好市多 (COST) 2021 Q2 法說會逐字稿

Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for standing by, and welcome to Q2 Earnings Call and February Sales Conference.

女士們，先生們，感謝您的支持，歡迎參加第二季度財報電話會議和二月銷售會議。

I would now like to hand the call over to your speaker today, Mr. Richard Galanti. You may begin your conference.

我現在想把今天的電話轉交給你的發言人，Richard Galanti 先生。你可以開始你的會議了。

Thank you, Buena, and good afternoon to everyone.

謝謝你，布埃納，大家下午好。

I will 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. 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.

我將首先聲明，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/或業績與所示內容大不相同通過這樣的陳述。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 the press release, we reported operating results for the second quarter of fiscal 2021, the 12 weeks ended February 14 as well as February retail sales results for the 4 weeks ended this past Sunday, February 28. Reported net income for the quarter was $951 million or $2.14 per share compared to $931 million or $2.10 per diluted share last year. This year's results included $246 million pretax or $0.41 per diluted share in costs incurred primarily from COVID-19 premium wages.

在新聞稿中，我們報告了 2021 財年第二季度、截至 2 月 14 日的 12 週的經營業績以及截至 2 月 28 日星期日的 4 週的 2 月零售業績。該季度報告的淨收入為 951 美元百萬美元或每股 2.14 美元，而去年為 9.31 億美元或每股攤薄收益 2.10 美元。今年的業績包括稅前 2.46 億美元或攤薄後每股 0.41 美元主要來自 COVID-19 保費工資的成本。

Net sales for the quarter increased 14.7% to $43.89 billion from $38.26 billion a year ago in the second quarter. Comparable sales for the second quarter of fiscal '21 were as follows: For the 12-week period, U.S. comps were reported at 11.4%, and excluding gas deflation and FX, 12.6%; Canada reported at 13.4%, ex gas deflation and FX, 10.6%; Other international reported at 21.5%, ex gas deflation and FX, 17.7%; Our total company reported at 13.0%, and ex gas deflation and FX, 12.9%; E-commerce on a reported basis was 75.8%, and ex FX, 74.8%.

本季度的淨銷售額從去年第二季度的 382.6 億美元增長 14.7% 至 438.9 億美元。 21 財年第二季度的可比銷售額如下：在 12 週期間，美國公司的銷售額為 11.4%，不包括天然氣通貨緊縮和外匯，為 12.6%；加拿大報告為 13.4%，不含天然氣通貨緊縮和外匯，10.6%；其他國際報告為 21.5%，不含天然氣通貨緊縮和外匯，17.7%；我們公司的總報告率為 13.0%，除天然氣通貨緊縮和外匯外，為 12.9%；報告基礎上的電子商務為 75.8%，除外匯外，為 74.8%。

In terms of the second quarter comp sales metrics, our traffic or shopping frequency increased 1% worldwide and up 2.7% in the U.S. on a year-over-year basis during the quarter. Our average transaction or ticket was up 11.9% total company and 8.5% in the U.S. during the second quarter. Foreign currencies relative to the U.S. dollar positively impacted sales by approximately 110 basis points, and gasoline price deflation negatively impacted sales by approximately 100 basis points.

就第二季度的銷售指標而言，我們的流量或購物頻率在本季度全球同比增長 1%，在美國同比增長 2.7%。第二季度，我們公司的平均交易或機票總額增長了 11.9%，在美國增長了 8.5%。相對於美元的外幣對銷售額產生了約 110 個基點的積極影響，而汽油價格通縮對銷售額產生了約 100 個基點的負面影響。

I'll review our February sales results a little bit later in the call. Going down the income statement, membership fee income came in reported at $881.5 million or 2.01% compared to $816.4 million or 2.13% in the quarter a year ago, so up $65 million or 8%. Excluding the impact of FX, the $65 million increase would be $56 million, which would represent a 6.9% increase excluding the impact of FX. No openings occurred in fiscal -- in the second fiscal quarter, both this year and last year in the fiscal quarter.

稍後我將在電話會議中回顧我們 2 月份的銷售結果。在損益表中，會員費收入報告為 8.815 億美元或 2.01%，而去年同期為 8.164 億美元或 2.13%，因此增長了 6500 萬美元或 8%。不計外匯影響，6500 萬美元的增長將是 5600 萬美元，即不計外匯影響的增幅為 6.9%。財政年度沒有出現空缺——在第二財政季度，今年和去年的財政季度都是如此。

In terms of renewal rates, the U.S. and Canadian renewal rate came in as for Q2 at 91.0% as of Q2 end. This was up 0.1% from the 90.9% at the end of the prior fiscal quarter. Worldwide, our total company renewal rates were 88.5% as of Q2 end, also up 0.1% from the prior quarter's number of 88.4%.

在續訂率方面，截至第二季度末，美國和加拿大的續訂率在第二季度達到 91.0%。這比上一財季末的 90.9% 增長了 0.1%。在全球範圍內，截至第二季度末，我們的總公司續訂率為 88.5%，也比上一季度的 88.4% 增長了 0.1%。

In terms of number of members as of Q2 end both member households and cardholders, in terms of households at Q2 end, we came in at 59.7 million, up from 59.1 million 12 weeks earlier; and total cardholders 108.3 million, up from 107.1 million 12 weeks earlier. As of Q2, paid executive members were 23.8 million, an increase of 506,000 during the 12 weeks since Q1 end.

就第二季度末的會員家庭和持卡人而言，就第二季度末的家庭而言，我們的人數為 5970 萬，高於 12 週前的 5910 萬；持卡人總數為 1.083 億，高於 12 週前的 1.071 億。截至第二季度，付費執行成員為 2380 萬，自第一季度結束以來的 12 週內增加了 506,000 人。

Moving down the income statement to the gross margin. This year's gross margin came in at 10.96%, 2 basis points lower than last year's second quarter on a reported basis of 10.98%. Excluding gas deflation, it would have been 11 basis points lower.

將損益表向下移動到毛利率。今年的毛利率為 10.96%，比去年第二季度報告的 10.98% 低 2 個基點。不包括天然氣通貨緊縮，它會下降 11 個基點。

As I always ask you, we'll do a little chart here to show some of the components of margin. Two columns, reported and the second column without gas deflation. First line item would be core merchandise. On a reported basis, core merchandise margin year-over-year was -- came in at plus 71 basis points; ex gas deflation, plus 63 basis points. Second line item, ancillary businesses, minus 53 basis points; and then without gas, minus 55. 2% reward, minus 6 and minus 5. Other, minus 14 and minus 14. So all told on a reported basis, year-over-year minus 2 basis points; and again ex gas deflation, minus 11 basis points.

正如我經常問你的那樣，我們將在這裡做一個小圖表來顯示保證金的一些組成部分。報告了兩列，第二列沒有氣體放氣。第一個項目將是核心商品。據報導，核心商品利潤率同比增長 71 個基點；除天然氣通縮外，加 63 個基點。第二行項目，輔助業務，負 53 個基點；然後沒有汽油，負 55。2% 的獎勵，負 6 和負 5。其他，負 14 和負 14。所以在報告的基礎上，按年同比負 2 個基點計算；再次排除天然氣通縮，負 11 個基點。

So as you can see from this chart, the core merchandise component was higher by ex gas deflation by 63 basis points. Similar to the last several fiscal quarters, sales penetration has shifted to the core business, resulting in higher contribution of our total gross margin dollars coming from the core operations versus a year earlier.

因此，正如您從該圖表中看到的那樣，核心商品成分因除氣通縮而上漲 63 個基點。與過去幾個財政季度類似，銷售滲透已轉移到核心業務，導致來自核心業務的總毛利率貢獻高於一年前。

Looking at the core merchandise categories in relation only to their own sales, core and core, if you will, margins year-over-year were higher by 71 basis points. Fresh foods was again the biggest driver here. With strong sales in fresh, we benefited from the efficiency gains in labor productivity and significantly lower spoilage. That being said, the other 3 major merchandise categories, food and sundries, softlines and hardlines all had higher-margin percentages year-over-year in the quarter as well.

如果你願意的話，只看與他們自己的銷售、核心和核心相關的核心商品類別，利潤率同比增長了 71 個基點。新鮮食品再次成為這裡最大的推動力。憑藉強勁的生鮮銷售，我們受益於勞動生產率的提高和變質的顯著降低。話雖如此，其他 3 個主要商品類別，食品和雜貨、軟線和硬線在本季度的利潤率均高於去年同期。

Ancillary and other business gross margin was lower by 53 basis points and by 55 ex gas deflation in the quarter, with most of the negative impact coming from gas; and to a lesser extent from the aggregate of travel, hearing aids, pharmacy and food courts; offset a little bit by a positive impact from e-com. Costco Logistics, which was our Innovel acquisition a year ago, impacted ancillary margins by 6 basis points to the negative.

本季度輔助和其他業務毛利率下降 53 個基點和 55 個天然氣通貨緊縮，其中大部分負面影響來自天然氣；以及在較小程度上來自旅行、助聽器、藥房和美食廣場的總和；電子商務的積極影響抵消了一點。一年前我們收購 Innovel 的 Costco Logistics 對輔助利潤率產生了 6 個基點的負面影響。

2% reward you can see was impacted negatively by 5 basis points, implying that more of -- higher penetration of our sales are coming from the executive membership group. And other is the minus 14 basis points. All of this is attributable to the cost of COVID-19 or about $60 million of the $246 million previously mentioned. These are the direct costs for incremental wages allocated to our manufacturing, production and fulfillment operations.

您可以看到 2% 的獎勵受到 5 個基點的負面影響，這意味著我們銷售的更高滲透率來自高管會員群體。其他是負14個基點。所有這一切都歸因於 COVID-19 的成本或前面提到的 2.46 億美元中的約 6000 萬美元。這些是分配給我們的製造、生產和履行業務的增量工資的直接成本。

Moving on to SG&A. Our reported SG&A in the second quarter was higher or worse year-over-year by 11 basis points on a reported basis, coming in at 9.89% versus 9.78% a year earlier. The minus 11 ex gas deflation, that would have been a minus 3.

繼續 SG&A。我們報告的第二季度 SG&A 在報告的基礎上同比上升或下降 11 個基點，為 9.89%，而去年同期為 9.78%。負 11 ex gas 通貨緊縮，本來是負 3。

Again, doing a little chart of comparison with 2 columns, both reported and then without gas deflation. First line item would be operations, a plus 31, so lower or better by 31 basis points. Core operations was on a reported basis without gas deflation, plus 38, so lower or better by 38 basis points. Central, minus 3 basis points and minus 2. Stock compensation, plus 3 and plus 3. And other, minus 42 and minus 42.

