased general merchandise deflation outside of gasoline.

本季總銷售額為零。再次強調，如果排除汽油和外匯因素，則為+3。當然，這+3，也就是調整後的+3數字，仍然受到汽油以外的一般商品通貨緊縮加劇的影響。

Openings. In Q4, we opened 10 new locations and also completed 1 relo. And for the fiscal year, we opened 29 net new locations, on top of that, 4 relocations, I believe 2 of them which were relocated and the old units converted into new business centers. Of the 29 locations, 21 were in the US, 2 were in Canada, 2 were in Japan, and 1 each were in UK, Taiwan, Australia and Spain.

職位空缺。第四季度，我們開設了 10 個新地點，並完成了 1 個搬遷項目。在本財政年度，我們淨增了 29 個營業地點，此外還有 4 個搬遷地點，我相信其中 2 個搬遷地點是將舊辦公室改造成新的商務中心。29 個地點中，21 個在美國，2 個在加拿大，2 個在日本，英國、台灣、澳洲和西班牙各有 1 個。

This afternoon, I'll also review with you our membership trends and renewal rates, additional discussion about margin and SG&A, talk about e-commerce and a few other items of note, including an update on our recent switch over to the new Citi Visa Anywhere card. This occurred on June 20, after six weeks into the fourth quarter.

今天下午，我也會和大家一起回顧我們的會員趨勢和續費率，進一步討論利潤率和銷售、一般及行政費用，談談電子商務以及其他一些值得注意的事項，包括我們最近切換到新的花旗Visa Anywhere卡的最新情況。這件事發生在6月20日，也就是第四季開始六週之後。

So on to the fourth quarter results. Quickly, sales for the fourth quarter were $35.7 billion, up 2% from last year's fourth quarter sales of $35 billion. Again, a flat comp on a reported basis, plus 3% excluding gas deflation and FX. The flat comp sales results on a reported basis, that consisted of an average transaction decrease of 2.8%. Again excluding gas deflation and FX, the average transaction was slightly positive year-over-year and an average shopping frequency increase of right around 2.5%.

接下來是第四季業績。第四季銷售額迅速達到 357 億美元，比去年同期的 350 億美元成長了 2%。再次強調，以報告數據計算，與去年同期持平，若不計天然氣價格下跌和匯率波動，則成長 3%。以報告數據計算，同店銷售額持平，平均交易量下降了 2.8%。再次排除天然氣通貨緊縮和匯率波動的影響，平均交易額較去年同期略有成長，平均購物頻率成長約 2.5%。

In terms of sales comparisons by geography, Texas, Bay Area and the Midwest regions within the United States showed the best results. Internationally in local currencies, better performing countries were Canada, Mexico, Spain and the UK.

從地理銷售比較來看，美國境內的德州、舊金山灣區和中西部地區表現最佳。從國際來看，以當地貨幣計算，表現較好的國家為加拿大、墨西哥、西班牙和英國。

In terms of merchandise categories for the quarter, sales for that, within food and sundries, overall slightly negative year-over-year in the fourth quarter. Within that, though, spirits, sundries and deli came in best. Tobacco was the big negative, of course, as we've talked about that. That was down 21% year-over-year, as we continue to see lower sales in that category. If I look at the food and sundries category, again, on a comp basis, it was slightly negative year-over-year for the quarter. Ex the tobacco department, it was plus 3. And you'll continue to see tobacco impacting us into the early spring.

就本季商品類別而言，食品和日用品的銷售額在第四季度總體上同比略有下降。不過，其中酒類、日用品和熟食的銷售量最好。當然，菸草是最大的負面影響，我們之前也討論過這個問題。與去年同期相比下降了 21%，我們繼續看到該類別的銷售額下降。如果我再看一下食品和日用品類別，同樣以同比計算，該季度同比略有下降。例如，菸草部門的增幅為 3%。而且，菸草對我們的影響將持續到早春。

Hardlines overall up mid-single digit. The departments with the strong results were majors, electronics, sporting goods, health and beauty aids, hardware and tires. Within softlines, which was up in the low single digits, apparel, small electrics and home furnishings were the standouts. Within fresh foods, produce and deli were the strongest of the four departments. Of course, meat and other types of protein had a weakness relative to deflation. In ancillary businesses, hearing aids, pharmacy and optical showed the best results.

強硬派整體上升了個位數百分比。業績表現優異的部門包括：服裝、電子產品、體育用品、保健美容用品、五金和輪胎。在軟線商品中，服飾、小型電器和家居用品表現突出，整體增幅僅為個位數。在生鮮食品中，蔬果和熟食是四個部門中最強的。當然，肉類和其他類型的蛋白質相對於通貨緊縮而言存在弱點。在輔助業務中，助聽器、藥局和眼鏡店的業績最佳。

I mentioned earlier, we've recently seen a little pick up in the level of deflation overall, some categories in the low to mid single digit range; and several fresh food categories, notably meat and pork and things like that, in a 5% to 10% range in some cases. Overall, though, we're seeing a net increase in deflation, but not at those levels. And some non-food categories, as well.

我之前提到過，我們最近看到整體通貨緊縮程度略有上升，一些類別的通貨緊縮幅度在個位數低到中段；一些新鮮食品類別，特別是肉類和豬肉等，通貨緊縮幅度在某些情況下達到 5% 到 10%。不過整體而言，我們看到通貨緊縮有所增加，但並未達到如此高的水平。還有一些非食品類別。

Moving to the line items on the income statement. Membership fees, we saw good results for the quarter. Reported were $832 million, up 9 basis points and $47 million, or up 6% in dollars versus last year's fourth quarter. The $47 million would have been up $50 million if you had adjusted for FX. In terms of membership, we continue to enjoy strong renewal rates, 90% in US and Canada and 88% worldwide. Continuing increasing penetration of Executive Memberships, as well.

接下來查看損益表中的各項內容。會員費方面，本季業績表現良好。據報道，第四季營收為 8.32 億美元，成長 9 個基點；與去年同期相比，營收為 4,700 萬美元，成長 6%。如果考慮匯率因素，這 4,700 萬美元將增加 5,000 萬美元。在會員方面，我們的續會率依然強勁，美國和加拿大為 90%，全球為 88%。高階主管會員的滲透率也持續提高。

In terms of number of members at fourth quarter and year-end. At year-end, we had 36.8 million Gold Star members, up from 36.2 million 16 weeks earlier, at the end of the third quarter. Primary Business ticked up to 7.3 million from 7.2 million. Business add-on remained at 3.5 million, for a total of 47.6 million member households at Q4 end, compared to 16 weeks earlier, when it was 46.9 million. And including add-on cards, in terms of people walking around with a Costco membership card in their wallet, 86.7 million at year-end, up from 85.5 million just 16 weeks earlier.

以第四季和年末的成員人數來看。截至年底，我們的金星會員人數為 3,680 萬，比 16 週前（第三季末）的 3,620 萬有所增加。主要業務量從 720 萬略微上升至 730 萬。第四季末，企業附加用戶數維持在 350 萬，會員家庭總數達到 4,760 萬戶，而 16 週前為 4,690 萬戶。如果將附加卡也計算在內，截至年底，持有 Costco 會員卡的人數為 8,670 萬，比 16 週前的 8,550 萬有所增加。

In terms of Executive Members, of the 47.6 million member households, we have 17.4 million. That was an increase of 370,000 during the 16-week fourth quarter, or about 23,000 a week increase. And that's a combination, of course, of new members signing up as an Executive Member, as well as members converting to it. Executive Members now account for a little over 33% of our base and a little more than 66% of our sales, where Executive Members are offered.

就執行委員而言，在 4,760 萬個會員家庭中，我們有 1,740 萬個。在為期 16 週的第四季中，增加了 37 萬，即每週增加約 2.3 萬。當然，這既包括新會員註冊成為執行會員，也包括現有會員轉為執行會員。高級會員目前占我們會員總數的 33% 多一點，占我們銷售額的 66% 多一點（在提供高級會員服務的地區）。

In terms of membership renewal rates, we ended the year at 90.3% in the US and Canada. That's a tick down from 90.4% at the end of Q3; and in the first half, it was 90.5%. Worldwide, 87.6%, which was the same at Q3 end, ticking down from 87.7% in the previous quarter, again, the second quarter.

就會員續費率而言，我們在美國和加拿大的年終續費率為 90.3%。這比第三季末的 90.4% 略有下降；上半年，這一數字為 90.5%。全球範圍內，87.6%與第三季末持平，較上一季（即第二季）的87.7%略有下降。

As I've talked about in the last few quarters, in Canada we finally, in Q4, saw a reversal of some reductions in renewal rates, which we had anticipated when we converted about a year and half or so ago to a new [co-brand] card up there. In that case, the portfolio from American Express wasn't purchased, so it really had to start all over and you don't have as many auto renewals to start with. But that's quickly changed, and again, in Q4 we saw a slight increase in the renewal rate there.

正如我在過去幾個季度中提到的，在加拿大，我們終於在第四季度看到了續卡率部分下降的趨勢逆轉，這在我們大約一年半前將加拿大的信用卡轉換為新的[聯名]卡時就已經預料到了。在這種情況下，美國運通的投資組合沒有被收購，所以一切都必須從頭開始，而且一開始就沒有那麼多自動續保。但這種情況很快就發生了變化，第四季我們再次看到續約率略有上升。

A little different reason, but the same thing a little bit in the US, with having no new sign-ups for the last nine months, prior to June 20, as we were switching over on June 20. So overall, pretty much the same, and we'll see where that goes from here.

原因略有不同，但在美國也出現了類似的情況，在 6 月 20 日之前，過去九個月都沒有新的註冊用戶，因為我們在 6 月 20 日進行了切換。總的來說，情況基本上相同，我們看看接下來會如何發展。

Regarding membership fees, effective the beginning of this month, we increased annual membership fees by about 10% in the three Asia locations, Taiwan, Korea and Japan, as well as in Mexico and the UK. On an annual basis, as you know, fee increases hit the membership fee income line over about 23 months, based on deferred accounting.

關於會員費，從本月初開始，我們在亞洲三個地區（台灣、韓國和日本）以及墨西哥和英國的年度會員費提高了約 10%。如您所知，根據遞延會計處理，會員費收入每年大約會在 23 個月內逐步增加。

For example, the first month, people that are seeing this in September, those are people that originally signed up, presumably, in September and this is when they renew. People that did not sign up or aren't renewing until next March, it will be in March and for 12 months hence. So that's hence, the 23 months overall. That will be about $50 million pre tax to membership income line. I'm sure there will be some offset in terms of what we do in terms of competitive pricing and everything.

例如，第一個月，在 9 月看到此資訊的人，應該是最初在 9 月註冊的人，現在他們續訂了。在明年三月之前沒有註冊或續費的人，將在三月收到續費通知，有效期為12個月。所以總共就是 23 個月。這將為會員收入帶來約 5000 萬美元的稅前收入。我相信我們在價格競爭力等所做的努力會起到一定的抵銷作用。

Before continuing down the income statement line items, let me spend a minute updating you on our transition from American Express to Citi Visa in the US and Puerto Rico. As I mentioned, this took place on June 20, the beginning of the seventh week into the fiscal fourth quarter. Beginning June 20, we stopped accepting American Express at all US and Puerto Rico Costcos and on Costco.com and begin accepting all Visa cards, including, of course, the new Citi Visa Anywhere card.

在繼續分析損益表項目之前，請容許我花一分鐘時間向您介紹我們在美國和波多黎各從美國運通卡過渡到花旗Visa卡的情況。正如我之前提到的，這件事發生在 6 月 20 日，也就是本財年第四季第七週的開始。從 6 月 20 日起，我們停止在美國和波多黎各的所有 Costco 門市以及 Costco.com 接受美國運通卡，並開始接受所有 Visa 卡，當然也包括新的 Citi Visa Anywhere 卡。

It was a lot of effort and, as you know, there were a few operational glitches during the first few weeks after the cut over. We're now past that. And more importantly, the new card is fantastic for our members. In terms of increased cash back rewards, we estimate it's about a 40% to 50% improvement in the reward program, which was already previously a very good reward program to the members using the Citi Visa Anywhere card. And it's also great for us, in terms of driving member value and sales over the next years, and of course, lowering our effective cost of accepting credit and debit cards.

這需要付出很多努力，而且，正如你所知，切換後的頭幾個星期出現了一些操作故障。我們現在已經過了那個階段了。更重要的是，這張新卡對我們的會員來說非常棒。就現金回饋獎勵的增加而言，我們估計獎勵計劃將提高 40% 到 50%，而此前對於使用 Citi Visa Anywhere 卡的會員來說，該獎勵計劃已經非常不錯了。這對我們來說也是件好事，有助於在未來幾年提升會員價值和銷售額，當然，還能降低我們接受信用卡和金融卡的實際成本。

In terms of improved cash back member rewards, our former card provided a 3% cash back on gas, 2% on restaurant and travel, and 1% everywhere else, including everywhere at Costco other than the gas. With the new Citi Visa Anywhere card, 3% on gas now is 4%, 2% on restaurant and travel is now a 3%, and probably the most significant rewards improvement in terms of the total bucket here is the previous 1% reward on all other Costco purchases doubled from the previous 1% cash back rewards now to 2%.

就提高現金回饋會員獎勵而言，我們之前的卡提供加油 3% 的現金返還，餐飲和旅行 2% 的現金返還，其他所有消費（包括在 Costco 除加油以外的所有消費）1% 的現金返還。使用新的 Citi Visa Anywhere 卡，加油返現從 3% 提高到 4%，餐飲和旅行返現從 2% 提高到 3%，而就整體獎勵而言，最顯著的改進可能是 Costco 其他所有消費的返現從之前的 1% 翻倍至 2%。

We think this is big, and it's even bigger for our Executive Members, who are also earning a 2% reward from us on most Costco purchases. So combined, an Executive Member using the new card, with just a few exceptions, will earn 4% back at Costco. We think that's exciting and we think it will be good for our business over the next several years. Lastly, for all other purchases outside of Costco on the card, it will remain at a 1% cash back reward.

我們認為這意義重大，對我們的高級會員來說意義更加重大，因為他們在 Costco 購物時還能獲得 2% 的獎勵。因此，除少數例外情況外，使用新卡的高級會員在 Costco 購物可獲得 4% 的回饋。我們認為這令人振奮，並且相信在未來幾年內對我們的業務發展會有好處。最後，使用該卡在 Costco 以外的所有其他消費，仍將獲得 1% 的現金回饋獎勵。

A few basic stats on the new card. Approximately 11.4 million American Express co-branded cards, representing just under 7.5 million accounts, were transferred over to Citi during the conversion. Nearly 85% of those cards we considered active, that is, the card had been used for purchases over the previous 60 days. Currently, over 85% of the accounts transferred over have now been activated with Costco. And since June 20, in just the past many weeks, 1.1 million members have applied for the new card and over 730,000 new accounts have been activated, or a little over 1 million additional Citi Visa cards in circulation.

新卡的一些基本數據。在轉換過程中，約有 1,140 萬張美國運通聯名卡（代表近 750 萬個帳戶）轉移到了花旗銀行。我們認為這些卡中有近 85% 是活躍的，也就是說，這些卡在過去 60 天內被用於購物。目前，已轉移的帳戶中超過 85% 已在 Costco 啟動。自 6 月 20 日以來，僅在過去的幾週內，就有 110 萬會員申請了新卡，超過 73 萬個新帳戶被激活，相當於新增了 100 多萬張花旗 Visa 卡。

It's still early. We launched only 14 weeks ago. But so far, we're beating our initial expectations in terms of conversion, usage and new sign-ups to the card.

