好市多 (COST) 2021 Q1 法說會逐字稿

Thank you for standing by, and welcome to the Q1 earnings call. (Operator Instructions) Thank you. I would now like to hand the conference over to your speaker today, Mr. Richard Galanti. Please go ahead.

感謝您的耐心等待，歡迎參加第一季財報電話會議。 （操作說明）謝謝。現在我將會議交給今天的發言人理查德·加蘭蒂先生。請開始吧。

Thank you, Cindy, and good afternoon to everyone.

謝謝你，辛迪，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.

首先聲明，本次討論將包含1995年《私人證券訴訟改革法案》所界定的前瞻性陳述。這些陳述涉及風險和不確定性，可能導致實際事件、結果和/或績效與此類陳述所指明的內容有重大差異。這些風險和不確定性包括但不限於本次電話會議中概述的風險和不確定性，以及公司不時在公開聲明和提交給美國證券交易委員會（SEC）的報告中披露的其他風險。前瞻性陳述僅代表其發布之日的觀點，除法律要求外，本公司不承擔更新這些陳述的義務。

In today's press release, we reported operating results for the first quarter of fiscal -- our fiscal year 2021, the 12 weeks ended November 22. Reported net income for the quarter came in at $1.166 billion or $2.62 per share compared to $844 million or $1.90 per diluted share last year. This year's first quarter included tax benefits of $145 million or $0.33 per share, $0.16 of which was due to the deductibility of the $10 per share special cash dividend to the extent received by the company's 401(k) plan participants and $0.17 related to stock-based compensation. Last year's first quarter included a $77 million or $0.17 per share tax benefit related to stock-based compensation as well. And this year's results also included the costs related to our COVID-19 premium wages of $212 million pretax or $0.35 per diluted share.

在今天的新聞稿中，我們公佈了2021財年第一季（截至11月22日的12週）的經營業績。本季淨利為11.66億美元，合每股2.62美元，去年同期為8.44億美元，合每股攤薄收益1.90美元。本季包含1.45億美元的稅收優惠，合每股0.33美元，其中0.16美元來自公司401(k)計畫參與者收到的每股10美元特別現金股息的稅收抵扣，0.17美元來自股權激勵支出。去年同期也包含7,700萬美元（合每股0.17美元）的股權激勵稅收優惠。此外，本季業績還包括與新冠疫情相關的稅前加班費2.12億美元，合每股攤薄收益0.35美元。

Net sales for the quarter increased 16.9% to $42.35 billion, up from $36.24 billion last year in Q1. In terms of our first quarter comp sales metrics, for the -- on a reported basis, for the U.S., we reported a 14.6% figure. Excluding gas deflation and FX impacts, the 14.6% for the 12 weeks would have been 17.0% increase. Canada for the 12 weeks reported 16.2%; ex gas and FX, 16.8%. Other International reported 18.7%; ex gas and FX, 17.7%. So all told, for the total company, we reported 15.4% comp sales increase. And excluding gas deflation and FX, the 15.4% would be 17.1%. E-commerce on a reported basis for the 12 weeks was 86.4%; and excluding FX, 86.2%.

本季淨銷售額成長16.9%，達423.5億美元，高於去年同期的362.4億美元。就第一季同店銷售額而言，以報告數據計算，美國市場成長14.6%。若剔除天然氣價格下跌和匯率波動的影響，12週內的成長率為17.0%。加拿大市場12週內的成長率為16.2%；剔除天然氣價格下跌和匯率波動的影響後，為16.8%。其他國際市場成長18.7%；剔除天然氣價格下跌及匯率波動的影響後，為17.7%。因此，公司整體同店銷售額成長15.4%。若剔除天然氣價格下跌和匯率波動的影響，15.4%的成長率為17.1%。以報告資料計算，12週內電子商務銷售額成長86.4%；剔除匯率波動的影響後，為86.2%。

In terms of Q1 comp sales metrics, traffic or shopping frequency increased 5.5% worldwide and plus 7.6% in the U.S. Our average transaction size was up for the company, 9.4% in the quarter year-over-year and up 6.5% in the U.S. These include the negative impacts from gas deflation and the positive impact from FX. Foreign currencies relative to the U.S. dollar positively impacted sales by about 30 basis points, and gasoline price deflation negatively impacted sales by approximately 200 basis points.