再次，與 2 列進行比較的小圖表，均已報告，然後沒有氣體放氣。第一項是運營，加 31，因此低或高 31 個基點。根據報告，核心業務在沒有天然氣通縮的情況下增加了 38 個基點，因此降低或提高了 38 個基點。 Central，負 3 基點和負 2。股票補償，正 3 和正 3。其他，負 42 和負 42。

Yet those columns up on a reported basis again, SG&A was higher year-over-year by 11 basis points; and ex gas deflation, higher by 3. The core operations component, when you look at that, was better by 31 or 38 excluding the impact from deflation. SG&A in the core, excluding the COVID-related expenses which I'll discuss in a moment, was significantly leveraged with the strong core merchandise sales increases. Central again minus 2 ex gas deflation, stock comp plus 3, both small year-over-year basis points changes together, pretty much a wash. And other was a minus 42 basis points hit to SG&A, which were incremental wage and benefit costs related to COVID or $186 million of that $246 million total amount. So 60 of the million of the 246 hits the margin, and 186 of the 246 hits SG&A.

然而，這些列在報告的基礎上再次上升，SG&A 同比增長 11 個基點；除通貨緊縮的影響外，排除通貨緊縮的影響，核心運營部分提高了 31 或 38。核心的 SG&A（不包括我稍後將討論的與 COVID 相關的費用）在核心商品銷售強勁增長的情況下得到了顯著影響。中央再次減去 2 ex gas 通縮，股票補償加上 3，兩個小的同比基點變化一起，幾乎是一個洗盤。其他是對 SG&A 的負 42 個基點，這是與 COVID 相關的增量工資和福利成本，即 2.46 億美元總額中的 1.86 億美元。因此，246 人中有 60 人達到了邊緣，而 246 人中有 186 人達到了 SG&A。

I'd like to take a minute here and discuss our COVID-related expenses and how they are changing effective this past Monday, March 1. Over the past 12-month period, March 2020 through February 2021, company-wide we expended approximately $1.060 billion pretax on COVID-related items. Of this amount, approximately $825 million related specifically to the $2 an hour extra hourly pay. The remaining $200 million-plus was made up of several other items, including the few month period where employees 65 and older were paid to stay home. This was early on during the original lockdowns. Cleaning and masks supplies, paying wages to several -- for several weeks to our third-party demo service employees; and assisting employees with pay child care leave, which continues.

我想在這里花點時間討論一下我們與 COVID 相關的費用，以及它們在 3 月 1 日星期一生效的變化情況。在過去的 12 個月期間，從 2020 年 3 月到 2021 年 2 月，我們在全公司範圍內花費了大約 1.060 美元億美元的與 COVID 相關的項目的稅前費用。其中，約 8.25 億美元與每小時 2 美元的額外時薪有關。剩下的 2 億多美元由其他幾項組成，包括為 65 歲及以上的員工支付留在家中的幾個月時間。這是在最初的封鎖期間的早期。清潔和口罩用品，向我們的第三方演示服務員工支付數週的工資；並協助員工休帶薪育兒假，這種做法仍在繼續。

With the $2 an hour extra pay having been paid in for full year, that extra amount has been discontinued as of this past Sunday, February 28. And effective March 1, a few days ago, we have implemented a permanent wage increase for hourly employees as well as most salaried warehouse employees. In the U.S. and Canada, we are permanently increasing our starting wage and most wage steps above that by $1 an hour; and increasing our top of scale hourly wage by $0.45 an hour on top of the previously planned $0.55 an hour increase for top of scale.

由於全年支付了每小時 2 美元的額外工資，自 2 月 28 日上週日起，該額外金額已停止。幾天前的 3 月 1 日起，我們已對小時工實施永久性加薪以及大多數受薪倉庫員工。在美國和加拿大，我們永久性地將起薪和大多數工資步幅提高到每小時 1 美元；在之前計劃的每小時 0.55 美元的基礎上，將我們的最高每小時工資增加 0.45 美元。

With these changes, our entry-level hourly wages will increase from $15 and $15.50 an hour to $16 and $16.50 an hour. Similar type increases are occurring in other countries where we operate.

隨著這些變化，我們的入門級時薪將從每小時 15 美元和 15.50 美元增加到每小時 16 美元和 16.50 美元。我們經營的其他國家也出現了類似的增長。

With this change, along with the reduction and/or elimination of several components of the $200 million-plus expenses I just discussed, on a going-forward basis, this $1 billion-plus expense over the past 12 months will be reduced by a little over 1/2 starting March 1, which is we -- the beginning of week 3 in the current fiscal third quarter.

隨著這一變化，以及我剛才討論的 2 億多美元費用中的幾個部分的減少和/或消除，在未來的基礎上，過去 12 個月的這 10 億多美元的費用將減少一點從 3 月 1 日開始超過 1/2，也就是我們——當前財政第三季度第 3 週的開始。

Next on the income statement is preopening expense. Pretty much the same year-over-year. This year came in at $9 million compared to last year's $7 million, so $2 million higher. In both fiscal quarters, there were 0 openings, although this relates to upcoming openings as well.

損益表上的下一個是開業前費用。每年幾乎相同。今年的收入為 900 萬美元，而去年為 700 萬美元，因此增加了 200 萬美元。在兩個財政季度，都有 0 個職位空缺，儘管這也與即將到來的職位空缺有關。

All told, reported operating income for the second quarter of 2021, including the $246 million mentioned earlier, showed an increase of 5.8%, coming in at $1.34 billion this year compared to $1.266 billion last year.

總而言之，包括前面提到的 2.46 億美元在內的 2021 年第二季度報告的營業收入增長了 5.8%，今年為 13.4 億美元，而去年為 12.66 億美元。

Below the operating income line, interest expense was $40 million this year versus $34 million last year. Interest income and other for the quarter was lower by $26 million year-over-year. Interest income itself was lower by $19 million due to lower interest rates. Additionally, FX and other was lower by $7 million. Overall reported pretax income in the second quarter was up 3.3%, coming in at $1.319 billion this year compared to $1.277 billion a year earlier.

在營業收入線以下，今年的利息支出為 4000 萬美元，而去年為 3400 萬美元。本季度的利息收入和其他收入同比減少了 2600 萬美元。由於利率降低，利息收入本身減少了 1900 萬美元。此外，外彙和其他產品減少了 700 萬美元。第二季度整體報告的稅前收入增長了 3.3%，今年為 13.19 億美元，而去年同期為 12.77 億美元。

In terms of income taxes, our tax rate in the second quarter was 26.4%, a little higher than the 25.9% recorded in Q2 of last year. For all of '21 based on our current estimates, which of course these are always subject to change, we anticipate that our effective normalized total company tax rate for the fiscal year to be in the 26% to 27% range.

在所得稅方面，我們第二季度的稅率為 26.4%，略高於去年第二季度的 25.9%。對於 21 年所有基於我們目前的估計，當然這些總是會發生變化，我們預計我們在本財年的有效標準化總公司稅率將在 26% 到 27% 的範圍內。

A few other items to note in terms of warehouse expansion. As I mentioned, there were no openings in Q2. There were 8 net new openings in Q1, so we're 8 year-to-date. In the second half of the fiscal year (inaudible) quarter in the fourth fiscal quarter, we plan to open 13 more net new units. 5 of those will be in the U.S., 3 will be in Canada, and 5 will be in overseas.

在倉庫擴展方面需要注意的其他一些事項。正如我所提到的，第二季度沒有空缺。第一季度有 8 個淨新職位空缺，所以我們今年迄今已有 8 個。在第四財季的下半財年（聽不清）季度，我們計劃再開設 13 個淨新單位。其中5個在美國，3個在加拿大，5個在海外。

Regarding Capex, in the second quarter of fiscal '21, we spent approximately $573 million. Our full year CapEx spend is still estimated in the $3 billion to $3.2 billion range.

關於資本支出，在 21 財年第二季度，我們花費了大約 5.73 億美元。我們全年的資本支出估計仍在 30 億至 32 億美元之間。

Moving on to e-commerce. E-commerce sales overall for the quarter ex FX increased 75% year-over-year. A few of the stronger departments: over-the-counter pharmacy, garden and patio, small electrics, health and beauty, and majors including consumer electronics.

轉向電子商務。本季度除外匯外的整體電子商務銷售額同比增長 75%。一些實力較強的部門：非處方藥房、花園和庭院、小電器、健康和美容，以及包括消費電子在內的專業。

Total online grocery grew at a very strong rate in the second quarter. The comp numbers just mentioned follow our usual convention, which excludes our third-party same-day grocery program, which was up 450% year-over-year in the quarter. If we include the third-party same-day in our e-com comps, the 76% reported comp number would have been 96%.

第二季度，在線食品雜貨總量以非常強勁的速度增長。剛剛提到的補償數字遵循我們通常的慣例，其中不包括我們的第三方當日雜貨計劃，該計劃在本季度同比增長 450%。如果我們在我們的電子商務補償中包含第三方當日，則 76% 的報告補償數將是 96%。

Costco Logistics, formerly known as Innovel, continues to fulfill a greater percentage of our delivery and delivery items and has steadily increased since its acquisition a year ago in March. In Q2, we made it a priority to enhance our white glove service, which includes assembly or complex installation. It's now standard on many items and offered as an upgrade on many others.

Costco Logistics，前身為 Innovel，繼續履行我們更大比例的交付和交付項目，並且自一年前 3 月被收購以來穩步增長。在第二季度，我們將加強白手套服務作為優先事項，包括組裝或複雜安裝。它現在是許多項目的標準配置，並作為許多其他項目的升級提供。

Turning to COVID-19 and some of the issues and impact surrounding it. We continue to enjoy strong core merchandise sales. I think our buying teams have done a great job keeping our buildings in stock, despite outsized demand on some items and some supply chain challenges as well.

轉向 COVID-19 以及圍繞它的一些問題和影響。我們繼續享受強勁的核心商品銷售。我認為我們的採購團隊在保持我們的建築物庫存方面做得很好，儘管對某些物品的需求很大並且也存在一些供應鏈挑戰。

From a supply chain perspective, overseas freight has continued to be an issue in regards to container shortage and port delays. This has caused timing delays on certain categories, including furniture, sporting goods, lawn and garden and even some food and sundries items like seafood, imported cheeses, and oils. We expect these pressures to ease in the coming months, but it's impacting everyone, of course.

從供應鏈的角度來看，海外貨運一直是集裝箱短缺和港口延誤的問題。這導致某些類別的時間延遲，包括家具、體育用品、草坪和花園，甚至一些食品和雜貨，如海鮮、進口奶酪和油。我們預計這些壓力將在未來幾個月內緩解，但它當然會影響到每個人。

Regarding the pressures from high consumer demand, examples of areas where we have some supply issues on the nonfood side: certain electronics due to chip and component shortages like TVs, computers and smart home related items; exercise equipment, bikes and outdoor activity items; lawn and garden items; and appliances.

關於來自高消費需求的壓力，我們在非食品方面存在一些供應問題的領域的例子：由於芯片和組件短缺而導致的某些電子產品，如電視、電腦和智能家居相關產品；健身器材、自行車和戶外活動用品；草坪和花園用品；和電器。

On the food side, canned beverages have some shortages due mostly to the aluminum can issue of shortages. Bacon is up 45% in pounds. And so for whatever reason, there's a lot of demand there, so there's a little bit of challenge there. Gloves, surface cleaning wipes and sanitizing sprays and some paper goods. Fresh foods overall is looking pretty good.