現在還為時過早。我們才上線14週。但就轉換率、使用率和新註冊用戶數量而言，我們目前都超出了預期。

In terms of gross margin, our reported gross margin was higher year-over-year in the fourth quarter by 28 basis points, up from 11.14% a year ago to 11.42%. I'll let you jot down the normal numbers that I ask you to jot down. We'll have four columns, reported and without gas deflation, Q3 2016 and Q3 2016 would be the first two columns. The third and fourth columns would both be Q4 2016 and also reported in without gas depreciation.

就毛利率而言，我們報告的第四季度毛利率比去年同期增長了 28 個基點，從一年前的 11.14% 增至 11.42%。我會讓你記下我要求你記下的那些常規數字。我們將有四列數據，已報告且未考慮天然氣通貨緊縮，2016 年第三季和 2016 年第三季將是前兩列。第三列和第四列均為 2016 年第四季數據，且均未計入天然氣折舊。

The core merchandise in Q3 on a reported basis was higher year-over-year by 16 basis points. Without gas deflation, down 2 basis points year-over-year. In the fourth quarter, up 29 basis points of this in 2016; and again, ex gas deflation, up 9 basis points.

第三季核心商品銷售額以報告基準計算年增16個基點。不計天然氣價格通貨緊縮，年減 2 個基點。第四季較 2016 年同期成長 29 個基點；若不計天然氣通貨緊縮，則成長 9 個基點。

Ancillary businesses in Q3, plus 9 and plus 4 reported and without deflation. And in Q4 2016, ancillary businesses have reported minus 4, and minus 9 without gas deflation. 2% reward, a zero and a plus 2 in Q3, and a minus 2 and a zero in Q4. LIFO, plus 2 and plus 2; and in Q4 2016 -- I'm sorry plus 5 and plus 4. Other, in Q3 2016 both, columns had a plus 7, and in Q4, no issue, a zero on zero.

第三季輔助業務，加上9個和4個報告，且沒有通貨緊縮。2016 年第四季，輔助業務報告虧損 4%，若不計天然氣通貨緊縮，則虧損 9%。第三季獎勵 2%，0 加 2，第四季獎勵 -2 加 0。LIFO，加 2 和加 2；2016 年第四季——抱歉，加 5 和加 4。其他，2016 年第三季兩列都加了 7，第四季沒有問題，兩列都是零。

So all told, and reported on a year-over-year basis in Q3 of 2016 compared to the prior Q3, up 34 basis points on a reported basis and up 13 on a ex-gas deflation basis. This year in the fourth quarter, of course, you saw the 28 basis point up. That would have been plus 4, ex gas deflation. I might add that the plus 7 a year ago -- I'm sorry, in Q3 -- that was simply a one-time legal settlement that benefited margin.

綜上所述，2016 年第三季同比報告的利率為 34 個基點，剔除天然氣價格下跌的影響後為 13 個基點。當然，今年第四季度，你會看到上漲了 28 個基點。如果不扣除天然氣價格下跌，那將是+4。我還要補充一點，一年前的+7——抱歉，是第三季——那隻是一次性的法律和解，有利於利潤率。

As you can see overall, again, our margin was higher by 28. But without gas, plus 4. The core merchandise component that you see that I just mentioned, the plus 29, or the plus 9 ex-gas deflation, that's the thing I'll focus on to start with. Our core gross margins, which is fresh foods, food sundries, hardlines, softlines and fresh foods, as a percentage of their own sales were higher year-over-year in the quarter by 12 basis points, with food and sundries and hardlines showing higher year-over-year gross margins slightly, softlines being about flat year-over-year, and fresh foods being ever so slightly down year-over-year.

如您所見，總體而言，我們的利潤率再次提高了 28%。但不包括汽油，則為 4。我剛才提到的核心商品組成部分，即 29，或不包括汽油通貨緊縮的 9，這就是我首先要關注的內容。本季度，我們的核心毛利率（包括生鮮食品、食品雜貨、硬線、軟線和生鮮食品）佔其自身銷售額的百分比同比增長了 12 個基點，其中食品雜貨和硬線的毛利率同比略有增長，軟線的毛利率與去年同期基本持平，而生鮮食品的毛利率同比略有下降。

Ancillary and other business gross margins were down 4 basis points, ex gas deflation down 9, all a functional of lower year-over-year gas profits, and as discussed earlier in the call. But excluding gas, all other ancillary and other businesses' gross margins as a percent of their own sales were up 6 basis points. So margins were fine in the quarter overall. And again, LIFO added 4 basis points to the equation.

輔助業務和其他業務的毛利率下降了 4 個基點，剔除天然氣通縮因素後下降了 9 個基點，這都是由於天然氣利潤同比下降所致，正如之前在電話會議中討論的那樣。但若不計入天然氣業務，所有其他輔助業務和其他業務的毛利率佔其自身銷售額的百分比均上升了 6 個基點。所以本季整體利潤率還不錯。同樣，後進先出法（LIFO）使等式增加了 4 個基點。

In terms of SG&A expenses, for the quarter year-over-year we were up 34 basis points, coming in at a 10.34 versus a 10.00 a year ago. And again, that 34, I'll have you jot down a couple of numbers. That 34, ex gas deflation, is a minus 13 -- or higher by 13, not higher by 34.

就銷售、一般及行政費用而言，本季同比上升了 34 個基點，達到 10.34，而去年同期為 10.00。還有，關於34這個數字，我請你記下幾個數字。34，不計天然氣通貨緊縮，是負13－或者說是高出13，而不是高出34。

Again, the same four columns, Q3 2016 for reported and Q3 2016 without gas, and the same two column headings for Q4 2016 and Q4 2016. Core operations, minus 24 basis points -- and a minus means higher -- higher by 24 basis points in Q3 2016 on a reported basis, higher by 8 ex gas deflation. In the fourth quarter, higher by 24 and higher by 6. Central, higher by 6 and higher by 4 in Q3; and then in Q4, higher by 9 and higher by 7, ex gas deflation. Stock compensation, higher by 3 and higher by 2 in the third quarter, and higher by 1 and flat in the Q4 columns. Then total reported in Q3 2016 compared to Q3 2015, on a reported, SG&A was higher by 33, but really higher by 14 ex gas deflation, and the higher by 34 this time was higher by 13. So not that different, looking at it that way.

同樣，還有相同的四列，分別是 2016 年第三季報告數據和 2016 年第三季不含天然氣數據，以及相同的兩列標題，分別是 2016 年第四季和 2016 年第四季。核心營運下降 24 個基點——負數表示上升——按報告基準計算，2016 年第三季上升 24 個基點，剔除天然氣通貨緊縮因素後上升 8 個基點。第四季上漲 24 倍，上漲 6 倍。第三季上漲 6 倍，上漲 4 倍；第四季上漲 9 倍，上漲 7 倍（不包括天然氣通貨緊縮）。股票補償金，第三季分別成長 3 倍和 2 倍，第四季分別成長 1 倍和持平。然後，2016 年第三季報告的總收入與 2015 年第三季相比，按報告計算，銷售、一般及行政費用 (SG&A) 增加了 33%，但實際上扣除天然氣價格下跌後增加了 14%，而這次增加的 34% 則增加了 13%。從這個角度來看，其實也沒有太大差別。

The operations component, the minus 6 core operations ex gas deflation, that consisted of higher payroll and benefits, partly due to the slightly weaker sales and the deflation, particularly in fresh, that impacts that number, somewhat offset by a variety of other controllable expense improvements, in particular, lower year-over-year bank fees as a result of the AmEx - Citi Visa switch during the quarter. Central expense was higher year-over-year by 9, 7 ex gas. Increased IT spending related to modernization, that was 4 of those 7. And a couple other basis points higher from a few small legal settlements in the quarter. And again, stock compensation was really not an issue year-over-year.

營運部分，即扣除天然氣通貨緊縮影響後的核心營運部分（減去 6），包括更高的工資和福利支出，部分原因是銷售額略有下降以及通貨緊縮影響後的核心運營部分（減去 6），包括更高的工資和福利支出，部分原因是銷售額略有下降以及通貨緊縮影響後的核心運營部分（減去 6），包括更高的工資和福利支出，部分原因是銷售額略有下降以及通貨緊縮影響後的核心運營部分（減去 6），包括更高的工資和福利支出，部分原因是銷售額略有下降以及通貨緊縮影響後的核心運營部分（減去 6），包括更高的工資和福利支出，部分原因是銷售額略有下降以及通貨緊縮影響後的核心運營部分（減去 6），但其他各種可控費用改善在一定程度上抵消了這一影響，特別是由於本季度美國運通卡與花旗銀行 Visa 卡費同比的轉換，銀行手續費同費比值。中央支出較去年同期增加 9.7（不含天然氣）。IT 現代化相關的支出增加，佔了這 7 個基點中的 4 個。另外還有幾項小額法律和解，導致本季支出增加了幾個基點。再次強調，股票補償金並非逐年出現的問題。

Next on the income statement, pre opening, pretty much in line with openings themselves. Last year, we had $27 million pre opening expense; this year, $3 million lower, or $24 million. Last year in the quarter, we had 13 openings; this year in the quarter, we had 11, which includes that relo, pretty much in line again with what we would expect. All told, operating income in the fourth quarter came in at $1.191 billion, which is $35 million higher, or 3% higher year-over-year than last year's $1.156 billion.

接下來是損益表中開業前的損益，這與開業本身基本一致。去年，我們的開幕前費用為 2,700 萬美元；今年，減少了 300 萬美元，即 2,400 萬美元。去年同期，我們有 13 個職位空缺；今年同期，我們有 11 個職位空缺，其中包括搬遷職位，這基本上符合我們的預期。總的來說，第四季營業收入為 11.91 億美元，比去年同期的 11.56 億美元增加了 3,500 萬美元，增幅為 3%。

Below the operating income line, interest expense in the fourth quarter came in at $39 million this year versus $40 million last year, essentially flat year-over-year, essentially the same amount of debt outstanding at the various interest rates. Interest income and other was lower year-over-year by $11 million in the quarter, coming in at $29 million versus $40 million a year ago. Actual interest income was higher year-over-year -- I'm sorry, was a little lower year-over-year. The big difference was the other category, which was $16 million, primarily various FX transactions.

在營業收入之外，今年第四季的利息支出為 3,900 萬美元，而去年同期為 4,000 萬美元，與去年基本持平，各種利率下的未償債務金額也基本相同。本季利息收入和其他收入年減了 1,100 萬美元，為 2,900 萬美元，而去年同期為 4,000 萬美元。實際利息收入較去年同期增加－抱歉，應該是年比略有下降。最大的區別在於另一類，金額為 1600 萬美元，主要是各種外匯交易。

This year in the fourth quarter, if I'd added up all the various FX, which is marking to market items in FX from foreign exchange contracts, we made about $11 million pre tax. A year ago, it was a little outsized. We made $26 million. That generally fluctuates. Usually, it's plus or minus $5 million, sometimes a little more up or less.

今年第四季度，如果我把所有外匯交易（即外匯合約中的按市值計價項目）加起來，我們稅前收入約為 1,100 萬美元。一年前，它的尺寸有點偏大。我們賺了2600萬美元。這種情況通常會波動。通常情況下，誤差在 500 萬美元左右，有時會略高或略低一些。

Overall, pretax income was higher by 2%, or $25 million higher, coming in at $1.181 billion. In terms of taxes, I mentioned that earlier, both fiscal fourth quarters, this year and last year, each benefited by about $0.05 per share from various positive items. And excluding these items, the normalized rate this year was still up about 0.06% from a year earlier. And again, net income, coming in at $779 million for the fiscal quarter, was up 2% from a year ago.

總體而言，稅前收入成長了 2%，即增加了 2,500 萬美元，達到 11.81 億美元。關於稅收方面，我之前提到過，今年和去年的第四財季都因各種利多項目而受益，每股收益約為 0.05 美元。即使剔除這些項目，今年的正常化利率仍比去年同期上漲約 0.06%。此外，本財季淨收入為 7.79 億美元，比去年同期成長 2%。

A quick rundown of some other topics. In this afternoon's release, we provided you balance sheet information. One thing that is not on the balance sheet that I'm always asked about is depreciation and amortization. For the fourth quarter, that came in at $408 million. And for the entire fiscal year, D&A came in at $1.255 billion.

簡要概述其他一些主題。在今天下午發布的新聞稿中，我們向您提供了資產負債表資訊。資產負債表上沒有的一項常被問到，那就是折舊和攤提。第四季度，這一數字為 4.08 億美元。整個財政年度的折舊和攤銷費用為 12.55 億美元。

One thing that looked perhaps a little odd on the balance sheet was cash levels and accounts payable and the like. That has to do with modernization and switching our basic accounting platform over. This has been a two-plus year effort. It was installed. And it's really the platform that a lot of the legacy systems will now sit on as we continue to develop them over the next couple of years. Not only was it a big effort, it was an expensive effort.

資產負債表上看起來有點奇怪的是現金水準、應付帳款等等。這與現代化以及我們基本會計平台的切換有關。這項工作歷時兩年多。已安裝完畢。而且，在接下來的幾年裡，隨著我們繼續開發這些遺留系統，它們實際上都會運行在這個平台上。這不僅是一項巨大的工程，而且是一項耗資巨大的工程。

But nonetheless, to make sure that we had an extra week at the beginning, since this [Soo] system went in on day one, anything that was set up in the system, any merchandise or other payables that were set up in our system to be paid during week one of the new fiscal year, we prepaid a week early, up to a week early, the prior Friday, I believe. And so we paid about $1.7 billion extra in week 52 of this past fiscal year. And that's why you'll see the cash levels down and the payables levels down associated with that.

但儘管如此，為了確保我們在開始時多出一周時間，因為這個 [Soo] 系統是在第一天投入使用的，系統中設置的任何東西，任何商品或其他應付項，只要是在我們系統中設置的要在新財年第一周支付的，我們都提前一周預付，最晚到前一周，我記得是在周五。因此，在上個財政年度的第 52 週，我們額外支付了約 17 億美元。所以你會看到現金水準下降，應付帳款水準也隨之下降。

So again, one of the statistics we always share with you is accounts payable as a percent of inventory. Last year fourth quarter end on a reported basis, it was 101%. What you'll see now is 85%. But again, taking out that $1.7 billion, it's 104%, actually a slight improvement in our payables ratio. And excluding construction payables and other types of non-merchandise payables, last year it was an 89%, again on what I'll call a normalized basis. Assuming we hadn't prepaid the $1.7 billion of payables, the 89% would have been up a couple of percentage points to 91%. So seem to be managing that okay.

因此，我們經常與大家分享的一個統計數據是應付帳款佔庫存的百分比。去年第四季末，以報告數據計算，該比率為 101%。你現在看到的是 85%。但再說一遍，扣除這 17 億美元後，應付帳款比率實際上改善了 104%。如果排除建築應付款項和其他類型的非商品應付款項，去年這一比例為 89%，這同樣是按我所謂的正常化基準計算的。假設我們沒有預付 17 億美元的應付帳款，那麼 89% 的完成率將會上升幾個百分點，達到 91%。所以看起來處理得還不錯。

In terms of average inventory per warehouse, last year at fourth quarter end, it stood at exactly $13 million per warehouse. This year came in at just slightly over $12.5 million, or about $460,000 lower, or 3% lower. Really, lower per warehouse inventory is pretty much spread across many categories, including the impact of deflation in many of the food and fresh departments, as well as electronics. A little bit of it has to do with FX. But most of it is just coming down a little bit on inventory levels.

