好市多 (COST) 2017 Q1 法說會逐字稿

Good afternoon. My name is Kimberlynn and I will be your conference operator today. At this time, I would like to welcome everyone to the Costco first quarter 2017 earnings conference call.

午安.我的名字是 Kimberlynn，今天我將擔任您的會議主持人。現在，我歡迎大家參加 Costco 2017 年第一季財報電話會議。

(Operator Instructions)

（操作員指令）

Thank you. Mr. Richard Galanti, CFO, you may begin your conference.

謝謝。財務長理查德·加蘭蒂先生，您可以開始您的會議了。

Thank you, Kimberlynn. Good afternoon to everyone.

謝謝你，金伯林。大家下午好。

Please note that these discussions will include forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. These statements involve risks and uncertainties that may cause actual 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 reports filed with 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.

請注意，這些討論將包括 1995 年私人證券訴訟改革法案所定義的前瞻性陳述。這些聲明涉及風險和不確定性，可能導致實際事件、結果和/或表現與這些聲明所示的存在重大差異。這些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，以及公司向美國證券交易委員會提交的公開聲明和報告中不時發現的其他風險。前瞻性陳述僅代表其作出之日的觀點，除非法律要求，否則我們不承諾更新這些陳述。

For the 12-week first fiscal quarter that ended two weeks ago Sunday, this past Sunday, earnings came in at $1.24 a share, up 14% or $0.15 a share over last year's reported earnings per share of $1.09. A few items to point out as was mentioned in today's release.

截至兩週前的周日（即上週日）的第一個財政季度的 12 週收益為每股 1.24 美元，比去年報告的每股 1.09 美元收益增長 14% 或每股 0.15 美元。今天的發布中提到了幾點需要指出。

This year's first quarter benefited from a nonrecurring $51 million legal settlement. This $51 million pretax figure represented a 19 basis point benefit to gross margin, and a benefit to first quarter's earnings per share of $0.07 a share. Last year in the first quarter, there were two nonrecurring items that we mentioned that together, negatively impacted last year's earnings results. In that quarter, we recorded a $22 million pretax charge which represented an 8 basis point impact to SG&A to the negative and a reduction in last year's first quarter earnings of $0.04 a share.

今年第一季受惠於一筆 5,100 萬美元的非經常性法律和解金。5,100萬美元的稅前數字意味著毛利率上升了19個基點，並且第一季每股收益上升了0.07美元。去年第一季度，我們提到了兩個非經常性項目，它們共同對去年的獲利結果產生了負面影響。在該季度，我們記錄了 2,200 萬美元的稅前費用，這對銷售、一般及行政開支產生了 8 個基點的負面衝擊，並導致去年第一季每股收益減少 0.04 美元。

Stock compensation expense was 13% or $25 million higher year over year, so $0.04 a share more. There are about 4,800 people of our employees that receive restricted stock units as a significant part of their annual compensation. These grants are made annually each October in our fiscal first quarter, and then typically vest over a five-year period with accelerated vesting when the recipient reaches 25, 30 and 35 years of employment with the Company.

股票薪資費用比去年同期增加了 13%，即 2,500 萬美元，即每股增加 0.04 美元。我們約有 4,800 名員工獲得限制性股票單位作為其年度薪酬的重要組成部分。這些授予在我們每年財政季度的第一季的十月進行，然後通常在五年內歸屬，當接受者在公司工作達到 25、30 和 35 年時加速歸屬。

Factors driving this increase included additional levels of accelerated vesting given the rising number of our employees achieving long tenure with the Company. An increased stock price with a five-year ago grant coming off of the thing when the stock price was in the $80s to last year's grant when the stock price was in the $150s. And of course, having a larger number of employees in the plan.

推動這一成長的因素包括由於在公司任職長期的員工數量不斷增加而增加的加速歸屬水準。股價上漲，五年前的授予時股價為 80 美元左右，而去年的授予時股價約為 150 美元。當然，計畫中還要有更多的員工。

Note that the $25 million year-over-year increase in Q1 is a larger year-over-year dollar increase than we'd expect to record in each of the second, third and fourth fiscal quarters of this year given the October RSU grant cycle. Next gas profitability, our profits from gas during the quarter as compared to last year's first quarter were lower by about $20 million pretax or $0.03 a share, primarily a function of last year's very strong profit results in the first quarter for gas.

請注意，考慮到 10 月的 RSU 撥款週期，第一季 2500 萬美元的同比增長幅度高於我們預計今年第二、第三和第四財季的同比增長幅度。接下來是天然氣獲利能力，本季我們的天然氣利潤與去年第一季相比，稅前下降了約 2,000 萬美元，即每股 0.03 美元，這主要是由於去年第一季天然氣利潤非常強勁。

Fifth, IT costs. These expenses negatively impacted SG&A in the first quarter on an incremental year-over-year basis by about $18 million or 5 basis points of SG&A, which is about $0.025 per share. Lastly, when I get to the discussion on year-over-year gross margin and SG&A comparisons, I'll review with you the very positive impact that our new Citi Visa deal has had on margins, SG&A and of course our bottom line.

第五，IT成本。這些費用對第一季的銷售、一般及行政費用產生了負面影響，與去年同期相比增加了約 1,800 萬美元，即銷售、一般及行政費用 5 個基點，約合每股 0.025 美元。最後，當我討論同比毛利率和銷售、一般及行政費用對比時，我會和大家一起回顧一下我們新的花旗 Visa 交易對利潤率、銷售、一般及行政費用以及我們的底線產生的非常積極的影響。

Turning to the first-quarter sales, total reported sales were up 3% and our 12-week reported comparable sales figure on a reported basis came in at 1% year over year. Comp sales were negatively impacted by weaker FX relative to the US dollar and slightly impacted by gas price deflation, for a combined negative impact reported comp number of about 0.75% of sales.

談到第一季的銷售情況，報告的總銷售額成長了 3%，報告的 12 週可比銷售額年增了 1%。同店銷售額受到外匯兌美元走弱的負面影響，並受到汽油價格通貨緊縮的輕微影響，合計負面影響約佔同店銷售額的 0.75%。

Excluding gas deflation, the reported 1% US comp figure for Q1 remained at 1%. The reported Canadian comp figure of plus 4% would have been plus 5% ex gas deflation and FX, and the reported 0% other international comp figure excluding gas and FX would have been plus 3%.

不包括天然氣通貨緊縮，報告的第一季美國 1% 可比數據仍為 1%。所報告的加拿大同店銷售額為正 4%，扣除天然氣通貨緊縮和外匯因素後應為正 5%，而所報告的不包括天然氣和外匯的其他國際同店銷售額為 0%，應為正 3%。

Total comps reported at 1% for the quarter, again excluding gas and FX, would have been plus 2%. And of course this plus 2% total Company adjusted figure is also being impacted by increases in deflation and other merchandising categories overall, primarily foods and hardlines.

本季度報告的總可比銷售額增長 1%，如果不包括天然氣和外匯，則增長 2%。當然，這一數字加上公司調整後的總數字 2% 也受到通貨緊縮和其他商品類別（主要是食品和耐用品）整體成長的影響。

In terms of new openings, in the first quarter we opened nine new locations which included one relo, so a net increase of eight. And later in the call, I will discuss our upcoming expansion plans for the balance of the fiscal year. This afternoon I'll also touch on membership trends and renewal rates, again, discuss margins and SG&A in Q1, update on the Citi Visa, the new Citi Visa relationship and the card and which we began offering in the US and Puerto Rico this past June 20 during the fiscal fourth quarter of 2016, talk about e-commerce and then a couple of other items of note.

在新店開幕方面，第一季我們開設了 9 家新店，其中包括 1 家重新開店，因此淨增 8 家。稍後在電話會議上，我將討論我們本財年剩餘時間的擴張計劃。今天下午，我還將談談會員趨勢和續訂率，再次討論第一季的利潤率和銷售、一般及行政費用，以及花旗 Visa 的最新情況、新的花旗 Visa 關係和信用卡，以及我們於 2016 財年第四季度（6 月 20 日）開始在美國和波多黎各提供的信用卡，討論電子商務以及其他幾個值得注意的事項。

So going down the income statement, again, sales for the first quarter, the 12 weeks ended November 20 were $27.5 billion, up 3% from last year's first quarter of $26.6 billion. And again on a comp basis, reported 1% and ex-gas and FX up 2%, again that up 2% still being impacted by other aspects of deflation that we hadn't called out historically.

因此，從損益表中可以看出，第一季的銷售額，截至 11 月 20 日的 12 週為 275 億美元，比去年第一季的 266 億美元成長 3%。再次從可比較價格來看，報告顯示成長 1%，扣除汽油和外匯因素後上漲 2%，這 2% 仍然受到我們歷史上未曾指出的通貨緊縮的其他方面的影響。

For the quarter, the plus 1% reported comp results were a combination of an average transaction decrease of 1.3% on a reported basis and an average shopping frequency increase of 2.2% to the positive. Now the average transaction decrease of 1.3%, this includes, again, the combined headwinds of FX and gas that I mentioned which is about 0.75% and I'm sure other levels of deflation in other categories. I will give some example of that later in the call.

本季度，報告的 1% 的同比增長是由報告基礎上平均交易量下降 1.3% 和平均購物頻率增加 2.2% 共同構成的。現在平均交易量下降了 1.3%，這再次包括我提到的外匯和天然氣的綜合阻力，約為 0.75%，而且我確信其他類別的通貨緊縮程度也不同。我稍後會在電話中給出一些例子。

In terms of sales comparisons by geographic region, within the US, Northwest Texas and Midwest showed the best results. Internationally in local currencies, better performing countries were Mexico, UK and Korea.

從按地理區域劃分的銷售額比較來看，在美國，德州西北部和中西部地區的業績最佳。從國際上以當地貨幣計算，表現較好的國家為墨西哥、英國和韓國。

In terms of merchandise categories for the quarter, in terms of sales for those. Within food and sundries, overall flat year over year with spirits, sundries and deli coming in best. Tobacco of course, as I mentioned in the last call, was down a little over 20% year over year as we continue to see lower sales in that category. As I mentioned before, these big tobacco declines should anniversary this coming spring.

就本季的商品類別而言，就其銷售額而言。在食品和雜貨方面，整體與去年同期持平，其中烈酒、雜貨和熟食表現最佳。當然，正如我在上次電話會議中提到的那樣，菸草的銷售額比去年同期下降了 20% 多一點，因為我們看到該類別的銷售額持續下降。正如我之前提到的，菸草銷售量的大幅下降應該會在今年春天週年紀念日。

For hard lines, also flat year over year. The departments with the strong results were hardware, tires and health and beauty aids. I give you an example of deflation which is impacting this department. In November, for example, our reported November sales, TV sales in dollars were up 2% and in units were up 17%, so quite a bit of deflation on the big-ticket items as well as some of the fresh food items that I mentioned earlier.

對於硬線而言，年比也持平。業績表現強勁的部門是五金、輪胎以及健康和美容輔助品。我舉一個通貨緊縮正在影響這個部門的例子。以我們報告的11月份銷售額為例，電視銷售額以美元計算增長了2%，以台數計算增長了17%，因此高價商品以及我之前提到的一些新鮮食品的銷售額都出現了相當大的通貨緊縮。

Within soft lines, up low single digit comps, with apparel, small electrics and special events being the standouts. Within fresh foods, produce and deli were the strongest departments. And in ancillary businesses, hearing aids and optical showed the best results. In recent months, we've seen additional deflation overall in the low to mid-single digit range in many food and fresh meat categories and a little more in some of the other non-food areas as I mentioned, like electronics.

在軟線內，低個位數的比較，其中服裝，小型電器和特殊活動表現突出。在新鮮食品中，農產品和熟食是最強的部門。在輔助業務中，助聽器和眼鏡業務表現最佳。最近幾個月，我們看到許多食品和鮮肉類別的通貨緊縮總體上處於低位到中位個位數範圍內，而正如我所提到的，其他一些非食品領域（如電子產品）的通貨緊縮幅度則更大。

Moving to the line items in the income statement, membership fees, good results for the first quarter coming in up 6% and 6 basis points as a percent of sales, or up $37 million year over year. In terms of membership fees, good renewal rates, 90% US and Canada, or actually 90.3%, and 88% worldwide rounding up to 88%.

轉到損益表中的項目，會員費第一季度取得了良好的成績，增長了 6%，佔銷售額的 6 個基點，比去年同期增加了 3700 萬美元。以會員費來說，續約率還不錯，美國和加拿大是90%，其實是90.3%，全球是88%，四捨五入就是88%。

Continued increasing penetration of the executive membership, and in terms of the number of members at Q1 end, compared to fiscal year end 12 weeks earlier, Gold Star which stood at 36.8 million accounts, at Q1 end it was 37.1 million. Primary business was 7.3 million, both at fiscal year end and at Q1 end. Business add ons, 3.5 million and 3.5 million. For total household memberships, 47.6 million at fiscal year end and up to 47.9 million at first quarter end. And given that many of the people have two cards, many of the accounts have two cards, at fiscal year end we stood at 86.7 million cardholders, and at first quarter end 87.3 million people with a membership card.

高級會員的滲透率持續提升，以第一季末的會員數量來看，與 12 週前的財年末相比，金星會員數量從 3,680 萬個增加到 3,710 萬個。截至財年末及第一季末，主營業務均為 730 萬。商業附加價值，350 萬和 350 萬。就家庭會員總數而言，財年末為 4,760 萬，第一季末為 4,790 萬。由於許多人都有兩張卡，許多帳戶都有兩張卡，因此，截至財年末，我們的持卡人數量為 8,670 萬，截至第一季末，擁有會員卡的人數為 8,730 萬。

At the November 20 first quarter end, executive members stood at 17.7 million member households, an increase of 348,000 since the end of the previous quarter. That's about 29,000 additional executive members per week increase during the 12-week quarter. As I've said before, executive members are a little over third of our base and a little bit more than two-thirds of our sales where executive members are offered.