在食品方面，罐裝飲料有一些短缺，主要是由於鋁罐短缺問題。培根的磅數上漲了 45%。所以無論出於何種原因，那裡有很多需求，所以那裡有一點挑戰。手套、表面清潔濕巾和消毒噴霧劑以及一些紙製品。新鮮的食物整體看起來不錯。

Our 3 warehouse curbside pickup test next -- our 3 warehouse curbside pickup test in Albuquerque is ongoing. We don't really have a lot to add at this time as a test is recent and continuing. The pilot is going well, members have responded to it, and basket size have actually surpassed our expectations. Our focus of course is how can we be more efficient at doing it to determine if this offering can become scalable and make economic sense for us.

接下來我們的 3 倉庫路邊取貨測試 - 我們在阿爾伯克基的 3 倉庫路邊取貨測試正在進行中。由於測試是最近的並且還在繼續，我們目前並沒有太多要添加的內容。試點進展順利，會員響應，籃子規模實際上超出了我們的預期。當然，我們的重點是如何更有效地確定此產品是否可以擴展並對我們具有經濟意義。

Turning to our February sales results, the 4 weeks ended this past Sunday, February 28, compared to the same period last year. As reported in our release, net sales for the month of February came in at $14.05 billion, an increase of 15.2% from $12.2 billion last year. Again, going down to the numbers that were in the release, on a U.S. on a reported basis were up -- on a same-store sales basis were up 10.3%. That's both reported and without gas and FX. Canada reported 21.6%; ex FX, 15.7%. And other international 25.7, ex FX at 20.6. Total company 13.8 reported; ex gas and FX, 12.3.

談到我們 2 月份的銷售業績，與去年同期相比，2 月 28 日上週日結束的 4 週。正如我們在新聞稿中報導的那樣，2 月份的淨銷售額為 140.5 億美元，比去年的 122 億美元增長了 15.2%。同樣，根據發布的數據，在美國報告的基礎上，同店銷售額增長了 10.3%。這既是報告的，也是沒有氣體和外彙的。加拿大報告為 21.6%；不含外匯，15.7%。和其他國際 25.7，ex FX 為 20.6。報告的公司總數為 13.8；前氣體和外匯，12.3。

Within those numbers, e-com, 91.1% reported; and without gas and FX, 89.4%. As with the quarter, these numbers would -- the e-com numbers would be higher if we included the third-party same-day fresh.

在這些數字中，電子商務佔 91.1%；沒有汽油和外匯，89.4%。與本季度一樣，如果我們將第三方當日新鮮商品包括在內，這些數字會更高。

When we discussed last year's February sales results, we pointed out that the fourth week last year had a big uptick in sales. That kind of was the beginning of what we felt was a little bit of consumer -- pressure for consumers to buy in for fear of lockdown, again primarily related to consumers buying ahead of the anticipated COVID lockdowns and closures. That positively impacted last year's February sales by approximately 3 percentage points.

當我們討論去年 2 月份的銷售業績時，我們指出去年第四周的銷售額大幅上升。那是我們感覺到的一點點消費者的開始——消費者因為害怕鎖定而購買的壓力，這再次主要與消費者在預期的 COVID 鎖定和關閉之前購買有關。這對去年 2 月份的銷售額產生了大約 3 個百分點的積極影響。

Similarly, sales in week 4 of this February -- this week, week 4 of this year, February, were lower as we anniversaried that unusually strong week from a year ago. The estimated negative impact to the February month was approximately 3.5 percentage points. So the reported numbers of 13.8% and ex gas and FX of 12.3% would have been higher excluding that impact.

同樣，今年 2 月的第 4 週——今年 2 月的第 4 週——的銷售額較低，因為我們是一年前異常強勁的一周的周年紀念日。預計對 2 月份的負面影響約為 3.5 個百分點。因此，如果不考慮這種影響，報告的 13.8% 和 12.3% 的除氣和外匯數據會更高。

Our comp traffic or frequency for February was flat to last year worldwide and up 0.7% in the U.S., again with some impact of that last week. Worldwide, the average transaction was up 13.8%, which included positive impacts of 140 basis points from FX and 10 basis points of gas inflation.

我們 2 月份的比賽流量或頻率在全球範圍內與去年持平，在美國增長 0.7%，同樣受到上週的一些影響。在全球範圍內，平均交易量增長了 13.8%，其中包括 140 個基點的外彙和 10 個基點的天然氣通脹的積極影響。

Foreign currencies year-over-year relative to the dollar benefited February comps in Canada by 540 basis points, other international by approximately 570 basis points and total company by 140 basis points. Gas price inflation, again positively impacted total reported comp sales by about 10 basis points, whereas the average selling price was about 1 percentage point higher year-over-year.

外幣兌美元同比使加拿大 2 月份的公司受益 540 個基點，其他國際公司受益約 570 個基點，整個公司受益 140 個基點。天然氣價格通脹再次對報告的綜合銷售總額產生了約 10 個基點的積極影響，而平均售價同比增長約 1 個百分點。

In terms of regional and merchandising categories, the general highlights U.S. regions with strong results are Southeast, Midwest and Texas. Internationally, in local currencies, we saw the strongest results in Korea, U.K. and Japan.

在區域和商品類別方面，總體突出美國業績強勁的地區是東南部、中西部和德克薩斯州。在國際上，以當地貨幣計算，我們看到韓國、英國和日本的結果最為強勁。

Moving to merchandise highlights. The following comp sales results by category for the month, and these exclude the positive impact of FX. Food and sundries were in the positive high single digits. Departments with the strongest results were liquor, frozen foods and cooler. Hard lines were positive in the high 20s. Better-performing departments were toys and seasonal, sporting goods, hardware and majors, which again is both white goods and consumer electronics for the most part.

轉向商品亮點。以下按類別劃分的當月銷售結果，這些不包括外彙的積極影響。食品和雜物處於正高個位數。結果最強的部門是酒類、冷凍食品和冷卻器。在 20 多歲時，強硬路線是積極的。表現較好的部門是玩具和季節性、體育用品、硬件和專業，其中大部分是白色家電和消費電子產品。

Soft lines were up and also up in the low 20s. Better-performing departments included housewares, small appliances and home furnishings.

軟線在 20 年代低點上升和上升。表現較好的部門包括家庭用品、小家電和家居用品。

And finally, fresh foods were up in the low 20s. Better-performing departments included meat and deli.

最後，新鮮食品價格在 20 年代低點上漲。表現較好的部門包括肉類和熟食。

Ancillary business sales, as mentioned earlier, were down. And they were down in terms of sales in the mid-single digits in February, primarily due to lower year-over-year sales in food court, hearing aids and gasoline.

如前所述，輔助業務銷售額下降。他們在 2 月份的銷售額下降了個位數，主要是由於美食廣場、助聽器和汽油的銷售額同比下降。

Overall, a relatively good fiscal second quarter, impacted of course by COVID expenses, impacted both plus and minus by various aspects of our business due to COVID. And certainly, as I mentioned, in the ancillary gas had the biggest of the ancillary hits.

總體而言，第二財季相對較好，當然受到 COVID 費用的影響，由於 COVID 對我們業務的各個方面都產生了正負影響。當然，正如我所提到的，輔助氣體中的輔助打擊最大。

Finally, in terms of upcoming releases, we will announce our March sales results for the 5 weeks ending Sunday, April 4, on Wednesday, April 7, after the market close.

最後，關於即將發布的版本，我們將在收市後於 4 月 7 日星期三公佈截至 4 月 4 日星期日的 5 週的 3 月銷售結果。

With that, I will open it up to Q&A and turn it back to Buena.

有了這個，我會把它打開到問答環節，然後把它轉回布埃納。

(Operator Instructions) Your first question is from Michael Lasser of UBS.

（操作員說明）您的第一個問題來自 UBS 的 Michael Lasser。

My first question is on the gross margin expansion that Costco has experienced over the last few quarters. Can we assume that as sales grow, that you're just going to give back, a lot of these gross margin gains could shrink, it's going to go up and all the efficiencies that come along with double-digit comp go away? Or is there anything that Costco has learned that it's now doing differently that will allow us to hold on these gross margin?

我的第一個問題是 Costco 在過去幾個季度經歷的毛利率擴張。我們是否可以假設隨著銷售額的增長，你只是要回饋，這些毛利率增長中的很多可能會縮小，它會上升，而伴隨著兩位數補償的所有效率都會消失？或者，Costco 是否已經了解到它現在正在採取不同的做法，這將使我們能夠保持這些毛利率？

Well, first of all, I don't think we're doing anything dramatically -- we're going to do anything dramatically different. I mean we're already pretty aggressive on a lot of things and, of course, we're always trying to drive sales with aggressive value and pricing.

嗯，首先，我不認為我們正在做任何戲劇性的事情——我們將做任何截然不同的事情。我的意思是我們已經在很多事情上都非常激進，當然，我們一直在努力以激進的價值和定價來推動銷售。

Probably the one area which can be a challenge or will be a challenge at some point is fresh. The particular strength in fresh foods for the last several quarters on a year-over-year basis has been -- the strong fresh has led to higher labor productivity, which is part of the cost component of that, if you will, manufacturing businesses as well as lower spoilage or what we call damage and destroyed. In many cases, given the strength, you're not throwing away as much stuff at the end of the day or week, and you're again being much more productive from a labor efficiency standpoint.

可能是一個挑戰或在某個時候將成為挑戰的一個領域是新鮮的。過去幾個季度，新鮮食品同比增長的特別優勢是——強勁的新鮮食品導致更高的勞動生產率，如果你願意的話，這是製造企業成本的一部分以及降低腐敗或我們所說的損壞和破壞。在許多情況下，考慮到力量，你不會在一天或一周結束時扔掉那麼多東西，而且從勞動效率的角度來看，你再次變得更有效率。

At some point, that will subside, is my guess. Beyond that, we feel pretty good about our ability to be very competitive in price along that way.

在某個時候，這種情況會消退，這是我的猜測。除此之外，我們對自己在價格上具有競爭力的能力感到非常滿意。

Okay. And you said going -- on the wages spend, going forward, this $1 billion-plus expense will reduce a little by half starting March 1, given the permanent wage increases. So we should just take half of the $1 billion, so $500 million, of expense that Costco incurred over the last 4 quarters, and that's going to go away. Even though your wages will be increasing, your SG&A dollars should go down.

好的。你說繼續 - 在工資支出方面，考慮到永久性工資增長，從 3 月 1 日開始，這筆超過 10 億美元的支出將減少一半。因此，我們應該只承擔 Costco 在過去 4 個季度產生的 10 億美元，即 5 億美元費用的一半，而這將消失。即使你的工資會增加，你的 SG&A 美元也應該下降。

Well, SG&A, and then as I mentioned earlier, the COVID-related premium wages, the $2, that 800-plus million, a piece of that hit margin because of our manufacturing business, just the labor involved on the manufacturing side that's part of cost of sales. And so again, if you looked at those proportions, I think of the $246 million, we said $60 million related to margin hit and $186 million related to SG&A hit. A simple guess would be if you could take that type of percentage of these numbers and apply it quarterly, maybe a little bit more to SG&A than those percentages.