去年第四季末，每個倉庫的平均庫存量為 1,300 萬美元。今年的收入略高於 1,250 萬美元，比去年減少了約 46 萬美元，降幅為 3%。實際上，每個倉庫的庫存量下降幾乎遍及多個類別，包括許多食品和生鮮部門以及電子產品部門受到的通貨緊縮的影響。這其中有一小部分與特效有關。但大部分原因只是庫存水準略有下降。

In terms of CapEx, in Q4 we spent approximately $850 million. And for all of FY16, we came in at $2.6 billion. That $2.6 billion, by the way, compares to $2.4 billion for the prior fiscal year in 2015. Our estimate for FY17 CapEx is in the range of $2.6 billion to 2.8 billion, so about the same level as compared to last year, perhaps a little higher. It depends on timing.

就資本支出而言，第四季我們花費了約 8.5 億美元。2016 財年全年，我們的營收為 26 億美元。順便一提，這 26 億美元比 2015 年上一財年的 24 億美元增加。我們對 2017 財年資本支出的估計在 26 億美元至 28 億美元之間，與去年相比大致相同，或許會略高一些。這取決於時機。

Next, Costco online. We're currently in the United States, Canada, UK, Mexico and more recently launched in Korea and Taiwan. For the fourth quarter, sales and profits were up year-over-year. Total sales were up 12% in the quarter,13% ex FX. And for all of 2016, 15% reported and plus 17 ex FX. On a comp basis, for the quarter we were up 10% reported and 11% excluding FX; and for the year, 14% and 17%.

接下來是 Costco 網路商城。我們目前已在美國、加拿大、英國、墨西哥開展業務，最近又在韓國和台灣推出了服務。第四季度，銷售額和利潤均較去年同期成長。本季總銷售額成長12%，不計匯率因素成長13%。2016 年全年，報告率為 15%，扣除外匯影響後為 17%。以可比口徑計算，本季我們報告的業績成長了 10%，不計匯率因素成長了 11%；按年計算，成長了 14% 和 17%。

Next discussion in terms of expansion, as I mentioned, in terms of net new locations this year, we opened 29. That's up from 23 openings in all of 2015. This current year, we've got in our budget 31 net openings, but 3 of them are relos. So something certainly in the high 20s, but I think our current best guess is the 31.

接下來討論的是擴張方面，正如我之前提到的，今年我們新增了 29 個地點。這比 2015 年全年的 23 個空缺職位有所增加。今年，我們的預算中淨增了 31 個項目，但其中 3 個是搬遷項目。所以肯定在20多度，但我認為我們目前最好的猜測是31度。

If you look back over the last couple of years, the 23 we opened in 2015, that represented about a 3.5% square footage growth. In FY16, the 29 units recognizing they tend to be a little bigger and we've also expanded a few units, it's about 4.5% square footage growth. And in 2017, assuming we got to 31, that would be in the low to mid 4s, as well, in terms of percentage of square footage growth.

回顧過去幾年，我們在 2015 年開設了 23 家門市，代表著面積增加了約 3.5%。2016 財年，29 個單元的面積略大一些，我們也擴建了一些單元，總面積增加了約 4.5%。假設 2017 年我們達到 31 歲，那麼以建築面積百分比計算，也將在 4% 左右。

Our planned FY17 locations, assuming the 31 number, would be 17 in the US, 7 in Canada, and one each in Taiwan, Korea, Japan, Australia, Mexico, France, our first in France, and also a unit in Iceland. And both France and Iceland are currently targeted for mid to late spring, late spring in calendar 2017. And as we know, sometimes these may slip, but that's our best guess at this point. Note again that these are our first locations in France and Iceland, and we look forward to seeing some of you over there. As of fourth quarter end, total square footage stood at 103.2 million square feet.

假設 2017 財年門市數量為 31 家，那麼我們計畫的門市位置將為：美國 17 家，加拿大 7 家，台灣、韓國、日本、澳洲、墨西哥、法國各 1 家（我們在法國的第一家），以及冰島 1 家。法國和冰島目前的目標日期均為 2017 年春季中後期。我們知道，有時這些預測可能會出現偏差，但這是我們目前最好的猜測。再次提醒大家，這些是我們首次進駐法國和冰島，我們期待在那裡見到你們中的一些人。截至第四季末，總建築面積為 1.032 億平方英尺。

In terms of common stock repurchases for the fourth quarter, we purchased $131 million worth of stock, or 856,000 shares, at an average price at just over $153 a share. For all of FY16, we purchased $477 million of stock. That compares to $493 million in 2015 and $333 million in 2014.

就第四季的普通股回購而言，我們以平均每股略高於 153 美元的價格回購了價值 1.31 億美元的股票，即 856,000 股。2016財年，我們共買了價值4.77億美元的股票。相較之下，2015 年為 4.93 億美元，2014 年為 3.33 億美元。

In terms of dividends, our current quarterly dividend stands at $0.45 a share. We increased that this past spring, a few months ago. That was a 12.5% increase from the prior quarterly and annual rate. So this year, at $0.45 a quarter, this yearly $1.80 a share dividend represents an annual cost to the Company of just under $800 million.

就股息而言，我們目前的季度股息為每股 0.45 美元。今年春天，也就是幾個月前，我們增加了這個數字。這比上一季和上一年的成長率高出 12.5%。因此，今年以每季 0.45 美元計算，每股每年 1.80 美元的股息，對公司而言，每年的成本略低於 8 億美元。

Next Wednesday, October 5, at 6 PM Pacific time, we will announce our September sales results for the five-week period ending Sunday, October 2, this coming Sunday. This five-week period will include 34 selling days in the US and Canada, recognizing the closure of business in observance of Labor Day in those two countries.

下週三，10 月 5 日下午 6 點（太平洋時間），我們將公佈截至本週日（10 月 2 日）的五週 9 月份的銷售業績。這五週期間，美國和加拿大將有 34 個銷售日，以紀念這兩個國家在勞動節期間的關閉。

Lastly, our FY17 first quarter results for the 12 weeks ending November 20, we will do it as we've done this time. We will report shortly after the market close on Wednesday, December 7, with the earnings call that afternoon at 2:00. With that, Amanda, I will turn it back to you for Q&A.

最後，關於截至 2020 年 11 月 20 日的 2017 財年第一季（12 週）業績，我們將像這次一樣進行公佈。我們將於12月7日星期三股市收盤後不久發布報告，並於當天下午2點舉行財報電話會議。那麼，阿曼達，接下來我將把問答環節交給你。

My pleasure.

我的榮幸。

(Operator Instructions)

（操作說明）

And your first question comes from John Heinbockel.

你的第一個問題來自約翰·海因博克爾。

Richard, let me start with expansion. I think you said seven in Canada. Was that right?

理查德，我先從擴張說起。我想你之前說的是加拿大有七個。是這樣嗎？

Yes.

是的。

So not in recent years have you opened that many in Canada. What drove that? Some unique real estate opportunities? Does cannibalization pick up over the next year in Canada? And then tying that back to the US, when you think about where you sit today, if you've really done any deeper thinking about what the saturation level in the US could be beyond where we sit today?

所以近年來你們在加拿大並沒有開設那麼多分店。是什麼原因導致這種情況？一些獨特的房地產投資機會？未來一年，加拿大的同類相食現象會加劇嗎？然後，把這一點與美國聯繫起來，當你思考你今天所處的位置時，你是否真的深入思考過，除了我們今天所處的位置之外，美國的飽和度水平可能會達到什麼程度？

Well, first of all, in Canada, I think it's a couple reasons. If you think back five or so years ago, or even 10 years ago, when we had probably 65, 70 units, we thought the market might be 90 one day. And today we have 90 or 91, and we think that it will certainly be over 100, and we keep adding a few to that concept. I think the fact that we're opening so many right now has to do as much with very strong sales over the last few years. We've been enjoying 5% to 9% comps in local currency in each of the last few years up there. And so it keeps getting stronger.

首先，在加拿大，我認為這有兩個原因。如果你回想一下五年前，甚至十年前，當時我們可能只有 65、70 套房產，我們當時認為市場有一天可能會達到 90 套。今天我們有 90 或 91 個，我們認為肯定會超過 100 個，而且我們還在不斷增加一些。我認為我們現在開設這麼多門市，很大程度上是因為過去幾年銷售業績非常強勁。過去幾年，我們在那裡一直享受著以當地貨幣計算的 5% 到 9% 的折扣。於是，它的力量不斷增強。

And just like in the US, even in mature markets, we find that we can -- while there will be some cannibalization, the net business that's added when we open a unit, even though it's cannibalizing, net of cannibalization, we'll find that existing members will then be shopping more frequently because they're closer. And so I think it's a combination of those things.

就像在美國一樣，即使在成熟的市場，我們發現——雖然會有一些蠶食，但當我們開設一家分店時，新增的淨業務量，即使存在蠶食，扣除蠶食的影響後，我們會發現現有會員會更頻繁地購物，因為他們離得更近了。所以我認為這是這些因素共同作用的結果。

And I don't know what the new five or 10-year guesstimate is in Canada. I don't think we're going to open seven a year. But once we decided to go to look and see where we're going and how strong we've been, this is the result of probably an effort that started over a year ago to put a few more in the pipeline up there.

我不知道加拿大未來五年或十年的最新預測是多少。我不認為我們一年能開七家店。但當我們決定去看看我們的發展方向和實力時，這或許是一年多前開始的努力的結果，目的是在那裡儲備更多的人才。

In terms of the US, I think the same story holds true. If you had asked us five or so years ago, by now how many would be in the US versus outside the US, and we would have said probably we'd be down from 75% or 80% in the US to 50% and heading south of there as we saturate. We have found in the US that we can put more units in existing markets. I think in a couple of months, we're getting ready to open our 17th or so unit in the Puget Sound, having opened our 16th or so unit less than a year ago.

我認為，就美國而言，情況也是如此。如果五年前你問我們，現在美國境內和境外的市佔率分別是多少，我們會說，美國的市佔率可能從 75% 或 80% 下降到 50%，隨著市場飽和，還會繼續下降。我們在美國發現，我們可以在現有市場投放更多產品。我想再過幾個月，我們就將在普吉特海灣開設第 17 家分店左右，而我們的第 16 家分店大約是在一年前開設的。

The other thing, of course, in the US that we have perhaps upped our expectation is markets that five or so years ago we did not think we'd have any near-term interest in considering, medium size markets where other direct competition was there. And what we have found is is we've done pretty well when we go to these markets. Now some of these markets are smaller and it takes a little longer, but there is clearly an opportunity for us there. And as we've gone into Tulsa and New Orleans and Birmingham and Rochester and Toledo, these are markets that, again, weren't high on the radar seven or eight years ago. And what we've seen is, is that our deal works.

當然，在美國，我們或許提高了預期，那就是五年前我們認為近期不會有任何興趣考慮的市場，也就是有其他直接競爭的中型市場。我們發現，當我們進入這些市場時，我們的表現相當不錯。現在，有些市場規模較小，需要更長的時間，但顯然那裡存在著我們的機會。當我們進入塔爾薩、新奧爾良、伯明罕、羅徹斯特和托萊多這些市場時，這些市場在七、八年前都不在我們的關注範圍內。我們看到的是，我們的協議奏效了。

The last thing, of course, includes adding to some of the business centers. For many years, we only had six or eight or so business centers. We opened four last year, to be at 11. And we're planning to open four this year, to be at 15, including our first business center in Canada. So again, that adds a few in both the Canada question and the US question, it includes that opportunity on a small basis.

最後一點當然包括擴建一些商務中心。多年來，我們只有六到八個左右的商務中心。我們去年開了四家，現在共有11家。我們計劃今年再開設四家，達到 15 家，其中包括我們在加拿大的第一個商務中心。所以，這又為加拿大問題和美國問題都增加了一些機會，雖然只是小規模的。

An aside on that is, as I mentioned, I think two of the four relos this year -- two of the four business center openings this year were relos, one back in many of your neck of the woods, when we took an older, smaller parking lot, no gas station, Hackensack Costco and relocated it to Teterboro nearby, where the big size unit, with lots of great parking, great ingress and egress, and a gas station, and converted the Hackensack unit into a business center. So just a small additional benefit in terms of having a use for units as we move some of those to bigger locations. So all that's, I think, been part of it.

順便提一下，正如我之前提到的，我認為今年四個搬遷項目中有兩個是搬遷項目——今年四個商業中心開業項目中有兩個是搬遷項目，其中一個位於你們那邊，當時我們把哈肯薩克一個比較老舊、面積較小的停車場（沒有加油站）裡的 Costco 搬到了附近的泰特伯勒，那裡面積很大，很多因此，當我們把一些設備搬到更大的地方時，還能利用這些設備，這算是一個小小的額外好處。所以我覺得，這一切都是其中的一部分。

All right. And lastly, have you finalized or thought about the percentage of the AmEx to Visa benefit that you're going to get, how much you keep versus providing that back to members? When you think about putting it back to members, when you think about price, labor and/or service and then maybe product development, where is the most lucrative place to reinvest? And I don't know if it would be price. But is it something like product development and pushing the envelope more on Kirkland?

好的。最後，您是否已經最終確定或考慮過您將獲得的 AmEx 轉 Visa 優惠比例，以及您保留多少與將多少返還給會員之間的關係？當你考慮把利潤回饋給會員，當你考慮價格、勞動力和/或服務，以及產品開發時，哪裡才是最有利可圖的再投資領域？我不知道這是否與價格有關。但這是否更像是 Kirkland 的產品開發和突破呢？

Well, some of those things that you threw out as possible ways to use parts of this bucket of money, we do all those anyway. I think probably the best, simplest answer is that just like when we buy a physical product better, lower, whether it's lower freight, greater purchasing power, or greater production efficiencies or whatever we figure out with our supplier, we generally want to take 80% or 90% of that, the vast majority of it, and give it back to the customer in terms of lower price. Because that's what drives us and drives our business. And if we do it more next year, we'll give 80% or 90% of that back. And it's not an exact number, but it's well closer to 80% or 90% than not.

嗯，你提到的那些可以利用這筆錢的部分用途，我們反正都會去做。我認為最好、最簡單的答案可能是，就像我們購買實體產品時，無論是透過降低運費、提高採購能力、提高生產效率，還是透過與供應商協商達成的其他任何方案，我們通常都希望將其中 80% 或 90% 的成本，也就是絕大部分成本，以更低的價格回饋給客戶。因為這就是我們前進的動力，也是我們業務發展的驅動力。如果我們明年做得更多，我們將把其中 80% 或 90% 的收益返還出去。雖然不是確切的數字，但肯定比 80% 或 90% 接近得多。

That same MO and philosophy occurred here. So when we sat down and negotiated all the various levers that relate to what I call this bucket of money, there's lots of ways one can use it. Most importantly, by improving the reward on the card to the member that's going to utilize it, and that will drive value to that member and loyalty to us and also more business to us. And secondly, what's left over, and when we originally did it, we did it such that we're going to keep a small amount of it. Now to the extent, we're not going to change the rewards program every afternoon if we see that there's more money in the bucket. So that will additionally accrue to us, but it's not changing what we're doing with it. We're going to still do those other things.