截至11月20日第一季末，執委會會員戶數達1,770萬戶，較上一季末增加34.8萬戶。這意味著在這 12 週的季度中，每週將增加約 29,000 名高階主管。正如我之前所說，高級會員占我們基礎會員的三分之一多一點，高級會員銷售額占我們高級會員銷售額的三分之二多一點。

In terms of renewal rates, our business renewal rate, which at fiscal year end stood at 94.4% came in at 94.3% renewal rate as of first-quarter end. Gold Star at 89.5%, both at fiscal year end and at the first quarter end. For total 90.3% at fiscal year end, and it remained at 90.3% at first quarter end. Worldwide at year end it was 87.6% and it ticked to 87.5% at first quarter end.

在續約率方面，我們的業務續約率在財年末為 94.4%，截至第一季末的續約率為 94.3%。財政年度末和第一季末的金星評級均為 89.5%。財年末總計 90.3%，第一季末仍維持在 90.3%。截至年底，全球範圍內該比例為 87.6%，而截至第一季末，該比例上升至 87.5%。

As you know, it's been probably almost two years in Canada when we converted to the MasterCard. And with that, we saw, as we would have expected, a slight decline in the renewal rate. As occurred in Q4 2016 this past summer, we saw that finally reverse and saw an uptick in renewal rates in Canada and that continued in Q1 of this fiscal year too. We are now seeing the same thing in the US. It ticked down a little bit over the last couple of quarters and it ticked down a little bit as well in Q1. We don't see any issues there at this point.

如你所知，我們在加拿大轉換萬事達卡大概已經兩年了。正如我們所預料的，我們看到續約率略有下降。正如去年夏天 2016 年第四季發生的情況一樣，我們看到這種情況終於出現逆轉，加拿大的續保率出現上升，而這種趨勢在本財年第一季也持續了下去。我們現在在美國看到了同樣的情況。在過去幾個季度中，該數字略有下降，並且在第一季也略有下降。目前我們沒有發現任何問題。

Regarding membership fees, at the beginning of this past September, or beginning of our fiscal year, we increased membership fees in our Asia operations, Taiwan, Korea and Japan, as well as in Mexico and the UK. Again, that's due to deferred accounting. It's about 15% of our membership fee income base, and due to deferred accounting and the fact that it will roll in over the next 12 months in September, that will be a little less than $0.01 a share a quarter.

關於會員費，在今年九月初，也就是我們財政年度開始時，我們提高了亞洲業務、台灣、韓國和日本以及墨西哥和英國的會員費。再次，這是由於遞延會計造成的。這約占我們會員費收入基數的 15%，並且由於遞延會計以及它將在 9 月份在未來 12 個月內滾動到賬，因此每季度每股收入將略低於 0.01 美元。

Before continuing down the income statement line items, a quick update on the Citi Visa card offering. This past June 20 midway through the fourth quarter of FY16, we stopped accepting AMEX, American Express, at all US and Puerto Rico Costcos and at Costco.com, and begin accepting all Visa cards including of course the new Citi Visa Anywhere card. The new card is great in terms of increased cash back rewards for our members and that's great for us as well in terms of driving member value and sales over the next years, and of course lowering our effective merchant fees related to the new program.

在繼續閱讀損益表項目之前，先來快速了解一下花旗 Visa 信用卡的發行情況。今年 6 月 20 日，即 2016 財年第四季中期，我們停止在美國和波多黎各的所有 Costcos 以及 Costco.com 接受 AMEX 和美國運通卡，並開始接受所有 Visa 卡，當然包括新的花旗 Visa Anywhere 卡。新卡的優點在於可以增加我們會員的現金回饋獎勵，這對我們來說也非常有利，可以在未來幾年提高會員價值和銷售量，當然還可以降低與新計劃相關的實際商家費用。

In terms of new card, as was mentioned over the last couple of quarters on these calls, there were approximately 11.4 million AMEX American Express co-branded cards or about 7.5 million accounts that were transferred from American Express to Citi for conversion to the new Citi Visa Anywhere card. Over 85% of the accounts transferred over have been activated, and since the June 20 cut over several months ago we have 1 million members that have signed up for and have been approved for the new Citi Visa card. Most of them have it in hand, but to the extent that it was the last couple of weeks, they may not have gotten their card yet. In terms of conversion, usage and new sign-ups for the card, all good so far.

就新卡而言，正如過去幾季在電話會議上所提到的那樣，大約有 1140 萬張 AMEX 美國運通聯名卡或約 750 萬個帳戶從美國運通轉移到花旗銀行，以轉換為新的花旗 Visa Anywhere 卡。轉入的帳戶中已有超過 85% 被激活，自幾個月前 6 月 20 日轉入以來，我們已有 100 萬會員註冊並獲得新花旗 Visa 卡的批准。他們中的大多數人已經拿到了卡，但由於時間已經過去了幾週，他們可能還沒有拿到卡。就該卡的轉換、使用和新註冊而言，到目前為止一切都很好。

Now turning to gross margin. Our reported gross margin in the first quarter was higher year over year by 29 basis points, coming in at 1,158 this year versus 1,129 last year. As usual, I'll have you jot down for the quarter a few numbers. We'll just make the two columns for the quarter, reported and without gas deflation.

現在來談談毛利率。我們報告的第一季毛利率年增了 29 個基點，今年為 1,158，去年為 1,129。像往常一樣，我會讓你記下本季的幾個數字。我們僅針對該季度製作兩欄，報告且不包括氣體通貨緊縮。

In terms of core merchandising, year over year in the first quarter, core merchandising was up 19 basis points, up 16 without gas deflation. Ancillary businesses down 5%, minus 5% year over year and for the quarter, minus 6% without deflation. 2% reward, minus 2% in the quarter, or on a reported basis, minus 1% without gas deflation. LIFO minus 2% and minus 2%. Other, which is the big one-time nonrecurring benefit we got from a litigation settlement plus 19 basis points both for the reported and without gas.

就核心商品銷售而言，第一季核心商品銷售年增 19 個基點，若不考慮天然氣緊縮因素則上漲 16 個基點。輔助業務下降 ​​5%，比去年同期下降 5%，若不計通貨緊縮因素，本季則下降 6%。2%的獎勵，每季減去2%，或依報告方式減去1%，不減去gas通貨緊縮。後進先出法減 2% 和減 2%。其他，是我們從訴訟和解中獲得的巨額一次性非經常性收益，加上報告的和不含天然氣的 19 個基點。

All told for the quarter, we reported again a 29 basis-point improvement and ex-gas deflation, 26 basis points. So overall again, 26 basis points up on an ex-gas basis. The core merchandise component was higher by 19 basis points year over year, and again 16 without the gas deflation.

就本季而言，我們再次報告了 29 個基點的改善和 26 個基點的天然氣通貨緊縮。因此總體而言，不含天然氣價格上漲了 26 個基點。核心商品成分較上年同期上漲了 19 個基點，若不計入天然氣通貨緊縮因素，則上漲了 16 個基點。

The majority of the core gross margin increase, and I'm already taking out -- we've separated out already the one-time legal settlement, about 13 basis points of that 16, if you will, was due to higher year-over-year revenue share and bounties associated with the new Citi Visa agreement. Some of those monies go to the revenue line as revenue share.

核心毛利率的大部分成長（我已經將其中的一次性法律和解金分離出來）大約佔 13 個基點，這 16 個基點是由於與花旗銀行簽署的新 Visa 協議帶來的同比收入份額和獎金增加。其中一部分資金將作為收入分成進入收入線。

The gross margin of our -- notwithstanding that, the gross margin of our core merchandising categories which are the food and sundries, hardlines, softlines and fresh foods. That gross margin as a percent of their own sales were higher year over year in the first quarter by 17 basis points. With food and sundries, hardlines and fresh foods all showing higher year-over-year margins, and softlines being down a little bit year over year. I know one of the impacts was the warmth of the season and outerwear issues.

儘管如此，我們的核心商品類別的毛利率仍是食品和雜貨、五金製品、紡織品和新鮮食品。第一季度，毛利率佔其自身銷售額的百分比比去年同期高出 17 個基點。食品和雜貨類、耐用品和新鮮食品的利潤率較去年同期均有所上升，而軟性食品的利潤率則較去年同期略有下降。我知道其中一個影響是季節的溫暖和外套問題。

Ancillary and other business gross margin was down 5 basis points, 6 basis points ex-gas deflation in the quarter. All a function of lower year-over-year gas profits, as I discussed earlier in the call. Ex-gasoline operations, all other ancillary and other business gross margins were up 6 basis points.

本季輔助和其他業務毛利率下降 5 個基點，扣除天然氣通貨緊縮因素則下降 6 個基點。正如我早些時候在電話會議中所討論的那樣，這一切都是由於天然氣利潤同比下降造成的。除汽油業務外，所有其他輔助業務和其他業務的毛利率均上漲了 6 個基點。

2% reward, again ex-gas, a negative impact of 1 basis point, and that's to the margin. That's the sales penetration and the associated executive member rewards for where executive members continue to grow.

2% 的獎勵（同樣不包括汽油費）會產生 1 個基點的負面影響，這就是利潤。這就是銷售滲透率以及相關的高階主管成員獎勵，推動高階主管成員不斷成長。

LIFO in the first quarter this year we did not book a LIFO credit or charge compared to a 2 basis point positive or $5 million pretax credit last year in the quarter. And lastly, the one-time nonrecurring legal settlement, this benefited Q1 gross margin by 19 basis points as we discussed at the beginning of the call.

今年第一季度，我們並沒有登記後進先出法 (LIFO) 信用額或費用，而去年第一季則為 2 個基點或 500 萬美元的稅前信用額。最後，一次性非經常性法律和解，正如我們在電話會議開始時所討論的那樣，這使第一季的毛利率提高了 19 個基點。

Moving on to SG&A, our SG&A percentage in the first quarter year over year was higher by 16 basis points on a reported basis and by 13 basis points ex-gas deflation. Again, I'll have you just jot down a few line items.

談到銷售、一般及行政費用，我們第一季的銷售、一般及行政費用百分比同比上升了 16 個基點（按報告基礎計算），扣除天然氣通貨緊縮因素後上升了 13 個基點。再次，我請你記下幾個項目。

Core operations for the quarter was higher or a negative 8 basis points, and without gas a negative 6. Central, higher by 9 and 9, both reported and without the gas deflation. Stock compensation expense, minus 7 and minus 6. Other, plus 8 and plus 8, that's that rough $20 million or $22 million amount that I told you about earlier in the call that impacted SG&A to the positive last year versus nothing this year. Again, reported SG&A was higher by 16 basis points in the quarter, higher by 13 ex-gas deflation.

本季核心業務成長或下降 8 個基點，不包括天然氣業務則為下降 6 個基點。股票薪酬費用，減 7 和減 6。再次，本季報告的銷售、一般及行政開支上升了 16 個基點，扣除天然氣通貨緊縮因素後上升了 13 個基點。

The core operations component of SG&A, again in the chart shows 8% higher -- I'm sorry, 8 basis points higher year over year reported and 6 ex-gas. This minus 6 consisted of higher payroll and benefits of about 31 basis points year over year. That's certainly impacted by the lower sales result and certainly that's impacted by the deflation. And I'll give you a couple examples of that later. This was primarily offset by lower year-over-year merchant fees as a result of the switch to Citi Visa. That had a benefit to the SG&A line of plus 25 basis points impact to the positive.

圖表中再次顯示，銷售、一般及行政開支的核心運營部分增長了 8％ - 抱歉，比去年同期報告的數字高出 8 個基點，不包括天然氣則高出 6 個基點。這減去的 6 包括工資和福利同比增加約 31 個基點。這肯定受到銷售業績下滑的影響，也肯定受到通貨緊縮的影響。稍後我會給你舉幾個例子。這主要被因為轉用花旗 Visa 而導致的商家費用年減所抵銷。這對銷售、一般及行政開支產生了正面影響，即增加了 25 個基點。

Central expense was higher year over year in the Q1 by 9. Increased IT spending, again as I mentioned, was 5 of that. Stock compensation expense, higher by 5 or 6 without gas. Lastly, the other item I mentioned, the plus 8 was nonrecurring in nature.

第一季中央支出比去年同期增加了 9%。庫存補償費用，不含汽油則高出 5 或 6%。最後，我提到的另一項，plus 8 本質上是非經常性的。

Next on the income statement line, pre-opening expense, it was $4 million lower this year versus last year coming in at $22 million versus $26 million a year ago. Really a function of openings. This year in Q1 we had 9 openings, last year 13. The 9 included one relo and the 13 last year in the first quarter and included 2 relos. Pretty much in line with that number of openings. All told, operating income in the first quarter came up $82 million or 11%. But up $9 million or 1% year over year excluding just the nonrecurring items that I previously mentioned.

接下來在損益表中，開業前費用，今年比去年減少了 400 萬美元，為 2200 萬美元，而一年前為 2600 萬美元。確實是一個開口的功能。今年第一季我們有 9 個空缺，去年有 13 個。這 9 個包括一個重新定位，去年第一季有 13 個包括 2 個重新定位。與空缺數目基本一致。總體而言，第一季的營業收入增加了 8,200 萬美元，增幅為 11%。但除去我之前提到的非經常性項目，年增 900 萬美元或 1%。

Below the operating income line, interest expense in the first quarter came in at $29 million this year versus $33 million last year. Lower due to the retirement of some senior notes in December of last year.

在營業收入線以下，今年第一季的利息支出為 2,900 萬美元，而去年同期為 3,300 萬美元。較低的原因是去年 12 月部分優先票據的贖回。

Interest income and other was lower by $2 million in the quarter coming in at $26 million versus $28 million a year ago. Actual interest income from the quarter was better year over year. This was offset by approximately $4.5 million in charges related to the FX transactions that usually fluctuate pluses or minus in the zero to $10 million range, so no surprises there.

本季利息收入和其他收入下降 200 萬美元，至 2,600 萬美元，而去年同期為 2,800 萬美元。本季的實際利息收入比去年同期有所改善。這筆費用被與外匯交易相關的約 450 萬美元費用所抵消，這些費用通常在零到 1000 萬美元的範圍內上下波動，因此這並不令人意外。

Overall reported pretax income on a reported basis was higher by 11%. Again, higher by 1% ex those nonrecurring items that I mentioned early in the call.