好吧，SG&A，然後正如我之前提到的，與 COVID 相關的溢價工資，即 2 美元，那 800 多萬美元，這是由於我們的製造業務而造成的利潤損失的一部分，只是製造方面所涉及的勞動力是一部分銷售成本。同樣，如果你看一下這些比例，我會想到 2.46 億美元，我們說 6000 萬美元與利潤損失相關，1.86 億美元與 SG&A 損失相關。一個簡單的猜測是，如果您可以將這些數字中的那種百分比應用到每季度一次，可能會比這些百分比更多地應用於 SG&A。

And so yes, if you look to the $1.060 billion that we talked about, and we say a little over half, so simple math would suggest that a little over half of that should come back. Although we'll stop talking about COVID-related expenses, too, as we've now anniversaried it.

所以是的，如果你看一下我們談到的 10.6 億美元，我們說略多於一半，那麼簡單的數學表明，其中的一半多一點應該會回來。儘管我們也將停止談論與 COVID 相關的費用，因為我們現在已經慶祝了。

So our next question is from Simeon Gutman of Morgan Stanley.

所以我們的下一個問題來自摩根士丹利的西蒙·古特曼。

Richard, my first question is also on gross margin. Can you -- I just want to clarify, because there was a big swing in the reported number. Core on core looked pretty healthy. Very similar to the prior quarter you said, I think plus 71. And so the big swing here was pretty much mostly gas or all gasoline. And can you remind us when does the gasoline margin compare peak? Does it get worse before it gets better?

理查德，我的第一個問題也是關於毛利率的。你能 - 我只是想澄清一下，因為報告的數字有很大的波動。核心核心看起來非常健康。與你說的上一季度非常相似，我認為加上 71。所以這裡的大幅波動幾乎主要是汽油或所有汽油。您能否提醒我們汽油利潤率何時達到峰值？在好轉之前會變得更糟嗎？

A year ago, in the third quarter, we've pointed out that it helped us but it's -- like it's -- it is gas. It is volatile. And the profitability in gas goes up and down dramatically. It's a meaningful business for us. And as prices go up, we generally make less, which has happened of late. And I think, not just for us, but the supermarket chains, the other discount stores that operate chains of gas stations. And so we again directionally try to point that out each time. But there's no rhyme or reason. It could change on a dime.

一年前，在第三季度，我們已經指出它對我們有幫助，但它 - 就像它一樣 - 它是汽油。它是易變的。天然氣的盈利能力急劇上升和下降。這對我們來說是一項有意義的業務。隨著價格上漲，我們通常會減少，最近發生了這種情況。而且我認為，不僅僅是我們，還有連鎖超市，其他經營加油站連鎖店的折扣店。因此，我們再次定向嘗試每次都指出這一點。但沒有押韻或理由。它可以改變一毛錢。

Fair enough. And I guess just to clarify, but it is right, the core looks like it was consistent with prior quarters. The big swing in the reported was just then the remainder was mostly due to gas then in this quarter, right, why it was down just a little bit.

很公平。我想只是為了澄清，但它是正確的，核心看起來與前幾個季度一致。報告中的大幅波動就在那時，其餘的主要是由於本季度的汽油，對，為什麼它只是下降了一點。

Gas is -- right. Gas is more than half of all those other things, to answer you. Certainly, travel is impacted, as you well know, right now. Probably the food courts because we're still not open with seating essentially. Optical as well. So all those are impacting, but gas was the prime mover there.

氣體是——對的。天然氣是所有其他事情的一半以上，回答你。眾所周知，現在旅行受到了影響。可能是美食廣場，因為我們基本上還沒有開放座位。光學也是。所以所有這些都在影響，但天然氣是那裡的主要推動力。

I was looking back at last year what we call -- again, what we call warehouse and other businesses, which again gas is a -- when there are big swings, it tends to be gas is the biggest component of that.

我回顧了去年我們所說的 - 再次，我們稱之為倉庫和其他業務，天然氣也是 - 當出現大幅波動時，天然氣往往是其中最大的組成部分。

A year ago in Q1 versus a year earlier, that will be Q1 '20 versus '19, that number -- I don't have the detail on gas, but it was 19 basis points to the positive. In Q2 year-over-year, it was 2 to the negative. In Q3, it was 21 to the positive. In Q4, it was 71 to the negative. So you can see it fluctuates. This year in the first quarter, it was 20 to the negative, and now, 55 to the negative. And again, there's a lot of components of that number, not just gas, but gas generally tends to be the big mover there.

一年前的第一季度與一年前相比，這將是 20 年第一季度與 19 年的數字——我沒有關於天然氣的詳細信息，但它是積極的 19 個基點。與去年同期相比，第二季度為負2。在第三季度，它是積極的 21。第四季度，負數為 71。所以你可以看到它在波動。今年第一季度，負數為 20，而現在，負數為 55。再說一次，這個數字有很多組成部分，不僅僅是天然氣，而且天然氣通常往往是那裡的大推動者。

Okay. That's helpful. And then my follow-up question is on SG&A. If you look at SG&A year-to-date, so Q1 and Q2, and you exclude all the premium pay, right, where you're excluding it from this year, even from last year, it looks like SG&A is still taking a step-up year-over-year that's higher than what looks normal like in prior years. And I don't think that's incremental wage changes. I don't know if there's anything else that's changed in the business this -- year-to-date from an SG&A perspective.

好的。這很有幫助。然後我的後續問題是關於 SG&A。如果您查看年初至今的 SG&A，即第一季度和第二季度，並且您排除了所有的保費，對，您從今年甚至去年排除的地方，看起來 SG&A 仍在邁出一步- 同比增長高於往年的正常水平。而且我不認為這是增加的工資變化。我不知道從 SG&A 的角度來看，今年以來業務中是否還有其他變化。

You'll have easier comparisons because the premium stuff starts coming up in the back half, but is there any reason why you structurally stepped up in the first half of this year?

你會有更容易的比較，因為優質的東西在後半段開始出現，但你有什麼理由在今年上半年從結構上加強？

You're talking about dollars or in percent?

你說的是美元還是百分比？

Dollars.

美元。

Dollar -- well, I think it's a strong sales. As a percentage of sales, actually, I think you'll find it goes directionally better.

美元——嗯，我認為這是一個強勁的銷售。實際上，作為銷售額的百分比，我認為你會發現它的方向更好。

Okay, yes. I was looking on -- yes.

好的，是的。我在看——是的。

Yes. I'm looking at core operations for all of fiscal '20 versus all of fiscal '19 on an ex gas deflation basis was lower or better by 25 basis points. Again, that's not -- we separate out that below the quarterly stuff or the unusual stuff, the COVID stuff. But the core business was lower -- had lower or better SG&A percent by 25 basis points for the entire year. This year, in the first 2 quarters, it was plus 62 and plus 38, so that's on average, 50.

是的。我正在查看所有 20 財年的核心業務與 19 財年的所有核心業務，在天然氣通貨緊縮的基礎上降低或提高了 25 個基點。再說一次，那不是——我們把它分開在季度的東西或不尋常的東西下面，即 COVID 的東西。但核心業務較低——全年的 SG&A 百分比較低或較高 25 個基點。今年，在前兩個季度，它是加 62 和加 38，所以平均為 50。

Your next question is from Chris Horvers of JPMorgan.

您的下一個問題來自摩根大通的 Chris Horvers。

So I wanted to follow up on the February commentary. So last February, February 2020, you did a 9%, and that last -- or you did a 12%, and that last week had 300 basis points. So that would suggest you did about a 20% in that, the last week of February. And just running the math, that would suggest that you were just slightly down. If it was 350 basis point headwind, you were down maybe unlike a stacked basis, maybe like 1% or 2%. Is that right?

所以我想跟進二月份的評論。所以去年 2 月，2020 年 2 月，你做了 9%，最後 - 或者你做了 12%，上周有 300 個基點。所以這表明你在 2 月的最後一周做了大約 20%。只是運行數學，這表明你只是稍微失望了。如果是 350 個基點的逆風，那麼你的跌幅可能與疊加基點不同，可能是 1% 或 2%。那正確嗎？

No. I think -- I agree with what you said about last year. This year, the first 3 weeks were a little over 17%. And the last week brought that 17% down to our 13.8%.

不，我認為——我同意你去年所說的。今年，前 3 週的佔比略高於 17%。上週將 17% 降至我們的 13.8%。

Okay. So yes, so you were down...

好的。所以是的，所以你失望了……

Yes, maybe I explain it differently each year. But yes, basically, the 13.8% reported for the first 3 weeks was a low 17% and the fourth week caused it to be a 13.8% for the whole 4 weeks.

是的，也許我每年都有不同的解釋。但是，是的，基本上，前 3 週報告的 13.8% 是低的 17%，而第四周導致整個 4 週的 13.8%。

Right. So you comped down -- right. So you comped down high teens, basically. So that -- so as you look ahead, it's interesting because by the same time as you look forward, the comparisons remain tough. But you also meter traffic in your stores quite aggressively.

正確的。所以你壓縮了 - 對。所以你基本上壓制了高齡青少年。所以——所以當你向前看時，這很有趣，因為在你向前看的同時，比較仍然很難。但您也非常積極地計量商店的流量。

I mean I think peers were up double digits in the month of March and April, and you were actually down in April. So can you talk about to what degree do you think you actually left business on the table as we think about just trying to model out against these comparisons going forward?

我的意思是，我認為同行在 3 月和 4 月上升了兩位數，而你實際上在 4 月下降了。那麼你能談談你認為你在多大程度上實際上把業務留在了桌面上，因為我們考慮只是試圖對這些比較進行建模？

Well, look, I can't speak for others. We're frankly thrilled with our sales numbers and our -- and how we've done over the course of last year. As you look at both March and our fiscal third quarter, March, this giant step-up in sales and traffic and hoarding, if you will, by customers started in week 4 of February and lasted through about 2.5 weeks into March. So we'll talk about it specifically when we report March sales.

好吧，你看，我不能為別人說話。坦率地說，我們對我們的銷售數字和我們的 - 以及我們在去年的表現感到非常興奮。當您查看 3 月和我們的第三財季 3 月時，如果您願意的話，客戶在銷售、流量和囤積方面的巨大提升始於 2 月的第 4 週，並持續了大約 2.5 周到 3 月。因此，我們將在報告 3 月份銷售時專門討論它。

As it relates to the fiscal quarter, which is essentially mid-February to mid-May, I don't have the exact dates in front of me, but that 12-week period, it included not only that tough comparison for those 3, 3.5 weeks, which include week 4 of February and weeks 1, 2 and part of 3 in March. But also when there was a lockdown and an offset that -- in kind of late March into April and even early May, we had some very tough compares. And so that will make it, in our view, all things being equal, easier comparisons. So I think there's going to be a plus and a minus that probably add up to about even. We'll see.