這裡也出現了同樣的作案手法和理念。所以，當我們坐下來協商與我稱之為「這筆錢」的各種槓桿相關的所有措施時，我們發現有很多方法可以利用它。最重要的是，透過提高會員卡的獎勵，這將為使用卡片的會員帶來價值，增強會員對我們的忠誠度，並為我們帶來更多業務。其次，剩下的部分，當我們最初制定計劃時，就打算保留一小部分。現在，我們不會每天下午都因為看到獎勵金桶裡的錢多了就改變獎勵計畫。所以這筆錢會額外歸我們所有，但這並不會改變我們用這筆錢做的事情。我們還會繼續做那些其他的事情。

So again, I think over time, we'll look at it. And you can rest assured, in a few years, if the success of the card and the economics of the card to us, we're not going to allow ourselves to keep a lot of an extra. But we start with a small amount of a big bucket is good. And if it's a little better, because the card is working in directions that are even better than we expected, that's good. And we're still going to do those other things anyway.

所以，我認為隨著時間的推移，我們會考慮這個問題。您可以放心，幾年後，如果這張卡的成功以及這張卡對我們來說的經濟效益，我們不會允許自己保留很多額外的資金。但我們先從小量開始，一大桶就夠了。如果情況比預期的還要好一些，那就很好了。而且我們還是會繼續做那些其他的事情。

Okay. Thank you.

好的。謝謝。

And your next question comes from [Simone Gusman].

你的下一個問題是來自[Simone Gusman]。

Thanks, guys. Simeon Gutman. Richard, thinking about the top line, we're on the verge of cycling some of the worst of food deflation. I know you mentioned it's picking up a little, and then some of the traffic that the business got on the gas side, and I think the tobacco headwinds you mentioned, there's still a little more to go. First, is that fair that we're on the verge of a cycling that? And then if we are, should we expect a pick up in the business from a top line? Are you expecting the pick up? Just curious how you think about that.

謝謝各位。西蒙古特曼。理查德，從宏觀角度來看，我們正處於食品通貨緊縮最嚴重的時期之一的邊緣。我知道你提到生意正在好轉，加油站的客流量也有所增加，但我認為你提到的煙草業逆風，生意還有一段路要走。首先，我們即將迎來一場自行車運動的終結，這公平嗎？如果情況屬實，我們是否可以期待營收成長，從而帶動業務好轉？你期待被拿走嗎？只是好奇你對此有何看法。

What was the last part of the question, Simeon?

西蒙，問題的最後一部分是什麼？

Should we see the business inflect from a top line as some of these deflation/top line headwinds abate?

隨著部分通貨緊縮/營收下滑的不利因素緩解，我們是否應該看到業務營收出現改善？

I think, first of all, I think there's another -- first of all, when I ask different buyers in different merchandise categories, their view is it's going to be three to six more months. Recognizing these are also guesses, perhaps educated. Unless you know that something specifically is happening, like you're anniversarying the bird flu or you're anniversarying really high feed prices on the commodity side, sometimes there's a little more predictability on that side. But beyond that, I would say probably best guess is five or six months of continued deflation at these newer levels, in some cases. Gas, who the heck knows?

首先，我認為還有一點——首先，當我詢問不同商品類別的不同買家時，他們的看法是還需要三到六個月。但也要意識到這些也只是猜測，或許是有根據的猜測。除非你知道具體發生了什麼事，例如禽流感爆發週年紀念日，或是大宗商品方面飼料價格創下歷史新高，否則有時候這方面還是比較可預測的。但除此之外，我認為最合理的估計可能是，在某些情況下，通貨緊縮將在這些新的水平上持續五到六個月。汽油，誰知道呢？

(Inaudible) What? Bob is here. Barring any major changes out there, you'd see an inflection point probably in -- late fall? So that's a few months. That sounds like a definite maybe.

（聽不清楚）什麼？鮑伯來了。如果沒有重大變化，你可能會在秋末看到一個轉折點？所以就過了幾個月。聽起來很有可能。

If you take the deflation in the food categories, if you take some of the deflation maybe in electronics, or do this analysis of looking at the units versus the sales, what is that delta, if you put it all together, your best guess at that?

如果考慮到食品類商品的通貨緊縮，如果考慮到電子產品類商品的通貨緊縮，或者分析銷量與銷量之間的關係，那麼綜合所有因素，你對這個差額的最佳估計是多少？

I'd have to get back to you on that. And I'd give you some sound points, if you will. There are some examples, particularly like in meats, we see them every month at the budget meeting where we will have literally a 10 or so percentage point drop in the price per pounds, and a 3% or 4% or 5% increase in labor productivity per pounds and less efficiency, because of the fact that the price per pound went down much more than that. And so that's the kind of stuff that hits your profitability, of course, too.

我得稍後再回覆你。如果你願意的話，我可以給你一些合理的建議。有些例子，尤其是在肉類方面，我們每個月在預算會議上都會看到，每磅價格下降了大約 10 個百分點，而每磅勞動生產率卻提高了 3%、4% 或 5%，效率反而降低了，因為每磅價格的下降幅度遠大於此。當然，這類事情也會影響你的獲利能力。

There's some interesting things going on with some commodities. I was just looking at a chart. Coffee, these are average sales, but it's consistent with average cost, down 16%. A lot of things, certain cheeses are down 10% to 20%. I believe eggs are way down right now. And so those things are all impacting you. Now it impacts you on selling eggs. It helps you a little bit in selling muffins, because we're not necessarily changing a 16-pack of muffins from -- I'm making the numbers up, I don't know what we sell them for, but $5.99 down to $5.89. But I'd say the net of those two is still a detriment to us.

某些商品市場出現了一些有趣的現象。我當時正在看圖表。咖啡銷量為平均水平，但與平均成本一致，下降了 16%。很多東西，例如某些乳酪，價格下降了 10% 到 20%。我認為現在雞蛋價格大幅下跌。所以這些事情都會對你產生影響。現在這會影響你賣雞蛋。這在銷售鬆餅方面對你有所幫助，因為我們不一定非要把 16 個裝的鬆餅的價格從——我只是隨便說說，我不知道我們賣多少錢，但大概是 5.99 美元降到 5.89 美元。但我認為這兩者結合起來仍然對我們不利。

By the way, when I mentioned earlier about late fall, that had to do specifically with gas. We'll see an inflection point. It looks like we're going to see an inflection point with gas, all things being equal out there, in the next couple of months.

順便說一下，我之前提到的晚秋，指的是天然氣。我們將會看到一個轉折點。如果其他條件保持不變，未來幾個月天然氣價格似乎將迎來一個轉折點。

Okay. And then my follow-up is related to the credit card. Looking back, you've only had a couple months, but are there signs that there was some deferred spending on either big ticket items? And then if you have the data, is the same member who was either buying on AmEx or not on the cobranded card, is their spending up individually year-over-year, meaning they're incented by the card and they're actually spending more with you?

好的。接下來我的後續問題與信用卡有關。回想過去，雖然只有幾個月的時間，但是否有跡象表明在大件商品方面存在一些延遲支出？然後，如果你有數據，那麼同一位會員無論是使用美國運通卡還是使用聯名卡消費，他們的個人消費額是否逐年增長，這意味著他們受到了該卡的激勵，並且實際上在你這裡消費了更多？

As it relates to the first question, absolutely. We probably saw it biggest in something that the Millennials don't buy, hearing aids. We saw a big decline for a few weeks leading up to it and a big increase right afterwards. Also a big ticket, but generally speaking, jokes aside on Millennials, across the board we saw bigger ticket purchases, which again, that makes sense. People are waiting.

至於第一個問題，答案是肯定的。我們可能在千禧世代不買的東西——助聽器——上看到了最明顯的這一點。在事件發生前的幾週內，我們看到了大幅下降，而事件發生後，我們又看到了大幅上升。雖然也是一筆不小的開支，但總的來說，撇開對千禧世代的玩笑不談，我們看到整體而言，高價商品的購買行為都在增加，這也很合理。人們正在等待。

Now there's all types of movement in both directions. You had existing, a member with existing Visa cards in his or her wallet, and maybe they're using that one, not ours. That's fine. We still have a negotiated good rate on certain things. You have people that were using debit their whole lives, because they perhaps did not want an American Express card or they applied for one and did not get one. And so for 16 years, they used cash, check and debit. Now for the first time, they can use a credit card, and I'm sure that's where we saw many of those new sign-ups as well, or part of them.

現在各種方向的運動都有。您有一位現有會員，他/她的錢包裡有現有的 Visa 卡，也許他/她正在使用他/她自己的卡，而不是我們的卡。沒關係。我們某些商品仍享有協商好的優惠價格。有些人一輩子都在使用金融卡，因為他們可能不想辦美國運通卡，或者他們申請了但沒拿到。因此，16年來，他們一直使用現金、支票和借記卡。現在，他們第一次可以使用信用卡了，我相信我們也看到了許多新的註冊用戶，或至少一部分是透過信用卡註冊的。

But in terms of are they buying more with us, anecdotally we're hearing that from our warehouse managers who talk with their biggest wholesale customers. But it's purely anecdotal at this juncture. And I think we'll see more of it. I haven't actually looked at any statistics on that.

但就他們是否增加了在我們這裡的採購量而言，我們從與最大批發客戶交談的倉庫經理那裡聽到了一些傳聞。但目前這只是個案。我認為我們以後會看到更多這樣的情況。我還沒有查閱過這方面的統計數據。

Okay. Thanks, Richard.

好的。謝謝你，理查。

And your next question comes from Matt Fassler.

下一個問題來自馬特·法斯勒。

Good afternoon, Richard. Matt Fassler from Goldman Sachs. A couple of questions. First of all, you spoke in fairly general terms about how you plan to make use of the better economics of the credit card, where you hope to direct it. If you think about the impact on the P&L this quarter along with launch, I don't know if there were special provisions in place for the cost of launching the card. I'm not sure if there are elements of the changed arrangement that started the impact. But would you say that there was any offset to SG&A or meaningful offset to gross margin that resulted from the transition this quarter?

下午好，理查德。高盛的馬特法斯勒。幾個問題。首先，你比較籠統地談到了你計劃如何利用信用卡更優的經濟效益，以及你希望將其用於哪些方面。如果考慮到本季損益表的影響以及新卡的推出，我不知道是否有針對新卡推出成本的特殊準備金。我不確定這種改變後的安排中是否有引發影響的因素。但您認為本季過渡是否對銷售、管理及行政費用或毛利率產生了任何抵銷作用或實質抵銷作用？

Certainly certain costs were subsidized on the transition from our partners. But at the end of the day, and I mentioned, I think, when I was going through the SG&A, payroll and benefits for our Company were up year-over-year in the quarter in SG&A, and that was somewhat offset by -- and I said in particular, rounded up to everything, anything related to this credit card transition. So yes, there's improvement related to that.

當然，過渡期間的某些費用是由我們的合作夥伴補貼的。但歸根結底，正如我之前提到的，在審查銷售、一般及行政費用時，我們公司的工資和福利支出在本季度同比增長，但這在一定程度上被——我特別強調，被與信用卡過渡相關的所有支出所抵消。是的，這方面確實有改進。

Got it. And then second question, if we think about other international, you obviously didn't call out Asia and any Asian countries as strong countries. You've spoken over the course of the month in releases about comping some of the big openings that you had in recent years. And the other international comp number, ex FX, was a bit lower than we had typically seen. Anything to think about about the franchise in those markets or the macro or how you're resonating in that part of the world?

知道了。第二個問題，如果我們考慮其他國際因素，你顯然沒有把亞洲和任何亞洲國家列為強國。在過去一個月發布的新聞稿中，你多次談到要彌補近年來一些重大開畫失敗的遺憾。而其他國際競爭數據（不含外匯影響）則比我們通常看到的要低一些。關於這些市場的特許經營權、宏觀經濟形勢，或是你在世界那個地區的反響，有什麼需要考慮的嗎？

No. It has more, I think, to do with a little bit of cannibalization in a couple of those countries, where when you've got 10 or 12 locations in Korea and Taiwan, I think we had a cannibalization in Australia, as well. But one location, take a $200 million or $300 million building down $70 million, $80 million and that's what's in your comp, not the new building. So that's as much to do with it as anything.

不。我認為這與其中幾個國家出現了一些蠶食現像有關，例如在韓國和台灣有 10 到 12 個地點，我認為我們在澳洲也出現了類似的蠶食現象。但是，如果一個地方的建築物價值 2 億美元或 3 億美元，而它又減產了 7000 萬美元、8000 萬美元，那麼這部分損失就計入你的比較成本，而不是新建築物的成本。所以，這在很大程度上與此事有關。

We feel very good about the markets. And as we've said, the one market that has been a weak start, which we remind ourselves that there was a time when we were going to close Korea and Taiwan, and they're our most and almost our most profitable and productive countries and locations. And we've talked about, our first unit in Sevilla got off to a slow start. It's growing nicely now. Madrid got off to a much better start and it's growing nicely. And so again, we're patient. But in terms of that other international comp number, I would guess -- and I don't have the detail in front of me, but what I've seen before in recent times is that it's cannibalization more than anything.

我們對市場前景非常樂觀。正如我們所說，有一個市場開局疲軟，我們提醒自己，曾經我們打算關閉韓國和台灣市場，而這兩個市場是我們盈利能力最強、生產力最高的國家和地區。我們之前也提到過，我們在塞維利亞的第一套公寓開局不利。它現在長得喜人。馬德里開局好得多，而且發展勢頭良好。所以，我們再次保持耐心。但就其他國際競爭數據而言，我猜測——我手頭上沒有具體數據，但我最近看到的是，這更多的是蠶食而非其他。

And that's good to hear on Spain, by the way. If you think about the cadence of openings and year-ago openings and where the new stores are going to open in some of those markets, is this an issue, the cannibalization issue, that should stay with you for a little while or is it set to abate at some point over the course of the new fiscal year?

順便說一句，聽到西班牙的情況這麼好真是個好消息。如果你考慮一下新店開業的節奏和去年同期開業的情況，以及新店將在哪些市場開業，那麼這種蠶食效應的問題，是應該持續一段時間，還是會在新財年的某個時候有所緩解？

Sorry, which one?

抱歉，是哪一個？

The cannibalization, primarily in Asia, presumably.

據推測，這種同類相食現象主要發生在亞洲。

I hope it doesn't abate. We're working hard to get more openings there. These are generally no-brainer locations, in terms of very predictable, successful locations for us. We feel we've developed a great franchise over there with great loyalty and great success, and we would like to do it a little more, if we can. We're working hard to get more locations in both Korea and Taiwan, as an example. And it takes a long time in Taiwan and longer than a long time in Korea, because of zoning and other restrictions. And it rains on everybody. Other big boxes in those areas have the same impact.

我希望這種情況不會減弱。我們正在努力爭取在那裡增加更多職缺。這些地點通常都是不費吹灰之力就能選到的，對我們來說，這些地點都是非常可預測且成功的。我們覺得我們在那裡建立了一個非常成功的特許經營體系，擁有很高的客戶忠誠度和巨大的成功，如果可以的話，我們希望再進一步發展。例如，我們正在努力在韓國和台灣等地開設更多分店。在台灣，由於分區和其他限制，這個過程需要很長時間，比在韓國還要長。雨水落在每個人身上。這些地區其他大型商場也產生了相同的效果。

Great. Thank you so much.

偉大的。太感謝了。

And your next question comes from Michael Lasser.

下一個問題來自邁克爾·拉塞爾。

Good evening. Thanks a lot for taking my question. Richard, are you seeing any evidence that you're attracting new members to your club as a result of the more lucrative credit card offer?

