好市多 (COST) 2022 Q1 法說會逐字稿

Good day, and thank you for standing by, and welcome to the Q1 earnings call. (Operator Instructions)

美好的一天，感謝您的支持，歡迎參加第一季度財報電話會議。 （操作員說明）

I would now like to hand the conference over to your speaker today, Richard Galanti. Thank you. Please go ahead.

我現在想把會議交給你今天的演講者 Richard Galanti。謝謝你。請繼續。

Thank you, Sadie, and good afternoon to everyone. I'll start by stating 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.

謝謝你，薩迪，大家下午好。我將首先說明這些討論將包括 1995 年《私人證券訴訟改革法案》含義內的前瞻性陳述。這些陳述涉及風險和不確定性，可能導致實際事件、結果和/或業績與那些存在重大差異由此類聲明表示。

The risks and uncertainties include, but are not limited to those outlined in today's call as well as other risks identified from time to time in the company's public statements and reports filed with the SEC. Forward-looking statements speak only as of the date they are made, and the company does not undertake to update these statements, except as required by law.

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確定的其他風險。前瞻性陳述僅在作出之日起生效，公司不承諾更新這些陳述，除非法律要求。

In today's press release, we reported operating results for the first quarter of fiscal '22, the 12 weeks ended November 21. Net income for the quarter came in at $1.324 billion or $2.98 per diluted share compared to $1.166 billion or $2.62 per diluted share last year. This year included a tax benefit of $91 million or $0.21 a share related to stock-based compensation and a write-off of certain IT assets of $118 million pretax or $0.20 per share.

在今天的新聞稿中，我們報告了 22 財年第一季度（截至 11 月 21 日的 12 週）的經營業績。該季度的淨收入為 13.24 億美元或每股攤薄收益 2.98 美元，而上一季度為 11.66 億美元或每股攤薄收益 2.62 美元年。今年包括與股票薪酬相關的 9100 萬美元或每股 0.21 美元的稅收優惠，以及註銷某些 IT 資產的稅前 1.18 億美元或每股 0.20 美元。

Last year included tax benefits of $145 million or $0.33 per diluted share, $0.16 of which was due to the deductibility of the $10 per share special cash dividend received by the company's 401(k) plan participants and $0.17 related to stock-based compensation as well an incremental expenses for COVID-19 premium wages of $212 million pretax, which was hit last year in the quarter of $0.35 per share.

去年包括 1.45 億美元或每股攤薄收益 0.33 美元的稅收優惠，其中 0.16 美元是由於公司 401(k) 計劃參與者收到的每股 10 美元特別現金股息的可扣除性，以及與股票薪酬相關的 0.17 美元稅前 COVID-19 保費工資的增量支出為 2.12 億美元，去年該季度達到每股 0.35 美元。

Net sales for the quarter increased 16.7% to $49.42 billion, up from $42.35 billion a year earlier in the first quarter. Same-store sales for the first quarter were as follows. In the U.S., on a reported basis for the 12 weeks, up 14.9%; and excluding gas inflation and the impacts of FX, up 9.9%. Canada reported 17.2%; ex gas and FX, plus 8.3%. Other International, reported, 13.4%; ex gas inflation and FX, up 10.9%. All told, the company reported a 15% increase on a comp basis and 9.8% up ex gas and FX. In e-commerce, which was reported at 14.3%, ex FX, was 13.3%.

本季度淨銷售額增長 16.7% 至 494.2 億美元，高於去年第一季度的 423.5 億美元。第一季度同店銷售額如下。在美國，在 12 週報告的基礎上，增長 14.9%；不包括天然氣通脹和外彙的影響，上漲 9.9%。加拿大報告為 17.2%； ex gas 和 FX，加上 8.3%。其他國際，據報導，13.4%；扣除天然氣通脹和外匯，上漲 10.9%。總而言之，該公司報告在補償基礎上增長了 15%，除天然氣和外匯外增長了 9.8%。在電子商務中，報告為 14.3%，不含外匯，為 13.3%。

In terms of Q1 comp sales metrics, traffic or shopping frequency increased 6.8% worldwide and up 5.9% in the U.S. during the quarter. Our average transaction or ticket was up 7.7% worldwide and 8.5% in the U.S. during the quarter. Excluding the positive impact from gas inflation and FX, the average ticket was up ex that plus 2.5% worldwide and plus 3.5% in the U.S. Foreign currencies relative to the U.S. dollar positively impact sales by about 90 basis points. And gasoline price inflation positively impacted sales by approximately 430 basis points.

就第一季度的銷售指標而言，全球流量或購物頻率在本季度增長了 6.8%，在美國增長了 5.9%。本季度，我們在全球的平均交易或機票增長了 7.7%，在美國增長了 8.5%。排除天然氣通脹和外彙的積極影響，全球平均票價上漲了 2.5%，美元匯率上漲了 3.5%。外幣兌美元對銷售額產生了約 90 個基點的積極影響。汽油價格上漲對銷售產生了大約 430 個基點的積極影響。

Next on the income statement, membership fee income reported in the quarter, $946 million, up $85 million or 9.9% from last year's $861 million figure. Ex FX, the $85 million increase would have been $80 million and the 9.9% increase would be 9.3%.

接下來是損益表，本季度報告的會員費收入為 9.46 億美元，比去年的 8.61 億美元增加 8500 萬美元或 9.9%。 Ex FX，8500 萬美元的增長將是 8000 萬美元，9.9% 的增長將是 9.3%。

In terms of renewal rates, at first quarter end, our U.S. and Canada renewal rate came in at 91.6%, up 0.3% from the 12-week earlier figure at Q4 end. As well, the worldwide rate came in at 89.0%, also up 0.3% from 12 weeks ago at Q4 quarter end -- at Q4 end. The renewal rates are continuing to benefit from more members auto renewing as well as increased penetration of executive members who, on average, renew at a higher rate than the nonexecutive members and first year renewal rates, which have improved a little.

在續訂率方面，在第一季度末，我們的美國和加拿大續訂率達到 91.6%，比第四季度末 12 週前的數據上升 0.3%。同樣，全球利率為 89.0%，也比 12 週前第四季度末（第四季度末）增長了 0.3%。續訂率繼續受益於更多會員自動續訂以及執行會員滲透率的提高，平均而言，執行會員的續訂率高於非執行會員和第一年的續訂率，後者略有改善。

In terms of number of members at end of first quarter -- in terms of member households as well as total cardholders, at Q1 end, total paid households was 62.5 million, up 800,000 from 61.7 million a quarter ago. And total cardholders 113.1 million, up 1.5 million from the 111.6 million 12 weeks ago. At Q1 end, paid executive members totaled 26.5 million, an increase of 836,000 during the 12 weeks since Q4 end. Executive members represent 42% of our members and a little over 70% of our sales.

就第一季度末的會員數量而言——就會員家庭和持卡人總數而言，在第一季度末，付費家庭總數為 6250 萬，比上一季度的 6170 萬增加了 80 萬。持卡人總數為 1.131 億，比 12 週前的 1.116 億增加了 150 萬。在第一季度末，付費執行成員總數為 2650 萬，自第四季度末以來的 12 週內增加了 836,000 名。執行成員占我們會員的 42%，占我們銷售額的 70% 以上。

Moving down to the gross margin line. Our reported gross margin for the first quarter was lower year-over-year by 49 basis points, and excluding gas inflation, lower year-over-year by 6 basis points. As I normally do, I ask you a jot down a few numbers. The 2 columns, both reported year-over-year in Q1 and then without gas inflation year-over-year in Q1.

向下移動到毛利率線。我們報告的第一季度毛利率同比下降 49 個基點，不包括天然氣通脹，同比下降 6 個基點。像往常一樣，我請你記下幾個數字。這兩列都在第一季度報告了同比數據，然後在第一季度沒有出現天然氣通脹。

First line item would be core merchandise, minus 63 basis points year-over-year on a reported basis and minus 26 basis points without gas inflation. Ancillary and other businesses, plus 2 on a reported basis and plus 12 ex gas inflation; 2% Reward, plus 3 and minus 1 basis point; LIFO, minus 3 in both columns; other, plus 12 basis points in both columns. Total then on a reported basis, margins were down 49 basis points year-over-year; and ex gas inflation, down 6 basis points.

第一項是核心商品，在報告的基礎上同比下降 63 個基點，在沒有天然氣通脹的情況下下降 26 個基點。輔助業務和其他業務，加上報告的 2 項和 12 項除天然氣通脹外； 2% 獎勵，加 3 和減 1 個基點； LIFO，兩列中的負 3；其他，兩欄加 12 個基點。據報導，當時的總計利潤率同比下降 49 個基點；和除天然氣通脹，下降 6 個基點。

In terms of the core merchandise component of gross margin being lower by 63% year-over-year and 26 basis points ex gas inflation. Recall last year in Q1, the core reported was up 83 basis points; and ex gas, up 66 basis points. So we retained a good portion of the improvement from 2 years ago in the quarter.

就毛利率的核心商品部分而言，同比下降 63%，扣除天然氣通脹後下降 26 個基點。回顧去年第一季度，核心報告上漲了 83 個基點；和ex gas，上漲66個基點。因此，我們在本季度保留了 2 年前的很大一部分改進。

In terms of the core margin on their own sales, in the first quarter, our core-on-core margins were lower by 18 basis points, with non-foods slightly up and food and sundries slightly lower year-over-year. Also lower year-over-year, fresh foods was the primary driver of the core-on-core being lower in the quarter. Fresh continues to lap exceptional labor productivity and low product spoilage that occurred from the outside sales that began the year -- that happened a year ago in the quarter.

從自身銷售的核心利潤率來看，一季度，我們的核心對核心利潤率下降了 18 個基點，其中非食品小幅上漲，食品雜貨同比小幅下降。與去年同期相比，新鮮食品也是本季度核心核心價格下降的主要驅動力。 Fresh 繼續從年初的外部銷售中獲得出色的勞動生產率和較低的產品損壞率——這發生在一年前的本季度。

Ancillary and other business gross margin was higher by 2 basis points on a reported basis and, again, plus 12 basis points ex gas inflation. Gas and travel were better year-over-year as they anniversary a softer quarter a year ago, offset by e-comm, which was particularly strong a year ago and also related to the pandemic.

輔助業務和其他業務的毛利率在報告的基礎上提高了 2 個基點，並且再次加上 12 個基點（不包括天然氣通脹）。汽油和旅行同比有所好轉，因為一年前是一個疲軟的季度，被一年前特別強勁的電子商務所抵消，這也與大流行有關。

LIFO, we had a 3 basis point or $14 million LIFO charge in the quarter. 2% Reward, higher by 3 on a reported basis and lower by 1, excluding gas inflation, a reflection of slightly higher sales penetration going to the increased number of executive members. And other was up 12 basis points. This is related to COVID-related costs from a year ago. That portion of the COVID-related wages that go into the cost of sales like many of our manufacturing businesses and our meat and bakery departments. Given the inflationary pressures and our ongoing efforts to mitigate price increases to our members in the face of inflation as best we can, our Q1 gross margin's results, all in all, I think were pretty good.

LIFO，我們在本季度收取了 3 個基點或 1400 萬美元的 LIFO 費用。 2% 的獎勵，在報告的基礎上提高 3 和降低 1，不包括天然氣通脹，這反映了銷售滲透率略有提高，因為執行成員的數量增加了。其他上漲12個基點。這與一年前的 COVID 相關成本有關。與我們的許多製造企業以及我們的肉類和烘焙部門一樣，屬於銷售成本的那部分與 COVID 相關的工資。鑑於通脹壓力以及我們在面對通脹時為減輕會員價格上漲所做的持續努力，我認為我們第一季度的毛利率結果總體而言相當不錯。

Moving to SG&A. Our reported SG&A in the first quarter was lower or better year-over-year by 66 basis points and 29 basis points, excluding gas inflation. Again, jotting down 2 columns of numbers, first column being reported and the second column being ex gas inflation. Operations was better or lower by 40 basis points, and ex gas inflation, better or lower by 11 basis points.