因為它與財政季度有關，基本上是 2 月中旬到 5 月中旬，我沒有確切的日期，但在這 12 週期間，它不僅包括對這三個的艱難比較， 3.5 週，包括 2 月的第 4 周和 3 月的第 1 週、第 2 周和第 3 週的一部分。但是，當出現封鎖和抵消措施時——在 3 月下旬到 4 月甚至 5 月初，我們進行了一些非常艱難的比較。在我們看來，這將使所有事情都平等，更容易進行比較。所以我認為會有一個加號和一個減號，加起來可能差不多。走著瞧。

The next challenge, of course, will be Q4, which is mid-May through the end of August. That's when we enjoy comps in the 12% to 15% range on an ongoing basis into September and October as well. But for Q4, where we saw a lot of strength, not only on the food side, but on the nonfood side as people were buying things for the home as they weren't traveling, going to sporting events and the like.

當然，下一個挑戰將是第四季度，即 5 月中旬至 8 月底。那是我們在 9 月和 10 月持續享受 12% 到 15% 範圍內的補償的時候。但是對於第四季度，我們看到了很大的力量，不僅在食品方面，而且在非食品方面，因為人們不去旅行、不參加體育賽事等，而是為家裡買東西。

Okay. And I just want to follow back up on the February math. Sorry to delay this, but it was -- were you actually modestly positive in that last week? It just under-comped the average and it brought it down?

好的。我只想跟進二月份的數學。很抱歉推遲了這個，但它是 - 你在上週真的是適度積極的嗎？它只是低於平均水平並降低了它？

Modestly positive, yes.

適度積極，是的。

Your next question is from Chuck Grom of Gordon Haskett.

您的下一個問題來自 Gordon Haskett 的 Chuck Grom。

Richard, I know gas gallons has been a drag on the top line. But when you look at your business geographically and overlay that with markets that are maybe a bit farther along in the reopen process, just wondering if you've noticed any improvement in gas gallons?

理查德，我知道汽油加侖一直拖累收入。但是，當您從地理上看您的業務並將其與重新開放過程中可能走得更遠的市場疊加時，只是想知道您是否注意到汽油加侖有任何改善？

You are, a little bit. Overall, I mean, our gas gallons year-over-year, I think in -- was it February or the quarter?

你是，一點點。總的來說，我的意思是，我們的汽油加侖數同比增長，我想是在 - 是 2 月還是那個季度？

Quarter.

四分之一。

And the quarter were down 9% or 10%, which is an improvement -- relative improvement. And within that -- in some of the regions in the South, Texas, Florida, you've seen a little better improvement.

本季度下降了 9% 或 10%，這是一個進步——相對進步。在這之中——在南部、德克薩斯州、佛羅里達州的一些地區，你已經看到了一些更好的改善。

Okay. Great. And then just on the balance sheet, inventory dollars were up 17 -- roughly 17%. It was a little bit ahead of sales. I guess how are you feeling about the currency of inventory as you transition out of current trends to some of the spring items?

好的。偉大的。然後僅在資產負債表上，庫存美元就增加了 17 - 大約 17%。這比銷售提前了一點。我想當您從當前趨勢過渡到一些春季商品時，您對庫存貨幣的感覺如何？

Yes. We made a conscious effort a couple of months ago. I think even on the last quarterly call, we talked a little bit about some of the challenges with port delays, both on the farm side, where the merchandise is coming from as well as the ports along the West Coast of North America, in particular, and container shortages. So we were front-loading, and not everything came in short. So we have front-loaded items that are not seasonal items, front-loaded extra inventory of basics. And so I'm not concerned about that at all.

是的。幾個月前，我們做出了有意識的努力。我認為即使在上一個季度電話會議上，我們也談到了港口延誤帶來的一些挑戰，無論是在農場方面，商品來自哪裡，還是在北美西海岸沿線的港口，特別是，和集裝箱短缺。所以我們是前裝式的，並不是所有的事情都很簡單。所以我們有非季節性商品的前置項目，前置額外的基礎庫存。所以我一點也不擔心。

Your next question is from Mike Baker of D.A. Davidson.

您的下一個問題來自 D.A. 的 Mike Baker。戴維森。

I just wanted to ask about your view on inflation versus pricing in the market. One of your big competitors talked about being satisfied with their price gaps, which maybe means there will be a little bit less pricing pressure out there. So how do you think about that? And again, how do you think about inflation? Despite midyear sort of moderating a little bit, but now, with commodity costs back up, maybe it goes up again from here?

我只是想問一下您對通貨膨脹與市場定價的看法。您的一位大競爭對手談到對他們的價格差距感到滿意，這可能意味著那裡的定價壓力會小一些。那麼你怎麼看呢？再說一次，你如何看待通貨膨脹？儘管年中有所放緩，但現在，隨著商品成本回升，也許它會從這裡再次上漲？

Well, I'd say in the last several months, we've seen a little more inflation than we had, in part because of some of the container shortages. Freight costs are a little higher. There are some high-demand items or product shortages due to supply chain in general that have gone up.

好吧，我想說在過去的幾個月裡，我們看到的通貨膨脹比我們看到的要多一些，部分原因是一些集裝箱短缺。運費稍微高一點。由於總體供應鏈上升，一些高需求商品或產品短缺。

When asked on a broad stroke basis on some of these items what type of inflation are we seeing, sometimes it's as much as 2% to 4%, sometimes less than that. And on meat, it's trended upward in the mid-singles. Pork, in the high singles. That's why bacon -- I mentioned bacon.

當被問及其中一些項目的廣義筆劃基礎時，我們看到的是哪種類型的通脹，有時高達 2% 到 4%，有時甚至更低。而在肉類方面，它在中單呈上升趨勢。豬肉，中高單。這就是為什麼培根——我提到了培根。

And -- but we feel good about our competitive ability. We're -- we always want to be the last raise and the first to lower. And -- but we feel -- again, as you look at our margins, we feel good about where our margins are coming in and our ability to be very competitive out there.

而且——但我們對自己的競爭能力感覺良好。我們——我們總是想成為最後一個加註和第一個減持的人。而且 - 但我們覺得 - 再次，當您查看我們的利潤時，我們對我們的利潤來自哪里以及我們在那裡非常有競爭力的能力感到滿意。

Okay. That makes sense. Are we're seeing panic buying in bacon yet? Or we're not at that point yet?

好的。那講得通。我們是否看到培根出現恐慌性購買？或者我們還沒有到那個時候？

Probably tomorrow because I mentioned it.

可能是明天，因為我提到了它。

Exactly. I'm heading there tonight.

確切地。我今晚要去那裡。

Our next question is from Karen Short of Barclays.

我們的下一個問題來自 Barclays 的 Karen Short。

I wanted to get back to this SG&A and/or, I guess, gross margin question. So when I look at the EBIT growth in this quarter versus sales growth and I back out COVID costs, the second quarter was, by far, the narrowest gap. So 3Q, 4Q, 1Q, and 2Q, like you were 1/3 of what you were in 1Q, like half -- more than half or less than half of what you were in 4Q, 3Q.

我想回到這個 SG&A 和/或，我猜是毛利率問題。因此，當我查看本季度的息稅前利潤增長與銷售增長之間的關係並剔除 COVID 成本時，第二季度是迄今為止最窄的差距。所以 3Q、4Q、1Q 和 2Q，就像你是 1Q 的 1/3，比如一半——超過 4Q、3Q 的一半或不到一半。

So it clearly is a question of like the gross profit dollar growth versus the SG&A growth. So I guess I'm wondering can you just talk through that a little bit more because the change in this quarter just is somewhat glaring?

因此，這顯然是一個毛利美元增長與 SG&A 增長之類的問題。所以我想我想知道你能不能多談談，因為本季度的變化有點明顯？

Yes. Well, I think again, Karen, it gets back to gas. Gas is a high sales dollar number, and the impact to -- somebody put me on mute, please.

是的。好吧，我再想一想，凱倫，它又回到了汽油上。天然氣是一個高銷售額數字，它的影響——請有人讓我靜音。

The impact to gas is both dollars and average price to a lower gross margin as well. And that's really the biggest piece of it, right.

對天然氣的影響是美元和平均價格，毛利率也較低。這真的是最大的一部分，對吧。

Right. But I'm talking EBIT dollar growth, excluding COVID costs versus the sales. So I guess -- yes, I mean, gas sales, I have to adjust for gas, but it just still seems like a very wide spread -- or wide consolidation.

正確的。但我說的是 EBIT 美元增長，不包括 COVID 成本與銷售額。所以我想 - 是的，我的意思是，天然氣銷售，我必須調整天然氣，但它似乎仍然是一個非常廣泛的分佈 - 或廣泛的整合。

Well, I can -- again, without being specific -- dollar-specific, the biggest dollar impact year-over-year in profitability, if I -- when I mentioned these various pluses and minuses, was gas.

好吧，我可以 - 再次，沒有具體說明 - 美元具體情況，如果我 - 當我提到這些各種利弊時，美元對盈利能力的最大影響是汽油。

Okay.

好的。

And it's a combination. It's a 10-ish percent piece of our business, which had a lower gross margin and lower dollar price per gallon. Both of those things would...

這是一個組合。這是我們業務的 10% 左右，其毛利率較低，每加侖的美元價格較低。這兩件事都會...

Probably lower sales.

應該是銷量下降。

Yes, in terms of lower sales, lower profits, and that's impacted.

是的，就銷售額下降、利潤下降而言，這會受到影響。

Okay. And then just turning to the forward look on gross margin, obviously appreciating the fact that shrink and the fresh strength will hurt potentially gross margins as we get into the next couple of months. But ancillary should, I guess, help offset some of that. Appreciating gas may -- you can't predict that. But can you maybe talk through the dollar buckets of gross profit dollars in the other categories within ancillary?

好的。然後只是轉向毛利率的前瞻，顯然意識到隨著我們進入未來幾個月，收縮和新的力量將損害潛在的毛利率。但我想，輔助應該有助於抵消其中的一部分。欣賞天然氣可能 - 你無法預測。但是，您能否談談輔助產品中其他類別的毛利潤美元？

Well, again, travel should improve. Recognizing how much it will improve, we'll wait to see. But it's starting to improve a little bit. Food courts will improve, the same thing as we start to put out seating and expand what we offer there. Now when that occurs and how that occurs, we're not going to -- we're probably going to do it in certain regions first and go from there.

好吧，再次，旅行應該改善。認識到它將改善多少，我們將拭目以待。但它開始有所改善。美食廣場將得到改善，就像我們開始提供座位並擴大我們在那裡提供的東西一樣。現在，當這種情況發生以及如何發生時，我們不會——我們可能會先在某些地區進行，然後再從那裡開始。

Gas is the big unknown and the big guesstimate of which direction it goes each week. But we'll again try to point that out to you. Hearing -- we've seen -- we have seen a period improvement in hearing aid and optical.