晚安.非常感謝您回答我的問題。理查德，你有沒有看到任何證據表明，由於信用卡優惠力度更大，你的俱樂部吸引了更多新會員？

Yes. And again, this is very early. We have seen in the tens of thousands of sign-ups or people that were members that signed up because of activities in Citi branches and bank branches. We've seen from the blogs, of course, the first few weeks of the blogs, all we saw was about the 30 minute waiting times are longer and other hassles like that. But the reality is, I would say it's still a small percentage, really. What I mentioned there was 730,000 new accounts. I would guess well less than 100,000, but call it 50,000 to 100,000, I'm guessing, would be that. A lot of it has to do with existing members that are seeing the value of that card when they walk in.

是的。再次強調，現在還為時過早。我們看到，成千上萬的註冊用戶或會員都是因為花旗銀行分行和銀行分行的活動而註冊的。當然，從部落格中我們已經看到，在部落格發布的最初幾周里，我們看到的都是關於等待時間延長（30 分鐘）以及其他類似麻煩的事情。但實際上，我認為這仍然只佔很小的比例。我剛才提到的是新增了73萬個帳戶。我估計遠少於 10 萬，但姑且算 5 萬到 10 萬吧，我猜就是這個數字。這很大程度上與現有會員有關，他們走進店裡時就能感受到這張卡的價值。

And do you have any plans to try and accelerate the sign-up on new members by raising awareness of the card through marketing efforts?

你們是否有計劃透過行銷活動提高人們對該卡的認知度，從而加快新會員的註冊速度？

We're doing that already, but maybe were not doing a good enough job. There's nothing else that we're doing right now. And when I say us, us and our partners, as well, because they're doing some things, as well. But we're getting the word out in a big way in the warehouse, with handouts, with signage. The word is getting out. And we are, again, as I mentioned earlier, we're beating our own expectations of what we had planned for these initial 14 weeks, if you will. And so we feel pretty good about it.

我們已經在這麼做了，但也許我們做得還不夠好。我們現在沒有做其他任何事情。我說“我們”，指的是我們以及我們的合作夥伴，因為他們也在做一些事情。但我們正在倉庫大力宣傳，發放傳單，張貼標示牌。消息正在傳開。正如我之前提到的，我們再次超越了我們自己對最初 14 週計畫的預期。所以我們對此感覺相當不錯。

And my follow-up question is, so you're beating your expectations on the credit card overall. You mentioned that spending for some of your larger customers on the card has been a little bit better and maybe picked up as a result of it. Yet your overall comps have been a little bit more sluggish in the last couple of months. So does that suggest that you're seeing either that marginal customer, that marginal member go away or some other behavioral change that's driving --

我的後續問題是，所以你這張信用卡整體表現超出了你的預期。您提到，由於這項政策，一些大客戶的信用卡消費情況有所好轉，甚至可能有所成長。然而，在過去的幾個月裡，你們的整體業績成長略顯疲軟。所以這是否意味著你看到的是邊緣客戶或邊緣會員的流失，還是其他一些行為變化導致了這種情況？

It's really hard to tell. Arguably, there's probably 50 different factors that impact sales every day and every week and every month and we try to look at the big picture here. We feel very good about what we're doing in merchandising-wise. We feel very good about what we have seen with the crossover to this. Our view has been, we don't think that many people left Costco because they can't use their American Express card. American Express is a great brand, and it was a great relationship for many years. But at the end of the day, they're coming to Costco because of our quality and our value.

很難說。可以說，每天、每週、每月都有大約 50 個不同的因素影響銷售，而我們試著從大局著眼。我們對自己在商品銷售方面所做的工作感到非常滿意。我們對目前看到的跨界融合效果感到非常滿意。我們的觀點是，我們認為並沒有多少人因為無法使用美國運通卡而離開 Costco。美國運通是一個很棒的品牌，我們多年來一直保持著良好的合作關係。但歸根究底，他們選擇來 Costco 是因為我們的產品品質和價格優勢。

And as you would well know, we get a lot of questions all the time, are we going to be impacted by the internet, losing some. The internet is taking from everybody. Our view is it takes a little less from us. And interestingly, when you look at the categories within our slightly lower sales over the last few months, the categories that have bucked that trend have been discretionary non-food categories, like apparel and housewares and electronics. Now when we look at food and sundries, we absolutely do not believe it's delivery services. We do absolutely believe it's deflation more than anything. But again, everybody takes a little piece of something. It's a little piece that we would rather have ourselves, or not lose.

如您所知，我們經常收到很多問題，例如網路是否會對我們造成影響，導致我們失去一些東西。網路正在從每個人身上奪走東西。我們的觀點是，這樣對我們要求會少一點。有趣的是，如果你看一下過去幾個月銷售額略有下降的各個類別，你會發現逆勢成長的都是非食品類商品，例如服裝、家居用品和電子產品。現在我們來看食品和日用品，我們絕對不認為這是送貨服務。我們絕對相信，這主要是通貨緊縮的問題。但話說回來，每個人都會從中分得一小部分。這是我們寧願自己擁有，或不想失去的一小塊東西。

But again, we feel good about what initiatives we've got going on. And again, when I talk about the new card being a reward to the member, based on their previous spending habits, 40% to 50% greater reward, that's big. When I talk about going from 1% to 2% on Costco purchases when they use that card, that's big. But it's not big overnight, where they just change their habits completely. You'll see it first in Business members, and that's where we have seen it.

但是，我們對目前正在進行的各項措施感到滿意。再說一遍，當我談到新卡是對會員的獎勵時，根據他們先前的消費習慣，獎勵會增加 40% 到 50%，這可是很大的獎勵。我說用這張卡在 Costco 購物可以享受從 1% 到 2% 的折扣，這可是很大的進步。但這不是一朝一夕就能徹底改變的。您首先會在企業會員中看到它，我們也正是在企業會員中發現了它。

Mind you, during the transition, there was probably a little loss of sales from some of those Business members in some cases. I'm sure American Express didn't sit around not doing anything. They're good at what they do and they were able to figure out how to get people. They're marketing elsewhere. But we think that our members at Costco, primarily for us, I think again, it's a lot of different things, different factors. And again, having gone to our budget meeting forever, but having gone every four weeks, just even in the last few, some of the initiatives I see going on merchandising-wise, I think we've got a lot of good things going on. Not that we're trying to solve a problem from yesterday. It's what we do every day.

請注意，在過渡期間，某些企業會員的銷售額可能會略有下降。我相信美國運通公司絕對不會坐視不管。他們很擅長自己的工作，而且他們也找到了吸引人才的方法。他們正在其他地方進行市場推廣。但我們認為，對 Costco 的會員來說，主要原因在於許多不同的因素。再說一遍，我們每四周都會參加預算會議，即使是最近幾次，我看到了一些在商品銷售方面正在進行的舉措，我認為我們有很多好事正在發生。並不是說我們試圖解決昨天的問題。這就是我們每天都在做的事情。

Thank you so much.

太感謝了。

And your next question comes from Dan Binder.

下一個問題來自丹賓德。

Hi. It's Dan Binder. Thanks. Just following onto your comment about the web taking a little bit from everybody. Does that change the way you think about your own web strategy and the type of items you're willing to put on and delivery times, et cetera, just to create greater convenience? Because price doesn't really ever show up on our screen as the major factor.

你好。他是丹·賓德。謝謝。我接著你剛才說的，網路會從每個人身上奪走一些東西。這是否會改變您對自身網路策略、願意上架的商品類型、交貨時間等的思考方式，從而創造更大的便利性？因為價格從來都不是螢幕上顯示的主要因素。

First of all, I don't see us -- yes, we're doing some things anyway. And are we doing more things? Absolutely. But we're not freaking out about it. We recognize that we're not going to be the provider. We may be the provider to somebody that wants to deliver, like an Instacard or a Google Express, but we're not going to be dropping off small items at our prices at your doorstep.

首先，我沒看到我們——是的，我們無論如何都在做一些事情。我們是否在做更多的事情？絕對地。但我們並沒有為此感到恐慌。我們明白我們不會成為服務提供者。我們可能會為一些想要送貨上門的人提供服務，例如 Instacard 或 Google Express，但我們不會以我們的價格把小件物品送到你家門口。

That being said, we have and we continue to add things. On the merchandise initiative side, we've added various sundries items and health and beauty aids items. And on the apparel, trying to get to a more treasure hunt. I think you're going to see big differences, literally in the next several weeks, of the types of hot items that you see on there on the nonfood side and that treasure hunt. I think that's probably the biggest single thing.

也就是說，我們已經並將繼續增加一些東西。在商品方面，我們增加了各種日用品和保健美容用品。在服裝方面，我們試圖營造一種尋寶的感覺。我認為在接下來的幾週內，你會看到非食品類熱門商品和尋寶遊戲類型發生很大的變化。我認為這大概是最重要的一點。

Operationally, there's a few things. We are by no means near one click. We recognize our site has had some challenges. You're going to see in the next few months a big improvement in the number of clicks. You're going to see in the next six or eight months, some big improvement on search. You're going to see a much streamlined returns process. We've never been big on convenience. Our success has been based on price and value, quality and quantity at the lowest possible price. We do appreciate that value also is convenience. We're going to greatly improve what we do. But it doesn't mean we're going to get something to you in two hours.

操作方面，有幾點要考慮。我們距離「一鍵點擊」還很遠。我們意識到我們的網站遇到了一些挑戰。接下來的幾個月裡，點擊量將會大幅提升。未來六到八個月內，搜尋功能將會有很大的提升。你會看到一個大大簡化的退貨流程。我們從來不太注重便利。我們的成功秘訣在於以盡可能低的價格提供價格和價值、品質和數量兼備的產品。我們明白，價值也體現在便利性上。我們將大幅改進我們的工作。但這並不意味著我們會在兩小時內把東西送到你手中。

And I think again, though, when I look at some of the things that we're doing internally, and I'm not trying to be cute here, but there are certain things I can't talk about yet. You will see some differences, and most of these differences are from an offensive standpoint, not a defensive standpoint. But we look at our core business of getting you into the store still is paramount to what we want to do.

不過，當我審視我們內部正在做的一些事情時，我又覺得，我並不是在故作姿態，但有些事情我現在還不能談論。你會發現一些不同之處，而這些不同之處大多體現在進攻方面，而不是防守方面。但我們認為，讓您進店仍然是我們最重要的核心業務。

And if I heard the numbers correctly, it sounded like the growth rate slowed a little bit this quarter on dot com. Any particular callouts in terms of merchandise that was offered this year, not last year, or any particular categories that are slower?

如果我沒聽錯的話，這季度網路產業的成長率似乎有所放緩。今年有哪些特別值得一提的商品是去年沒有推出的，或是有哪些品類銷售比較冷清？

I wasn't going to bring that up, only because I didn't want to sound defensive. But there were two things last year in electronics that were big. The iPhone 6, launched last year, was huge and the iPhone 7 launch was not is huge. And the other thing is last year was the introduction of the Windows 10. And there were two things, prior to a year ago comparison, a few months prior to that, people were waiting for the Windows 10 launch. And so you had a lot of pent up demand and the launch itself, compared to a year later. So those two things alone were part of that. That's frankly, I think, one of the bigger things.

我本來不想提這件事，只是因為我不想顯得像是在辯解。但去年電子產品領域有兩件大事發生。去年發表的 iPhone 6 非常火爆，而 iPhone 7 的發布規模則相對較小。還有一件事，那就是去年推出了 Windows 10。在與一年前的比較之前，還有兩件事：幾個月前，人們都在等待 Windows 10 的發布。因此，與一年後相比，當時市場積壓了大量的需求，而且產品發布本身也更加火爆。所以，光是這兩件事就構成了其中的一部分。坦白說，我認為這是件大事。

But again, as I've said jokingly and half seriously and have jokingly in the past, some of the things that we haven't done historically gives a great opportunity to do these And there's still some blocking and tackling, like a couple of things that I just mentioned. We have greatly improved our delivery, but it was from bad to better. It still takes too long. And again, we're not going to get something to you in two hours, but you're going to see logistically some things. And handling returns, particularly big-ticket returns, we haven't done a good job of that and that's already in process. So you will see some changes that will help.

但是，正如我過去半開玩笑半認真地說過的那樣，我們歷史上沒有做過的一些事情，為我們提供了一個很好的機會去做這些事情。而且，還有一些阻礙和阻礙，就像我剛才提到的幾件事。我們的配送服務有了很大的改進，但只是從糟糕到好轉的過程。還是太慢了。再次聲明，我們不可能在兩小時內把東西送到你手中，但從物流角度來看，你會看到一些東西。處理退貨，特別是大額退貨，我們做得不夠好，目前我們正在著手改進。所以你會看到一些有益的改變。

The biggest thing, though, is going to be the merchandise initiatives. And again, I think you're going to see, we have added items and we are adding some items. But we're not try to figure out what 20,000 additional items, because that's not what we're going to do. But there will be velocity items, or repetitive items, in sundries areas, as well. And you're right, when you look on your radar screen, price is not way up there. But I challenge anybody on the call to compare the exact branded items and a big basket of them, not just an occasional loss leader that some retailer or dot com may have out there. You're going to see, yes, it's savings here. But you'll be shocked how much savings. And again, we recognize, also, we've got to move a little direction, and we're doing that.

不過，最重要的還是商品推廣活動。而且，我想你會看到，我們已經添加了一些商品，並且正在添加一些商品。但我們不會去弄清楚另外 2 萬件商品是什麼，因為那不是我們要做的事。但雜項領域中也會有一些速度較快的物品，或是重複性物品。你說得對，當你查看雷達螢幕時，價格並不是首要考慮因素。但我挑戰所有參加電話會議的人，讓他們比較一下確切的品牌商品和一大籃商品，而不是某些零售商或網站偶爾推出的虧本促銷品。是的，你會發現這裡確實能省錢。但你會驚訝於能省下多少錢。而且，我們也意識到，我們必須朝著某個方向做出一些改變，我們正在這樣做。

Great. Thank you.

偉大的。謝謝。

Your next question comes from Karen Short.

下一個問題來自凱倫·肖特。

Hi. Thanks for taking my question. I guess it's hard to butcher my name, in general. I was just curious, on the gas impact, you gave the $0.02 impact. But I was wondering if you could give some color on how much of that was gas margin versus maybe weaker gallon comps, in light of fuel prices being down. And then I'm wondering, as price per gallon increases, I'm thinking it should obviously help traffic. Is that fair, or is there anything else to consider in terms of the state of the consumer or the competitive landscape? And then I had a follow-up.

你好。謝謝您回答我的問題。我猜想，一般來說，很難把我的名字念錯。我只是好奇，關於汽油的影響，你給了 0.02 美元的影響。但我很想知道，鑑於燃油價格下跌，您能否詳細說明一下，其中有多少是汽油利潤，又有多少是同店銷售下降導致的利潤損失。然後我就在想，隨著每加侖汽油價格的上漲，這顯然應該有助於緩解交通擁堵。這樣公平嗎？還是說，從消費者狀況或競爭格局的角度來看，還有其他需要考慮的因素？然後我還有後續跟進。

The gas was $0.04. Last year, we had very strong gas prices. The year earlier in Q4, we had very strong gas profits. So that's why a year ago, we didn't really talk about it a lot. This year, we actually beat our own internal budget by a little, a little, from the beginning of the year; but again, it was $0.04 a share lower than it was in Q4 a year ago. Generally, when prices go down, while it impacts some of these basis point percentage calculations, we make more money. When it goes up, we make a little less money, although I would say for the last couple of years, there's has been a new normal, where when prices went down, our view is retail gas overall, they'd lowered their prices, but not as much as they could have. And we lowered it more than that and were still able to benefit a little from it. So that was a positive.