轉移到 SG&A。我們報告的第一季度 SG&A 同比下降或好轉 66 個基點和 29 個基點，不包括天然氣通脹。再次記下兩列數字，第一列是報告的，第二列是氣體膨脹。運營或好或低 40 個基點，除天然氣通脹外，好或低 11 個基點。

Central, reported better by 10; without inflation -- gas inflation, better by 6; stock compensation, better by 2 and worse by 1 in the 2 columns; and other, better by 14 and better by 13 year-over-year. Total then, again, on a reported basis, our SG&A was better or lower by 66 basis points, and ex gas inflation, lower or better by 29 basis points.

中央，報告好 10 分；沒有通貨膨脹 - 氣體通貨膨脹，最好是 6；股票補償，在 2 列中提高 2 和降低 1；和其他，比去年好 14 歲，比去年好 13 歲。總而言之，根據報告，我們的 SG&A 或好或低了 66 個基點，除汽油通脹外，降低或好於 29 個基點。

Keep in mind, the terms of the core, again, better by 40 or better by 11 ex gas inflation. Keep in mind, this result includes the permanent $1 an hour wage increase that began in March of 2021 and 4 weeks of additional starting wage increases that we just took this past October, going from $16 to $17 and from $16.50 to $18 for our 2 main categories of hourly employees. These latest changes in the starting wages went into effect October 25, just 6 weeks ago, and 4 weeks of those 6 weeks were included in Q1.

請記住，核心條款再次提高 40 或提高 11 ex gas 膨脹。請記住，這一結果包括從 2021 年 3 月開始的每小時 1 美元的永久性工資增長，以及我們在去年 10 月剛剛採取的 4 週的額外起始工資增長，從 16 美元增加到 17 美元，從 16.50 美元增加到 18 美元，我們的 2 主要小時工類別。這些起薪的最新變化於 10 月 25 日生效，也就是 6 週前，這 6 周中的 4 週包含在第一季度。

Central, and that's -- no surprises there. Again, on an ex gas inflation basis, better by 6; stock comp, as I mentioned, a little better, a little worse by 1 ex gas inflation; and other, the 14 and the 13 basis points numbers. This consisted of a COVID expense of $159 million last year and the $118 million write-off of the impacted IT assets that I mentioned earlier.

中央，那是 - 那裡沒有驚喜。同樣，在 ex gas 通脹的基礎上，最好是 6；正如我所提到的，股票補償比 1 ex gas 通脹好一點，差一點；和其他，14 和 13 個基點數。這包括去年 1.59 億美元的 COVID 費用和我之前提到的受影響 IT 資產的 1.18 億美元註銷。

Next on the income statement is preopening expense. This year in the quarter, $28 million; last year in the quarter, $22 million or $6 million higher. All told, reported operating income in the first quarter increased 18%, coming in at $1.693 billion this year in the quarter compared to $1.43 billion last year.

損益表上的下一個是開業前費用。今年本季度，2800 萬美元；去年本季度，增加了 2200 萬美元或 600 萬美元。總而言之，第一季度報告的營業收入增長了 18%，今年該季度為 16.93 億美元，而去年為 14.3 億美元。

Below the operating income line, interest expense was $39 million each of the first quarters of fiscal '21 and '22. Interest income -- interest expense, rather. Interest income and other for the quarter was higher by $13 million year-over-year, primarily due to favorable FX. Overall, reported pretax income in the first quarter was up 19%, coming in at $1.696 billion this year compared in the first quarter last year of $1.42 billion.

在營業收入線以下，21 財年和 22 財年第一季度的利息支出分別為 3900 萬美元。利息收入——而是利息支出。本季度的利息收入和其他收入同比增長 1300 萬美元，主要是由於有利的外匯。總體而言，第一季度報告的稅前收入增長了 19%，今年為 16.96 億美元，而去年第一季度為 14.2 億美元。

In terms of income taxes, our tax rate in the first quarter of '22 was 20.7% compared to 16.8% in Q1 last year. Again, both years' tax rates benefited from the tax treatment of stock-based compensation, as mentioned earlier, at $91 million this year and $75 million last year in the quarter. Additionally, last year's tax rate benefited from the tax deductibility of the special dividend, that portion payable to the company's 401(k) plan participants. The fiscal '22 effective tax rate, excluding these discrete items, is currently projected to be between 26% and 27%.

在所得稅方面，我們在 22 年第一季度的稅率為 20.7%，而去年第一季度為 16.8%。同樣，如前所述，這兩年的稅率均受益於股票薪酬的稅收待遇，今年為 9100 萬美元，去年本季度為 7500 萬美元。此外，去年的稅率得益於特別股息的稅收減免，該部分應付給公司的 401(k) 計劃參與者。不包括這些離散項目的 22 財年有效稅率目前預計在 26% 至 27% 之間。

A few other items of note. In terms of warehouse expansion, as you know, for fiscal '21, we opened 22 units, including 2 relos, so a net increase of 20 units during fiscal '21. And this quarter that ended a couple of weeks ago, we opened 9 units, including one relo, so net openings of 8. For the remainder of the year, we plan to open 23 new units and also -- plan to open 23 units, 4 of which would be relocations. So a net of 19, if all goes as planned.

其他一些注意事項。如您所知，在倉庫擴建方面，我們在 21 財年開設了 22 個單位，其中包括 2 個 relo，因此在 21 財年淨增加了 20 個單位。在幾週前結束的這個季度，我們開設了 9 個單位，包括一個 relo，因此淨開設 8 個。在今年剩下的時間裡，我們計劃開設 23 個新單位，並且還計劃開設 23 個單位，其中4個是搬遷。如果一切按計劃進行，那麼淨值 19。

It's been a busy past 7 days. We opened our second Costco in France last Saturday on December 4, followed by our second building in China, which opened yesterday, as well as 2 buildings opening this morning -- opening today, one in the U.S. and Florida and our fourth unit in Spain.

過去 7 天很忙。上週六，我們於 12 月 4 日在法國開設了第二家 Costco，接著是昨天開業的在中國的第二家大樓，以及今天早上開業的兩棟大樓——今天開業，一棟在美國和佛羅里達，我們的第四家在西班牙.

Regarding CapEx, our first quarter fiscal '22 spend was approximately $1.05 billion. Our full year CapEx spend is estimated to be just about $4 billion. This would represent an increase of more than $400 million over last year's entire CapEx figure of $3.6 billion. The largest areas of increase coming from international spending for new warehouse expansion and increased investment in our logistics and e-comm fulfillment operations.

關於資本支出，我們 22 財年第一季度的支出約為 10.5 億美元。我們全年的資本支出估計約為 40 億美元。這將比去年 36 億美元的整個資本支出數字增加 4 億多美元。最大的增長領域來自新倉庫擴建的國際支出以及對我們的物流和電子商務履行業務的投資增加。

In terms of e-commerce sales in the quarter, ex FX increased 13.3% year-over-year, and that's, of course, on top of an 86% plus increase a year ago in the first quarter. Stronger apartments in terms of year of percentages include jewelry, tires and home furnishings. Our largest merchandise department in terms of sales majors, which is everything from consumer electronics and TVs to appliances, et cetera, was up in the high single digits, also on a very strong sales increase a year earlier.

就本季度的電子商務銷售額而言，外匯前銷售額同比增長 13.3%，當然，這是在第一季度一年前 86% 以上的增長之上。就百分比而言，更強大的公寓包括珠寶、輪胎和家居用品。就銷售專業而言，我們最大的商品部門（從消費電子產品和電視到電器等）均以高個位數增長，而且一年前的銷售增長也非常強勁。

In terms of an update on Costco Logistics, it continues to drive our big and bulky sales. For the quarter, Costco Logistics deliveries were up over 50% and now represent about 70% of our U.S. e-comm big and bulky shipments.

就 Costco Logistics 的更新而言，它繼續推動我們龐大而龐大的銷售。本季度，Costco Logistics 的交付量增長了 50% 以上，現在約占我們美國電子商務大件貨物的 70%。

Average, we've averaged during the quarter more than 50,000 stops per week. And for the year, we project more than 3 million stops, which would be anything from dropping something off to installing and taking away the old appliance for logistics in the full year.

平均而言，我們在本季度平均每週停站超過 50,000 次。全年，我們預計將有超過 300 萬次停站，這將是全年從丟棄東西到安裝和拆除舊設備進行物流的任何事情。

Our e-comm mobile app, we continue to improve the site with additional features. Thus far, as I've talked about in the last few quarters -- quarterly calls, we redesigned the app header and footer. We've updated and improved the menu layout. Our members now have the ability to view warehouse receipts online via both the app and desktop. Our co-brand Citi/Visa card is now linked -- can now be linked to the digital membership card and can be used for payment.

我們的 e-comm 移動應用程序，我們繼續通過附加功能改進網站。到目前為止，正如我在過去幾個季度中談到的——季度電話會議，我們重新設計了應用程序的頁眉和頁腳。我們更新並改進了菜單佈局。我們的會員現在可以通過應用程序和桌面在線查看倉單。我們的聯合品牌 Citi/Visa 卡現已鏈接——現在可以鏈接到數字會員卡，並可用於支付。

Our members are now able to much more easily reschedule e-comm deliveries in the U.S. and Canada, same goes for rescheduling returns, returns pickups. And delivering in the first half of the new -- upcoming new calendar year, labeling a fulfillment -- a better labeling of fulfillment methods, members will be able to easily see fulfillment options, be it e-comm, same day and even nearby warehouse availability of a particular item -- at a particular level.

我們的會員現在能夠更輕鬆地重新安排在美國和加拿大的電子商務交付，重新安排退貨、退貨取件也是如此。並在新的上半年交付 - 即將到來的新日曆年，標記履行 - 更好地標記履行方法，會員將能夠輕鬆查看履行選項，無論是電子商務，當天甚至附近的倉庫特定項目的可用性——在特定級別。

We're rolling out new e-comm kiosks in the warehouse, with video signage and easy touch screen ordering. As well, we're rolling out e-commerce lockers. Currently in the U.S., we have 112 locations with more -- and we plan to more than double that number during calendar year 2022.

我們正在倉庫中推出新的電子通訊亭，配備視頻標牌和輕鬆的觸摸屏訂購。此外，我們正在推出電子商務儲物櫃。目前在美國，我們有 112 個地點，而且我們計劃在 2022 日曆年將這個數字增加一倍以上。

In terms of e-commerce, there's a program that received some press just yesterday called Costco Next. In a way, it's like our warehouse road shows but online. Currently, there are 34 suppliers and growing, but it's still quite small, offering just under 1,000 items, curated items with Costco value. So please check it out when you have a chance.

在電子商務方面，昨天剛剛收到了一些媒體報導，名為 Costco Next。在某種程度上，這就像我們的倉庫路演，但是是在線的。目前，有 34 家供應商並且還在不斷增長，但規模仍然很小，僅提供不到 1,000 件商品，是具有 Costco 價值的精選商品。因此，請在有機會時檢查一下。

From a supply chain perspective, similar issues that we outlined in 12 weeks ago on the last quarterly call. Each issue ebbs and flows a little bit. But overall, the factors pressuring supply chains, and inflation include port delays container challenges, COVID disruptions, shortages of varying components, raw materials, ingredients and even packaging supplies, labor cost pressures and truck and driver challenges.