就第一季同店銷售指標而言，全球客流量或購物頻率成長了5.5%，美國成長了7.6%。公司平均交易金額較去年同期成長9.4%，美國成長6.5%。這些成長包含了汽油價格通貨緊縮帶來的負面影響以及匯率波動所帶來的正面影響。外幣兌美元匯率的正面影響使銷售額上升了約30個基點，而汽油價格通貨緊縮則使銷售額下降了約200個基點。

Now going down the income statement. Membership fee income came in at $860.9 million, up $57 million or 7.1%. Ex FX, it would have been up $54 million or 6.7%. During the quarter, we opened 8 new units.

現在來看損益表。會員費收入為 8.609 億美元，成長 5,700 萬美元，增幅 7.1%。若不計匯率因素，則成長 5,400 萬美元，增幅為 6.7%。本季度，我們新開了 8 家分店。

In terms of renewal rates, our U.S. and Canada renewal rate as of the end of Q1 '21 was 90.9%. That compares to a quarter ago of 91.0%. And worldwide, it was 88.4%, which was the same as it was a quarter ago. Now the U.S. and Canada's rate of 90.9% compared to the 91.0%, this 0.1% decline was primarily a result of what we believe to be the deferred renewals in Canada due to the pandemic. For example, traffic or frequency in our Canada warehouses in Q1 came in at a minus 1.3% compared to a plus 7.6% figure in the United States. By the way, the U.S. renewal rate was the same at both quarters' end.

就續約率而言，截至2021年第一季末，我們在美國和加拿大的續約率為90.9%，而上一季為91.0%。全球續約率為88.4%，與上一季持平。美國和加拿大的續約率從91.0%下降至90.9%，這0.1%的降幅主要歸因於我們認為加拿大因疫情而延遲的續約。例如，第一季我們加拿大倉庫的流量或出貨頻率下降了1.3%，而美國則成長了7.6%。順便一提，美國兩季末的續約率相同。

In terms of number of members at Q1 end, total paid households at Q1 end was 59.1 million, up from 12 weeks earlier Q4 end of 58.1 million. And total cardholders at Q1 end was 107.1 million compared to 12 weeks earlier at 105.5 million. Also at first quarter end, paid executive memberships totaled 23.3 million, an increase of 642,000 during the fiscal first quarter.

截至第一季末，付費家庭會員總數為5,910萬戶，高於12週前（第四季末）的5,810萬戶。持卡會員總數為1.071億，高於12週前的1.055億。此外，截至第一季末，付費高級會員總數為2,330萬，較第一財季增加了64.2萬。

On to the gross margin line. Our reported gross margin in the first quarter was higher year-over-year by 50 basis points, coming in at 11.55% of sales compared to 11.05% a year ago. Excluding gas deflation, the point -- the 50 basis point increase would be 30 basis points.

接下來是毛利率。我們第一季的毛利率年增50個基點，達到銷售額的11.55%，而去年同期為11.05%。如果剔除天然氣價格下跌的影響，這50個基點的成長幅度將為30個基點。

If you jot down 2 columns of numbers here to shed a little light on the components of gross margin, on a reported basis in Q1 '21, the core merchandise margin year-over-year was up on a reported basis, 83 basis points, plus 83. Second column without gas deflation would have been plus 66 basis points. Ancillary businesses, minus 15 basis points reported and minus 20 ex gas deflation; 2% Reward, minus 6 basis points and minus 4; other, minus 12 and minus 12. And if you add up the 2 columns, on a reported basis, again, gross margin reported as a percent of sales year-over-year in the quarter was up 50 basis points on a reported basis and ex gas deflation up 30 basis points.