天然氣是最大的未知數，也是每週走向哪個方向的最大猜測。但我們會再次嘗試向您指出這一點。聽力——我們已經看到了——我們看到了助聽器和光學方面的一段時間的改進。

Okay. And then just last one for me. Is there any impact to the SG&A dollars from the enhanced white glove service that you could call out?

好的。然後是我的最後一個。您可以提出的增強型白手套服務對 SG&A 美元有什麼影響嗎？

Margins.

邊距。

There's better efficiencies. Although keep in mind, we've really grown this thing fast of taking our some of our existing -- not only have these departments grown dramatically in the last year, we were using third parties for a lot of it. And we continue to push more on there and to improve the service, to lower the price. And so I think you should see that should continue to improve. But it was not without its cost to accomplish all that in the last quarter.

有更好的效率。儘管請記住，我們確實在利用我們現有的一些方面快速發展了這件事——不僅這些部門在去年大幅增長，而且我們在很多方面都使用了第三方。我們繼續在這方面做更多的努力，改善服務，降低價格。所以我認為你應該看到應該繼續改進。但在上個季度完成所有這些工作並非沒有成本。

Your next question is from Paul Lejuez of Citigroup.

您的下一個問題來自花旗集團的 Paul Lejuez。

This is Brian (inaudible) for Paul. I was wondering if we could circle back on the inflation question and kind of go through some of the puts and takes of inflation items that you'll be anniversarying coming up in the coming quarters?

這是保羅的布賴恩（聽不清）。我想知道我們是否可以回過頭來討論通脹問題，並在接下來的幾個季度裡討論一些你將在周年紀念日到來的通脹項目？

Well, I don't think we're anniversarying any of them soon. It's just starting to happen in the last month or 2. And again. A lot of it has to do -- in our view, you've had a little bit of inflation over the last year with -- on things like paper goods because of just a huge demand and the shortages. But in terms of some of the recent things with container shortages and port issues, some supply issues on chips and components of big-ticket items, cost of steel was up 50% to 100%, all those things impact that. I think it's more -- this has happened in the last several months versus a year ago.

好吧，我認為我們不會很快為他們中的任何一個週年紀念日。它剛剛開始發生在最後一個月或 2 個月。又一次。很多原因——在我們看來，在過去的一年裡，由於需求巨大和短缺，紙製品之類的東西出現了一點通貨膨脹。但是最近一些集裝箱短缺和港口問題，一些大件物品的芯片和組件的供應問題，鋼鐵成本上漲了50%到100%，所有這些都影響了這一點。我認為更多——這發生在過去幾個月而不是一年前。

Got it. Can you quantify the impact of freight costs and some of the container issues that had on this most recent quarter?

知道了。您能否量化最近一個季度的運費成本和一些集裝箱問題的影響？

I can't off -- with the notes that I have in front of me. I mean, anecdotally, if you look at what is the cost per container coming over, it used to be...

我不能離開——拿著我面前的筆記。我的意思是，有趣的是，如果你看看每個集裝箱的成本是多少，它曾經是......

10%

10%

It's up 10% to 15%.

它上升了 10% 到 15%。

And the next question is from Scott Mushkin of R5 Capital.

下一個問題來自 R5 Capital 的 Scott Mushkin。

So I kind of wanted to just think about the business a little more strategically, Richard, and understand, we went through a period where you did the Citibank deal. And then you guys didn't talk too much about it, but you really expanded your fresh offerings, which I think helped the clubs and drive some traffic. I was wondering if you think about the business over the next couple of years and we think about kind of self-help initiatives, where do you think there's some levers that you guys can pull?

所以我有點想從戰略上考慮一下業務，理查德，並理解，我們經歷了你與花旗銀行交易的時期。然後你們並沒有過多談論它，但你們確實擴大了新產品，我認為這有助於俱樂部並增加一些流量。我想知道你是否考慮過未來幾年的業務，我們會考慮一些自助舉措，你認為你們可以在哪里拉動一些槓桿？

Well, I think -- first of all, some of them are ongoing. Kirkland Signature continues to be something that we'll continue to increase the offerings that we do. There aren't any giant billion-dollar ones, items like -- there's a handful of items like paper towels and toilet paper water that are huge. There's the K-cups and those things that are in the hundreds of millions of dollars. But there's lots of 20s to hundreds out there, and we continue to do that with all kinds of quality organic packaged food items as well.

嗯，我認為——首先，其中一些正在進行中。 Kirkland Signature 仍然是我們將繼續增加我們所做的產品的東西。沒有任何價值數十億美元的巨款，比如——有一些像紙巾和衛生紙水這樣的巨款。有K罩杯和那些價值數億美元的東西。但是那裡有很多 20 到數百個，我們繼續使用各種優質有機包裝食品來做到這一點。

I think one of the things that we've seen from some of our vertical integration is starting to pay off. We've got the chicken facility at full capacity now. We've got a great bakery commissary. We -- 2 years ago, we opened a second meat plant. We're seeing some improvement from that.

我認為我們從一些垂直整合中看到的一件事正在開始得到回報。我們的雞肉設施現在已經滿負荷運轉。我們有一個很棒的麵包店小賣部。我們 -- 2 年前，我們開了第二家肉類加工廠。我們看到了一些改進。

We're also starting to identify items that historically we manufactured in one place, generally in the United States, and then shipped all over the world, whether it's roasting of nuts and cashews and doing -- and bringing all that product from where it's grown to the U.S. for roasting and packaging and shipping out worldwide, we now have a supplier in Asia that is doing all the needs for Asia, Australia. And dramatically -- we're able to dramatically reduce the price and drive sales and drive bottom line dollars for us. We're doing that with all -- we're looking at all kinds of avenues to do that with, from paper goods to things like that as well. So I think these are long-term opportunities, but there should be a lot of them over the next several years.

我們還開始識別歷史上我們在一個地方（通常在美國）製造然後運往世界各地的物品，無論是烤堅果和腰果還是做 - 並將所有產品從其種植地運來到美國進行烘焙、包裝和運送到世界各地，我們現在在亞洲有一家供應商，可以滿足亞洲澳大利亞的所有需求。並且戲劇性地 - 我們能夠大幅降低價格並推動銷售並為我們帶來利潤。我們正在全力以赴——我們正在尋找各種途徑來做到這一點，從紙製品到類似的東西。所以我認為這些都是長期機會，但在接下來的幾年裡應該會有很多機會。

Also, e-comm, notwithstanding our start back in the early 2000s, we -- like everybody has, that's become more important over the last year, in particular, it's approaching 10% of our business and continue to grow nicely. And we're driving -- we're getting better at doing it and getting more clicks and the like in that regard.

此外，電子商務，儘管我們早在 2000 年代初就開始了，但我們 - 就像每個人一樣，在過去一年中變得更加重要，特別是，它接近我們業務的 10%，並且繼續保持良好增長。我們正在開車——我們在這方面做得越來越好，在這方面獲得了更多的點擊等。

So I think e-commerce. And then the big and bulky here, our acquisition of Innovel last March, all you see now, and we've pointed out, I think, for the last 3 fiscal quarters, 6 or 7 basis point hit to gross margin as it relates to the -- it's like a manufacturing -- it's a service business that goes in ultimately back into our cost of sales with that ethane costs. Notwithstanding the fact that, that has helped drive sales of bigger bulky items, and in fact, lowered the prices to our members on some of those items.

所以我認為電子商務。然後是大而笨重的，我們去年 3 月收購 Innovel，你現在看到的，我們已經指出，我認為，在過去的 3 個財政季度，毛利率下降了 6 或 7 個基點，因為它與就像製造一樣，它是一項服務業務，最終會以乙烷成本計入我們的銷售成本。儘管如此，這有助於推動大件商品的銷售，事實上，降低了我們會員對其中一些商品的價格。

So we think that that's as expected. It was going to be earnings dilutive at the operations standpoint for the first couple of years and be fine there. But more -- as importantly, if not more importantly, growing big and bulky as part of our business, we're seeing big -- continued big increases from mattresses to white goods to exercise equipment, notwithstanding the fact that there's been some shortages in some of those items.

所以我們認為這符合預期。從運營的角度來看，這將是前幾年的收益稀釋，並且在那裡很好。但更重要的是，即使不是更重要的是，作為我們業務的一部分，我們看到了巨大的增長，從床墊到白色家電再到健身器材，儘管事實上存在一些短缺，但我們看到了巨大的增長。其中一些項目。

That's great. Thanks for all the color.

那太棒了。感謝所有的顏色。

Your next question is from Scot Ciccarelli of RBC Capital Markets.

您的下一個問題來自加拿大皇家銀行資本市場的 Scot Ciccarelli。

So as you guys get food inflation on meat, pork, et cetera, are price increases there a direct pass-through to the customer? Or do you guys try to be sticky on some of your prices the way you have been with rotisserie chicken, for example?

因此，當你們的肉類、豬肉等食品價格上漲時，價格上漲是否會直接傳遞給客戶？或者，你們是否會像對待烤雞那樣對一些價格保持粘性？

Yes. I don't think we'll be as extreme as the old chicken example from 15 years ago, where we stuck -- we've continued to stay at $4.99 and figured out ways how to do that. But certainly, we are -- we want to be the last -- we want to be as sticky as possible and hold off, and we'll wait until our cost has come through the system. But overall, particularly, on fresh items, those prices probably change more often than not, both at traditional supermarkets as well as the Costcos of the world.

是的。我不認為我們會像 15 年前的老雞那樣極端，我們一直停留在 4.99 美元，並想辦法做到這一點。但可以肯定的是，我們是——我們希望成為最後一個——我們希望盡可能保持粘性並推遲，我們會等到我們的成本通過系統。但總體而言，尤其是生鮮商品，這些價格可能經常變化，無論是在傳統超市還是在世界各地的 Costcos 中。

And in fact, the other thing I want to mention is, is we're a little unique in terms of our product mix when you look at it. We're selling -- part of our meat business is prime. And those are the types of things where we can get a strong margin for us and show you greater savings because the marks-up traditionally on something like that special item or even higher at traditional retail outlets. So we think overall, we're in good stead in that regard.

事實上，我想提到的另一件事是，當你看到它時，我們在產品組合方面有點獨特。我們正在銷售——我們的肉類業務的一部分是主要的。這些是我們可以為我們獲得豐厚利潤並為您節省更多費用的類型，因為傳統上像特殊商品這樣的東西會加價，甚至在傳統零售店會更高。所以我們認為總體而言，我們在這方面處於有利地位。

That's helpful, Richard. And then, you did mention your chicken plant has -- I think it's been for a bit, fully up and running. Are you generating the efficiencies you guys originally anticipated when you first went down that road?