從供應鏈的角度來看，我們在 12 週前的上一個季度電話會議上概述了類似的問題。每個問題都會有一點點潮起潮落。但總體而言，對供應鍊和通脹造成壓力的因素包括港口延誤集裝箱挑戰、COVID 中斷、各種組件、原材料、配料甚至包裝供應的短缺、勞動力成本壓力以及卡車和司機的挑戰。

Overall, we feel we've dealt pretty well with the supply chain challenges in terms of delayed container arrivals on the Pacific Coast. About 79% of our import containers are late by an average of 51 days, a few percentage of those are actually a few days early, and many of them are a few days more than 51 late.

總體而言，我們認為我們已經很好地應對了太平洋海岸集裝箱延遲到達方面的供應鏈挑戰。我們大約 79% 的進口集裝箱平均晚點 51 天，其中一小部分實際上早了幾天，其中許多比晚了 51 天以上。

Virtually all departments are impacted. We've ordered early in many cases, as I mentioned, I think, earlier -- on earlier calls, given the longer lead times. Less product and packaging challenges, but still quite a bit. Still some limitations on key items, but improving. Again, it ebbs and flows. Chip shortage is still impacting many items, some more than others. In some instances, delayed inventory simply extends the season. An example might be lawn and garden and patio. As soon as the product arrives, it sells pretty quickly, but it may extend into -- beyond the normal seasonal time.

幾乎所有部門都受到影響。正如我所提到的，我們在許多情況下都提前訂購了，我認為，在較早的電話中，考慮到較長的交貨時間。較少的產品和包裝挑戰，但仍然不少。關鍵項目仍有一些限制，但正在改進。再次，它潮起潮落。芯片短缺仍在影響許多項目，其中一些影響更大。在某些情況下，延遲庫存只會延長季節。一個例子可能是草坪、花園和庭院。產品一到貨，就賣得很快，但它可能會延長到——超出正常的季節性時間。

Toys and seasonal, in fact, same thing, some inventory, in fact, won't make it before Christmas, but we've mitigated that as best as possible and feel pretty good about it. And in terms of -- moving on to -- despite all the supply chain issues, again, we're pretty -- feel pretty good about staying in stock and continuing to work to mitigate cost and price increases as best we can.

玩具和季節性的，事實上，同樣的事情，一些庫存，事實上，不會在聖誕節前出現，但我們已經盡可能地減輕了這一點，感覺很好。就 - 繼續 - 儘管存在所有供應鏈問題，我們再次感到非常 - 保持庫存並繼續努力盡可能地減輕成本和價格上漲。

Moving on to inflation. Again, it's pretty much the same story that we told during each of the last 2 quarters. There have been a variety of inflationary pressures that we and others are seeing from labor costs to freight costs, to higher demand, to container shortages and port delays, to increased demand on certain product categories, much of what you see and read out there, various shortages on everything from chips to oils and chemicals still supplied by facilities hit by the gulf storms a while back, higher commodities prices.

繼續通貨膨脹。同樣，這與我們在過去兩個季度中的每個季度都講述的故事幾乎相同。我們和其他人看到了各種各樣的通脹壓力，從勞動力成本到貨運成本，再到更高的需求，再到集裝箱短缺和港口延誤，再到對某些產品類別的需求增加，你在那裡看到和讀到的大部分內容，從芯片到石油和化學品的各種短缺仍然由不久前受到海灣風暴襲擊的設施供應，商品價格上漲。

For Q1 '22 and talking with our merchants -- senior merchants, we estimate that overall year-over-year price inflation to be in the 4.5% to 5% range. That's a little bit higher of an estimated inflation rate that I discussed a quarter ago, but I think pretty consistent with what you read out there.

對於 22 年第一季度以及與我們的商家 - 高級商家交談，我們估計整體同比價格通脹將在 4.5% 至 5% 的範圍內。這比我在一個季度前討論的估計通脹率高一點，但我認為與你在那裡讀到的非常一致。

All this said, much kudos to the job that our merchants and our traffic department and our operators have all been able to do in order to get the products that we need, pivot when and where necessary, and keep our warehouses full, while keeping prices low for our members and continuing to show value versus our competitors. Look, I think overall, this is best reflected in the operating results that we continue to achieve despite these many challenges.

綜上所述，我們的商人、我們的交通部門和我們的運營商都能夠為獲得我們需要的產品，在必要的時間和地點進行調整，保持我們的倉庫滿員，同時保持價格，所做的一切都非常值得稱讚對我們的會員來說很低，並繼續與我們的競爭對手相比顯示價值。看，我認為總體而言，這最能反映在我們儘管面臨許多挑戰而繼續取得的經營成果上。

Anecdotally, on merchandising, holiday stuff has been strong. Again, sometimes it depends on when the merchandise gets in. Banking items, more people seem to be getting together are strong. Gift cards are up dramatically from a year ago, but it was weak a year ago. Pet products, as you might expect, are strong with the benefit of increasing pet population over the past couple of years.

有趣的是，在商品推銷方面，節日用品一直很強勁。同樣，有時這取決於商品何時進入。銀行項目，更多人似乎聚集在一起很強大。禮品卡比一年前大幅上漲，但一年前表現疲軟。正如您所料，隨著過去幾年寵物數量的增加，寵物產品非常強大。

Alcohol and spirits are strong, including gift boxes of various items. And, of course, continued strength in consumer electronics, appliances, furniture and mattresses and the like. Apparel actually has enjoyed much stronger sales growth this year, albeit compared to a relatively flat apparel sales a year ago.

酒精和烈酒很濃，包括各種物品的禮盒。當然，消費電子產品、電器、家具和床墊等領域的持續強勢。儘管與一年前相對持平的服裝銷售相比，今年服裝的銷售增長實際上要強勁得多。

One last comment. Our sustainability commitment website received a major refresh this week. So please feel free to visit the site. It's linked directly from our home page under the column About Us and then click on Sustainability Commitment.

最後一條評論。我們的可持續發展承諾網站本週獲得了重大更新。因此，請隨時訪問該網站。它直接從我們的主頁鏈接到關於我們的欄目下，然後點擊可持續發展承諾。

Finally, in terms of upcoming releases, we will announce our December sales results for the 5 weeks ending Sunday, January 2, on Wednesday, January 5, after market close.

最後，關於即將發布的版本，我們將在收市後的 1 月 5 日星期三公佈截至 1 月 2 日星期日的 5 週的 12 月銷售結果。

With that, I will open it up to questions and turn it back over to Sadie. Thank you.

有了這個，我會提出問題並將其轉回給薩迪。謝謝你。

For our first question, we have Michael Lasser from UBS.

對於我們的第一個問題，我們請來了瑞銀的 Michael Lasser。

Richard, your point about 4% to 5% inflationary increase across the assortment. Typically, Costco has been slower to raise prices than everyone else. That seems to be a number that's in line with others across the retail sector.

理查德，你的觀點是整個品種的通貨膨脹增加了 4% 到 5%。通常，Costco 提價的速度比其他所有人都慢。這似乎是一個與零售業其他數字一致的數字。

So has the posture changed with respect to passing along price increases? Why is that the case? And does Costco have more pricing power today than it ever has in the past given the pricing gaps between you and others in the market?

那麼，在傳遞價格上漲方面的態度是否發生了變化？為什麼會這樣？考慮到您與市場上其他人之間的定價差距，Costco 今天是否比以往任何時候都擁有更大的定價權？

Well, I think as it relates to passing on, we've always said we want to be the last to raise the price and the first to lower the price, recognizing there's a limit to what you can do based on these cost increases. First and foremost, I think because of our relative purchasing power and our relationships with our vendors, we, with our suppliers, work to mitigate those increases in any way, shape or form we can.

好吧，我認為與傳遞有關，我們一直說我們希望成為最後一個提高價格和第一個降低價格的人，認識到基於這些成本增加你可以做的事情是有限的。首先，我認為由於我們的相對購買力以及我們與供應商的關係，我們與供應商一起努力以任何方式、形式或形式來緩解這些增長。

Ultimately, that may include us taking a little less markup and maybe them taking a little less markup. There's no complete consistent answer throughout, as you might expect. But overall, I think we've done a relatively good job with that, and there is inflation in those numbers. Those numbers are kind of a combination of our cost increases as well as our -- some price increases. And again, it fluctuates. There's -- for every few examples of something going up, there may be an example of something flat or going down a little bit for unrelated reasons.

最終，這可能包括我們少加一點，也許他們少加一點。正如您所料，自始至終沒有完全一致的答案。但總的來說，我認為我們在這方面做得相對較好，而且這些數字存在通貨膨脹。這些數字是我們的成本增加以及我們的一些價格上漲的組合。再次，它會波動。有 - 對於每幾個上升的例子，可能會有一個平坦或下降的例子，因為不相關的原因。

And so again, it's a best guess. It's fluid. We saw inflation starting several months ago in a bigger way, I think, in our fiscal Q4 this summer and continuing into this fiscal year and as we all have read articles -- general articles out there about certain different major consumer product manufacturers announcing increases and continuing to do so. So I think it's going to continue. Hopefully, we're getting towards the top, and it'll start flattening out and subsiding. But we'll see.

同樣，這是一個最好的猜測。它是流動的。我認為，我們在幾個月前看到了通貨膨脹，在今年夏天的第四財季並持續到本財年，正如我們都讀過的文章——關於某些不同主要消費品製造商宣布漲價和繼續這樣做。所以我認為它會繼續下去。希望我們正在走向頂峰，它會開始變平和消退。但我們會看到的。

My follow-up question is with the core merchandise margin ex fuel and the core on core gross margin getting less bad or declining at a lesser rate this quarter than last, is this a sign that the margin here is stabilizing? And do you think Costco exits the pandemic with a structurally higher gross margin than it had in the past? Or are all these dynamics simply a function of what you've often said, which is when overall retail margins go up, so do Costco's but just a little less than others?

我的後續問題是，本季度核心商品除燃料利潤率和核心核心毛利率比上一季度下降或下降幅度較小，這是否表明這裡的利潤率正在穩定？您是否認為 Costco 以比過去更高的結構性毛利率退出大流行？或者所有這些動態僅僅是你經常說的一個函數，即當整體零售利潤率上升時，Costco 也是如此，但只是比其他的少一點？

I think on the last comment, yes, in terms of that last comment you made. Look, I think at the end of the day, I think we, in many ways, have benefited from market share gains. Hopefully, some or most of which will be sticky. The biggest thing that impacts margins many often is not only on the buying power side. And arguably, I can't think of any company that has the buying power per item that we do because we do our roughly $200 billion in sales with 4,000-ish items versus anybody else that's doing it with hundreds of thousands of items or 50,000 items.

我認為關於最後一條評論，是的，就您發表的最後一條評論而言。看，我認為歸根結底，我認為我們在很多方面都受益於市場份額的增長。希望其中一些或大部分會是粘性的。影響利潤率的最大因素往往不僅僅是購買力方面。可以說，我想不出有哪家公司擁有我們所做的每件商品的購買力，因為我們用 4,000 件左右的商品完成了大約 2000 億美元的銷售額，而其他任何公司都用數十萬件或 50,000 件商品完成了銷售.

But I think that having higher levels of sales productivity, particularly in things like fresh foods, helps your margin. We'll keep some of that, and we'll use some of it to be even more competitive and hopefully build a bigger moat a little bit. But I think that some of it is probably structurally there. But as some famous TV actress said once, it's always going to be something. And we'll keep fighting that battle out there.