如果在這裡記下兩列數字，以便更好地了解毛利率的組成，那麼在2021年第一季度，按報告基準計算，核心商品毛利率同比增長83個基點（報告基準），不計入汽油價格下跌的影響，則為66個基點。輔助業務毛利率較去年同期下降15個基點（報告基準），不計入汽油價格下跌的影響則為20個基點；2%獎勵毛利率年減6個基點（報告基準），不計入汽油價格下跌的影響則為4個基點；其他毛利率同比下降12個基點（基準），不計入汽油價格下跌的影響。若將這兩列數字相加，同樣以報告基準計算，該季度毛利率（以銷售額百分比表示）年增50個基點（報告基準），不計入汽油價格下跌的影響則為30個基點。

Now the core merchandise component of gross margin shows it was higher by 83 and up 66 ex gas deflation. Similar to last quarter, we had a sales shift from ancillary to core. This resulted in a higher contribution of our total gross margin dollars coming from the core operations versus last year. Looking at core merchandise categories in relation only to their own sales, core and core, if you will, margins year-over-year in the quarter were higher by 65 basis points. Fresh foods was again the biggest driver here. With strong sales in fresh, we benefited from efficiency gains in labor productivity and significantly lower product spoilage. Food and sundries, softlines and hardlines, the other 3 main core components, all had higher margins year-over-year in the quarter as well, but fresh foods was the driver.

現在，核心商品毛利率部分顯示成長了83%，剔除天然氣價格下跌的影響後成長了66%。與上季類似，我們的銷售額從輔助業務轉向了核心業務。這使得核心業務對總毛利率的貢獻較去年同期增加。如果僅從核心商品類別本身的銷售額來看，本季毛利率年增了65個基點。生鮮食品再次成為主要驅動力。由於生鮮食品銷售強勁，我們受益於勞動生產力的提高和產品損耗的顯著降低。食品和日用品、紡織品和五金這三大核心商品類別，本季毛利率也均較去年同期成長，但生鮮食品是主要驅動因素。

Ancillary and other businesses gross margins, as I showed you here, was lower on a reported basis by 15 basis points and minus 20 ex gas deflation, most of the impact coming from travel and, to a lesser extent, from gas, optical, hearing aids and food courts.

正如我在這裡向您展示的，輔助業務和其他業務的毛利率按報告計算下降了 15 個基點，剔除天然氣通縮因素後下降了 20 個基點，其中大部分影響來自旅遊，其次是天然氣、光學產品、助聽器和美食廣場。

Costco Logistics, which is our name for the acquisition of Innovel that we did several months ago, impacted ancillary margins by minus 6 basis points, a slight relative improvement from the prior quarter year-over-year. 2% Reward, nothing surprising there. And the other, the minus 12 basis points, all of this was attributable to the cost of the COVID-19 of $53 million of the $212 million total amount previously mentioned. These are the direct costs for incremental wages allocated to our manufacturing, production and fulfillment operations. All told, even with the $53 million of COVID costs hitting the margin, Q4 year-over-year gross margin on a reported basis ex gas is still up 30 basis points year-over-year.

Costco Logistics（即我們幾個月前收購Innovel的業務）對輔助業務利潤率造成了6個基點的負面影響，較上一季同比略有改善。 2%的利潤率回報，這並不令人意外。另外12個基點的負面影響則完全歸因於新冠疫情相關成本，其中5,300萬美元佔先前提到的2.12億美元總額的一部分。這些成本是分配給我們製造、生產和物流營運部門的額外工資的直接成本。總而言之，即使計入了這5300萬美元的新冠疫情相關成本，第四季度按報告基準（不含汽油）計算的毛利率仍同比增長30個基點。

Moving to SG&A. Our reported SG&A in the first quarter as a percent of sales was lower or better year-over-year by 15 basis points, coming in at 10.15% of sales compared to a year earlier -- first quarter of 10.30%. And ex gas deflation, the 15 basis improvement would be 32 basis points of improvement.

接下來談談銷售、管理及行政費用（SG&A）。我們報告的第一季SG&A佔銷售額的百分比年減或改善了15個基點，為10.15%，而去年同期為10.30%。如果剔除天然氣價格下跌的影響，這15個基點的改善幅度將達到32個基點。

Again, jotting down 2 columns of numbers, reported and without gas deflation. Core operations in Q1 on a reported basis was lower or better by 49 basis points so a plus 49; ex gas deflation, plus 62. Central, plus 1 and plus 3 basis points; stock compensation, plus 3 and plus 4 basis points; other, minus 38 and minus 37 basis points. And summing those 2 columns up, total reported SG&A year-over-year was better or lower -- or better, plus 15 basis points; and ex gas deflation, plus 32 basis points.