這很有幫助，理查德。然後，你確實提到了你的養雞廠——我認為它已經有一段時間了，完全啟動並運行。當你第一次走這條路時，你是否產生了你們最初預期的效率？

We're pretty close. I mean we're at full production, which is similar. There's been some puts and takes. As we built it, we decided to put in additional things that we think provide for higher-quality product, like air-chilling and things like that. The COVID expenses certainly have impacted us more than nobody had planned for it. So that, of course, should improve over the next year.

我們非常接近。我的意思是我們正在全面生產，這是相似的。有一些投入和接受。當我們建造它時，我們決定加入我們認為可以提供更高質量產品的額外東西，比如空氣冷卻之類的東西。 COVID 費用對我們的影響肯定比沒有人計劃的要大。因此，當然，明年應該會有所改善。

I think it's -- the feed costs, we've been fortunate. Historically, we -- the first year, we were fortunate. Feed costs are coming up a little bit, but we're also finding that the chickens are growing a little better than we thought. And so all those things add up to -- we feel pretty good about it.

我認為這是 - 飼料成本，我們很幸運。從歷史上看，我們——第一年，我們很幸運。飼料成本略有上升，但我們也發現雞的生長情況比我們想像的要好一些。所以所有這些事情加起來——我們對此感覺很好。

Our next question is from Greg Melich of Evercore ISI.

我們的下一個問題來自 Evercore ISI 的 Greg Melich。

I just -- I want to start just to clarify the inflation, at the risk of being the fourth comment on it. You said that there are items that are higher, right? But the 2% to 4% comment, Richard, was that saying what you actually think it is now in your average ticket? Or is that just saying some items? Or in other words, would you estimate the whole benefits is like 1% or 2% right now?

我只是 - 我想開始澄清通貨膨脹，冒著成為第四條評論的風險。你說有更高的項目，對吧？但是 2% 到 4% 的評論，Richard，是在說你現在實際認為的平均票嗎？還是只是說一些項目？或者換句話說，你會估計現在的整體收益是 1% 還是 2%？

Yes. Some categories are in that 2% to 4% range, and some are little -- I mentioned are -- like meat and pork are a little higher than that. Produce is flat. But we don't do LIFO anymore. But I think if you looked at our cost on average, the view is probably flat to up 1%, 1.5%, but somewhere in that range. And that's a guess.

是的。有些類別在 2% 到 4% 的範圍內，有些類別很少——我提到過——比如肉類和豬肉比這高一點。產量平。但是我們不再使用 LIFO。但我認為，如果你看一下我們的平均成本，這個觀點可能持平到 1%、1.5%，但在那個範圍內的某個地方。這是一個猜測。

Okay, fair enough. Thanks for that a clarification.

好吧，夠公平的。感謝您的澄清。

Second is what -- you went through -- on the renewal rates, I guess as you're thinking about it now, what do you think you could really get renewal rates to? And maybe tie it in with some of the other things you have to really drive loyalty, like the credit card program. Any update there in terms of what sort of engagement you have with it? What percentage of customers or sales are on the card, to help us understand where that renewal rate could be trending?

其次是你所經歷的續訂率，我想當你現在正在考慮它時，你認為你真的可以將續訂率提高到多少？也許將它與你必須真正提高忠誠度的其他一些事情聯繫起來，比如信用卡計劃。關於您與它的何種參與方面的任何更新？卡片上有多少百分比的客戶或銷售額，以幫助我們了解續訂率的趨勢？

Sure. Well, look, what we internally call the triple plays, not only getting to become a member, but to upgrade to the executive member and then to apply and get the Citi Visa card, recognizing that not everybody that applies for it gets it based on credit. That credit decision is made by issuing bank, not by us.

當然。好吧，看，我們內部所說的三合一，不僅要成為會員，而且要升級為執行會員，然後申請並獲得花旗Visa卡，認識到並非每個申請它的人都能獲得它信用。該信用決定是由開證行做出的，而不是由我們做出的。

And the -- I'm sorry, I lost my train of thought, right? Oh, renewal rate. In terms of improving renewal rate, as we do add people to the credit card and to executive membership, both of those things tend to increase -- provide for more loyal customer or a higher renewal rate. Also, we're doing more things to get you to auto renew, whether it's on the Citi Visa card or working on some other areas right now as well. To the extent we get you to auto renew by almost de facto, there's going to be a higher renewal rate on those as well.

還有——對不起，我失去了思路，對吧？哦，更新率。在提高續訂率方面，隨著我們確實增加了信用卡和行政會員資格，這兩者都趨於增加——提供更多忠誠的客戶或更高的續訂率。此外，我們正在做更多的事情來讓您自動續訂，無論是在花旗 Visa 卡上，還是現在也在其他一些領域工作。在某種程度上，我們幾乎可以讓您自動續訂，這些續訂率也會更高。

First and foremost, ultimately, it's the things we do to make you want to remain a member of Costco. And we think that some of those things like upgrading to executive membership, which we've shown you, continues to be part of our quarterly positive there as well as getting more people to auto renew.

首先也是最重要的，最終，我們所做的事情是為了讓您想繼續成為 Costco 的會員。而且我們認為，我們已經向您展示的升級為高級會員資格等一些事情繼續成為我們季度積極因素的一部分，並讓更多人自動續訂。

Can you hear me?

你能聽到我嗎？

Yes, I can. We heard that. And last, is there any hope on travel bookings? Any sort of glimpses there? Or is that still depressed?

我可以。我們聽到了。最後，旅行預訂有希望嗎？那裡有什麼瞥見嗎？或者還是很鬱悶？

It is coming back, but it's the same thing I said back in the spring and the summer when there were some easing of COVID statistics and people were starting to book out for Christmas and even into the winter and spring of 2021. But they did it knowing that there was generally full cancellation capabilities. We're now seeing -- and as you might expect, many of those things were canceled.

它正在回歸，但這與我在春季和夏季所說的相同，當時 COVID 統計數據有所放鬆，人們開始預訂聖誕節甚至到 2021 年冬季和春季。但他們做到了知道通常有完整的取消功能。我們現在看到——正如你所料，其中許多事情都被取消了。

Now we're seeing the same thing again. We've also -- our travel department, we're doing pretty well, relatively speaking, on car rentals. And as it relates to travel and hotel bookings, we have added some additional domestic items and Mexico items for the domestic -- for the U.S. domestic market as well. Hawaii and Mexico are pretty strong.

現在我們又看到了同樣的事情。我們還 - 我們的旅行部門，相對而言，我們在汽車租賃方面做得很好。由於它與旅行和酒店預訂有關，我們還為美國國內市場增加了一些額外的國內商品和墨西哥商品。夏威夷和墨西哥非常強大。

Again within the relative framework, there are some 4 and 5-star things that we've gotten in other parts of the world, which wouldn't talk to us a few years ago. But -- so we're optimistic it's going to come back and expected, and we've certainly, I think improved our offerings.

再次在相對框架內，我們在世界其他地方獲得了一些 4 星和 5 星的東西，這些東西在幾年前不會與我們交談。但是 - 所以我們樂觀地認為它會回來並期待，而且我們肯定，我認為改進了我們的產品。

Excellent. I guess putting heart pressure monitors across from the bacon going forward.

出色的。我想把心臟壓力監測器放在培根對面。

There you go. There is a fast food retailer out there that has an interesting name for that.

你去吧。那裡有一家快餐零售商，有一個有趣的名字。

Your next question is from Greg Badishkanian of Wolfe.

您的下一個問題來自 Wolfe 的 Greg Badishkanian。

This is Spencer Hanus on for Greg. My first question is how should we think about how much of the share gains that you have this year you'll retain? And then the low single-digit comp in the last week of February, how did that compare to your internal expectations?

這是格雷格的斯賓塞漢努斯。我的第一個問題是，我們應該如何考慮今年你將保留多少份額收益？然後是 2 月最後一周的低個位數組合，這與您的內部預期相比如何？

Let me answer the last question first. I mean all we knew is that week 4 of February compared to a year ago and weeks 1 and 2 and part of 3 of March were going to be tough compares. I think -- we actually did a little better than we thought, but still it was a low number given the strength a year ago. And I'm sorry, what was your first question?

我先回答最後一個問題。我的意思是我們所知道的是，與一年前相比，2 月的第 4 周和第 1 周和第 2 週以及 3 月 3 日的部分時間將是艱難的比較。我認為——我們實際上比我們想像的要好一些，但考慮到一年前的實力，這個數字仍然很低。對不起，你的第一個問題是什麼？

Market share.

市場份額。

Market share. Look, at the end of the day, some of it is going to be sticky and some of it's not. We all personally hope that restaurants will reopen, and we'll all be able to go out and enjoy and socialize. That will impact retail food sales at Costco and supermarkets and the like to some extent.

市場份額。看，在一天結束時，其中一些會很粘，而另一些則不會。我們個人都希望餐館能重新開業，我們都可以出去享受和社交。這將在一定程度上影響 Costco 和超市等的零售食品銷售。

That being said, there are other retail formats, whether it was restaurants and food that have closed for good, apparel retailers, other general merchandise retailers. So in some ways, some of the stickiness, unfortunately, relates to certain aspects of retail that have closed for good. And some of them will be that they've gotten more comfortable buying some of these things from the likes of Costco.

話雖如此，還有其他零售業態，無論是永久關閉的餐館和食品、服裝零售商還是其他日用百貨零售商。因此，在某些方面，不幸的是，某些粘性與零售業的某些方面有關，這些方面已經永久關閉。他們中的一些人會更願意從 Costco 等公司購買這些東西。

I hope we lose some of it to the examples of restaurants and the like and other stores that were impacted as they can reopen. And -- but I'm sure that we will end up keeping a little bit of it as well.

我希望我們失去一些，因為餐館等以及其他受到影響的商店可以重新開業。而且——但我相信我們最終也會保留一點。

That's helpful. And then for the new members that you've recruited during COVID, how are they different than previous cohorts? And are you expecting to see renewal rates in line with the overall company average?

這很有幫助。然後對於您在 COVID 期間招募的新成員，他們與以前的同類有什麼不同？您是否希望看到續訂率與公司整體平均水平一致？

Whenever we sign up a member, if you look at our 90-point whatever percent renewal rate in the U.S. and Canada, that includes some 10-year-plus members that are 93% or 94% or 95%, and includes some members that have -- in the last 2 years that might be mid-70s to mid-80s. So you're always from year 0 to year 1 of renewal, it's going to be a lower rate. And year 1 to year 2, it's a combination of 2-year members plus some new 1-year members picks that renewal rate up.

每當我們註冊會員時，如果您查看我們在美國和加拿大的 90 點續訂率，其中包括一些 93% 或 94% 或 95% 的 10 年以上會員，並且包括一些會員有 - 在過去 2 年中，可能是 70 年代中期到 80 年代中期。所以你總是從第 0 年到第 1 年更新，這將是一個較低的速率。第 1 年到第 2 年，這是 2 年會員加上一些新的 1 年會員的組合，可以提高續訂率。

So my guess is some of these new ones, again, they're going to follow that format. The other thing though is in some cases, we think we've gotten new members sometimes in markets where we don't even operate physical stores. Not a lot, but it can't hurt.