以報告基礎計算，整體稅前收入增加了 11%。再次，扣除我在電話會議早期提到的非經常性項目後，上漲了 1%。

In terms of income taxes, our tax rate in the first quarter came in at 34.4% for the quarter compared to 36.1% last year. We benefited from a couple of positive discrete items this year in Q1. Our anticipated effective rate for the year is expected to be approximately 35.2% as best we can tell at this point. Overall reported net income, $545 million this year, up $65 million from $480 million last year, so an increase of 14% ex the nonrecurring items that I mentioned, up 3%.

在所得稅方面，我們第一季的稅率為 34.4%，而去年同期為 36.1%。今年第一季度，我們從一些積極的離散項目中受益。目前我們所能預測的今年的有效利率預計約為 35.2%。今年的整體報告淨收入為 5.45 億美元，比去年的 4.8 億美元增加了 6,500 萬美元，所以除去我提到的非經常性項目，增長了 14%，增長了 3%。

Next for a quick rundown of other topics. While the balance sheet is included in this afternoon's press release, a couple of the balance sheet info items, depreciation and amortization from the cash flow statement which is not here for the quarter came in at $297 million for the quarter.

接下來快速介紹其他主題。雖然資產負債表已包含在今天下午的新聞稿中，但有幾個資產負債表資訊項目，即本季度未包含的現金流量表中的折舊和攤銷，本季度的折舊和攤銷總額為 2.97 億美元。

Accounts payable, if you look at one of these, we always look at is our accounts payable as a percent of inventories. It reported on a reported basis, it was up from 100% a year ago in the quarter and to 103%. If you take out non-merchandise payables, more of an accounts payable merchandise versus inventories, it improved from a 90% to 93% from last year's first quarter end to this year's first quarter end.

應付帳款，如果你看其中一個，我們總是看應付帳款佔庫存的百分比。據報道，本季該比例從去年同期的 100% 上升至 103%。如果去掉非商品應付，更多的是應付帳款商品而非庫存，那麼從去年第一季末到今年第一季末，這一比例從 90% 提高到了 93%。

Average inventory per warehouse was actually lower by about $67,000 per warehouse, coming in right at $14.9 million a year ago and $14.83 million per location this year. FX was of that roughly $70,000 lower. FX was about $170,000 lower, just the impact of FX, so about $100,000 net if you assume flat FX. That's about what majors was up, electronics, it was up $117,000. So really not a lot of pluses and minuses over sub departments, but pretty much in line and pretty much flat year over year.

每個倉庫的平均庫存實際上下降了約 67,000 美元，去年同期為 1,490 萬美元，今年為 1,483 萬美元。FX 大約降低了 70,000 美元。外匯大約降低了 17 萬美元，這只是外匯的影響，所以如果假設外匯持平，淨額約為 10 萬美元。這就是主要股票上漲的原因，電子類股票上漲了 117,000 美元。因此，與子部門相比，優點和缺點確實沒有太多，但基本上保持一致，並且逐年持平。

In terms of CapEx, we spent approximately $670 million during the quarter, and our estimate for the whole year, as I mentioned hasn't changed from last quarter end, our expectation for FY17 is somewhere in the $2.6 billion to $2.8 billion compared to $2.6 billion for all of FY16.

在資本支出方面，我們在本季度花費了大約 6.7 億美元，而我們對全年的估計，正如我提到的，與上個季度末相比沒有變化，我們對 2017 財年的預期在 26 億美元到 28 億美元之間，而 2016 財年全年的預期為 26 億美元。

Next Costco online, we are now in of course in the US, Canada, UK, Mexico and more recently Korea and Taiwan. For the first quarter, sales and profits were up, total online sales were up 8% in the quarter and 7% on a comp basis. Pretty choppy. Essentially, the first several weeks and the last several weeks of the quarter were in the mid singles with the middle part of it in the low doubles, if you will.

接下來是 Costco 線上線下業務，現在我們當然已經進入了美國、加拿大、英國、墨西哥，最近還進入了韓國和台灣。第一季度，銷售額和利潤均上漲，本季線上總銷售額上漲 8%，較去年同期上漲 7%。相當不平穩。基本上，如果你願意的話，本季的前幾週和最後幾週都處於中等單打水平，而中間部分則處於低雙打水平。

I want to point out that over the past three weeks, and that would include the last week of Q1 which is the Thanksgiving week, and the first two weeks of our second fiscal quarter, eComm sales were up in the low to mid-teens, including similar results for both Black Friday and cyber Monday. Of course, that's notwithstanding a significant amount of TV sales which were essentially flat in dollars and up 15% in units.

我想指出的是，在過去三週內，包括第一季的最後一周，也就是感恩節那一周，以及第二財季的前兩週，電子商務銷售額增長了百分之十幾到十幾個百分點，黑色星期五和網絡星期一也有類似的表現。當然，儘管電視銷售額以美元計算基本持平，但以台數計算增長了 15%。

Lastly, as it relates to our online business, we are improving our offerings and enhancing our member experience. I touched on this a little bit last quarter's call. Our current focus comes in three primary areas in terms of improving merchandise first. We are adding more exciting high-end branded merchandise on an everyday basis. We are improving in-stocks on high-velocity items, and there's a few other things that we will be doing coming the first couple of months of the new calendar year.

最後，就我們的線上業務而言，我們正在改進我們的服務並增強會員體驗。我在上個季度的電話會議上稍微談到了這一點。我們目前的重點首先是改進商品的三個主要領域。我們每天都會添加更多令人興奮的高端品牌商品。我們正在改善高週轉率商品的庫存，並且在新的日曆年的頭幾個月我們還將做一些其他的事情。

Second, we're improving the experience and functionality of our site. We're improving our search, we have and are continuing to do that. We've shortened the checkout process from many clicks to two, and so a big improvement, recognizing this is new for us. We are simplifying and automating our returns process, a much better experience particularly on big-ticket items, and we've seen great improvement in that in the last several weeks. And we're improving our member's ability to track their orders, again that's something that we weren't terribly good at historically.

其次，我們正在改進我們網站的體驗和功能。我們正在改進我們的搜索，我們已經並將繼續這樣做。我們已將結帳流程從多次點擊縮短至兩次，這是一個很大的改進，認識到這一點對我們來說是新鮮事。我們正在簡化和自動化我們的退貨流程，特別是對於高價商品，提供更好的體驗，並且我們在過去幾週中看到了很大的改善。我們正在提高會員追蹤訂單的能力，這是我們過去不太擅長的事情。

And thirdly, we're improving our distribution logistics. We've increased the number of depots from where we fill online orders, so closer and faster and less expensive delivery. And again, look for more improved and quicker distribution comments from us in early calendar 2017.

第三，我們正在改進我們的分銷物流。我們增加了用於處理網路訂單的倉庫數量，從而能夠實現更近、更快且更便宜的送貨服務。再次強調，2017 年初我們將提供更多改進且更快速的發行評論。

Next in terms of expansion, I mentioned we had eight net new units this year, this fiscal first quarter. We planned two for Q2, a net of five for Q3, so ex the relocations. And a net of 16 in Q4 for an anticipated number for the year of net new units of 31. 34 less the three relos, so 31 net new locations. Last year, recall we opened 29, so about 4.5% square footage growth. If we get to the 31, that would be about the same, about 4.25% plus square footage growth.

接下來在擴張方面，我提到我們今年（即本財年第一季）新增了 8 個單位。我們計劃第二季新增 2 個，第三季新增 5 個，不包括搬遷。第四季淨新增單位數為 16 家，預計全年淨新增單位數為 31 家。34 個減去 3 個重新定位位置，因此淨新增位置為 31 個。回想一下，去年我們新開了 29 家店，所以營業面積增加了約 4.5%。如果我們達到 31，那將是大致相同的，約 4.25％ 加上平方英尺的增長。

Assuming the 31 net new openings in FY17 locations by country, that will be 16 in the US. Mind you that last year, it was 21 out of 29 in the US, 8 in Canada which is quite a number for Canada, and 1 each in Taiwan, Korea, Japan, Australia and Mexico, as well as France, our first in France and also 1 in Iceland. Note that these include our first locations to open in France and Iceland, and again, those will be in late spring, early summer.

假設2017財年各國淨開31家新店，那麼美國就有16家。請注意，去年，美國有 29 家企業參加了此次展會，其中有 21 家來自該市場；加拿大有 8 家企業參加了此次展會，這對於加拿大來說是一個相當大的數字；此外，台灣、韓國、日本、澳大利亞和墨西哥各有 1 家企業參加了此次展會；此外，法國也是我們在法國冰島也首次參加了 1 家展會，法國人也首次參加了 1 家展覽。請注意，其中包括我們在法國和冰島開設的第一家門市，而這些門市將在春末夏初開業。

Now as you can tell by the quarterly dispersion of these, about half of the 31 planned openings are scheduled in Q4. To the extent a couple of those could slip into the next fiscal year, so be it. So somewhere in the very high 20s, if not 30 of 31 is what we would expect. As of first quarter end, our total square footage stood at 104.5 million square feet.

現在，您可以從季度分佈中看出，計劃開業的 31 家酒店中約有一半安排在第四季度開業。如果其中一些可能會延續到下一個財年，那就這樣吧。因此，我們預計這個數字將在 20 多一點，甚至 31 個中的 30 個。截至第一季末，我們的總建築面積為 1.045 億平方英尺。

In terms of common stock repurchases, for the first quarter, we repurchased 809,000 shares for a total of $122 million or an average price of $151 a share. That compares to all of FY16 when we repurchased $477 million, 3.2 million shares, and an average price of just under $150 a share.

在普通股回購方面，第一季度，我們回購了 809,000 股，總額 1.22 億美元，平均價格為每股 151 美元。相較之下，2016 財年全年我們回購了價值 4.77 億美元的股票，回購量為 320 萬股，平均價格略低於每股 150 美元。

In terms of dividends, our current quarterly dividend stands at $0.45 a share and that was a 12.5% increase and that was effective last spring. A 12.5% increase from the prior $0.40 a share. So $0.45 a share on a quarter, so that yearly $1.80 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，增幅為 12.5%，自去年春季起生效。較之前的每股 0.40 美元上漲 12.5%。因此，每季每股 0.45 美元，每年 1.80 美元的股息意味著該公司每年的成本接近 8 億美元。

Lastly, before I turn it back for Q&A, our FY17 second-quarter scheduled earnings release date for the 12-week second quarter ending February 12 will be after market close on Thursday March 2. With the earnings call that afternoon at 2:00 Pacific time. I'll now turn it back to Kimberlynn, and open it up for questions and answers. Thank you.

最後，在我回到問答環節之前，我們 2017 財年第二季度（截至 2 月 12 日的 12 週第二季度）的預定收益發布日期將是 3 月 2 日星期四收盤後。現在我將話題轉回給金伯林 (Kimberlynn)，並開始進行問答。謝謝。

(Operator Instructions)

（操作員指令）

John Heinbockel from Guggenheim Securities.

古根漢證券的 John Heinbockel。

Richard, the new Citi agreement, was that a -- something that was a total benefit in the quarter of 38 basis points, if I'm hearing you right, and I assume that was exactly what you thought it would be?

理查德，如果我沒聽錯的話，花旗銀行的新協議在本季是否帶來了 38 個基點的總收益，我想這正是您所想的？

Probably a little higher than we thought it would be. There's lots of nuances to the program. There's bounties that we received for signing up new members and applications that incensed the warehouse to do that. There's revenue share an outside spend. I think that's a little more than we'd anticipated. We knew and felt that over time it would go up because of the acceptance of Visa in terms of penetration of Visa throughout all types of merchants, and that happened a little faster than we anticipated.

可能比我們想像的要高一點。該計劃有很多細微差別。我們因簽約新成員和申請而獲得了獎勵，這激起了倉庫的熱情。有收入份額和外部支出。我認為這比我們預期的要多一點。我們知道並且感覺到，隨著時間的推移，由於 Visa 在所有類型商家中的普及度不斷提高，這一數字將會上升，而且這一變化比我們預期的要快一些。

There's also some other aspects of it. Again, there is lots of little pieces, but those are two of the bigger ones. On the merchant side -- on the fee side, rather, I think some is related to the fact that we're making estimates of the different reward buckets, if you will, gas at 4%, Costco at 2%, those velocity categories at 3%. Again, there's all kinds of equations there that as that changes there is some sharing. It's all good at this point.

還有一些其他方面。同樣，還有很多小部分，但這兩個是較大的部分。在商家方面——或者說費用方面，我認為有些與我們對不同獎勵等級的估算有關，如果你願意的話，汽油為 4%，Costco 為 2%，那些速度類別為 3%。再一次，那裡有各種各樣的方程式，隨著它們的變化，就會有一些共享。到目前為止，一切都很好。

Well, as a follow-up to that, is that, recognizing there's some volatility, is roughly that level, is that what you would expect going forward? Right now it's covering soft sales and some investments in labor. Is the idea that when the soft sales changes, that more of that drops to the bottom line? Or do you think you find other things to invest in?

那麼，作為後續問題，您是否認識到存在一些波動，大致是這個水平，這是您對未來的預期嗎？目前它涵蓋軟性銷售和一些勞動力投資。是不是說當軟性銷售改變時，更多的銷售額就會落入利潤中？或者您認為您找到了其他可以投資的東西嗎？

Well, time will tell, won't it? I think it's still early program, we're in the first full fiscal quarter of it. Over the next couple of quarters, as I'd said last quarter, this would be the first time we'll try to provide a little bit more insight and I'm sure we'll be able to do a little bit more each time. As you know, we're going to invest in loyalty and growth and while it's raining on everybody as it relates to higher levels of deflation, we are known for deflating the sale price sooner and faster. Certainly, one other sound bite example would be meat sales. Just in the month of November, meat sales were up 6% in dollars and 16% in pounds. That's the kind of stuff that this deflation, it's impacting all retailers of course, and it's probably impacting a lower margin, quicker to pass it on up or down, certainly down, faster. So, all those things go into play. Time will tell.