汽油價格為每加侖0.04美元。去年，天然氣價格非常高。去年同期（第四季），我們的天然氣利潤非常強勁。所以，一年前我們很少談論這件事。今年，我們實際上比年初時略微超出了內部預算；但同樣，每股收益比去年第四季低了 0.04 美元。一般來說，當價格下跌時，雖然這會影響一些基點百分比的計算，但我們賺的錢會更多。油價上漲時，我們的收入會減少一些。不過，我想說的是，過去幾年出現了一種新的常態，油價下跌時，零售汽油的價格總體上有所下降，但降幅並沒有達到應有的水平。我們甚至把它降得更低，但仍然從中獲得了一些好處。所以這是個好消息。

I think it's a value proposition more than anything that gets people in our parking lot. And we're helped by the GasBuddy.coms out there that two years in a row, that they've done it. And then the 4% rebate. There's a lot of different promotional things at the majors out there, whether it's $0.10 a gallon off. 4% is big. As the price per gallon goes up, 4% gets bigger. And so I think that will be a positive for us, as well. But if you've been to our gas stations, when you've got, in some cases, 20 pumps now pumping at the same time and the lines move fast, but there will be six or eight people in each line, that not only drives the success of the gas business, but 51 or so of those people, for every 100, come in. And even if one of them is incremental, that's good for us.

我認為吸引人們把車停進我們停車場的，更多的是價值主張。我們也要感謝 GasBuddy.com，他們連續兩年都做到了這一點。然後還有 4% 的返利。各大加油站有許多不同的促銷活動，例如每加侖汽油減價 0.10 美元。4% 相當大。隨著每加侖汽油價格上漲，4%這個數字也會增加。所以我認為這對我們來說也是件好事。但如果你去過我們的加油站，你會發現，在某些情況下，現在有 20 個加油泵同時工作，隊伍移動很快，但每條隊伍裡只有六到八個人，這不僅推動了加油業務的成功，而且每 100 人中就有大約 51 人是真正來加油的。即使其中一項只是漸進式的，對我們來說也是好事。

And so can you give some color on what gallon comps were doing this quarter?

那麼，您能否介紹本季各加侖裝產品的表現如何？

I don't know if we do that. I know it continues to be higher than the US average. I'll get back to that answer in a minute. Somebody's looking it up for me. I believe it's in the mid-singles, unless I say otherwise.

我不知道我們是否會這樣做。我知道它一直高於美國平均水平。我稍後會回答這個問題。有人在幫我查。除非另有說明，否則我認為它應該在單曲榜中段。

Okay. And then just to clarify on your comments on deflation, I know you were talking that deflation in food, and then there was also deflation in fuel. So you had said that fuel prices should start to rebound in late fall, but deflation in food, are you, just to clarify, five or six more months in deflation in food? Is that what you're trying to say?

好的。然後，為了澄清你關於通貨緊縮的評論，我知道你指的是食品價格的緊縮，但燃料價格也出現了緊縮。所以你之前說過燃料價格應該會在秋末開始反彈，但是食品價格的通貨緊縮，為了澄清一下，你的意思是食品價格還要持續五六個月的通貨緊縮嗎？你想表達的就是這個意思嗎？

That's our best guess. Talking to the buyers, that's our best guess.

這是我們能做出的最佳猜測。和買家交談後，我們得出的最佳猜測是這樣的。

And can you call out any categories in particular?

能否具體指出哪些類別？

The biggest ones would be protein. And then you've got some other things. I was looking at my sheets here. Hold on a second. And this is just a year-over-year this past month. Walnuts are down 47%. That's our sell price. No, I'm sorry, that's our cost. Now a year ago, they had doubled from the prior year. So they're back where they were. Almonds, down 38%. Whole eggs, down 54%. Large eggs, down 53%. I'm just looking down the sheet of the top 50 items. Those things, particularly things like eggs, really add up.

其中最重要的就是蛋白質。然後你還有一些其他的東西。我剛才在看我的床單。稍等片刻。而這只是上個月的年比數據。核桃價格下跌了47%。這就是我們的售價。不，抱歉，那是我們的成本。一年前，它們的數量比前一年翻了一番。所以他們又回到原點了。杏仁價格下跌 38%。全蛋銷量下降 54%。大號蛋，銷量下降 53%。我正在查看前 50 名商品的清單。這些東西，特別是像雞蛋之類的東西，加起來真的不少錢。

On the inflation page, just for fun, there's some 20s and 30s. But if I look at the top 25 or so items, just in the last four weeks of the fiscal year, regular unleaded gasoline was down 12.8% and was over $3.5 million of credit, if you will, to LIFO. We don't book it every month like that, but that would have been $3 million. So the biggest items on the deflation sheet add to the LIFO credit of $2 million to $3.5 million, $2 million to $4 million. The biggest items on the inflationary sheet add $300,000 to $500,000 of LIFO charge. Again, it gives you a sense of where it's going.

在通貨膨脹頁面上，為了好玩，還放了一些 20 美元和 30 美元的鈔票。但如果我看一下前 25 名左右的商品，僅在本財年的最後四周，普通無鉛汽油的價格就下降了 12.8%，相當於向 LIFO 提列了 350 多萬美元的信用額度。我們不常這樣預訂，但那筆費用將達到 300 萬美元。因此，通貨緊縮表上的最大項目增加了後進先出法的200萬至350萬美元，200萬至400萬美元的貸方餘額。通貨膨脹表中最大的項目增加了 30 萬至 50 萬美元的後進先出 (LIFO) 費用。它再次讓你對事情的走向有所了解。

Again, another data point is the US inventories at LIFO. That's a US accounting concept. I look at the indices, where you start off costs on the exact items at the beginning of FY16 at 100.00, and what does it go to? Food is down 2.25%, with half of that, about 0.5% being in just the last couple of months. Sundries was about, down less than 0.5% and not terribly changed in the last three months. Apparel, almost right at the same, 100.00, a year ago, almost right there. Computers, you'd expect down, a little under 2%. So it's all over the board.

此外，另一個數據點是美國採用後進先出法（LIFO）的庫存。這是美國會計概念。我看了指數，其中 2016 財年初各項成本的起點為 100.00，然後它變成了什麼？食品價格下降了 2.25%，其中一半左右（約 0.5%）的降幅發生在最近幾個月。雜項支出下降了不到 0.5%，過去三個月變化不大。服裝，價格幾乎一樣，100.00，一年前，價格也差不多。計算機行業預計會下降，略低於 2%。所以情況五花八門。

Again, you have extreme categories, like meat, which is high-volume. But meat is also, we turn it so much faster. It has a higher turn. It turns, I would think, at more than 52 times a year. That's a deflationary item. If you have an inflationary item that is turning 8 times in non-foods, it's going to be a different story of how it impacts.

同樣，也有一些極端類別，例如肉類，它的銷量非常高。但肉類也是如此，我們翻台的速度快得多。它的轉彎半徑更大。我認為，它一年至少會轉動 52 次。那是一項通貨緊縮性商品。如果某種通膨商品在非食品領域週轉 8 次，那麼它的影響就完全不同了。

Any color on produce? That was one category you hadn't mentioned.

農產品有顏色嗎？這是你沒有提到的一個類別。

I didn't have that in front of me. It was not as big. I think it was in the low to mid singles.

我當時手邊沒有那個東西。它沒那麼大。我覺得應該是在單打中低水準。

Inflationary or deflationary?

通膨還是通貨緊縮？

It was up a little. Inflationary in the last few weeks.

漲了一點。過去幾週通貨膨脹加劇。

Got it. Okay. Thanks very much.

知道了。好的。非常感謝。

And your next question comes from Paul Trussell.

下一個問題來自保羅·特魯塞爾。

Good afternoon, Richard. First, just wanted to ask is there anything you've seen from Sam's Club or BJ's or other competition, whether it's on price or membership that you've felt like you needed to react to? And then second, I know it's been six or seven years since you've given guidance, but we're moving into a new fiscal year and just big picture, wanted to know if there's anything you can highlight that we should keep an eye on as we model out, whether it's traffic, comps, thoughts on LIFO, IT spend, payroll? Any help would be nice.

下午好，理查德。首先，我想問一下，您在山姆會員店、BJ's 或其他競爭對手那裡，有沒有看到任何關於價格或會員制度方面的舉措，讓您覺得需要做出回應？其次，我知道您已經六七年沒有給出指導意見了，但我們即將進入新的財政年度，從大局來看，我想知道您在建模時是否有任何需要我們關注的重點，例如交通流量、可比公司、對後進先出法的看法、IT支出、工資支出？非常感謝您的幫忙。

First of all, as a relates to competitive reaction, the answer is really no. We do that for a living daily and weekly, and they do it literally to the weekly comp shops in every market with direct warehouse club competition. And certainly, the fresh foods people do more direct pricing competition on sale items at supermarkets, particularly on holiday weekends and things like that and soda pop. But at the end of the day, if anything, our view is the moat has continues to get bigger. In other words, our competitive position, pricing-wise, is stronger than it's ever been. But we are not resting on that. We are constantly trying to figure out how to widen it. That's what we do.

首先，就競爭反應而言，答案是否定的。我們每天每週都靠這個謀生，而他們也確實在每個市場，與倉儲式會員店進行直接競爭，每週都對同類商店進行同樣的操作。當然，生鮮食品供應商在超市的促銷商品上會展開更直接的價格競爭，尤其是在假日週末以及汽水等商品上。但歸根究底，我們認為護城河反而變得更寬了。換句話說，我們在價格方面的競爭優勢比以往任何時候都更強大。但我們不會就此止步。我們一直在想辦法如何拓寬它。這就是我們所做的。

As it relates to guidance, we don't give guidance. The points of headwinds and tailwinds and anniversarying of headwinds and tailwinds, things that we talked about in the past, we're hopeful that from a simple FX standpoint, for two-plus year now, the dollar has strengthened year-over-year. So it was more than a one-year anniversary. There was an inflection point of late, although nobody knows what tomorrow brings on that. But it looks like it won't be as impactful negative to negative. We got through the headwind of the conversion. That should be a net positive. But I think it will be a net positive over the next few years and probably not easily calculable, but we will try to figure that out.

至於指導方面，我們不提供指導。過去我們討論過的順風和逆風以及順風和逆風的周年紀念日等因素，我們希望從簡單的外匯角度來看，兩年多來，美元已經逐年走強。所以這不僅僅是一周年紀念日。最近出現了一個轉折點，雖然誰也不知道明天會發生什麼事。但看起來它不會造成那麼大的負面影響。我們克服了轉換過程中的重重阻力。這應該是件好事。但我認為在未來幾年內，這將帶來淨收益，而且可能不容易計算出來，但我們會努力弄清楚這一點。

We know that we will improve our SG&A component of what I will call merchant and bank fees, in other words, things related to the new card offering. And again, we will be more quantitative as we get through the next couple of quarters and it's more definable than just for 14 weeks. But again, it's good and we look forward to doing that.

我們知道，我們將改善銷售、一般及行政費用（SG&A）部分，我稱之為商家和銀行費用，換句話說，就是與新卡產品相關的費用。而且，在接下來的幾個季度裡，我們會更加重視重量化分析，其結果將比僅僅針對 14 週的分析更加明確。但話說回來，這很好，我們期待這樣做。

I mentioned the international membership fee increases in those certain areas. And that's again, that will improve over a nearly two-year period by about $50 million pretax on the membership fee line. I imagine you'll see some of that offset on some of the margin line, although not from -- to be more competitive, but not reacting to the competition.

我提到了某些地區的國際會員費上漲情況。而且，在近兩年的時間裡，會員費所得稅前將增加約 5,000 萬美元。我想你會看到一些利潤率出現這種抵消，雖然不是因為——為了更具競爭力，而不是為了應對競爭。

I'm trying to think of other things. Gas, again, I think there's a (inaudible) in gas. There are going to be swings from time to time, but I don't think we're planning anything big. I think the other issue is we have, and some of you have heard this before, we have lots of little things that are positive for us that continue to drive value, whether it's pharmacy, optical, hearing aid, whether it's Costco Travel. These are all things -- our ticketing program in the warehouse, a new program which is brand new. We're just testing it in Southern California with Ticketmaster. You can go to costcotickets.com and check it out. But again, some real savings on high-end stuff.

我在努力想別的事情。再說一遍，我覺得「gas」這個字裡有個（聽不清楚）音。期間可能會有波動，但我認為我們沒有計劃採取任何重大措施。我認為另一個問題是，我們有很多對我們來說是積極因素的小事，這些小事不斷創造價值，無論是藥房、眼鏡店、助聽器店，還是 Costco Travel 服務。你們有些人以前也聽過這一點。這些都是我們倉庫的票務系統，一個全新的系統。我們正在南加州與 Ticketmaster 合作進行測試。您可以造訪 costcotickets.com 查看詳情。不過，高端產品確實能省不少錢。

And so there's a lot of things we're doing. We seem to have gotten some breakthroughs on the cosmetic side with SK-II. We hope that brings on others. But we're clearly, given some of the challenges that brick-and-mortar in that area are impacted by, we could sell the heck out of that stuff and provide great value to our members. And it's the kind of member that we believe that these manufacturers want. Now talking to myself, I've talked myself into. We've got to talk them into it.

所以我們正在做很多事情。SK-II 在化妝品領域似乎取得了一些突破。我們希望這能帶動其他人也能這樣做。但很明顯，考慮到該地區實體店面臨的一些挑戰，我們可以大力銷售這些產品，並為我們的會員提供巨大的價值。我們相信，這正是這些製造商想要的那種會員。現在我自言自語，我已經說服自己了。我們得說服他們。

In terms of gas stations, we continue to add gas stations and hearing aids, not just to new locations, but to existing locations. I would say all of those things help a little bit. Hello?

就加油站而言，我們將繼續增加加油站和助聽器，不僅在新地點，而且在現有地點。我認為這些因素都扮演了一定的角色。你好？

And then lastly, on IT modernization spending for this upcoming year.

最後，我們來談談來年的IT現代化支出。

We'll still have an impact, a hit to SG&A this year and probably into next year. I keep pushing it out a year. The amount I push it out keeps getting shorter. It used to be a couple of years I'd push it out, and then a year, and hopefully, it will be six months. But we are seeing deliverables. We are seeing lights at the end of the tunnel.

我們仍然會受到影響，今年的銷售、管理及行政費用將會受到衝擊，而且這種情況可能會持續到明年。我一直把期限延後一年。我把它推出去的長度越來越短了。以前我會拖延幾年，然後再拖延一年，希望這次能拖延六個月。但我們已經看到成果了。我們看到了隧道盡頭的曙光。

Our single biggest most expensive piece, which is the platform on which all the legacy buying systems and transportation systems, is they're in the process of being rewritten and improved, and I think you will get some real savings from some of those things. I know you will. And the first order of business is getting this in place. So these are big chunks.

我們最大的也是最昂貴的部分，也就是所有傳統採購系統和運輸系統所依賴的平台，目前正在進行重寫和改進，我認為您將從中節省一些真正的費用。我知道你會的。首要任務就是把這件事落實。所以這些都是很大的部分。

I can't tell you when that inflection point is going to be. A couple of years ago, I'd say at the end of 2014. I would guess that sometime in late 2016, early 2017. Today, I would say sometime in 2018, probably. And if it is a little longer, it's because we've got more things that we're doing, not because anything screwed up. We've already gotten past a lot of the screw up. We know what we're spending money on and we're seeing some deliverables, and there's more to do.

我無法告訴你那個轉折點何時會出現。大概是幾年前，也就是 2014 年底。我估計是在 2016 年底或 2017 年初。今天，我估計大概會在 2018 年的某個時候。如果時間稍微長一些，那是因為我們要做的事情變多了，而不是因為出了什麼差錯。我們已經克服了很多困難。我們知道錢花在了哪裡，也看到了一些成果，但還有更多的事情要做。

Thanks for the color, Richard.