再次記錄兩列數字，分別是報告數據和未計入天然氣通貨緊縮因素的數據。第一季核心營運（以報告數據計算）較去年同期下降或下降49個基點，即成長49個基點；剔除天然氣通貨緊縮因素後，成長62個基點。中央營運成本分別成長1個和3個基點；股權激勵成本分別成長3個和4個基點；其他成本分別下降38個和37個基點。將這兩列資料相加，報告的銷售、管理及行政費用總額較去年同期下降或下降－較去年同期下降或下降15個基點；剔除天然氣通貨緊縮因素後，增加32個基點。

Now SG&A in the core -- again, it shows, ex deflation, an improvement of 62 basis points. This excludes the COVID costs, which I'll talk about in a minute. There was significant -- just basic significant leverage with strong core merchandise sales increases.

現在來看看核心部分的銷售、管理及行政費用——同樣，數據顯示，剔除通貨緊縮因素後，改善了62個基點。這不包括新冠疫情相關的成本，我稍後會談到。強勁的核心商品銷售成長帶來了顯著的槓桿效應。

In terms of other, the minus 38 or minus 37 basis point number ex deflation -- gas deflation, these were our incremental costs from the COVID-19, $159 million of the $212 million total number that we had mentioned earlier. The premium wages have been extended through January 3 at this time. Again, even including these $159 million of COVID-related premium pay expenses, SG&A year-over-year improved nicely.

就其他方面而言，扣除通貨緊縮（包括天然氣價格下跌）後，-38 或 -37 個基點的增幅，是我們因新冠疫情產生的額外成本，占我們之前提到的 2.12 億美元總額的 1.59 億美元。目前，加班費已延長至 1 月 3 日。再次強調，即使計入這 1.59 億美元的新冠疫情相關加班工資支出，銷售、管理及行政費用同比仍顯著改善。

Next on the income statement is preopening expense, $22 million this year in the first quarter compared to $14 million a year earlier. We had 10 openings, 8 net of 2 relocations during the quarter; and 4 openings gross, 3 net of 1 relocation a year earlier. Last year's $14 million number did include a couple of million dollars related to preopening on our new poultry -- on our poultry complex, which was opened and went into business right before the beginning of Q1.

接下來是損益表中的開業前費用，今年第一季為2,200萬美元，而去年同期為1,400萬美元。本季我們新增了10家門市，扣除2家搬遷門市後淨增8家；去年同期新增4家店，扣除1家搬遷門市後淨增3家。去年的1400萬美元中包含了與我們新家禽養殖場開業前相關的幾百萬美元費用——該養殖場位於我們的家禽綜合體，於第一季初正式投產。

All told, reported operating income for Q1 '21 increased 35%, coming in at $1.43 billion this year compared to $1.061 billion last year, and even a higher percent increase, of course. It would have been higher had not we had those -- the premium pay.

總的來說，2021年第一季報告的營業收入成長了35%，達到14.3億美元，而去年同期為10.61億美元，當然，實際增幅還會更高。如果沒有那些額外支出，增幅還會更高。

Below the operating income line, interest expense was $39 million this year versus $38 million last year. Interest income and other for the quarter was lower by $6 million year-over-year. Interest income itself with net interest income and other was lower by $22 million year-over-year due in large part to lower interest rates, offset by FX and other, which was up -- which was higher or better by $16 million year-over-year. So overall, reported pretax income in Q1 '21 was up 34%, coming in at $1.42 billion this year compared to $1.058 billion a year earlier.