好吧，時間會證明一切，不是嗎？我認為這仍然是一個早期計劃，我們正處於第一個完整的財政季度。正如我上個季度所說的那樣，在接下來的幾個季度中，這將是我們第一次嘗試提供更多見解，我相信我們每次都能做得更多。如您所知，我們將在忠誠度和成長方面進行投資，儘管通貨緊縮程度加劇給所有人帶來不利影響，但我們以更快、更快地降低銷售價格而聞名。當然，另一個例子就是肉類銷售。光是 11 月份，肉類銷售額以美元計算就上漲了 6%，以英鎊計算則上漲了 16%。這就是通貨緊縮帶來的影響，當然，它會影響所有零售商，並可能導致利潤率下降，利潤率會更快上升或下降，當然下降的速度會更快。因此，所有這些事情都會發揮作用。時間會證明一切。

Lastly, have you found, when you think about this conceptually, is it better to make -- more impactful to make price investments when we start the reflation recycle, right? So not raising while others do as opposed to cutting more now, investing more in a deflationary cycle?

最後，當您從概念上思考這個問題時，您是否發現，當我們開始通貨再膨脹循環時，進行價格投資是否更有影響力，對嗎？那麼，在其他人升息時不加息，而不是現在進一步削減，在通貨緊縮週期中投入更多資金？

We're always going to do more extreme, probably, than others. Another example would be, as I've said in the past, as a relates to some different types of competition out there, the competitive pricing moat has gotten wider, which is good. We haven't use that to improve our margins consciously in that regard. The wider the better. We are constantly figuring out that.

我們可能總是會比其他人做得更極端。另一個例子是，正如我過去所說的那樣，由於涉及一些不同類型的競爭，競爭定價的護城河變得更寬了，這是好事。我們還沒有有意識地利用這一點來提高我們的利潤率。越寬越好。我們一直在努力解決這個問題。

We're constantly going back to every supplier with our purchasing power, with our buying power as it relates to a competition of self and private label to figure out, how we can bring the quantity up, the quality up and the price down? And we know we will sell more and each of us and our suppliers will make a little more times. A little less, more times.

我們不斷地利用我們的購買力，利用我們的購買力，因為這與自我和自有品牌的競爭有關，以弄清楚我們如何提高數量，提高質量，降低價格？我們知道我們的銷售量會更好，我們每個人和我們的供應商的利潤也會增加一點。少一點，多一點次數。

That's what we are always doing. We see that at every monthly budget meeting. I think that we will continue to do what we do. We are certainly not going to benefit from every extra dollar of income. We are going to figure out how to use it to drive that competitive spirit and to drive our sales. That's been a little tougher in this tough deflationary environment.

這正是我們一直在做的事。我們在每個月的預算會議上都會看到這一點。我認為我們會繼續做我們正在做的事情。我們當然不會從每一美元的額外收入中受益。我們將想辦法利用它來推動競爭精神並促進銷售。在嚴峻的通貨緊縮環境下，這變得更加困難。

Okay. Thank you.

好的。謝謝。

Your next question comes from the line of Simeon Gutman with Morgan Stanley.

您的下一個問題來自摩根士丹利的西緬古特曼 (Simeon Gutman)。

My question relates to core profitability and expectations to the extent we can talk about it. The EBIT growth this quarter, was I think about 4% adjusted, the trend line has been a little lower, and I'm not taking a lot of currency into this. But if you think about the core profitability going forward, Richard, should we expect it to increase? Granted this quarter had a tough top line compare. We talked about maybe credit card getting better. I'm not thinking about membership price increase, but that's something that could come. Just thinking about the overall business, how it's performing, do you expect it to do better than where it is, or performing about where it should be?

我的問題與核心獲利能力和預期有關，我們可以就此進行討論。我認為本季的息稅前利潤成長率約為 4% 調整後，趨勢線略低，我不會對此投入太多資金。但是理查德，如果你考慮未來的核心獲利能力，我們應該預期它會增加嗎？當然，本季的營收情況與之相比較為艱難。我們討論信用卡可能會變得更好。我沒有考慮過提高會員價格，但這是有可能發生的事情。只考慮整體業務，它的表現如何，您是否預計它會比現在做得更好，或表現得達到應有的水平？

Well, again, I'm not allowed to tell you what I think, completely. We are encouraged by the last few weeks, including the first few weeks of Q2. But we feel good about our merchandising offerings.

好吧，我再說一遍，我不被允許完全告訴你我的想法。我們對過去幾週，包括第二季前幾週的表現感到鼓舞。但我們對我們的商品供應感到滿意。

We feel good about some things we are doing operationally. We certainly feel good about the strength of [gas] Kirkland's Signature, and traffic has improved a little bit. I remember one of the analyst reports a few months ago, was we can exhale. We are hopefully beyond that right now. We feel that again, the last -- the traffic has seemed to have hit a trough and it's come back a little, not that we expect it to get back to four, necessarily. But certainly it seems like it's back on the mend a little bit, and we'll see.

我們對於正在運營的一些事情感到很滿意。我們確實對 Kirkland's Signature 的實力感到滿意，而且流量也有所改善。我記得幾個月前的一份分析師報告說，我們可以鬆一口氣了。我們希望現在已經超越了這個目標。我們再次感覺到，最後——流量似乎已經跌至低谷並且有所回升，但我們並不期望它必然會回到 4。但可以肯定的是，它似乎正在好轉一點，我們拭目以待吧。

I feel we are doing a lot of good things. We have got a lot of things up our sleeve in terms of merchandising. We're clearly merchandising and selling from a position of competitive strength, and fresh foods drives the business. The fact that renewal rates, ex a little bit of impact from auto bill in the conversion, are perfectly fine. There's a lot of good things out there, and I guess I'll stop there. But overall, we'll see.

我覺得我們正在做很多好事。在商品銷售方面，我們還有很多準備。我們顯然是從競爭優勢的角度來進行商品行銷，而新鮮食品則是推動業務發展的動力。事實上，續約率（不包括轉換過程中汽車帳單的一點影響）是完全沒問題的。那裡有很多好東西，我想我就到此為止。但總的來說，我們拭目以待。

Okay. And then my follow-up, part of it relates to what John asked, where the credit card benefit that could ramp, there also could be a membership price increase on the horizon. Speaking about what you reinvest versus what you dropped down, is the investor rate being inhibited right now, because you haven't had that membership price increase in a long time? Or, are you going to let some of these things flow to the bottom line when we get there?

好的。然後我的後續問題部分與約翰的問題有關，信用卡福利可能會增加，會員價格也可能會上漲。說到您再投資的部分與放棄的部分，投資者利率現在是否受到抑制，因為您很久沒有提高會員價格了？或者，當我們到達那裡時，您是否會讓其中一些東西流到底線？

First, let me go back for a minute to the monies that we've benefited from as it relates to the Citi Visa, the new agreement. In theory you'd say, okay, if you've made a little more [than the past], did you put it back into pricing? We are doing a lot in pricing anyway. And also, you don't change the reward structure every day, it's a new program.

首先，讓我回顧一下我們從與花旗簽證新協議相關的收益。理論上你會說，好吧，如果你賺得比過去多一點，你會把它重新投入定價嗎？無論如何，我們在定價方面做了很多工作。而且，你不會每天改變獎勵結構，這是一個新的計劃。

I would assume over time, and this is -- who knows, it's hypothetical, but over the next couple of years, if the performance in the program continues to go in the, which we expect it to, in the right direction, and our piece of that action, if you will, versus the rewards that our members are getting, you would expect to see us change that over time. But we are way too early to even think about that.

我認為隨著時間的推移，這是——誰知道呢，這只是假設，但在接下來的幾年裡，如果該計劃的表現繼續按照我們預期的正確方向發展，而我們的行動，如果你願意的話，相對於我們的成員所獲得的回報，你會看到我們隨著時間的推移而改變。但我們考慮這個問題還為時過早。

Historically as it relates to membership fee increases, we usually invest that back in the business, a lot of that in terms of competitiveness and pricing, and it eases in over the next several years into -- more fully into the bottom line. Notwithstanding the fact that the membership fee increases take about eight fiscal quarters to get into the income statement on the membership line because of deferred accounting.

從歷史上看，當涉及到會員費上漲時，我們通常會將其重新投資於業務，其中許多用於競爭力和定價，並且在接下來的幾年中，它將逐漸轉化為——更全面地轉化為利潤。儘管由於遞延會計的原因，會員費的增加需要大約八個財政季度才能進入會員費的損益表。

So I don't think -- first of all, we certainly haven't done anything different. As we've seen in some examples where we do comp shops versus certain others, where that moat has gotten bigger, if you will, and that gap has gotten wider, we haven't said, hey, let's use this to get a few extra basis points of margin. We've held the course and we continue to go in that direction.

所以我不認為——首先，我們當然沒有做任何不同的事情。正如我們在一些例子中看到的那樣，在我們與其他公司進行比較時，如果你願意的話，護城河變得越來越大，差距也越來越大，我們並沒有說，嘿，讓我們用它來獲得幾個額外的利潤基點。我們堅持了這一方針，並將繼續朝著這個方向前進。

Okay. Thanks.

好的。謝謝。

Paul Trussell with Deutsche Bank.

德意志銀行的保羅‧特魯塞爾 (Paul Trussell)。

I just wanted to touch back on margins. We think about the core GPM, ex the benefit from the Visa card. It was still up, but maybe a little bit less than the past few quarters. If you could maybe just touch on that. And then also on the SG&A, you mentioned the higher payroll and benefits. But if I recall, I think the second quarter last year is when you raised some wages. Is that correct? Should we start to cycle some of that headwind?

我只是想再談一下邊緣問題。我們考慮核心的毛利率，例如 Visa 卡帶來的收益。雖然仍然有所上漲，但可能比過去幾季略有下降。如果你能談談這一點就好了。然後關於銷售、一般和行政費用，您提到了更高的工資和福利。但如果我沒記錯的話，去年第二季你們提高了一些薪水。那正確嗎？我們是否應該開始利用一些逆風呢？

On the last point, the wages, in I believe the US and Canada, which is 82%-plus -- 82%, 83% of our Company, we took the bottom of the scale up $1.50, basically, from $11.50 and $12 up to $13 and $13.50. I believe on an annual basis that's about a $40 million incremental increase in our pretax costs, or about $3 million, a little over -- low $3 million per month number. That started in March, so that's halfway through -- early to halfway through Q3 of our fiscal -- Q2 of our fiscal year. That's when that will anniversary, so that's kind of small. I'm sorry, the first part of the question, I didn't write it down.

關於最後一點，我相信在美國和加拿大，也就是我們公司 82% 以上 - 82%、83% 的員工，我們將最低工資提高了 1.50 美元，基本上從 11.50 美元和 12 美元提高到 13 美元和 13.50 美元。我認為以年度計算，這意味著我們的稅前成本將增加約 4000 萬美元，或約 300 萬美元，略高於每月 300 萬美元的水平。那是在三月開始的，所以那時正值我們財政年度第二季的中途——第三季初到中途。那時正是周年紀念日，所以這有點小。抱歉，問題的第一部分，我沒有記錄下來。

Just around core merchandise margins.

僅圍繞核心商品利潤率。

Yes, keep in mind, as I try to point out on each of these calls, I'd mentioned, what was the core, the roughly 80%- plus of our business that is food and sundries, hardlines, softlines and fresh foods, what is that margin on its own sales? And again, as I mentioned earlier in the call, that was up 17 basis points.

是的，請記住，正如我在每次通話中試圖指出的那樣，我提到過，我們業務的核心是什麼，大約 80％ 以上的業務是食品和雜貨、五金製品、紡織品和新鮮食品，其自身銷售的利潤率是多少？正如我早些時候在電話會議中提到的那樣，這一數字上漲了 17 個基點。

When I look at the weighted average of what impact it had on our Company margin year-over-year, it's a lot less than 17, because there's increased penetration of another category with a lower margin or reduced penetration of another category with the higher margin. That tends to -- that's why we point that out. We don't see just because that 80% was 17 basis points up on that, that had a much smaller effect on the year-over-year for our Company.

當我查看它對我們公司利潤率同比影響的加權平均值時，發現它遠低於 17，因為另一個利潤率較低的類別的滲透率增加了，而另一個利潤率較高的類別的滲透率減少了。這往往——這就是我們指出這一點的原因。我們認為，僅僅因為 80% 比去年同期高出 17 個基點，對我們公司年比的影響就小得多。

Got it, got it. And then just when it comes to top line, Richard, obviously, November was a tale of two periods, with the first half of the month and the second half being much better; and from the comments you made around e-commerce, it sounds like there's been some strength maybe that's sustained into the early part of December. What's your view, right now, of the spending levels of your core customer as we turn the corner into 2017? What's your thoughts around what our core comp expectation should be, particularly in the US?

知道了，知道了。然後說到營收，理查德，顯然， 11 月可以分為兩個時期，上半月和下半月的業績都要好得多；從您對電子商務的評論來看，似乎電子商務的強勁成長可能會持續到 12 月初。隨著我們即將進入 2017 年，您目前對核心客戶的支出水準有何看法？您對我們的核心營收預期有何看法，特別是在美國？

Again, we don't know. We'll have to wait and see ourselves. We're thrilled that the first few weeks have been good. And again November, the four weeks of November was choppy, frankly, particularly the week of the elections. I think it was worse than a snowstorm in terms of nobody wanting to go out and buy stuff; and that's what I read about other retailers, as well.

再說一遍，我們不知道。我們只能拭目以待。我們很高興看到最初幾週一切順利。再說十一月，坦白說，十一月的四周都很動盪，尤其是選舉那一週。我認為這比暴風雪更糟糕，因為沒人願意出去買東西；我從其他零售商也讀到類似的報導。

Again, over the last few months it's been, A., a little choppy, a little more in November and a little weaker. At least what we could tell you at this point, the first couple of weeks have been okay. And again, traffic has seemed to have stabilized until something changes there, who knows. But again, we feel good about our merchandising, what's going on. And one of the reasons we continue to provide monthly sales results is for that reason, to keep you guys informed, and that's pretty much what I can tell you at this point.

再說一遍，在過去的幾個月裡，情況是這樣的，A.，有點波動，11 月稍微多一些，然後稍微弱一些。至少目前我們可以告訴您的是，前幾週一切順利。而且，交通似乎已經穩定下來，直到那裡發生變化，誰知道呢。但話說回來，我們對我們的商品銷售以及目前的狀況感到很滿意。我們繼續提供每月銷售結果的原因之一就是為了讓你們隨時了解情況，這就是我現在能告訴你們的全部內容。

Fair enough. Thanks, Richard.