但我認為擁有更高水平的銷售生產力，特別是在新鮮食品等方面，有助於提高利潤率。我們會保留其中的一些，我們會利用其中的一些來提高競爭力，並希望稍微建立一條更大的護城河。但我認為其中一些可能在結構上存在。但正如一些著名的電視女演員曾經說過的那樣，它總是會有所作為。我們將繼續在那裡進行這場戰鬥。

But we feel pretty good about some of the structural things that have occurred that hopefully will help us in the future. But we'll have to wait and see.

但是我們對已經發生的一些結構性事情感覺很好，這些事情有望在未來幫助我們。但我們將不得不拭目以待。

For our next question, we have Simeon Gutman from Morgan Stanley.

對於我們的下一個問題，我們有來自摩根士丹利的西蒙·古特曼。

I'll be Simeon for this call. My first question is actually a follow-up to Michael's second question. Maybe I'll ask it a different way, Richard. The 2-year core-on-core looks like it's actually getting better. And you said it yourself, you thought you did a pretty good job on it, and it looks like you are.

我將成為這次電話會議的西蒙。我的第一個問題實際上是邁克爾第二個問題的後續問題。也許我會換個方式問，理查德。 2 年的核心對核心看起來實際上正在變得更好。你自己說過，你認為你在這方面做得很好，看起來你是。

So if we're kind of getting -- it feels like you're managing through the worst of it, and the environment maybe getting better at the margin. I don't want to go too far and say that. Why shouldn't this be the worst for the core-on-core, notwithstanding comparisons, but they -- as they get harder, but then they start to get easier.

因此，如果我們有點——感覺就像你正在度過最糟糕的時期，環境可能會在邊際上變得更好。我不想說得太遠。儘管進行了比較，但為什麼這對於核心核心來說不應該是最糟糕的，但它們 - 隨著它們變得更難，但隨後它們開始變得更容易。

Yes. Look, I think that's hopefully how the storybook goes. It's always going to be something. But no, look, jokes aside, we feel pretty good about, structurally, what we've been able to accomplish, and part of that's market share with higher sales levels. And we've not stopped the, what I'll call, the buyer creativity of working with suppliers to figure out how to continue to drive greater value.

是的。看，我想這就是故事書的發展方式。它總是會有所作為。但是，不，看，除了笑話，我們對結構上能夠完成的事情感覺很好，其中一部分是具有更高銷售水平的市場份額。我們並沒有停止，我稱之為買方的創造力，即與供應商合作以找出如何繼續推動更大的價值。

I can think of 50 examples, but at the end of the day, we're continuing to drive value in lots of ways and whether it's changing packaging or using our volume, moving certain production to different parts of the world and to take -- again, to make that moat even a little bigger. So I agree with you that, so far, the story that you've suggested is playing out. And hopefully, it'll continue to play out.

我可以想到 50 個例子，但歸根結底，我們將繼續以多種方式推動價值，無論是改變包裝還是利用我們的數量，將某些生產轉移到世界不同地區並採取——再次，讓那條護城河更大一點。所以我同意你的觀點，到目前為止，你建議的故事正在上演。希望它會繼續發揮作用。

Fair enough. My second question is more on SG&A and the business' leverage point. We used to chat about Costco always doing mid-single-digit comps, and that's good enough to cover the SG&A dollar growth. I think this quarter, the business did about 6.5% dollar growth adjusted and you're going to have some of these wage investments that will annualize, well, maybe not to the middle or closer to the end of the year.

很公平。我的第二個問題更多地是關於 SG&A 和企業的槓桿點。我們曾經談論過 Costco 總是在做中個位數的組合，這足以涵蓋 SG&A 美元的增長。我認為本季度，該業務調整後的美元增長率約為 6.5%，並且您將獲得其中一些工資投資，這些投資將按年計算，嗯，可能不會到年中或接近年底。

So I'm trying to get at what a normal post-COVID SG&A rate may look like. And then does that mean it's sort of that mid-single-digit comp rate that leverage those expenses?

因此，我試圖了解正常的 COVID 後 SG&A 費率可能是什麼樣子。然後這是否意味著利用這些費用的中等個位數的補償率？

I think as it relates to the -- probably the best guesstimate, and I say guesstimate, not estimate, on where do you start -- where's the inflection point of leveraging SG&A, probably still is in that mid-single-digit range. Beyond that, who the heck knows?

我認為，因為它涉及 - 可能是最好的猜測，我說的是猜測，而不是估計，你從哪裡開始 - 利用 SG&A 的拐點在哪裡，可能仍然在那個中個位數範圍內。除此之外，誰知道呢？

I mean we've been able -- notwithstanding some of these increases, we've been -- particularly in wages, we've been able -- again, strong comps have helped these numbers. But I think we feel pretty good about having the sales volumes that continue to be able to leverage those expenses.

我的意思是我們已經能夠 - 儘管有一些增長，我們已經 - 特別是在工資方面，我們已經能夠 - 再次，強大的薪酬幫助了這些數字。但我認為我們對擁有能夠繼續利用這些費用的銷量感到非常滿意。

So as soon as we find out, we'll let you know. But again, we're feeling pretty good about things at this juncture. And at some point, I would assume comps have to come back to, hopefully, better than peer average, but something -- and back to where they had been pre-COVID, but on a higher base. And even that helps you a little bit.

因此，一旦我們發現，我們會通知您。但同樣，在這個關鍵時刻，我們對事情感覺很好。在某些時候，我會假設比賽必須回到，希望，比同行平均水平更好，但有些東西 - 並回到他們在 COVID 之前的狀態，但在更高的基礎上。甚至這對你也有一點幫助。

For the next question, we have Christopher Horvers from JPMorgan.

對於下一個問題，我們請來摩根大通的 Christopher Horvers。

So I wanted to ask a little bit about your thoughts on holiday pull forward. Obviously, you saw an acceleration in trend on a 2-year basis in October. And then November, things obviously still an amazing comp and gaining share, but trends decelerated and was sort of against what was a weaker, I think, end of the month last year.

所以我想問一下你對假期前行的看法。顯然，您在 10 月份看到了 2 年的趨勢加速。然後在 11 月，事情顯然仍然是一個驚人的組合併獲得了份額，但趨勢減速並且有點與去年月底較弱的情況相反。

So can you talk about like what do you think is driving that? How do you think about the rest of the holiday season? And as you think about a consumer that's going to lap a bunch of stimulus in the first half of next year, what are your initial thoughts on how that all could play out?

所以你能談談你認為是什麼推動了這一點嗎？您如何看待假期的剩餘時間？當您想到明年上半年將實施一系列刺激措施的消費者時，您對這一切將如何發揮作用的最初想法是什麼？

Well, I think, again, as you just mentioned, November's comps were a shade under outside expectations, still very good. A couple of percentage points different than what we had been enjoying up months prior to that. Probably the view is, a little bit of that was pulling forward. But even within last month's number, the weeks varied. And overall, we're good.

好吧，我想，正如你剛才提到的，11 月的比賽比外界預期的要差一些，但仍然非常好。與幾個月前我們所享受的相比，有幾個百分點的差異。可能的觀點是，其中一點點正在向前推進。但即使在上個月的數字中，週數也各不相同。總的來說，我們很好。

But just when it comes -- is reduced a little, the next day, it's better than you expected. So I think the one thing that I feel good about is our in-stocks. Our senior merchant just the other day had indicated that his view is, is that -- his feeling is, is that we're better in-stock than anybody out there. And I think part of that is the fact of limited selection. We are an item business. We could put something else in place or something. But we've done a pretty good job.

但就在它來的時候——稍微減少了一點，第二天，它比你預期的要好。所以我認為我感覺良好的一件事是我們的庫存。就在前幾天，我們的高級商人表示，他的觀點是，是 - 他的感覺是，我們的庫存比任何人都好。我認為部分原因是選擇有限。我們是一個項目業務。我們可以放置其他東西或其他東西。但我們做得很好。

I mean I had -- it was a little bit of a chuckle at a call just yesterday from a reporter asking about how are we doing on cream cheese. And so I checked, and we're -- there's a cream cheese shortage out there, and the bagel shops are being challenged. We actually got -- as the buyer said, it took a little extra work, but we've got all the cream cheese we need. So I think we've done a good job in merchandising.

我的意思是我有 - 就在昨天，一位記者詢問我們在奶油奶酪上做得如何，有點輕笑。所以我查了一下，我們 - 那裡的奶油奶酪短缺，百吉餅店正面臨挑戰。我們實際上得到了——正如買家所說，這需要一些額外的工作，但我們已經得到了我們需要的所有奶油奶酪。所以我認為我們在推銷方面做得很好。

Got it. And so I guess as you think about last year and the stimulus, I mean, do you think that -- I mean, actually, I think the consumer as you get closer to Christmas and New Year's probably comes back if people are entertaining more like you said on the baking side. But as you get into January and stimulus in the spring, do you think your business lifted off of stimulus last year?

知道了。所以我想當你想到去年和刺激措施時，我的意思是，你是否認為 - 我的意思是，實際上，我認為，如果人們更喜歡娛樂，我認為隨著聖誕節和新年的臨近，消費者可能會回來你說在烘焙方面。但是，當您進入 1 月份並在春季實施刺激措施時，您認為您的業務是否擺脫了去年的刺激措施？

Look, it couldn't hurt. It probably helped a little bit. I know historically, when there's been some stimulus items out there factors, our view is that we have not been impacted as much as others. But directionally, we've been impacted the same.

看，它不會受傷。它可能有點幫助。我知道從歷史上看，當有一些刺激因素存在時，我們的觀點是我們沒有像其他人那樣受到影響。但在方向上，我們也受到了同樣的影響。

Look, if next year, there's a reduction in stimulus, Lord knows what's going to happen with the stock market in general and how people feel about where the -- how they feel financially. That may all change a little bit. But I feel -- we feel pretty good around here that one of the things that we've shown over the years that in both in good and bad times, we tend to do well. In good times because people want to spend more. And even in less good times, people want to save more.

看，如果明年刺激措施減少，天知道股市總體上會發生什麼，以及人們對財務狀況的看法。這可能會有所改變。但我覺得 - 我們在這裡感覺很好，多年來我們已經證明的一件事是，無論是在好時光還是壞時光，我們都傾向於做得很好。在好時光，因為人們想花更多的錢。即使在不太好的時候，人們也想存更多錢。

And so I think from a merchandising -- and in tougher times, there's additional products and services that might be willing to sell us for the first time. So in our own perverse way, we sometimes benefit from good and bad. And right now, we're feeling pretty good about what the future looks like.

因此，我認為從商品銷售角度來看，在更艱難的時期，可能會有其他產品和服務願意首次向我們出售。因此，以我們自己的反常方式，我們有時會從好與壞中受益。現在，我們對未來的樣子感覺很好。

By the way, the other thing -- Bob just mentioned that even if certain things head south in some way, shape or form like a reduction or elimination of certain stimulus items, supply chain at some point is going to get better. As good as our numbers are, we could do better if we had more supply of certain of those items. Even in some categories in nonfood that are up 20% and 30-plus percent, the buyer's view -- we're still running out of stuff or could do better if we had more.

順便說一句，另一件事——鮑勃剛剛提到，即使某些事情以某種方式南下，形成或形成某些刺激項目的減少或消除，供應鏈在某個時候會變得更好。與我們的數字一樣好，如果我們有更多的某些物品供應，我們可以做得更好。即使在非食品類的某些類別中上漲了 20% 和 30% 以上，在買家看來——我們仍然沒有東西，或者如果我們有更多東西可以做得更好。

And that's not just us. I mean it rains on everybody. But I think some improvement in supply chain will be an offset to any other things that are detrimental to that thought.