在營業收入項下，今年的利息支出為3,900萬美元，而去年同期為3,800萬美元。本季利息收入及其他收入年減600萬美元。利息收入本身（包括淨利息收入及其他收入）同比減少2200萬美元，這主要是由於利率下降，但被外匯及其他收入的增長所抵消——外匯及其他收入同比增長1600萬美元。因此，2021年第一季報告的稅前利潤整體成長了34%，達到14.2億美元，而去年同期為10.58億美元。

In terms of income taxes, our tax rate in the first quarter of fiscal '21 was 16.8% compared to 19.1% in Q1 last year. Both years' tax rates benefited from the tax treatment of stock-based compensation, as mentioned earlier. This year's tax rate in the first quarter also benefited from the tax deductibility of the special dividend payable to company 401(k) participants, as discussed -- that portion payable to the 401(k) participants as discussed earlier in the call. This year's full -- this full year's -- fiscal year's effective tax rate, excluding these discrete items, is currently projected to be between 26% and 26.5%.

就所得稅而言，2021財年第一季的稅率為16.8%，而去年同期為19.1%。如前所述，這兩年的稅率均受益於股權激勵的稅務處理。此外，如前所述，今年第一季的稅率還受益於支付給公司401(k)計劃參與者的特別股息的稅收抵扣——即支付給401(k)計劃參與者的那部分股息，已在之前的電話會議中討論過。剔除這些特殊項目後，本財年全年的實際稅率目前預計在26%至26.5%之間。

In terms of warehouse expansion, as I mentioned in the first quarter of this fiscal year, we opened 8 net new units. Our plan for the year is somewhere in the 20 to 22 range. None in the second quarter and 6 or so -- 5 or 6 in Q3 and 7 or 8 in Q4. As of Q1 end, total warehouse square footage stood at 117 million square feet.

關於倉庫擴建，正如我在本財年第一季提到的，我們淨增了8個倉庫單元。我們全年的計劃是新增20到22個。第二季沒有新增，第三季大約有6個──5到6個，第四季有7到8個。截至第一季末，倉庫總面積為1.17億平方英尺。

In terms of capital expenditures, in the first quarter of '21, we spent approximately $893 million. Our full year CapEx spend for fiscal '21 is still estimated to be in the $3 billion to $3.2 billion range.

就資本支出而言，2021年第一季，我們的支出約為8.93億美元。我們預計2021財年的全年資本支出仍將在30億至32億美元之間。

In terms of e-commerce, overall, our e-commerce sales in Q1 ex FX increased at 86.2% year-over-year. A few of the stronger departments, food and sundries, housewares, pharmacy, OTC and health and beauty aids, small electrics and TVs and other electronics. Total online grocery grew at a very strong rate in Q1, nearly 300%. The comp numbers that I mentioned, the 86.2% figure follow our usual convention, which excludes these third-party same-day grocery program as they come in themselves and shop in our warehouses and then deliver to our members. If we include the third-party same-day in our e-commerce comps, the 86.2% result would have been just over 100%.

就電子商務而言，整體而言，我們第一季（不計匯率影響）的電子商務銷售額年增86.2%。其中，食品和日用品、家居用品、藥品、非處方藥、保健美容用品、小型電器以及電視和其他電子產品等幾個品類表現尤為強勁。第一季度，線上生鮮雜貨銷售額成長迅猛，接近300%。我提到的86.2%的同店銷售額成長遵循我們一貫的做法，即不包括第三方當日達生鮮雜貨配送服務，因為這些服務商自行進貨，從我們的倉庫採購後再配送給會員。如果我們將第三方當日達服務納入同店銷售額的計算，那麼86.2%的成長率將略高於100%。

Innovel, now rebranded as Costco Logistics, continues to grow, and we continue to push more big and bulky items to the site. We've added -- in the past quarter, we added an in-cart scheduler this quarter, where members can select specific delivery dates for most big and bulky items; and made improvements to our call center with specifically trained agents as well. That continues to grow nicely.

Innovel現已更名為Costco Logistics，業務持續成長，我們也不斷向網站推送更多大型笨重商品。上個季度，我們新增了購物車內預約功能，會員可以為大多數大型笨重商品選擇特定的送貨日期；此外，我們還改進了呼叫中心，配備了經過專門培訓的客服人員。這些業務都在穩定成長。

And lastly, a couple of fun sports items just loaded 2 days ago. We have a Babe Ruth-autographed baseball for $64,000 and a Ty Cobb-autographed Louisville Slugger bat for $160,000. We've also recently sold a number of memberships for Wheels Up, a private jet service operator.