所以我的猜測是其中一些新的，再次，他們將遵循這種格式。另一件事是，在某些情況下，我們認為我們有時會在我們甚至不經營實體店的市場中獲得新成員。不是很多，但不會受傷。

Our next question is from Rupesh Parikh of Oppenheimer.

我們的下一個問題來自奧本海默的 Rupesh Parikh。

So Richard, I just wanted to ask you just about e-commerce fulfillment capacity. So you guys have obviously registered very strong growth the last several months. So I just curious where you guys are from a fulfillment perspective and whether you would expect to see a step-up of an investment going forward?

所以理查德，我只是想問你關於電子商務履行能力的問題。因此，你們顯然在過去幾個月中取得了非常強勁的增長。所以我只是好奇你們從實現的角度來看你們在哪裡，你們是否希望看到未來的投資增加？

Well, I think there has been a step-up in the last couple of years, and it's continued this year. We are building additional fulfillment as we speak -- fulfillment capability. We're getting better at it, but so is everybody that have seen this kind of wild growth. In some ways, we think it may be easier for us because of the fewer items. We're doing the 2-day grocery still through our business centers, which works pretty smoothly. So it is a larger percentage of the $3 billion-ish we spend every year than it used to be. But certainly, the biggest single percentage is still opening new warehouses.

嗯，我認為在過去的幾年裡有一個進步，今年還在繼續。正如我們所說，我們正在建立額外的履行——履行能力。我們在這方面做得越來越好，但每個看到這種瘋狂增長的人也是如此。在某些方面，我們認為這對我們來說可能更容易，因為項目更少。我們仍在通過我們的商務中心進行為期 2 天的雜貨店，工作非常順利。因此，它在我們每年花費的 30 億美元中所佔的比例比過去要大。但可以肯定的是，最大的單一百分比仍然是開設新倉庫。

Okay. Great. And then maybe just one follow-up question. So clearly you guys have -- sorry, go ahead.

好的。偉大的。然後也許只是一個後續問題。很明顯你們有——對不起，繼續。

In addition to physical capital expenditures, there's also it capital expenditures, which is part of our CapEx as well. And there's a lot of investment in that around everything from e-commerce, from mobile app to fulfillment and the like.

除了實物資本支出外，還有資本支出，這也是我們資本支出的一部分。從電子商務、移動應用程序到履行等，在這方面都有大量投資。

Okay. Great. And then just given the announcement on the increase in minimum wages, do you see any other levers going forward that can offset some of the wage pressures that we've seen maybe on a multiyear basis in your business?

好的。偉大的。然後剛剛發布了關於提高最低工資的公告，您是否看到任何其他可以抵消我們多年來可能在您的業務中看到的一些工資壓力的其他槓桿？

From the beginning -- I used to think about that question 30 years ago. And what we find is that we're always able to -- because we've got a great employee base that are hard-working and loyal and know that we care -- we, as a company, they're cared about, I think that we feel that we've seen over the years, everything from inventory shrink to labor productivity. Certainly, we measure these things, too, but labor productivity. And a lot of it has to do with coming up with ideas, many of which are -- these ideas come from our employees that are on the ground, if you will. working in the meat department, figured out how to be more efficient with pounds per hour -- per labor hour.

從一開始—— 30 年前我就曾經考慮過這個問題。我們發現，我們總是能夠——因為我們有一個優秀的員工基礎，他們勤奮、忠誠並且知道我們關心——我們作為一家公司，他們受到關心，我想想我們覺得多年來我們已經看到，從庫存縮減到勞動生產率的一切。當然，我們也測量這些東西，但是勞動生產率。這在很大程度上與提出想法有關，其中許多想法來自我們在當地的員工，如果你願意的話。在肉類部門工作，想出瞭如何提高每小時磅數的效率——每工時。

So we've always figured out ways -- not worried about, let's figure out how to save it and then we can give it -- pass it on to them. Let's pass it on, and we'll get there from an efficiency standpoint. And it seems to have worked for us.

所以我們總是想辦法——不用擔心，讓我們想辦法保存它，然後我們可以給它——把它傳遞給他們。讓我們把它傳遞下去，我們將從效率的角度到達那裡。它似乎對我們有用。

Yes. Other things like we now have self-checkout in 60% or 70% of our 558 Costcos in the U.S. It will be in virtually all of them, and we'll see it in other countries as well. That's the savings that took us a while to believe part of it and to figure out. I think we're on the third format of it -- version of it, but it's working in our environment the way we want it to, and we see savings there.

是的。其他的東西，比如我們現在在美國的 558 家 Costcos 中有 60% 或 70% 都有自助結賬。幾乎所有這些都將使用，我們也會在其他國家看到它。這是我們花了一段時間才相信其中一部分並弄清楚的節省。我認為我們正在使用它的第三種格式——它的版本，但它以我們想要的方式在我們的環境中工作，並且我們看到了節省。

So we're constantly figuring those things out. And we attribute a lot of that to -- many of these good ideas don't come from the rooms here at the office, they come from the people out on the floor.

所以我們一直在想辦法解決這些問題。我們將其中的很多原因歸結為——許多好的想法不是來自辦公室的房間，而是來自地板上的人。

Your next question is from Edward Kelly of Wells Fargo.

您的下一個問題來自富國銀行的 Edward Kelly。

I just wanted to go back, first of all, on the ancillary gross margin. You talked about gas being a bit more than half, so the remainder is pandemic-related, I guess, 15, 20 basis points? Has that drag been consistent there since the pandemic began? So if I look back over the other quarters, whatever sort of remainder there would just be the gas movement?

首先，我只是想回到輔助毛利率上。您談到天然氣略多於一半，所以其餘部分與大流行有關，我猜是 15、20 個基點？自大流行開始以來，這種阻力是否一直存在？因此，如果我回顧其他方面，無論有什麼剩餘，都會有氣體運動？

Yes. Yes, I think it was worse last year in Q3. And -- but it's been similar -- it's improving a little right now, but still negative year-over-year. The big delta is you had gas. In quarters where we talked about gas was a big positive. It offset -- more than offset some of these other negatives.

是的。是的，我認為去年第三季度情況更糟。而且——但情況相似——現在有所改善，但同比仍為負數。最大的三角洲是你有汽油。在我們談論天然氣的季度中，這是一個很大的積極因素。它抵消了——不僅僅是抵消了其他一些負面影響。

Right. Okay, so we have that coming back, then like normalizes. And when you look at the other segment of the gross margin, how much of that's going to come back? Because the 16 -- the wage increase play a role there, so should I assume only half of that comes back?

正確的。好的，所以我們回來了，然後像正常化一樣。當您查看毛利率的其他部分時，其中有多少會回來？因為 16 - 工資增長在那裡發揮了作用，所以我應該假設只有一半會回來嗎？

Well, I think from simple math, we talked about the $246 million for this quarter in total for COVID-related. And of that, $60 million impacted margin. So $60 million over $246 million, whatever that percentage is, a little under 25%. And on an annual basis, we talked about the $1.060 billion and a little over half, so just take half of that. And that's kind of the net improvement -- or pretax improvement in margin from that.

好吧，我認為從簡單的數學計算來看，我們討論了本季度與 COVID 相關的總額為 2.46 億美元。其中，6000 萬美元影響了利潤率。所以 6000 萬美元超過 2.46 億美元，無論這個百分比是多少，都略低於 25%。每年，我們談到了 10.6 億美元和一半多一點，所以只拿一半。這就是淨改善——或者說是稅前利潤率的改善。

But I'm sure if there's other outliers, we'll explain them to you as we go into each quarter. Some of the things -- that's the easy one because it's big, and we know what we're doing with it. The unknowns are how quickly will travel come back. Travel is a very high-margin, low SG&A business. Food Courts it will improve dramatically once we get tables out there everywhere. And that's not going to happen tomorrow afternoon, but it's going to happen, God-willing, over the next several months.

但我敢肯定，如果還有其他異常值，我們會在進入每個季度時向您解釋。有些事情——這是一件容易的事情，因為它很大，而且我們知道我們在用它做什麼。未知數是旅行回來的速度。旅遊是一項利潤非常高、SG&A 低的業務。美食廣場一旦我們到處都有桌子，它將大大改善。這不會在明天下午發生，但願上帝保佑，在接下來的幾個月裡它會發生。

Okay. And just one last one for you. So on the core, historically the core margin really hasn't been up. It's obviously doing very well right now. Going forward, I mean you could still have maybe mix benefit from things like stimulus. But don't we eventually just sort of assume that what we've seen over the last few quarters sort of normalizes back to pre-COVID level and we take the margin down by that amount?

好的。最後一個給你。所以在核心方面，從歷史上看，核心利潤率確實沒有上升。顯然現在做得很好。展望未來，我的意思是你仍然可以從刺激之類的東西中獲得混合收益。但是，我們最終難道不是只是假設我們在過去幾個季度中看到的情況會恢復到 COVID 之前的水平，並且我們會將利潤率降低那個數量嗎？

I feel a little stronger than that in terms of the positive. I think that on the fresh side, yes. At some point, when you have your tougher year-over-year compares, you're not going to get those big basis point improvements from spoilage and labor productivity. Now some of it, though, at these new levels, you have more productivity. We're not going to necessarily lose at all. But if it's a tough compare, you a little -- you'll lose some of it.

就正面而言，我感覺比這要強一些。我認為在新鮮的一面，是的。在某些時候，當您進行更嚴格的同比比較時，您將不會從腐敗和勞動生產率中獲得那些大的基點改善。但是，現在其中一些，在這些新的水平上，你有更多的生產力。我們不一定會輸。但如果這是一個艱難的比較，你會失去一些——你會失去一些。

So yes, on some of the other categories, particularly as we increase Kirkland Signature, as we sell certain things within fresh that are specialty items, where we can get a full margin and show an even greater savings in some cases. Some of the vertical integration, some of the things I mentioned, like the nuts and cashews. These are all little things, but those tend to offset some of those things. I'm not suggesting we're going to keep it all, but I think that we're going to do better than people -- than the question has a concern about.

所以是的，在其他一些類別上，特別是當我們增加 Kirkland Signature 時，因為我們在新鮮商品中銷售某些特殊商品，在某些情況下，我們可以獲得全額利潤並顯示出更大的節省。一些垂直整合，一些我提到的東西，比如堅果和腰果。這些都是小事，但往往會抵消其中的一些事情。我並不是說我們要保留這一切，但我認為我們會比人們做得更好——比這個問題所關注的要好。

Well, thank you for listening. We're all here. If you have any additional questions, you know who we are, and have a good afternoon.

嗯，謝謝你的收聽。我們都在這裡。如果您有任何其他問題，您知道我們是誰，祝您下午愉快。

Thank you, Buena.

謝謝你，布埃納。

You're welcome, sir.

不客氣，先生。

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

女士們，先生們，今天的電話會議到此結束。感謝您的參與。您現在可以斷開連接。