謝謝你提供的色彩，理查德。

Your next question comes from [Shane] Naughton.

你的下一個問題來自[Shane] Naughton。

Just continuing on th merchandise trends, you were going over some of these things. You didn't mention organic food. Just curious how that's still performing for you. I know that's been a good growth driver. I think it's a margin enhancer. Are you seeing any tightness in supply? Are we experiencing the same sort of deflation in that category as you saw in the rest of the food across the store? Any commentary there on where that's going.

繼續聊聊商品趨勢，你剛才也提到了其中的一些內容。你沒提到有機食品。只是好奇它現在在你那裡表現如何。我知道這一直是推動成長的重要因素。我認為它能提高利潤率。您認為供應方面是否有緊張狀況？我們是否也像您在商店其他食品區看到的那樣，經歷了食品價格的通貨緊縮？對此有何評論？

Thank you for reminding me. No, I didn't call you to remind me. We expect organic to be up 20% this year. Now some of that will be some cannibalizing of some traditional, conventional. But no, and it's the perfect items for us, because it's our member. It helps us with Millennials, on top of that. We get that. It creates a bigger competitive pricing moat, because we have as good, if not better, quality at much better pricing.

謝謝你提醒我。不，我打電話不是為了提醒你。我們預計今年有機產品銷售量將成長20%。現在，其中一些做法將是對一些傳統做法的蠶食。不，這對我們來說是完美的商品，因為這是我們的會員。此外，它還有助於我們吸引千禧世代。我們明白。這能形成更大的價格競爭優勢，因為我們以更優惠的價格提供同樣好甚至更好的品質。

In terms of supply, I think the supply is starting to catch up with the demand out there. And I think you've heard me talk in the past about many of our global sourcing initiatives. I think that's going to continue to help us and make it more competitively advantageous to us. We have long-term relationships that we have had for a while now and have continued to build. And there's going to be pockets of supply issues on different items sometimes. But overall, we're doing a lot in that regard ourselves, whether it's produce with farmers, seafood, poultry, you name it.

就供應而言，我認為供應正在開始趕上市場需求。我想你們之前也聽我談過我們許多全球採購計畫。我認為這將繼續幫助我們，並使我們在競爭中更具優勢。我們與一些客戶建立了長期合作關係，並且一直在不斷發展壯大。某些商品有時會出現局部供應問題。但總的來說，我們在這方面做了很多工作，無論是與農民合作生產農產品，還是海鮮、家禽等等。

Okay. Great. And then another question. I think this is on a lot of people's minds, the membership fee increase, potential here in the US or Canada. I think we're close to the five-year anniversary mark. I think this is something, I know there's no schedule, but typically done every five to six years. Can you update us on your thought process there with respect to MFI in the US?

好的。偉大的。然後又問了一個問題。我認為很多人都在考慮這個問題，即會員費上漲，以及這在美國或加拿大的潛在影響。我想我們快要迎來五週年紀念日了。我認為這件事，我知道沒有固定的時間表，但通常每五到六年進行一次。您能否向我們介紹一下您對美國小額信貸機構的看法？

It would be US and Canada. I didn't say we can't say anything or give any direction on it, other than you're right, every five or six years, we've done something. I think the exact fifth anniversary of the last time would be this January. And the sixth anniversary would be the following January -- or this November, and the next November would be the sixth anniversary. Early this year, we simply just said is we're going to get through the credit card conversion first, which we have now done. And the only other comments I've made in the past is that when we look at our member loyalty, the impact that previous increases had on renewal rates and anything like that, it's really a non-issue. And when we do it, we, of course, use it to be more competitive. So it becomes a few year benefit, not a one-time benefit. But that all being said, we'll let you know when we know. We haven't made any decisions yet and really haven't talked about it a lot internally. We act pretty quickly when we do things.

應該是美國和加拿大。我並沒有說我們不能就此發表任何意見或給予任何指導，只是你說得對，每隔五、六年，我們都會做些事情。我認為上次發生這種情況的確切五週年紀念日應該是今年一月。第六週年紀念日將是隔年一月——或者今年十一月，而下一個十一月將是第六週年紀念日。今年年初，我們只是簡單地說，我們要先完成信用卡轉換，現在我們已經完成了。我過去唯一發表過的其他評論是，當我們審視會員忠誠度、先前的漲價對續費率的影響等等時，這實際上根本不是個問題。當然，我們這樣做是為了提高競爭力。因此，這變成了一項持續幾年的福利，而不是一次性福利。不過話說回來，一旦有了消息，我們會第一時間通知您。我們還沒有做出任何決定，內部也沒有就此進行過多討論。我們做事速度很快。

Okay. Real quick, the $50 million pre-tax on the international price hike that you did in a number of markets, that's over the 23 or 24 months, correct?

好的。簡單說一下，你們在多個市場進行的國際價格上漲，稅前金額為 5000 萬美元，這是在過去 23 或 24 個月內實現的，對嗎？

That would also be over 23 months, starting in September, now.

那也將持續23個月，從現在的9月開始。

Thank you.

謝謝。

Sure.

當然。

And your next question comes from Greg Melich.

下一個問題來自格雷格·梅利奇。

Hi. Thanks. I have a couple questions. One is, I just wanted to make sure I understood the dynamic of the new people signing up for the card. So it was 730,000 new sign-ups in just a couple months.

你好。謝謝。我有幾個問題。其一，我只是想確保我了解新用戶申請該卡的動態。短短幾個月內，新增註冊用戶就達到了 73 萬。

New accounts.

新帳戶。

Of new accounts. And so now that you're getting the payments for signing those people up, in terms of the SG&A, core ops may have deleveraged 6 basis points, but that's where the benefit of those sign-ups would have showed, so that the payroll may have deleveraged 10 or 12 and that that give you some net? Am I thinking about that the right way?

新帳戶。現在，既然你已經收到了簽約這些人的款項，那麼就銷售、一般及行政費用而言，核心運營可能已經降低了 6 個基點，但這正是這些簽約帶來的好處所在，因此工資支出可能降低了 10 或 12 個基點，從而為你帶來一些淨收益？我這樣想對嗎？

Yes. Although I believe, and again, there's different pieces. I look at it all pretty straightforward and simple. What is our effective merchant fee? Unfortunately, it doesn't all go on the SG&A line. There are certain items that benefit sales. I believe bounty is one of them. So bounty goes to sales, which improves your margin a little bit. So that might be a couple basis points in there. I haven't calculated it out. But yes, some of the offset, again, we're talking a small piece of a big bucket is still decent to us, but we're only in it for a few months.

是的。雖然我相信，而且再次強調，這其中包含不同的部分。我覺得這一切都非常簡單明了。我們的實際商家手續費是多少？遺憾的是，這些費用並不能全部計入銷售、管理及行政費用項下。有些商品有利於銷售。我認為賞金是其中之一。所以賞金會用於銷售，這會稍微提高你的利潤率。所以這可能佔了其中幾個基點。我還沒算過。但沒錯，雖然只是從一大桶錢中分得的一小部分，但對我們來說仍然不錯，不過我們只打算投入幾個月的時間。

Got it. And the headwinds from payroll, how much of that was related to some of the wage --

知道了。而工資方面的不利因素，有多少是與部分工資相關——

We do increases at the top of the scale every year. Every three years, we announce what it's going to be to our employees for the next three Marchs. This past March, we also, in the US and Canada, raised the bottom of the scale by $1.50. So $11.50 went to $13.00, and $12.00 went to $13.50. Just that piece, the $1.50 at the bottom of the scale, was, I believe, $39 million a year. Call it $40 million a year. That would be March to March. So through the early weeks of Q3, through the first month of Q3.

我們每年都會提高最高等級的薪酬。每三年，我們會向員工宣布未來三個三月的主題。今年三月，我們在美國和加拿大也將最低價格提高了 1.50 美元。所以 11.50 美元漲到了 13.00 美元，12.00 美元漲到了 13.50 美元。光是這一小塊，也就是秤盤底部的 1.50 美元，我相信，每年就是 3,900 萬美元。就以每年4000萬美元算吧。那就是從三月到隔年三月。因此，從第三季的前幾週到第三季的第一個月。

That's great. That's helpful. And then lastly, and thinking about how the card is being used, I know you said it's better than your expectations. Could you give us a little more color there, especially with the people that are new to the card, new to Costco with it, as to how much the card is being used outside of the club, now that people have it?

那太棒了。那很有幫助。最後，考慮到這張卡的使用情況，我知道你說過它比你預期的要好。您能否詳細介紹一下，特別是對於那些剛拿到會員卡、剛帶著會員卡在 Costco 購物的人來說，現在他們在俱樂部之外使用這張卡的頻率如何？

I'll be able to give you more color on that in the next quarter. What I can tell you is, one of the assumptions going into this, we want this card, just like we wanted our previous cobrand card, to be our members' top of wallet card. They're only using it here, they're using it everywhere. The fact that historically I could not use my other card, in my case, at my local dry cleaner or the local restaurant, if it is your top of wallet, there are more places you can use it. That grows that small merchant, whoever card is being used at that small merchant, they pay a higher merchant fee. There is this whole equation of cobranding and revenue share helps us. And so I believe we are already above what we were on the old card, in terms of outside to inside spent.

下個季度我會提供更詳細的資訊。我可以告訴大家的是，我們做出這個決定的一個前提假設是，我們希望這張卡，就像我們希望之前的聯名卡一樣，成為我們會員錢包裡的首選卡。他們不僅在這裡使用它，他們到處都在使用它。過去，我的另一張卡可能無法在當地乾洗店或當地餐廳使用。但如果這張卡放在錢包最上面，你就可以在更多地方使用它了。這樣一來，無論使用哪家銀行卡在小商戶消費，他們都需要支付更高的商家手續費。聯合品牌推廣和收益分成這套完整的模式對我們很有幫助。因此，我認為就外部支出與內部支出相比，我們已經超過了使用舊卡時的水平。

It's higher than it was after increasing it over a period of time. But we would have expected that. We would have certainly hoped it. But we would have expected it. I don't know think we knew what to expect to start with, but we probably are a little pleasantly surprised that it's already over that amount. And I think it will continue to grow.

經過一段時間的成長，它比之前更高了。但這也在意料之中。我們當然希望如此。但這也在意料之中。我想我們一開始並不知道會達到什麼程度，但我們可能有點驚訝地發現，實際金額已經超過了預期。我認為它會繼續增長。

Bob is whispering in my ear here, we cannot jump to conclusions on this. It's all of 14 weeks old. And as it relates to new people that signed up, again, it's in the tens of thousands out of that 730,000. It's not 100,000. It's not 200,000. And I actually haven't even looked at the data on that.

鮑伯在我耳邊低語，我們不能妄下結論。它才14周大。至於新註冊的用戶，同樣是 73 萬用戶中的幾萬人。不是10萬。不是20萬。我其實還沒看過那方面的數據。

Another good comment that Bob is making, late in the day here, it's been 14 weeks. Some of them signed up last week, or two weeks ago, I guess.

鮑勃今天晚些時候又發表了一條很好的評論，現在已經過去 14 週了。我猜他們當中有些人是上週或兩週前報名的。

And one last housekeeping. You said membership fee income was up 6% in US dollar terms. And what was it up in local currency?

最後還有一件要補充的。您提到會員費收入以美元計價成長了 6%。換算成當地貨幣是多少？

I believe it was the same. It was $47 million versus $50 million. But I think it's the same percentage increase.

我相信是一樣的。比數是 4700 萬美元對 5000 萬美元。但我認為成長百分比是一樣的。

Okay. Great. Thanks.

好的。偉大的。謝謝。

Why don't we take two more questions?

我們何不再回答兩個問題呢？

And your next question comes from Oliver Chen. Oliver, your line is open.

下一個問題來自 Oliver Chen。奧利佛，你的線已接通。

Can you hear me?

你聽得到我嗎？

Yes.

是的。

Hi, guys. Thanks. Richard, congrats on solid results. A lot of our survey data at Cowen does indicate that the Amazon Prime crossover has mathematically increased over a multi-year period. What would you highlight as some of the features of your story that make you unAmazonable for the long term? And as you do your consumer insight and your consumer research, are there aspects of your business model which you're wanting to be on top of, just to make sure that you continue to appeal with Millennials and Generation Z and as shopping habits shift?

嗨，大家好。謝謝。理查德，祝賀你取得如此優異的成績。Cowen 的大量調查數據表明，亞馬遜 Prime 的跨平台用戶數量在過去幾年中呈現數學成長趨勢。您認為您的故事有哪些特徵會導致您長期無法被亞馬遜接受？在進行消費者洞察和消費者研究的過程中，您是否希望掌控商業模式的某些方面，以確保在購物習慣轉變的情況下，您仍然能夠吸引千禧世代和 Z 世代？

I think the first piece of that question, as it relates to the Cowen Research piece they talked about, you guys have surveyed people over the last five or six years and how many people used to have just a Costco card and then how many people had just an Amazon account -- Amazon Prime. And of course, over time, Amazon has picked up a lot and there's not as many unique ones. We would have expected that. My family has an Amazon account. Although I don't let them buy a lot. Just kidding. At the end of the day, we would expect that.

我認為這個問題的第一部分，與他們提到的 Cowen Research 的研究有關，你們在過去五六年裡調查了有多少人曾經只有 Costco 會員卡，又有多少人只有亞馬遜帳戶——Amazon Prime。當然，隨著時間的推移，亞馬遜已經收購了許多商品，獨特的商品已經不多了。我們早就預料到了。我家有亞馬遜帳戶。雖然我沒讓他們買很多東西。只是在開玩笑。歸根結底，這也是我們所期望的。

The internet in general is going to take its percentage of different categories. It's going to impact different categories and different retailers of such categories at different levels. I've read the reports that some of you have written about that we and maybe one or two other retailers out there that are unique are Amazon-proof, or internet-proof. We don't buy that for a minute. We do believe that we do rely and we do expect we're going to be impacted less. We also don't believe we have to go crazy on the other side. We want both. But our value proposition is best served for us when it's in-store, getting members to come in and buying when they can see everything there that we have.

網路整體上會佔據不同類別所佔的百分比。這將對不同品類以及這些品類中的不同零售商產生不同程度的影響。我讀過你們中一些人寫的報道，報道說我們以及可能一兩家其他獨具特色的零售商是亞馬遜無法撼動的，或者說是互聯網無法撼動的。我們一點也不相信。我們確實相信我們會依賴它，我們也確實預期我們會受到較小的影響。我們也不認為我們必須走向瘋狂。我們兩個都想要。但對我們來說，最好的價值主張體現在實體店裡，讓會員進店購買，讓他們能夠看到我們所有的商品。

And so we think that we can win back on both parts. Have we lost a sale of something to an internet provider out there, whether it's Amazon or someone else? I'm sure we have. Have we gained more often than not? Absolutely. As the whole media business, videos, CDs and books, many years later, books for us is a new normal and it's still quite strong. Maybe it's 70% or 80% of what it used to be, but it's strong and growing. The other two have changed for a lot of reasons, including streaming.