這不僅僅是我們。我的意思是每個人都會下雨。但我認為供應鏈的一些改進將抵消任何其他不利於這種想法的事情。

For our next question, we have Chuck Grom from Gordon Haskett.

對於我們的下一個問題，我們有來自 Gordon Haskett 的 Chuck Grom。

Richard, Bob, team, you guys are doing well. Just a question on leverage. If we backup the onetime charge this quarter, it looks like you enjoyed over 100 basis points of improvement year-over-year and 65 basis points last quarter. Now fully realizing the comps on a stack basis were better, but wondering if some investments or other costs may have rolled off? Just some thoughts on that front.

理查德，鮑勃，團隊，你們做得很好。只是關於槓桿的問題。如果我們在本季度備份一次性費用，看起來您享受了超過 100 個基點的同比改進和 65 個基點的改進。現在完全意識到基於堆棧的組合更好，但想知道是否一些投資或其他成本可能已經減少？只是在這方面的一些想法。

I think more of it is just the leverage of sales growth, frankly. Again, taking out the specific COVID-related charges that we talked about. And the fact that what we didn't talk about in terms of separating in the press release was that $1 an hour increase we did in March and the new one that had a small impact in Q1 because it started 6 weeks ago.

坦率地說，我認為更多的只是銷售增長的槓桿作用。再次，取出我們談到的與 COVID 相關的具體費用。事實上，我們在新聞稿中沒有談到分離方面的問題是，我們在 3 月份增加了每小時 1 美元，而新的增加在第一季度產生了很小的影響，因為它是在 6 週前開始的。

But in that regard, there's nothing that stands out in my view and my guess estimate. I'm looking at my guys here. It was -- strong sales would be the #1 factor.

但在這方面，在我看來和我的猜測中沒有什麼突出的。我在這裡看著我的人。這是 - 強勁的銷售將是第一大因素。

Okay. Okay. Fair enough. And then just on the store front, 14 opened thus far in '22. So you're more than halfway to the goal, which is great. I'm just wondering bigger picture, has there been any more discussions to backfill some of your existing markets, your higher density areas where perhaps some stores just can't handle any more productivity or any more throughput just because of the volumes?

好的。好的。很公平。然後就在店面，22 年迄今為止開設了 14 家。所以你已經完成了一半以上的目標，這很棒。我只是想知道更大的圖景，是否有更多的討論來回填您現有的一些市場，您的高密度區域，有些商店可能僅僅因為數量而無法處理更多的生產力或更多的吞吐量？

I think that's -- the answer is yes, and I think that'll be small methodical increases in that thought over the next several years. I mean, it used to be that we talked about when we had 400 warehouses and we average -- I'm making these numbers up. But the average was 180. And now the -- I think we have an average several years later in the high 200s, in the U.S. at least.

我認為這是 - 答案是肯定的，而且我認為在接下來的幾年中，這種想法將是有條不紊的小幅增長。我的意思是，我們曾經談論過當我們有 400 個倉庫時，我們的平均水平——我正在編造這些數字。但平均數是 180。現在——我認為幾年後我們的平均數會達到 200 多歲，至少在美國是這樣。

And we have a number of units in the 300 to 400 range. I mean not hundreds, but tens of -- and so we are looking for more infill. But we've been doing that. And if it was 3 to 5 a year or 3 to 7 -- 3 to 5 a year in the last 5 years, is it going to be 5 to 8 a year? Could be. I don't have that kind of detail in front of me.

我們有許多在 300 到 400 範圍內的單元。我的意思不是數百個，而是數十個——所以我們正在尋找更多的填充物。但我們一直在這樣做。如果是每年 3 到 5 次或 3 到 7 次 - 過去 5 年每年 3 到 5 次，那麼會是每年 5 到 8 次嗎？可能。我面前沒有那種細節。

Okay. Great. And then my last one is just to follow-up on Christmas on November. I believe you guys did call out that there was some moderation in retail inflation, maybe 150 basis points or so. I'm just wondering if you could provide any color on, I guess, on where that retail inflation came in. And I guess, why that happened? Was it self-inflicted? Just wondering if you could give some color there.

好的。偉大的。然後我的最後一個只是在 11 月的聖誕節跟進。我相信你們確實指出零售通脹有所緩和，可能在 150 個基點左右。我只是想知道你是否可以提供任何顏色，我猜，零售通貨膨脹的來源。我猜，為什麼會發生這種情況？是自找的嗎？只是想知道你是否可以在那裡給一些顏色。

One thing that was a little lower was from the increases in food and sundries -- some food and sundries items and fresh. That had spiked even more. It's still up year-over-year. But despite a little -- it came down a little bit from where it has been. And we haven't quantified anything specifically on that.

稍低的一件事是食物和雜物的增加——一些食物和雜物以及新鮮的。那已經飆升得更多了。它仍然比去年同期增長。但是儘管有一點 - 它從原來的位置下降了一點。我們還沒有對此進行具體量化。

And by the way, as you might expect, there are suppliers out there that are saying, hey, come January, February, you'll see some more increases. And again, this is not inconsistent with what you -- what I've read in general articles in the various business periodicals.

順便說一句，正如你所料，有些供應商說，嘿，一月，二月，你會看到更多的增長。再說一次，這與您的內容並不矛盾——我在各種商業期刊的一般文章中讀到的內容。

Okay. So just a lot of timing differences. Okay.

好的。所以只是很多時間差異。好的。

Yes.

是的。

For the next question, we have John Heinbockel from Guggenheim.

對於下一個問題，我們請來自古根海姆的 John Heinbockel。

So Richard, how is KS performing? And what happens -- or how do you think about it in an inflationary environment in terms of how you take price versus like items on the national brand side? And does KS do better in an inflationary environment?

那麼理查德，KS 表現如何？會發生什麼——或者你如何看待在通貨膨脹的環境下你如何看待價格與國家品牌方面的同類產品？ KS 在通脹環境中表現更好嗎？

Look, many of our KS items are of such large volumes. It's not unlike dealing with the comparable large volumes we do in a branded CPG item. And so we're out there fighting with both of them to try to mitigate those cost increases.

看，我們的許多 KS 產品的體積都很大。這與我們在品牌 CPG 產品中處理的大量可比產品沒有什麼不同。因此，我們正在與他們兩個一起努力減輕這些成本增加。

KS still grows at a little faster rate than others, but nothing discernible. I think we keep finding new items to do KS with and for a variety of different reasons. And so it continues to drive that brand. But no, I don't think there's a -- we don't see a big difference of how that's changing.

KS 的增長速度仍然比其他人快一點，但沒有什麼可辨別的。我認為出於各種不同的原因，我們一直在尋找新的項目來做 KS。所以它繼續推動這個品牌。但是不，我不認為有 - 我們沒有看到變化的巨大差異。

Okay. Secondly, you -- the 70% on Costco Logistics, the 70% of your needs, you're at what capacity in logistics? Is it still 50%? Or has it crept above that?

好的。其次，你——Costco 物流的 70%，你需求的 70%，你在物流方面的能力是什麼？還是50%嗎？還是它爬到了上面？

It's in the 50% range. And maybe it's slightly higher than that based on our -- when we originally bought what's now Costco Logistics 1.5 years ago. We've moved over a bunch of volume. We've grown it as well -- grown our total base of need. And I think we're slightly above the 50% that we felt we had capacity for at the time, and we certainly have plenty of capacity over the next few years.

它在 50% 的範圍內。也許它略高於基於我們的 - 當我們最初購買現在的 Costco Logistics 1.5 年前。我們已經移動了一堆卷。我們也擴大了它——擴大了我們的總需求基礎。而且我認為我們的產能略高於當時我們認為有能力的 50%，而且我們在接下來的幾年里肯定有足夠的能力。

Mind you, we're spending money on it. Part of our fulfillment and logistics, as I think I mentioned on the last quarterly call, within CapEx, we had spent $340-or-so million on a multi-acre 1 million -- 1.6 million square foot distribution facility in Southern California. And that's for a variety of needs.

請注意，我們正在為此花錢。正如我想我在上一個季度電話會議中提到的那樣，我們的履行和物流的一部分，在資本支出中，我們在南加州的一個多英畝 100 萬 - 160 萬平方英尺的配送設施上花費了 3.40 億美元左右。這是為了滿足各種需求。

Some of the -- much of what we bought in the Innovel acquisition in March or April of 2020, more than 10 million square feet of space around the country, much of it is leased. Much of it's fine, by the way. But we're -- not all of it was geographically, particularly the big sites, the 1 million square foot sites, were in areas where we're stronger relative to where Sears is stronger or they had most of their business at the time. So we're still spending money on it and upgrading it.

我們在 2020 年 3 月或 4 月在 Innovel 收購中購買的一些——大部分是在全國超過 1000 萬平方英尺的空間，其中大部分是租賃的。順便說一句，大部分都很好。但是我們 - 並非所有這些都在地理上，特別是大型場地，100萬平方英尺的場地，相對於西爾斯更強大的地方或者他們當時擁有大部分業務的地方，我們更強大。所以我們仍然在花錢和升級它。

And -- but we're -- again, from a merchandising standpoint, we're very excited about it, and it's helped us grow that business in a big way. And given our small market share of many of those items, particularly on the appliance side, we feel there's a lot of growth potential for us.

而且 - 但我們 - 從商品的角度來看，我們對此感到非常興奮，它幫助我們在很大程度上發展了這項業務。鑑於我們在其中許多產品中的小市場份額，特別是在電器方面，我們認為我們有很大的增長潛力。

For the next question, we have Karen Short from Barclays.

對於下一個問題，我們有來自巴克萊的 Karen Short。

I wanted to just talk about ticket a little bit. So U.S. ticket at 3.5%. Can you kind of parse that out on units per transaction versus AUP, but also tie that into the inflation numbers that you called out for the quarter and/or your expectations on inflation?

我只想談談票。所以美國票價為 3.5%。您能否將其解析為每筆交易的單位與 AUP 的對比，但也可以將其與您在本季度公佈的通脹數字和/或您對通脹的預期聯繫起來？

Honestly, I can't. I don't have that detail or thought in front of me. Generally speaking, you've got electronics that -- like TVs and what have you that are going down in price, maybe a little less this year because there's less promotions because of shortages.

老實說，我不能。我沒有那個細節或想法擺在我面前。一般來說，你有電子產品——比如電視和你有什麼價格下降的東西，今年可能會降價一些，因為由於短缺，促銷活動減少了。

I mean at every budget meeting every 4 weeks, we're presented examples of items where we're taking down the price of high-volume key items by changing the packaging, by moving some aspect of manufacturing to another part of the world. And so I don't have the detail, Karen, in front of me for that. Sorry.

我的意思是，在每 4 週的每次預算會議上，我們都會看到一些項目的例子，我們通過改變包裝、將製造的某些方面轉移到世界的另一個地方來降低大批量關鍵項目的價格。所以我沒有細節，凱倫，在我面前。對不起。

Okay. And then I wanted to -- I don't think this has been asked for a while, but can you give an update maybe on what the average ticket is for Executive members versus Gold? And then I know you gave the -- obviously, you've given the percent of sales, but frequency of Executive versus Gold, how maybe that's changed over the last almost 2 years of the pandemic?

好的。然後我想 - 我認為這已經有一段時間沒有被問過了，但是您能否提供有關行政會員與黃金會員的平均票價的最新信息？然後我知道你給出了 - 顯然，你給出了銷售額的百分比，但是行政人員與黃金的頻率，在過去近兩年的大流行中，這可能會發生什麼變化？

I will -- somebody is just running out of the room to see if they can grab that sheet and I will answer it as soon as they get back. If you want to ask another question or move on to the next one and -- but I'll intervene when he gets back.