很公平。謝謝，理查。

Michael Lasser with UBS.

瑞銀的麥可‧拉瑟 (Michael Lasser)。

Thanks a lot for taking my question. Richard, you mentioned that you signed up 1 million new members under the new Visa credit card arrangement. Is that above and beyond what you would normally sign up? Or, is that typical with your run rate? And how does that compare to your expectations?

非常感謝您回答我的問題。理查德，你提到，在新的 Visa 信用卡協議下，你們簽了 100 萬名新會員。這是否超出了您通常簽約的範圍？或者，這是您的典型運行率嗎？這與您的期望相比如何？

No, first of all, 1 million of our members signed up for it. Many of them could very well be existing members that historically did not have an AMEX card or historically used not a co-branded AMEX card. And they have now signed up for this because the great rewards, hopefully, or they historically, again, were using debit or a non-cobranded AMEX card and they're now switching to this. We did not generate 1 million new members. Certainly, when a new member, either online or walks in to sign up as a new member, we, of course, are telling them the virtues of both executive membership and these great new co-brand cards.

不，首先，我們有 100 萬會員報名參加。他們中的許多人很可能是現有會員，但以前沒有 AMEX 卡或以前不使用聯名 AMEX 卡。現在他們已經註冊了這個計劃，因為希望獲得豐厚的獎勵，或者他們以前一直使用借記卡或非聯名 AMEX 卡，現在他們正在切換到這個計劃。我們沒有吸引 100 萬名新會員。當然，當有新會員，無論是在線還是走進來註冊成為新會員時，我們當然會告訴他們行政會員資格和這些出色的新聯名卡的優點。

How are you seeing the spending patterns of those who sign up for the card or got the card versus how their spending patterns were under the AMEX card?

您如何看待申請該卡或獲得該卡人士的消費模式與使用 AMEX 卡的消費模式有何不同？

It's hard to know this quickly. Generally speaking, irrespective of what credit card it is, whether it's a co-brand or a rewards card for an airline or a hotel, people -- generally we find that people on credit cards spend more than by cash or check or debit. We also find that people with executive member spend more than non-executive member.

很難很快知道這一點。一般來說，不管是什麼信用卡，無論是聯名卡或航空公司或飯店的獎勵卡，人們——通常我們發現使用信用卡的人比使用現金、支票或金融卡的人消費更多。我們也發現，執行成員的支出比非執行成員更多。

So the trifecta, if you will, is when they're not only a member, but they're an executive member and they use the co-brand card. Lots of incentives for loyalty and for spend and for capacity to spend. That's what we try to do, try to do it in a not too hard of a sell, as you might expect; and we've gotten a lot better at doing the basics. Whether we know a member is an existing members and buys a lot historically, based on their prior 12 months, it's a no-brainer to be an executive member, we make sure they know; and we've done a better job of converting or getting people to sign up as an executive member to start with.

因此，如果你願意的話，三重奏就是，他們不僅是會員，而且是執行會員，並且使用聯名卡。對於忠誠度、消費和消費能力有許多激勵措施。這就是我們所嘗試要做的，嘗試以一種不太難以推銷的方式去做，正如你所期望的那樣；我們在基礎工作上也取得了很大進展。無論我們是否知道某個會員是現有會員，也無論他們過去 12 個月的購買記錄如何，成為執行會員是輕而易舉的事，我們都會確保他們知道；我們在轉變或讓人們註冊成為執行會員方面做得更好了。

The credit fee, of course, is not completely in our hand, whether it was the 14-year relationship -- 14 or 16-year relationship with American Express or the new relationship here, it's up to the credit card issuer, in this case, Citi, to accept or reject an application. Now the ones that converted over, they were all in the same deal. But anybody new, they are signing up for a new card and there's going to be some people that get it and some that don't. But what we do know is 1 million of the people that did sign up for it have gotten it. Or approved and have gotten it.

當然，信用費用並非完全由我們決定，無論是與美國運通的 14 年或 16 年的關係，還是這裡的新關係，都由信用卡發行商（在本例中為花旗銀行）決定接受或拒絕申請。現在，那些已經轉換過來的人，都處於同一筆交易中。但是對於任何新人來說，他們都要申請一張新卡，有些人會得到它，而有些人則不會。但我們確實知道的是，報名的 100 萬人已經獲得了補助。或已經批准並得到。

My follow-up question is on the prospects for import tariffs. What percentage of your goods do you import from overseas? If you could break that down between the Kirkland's brand and all others, it would be very helpful.

我的後續問題是關於進口關稅的前景。你們的貨物中有多少比例是從海外進口的？如果您能將 Kirkland 品牌與所有其他品牌進行細分，那將會非常有幫助。

We were just being asked that question recently, and we are putting some numbers together. Our best guess is somewhere north of 20% and south of 30%, and I'm giving you are purposely large number, because even when you talk to some buyers in different departments, you find out it might be imported, but it's all based on, it's a US dollar sale. And my guess would be somewhere in the mid-20%s

我們最近才被問到這個問題，我們正在總結一些數字。我們最好的猜測是20%以上30%以下，我故意給出一個很大的數字，因為即使你和不同部門的一些買家交談，你會發現它可能是進口的，但這都是基於美元銷售額。我猜大概在 20% 左右

Mid-20%s as a percentage of total sales?

佔總銷售額的 25% 左右？

Yes.

是的。

Okay. Thank you so much. Have a good night.

好的。太感謝了。祝你晚安。

In the US, in the US. I'm assuming that includes -- I'm including in that, like, electronics. Most electronics are purchased in US dollars by US trading companies that are arms of the overseas manufacturer. So again, it's a little tenuous to come up with an exact number, particularly since we just started looking at it.

在美國，在美國。我假設其中包括——例如電子產品。大多數的電子產品都是由海外製造商旗下美國貿易公司以美元購買的。因此，再次給出一個確切的數字有點困難，特別是因為我們才剛開始研究它。

Okay. Thank you very much.

好的。非常感謝。

Kelly Bania with BMO Capital.

BMO Capital 的 Kelly Bania。

I wanted to ask a different question about gross margin. It's still, if you look at the core gross margin, I think you said up 17 basis points, still very strong relative -- I think it's been in the 10 to 15-point basis range. I know you've talked about online, organics, some of the higher-margin categories and the mix shift there. I was just curious if those are really still some of the same drivers or if there is anything else going on there, particularly as online seemed to slow a little bit this quarter?

我想問一個關於毛利率的另一個問題。如果您看一下核心毛利率，我認為您說的是上漲了 17 個基點，相對而言仍然非常強勁 - 我認為它一直在 10 到 15 個基點的範圍內。我知道您已經談論過在線、有機、一些利潤率較高的類別以及這些類別的組合轉變。我只是好奇，這些是否仍然是相同的驅動因素，或者是否存在其他情況，尤其是本季線上業務似乎有所放緩？

I think part of it is, as prices have deflated, there are instances where we can make a little more, but not a lot more, where others have not deflated as much. Even though we are going to be the first to take it down [in more], there's still a little there on the table. Private label helps. I think those are the kinds of things.

我認為部分原因在於，隨著價格下跌，在某些情況下我們可以多賺一點，但不會多很多，而其他情況下價格下跌幅度並沒有那麼大。儘管我們將首先將其撤下，但桌面上仍然有少量內容。自有品牌有幫助。我認為就是這些事情。

We've also, in terms of driving business, working with our vendors to lower the price and drive more business and we'll participate in it, but we'll still make a little more. There's lots of little reasons. I'd be remiss to say if, year-over-year, we had just under a [national] basis point in the shrink recovery, in other words better shrink numbers, inventory shrinkage numbers. We don't talk about it because good news is it continues to improve a little for 30 years, essentially, meaning we are doing a better job of operating our businesses and controlling our inventories. But it's lots of little things.

在推動業務方面，我們也與供應商合作，降低價格，推動更多業務，我們會參與其中，但我們仍會賺得更多。有很多小原因。如果與去年同期相比，我們的萎縮復甦僅略低於（全國）一個基點，換句話說，萎縮數字、庫存萎縮數字有所改善，那我就是失職了。我們不談論它，因為好消息是它在 30 年內持續改善，本質上意味著我們在營運業務和控制庫存方面做得更好。但還有很多小事。

That's helpful. And then just another big picture question. Lots of questions on the savings and how you would think about, possibly, maybe reinvesting some of that over the years. Here you are online and improving that experience, the checkout experience, the search. Do you look at ways to just make things more convenient for your members? Is there anything else you think about on the convenience front versus just the price front?

這很有幫助。接下來是另一個大問題。有很多關於儲蓄的問題，以及您將如何考慮，可能的話，也許在未來幾年再投資其中的一部分。在這裡，您可以在線上並改善體驗、結帳體驗和搜尋體驗。您是否在尋找為會員提供更多便利的方法？除了價格方面，您在便利性方面還考慮了其他什麼嗎？

I've got to tell you, a little tongue-in-cheek here, but we arguably were a little, had been many years ago reluctant to even do e-commerce, we did it a little begrudgingly. It took a while to do some more things. I things that we are doing, we are doing offensively, not defensively, but we were also probably a little stubborn along the way.

我必須告訴你，雖然這裡有點諷刺，但可以說我們確實有點，很多年前我們就不太願意做電子商務，我們是有點不情願地做的。做更多的事情需要一段時間。我們所做的事情，都是出於進攻目的，而不是防守目的，但我們在這過程中可能也有些固執。

There's some extreme examples of when a member orders a big ticket item, electronics or white goods or whatever, and the delivery window is much larger than anyone else's. They want to know -- they'd like to know it pops up the calendar and here it goes. When they want to return it, that process was not very good. Some of these are quick fixes. Search was not very good. That's been a quick fix to get a significant improvement and we get some more improvement.

有一些極端的例子，當會員訂購大件商品、電子產品或白色家電或其他商品時，送貨窗口比其他人的要大得多。他們想要知道——他們想知道它是否會彈出日曆並顯示出來。當他們想要退貨時，這個過程並不是很好。其中一些是快速修復。搜尋效果不太好。這是一個快速的解決方案，取得了顯著的進步，我們也取得了更多的進步。

So I think we are doing some things -- notwithstanding decent sales --

因此我認為我們正在做一些事情——儘管銷量不錯——

(Inaudible)

（聽不清楚）

Yes, we're investing in better convenience. But by the way, that's not at the expense of, we won't take our prices down a little. Those are truly independent, whether it's IT modernization efforts, some of which was a necessity or what are we going to do with regard to -- we need another $10 million or $15 million to enhance the site, that is truly independent of what we're doing there. As Jim Sinegal said for 25 plus years, and Craig Jelinek said for now five plus years, we are clearly a top line Company and we are best when we drive sales.

是的，我們正在投資以提供更好的便利。但順便說一句，這並不是以犧牲價格為代價的，我們不會稍微降低價格。這些都是真正獨立的，無論是 IT 現代化工作（其中一些是必要的），還是我們將要做的事情——我們需要另外 1000 萬美元或 1500 萬美元來增強該網站，這與我們在那裡所做的事情完全無關。正如 Jim Sinegal 25 年來所說，以及 Craig Jelinek 五年來所說，我們顯然是一家頂級公司，當我們推動銷售時，我們是最好的。

We probably aren't as good at leveraging expenses when sales come down than others because we're not going to do some things, but we're clearly taking the offensive. Again, there are some things that perhaps we should have done earlier, but we're already seeing some improvement in that. We know that will help.

當銷售額下降時，我們可能不如其他人那麼擅長利用費用，因為我們不會做某些事情，但我們顯然會採取攻勢。再說一遍，有些事情我們或許應該早點做，但我們已經看到了一些進展。我們知道這會有所幫助。

Thank you.

謝謝。

Karen Short with Barclays.

巴克萊銀行的凱倫‧肖特 (Karen Short)。

Hi Richard, this is Shaun Cross on for Karen. Thanks for taking our questions. Can you talk about your outlook for deflation and any signs of leveling off or maybe even an upswing?

你好，理查德，我是肖恩·克羅斯，代表凱倫。感謝您回答我們的問題。您能談談對通貨緊縮的展望以及任何趨於平穩甚至上升的跡象嗎？

I'm sorry. I couldn't hear the question.

對不起。我聽不清楚問題。

Can you talk about your outlook for deflation and any signs for, potentially, leveling off or potentially, an upswing?

您能否談談對通貨緊縮的展望以及任何可能趨於平穩或可能上升的跡象？

When we talk to different categories buyers, probably the ones that have more specific insight are on the fresh food sides, because they are dealing with commodities and negotiating. They're actually looking at the futures contracts and more of the cost of the actual item, the orange or the poultry or the pork or whatever. Whereas sometimes that's not the case.

當我們與不同類別的買家交談時，可能對生鮮食品方面有更具體的了解，因為他們正在處理商品和談判。他們實際上正在關注期貨合約和實際商品的成本，例如橘子、家禽、豬肉等等。但有時情況並非如此。

I think usually, when we ask, there is another three or six months of whatever, and when it gets to the anniversarying of it, there's been some huge swings, some huge examples of swings on some nuts, which last year doubled and are now down 35%. Eggs, of course, are down well over 60% year-over-year. If eggs were down even 50%, it doesn't mean that people are going to eat twice as many eggs to have flat sales. They are going to eat some more eggs, but not that many.

我認為通常情況下，當我們詢問時，還有另外三個月或六個月的時間，當它達到週年紀念日時，會出現一些巨大的波動，一些堅果出現巨大波動的例子，去年翻了一番，現在下降了 35%。當然，雞蛋價格比去年同期下降了60%以上。如果雞蛋價格下降了 50%，這並不意味著人們要吃掉兩倍的雞蛋來維持銷量不變。他們會再吃一些雞蛋，但不會吃那麼多。

By the way, a few of those things may help in the bakery, the margins in the bakery. We're also not going to change the package, the cost of 16 muffins -- or 15 muffins. Overall, I think the feeling is given that the last few months have been a little more deflationary, the view is, is that it's another few months of that. But they all believe it's going to come back the other way. This is a lot of estimated, semi-educated guesses among different departments.