最後，還有兩件有趣的運動用品，兩天前才剛上架。我們有貝比魯斯親筆簽名的棒球，售價 64,000 美元；還有泰·科布親筆簽名的路易斯維爾棒球棒，售價 16 萬美元。此外，我們最近還售出了一些 Wheels Up 的會員資格，Wheels Up 是一家私人飛機服務業者。

Now turning to COVID and some of the issues and impacts surrounding it. From a sales perspective, similar to our strong sales results this past summer and our fiscal fourth quarter, we have continued to enjoy strong sales results during the first quarter of fiscal 2021. We continue to generate strong sales in food and sundries and health and beauty aids and fresh foods and the like. And we've also benefited from improved sales in products and items for the home. As people are spending less on air and travel and hotel and dining out, they seem to have redirected some of those dollars to categories like electronics, furniture and mattresses, exercise equipment, housewares, cookware, domestics, et cetera. And as mentioned earlier, sales in most of our ancillary businesses were lower year-over-year in the quarter, travel, gas, hearing aids and food courts.

現在讓我們來談談新冠疫情及其帶來的一些問題和影響。從銷售角度來看，與我們今年夏季和第四財季的強勁銷售業績類似，我們在2021財年第一季繼續保持了強勁的銷售動能。食品雜貨、保健美容用品、新鮮食品等類別的銷售持續成長。此外，家居用品的銷售也有所改善。由於人們減少了在機票、旅行、酒店和外出用餐方面的支出，他們似乎將部分資金轉移到了電子產品、家具和床墊、健身器材、家居用品、炊具、家用電器等類別。如前文所述，本季我們大多數輔助業務的銷售額年減，包括旅遊、加油站、助聽器和美食廣場。

From a supply chain perspective, a 40,000-foot view, if you will. Most factories are up and running at our suppliers, and in many cases, production capacity has been increased. However, even higher increases in demand of some products are still creating some supply issues. There are instances of 50%, 100% or even more sales increases of an item. And if we could procure more, we'd have even higher sales. Examples would include things like exercise equipment, certain major appliances, certain electronics items as well as certain housewares and small electric items.

從供應鏈的角度來看，也就是從宏觀角度來看，我們的大多數供應商工廠都已恢復生產，而且在許多情況下，產能也得到了提升。然而，某些產品的需求成長更為強勁，仍然造成了一些供應問題。有些產品的銷售量成長了50%、100%甚至更多。如果我們能夠採購到更多產品，銷售量還會更高。例如，健身器材、某些大型家電、某些電子產品以及某些家居用品和小電器等。

On the transportation front, there have been some container shortages at origin as well as some congestion at destination ports here in the states. The latter, typically 2 to 4 days, but a little longer in some cases. We're managing through it and expect relief not until March or so of 2021.

在運輸方面，始發港出現了一些貨櫃短缺，目的港也出現了一些擁塞。後者通常需要2到4天，但在某些情況下會更久。我們正在努力應對，預計情況要到2021年3月左右才能有所緩解。

As well in the past few weeks, there have been some challenges that you may have read about in the industry in terms of delayed delivery times of e-com item -- of items, just given the number of items being shipped now through third-party carriers. While this may reduce some sales if members are confident -- are not confident in timely holiday delivery, we, like others, I'm sure, have done a couple of things. We've adjusted our stated expected delivery times on our side and reminded people to shop early. And we -- in our case, we took several hundred nonfood items -- nonfood online items that are also in line and are providing same-day delivery through Instacart, including items like AirPods and [instapots] and laptops and many over-the-counter, health and beauty items as well as some other home essentials.

過去幾週，電商產業也面臨一些挑戰，您可能已經有所耳聞，例如商品配送時間延遲——這主要是由於目前大量商品透過第三方物流公司出貨。如果會員對假日期間的及時送達缺乏信心，這可能會影響部分銷售。但我相信，我們和其他商家一樣，也採取了一些措施。我們調整了預計送達時間，並提醒顧客儘早購物。此外，我們還透過 Instacart 平台推出了數百種非食品類商品，這些商品均可享受當日送達服務，包括 AirPods、電壓力鍋、筆記型電腦、許多非處方保健美容產品以及其他一些家居必需品。

In terms of food and sundries, continued limits on some paper goods. Demand and sales went up as COVID began spiking again. Our toughest areas, nitrile gloves, surface cleaning wipes and sanitizing sprays. Also, in some cases, some paper goods. Overall, dairy items are in good shape as well as proteins and produce on the fresh side.