我會的——有人正跑出房間，看看他們能不能拿到那張紙，他們一回來我就會回答。如果你想問另一個問題或繼續下一個問題 - 但我會在他回來時進行干預。

Well, my standard question would be just on your cash balance in terms of thoughts on special dividend.

好吧，我的標準問題只是關於您對特別股息的看法的現金餘額。

Well, as soon as we know, you'll know or the day after. The -- look, our cash position is strong. One of the things I pointed out is our CapEx is also increasing in a conscious way. Notwithstanding that, our cash flow from operations is growing at quite a stronger rate as well. It's something that we've done 4 times in 8 years. We, and the shareholders, seem to like it when we do it. And so I'm not trying to be cute, but we haven't made that decision at this juncture. It's probably a when, not if, but when will be when we do it.

好吧，一旦我們知道，你就會知道或者後天。 - 看，我們的現金狀況很強勁。我指出的一件事是我們的資本支出也在有意識地增加。儘管如此，我們的運營現金流也在以相當強勁的速度增長。這是我們在 8 年內做過 4 次的事情。當我們這樣做時，我們和股東似乎都喜歡它。所以我不是想變得可愛，但我們還沒有在這個時刻做出這個決定。這可能是一個何時，不是如果，而是我們何時去做。

Okay. And then maybe just while you're waiting for that numbers on the executive, can you just maybe give us some color on what percent of freight is actually spot versus contract? I don't know if you've ever given that number.

好的。然後也許就在您等待執行人員的那個數字時，您能否給我們一些顏色，說明實際運費的百分比是現貨還是合同？我不知道你有沒有給過這個號碼。

I don't have the exact number, but I'm willing to bet, it's 80-plus percent. I could be wrong a little bit, but -- contracted. Now recognizing with contracts, we might do 1-, 2- and 3-year contracts. So we're still benefiting on 3-year stuff and benefiting a little on 2-year stuff and have now gone beyond the benefit of the 1-year stuff. And so it's over a 2- or 3-year period. But our assumption is it'll take less than that time to start to normalize somewhat. Is it higher today than it was? Yes. But it's -- I think we -- again, we probably, with other large users of freight and containers, have probably done a pretty good job of at least staggering that not having to do a lot of spot stuff so far.

我沒有確切的數字，但我願意打賭，它是 80% 以上。我可能有點錯，但是 - 合同。現在認識到合同，我們可能會簽訂 1 年、2 年和 3 年的合同。所以我們仍然受益於 3 年的東西和 2 年的東西，現在已經超越了 1 年的東西。所以它是超過 2 或 3 年的時間。但我們的假設是開始正常化所需的時間少於那個時間。今天比以前高了嗎？是的。但它 - 我認為我們 - 再次，我們可能與其他大型貨運和集裝箱用戶一起，可能已經做得很好，至少到目前為止不必做很多現場工作。

Great. Yes. I mean if you got those numbers on executives and gold on ticket and frequency, that'd be great.

偉大的。是的。我的意思是，如果你能得到高管的這些數字，以及門票和頻率的黃金，那就太好了。

Okay. What they came back with right now is we don't have -- I don't have quickly average ticket changes, but the total spend per executive member compared to a gold star member is almost 3x, call it, 2.5 to 3.

好的。他們現在回來的是我們沒有 - 我沒有快速平均機票更改，但與金星會員相比，每位執行會員的總支出幾乎是 3 倍，稱之為 2.5 到 3。

For our next question, we have Greg Melich from Evercore ISI.

對於我們的下一個問題，我們請來自 Evercore ISI 的 Greg Melich。

I have 2 questions, Richard. One is digging a little bit into the margins, the gross margins. You said gas and travel had helped but then offset by e-commerce. Can you sort of explain where -- so that gas penny profit was up even if the mix hurt, is that...

我有兩個問題，理查德。一是深入挖掘利潤率，即毛利率。你說汽油和旅行有所幫助，但隨後被電子商務抵消了。你能解釋一下在哪裡 - 即使混合受到傷害，汽油便士的利潤也會增加，是......

Margin percent was down, but you've got a 40%, 50% increase in price per gallon. So you still might have more pennies per gallon, but the margin itself was down.

利潤率下降了，但每加侖的價格上漲了 40%、50%。所以每加侖你可能還有更多的便士，但利潤本身下降了。

Got it. And then that was offset by e-commerce.

知道了。然後這被電子商務所抵消。

Well, e-commerce -- yes. And again, I wouldn't read a lot into any of that description. We're just trying to share with everyone directionally what helps it and hurts it a little bit. E-commerce, just given all the activities, expenditures on fulfillment and expansion and doing what we can over time, when we're pulling tickets if we -- if something else happens, I don't view as a big issue from -- it's not -- whatever -- whether the margin is up a little or down a little, it's less about competition and more about what's the product mix that month or week and what else is going on with this rapid expansion and investment in it.

嗯，電子商務——是的。再說一次，我不會對任何描述進行大量閱讀。我們只是試圖有方向地與每個人分享對它有幫助和對它有一點傷害的東西。電子商務，只是考慮到所有的活動、履行和擴展方面的支出，以及隨著時間的推移我們會做我們能做的事情，當我們拉票時，如果我們——如果發生其他事情，我認為這不是一個大問題——這不是——無論如何——利潤率是上升還是下降，這不是關於競爭，而是關於當月或一周的產品組合是什麼，以及隨著這種快速擴張和投資而發生的其他事情。

Got it. And then maybe to tie back your discussion on the logistics. Big and bulky, if we look at -- if e-commerce is roughly 8% of sales, is big and bulky 1/4 of that? Is that the kind of scale we're talking about?

知道了。然後也許可以限制您對物流的討論。大而笨重，如果我們看一下——如果電子商務大約佔銷售額的 8%，那麼大而笨重是 1/4 嗎？這就是我們所說的那種規模嗎？

It's over 1/3.

超過了1/3。

It's over 1/3. Great. And then last but not least, the renewal rates continuing to tick up, I guess. Impressive. How do we -- shouldn't that come off at some point just given that you have more first year members?

超過了1/3。偉大的。最後但並非最不重要的一點是，我猜續訂率繼續上升。感人的。鑑於您有更多的第一年成員，我們怎麼辦？

Going to get to 100. No. Just kidding. Look, I think, as I mentioned earlier in -- when I was speaking, probably the single biggest thing that's helping it right now is auto renewal. As we get more people on a credit card, both in the 2 big co-brand in the U.S. and Canada, that's a no-brainer to help a little bit. As we convert people to executive member and as we -- for every 100 new people signing up, a slightly higher number of them sign up as executive members, they are more likely to renew. So those things help as well.

將達到 100。不，開個玩笑。看，我想，正如我之前提到的——當我說話的時候，可能現在幫助它的最大的事情就是自動更新。隨著越來越多的人使用信用卡，無論是在美國還是加拿大的兩大聯合品牌中，都可以毫不費力地提供一點幫助。隨著我們將人員轉變為執行成員，並且隨著我們每 100 名新註冊的人，其中稍多的人註冊為執行成員，他們更有可能續約。所以這些東西也有幫助。

The thing I mentioned about new warehouses and markets around the world tend to be -- while they have a very much lower renewal rate in their first year of renewal or year 2, they now continue to grow as more people have renewed the prior year, those are starting -- and generally, those are starting at higher rates than they were. So all those things help a little bit. I'd like to think it's all the wonderful things we do and the value proposition. And -- but certainly, auto renew is probably a good help there.

我提到的關於世界各地新倉庫和市場的事情往往是——雖然它們在更新的第一年或第二年的更新率要低得多，但隨著更多人在前一年更新，它們現在繼續增長，那些正在開始 - 通常，這些開始的速度比以前更高。所以所有這些事情都有一點幫助。我想這是我們所做的所有美妙的事情和價值主張。而且 - 但可以肯定的是，自動更新可能是一個很好的幫助。

Got it. And then last, because someone has to ask it. Just fee increase, I guess, back half of next year is when it will be 5 years since the last one. What are the thoughts on that just given that the members seem to be self-selecting a fee hike already through the executive membership? Does that change your thought process as to when you might hike the fee?

知道了。最後，因為必須有人問。只是費用增加，我猜，明年下半年是距離上一年5年的時候。考慮到會員似乎已經通過執行會員自行選擇了費用上漲，對此有何想法？這是否會改變您關於何時提高費用的思考過程？

No. And our only thought is we'll probably start getting questions about now. So it's still a while away. And -- but we certainly feel good. As I've said in the past, renewal rates -- strong renewal rates and loyalty help that process -- help that thought process. And we'll see, but it's still a little bit of time to think about it.

不，我們唯一的想法是我們可能會開始收到關於現在的問題。所以還有一段時間。而且——但我們當然感覺很好。正如我過去所說，續訂率——強大的續訂率和忠誠度有助於這個過程——有助於那個思考過程。我們會看到的，但仍然需要一點時間來考慮它。

For our next question, we have Rupesh Parikh from Oppenheimer.

對於我們的下一個問題，我們有來自奧本海默的 Rupesh Parikh。

So I wanted to touch on Canada and other international. So we saw strong and accelerating 2-year content for both Canada and other international. Is there any more color you can provide in terms of maybe what you're seeing in those geographies?

所以我想談談加拿大和其他國際。因此，我們看到了加拿大和其他國際的強勁且加速的 2 年內容。根據您在這些地區看到的情況，您是否可以提供更多顏色？

I'm getting a little help here. It's more -- it's probably most -- I agree, it's probably most about how COVID would impact the different countries differently timing-wise. I remember a year ago, 1.5 years ago, some of the foreign countries did better while we were being locked down. And then a little later, they got locked down. And so part of it is -- one of the reasons I think everybody has picked up on the 2-year stack concept, but I think that's -- as much as anything, that's the reason.

我在這裡得到一點幫助。更多——可能是最重要的——我同意，這可能最重要的是關於 COVID 如何在時間上對不同國家產生不同的影響。我記得一年前，也就是 1.5 年前，當我們被封鎖時，一些外國做得更好。然後過了一會兒，他們被鎖定了。所以部分原因是 - 我認為每個人都接受了 2 年堆棧概念的原因之一，但我認為這是 - 就像任何事情一樣，這就是原因。

Okay. Great. And then as you look at your ancillary businesses, is there a way you can provide an update in terms of how they're trending now versus pre pandemic?

好的。偉大的。然後，當您查看您的輔助業務時，您是否有辦法提供關於它們現在的趨勢與大流行前的趨勢的更新？

I don't have that detail with me. But generally speaking, tires have picked up, as an example. It's not an ancillary business. But the Costco auto program is down because there's a shortage of cars out there. Travel is up, not where it was pre. It was almost back to where it was pre-COVID, and then Delta variant hit. And then it was coming back again, and then Omicron hit. And so it fluctuates pretty quickly. And I'm trying to think of the other things. Food courts have come back, not -- I don't think they're quite where they were, but they're almost there. Hearing aids have come back, but still, I think, slightly below pre pandemic. School is doing great. Pharmacy is doing great, helped, frankly, by the shots. We, like other retail pharmacies, are providing plenty of vaccines.

我沒有那個細節。但總的來說，以輪胎為例。這不是輔助業務。但是 Costco 的汽車計劃已經停止，因為那裡的汽車短缺。旅行開始了，而不是之前的地方。它幾乎回到了 COVID 之前的位置，然後 Delta 變體出現了。然後它又回來了，然後 Omicron 來了。所以它的波動非常快。我正在嘗試考慮其他事情。美食廣場又回來了，不是——我不認為它們在原處，但它們幾乎就在那裡。助聽器已經恢復，但我認為仍略低於大流行前。學校做得很好。藥房做得很好，坦率地說，受到了這些鏡頭的幫助。與其他零售藥店一樣，我們提供大量疫苗。

For our next question, we have Stephanie Wissink from Jefferies.