順便說一句，其中一些東西可能對麵包店有幫助，對麵包店的利潤有幫助。我們也不會改變包裝，16 個鬆餅或 15 個鬆餅的價格。總體而言，我認為鑑於過去幾個月的通貨緊縮程度有所加重，人們的看法是，這種情況還將持續數月。但他們都相信，事情會以另一種方式回歸。這是不同部門之間的大量估計和半有根據的猜測。

I noticed there's also no reserve, apparently there's no charge or credit in the quarter. Is that right?

我注意到也沒有儲備金，顯然本季沒有費用或信用。是嗎？

Right. That's correct.

正確的。沒錯。

Okay. Thanks for that.

好的。謝謝。

By the way (multiple speakers) -- Effective, the beginning of this fiscal year, for 30 years we've been on a retail cost system, retail inventory system. Most companies historically have been on a cost-based system where you get down more granularly to item level, with the modernization that was part of this process, too. With the cost system, the way you value your inventories will not have LIFO charges and credits in the future. We will.

順便一提（多位發言者）－從本財年開始，30 年來我們一直採用零售成本系統、零售庫存系統。大多數公司歷史上都採用基於成本的系統，在該系統下可以更精細地細分到專案級別，而現代化也是這一過程的一部分。採用成本系統後，您對庫存的估價方式將來將不會產生後進先出費用和貸記。我們將。

We will, but when we restated at the value of our inventory on the (inaudible) fiscal year, part of that (multiple speakers) --

我們會的，但是當我們重申（聽不清楚）財政年度的庫存價值時，其中一部分（多位發言者）—

Sorry. I'm learning here as we go along. At the beginning of the year, you will notice on our year-end balance sheet, we revalued the inventory at cost in a different way and it was about a $60 million-plus reduction in inventory.

對不起。我在這裡一邊學習，一邊進步。在年初，您會注意到在我們的年終資產負債表上，我們以不同的方式重新評估了庫存成本，庫存減少了約 6000 多萬美元。

At the beginning --

一開始——

At the beginning of the year, but not a P&L impact.

年初時如此，但不會對損益產生影響。

Got it.

知道了。

To the extent there's inflation in the future, we will have a LIFO charge. I'm giving myself a thumb up. And once you have some LIFO charges, you can have credits. To the extent that there was LIFO as deflation right out-of-the-box, you won't take that credit because you have no charge against to which you can take it.

如果未來出現通貨膨脹，我們將採用後進先出法。我給自己豎起大拇指。一旦您有了一些後進先出費用，您就可以獲得信用。在某種程度上，後進先出法就是現成的通貨緊縮法，您將無法獲得該信用，因為您無法對其收取任何費用。

Got it. That explains it. Thanks for that. My follow-up is just an extra week this year. Can you give a sense of the impact? My math is about $0.10 to $0.11, but curious if you think that's the right vicinity.

知道了。這就解釋了。謝謝。我的後續工作今年只是額外增加了一週。您能描述一下其影響嗎？我的計算結果是大約 0.10 美元到 0.11 美元，但我想知道您是否認為這是正確的範圍。

It's sounds like that's 2% of X, I don't have a calculator in front of me. 150, one-third of a year. For the most part, most expenses, even though say on a rental facility, you pay 12 monthly rents. We take it over the 53 weeks. You don't get a 1/53 credit for that. We amortize it over the course of 10 years or 20 years. It generally should be if it's 2% more weeks, it's 2% more earnings, plus or minus.

聽起來像是 X 的 2%，我面前沒有計算機。150，一年的三分之一。大多數情況下，大多數費用，即使是在租賃設施上，您也要支付 12 個月的租金。我們用 53 週來完成它。您不會因此獲得 1/53 的信用。我們將其在 10 年或 20 年內攤提。一般來說，如果工作週數增加 2%，那麼收入就會增加 2%，左右浮動。

Thank you.

謝謝。

Matt Fassler with Goldman Sachs.

高盛的馬特法斯勒 (Matt Fassler)。

My first question relates to the Citibank Visa deal. Can you tell what impact the enhanced cash back features have led to? Has it been, in your view, more sign-ups? Has Citi seen more traction with some of the categories where you increase the incentives for consumers?

我的第一個問題與花旗銀行 Visa 交易有關。您能說出增強的現金回饋功能帶來了什麼影響嗎？您認為註冊人數是否增加了？花旗銀行是否發現您在某些類別中增加了對消費者的激勵措施，從而獲得了更大的吸引力？

I can't speak to Citi. To you, I can't speak to them. We have certainly had discussions with them. They have made their own comments that I think are generally positive about how the program is working so far for them. What I can tell you from our perspective is, is some of these I've already mentioned in terms of a significant improvement in the value proposition of the rewards to the members assuming they spend like they did.

我無法與花旗通話。對你來說，我無法和他們說話。我們確實與他們進行過討論。他們已經發表了自己的評論，我認為這些評論總體上對該計劃目前的運作持積極態度。從我們的角度來看，我可以告訴你的是，我已經提到其中的一些內容，即假設會員像以前一樣消費，那麼對會員的獎勵價值主張將顯著改善。

Hopefully they will spend more, because of the 2% at Costco instead of 1%, on top of executive rewards and 4% on gas instead of 3%, and 3% on velocity categories instead of 2%. All that stuff is good. (multiple speakers) There is more utilization. There is more places to use the card. Typically, these are smaller merchants that only perhaps accept certain brands over others and they pay higher fees, but we will have to see.

希望他們會花更多錢，因為 Costco 的折扣是 2% 而不是 1%，此外還有高階主管獎勵、汽油折扣是 4% 而不是 3%，速度類別的折扣是 3% 而不是 2%。所有這些東西都很好。（多位發言者）利用率較高。現在可以使用該卡的地方越來越多了。通常，這些都是規模較小的商家，可能只接受某些品牌，而且支付更高的費用，但我們還要拭目以待。

Are there any surveys you've conducted that would suggest customers have really digested that extra penny they're going to get back at the end of the year?

你們有進行過什麼調查嗎？

No.

不。

Okay.

好的。

But what I can tell you from talking to our head of membership marketing is it stands up in good print on everybody's monthly statement, they see it. It's pretty big, pretty fast. So, I think those are the types of things that people look at. We know affinity programs work and again, based on Citi's comments, publicly, it seems like it's working in the right direction for everyone, which means more spend on it.

但透過與我們的會員行銷主管的交談，我可以告訴你，它會以印刷形式出現在每個人的月度帳單上，他們會看到它。它非常大，速度非常快。所以，我認為這些都是人們所關注的事物類型。我們知道親和力計劃是有效的，而且根據花旗銀行的公開評論，它似乎對每個人都朝著正確的方向發展，這意味著人們會在其上投入更多資金。

Great. My follow-up is on deflation and gross margin. We've looked through your transcripts going back quite a while and this is a purely, remarkable deflation particularly in the context of a decent US economy. In your experience how does gross margin progress through a deflationary cycle? We've talked about your expectations for if and when deflation turns and the number of months going forward, et cetera. In the past, as you've seen food prices in particular recover, how do your gross margins tend to behave?

偉大的。我的後續關注點是通貨緊縮和毛利率。我們查看了您一段時間前的記錄，這是一次純粹而顯著的通貨緊縮，尤其是在美國經濟狀況良好的背景下。根據您的經驗，毛利率在通貨緊縮週期中如何變化？我們已經討論了您對通貨緊縮是否會出現、何時會出現、以及未來幾個月會出現什麼情況的預期等等。過去，當您看到食品價格回升時，您的毛利率如何變化？

It really is all over the board. With the inflation, the dollars go up. The percent probably changes a little downward so that would imply for us a little bit of improvement in dollars. It can be all over the board.

它確實遍布整個董事會。隨著通貨膨脹，美元升值。該百分比可能會略有下降，這意味著美元會略有改善。它可以遍佈整個板子。

Gas is an extreme example, it is a little margin-competitive business. As prices tumbled dramatically, across general competition, prices were lowered, but not nearly proportional to the amount of savings to that retailer. We were able to improve our margins a little and widened the gap. That's a win-win.

天然氣就是一個極端的例子，它是一個利潤率競爭不激烈的行業。隨著價格大幅下跌，在普遍的競爭中，價格雖然下降了，但與零售商節省的金額卻遠不成比例。我們能夠稍微提高利潤率並擴大差距。這是一個雙贏的局面。

Another silly example is organics. Organics, because there is perhaps a little bit of less price elasticity to organic prices, we are able to make a little more margin, not a lot, and have a wider value proposition versus others. Those are good things for us.

另一個愚蠢的例子是有機物。有機產品，因為有機產品的價格彈性可能稍微小一點，我們可以賺取更多的利潤，但不是很多，而且與其他產品相比，我們的價值主張更為廣泛。這些對我們來說都是好事。

Generally speaking, when there was cost inflation on milk and cheese and things like that, we would point out, as you know, historically, in some of those quarters where we kept the chicken at $4.99 and margins went down essentially from something to nothing to the tune of $40 million a year on one item. That was four or five years ago -- four years ago.

一般來說，當牛奶、起司等商品的成本上漲時，我們會指出，如你所知，從歷史上看，在某些季度，我們將雞肉價格保持在 4.99 美元，利潤率基本上從一些下降到零，某一商品的利潤率每年高達 4,000 萬美元。那是四、五年前的事了──四年前。

Conversely, when cheese prices fell, food court margins went up nicely, because we've never really changed the price of a slice of pizza. So, there's lots of little things that don't fit in the square box or a square box and a round hole here. I would say, generally, a little inflation is good. It helps sales. We could be more competitive both up and down and with prices are going up, it probably is a little bit more margin beneficial. But not a lot.

相反，當起司價格下降時，美​​食廣場的利潤率就會大幅上升，因為我們從未真正改變過一片披薩的價格。所以，這裡有很多小東西不適合放在方形盒子或方形盒子和圓孔裡。我想說，一般來說，稍微有點通貨膨脹是件好事。它有助於銷售。無論價格上漲與否，我們的競爭力都可能會增強，而且隨著價格的上漲，利潤空間可能會更大一些。但不是很多。

Thank you so much. I appreciate it. Thanks, Richard.

太感謝了。我很感激。謝謝，理查。

Oliver Chen with Cowen and Company.

Cowen and Company 的 Oliver Chen 說。

What are your thoughts regarding bricks plus clicks and whether that be buy online, pick up in store, reserve in store, car pickup from store? We're just seeing a lot of innovation as retailers and pure-plays go to physical retail that were previously digital. I want to know what you think about that and if it's meaningful for you and if we should be concerned about your long-term store traffic trends with the rise of Amazon? And then mobile is about two-thirds of online traffic for many retailers.

您對「實體店加網路店」有何看法？隨著零售商和純粹經營者從數位化轉向實體零售，我們看到了許多創新。我想知道您對此有何看法，這對您是否有意義，以及隨著亞馬遜的崛起，我們是否應該關注您商店的長期流量趨勢？對於許多零售商來說，行動裝置約佔線上流量的三分之二。

Right.

正確的。

What should we expect for your mobile app and the five-year plan for what you want to do there to make it really exciting and fun and great?

我們對您的行動應用程式有何期待？

First, we are fixing some of the basics and improving some of the basics. I'm pretty excited about some of those things.

首先，我們正在修復一些基礎問題並改進一些基礎問題。我對其中一些事情感到非常興奮。

You mentioned the number of mobile versus non-mobile e-commerce sales. Our numbers are lower than that mobile, but they are improving quickly. Again, we recognize there's things that we can and can't do. We think we could and should do a lot more online. But, we also, as you pointed out, want to get people into the warehouses. We think that some of the things that we do in store will keep them coming. So far, it's not been an issue.

您提到了行動和非行動電子商務的銷售數量。我們的數字低於行動設備，但正在迅速改善。再次強調，我們體認到有些事情我們能做，有些事情我們不能做。我們認為我們可以而且應該在網路上做更多的事情。但是，正如您所指出的，我們也希望吸引人們進入倉庫。我們認為，我們在商店中採取的一些措施將讓他們繼續光顧。到目前為止，這還不是什麼問題。

While we try to point out these things each quarter, in terms of traffic, in terms of -- even when traffic was impacted a little bit, we were asked that $64,000 question, is it all these other things? We see some of the categories that one would think would have been impacted negatively by it, aren't being impacted negatively. In terms of click and pick up, we've looked at it and we are not prepared to do that, at this point. When we see it at other places, not just the other warehouse club, you need space for it or you need a lot less volume in the location for it, neither of which we have. And, we're not getting a lot of demands for it.

雖然我們每個季度都會嘗試指出這些事情，但就流量而言，即使流量受到了一點影響，我們也被問到那個價值 64,000 美元的問題，是所有這些其他事情嗎？我們發現，有些人們認為會受到負面影響的類別並沒有受到負面影響。關於點擊和拾取，我們已經研究過它了，但目前我們還沒有準備好這麼做。當我們在其他地方看到它時，不僅僅是其他倉儲俱樂部，你需要空間來容納它，或者你需要在位置上少得多的容量，而這兩者都是我們不具備的。而且，我們對此並沒有提出太多的要求。

We do that at the business centers. You can log on and get it delivered. So, that's more for the business member, not the individual. We recognize that we are not the retailer that's going to sell you a smaller pack size of something and even a little bit higher margin. That's not what we do.

我們在商務中心這樣做。您可以登入並獲取送貨服務。所以，這更多的是針對企業成員，而不是個人。我們認識到，我們不是那種會以稍高一點的利潤向您出售較小包裝產品的零售商。這不是我們所做的。

Now, time will tell, over time. There's a lot of things that are going on out there. We are looking at them. We've all seen the video from earlier this week about you just walk in. And there is a lot of other brick and mortars that my guess would be far more impacted than us on that, but we'll have to wait and see. Again, if renewal rates trends changed -- by the way, we even see in the markets where we've done things with Google and we work with Instacard, as well. Google Express and Instacard. Probably the most extreme example would be the Bay Area where we started with Google and that was their first market and certainly that's where they are headquartered. It's doing fine.