因此，我們認為我們可以在兩方面都取得勝利。我們是否因為某些網路服務商（無論是亞馬遜還是其他公司）而錯失了一筆生意？我相信我們有。我們是否經常獲利？絕對地。就像整個媒體產業一樣，影片、CD 和書籍，多年以後，書籍對我們來說已成為一種新的常態，而且仍然相當強勁。或許只有以前的70%或80%，但它依然強勁且不斷發展。另外兩個變化的原因有很多，包括串流媒體的興起。

That being said, an area that a lot of traditional retailers are getting killed in our there is apparel. We are now in our third year averaging compounding over the nearly 3.5 year period in the low to mid teens, probably the mid teens, I don't have the numbers in front of me, and growing. I think on the fresh food side, we're glad that fresh is difficult. And we don't believe that everybody is going to have everything delivered. But we're going to work hard to make sure that they want to come to see us. As it relates to -- what was the last part of your question you were asking?

話雖如此，服裝領域是許多傳統零售商遭受重創的領域之一。現在我們進入了第三年，近 3.5 年的平均複利收益率在十幾到十幾之間，可能在十幾左右，我手頭上沒有具體數字，而且還在增長。我認為就新鮮食品而言，我們很高興新鮮食品很難獲得。我們並不認為每個人都能享受所有東西的送貨服務。但我們會努力確保他們願意來看我們。關於您剛才問的問題—您問題的最後一部分是什麼？

I'm curious about demographics and as you think about younger versus older in your core and where your age profile is shifting. The reality of new customers is this seamless shopping experience. And what you talked about earlier, Richard, in terms of the access of convenience being a factor in terms of that and what you're thinking as you modernize and continue to stay fresh with younger customers, as well.

我對人口統計很感興趣，想了解你們核心員工中年輕人和老年人的比例，以及你們的年齡結構正在發生怎樣的變化。新客戶真正追求的是這種無縫的購物體驗。理查德，你之前也提到過，便利性是影響因素之一，而你在進行現代化改造並不斷吸引年輕客戶時，也在考慮這個問題。

Again, we have our limits, by the way, on some of those realities. I think for a long time, again, convenience wasn't a word we even thought about. There are certain things that we're not prepared to do. Again, sell smaller sizes at our pricing and have everything in the world available to you. Part of our strength is what we do. I think going forward, even with Millennials, our success in organic didn't start by seven or 10 years ago us sitting around a table and saying, how are we going to go after this new generation that want this stuff? We have great merchants and great operators in eight different regions of the US and elsewhere and they're out there trying things. And every month as it got better, and in this case, the Bay Area region, their compatriots tried some things in other regions. We turn around and nobody can benefit as much and do it as big and as well as we do. And so I don't think we sat around strategically saying, how do we go after them? It evolved into that. Now that we're there, though, what else can we do for them, whether it's food items or other things?

順便說一句，我們對某些現實情況也是有限制的。我認為，很長一段時間以來，「便利」這個詞我們甚至都沒有想過。有些事情我們還沒準備好要做。再次強調，我們將以我們的價格銷售小尺寸產品，並為您提供世界上所有您想要的東西。我們的優勢之一在於我們所做的事情。我認為展望未來，即使是千禧世代，我們在有機食品領域的成功也不是在七年前或十年前我們圍坐在一張桌子旁說，我們要如何吸引想要這些東西的新一代呢？我們在美國及其他地區的八個不同地區擁有優秀的商家和營運商，他們正在積極嘗試各種方法。每個月情況都在好轉，尤其是在灣區，他們的同胞們也在其他地區嘗試了一些方法。我們轉身一看，沒有人能像我們一樣從中獲益良多，也沒有人能像我們一樣把事情做得如此規模大、如此出色。所以我覺得我們並沒有坐下來認真地討論如何對付他們？它逐漸演變成了那樣。既然我們已經到了那裡，我們還能為他們做些什麼呢？無論是食物還是其他東西？

Our membership marketing people had done a study recently, a presentation recently, and it showed whatever the previous generation was before it was a Gen whatever. And I know I'm one of those Baby Boomers, which is not a baby anymore. Our average age versus the US population just in three or four years has come down two years from a four-year gap to a two-year gap. Our goal is not necessarily to get it to a zero gap. Our goal is to drive more business.

我們的會員行銷人員最近做了一項研究，並做了一次演示，結果表明，上一代是某一代。我知道我是嬰兒潮世代，而嬰兒潮世代已經不再是嬰兒了。我們的平均年齡與美國人口的平均年齡相比，僅僅三、四年時間，就從四年的差距縮小到了兩年。我們的目標不一定是實現零差距。我們的目標是促進業務成長。

When we look at the age group of Millennials versus that same age group when the previous generation was that age, they're buying a little less, but not a lot less. When we look at what we did -- and these are, again, data points or sound bites, but when we look what we did 2.5 years ago on LivingSocial, and now we have a full year of renewals on them. It was very interesting. Clearly, we would have expected more of those people to be Millennials that signed up on that LivingSocial 10- or 12-day initiative that we did. And that was correct.

當我們比較千禧世代和上一代同一年齡層的消費情況時，會發現他們的消費量略有下降，但下降幅度並不大。當我們回顧我們所做的工作時——這些只是數據點或簡短的陳述，但當我們回顧我們 2.5 年前在 LivingSocial 上所做的工作時，現在我們已經完成了一整年的續約。非常有趣。顯然，我們原本預期參加 LivingSocial 10 天或 12 天活動的千禧世代會更多。沒錯。

What we were surprised at is that they actually shopped a little more frequently, bought a little less each time, but the aggregate of those two, they bought more over that year, a little more, in the low single digits, but it was more. It didn't have a bracket around it, and they renewed at a slightly higher rate than the walk-in people that same month that had come in on their own to sign up, just walking to the counter. And the people that walked in were, on average, a little older, about a 10 to 15 percentage point fewer penetration of Millennials. And so that was encouraging to us.

令我們驚訝的是，他們實際上購物的頻率略有增加，每次購買的商品數量略有減少，但這兩點加起來，他們那一年購買的商品數量反而增加了，雖然只增加了個位數，但確實增加了。它沒有附加條件，而且他們的續費價格比當月自行前來辦理、直接走到櫃檯辦理的人略高一些。而且，走進來的顧客平均年齡稍大一些，千禧世代的比例比之前低了約 10 到 15 個百分點。這對我們來說是一種鼓舞。

So while there are certainly extreme examples in New York and the Bay Area and Tech, there's a lot of people that still aren't embarrassed to tell you that they shop in store and we've got to have a lot of reasons to get you there. I am also excited of what we see we're going to be doing on dot com, but I'm not suggesting it's going to be trying to get your dinner there delivered to your doorstep if you order by noon. That's not going to be us.

所以，雖然紐約、灣區和科技圈肯定存在一些極端例子，但仍然有很多人毫不羞於告訴你他們喜歡在實體店購物，因此我們必須有很多理由才能讓你去實體店購物。我也很興奮我們即將在.com上做的事情，但我並不是說如果你在中午之前下單，我們就能把你的晚餐送到你家門口。我們絕不會那樣做。

Okay,. Thanks, Richard. That's super helpful. Last question is, we're really enthusiastic and encouraged by how well you've done with your store traffic, your core store traffic trends. Is your expectation for this study low single digit positive momentum to continue? Do you foresee that being somewhat volatile, just given the reality of traffic trends? And as we do our models, is there anything we should know as the Jet.com deal closes, as well? Thank you.

好的，。謝謝你，理查。這太有幫助了。最後一個問題是，我們對你們門市客流量和核心門店客流量趨勢的良好表現感到非常興奮和鼓舞。您預期這項研究的個位數成長動能會持續嗎？考慮到交通趨勢的實際情況，您是否預見到這種情況會有些波動？在我們進行模型建構的過程中，隨著 Jet.com 交易的完成，我們是否也應該了解一些資訊？謝謝。

With regard to the latter, if they're doing a little business with us, they'll probably stop doing a little business with us. There were a few items on there, I think, that they bought from us, but not a lot. What was the first question? I got off on a tangent there.

至於後者，如果他們和我們有一些小生意往來，他們很可能會停止和我們做生意。我想，上面有幾件他們跟我們買的東西，但不多。第一個問題是什麼？我剛才跑題了。

About store traffic, the store traffic trends.

關於門市客流量和門市客流量趨勢。

We look at all these things. We block and tackle every day. I'm very excited about our merchandising initiatives in-store, as well. I'm excited about some of the global sourcing stuff we're doing. We come back from our every four week budget meeting, we've got some neat stuff coming out. I'm excited. It's small. But being able to sell directly SK-II and selling a heck of a lot of it in terms of the total market of that product, and people are talking about it.

我們會考慮所有這些因素。我們每天都要進行阻擋和擒抱。我對我們店內的商品陳列舉措也感到非常興奮。我對我們正在進行的一些全球採購工作感到興奮。每四周一次的預算會議結束後，我們有一些很棒的成果即將公佈。我很興奮。它很小。但能夠直接銷售 SK-II 產品，就該產品的整體市場而言，銷售量非常可觀，人們都在談論它。

Again, over 90% of our members coming into a Costco buy a fresh food item. Those are the kind of things, how do we get you in store? Because if we get you in the store, you're going to buy a lot more. And we've seen that even with Google Express. That customer will shop a few less times in-store, shop several more times online, do both. They will buy a little more over the course of the year, but they're buying a lot more each time when they go in the store, because they see all that stuff. And so that's what we've got to keep doing.

再次強調，超過 90% 的 Costco 會員都會購買新鮮食品。就是這類事情，我們要如何讓您進店？因為如果我們能把你吸引到店裡，你一定會買更多東西。我們已經看到，即使是 Google Express 也存在這種情況。這位顧客會減少幾次實體店購物，增加幾次網上購物，或者兩者都做。他們一年下來會多買一些，但每次進店都會買更多，因為他們看到了那麼多東西。所以，這就是我們必須繼續做的事情。

I think the value thing, I would encourage to do your own pricing study of exact like items. Maybe you've got to adjust for quantity, because you've to got to buy 128 of something, 124 of something, instead of 24 of something. But at the end of the day, you'll be shocked the difference in pricing, not just here. And so we think we've got a lot of things going on for us. We have no illusion, though, that the internet is going away or that we should do more of it online ourself, as well. But clearly, we feel good about what we're doing in-store and what we're going to continue to do to drive that business.

我認為在價值方面，我建議您自己對類似產品進行價格調查。也許你需要調整數量，因為你得買128個或124個某種東西，而不是24個。但到最後，你會驚訝於價格差異，而且不僅僅是在這裡。所以我們認為我們有很多事情正在朝著好的方向發展。不過，我們並沒有幻想網路會消失，或者我們應該更多地在網路上進行活動。但很顯然，我們對目前在門市所做的工作以及我們將繼續採取哪些措施來推動業務發展感到滿意。

Thanks. The SK-II is going to be great. Baby Boomers and luxury shoppers are going to love it. So congrats on that, as well.

謝謝。SK-II肯定會很棒。嬰兒潮世代和奢侈品消費者一定會喜歡它。所以，也恭喜你。

Thank you.

謝謝。

And your final question comes from Brian Nagel.

最後一個問題來自布萊恩·納格爾。

Hi. This is Dan Farrell on for Brian Nagel. I was just wondering -- and thanks for sneaking us in, too. In terms of the membership benefits and some of the sales benefits you guys have been seeing after the new credit card sign-ups, I was wondering if you had any expectation on how long those would persist throughout the year?

你好。這裡是丹法雷爾，替布萊恩納格爾為您報道。我只是好奇問問——也謝謝你偷偷帶我們進來。關於會員福利以及你們在新信用卡註冊後看到的一些銷售福利，我想知道你們預計這些福利和福利會在一年內持續多久？

Well, your big hit is going to be in the first three or four months. Really, my guess is through Christmas. Because there's going to be a lot of people buying more items, bigger ticket items during that period of time. There will be additional initiatives like there were for 16 years, whether it's tabling activities or other marketing pieces that we will continue to do.

嗯，你的產品大賣期應該會在前三、四個月。我估計要到聖誕節才能結束。因為在那段時間裡，會有很多人購買更多商品，尤其是價格較高的商品。未來還會像過去 16 年一樣，繼續進行各種活動，例如擺攤宣傳或其他行銷活動。

I made a comment, probably six months ago, on one of these calls. In its own way, we think that this could be, in a way, a gift that keeps on giving. The value proposition of what we sell is great. Some of the new things that we have done merchandising-wise, whether it's our tickets, I'm not meaning the Costco tickets for events down in Southern California as a test, I'm talking about the ticketing programs the we have in store, the ever increasing quality of our fresh foods, what we've done in apparel. There's a lot of things going on that I think that will help us.

大概六個月前，我在一次這樣的通話中發表了評論。我們認為，從某種意義上說，這可能是一份持續帶來益處的禮物。我們銷售的產品具有極高的價值。我們在商品銷售方面做了一些新嘗試，無論是我們的門票（我指的不是南加州測試的 Costco 活動門票，而是指我們在店內推出的票務計劃），還是我們不斷提高的新鮮食品質量，以及我們在服裝方面所做的工作。有很多事情正在發生，我認為這些事情會對我們有幫助。

And again, I think the credit card, the new value proposition will be one of them. When you think about the fact that effectively, on virtually everything, you can get 4% off at Costco between -- if you're an Executive Member and use the cobranded Costco and Citi Visa Anywhere card. For a company that marks its goods up 10% or 12%, I would think that we can buy pretty well and put all our purchasing power in 3,700 items and then give you back up to 4% of that, that's a pretty good value. And we've seen that anecdotally in a big way already from businesses and I think we'll continue to see it.

而且，我認為信用卡這種新的價值主張將是其中之一。想想看，如果你是 Costco 的高級會員，並且使用 Costco 和 Citi Visa Anywhere 聯名卡，實際上幾乎所有商品都可以享受 4% 的折扣。對於一家商品加價 10% 或 12% 的公司來說，我認為我們可以以相當優惠的價格購買 3700 件商品，然後將其中高達 4% 的價格返還給你們，這相當划算。我們已經從企業中大量看到了這種現象，而且我認為這種現象還會繼續出現。

Okay. Great. And then just a follow-up regarding the transition. Did you see any inflection in sales of things like big-ticket items that people may have been holding off on early when the card was being transitioned, and then once the transition cards were activated, did you see any inflection in those items?

好的。偉大的。然後是關於過渡期的後續問題。在過渡期，人們可能因為等待而推遲購買一些高價商品，那麼過渡期結束後，這些商品的銷售是否出現了任何變化？過渡期結束後，這些商品的銷售是否出現了任何變化？

We did. Again, it's more dinner party discussion. The biggest area we saw was hearing aids, of all things. And of course, that's not Millennials. And the other thing would be big-ticket electronics and the like. And my guess is in the case of the hearing aids, I wouldn't be surprised, since there's a direct Costco employee member conversation, eye to eye, I wouldn't be surprised if there were some people out there that over the several weeks leading up it, they said, if you wait and use this card, you'll get another 2% off on a $2,000 item. So my guess is that that impacted that a little bit, too.

我們做到了。這更像是餐桌上的閒聊。出乎意料的是，我們看到的最大市場竟然是助聽器市場。當然，這指的不是千禧世代。另一類就是價格昂貴的電子產品等等。我的猜測是，就助聽器而言，我不會感到驚訝，因為這是 Costco 員工與會員之間的直接對話，面對面地進行。如果在活動開始前的幾週內，有人告訴顧客，如果你等到那時再使用這張卡，購買價值 2000 美元的商品，還可以再享受 2% 的折扣，我也不會感到驚訝。所以我猜想，這也對那件事產生了一定的影響。

And there are no further questions.

沒有其他問題了。

Okay. Thank you, everyone. Have good day.

好的。謝謝大家。祝您今天愉快。

That does conclude today's call. You may now disconnect.

今天的電話會議到此結束。您現在可以斷開連線了。