對於我們的下一個問題，我們請來自 Jefferies 的 Stephanie Wissink。

This is Blake on for Steph. First question would be higher level. You guys are a big proponent of the in-store shopping experience. It seems like store sales have been fairly strong as of late for retailers. So wondering how your -- how is your in-store shopping compared versus e-comm versus your expectations recently? And then maybe if you can share any e-comm pilots you might have that you've been working on. I know you mentioned you did a pickup test, but you discontinue that. Anything maybe in the works that you can share?

這是斯蒂芬的布萊克。第一個問題將是更高的水平。你們是店內購物體驗的大力支持者。對於零售商來說，最近商店的銷售似乎相當強勁。所以想知道您最近的店內購物與電子商務與您的期望相比如何？然後，如果您可以分享您可能擁有的任何您一直在研究的電子通信飛行員，那麼也許。我知道你提到你做了一個皮卡測試，但你停止了。有什麼可以分享的作品嗎？

Well, both in-store and online have picked up. The pickup from things like Instacart for same-day fresh skyrocketed during the lockdowns in mid- to summer -- mid- to late summer 2020. It came down from those peaks, but it's still way above where it was pre-COVID. E-commerce is, as you know, because we talk about every quarter, is 8% or 9% of our sales on a company that did $192 billion in sales for the year ended this last August. So that's a lot bigger than it was 2 years ago.

好吧，店內和在線都已經回升。在 2020 年夏中至夏末的封鎖期間，Instacart 等當日新鮮食品的提貨量猛增。它從那些高峰迴落，但仍遠高於 COVID 之前的水平。如您所知，電子商務占我們銷售額的 8% 或 9%，這家公司截至去年 8 月的年度銷售額為 1920 億美元。所以這比兩年前要大得多。

I think the last 3 or 4 quarters, the 2-year stack is 100-plus percent. But notwithstanding that -- and part of that is the big and bulky that has helped that number, which we really weren't driving that kind of business in store anyway.

我認為過去 3 或 4 個季度，2 年的堆棧是 100% 以上。但儘管如此 - 其中一部分是幫助這個數字的大而笨重的，我們實際上並沒有在商店裡推動那種業務。

The fact that I think that as we've heard occasionally that notwithstanding some people don't like our mask requirements when we first put them back in May of 2020, I think overall, people felt if I got to go out, I'm going to go out to one place and bulk up on stuff. And with taller ceilings and wider aisles and all those things, I got to believe that psychologically, that's helped a little bit.

我認為，正如我們偶爾聽到的那樣，儘管有些人不喜歡我們在 2020 年 5 月首次放回口罩的要求，但我認為總的來說，人們覺得如果我必須出去，我會要去一個地方去囤積東西。隨著更高的天花板和更寬的過道以及所有這些東西，我必須相信從心理上來說，這有點幫助。

At the end of the day, we were all surprised by -- if you go back to March of 2020, we're surprised by the strength in non-foods categories. Summer and fall of 2020, much less now -- much the same now. And it was because people weren't traveling, and they weren't going to games and concerts, but they were buying things for their home. And we certainly had, on top of all the food items, all the other things they could buy for their homes. So that was a pleasant surprise to us, and that's continued.

歸根結底，我們都感到驚訝——如果你回到 2020 年 3 月，我們會對非食品類別的實力感到驚訝。 2020 年夏秋兩季，現在少得多了——現在差不多了。這是因為人們不去旅行，也不去參加比賽和音樂會，而是為自己的家買東西。我們當然有，除了所有的食物，他們可以為自己的家購買的所有其他東西。所以這對我們來說是一個驚喜，而且還在繼續。

In terms of other tests, not a whole lot. I mean we did have that small test in New Mexico with buy online, pick up in-store. We are -- as I mentioned on the call, have over -- a year from now have over 200 of our U.S. warehouses with lockers.

就其他測試而言，不是很多。我的意思是我們確實在新墨西哥州進行了在線購買，店內取貨的小測試。正如我在電話會議中提到的那樣，我們已經結束了——一年後我們在美國的 200 多個帶儲物櫃的倉庫。

In terms of buying online and pick up in-store, we're not quite sure about that. We have very busy locations. There's not a lot of room for it. And it doesn't seem to be a lot of people clamoring for a fact over half the people that come in and do that on a few things that we buy online and the lockers. They come in and shop while they're there. And so -- and that's what we want.

在網上購買和店內取貨方面，我們不太確定。我們有非常繁忙的地點。它沒有太多空間。似乎並沒有很多人要求一個事實，超過一半的人進來並在我們在線購買的一些東西和儲物櫃上這樣做。他們在那裡時進來購物。所以——這就是我們想要的。

So beyond that, I don't think -- I think some of the things we're doing that I mentioned briefly about mobile and digital, some of these things everybody else have. We are sometimes late to the game on some of these things, but those should be all net additive to what we do.

所以除此之外，我不認為 - 我認為我們正在做的一些事情是我簡要提到的關於移動和數字的，其中一些其他人都有。我們有時在其中一些事情上遲到了，但這些都應該是我們所做工作的淨附加值。

That's super helpful. I was also wondering on your inventory positioning, how much are you getting ahead of any seasonal items or any challenges you may foresee for Q2 and Q3 for the spring and summer?

這非常有幫助。我還想知道您的庫存定位，您在春季和夏季第二季度和第三季度的任何季節性商品或您可能預見的任何挑戰之前領先多少？

I don't know exactly. I know that consciously, the buyers, when they present at the budget meetings, are talking about those issues. And we are bringing in things early. We certainly have -- you think about it, our -- what we call our view of distribution system in the U.S., it was something like 10 million square feet. And we essentially slightly more than doubled that with the Innovel acquisition. Aside from other things, that helps us with a little storage if we needed or bringing in things early.

我不確切知道。我知道，當他們出席預算會議時，買家有意識地談論這些問題。我們正在提早引入東西。我們當然有——你想一想，我們的——我們稱之為我們對美國分銷系統的看法，大約是 1000 萬平方英尺。通過收購 Innovel，我們基本上將其翻了一番多一點。除了其他事情之外，如果我們需要或提早帶東西，這可以幫助我們節省一點存儲空間。

And recognizing -- we start with -- we are somewhat seasonal, but historically, we've always brought things in early anyway. So we -- whatever it may be, we certainly have the cash, as somebody mentioned earlier, to have some extra billion dollars invested in inventory, even if it hangs around for a little bit.

並且認識到 - 我們開始 - 我們有點季節性，但從歷史上看，無論如何我們總是提前帶來東西。所以我們——不管它是什麼，我們當然有現金，正如前面有人提到的，有一些額外的十億美元投資於庫存，即使它會徘徊一點點。

But I think overall, some of our items are still a little later than they would be pre-COVID, but better than they would be if we were not doing as good a job as I think we are doing on forward buying.

但我認為總體而言，我們的一些商品仍然比 COVID 之前的產品要晚一點，但如果我們沒有像我認為的遠期採購那樣做得好，它們會更好。

Perfect. If I could sneak one last one in. I might have missed it, but I think you said for the net new openings this year, you said 19. I thought the last quarter, you were aiming more towards 25. Is there anything to call out there?

完美的。如果我能偷偷溜進去最後一個。我可能會錯過它，但我想你說今年的淨新職位空缺，你說的是 19。我想上個季度，你的目標更接近 25。有什麼可以打電話的嗎在外面嗎？

What I said it was 19 more in the last 3 quarters of the year -- fiscal year, plus the 8 in Q1.

我說的是今年最後三個季度增加了 19 個——財政年度，加上第一季度的 8 個。

For our next question, we have Paul Lejuez from Citi.

對於我們的下一個問題，我們請來花旗的 Paul Lejuez。

This is Brandon Cheatham on for Paul. I was wondering if we could talk about the increase in CapEx. I think last we spoke, we thought CapEx would have a 3 in front of it. Now it sounds like it has a 4 in front of it. I'm just wondering, was there a change in strategy there. And specifically on the e-comm investments, do you feel like you're playing some catch-up there or laying the groundwork for growth? Just anything that you can share with that.

這是保羅的布蘭登·奇塔姆。我想知道我們是否可以談論資本支出的增加。我想我們上次談話時，我們認為資本支出前面會有一個 3。現在聽起來它前面有一個4。我只是想知道，那裡的策略是否發生了變化。特別是在電子商務投資方面，您是否覺得自己正在追趕或為增長奠定基礎？只是你可以與之分享的任何東西。

Sure. I think you previously as it relates to this year, we had talked about, I think, "3 8 to 4 2." Now we're saying about 4. These numbers are up from the mid-3s over the last couple of year -- low to mid-3s over the last couple of years. In fact, last year's 3 6 included a $340 million or $345 million asset purchase that I mentioned earlier in the Southwest and Southern California, which is basically 1.5 million-plus square foot facility with lots of acreage to help with our fulfillment as well as our import stuff.

當然。我認為您之前與今年有關，我們曾談到，我認為，“3 8 到 4 2”。現在我們說大約 4 個。這些數字從過去幾年的 3 分左右上升——過去幾年的低到 3 分左右。事實上，去年的 3 6 包括我之前在西南和南加州提到的 3.4 億美元或 3.45 億美元的資產購買，這基本上是 150 萬多平方英尺的設施，有很多面積來幫助我們實現和進口東西。

And so I think there's -- if you said, what are the big things taking you from the low 3s to the low 4s over a few years of period, it's more international expansions, which tends to be a little more expensive for location. More expansion. And in fiscal '20, we were down to 13 net new units because some delays with COVID. I think we were 20 in '21, and we're going to be 27 net new units this fiscal year, plus 5 relos, which is -- 6 relos planned. We might miss that a little bit. But at the end of the day, so there's more warehouses. Clearly more in the whole fulfillment concept, starting with the $1 billion acquisition a year ago of what's now Costco Logistics, starting with adding additional square footage to that as well as the international things.

所以我認為有 - 如果你說，在幾年的時間裡，你從低 3 到低 4 的重要因素是什麼，這是更多的國際擴張，這往往會更貴一些。更多的擴展。在 20 財年，由於 COVID 的一些延誤，我們淨新增單位減少到 13 個。我認為我們在 21 年是 20 歲，本財年我們將淨新增 27 個單位，再加上 5 個 relos，即計劃中的 6 個 relos。我們可能會錯過一點。但歸根結底，倉庫多了起來。整個履行概念顯然更多，從一年前以 10 億美元收購現在的 Costco Logistics 開始，首先是增加額外的面積以及國際化的東西。

And even on the distribution side or what we call our cross-dock depots, spending money overseas now in some of these countries to do some of that in a better way. Actually, building a mini depot in Hawaii where we have 5 locations? 7, I'm sorry, 7 locations, but 7 huge volume locations and with -- so we've gotten to the volume and efficiency there that these are good investments. So it's a lot of those things. Mind you, we still spend all in close to $1 billion a year in IT.

甚至在分銷方面或我們所謂的跨碼頭倉庫，現在在這些國家中的一些國家在海外花錢，以便以更好的方式完成其中的一些工作。實際上，在我們有 5 個地點的夏威夷建立一個小型倉庫？ 7，對不起，有 7 個地點，但有 7 個容量巨大的地點，而且我們已經了解了那裡的數量和效率，這些都是很好的投資。所以這些東西很多。請注意，我們每年在 IT 上的花費仍然接近 10 億美元。

Got it. And that's how we should kind of think about it going forward long term?