現在，隨著時間的推移，時間將證明一切。外面發生了很多事。我們正在看著他們。我們都看過本週早些時候關於你走進來的影片。我猜測還有很多其他實體企業受到的影響會比我們大得多，但我們還得拭目以待。同樣，如果續約率趨勢發生變化——順便說一句，我們甚至可以看到我們與Google合作的市場以及我們與 Instacard 合作的市場。Google Express 和 Instacard。可能最極端的例子就是灣區，Google就是從那裡開始的，那是他們的第一個市場，當然也是他們的總部所在地。一切進展順利。

What we found is an existing loyal member is coming in a few less times a year, is shopping several more times -- well certainly several more because it was zero, but shopping more. But the sum of the two is more. They buy a lot less when they're doing it online than when they come in and part of that is the experience of walking in and seeing it all there and not everything is offered (technical difficulty). The good news is --

我們發現，現有的忠實會員每年光顧的次數減少了，但購物的次數增加了——當然是增加了幾次，因為會員數量之前是零，但購物的次數增加了。但兩者相加則較多。他們在網路上購買的商品比在實體店購買的少很多，部分原因是走進去後看到所有東西，但並不是所有的東西都有提供（技術難度）。好消息是——

Ladies and gentlemen, the conference will begin momentarily. Please standby. You are live, Mr. Galanti.

女士們、先生們，會議即將開始。請等候。您現在在線，加蘭蒂先生。

Thank you. Oliver? Hello?

謝謝。奧利佛？你好？

Hello.

你好。

Oliver, yes.

奧利佛，是的。

Thanks for answering that. I just wanted to briefly ask you, does scan and go make any sense for you, or is that something that is not conducive to your experience? As you do your own research on Amazon, which categories or what would you say -- or draw out your best competitive advantages, and what are your opportunities just to make sure you remain very competitive against Amazon? How are you feeling about millennials and generation Z? It sounded like you still had a lot of good momentum with younger demographics.

謝謝你的回答。我只是想簡單地問你一下，掃描後離開對你來說是否有意義，或者這是否不利於你的體驗？當您對亞馬遜進行自己的研究時，您會說什麼—哪些類別或什麼可以反映您最大的競爭優勢？您對千禧世代和 Z 世代有何看法？聽起來你們在年輕群體中仍然保持著良好的發展勢頭。

Look, in terms of scan and go, honestly, we did a version of scan and go, literally, 20 years ago with a customer, a member, would walk in and get an RF gun, a radio frequency device, walked around, scanned their own items, come up to the front, hand that thing to the cashier, the scanner -- and they print out a receipt.

你看，就掃描即走而言，老實說，20 年前我們確實做過一種掃描即走的版本，顧客或會員會走進來拿一把 RF 槍（一種射頻設備），四處走動，掃描自己的物品，走到前面，把那個東西遞給收銀員，掃描儀——然後他們打印出收據。

Needless to say, there's a lot more efficient things today. We continue to look at scan and go type things. We are not testing it currently, but we are looking at it. I'm not suggesting we are going to do it. We have done self checkout for a while. We have chosen to not do self checkout in higher volume units because we can get people through without it. As it relates, you had asked, in terms of millennials, generation Z, all those numbers are doing better for us. Part of it is things like -- not that we sat down and strategically thought how do we get them? We have a great value proposition. Certainly some of the things that we sell like organics in my view is a big impact to that.

毋庸置疑，如今有許多更有效率的東西。我們繼續觀察掃描並輸入的內容。我們目前還沒有測試它，但是我們正在觀察它。我並不是建議我們這麼做。我們已經進行了一段時間的自助結帳。我們選擇不在人流較大的單位實施自助結帳，因為沒有自助結帳我們也能讓人通過。正如您所問的，就千禧世代、 Z 世代而言，所有這些數字對我們來說都表現得更好。部分原因在於──我們不是坐下來策略性地思考如何獲得它們嗎？我們有一個很有價值的主張。當然，我認為我們銷售的一些東西，例如有機產品，對此有很大的影響。

Certainly, some of the things we do, we've done a couple of tests with Living Social over the last couple of years. All those things, we think help. As it relates, you asked a question about Amazon, and Amazon is also the word for everything out there that's delivered or dot com and everything else. Certainly, they are doing a lot of things. We want to make sure we understand what all of these people are doing. And not just from a competitive price shop.

當然，我們在過去幾年中已經使用 Living Social 對一些事情進行過測試。我們認為所有這些都有幫助。正如它所相關的，你問了一個關於亞馬遜的問題，亞馬遜也是指所有可交付的東西或.com 以及其他一切。當然，他們正在做很多事情。我們希望確保我們了解所有這些人都在做什麼。並且不只是來自具有競爭力的價格商店。

Whether it's them or someone else, we recognize convenience is a value, but there's also some things that we can and can't do. So I think that we are looking at these things offensively, not defensively at this point. I don't think -- I think we are encouraged when we see the level of millennials, if you will, that are signing up. We see the average age of our membership coming down. It was just a couple of years ago when the average US Costco adult member was four-plus years older than the population, as a whole. Now, it's a little under two, and that's without a lot of planning. But it's part of what we do.

無論是他們還是其他人，我們都承認便利是一種價值，但也有一些事情我們可以做，有一些事情我們不能做。因此我認為我們現在是從進攻的角度而不是防守的角度來看待這些事情。我不認為——我認為當我們看到千禧世代的註冊人數時，我們會感到鼓舞。我們發現會員的平均年齡正在下降。就在幾年前，美國 Costco 成年會員的平均年齡還比整體人口大 4 歲以上。現在，還不到兩歲，而且沒有做太多的計劃。但這是我們工作的一部分。

I think part of that is the merchandise selection and our ability to change merchandise pretty quickly. Certainly, things like organics stand out in a big way. I think the fact of what we're doing, even on some things that aren't directly -- they are all related to the business, but ESG and sustainability, how we take care of our employees, the culture, those are things that, again, we didn't say we have to do better at that. We do best at that. We do a lot of good things like that.

我認為部分原因在於商品選擇以及我們快速更換商品的能力。當然，有機物之類的東西非常引人注目。我認為我們所做的事情，即使是一些與業務沒有直接關係的事情，也都與業務相關，但 ESG 和可持續性、我們如何照顧員工、文化，這些都是我們並沒有說我們必須做得更好的事情。這是我們最擅長的。我們也做了很多這樣的好事。

When it comes down to merchandising, we believe that organics, the KS, what we are very good at is driving value and we're probably not going to be the person that's the best at delivering smaller-sized goods to your house. There are some things we are going to do between that and nothing; and again, stay tuned for calendar 2017.

當談到商品銷售時，我們相信有機產品、KS，我們最擅長的是推動價值，而且我們可能不會成為最擅長將小尺寸商品送到您家的人。在這和不做之間我們會做一些事情；再次，請繼續關注 2017 年日曆。

Thanks. Happy holidays. Best regards.

謝謝。節日快樂。此致。

Dan Binder with Jefferies.

傑富瑞 (Jefferies) 的丹賓德 (Dan Binder)。

My question was around some of the things you've already covered, including pricing and the moat that you said has opened up. In light of that, there's been a lot of debate around the traffic just north of 2% or just under 3% depending on the month. A lot of questions around convenience. I just wonder, as you review this online strategy, do think there needs to be a major shift towards a broader SKU assortment? Obviously, Amazon's got marketplace, Walmart's building marketplace, Target's chosen not to. Do you think as part of that convenience factor, Costco just needs to materially up their SKU count online?

我的問題是關於您已經涉及的一些內容，包括定價和您所說的已經打開的護城河。有鑑於此，人們對流量成長的具體數字（根據月份不同）存在著許多爭論，具體數字是略高於 2% 還是略低於 3%。關於便利性有很多疑問。我只是想知道，當您回顧這項線上策略時，是否認為需要向更廣泛的 SKU 分類進行重大轉變？顯然，亞馬遜擁有市場，沃爾瑪正在建立市場，而塔吉特選擇不這麼做。您是否認為，為了實現便利，Costco 只需要大幅提高其線上 SKU 數量？

Keep in mind we have materially upped it over the last couple of years, recognizing it's still a fraction of anything else out there. If we were, again, at 3,700 active items in a physical location and roughly that many online, excluding office products, which goes through a third-party and there are several thousand of those items, but in terms of what we do ourselves, and we've now taken it up to 8-ish, 8,000, maybe a little more. Is it likely to go to 40,000 and 50,000? Absolutely not. Unless it does one day, but I don't think so.

請記住，我們在過去幾年中已大幅提高它的價格，同時認識到它仍然只是其他產品的一小部分。如果我們再次在實體店中擁有 3,700 種活躍商品，並且線上銷售的商品數量大致相同，不包括透過第三方銷售的辦公產品，那麼這類商品就有幾千種，但就我們自己銷售的商品而言，現在我們的商品數量已經增加到 8,000 種左右，甚至更多。有可能達到4萬、5萬嗎？絕對不是。除非有一天它真的發生了，但我不這麼認為。

Is it likely to go up a little bit more? Sure. Is likely for us to do a few more things that provide convenience? Yes. But we still want you in the door.

還有可能再漲一點嗎？當然。是不是可以多做一些便利的事情給我們？是的。但我們仍然歡迎您進來。

Again, to Amazon and others' credit, they are trying a lot of things. Some will work and some won't. We are pretty good at understanding what works and figuring out how to augment it to do what we know how to do and what we want to do. We recognize that we can't be selling you a smaller size of something at our margins, nor are we prepared to double or triple the margin to do so.

再次，值得讚揚的是，亞馬遜和其他公司正在嘗試很多事情。有些會起作用，有些則不會。我們非常善於理解什麼是有效的，並想出如何增強它來做我們知道如何做的事情和我們想做的事情。我們認識到，我們無法以我們的利潤向您出售較小尺寸的產品，我們也不準備將利潤翻倍或三倍來做到這一點。

Got you. My other question was around the membership fee, or potential membership fee increase next year that's been talked about quite a bit. Just curious if there is a sensitivity and what that threshold is, at which point you would not do it? In other words, if the comp store sales were to continue being at the level they were at in the first quarter, would you be less likely to put an increase through? Maybe an easier way to talk about it is what kind of comp level would you like to be at when you do it?

明白了。我的另一個問題是關於會員費，或是明年會員費可能會上漲的問題，這個問題已經被討論了很多。只是好奇是否存在敏感度以及閾值是多少，在什麼時候你不會這樣做？換句話說，如果同店銷售額繼續保持在第一季的水平，您是否不太可能增加銷售額？也許一個更簡單的談論方式是：當你做這件事時，你希望達到什麼樣的薪資水準？

Directionally, I responded in the past by saying, if comps were a little weaker, it would be more likely to want to do it. Or no impact on that decision. It's all in our view about what additional values have we brought to the table. Whatever amount of an increase might be contemplated, have we improved the value proposition significantly greater than that amount, which in my view has always been a no-brainer for us.

方向上，我過去的回應是，如果公司實力稍弱，就更有可能這麼做。或對該決定沒有影響。我們認為這完全取決於我們能帶來什麼額外的價值。無論考慮增加多少，我們是否已經大幅改善了價值主張，在我看來，這對我們來說一直是一件輕而易舉的事。

Are renewal rates okay? And if sales are a little weak, it would be the time to do it or not to do it. I'm not trying to suggest that it's tomorrow afternoon. I'm just saying that generally speaking, a little bit weaker, we're going to use that to drive business.

續約率可以嗎？如果銷售情況有點不好，那就該做或不做了。我並不是說那是明天下午。我只是說，一般來說，稍微弱一點，我們會用它來推動業務。

Okay. My question, or response to that is, if you had this widening moat in price and you are priced right, this idea that you would reinvest membership fee dollars into price, do think that would drive an incremental gain to get comps at a higher level? Is that the idea?

好的。我的問題或回答是，如果您擁有不斷擴大的價格護城河，而且定價合理，那麼您會將會員費重新投資到價格中，您是否認為這會帶來增量收益，從而使可比價格達到更高的水平？是這個意思嗎？

On some items, yes. On some of the things that we do. If you keep in mind, 30 years ago, in the original business, 33 years ago, in the original business plan, it talked about it doesn't matter where you locate. You could be on the other side of the railroad tracks in a downtrodden area, people come to you. It's a destination.

就某些項目而言，是的。關於我們所做的一些事情。如果你記得的話，30 年前，在最初的業務中，33 年前，在最初的商業計劃中，都談到了無論你位於何處都無所謂。你可能在鐵路另一邊的貧困地區，人們會來找你。這是一個目的地。

That was fine until you added to that sentence, until somebody is between you and your customer. Over time, while we are certainly not at the mall, we recognize that we have to do some things. What we are doing online right now with some of the member experience and distribution timing and costs and capabilities, those are the types of things that we are investing in. Vertical integration in some aspects, whether it's a chicken plant or a bakery commissary up in Canada, there's a lot of things that we are doing to drive value, not just lower the price.

這一切都很好，直到你添加了那句話，直到有人擋在你和你的客戶之間。隨著時間的推移，雖然我們肯定不在商場，但我們認識到我們必須做些什麼。我們現在在網路上所做的工作，包括一些會員體驗、分銷時間、成本和能力，這些都是我們正在投資的事情。在某些方面，垂直整合，無論是加拿大的雞肉加工廠還是麵包店，我們都在做很多事情來推動價值，而不僅僅是降低價格。

I don't see that being a reason to do it or not to do it. We look at it as a value proposition. We may become a little-- price is primary and I think it will continue to be primary, but we look at a few other things, as well.

我認為這不是做這件事或不做這件事的理由。我們將其視為一種價值主張。我們可能會變得有點——價格是首要的，我認為它會繼續是首要的，但我們也會考慮其他一些事情。

Thank you.

謝謝。

Robby Ohmes from Bank of America.

美國銀行的 Robby Ohmes。

Richard, you mentioned going into Iceland and France; and I know you guys are doing Kirkland on Tmall in China. Can you just maybe catch us up on when you might ponder opening a brick-and-mortar up in mainland China? Thanks.

理查德，你提到去冰島和法國；我知道你們在中國的天貓上經營 Kirkland。您能否告訴我們何時會考慮在中國大陸開設實體店？謝謝。

Sure. On Tmall, I think it's about 300 items, a little over half of which are Kirkland Signature. It's certainly the KS name is getting known and that's a positive. We've continued to look at it for a number of years. Is it in the next couple, three years? It's probably more likely to say yes to that than two years ago or five years ago, but there's nothing definite at this point.