食品及日用品方面，部分紙製品仍實施限購。隨著新冠疫情再次爆發，需求和銷售量均上升。我們面臨的最大挑戰是丁腈手套、表面清潔濕紙巾和消毒噴霧。此外，在某些情況下，部分紙製品也受到限制。整體而言，乳製品、蛋白質和新鮮農產品供應狀況良好。

In terms of our holiday merchandise planning and results. Halloween, we went into it a little more conservative in terms of costumes and Halloween-specific candy items. We came out of Halloween with pretty clean inventory levels. Christmas, as I think we mentioned on the last earnings call responding to a question, we went a little more basic in terms of needs and uses for the house. So very strong. We've gone into it with fundamental items for the home like housewares, TVs, electronics, even added items like barbecues and pressure washers and furniture items. A little less, we had cut back a little bit on seasonal items like holiday decorations and gift wrap and some of the candy and food gift baskets. In some instances, we've already sold through those inventories.

就我們的節日商品計劃和銷售業績而言，萬聖節期間，我們在服裝和萬聖節專用糖果方面採取了較為保守的策略。萬聖節過後，我們的庫存水準相當不錯。聖誕節，正如我們在上次財報電話會議上回答問題時所提到的，我們更重視居家生活必需品。因此，聖誕節銷售非常強勁。我們儲備了家居用品，例如家用器皿、電視、電子產品，甚至增加了燒烤爐、高壓清洗機和家具等。相較之下，我們略微減少了一些季節性商品，例如節日裝飾品、禮品包裝紙以及部分糖果和食品禮籃。在某些情況下，這些庫存已經售罄。

Our warehouses overall have remained open and are mostly back to regular hours with an additional hour on any mornings for seniors and persons with disabilities. Warehouses are still following social distancing and sanitation guidelines. And in some jurisdictions, we have to limit occupancy. Since May 4, as you may recall, we've required members and employees to the warehouses to wear masks. And since November 16, we've required face shields for those unable to wear a mask. Some of these initiatives, of course, will extend well into Q2 of the fiscal year.

我們的倉庫大致上保持開放，大部分已恢復正常營業時間，並於每天上午額外增加一小時，專門為老年人和殘障人士提供服務。倉庫仍嚴格遵守社交距離和衛生防疫指南。在某些地區，我們不得不限制倉庫內的人員數量。您可能還記得，自5月4日起，我們要求所有進入倉庫的會員和員工戴上口罩。自11月16日起，我們要求無​​法配戴口罩的人員戴上面罩。當然，其中一些措施將持續到本財年第二季。

Finally, in terms of upcoming press releases, we will announce our December sales results for the 5 weeks ending Sunday, January 3, on Wednesday, January 6 after market closes.

最後，關於即將發布的新聞稿，我們將於 1 月 6 日星期三股市收盤後公佈截至 1 月 3 日星期日的 5 週的 12 月銷售業績。

With that, I will open it up to questions and answers, and I'll turn it back to Cindy. Cindy?

接下來，我將開放問答環節，然後把問題交還給辛蒂。辛蒂？

(Operator Instructions) And your first question comes from the line of Simeon Gutman from Morgan Stanley.

（操作員說明）您的第一個問題來自摩根士丹利的西蒙古特曼。

Richard, I wanted to ask -- following on, you talked about some of the merchandising plans around Halloween and Christmas. You're going to begin to lap some pretty massive surges in growth when you get into the thick of '21. I know you don't guide, but you're probably planning inventory purchases. So I wanted to ask how you sort of manage with a pretty wide range of outcomes. And I don't know if you have any guideposts to thinking about some of the gains you're making in fresh food as far as the spoilage and the markdowns that don't seem to be happening. So how do you think -- how do you plan for lapping some of those as well?