知道了。從長遠來看，這就是我們應該如何看待它？

By the way, that's not all CapEx. That's expenses as well. Go ahead. I'm sorry.

順便說一句，這還不僅僅是資本支出。這也是費用。前進。抱歉。

And the kind of $4 billion range is what we should think about CapEx for the long term?

從長遠來看，我們應該考慮 40 億美元的資本支出範圍嗎？

I don't know for the long term. I think $4 billion sounds about right for the next year or 2. And if things continue to go well, go well and grow well, maybe it goes up from there a little bit. But we're not looking to spend it if we don't think we have good things to spend it on, just because our cash flow has been exceeding net income plus -- cash flow has been exceeding regular dividend, plus capital expenditures and the like.

我不知道長期。我認為 40 億美元聽起來很適合明年或 2 年。如果事情繼續進展順利，進展順利並增長良好，也許它會從那裡上升一點。但是，如果我們認為我們沒有好東西可以花錢，我們就不打算花錢，只是因為我們的現金流量一直超過淨收入加上——現金流量一直超過定期股息，加上資本支出和喜歡。

Got it. And you also mentioned that you're able to change out products when you're faced with shortages. I was wondering if you could quantify that versus kind of a normal quarter. And if you are switching out more than usual, what impact does that have on consumer behavior there? And anything on the logistics side as well?

知道了。您還提到，當您面臨短缺時，您可以更換產品。我想知道您是否可以將其與正常季度進行量化。如果你比平時更多地換掉，這對那裡的消費者行為有什麼影響？物流方面還有什麼？

I think it's -- I don't have the exact number, but my guess is it's a small -- low to mid-single-digit percentage. What it means, though, is when back -- going all the way back to spring of 2020, and there were -- people were hoarding goods. We were going out to additional suppliers to see what we can get, recognizing from their perspective it creates newer relationships, which will honor going forward, not just for the 3 months that we needed it then. And so I think there are opportunities to just expand product brands by necessity to some things.

我認為是——我沒有確切的數字，但我猜這是一個很小的——低到中個位數的百分比。然而，這意味著當回到 2020 年春天時，人們正在囤積商品。我們去尋找更多的供應商，看看我們能得到什麼，從他們的角度認識到它創造了新的關係，這將是未來的榮譽，而不僅僅是我們當時需要的 3 個月。所以我認為有機會在某些事情上根據需要擴展產品品牌。

And with, I think, the -- going into last summer and fall with that advent of all the things for the home, both patio furniture and lawn and garden and barbecue grills and indoor furniture and electronics and gadgets for the kitchen, we took advantage of that and brought in additional items. And so it's more of that than anything. And the treasure hunt, yes. So it's still a small piece, but I think it's -- when I -- sometimes when I go into some retailers, I'm not going to name names, but you'll see a shelf half empty or some spaces. First of all, why don't you put something there. And -- but at the end of the day, I think our buyers have done a very good job of keeping the warehouses full.

我認為，隨著 - 進入去年夏天和秋天，隨著所有家居用品的出現，包括庭院家具、草坪、花園、燒烤架、室內家具、廚房用電子設備和小工具，我們利用了並帶來了額外的物品。所以它比什麼都重要。還有尋寶，是的。所以它仍然是一小塊，但我認為它 - 當我 - 有時當我進入一些零售商時，我不會說出名字，但你會看到一個半空的貨架或一些空間。首先，你為什麼不把東西放在那裡。而且 - 但歸根結底，我認為我們的買家在保持倉庫滿員方面做得非常好。

For our next question, we have Edward Kelly from Wells Fargo.

對於我們的下一個問題，我們請來富國銀行的 Edward Kelly。

Richard, I wanted to ask you gross margin (inaudible) all things considered. Any additional thoughts that you can share (inaudible) current quarter (inaudible) Any reason we should expect some incremental (inaudible) somewhat similar?

理查德，我想問你毛利率（聽不清）所有考慮的事情。您可以分享（聽不清）當前季度（聽不清）的任何其他想法（聽不清）我們應該期待一些增量（聽不清）有點相似的任何理由？

You were breaking up entirely during that call. So I heard about every other word, if you want to repeat yourself.

在那次通話中你完全分手了。所以我聽說過所有其他詞，如果你想重複自己的話。

Yes. Sorry. So I wanted to ask you about the gross margin. As you said, pretty good, all things considered. Any additional thoughts you can share on the current quarter? Comparisons in the core look similar, I think. Just wondering if there's any reason we should expect any incremental pressure.

是的。對不起。所以我想問你關於毛利率的問題。正如你所說，相當不錯，所有的事情都考慮到了。您可以在本季度分享任何其他想法嗎？我認為，核心中的比較看起來很相似。只是想知道是否有任何理由我們應該期待任何增量壓力。

From a competitive standpoint, I mean, there's lots of -- everybody is competitive. Again, I think structurally, our model allows us to benefit from that. We talked about more pennies per gallon of profit. That allows us to do some other things.

從競爭的角度來看，我的意思是，有很多——每個人都具有競爭力。同樣，我認為從結構上講，我們的模型使我們能夠從中受益。我們談到每加侖利潤更多便士。這讓我們可以做一些其他的事情。

I think we've got -- I think we have a lot of levers to pull here. And we feel pretty good that we are able to hold the prices on key items and to -- I don't really think that we consider the challenge of achieving a margin. We're pretty good at figuring out how to get there while still being the company we are in terms of competitiveness.

我認為我們已經 - 我認為我們有很多槓桿可以拉到這裡。而且我們感覺很好，我們能夠保持關鍵項目的價格並且 - 我真的不認為我們考慮實現利潤的挑戰。我們非常擅長弄清楚如何到達那裡，同時仍然是我們在競爭力方面的公司。

So no big changes of what we see out there. Just there's a lot of changes every month and some things go up and some things go down. But overall, we feel pretty good about it.

所以我們看到的東西沒有大的變化。只是每個月都有很多變化，有些事情會上升，有些事情會下降。但總的來說，我們對此感覺很好。

All right. And then just one for a little bit more big picture just around customer data. I was hoping maybe you could just provide an update on things like personalization. And then media is something that we hear a lot of people talk about. Maybe just any thoughts on what you're doing with that opportunity as well.

好的。然後只是一個關於客戶數據的更宏觀的圖景。我希望也許您可以提供有關個性化等內容的更新。然後媒體是我們聽到很多人談論的東西。也許只是對你正在利用這個機會做什麼的任何想法。

I think there's still low-hanging fruit on the tree here. We've talked about it a little bit. We've done a little bit more targeting than we have ever done, but very little. There is more to come. It was just 1.5 years ago that we hired somewhat at a relatively senior level in terms of data analytics. But that's not the only thing they're working on and the group they put together. But -- so I think those are things that will come over time in the next few years. That's pretty much what I can tell you about that. I'm going to take 2 more questions, Sadie.

我認為這裡的樹上還有低垂的果實。我們已經談了一點。我們所做的定位比以往任何時候都多，但很少。還有更多的事情要做。就在 1.5 年前，我們在數據分析方面聘用了一些相對高級的職位。但這並不是他們正在做的唯一事情以及他們組建的團隊。但是 - 所以我認為這些是未來幾年會隨著時間的推移而發生的事情。這幾乎就是我可以告訴你的。薩迪，我還要再回答 2 個問題。

And for the next question, we have Laura Champine from Loop Capital.

對於下一個問題，我們請來 Loop Capital 的 Laura Champine。

Mine will be quick. It's a follow-on. You'd mentioned that renewal rates are still headed higher in part because of -- likely because of the auto renew, what percentage of your membership is on auto renew at this point?

我的會很快。這是一個後續。您提到續訂率仍然較高，部分原因是——可能是因為自動續訂，此時您的會員中有多少百分比是自動續訂的？

It's about 50 in the U.S. and Canada, which would imply -- and that's really where we have it, where we have the co-brand cards. And U.S. and Canada is about 80% of our company, so the 50 becomes a 40, if you -- rough numbers. Sorry, you could do it on any card, not just co-brand. But in the U.S. and Canada, it's about 50.

在美國和加拿大大約有 50 個，這意味著 - 這就是我們擁有它的地方，我們擁有聯合品牌卡的地方。美國和加拿大約占我們公司的 80%，所以 50 變成 40，如果你 - 粗略的數字。抱歉，您可以在任何卡上執行此操作，而不僅僅是聯合品牌。但在美國和加拿大，大約是 50 個。

And for our last question, we have Kelly Bania from BMO Capital.

最後一個問題是來自 BMO Capital 的 Kelly Bania。

Just wanted to talk, Richard, about the -- just the inflationary environment. And you've talked a little bit in the past couple of quarters about how your price gaps have widened. Do you think this kind of magnitude of inflation is just good for Costco's business? I mean have you seen anything like this in the past where it could possibly just drive even more volume into your doors?

只是想談談，理查德，關於通貨膨脹的環境。在過去的幾個季度中，您已經談到了您的價格差距是如何擴大的。你認為這種程度的通貨膨脹對 Costco 的業務有好處嗎？我的意思是你過去有沒有見過這樣的事情，它可能只會讓更多的音量進入你的門？

I mean from an argument that things are more costly, on the one hand, maybe it reduces demand overall in the sense that we're -- the extreme value proposition that helps us. So who the heck knows? I think what I was reading this morning in the paper was this is the highest inflation in so many years. It wasn't that long ago, though, 10-plus years ago that regular inflation was 2% or 3% a year. And of course, it's going to be a little more for a year. But at the end of the day, I think it helps us a little because of the value proposition that we have.

我的意思是，一方面，事情成本更高，這可能會降低整體需求，因為我們是——對我們有幫助的極端價值主張。那麼到底誰知道呢？我想我今天早上在報紙上看到的是，這是多年來最高的通貨膨脹。不過，就在不久之前，10 多年前，常規通貨膨脹率為每年 2% 或 3%。當然，這將是一年多一點。但歸根結底，我認為這對我們有一點幫助，因為我們擁有的價值主張。

That makes sense. And a lot has been asked here, but just wanted to also just check on self-checkout and where you are with that. And if there's any color you can help us understand on the savings or the impact on the cost structure when you put in some self-checkout and the potential for that initiative going forward.

這就說得通了。這裡已經問了很多問題，但也只是想檢查一下自助結賬以及你在哪裡。如果有任何顏色，您可以幫助我們了解當您進行一些自助結賬時節省的費用或對成本結構的影響以及該計劃向前發展的潛力。

We pretty much have it now in most locations, and I'm speaking of the U.S. and Canada. And I know even across the street, in many locations, we've expanded it from originally 2 lanes of 3 or 6 to 3 lanes of 3 or even 4 lanes of 3. So in a 4-lane area, you could have 12 people checking out. And so my guess is it's still going to grow a little as we expand existing units to offer a little bit more of it. And it's been a positive.

我們現在幾乎在大多數地方都有它，我說的是美國和加拿大。而且我知道即使在街對面，在許多地方，我們已經將它從最初的 2 車道 3 或 6 擴展到 3 車道 3 甚至 4 車道 3。所以在一個 4 車道區域，你可以有 12 人退房。所以我的猜測是，隨著我們擴大現有單位以提供更多的東西，它仍然會增長一點。這是積極的。

Well, thank you, everyone, and have a good holiday season. And we're around to answer additional questions. Have a good day.

好吧，謝謝大家，祝您假期愉快。我們會回答其他問題。祝你有美好的一天。

And ladies and gentlemen, this concludes today's conference call. Thank you all for participating. You may now disconnect.

女士們，先生們，今天的電話會議到此結束。謝謝大家的參與。您現在可以斷開連接。