當然。在天貓上，我記得大約有 300 件商品，其中一半多一點是 Kirkland Signature。毫無疑問，KS 的名字正在逐漸為人所知，這是一件積極的事情。我們已經持續關注這個問題很多年了。是在未來幾年或三年內嗎？與兩年前或五年前相比，現在更有可能給出肯定的答案，但目前還不能確定。

Just a quick follow up on the credit card. Is there any -- the new people -- the new sign-ups for the card, anything on the demographic side of who is signing up that's different than what you were seeing with the AMEX card?

只需快速跟進一下信用卡情況。有沒有新人－新註冊該卡的人，從人口統計學角度來看，與使用 AMEX 卡的情況有何不同？

No. Not at all.

不。一點也不。

Got it.

知道了。

They are called millennials instead of something else now, but that -- no.

現在他們被稱為千禧世代，而不是其他名字，但事實並非如此。

Got it. Thanks very much.

知道了。非常感謝。

Peter Benedict with Baird.

彼得·本尼迪克特和​​貝爾德。

A couple quick ones. First on the Google Express, can you talk about, are there any plans to expand that? I know you mentioned the Bay Area. But where else is that being done? And are there any thoughts to moving that out into more markets?

幾個簡單的。首先是 Google Express，您能談談是否有擴展它的計劃嗎？我知道您提到了灣區。但還有什麼地方可以做這樣的事呢？有沒有考慮推廣到更多市場？

It started in the Bay Area but then went to LA area. In the last of couple years has expanded to, as well, Chicago, Boston, New York and DC. I believe they are expanding -- and we're expanding, in a few other markets, as well, I believe. I don't have that list in front of me. I know it includes a few more. Let's say it's going from 6-ish to 12-ish plus. Recognizing we are working with them in different markets and testing different things. I think we've done a couple of small tests with some fresh foods, but it's a limited selection of items. Each of these is a little different.

它始於灣區，但後來轉移到洛杉磯地區。在過去的幾年裡，業務也擴展到了芝加哥、波士頓、紐約和華盛頓特區。我相信他們正在擴張，我也相信，我們也在其他一些市場正在擴張。我面前沒有那份清單。我知道其中還包括一些。假設它從 6 左右增加到 12 左右以上。認識到我們在不同的市場與他們合作並測試不同的東西。我想我們已經對一些新鮮食品做了一些小測試，但選擇範圍有限。每個都有些不同。

Sure. Understood. On tobacco, is that -- the weakness in tobacco, or the sell-down of tobacco, does that have any kind of material effect on a core gross margin? I understand that's a very low-margin product. Is that a material benefit to you?

當然。明白了。關於菸草，菸草的疲軟或菸草的銷售下滑是否會對核心毛利率產生實質影響？我知道這是一個利潤很低的產品。這對你來說是物質利益嗎？

It's a low margin business, so it would help improve the margin a little bit.

這是一項低利潤業務，因此它將有助於稍微提高利潤率。

Right. Is that a material benefit to your core margins right now?

正確的。這對您目前的核心利潤來說有實質的益處嗎？

No.

不。

Okay.

好的。

Gas would be an offset to that in a bigger way, mind you.

請注意，天然氣將會更大程度地抵銷這一點。

Last just on capital allocation. Remind us what are your thoughts in terms of priorities and latest views on leverage, some of your leverage ratios that get down starting next year, so just your latest thoughts there?

最後只是談資本配置。請提醒我們，您對優先事項和最新槓桿觀點有何看法，您的一些槓桿率是否會從明年開始下降，這只是您最新的想法？

Well, first and foremost, CapEx is expansion. Expansion is first and foremost new units, or improvements in existing units, a little bit. But probably an equal priority is all the things associated with it. Ancillary businesses, whether it's gas stations, as well as some of the manufacturing things we are doing. We are opening up -- we've had for a number of years a meat plant in Tracy, California that does I think around 200 million pounds a year, [4-plus] million pounds a week of four or five items that are us. It's our items. We are opening up a meat plant on the East Coast, shortly.

嗯，首先，資本支出就是擴張。擴張首先是增加新單位，或對現有單位進行一點點改進。但與之相關的所有事物可能都具有同等的優先權。輔助業務，無論是加油站，還是我們正在做的一些製造業務。我們正在開業——我們在加州特雷西經營了好幾年的肉類加工廠，我認為每年的產量約為 2 億磅，每週生產四到五種產品，即 [400 多萬磅]。這是我們的物品。我們很快就會在東海岸開設肉類加工廠。

In Canada we're building, I think we have broken ground on a commissary for bakery. We are investing $250-plus million, closer to $300 million on a big chicken plant, processing plant, in Nebraska that has not broken ground yet, but is in the process of getting permits and stuff. So, there's things like that, as well.

在加拿大我們正在建設，我想我們已經破土動工建造一個麵包店的配送中心。我們在內布拉斯加州的一個大型雞肉加工廠投資了 2.5 億多美元，接近 3 億美元，雖然還沒有破土動工，但正在辦理許可證等手續。所以，也有類似的事情。

We are still spending money on IT. But priority-wise, none of this stuff impacts what we are doing for expansion. We are expanding as much as we want. We try to be -- we look at our dividend every year. Historically, it's been about 13%-plus increase year-over-year for the last nine or 10 years since its inception in 2005. We buy back a little stock.

我們仍在IT方面投入資金。但從優先順序來看，這些都不會影響我們的擴張行動。我們正在盡可能地擴張。我們盡力——我們每年都會關注我們的股息。從歷史上看，自 2005 年成立以來，過去 9 到 10 年裡，其年增長率一直保持在 13% 以上。我們回購了少量股票。

In terms of leverage, arguably, some would say that we are -- I would say we're well-capitalized. Some would say we're under levered. We've got a $1.1 billion 10 year, fixed rate debt instrument that comes due in March of 2017. The good news is, is that it's got the low, low fixed rate of about, I don't have it in front of me, but 5.5%, 5.6% -- 5.5%. What we do in terms of whether writing a check for it or refinancing part of it, we'll see. No big changes of what we do. We've done a couple of special dividends, one in late 2012 and one in early 2015, and I'm not indicating if we are or we aren't in the future. That was something that we chose to do at that time.

就槓桿率而言，有人可能會說我們——但我認為我們的資本充足。有些人可能會說我們的槓桿太低了。我們有 11 億美元的 10 年期固定利率債務工具，將於 2017 年 3 月到期。好消息是，它的固定利率很低，大約為，我沒有得到確切的數字，但為 5.5%、5.6%——5.5%。我們將拭目以待，看看我們會如何做，無論是開支票還是進行部分再融資。我們的工作沒有太大的改變。我們已派發過幾次特別股息，一次是在 2012 年底，一次是在 2015 年初，我並沒有暗示未來我們是否會派發特別股息。這是我們當時選擇要做的事。

Okay. Fair enough. Thank you.

好的。很公平。謝謝。

Greg Melich with Evercore ISI.

Evercore ISI 的 Greg Melich。

Three quick ones. Of the 15% of people that haven't activated the card, what are those people using? Are they just using another Visa in their wallet? What can you tell us about their behavior? Are they coming less frequently or using cash? What are they doing?

簡短的三個。尚未激活卡的 15％ 的人正在使用什麼？他們只是在錢包裡使用另一種 Visa 嗎？您能告訴我們他們的行為嗎？他們來得不那麼頻繁了嗎或使用現金嗎？他們在做什麼？

Well, a bunch of them, it's between 11% and 15%, but a bunch of them are people that, it was not active as a co-brand AMEX card. We had about 15% that had not -- upon conversion, about 15% of the 11, or whatever, million, people in the 7.5 million or so accounts, just under 15% of them had not been using the prior two months, I believe, the prior 60 days.

嗯，很多人的利率在 11% 到 15% 之間，但很多人並沒有作為聯名 AMEX 卡活躍。我們有大約 15% 的人沒有使用過——經過轉換，在大約 750 萬個帳戶中的 1100 萬人中，大約有 15% 的人，其中不到 15% 的人在前兩個月沒有使用過，我相信，前 60 天沒有使用過。

Not to suggest that maybe some of them just hadn't used it, and someday they will use it or they had been out of town, or whatever else. Every answer -- I think the vast majority of them would be that, though, they were using something else in their wallet. To the extent that the membership card was on the back, they still have it in their wallet and they still have the new one in their wallet. And hopefully they see those giant signs and they are reminded at the cash register by the cashier, have you heard about the 4-3-2-1 or the new exciting warranty program on TVs? Where you get a four-year, free warranty if you use it at Costco.

並不是說他們中的一些人可能只是沒有使用過它，而有一天他們會用到它，或者他們已經出城了，或者其他什麼原因。每個答案——我想絕大多數人都會說，他們在使用錢包裡的其他東西。如果會員卡在背面，他們的錢包裡仍然有它，他們的錢包裡仍然有新的會員卡。希望他們能看到這些巨大的標誌，收銀員在收銀台提醒他們，你聽說過 4-3-2-1 或電視上令人興奮的新保固計畫嗎？如果您在 Costco 使用它，您將獲得四年免費保固。

All right. Any other ads you want to put out there on it, or we will leave it at that?

好的。您還想在上面投放其他廣告嗎，還是我們就此打住？

I thought I would do it because I didn't have it in my script.

我想我會這麼做，因為我的劇本裡面沒有這個內容。

That's great. Then the second question was an international. That's an area -- traffic has been running below the US now for a while, which has been unusual over the last few years. Could you give us some insight as to why that is and how that's behaving, maybe in the markets where you raise the fee? Is it linked to that? Are renewal rates doing okay in those markets where the fee went up?

那太棒了。第二個問題是國際問題。這是一個區域——交通已經在美國下方運行了一段時間，這在過去幾年中是不尋常的。您能否向我們解釋為什麼會出現這種情況，以及在您們提高費用的市場中如何？這和那有關係嗎？在費用上漲的市場中，續約率還好嗎？

It's mostly cannibalization. We've got a $200 million, $300 million business. You open up a second one in that city. The new one does $100 million to $125 million or $100 million to $150 million, and $75 million of it is bled. What's in your traffic number is the old unit that's being cannibalized. So on a basis of 10 or 12 units, that's the biggest single reason.

這主要是一種蠶食。我們的業務價值 2 億、3 億美元。您在該城市開設了第二家店。新的預算案的預算為 1 億至 1.25 億美元或 1 億至 1.5 億美元，其中 7,500 萬美元是虧損的。您的流量編號中包含的是正在拆解的舊單元。因此，以 10 或 12 個單位為基礎，這是最大的單一原因。

On the markets where the fee went up?

在費用上漲的市場？

There's probably a little bit of softness in Japan beyond that. And I can't tell you why. Other than, the economy has been tough there. But it rains on everybody.

除此之外，日本可能還會有一些疲軟。而我也無法告訴你為什麼。除此之外，那裡的經濟狀況一直很嚴峻。但每個人都會遭遇不幸。

In terms of the markets where the fee went up, what have renewal rates done in those markets?

就費用上漲的市場而言，這些市場的續約率如何？

I'm sorry?

對不起？

What have renewal rates done in the markets where the fee was increased?

在費用增加的市場中，續約率有何變化？

It just happened three months ago. We don't have any numbers, yet. It's de minimus of anything. And I actually asked our marketing people earlier today.

這件事三個月前才發生過。我們還沒有任何數字。這是任何事物的最小值。事實上，我今天早些時候就詢問過我們的行銷人員。

(Inaudible)

（聽不清楚）

Bob is saying -- Bob has made a good point. It takes about six months to know because you've got people -- not every member comes in every two weeks. But trend-wise, we don't see any big issue there at all.

鮑伯說——鮑伯說得很對。大概需要六個月的時間才能知道，因為你已經有成員了──不是每個成員每兩週都會來一次。但從趨勢來看，我們根本沒有看到任何大問題。

Fair enough. Good luck.

很公平。祝你好運。

Why don't we take two more questions.

我們何不再回答兩個問題呢？

Chuck Cerankosky with Northcoast Research.

Northcoast Research 的 Chuck Cerankosky 說。

Just a quick question about what you're seeing in Visa usage from people who are using -- who never were Costco AMEX card holders, and how they're spending behavior has changed or somehow affected by Costco accepting Visa as payment now?

我只想問一個簡單的問題，您看到那些從未使用過 Costco AMEX 卡的人使用 Visa 的情況如何？

It's up. Particularly somebody -- to the extent somebody is choosing to use another Visa card in his or her wallet, maybe it's an airline program or hotel program, they may not be spending more because nothing has changed in their wallet. To the extent they're using cash or debit, that, you see an increase and we have seen that, as we would have expected.

起來了。特別是某些人——如果有人選擇在自己的錢包中使用另一張 Visa 卡，可能是航空計劃或酒店計劃，他們可能不會花更多錢，因為他們的錢包沒有任何變化。就他們使用現金或金融卡的程度而言，你會看到成長，我們也看到了這一點，正如我們預期的那樣。

Are you seeing any related impact on membership? Are you able to see if new members are being generated by the Visa acceptance?

您是否看到對會員資格有任何相關影響？您是否能看到是否因為 Visa 的接受而產生了新會員？

Well, we know that's the case, to a small extent, though. Citi, for example, has done marketing activities in their branches. But it's more existing members that have converted and you'll get a few. A few could be in the tens of thousands. Out of a million, couple or three or four -- 20,000, 30,000, 40,000 is not a big piece of that.

嗯，我們知道情況確實如此，儘管只是在某種程度上。例如花旗銀行在其分行開展了行銷活動。但更多的是現有成員已經轉變了，你會得到一些。少數則可達數萬。在一百萬中，幾萬、三萬、四萬，不算什麼。

All right. Thank you.

好的。謝謝。

Mike Montani with Evercore ISI.

Evercore ISI 的 Mike Montani。

I will take one more. I think that was -- ISI just asked the question.

我會再拿一個。我認為那是——ISI 剛剛問了這個問題。

There are no further questions.

沒有其它問題了。

Okay. Thank you, everyone. Have a good afternoon.

好的。謝謝大家。祝您下午愉快。

This concludes today's conference 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。