理查德，我想問一下——你剛才談到了萬聖節和聖誕節期間的一些商品銷售計劃。到了2021年，你們的銷售成長將會非常強勁。我知道你們不做業績預測，但你們可能正在計劃庫存採購。所以我想問，你們是如何應對如此多樣化的結果的？另外，我不知道你們在生鮮食品方面的進展，例如食品變質和降價的情況似乎並沒有發生，你們有什麼應對策略嗎？你們是如何計畫應對這些成長的？

Well, I mean, there's a few different things and time periods that will be in question. If you recall, there was a big surge in frequency and sales results the last week in February and the first 2 or 3 weeks of March, when people were coming in and hoarding, in our view. And of course, we were running out of everything basic, from water to paper goods to cleaning supplies and things like that. And in some cases -- and then beyond that into April and May, there were some issues as there were some COVID spiking at many fresh plants -- protein plants, meat and poultry and the like.

嗯，我的意思是，這其中涉及幾個不同的因素和時間段。如果你還記得的話，2月最後一周和3月的前兩三週，客流量和銷售額都出現了大幅增長，在我們看來，當時人們都在囤貨。當然，從水到紙製品再到清潔用品等等，所有基本物資都出現了短缺。而且，到了4月和5月，由於許多生鮮加工廠——例如蛋白質加工廠、肉類和家禽加工廠等等——出現了新冠疫情高峰，導致一些問題出現。

And so it's hard to project completely. I think historic -- of late, we have tried to build a little extra inventory where we can, in some of those key things that aren't going to go out of style like paper goods and cleaning supplies. Although then -- and you hit the next rush of spiking and whatever extra inventory you had, it goes away pretty quickly.

所以很難做出完全的預測。我認為，就歷史數據而言——最近，我們一直在盡可能地增加一些庫存，尤其是在一些不會過時的關鍵商品上，例如紙製品和清潔用品。然而，一旦下一波需求高峰到來，先前增加的庫存很快就會耗盡。

Look, we'll continue to work around it. We work -- I think in some cases, it's a little easier in the sense that we have fewer suppliers to deal with, we have fewer items to deal with. Arguably in other cases, given our huge volumes, that creates its own challenges sometimes. I think the bigger challenge is going to be post May last year -- or this past year, June is when we saw kind of sales strength, not just in those key essential categories like fresh foods and foods and sundries and paper goods and health and beauty aids, but also on the nonfood side, items for the home, if you will, and those types of basic items and, again, people spending some of those dollars.

你看，我們會繼續想辦法應對。我認為在某些情況下，情況會稍微好一些，因為我們需要對接的供應商少，需要處理的商品種類也少。但不可否認的是，在其他情況下，鑑於我們龐大的銷量，有時也會帶來新的挑戰。我認為更大的挑戰將出現在去年五月之後——或者說去年六月，我們看到了銷售的強勁增長，不僅體現在新鮮食品、日用品、紙製品、保健美容用品等關鍵必需品類別，也體現在非食品類商品，例如家居用品等基本生活用品，以及人們願意在這些商品上消費。

Look, some things will improve and some things may be degraded a little bit. Some things that are degraded may take a while and not everything is going to happen. A light bulb is not going to go off 1 day and everything is going to get better from a food standpoint in terms of restaurants being opened.

你看，有些事情會好轉，有些事情可能會略有惡化。有些惡化的情況需要一段時間才能改善，而且並非所有事情都會解決。餐飲業不會一夕之間就迎刃而解，餐廳重新開業的情況也不會立刻好轉。

So I think we're in it together, and we feel pretty good that we've got a good format to serve our members well, and we'll go from there.

所以我覺得我們同舟共濟，而且我們感覺我們已經找到了一個能夠很好地服務於我們會員的良好模式，接下來我們會繼續努力。

And as far as, I don't know, the events, I know you have road shows. I don't know how prevalent they've been. Your mailers. Are there things that you can change the cadence of, either to get more aggressive? Grocery, you've taken a huge amount of share this year. Is that an area you're going to lean into stronger? Just curious how you're thinking about the merchandise -- how the merchants are prepping for the upcoming year.

至於活動方面，我不太清楚，我知道你們有巡迴推介會，但不知道效果如何。還有你們的電子郵件推廣，有沒有辦法調整推廣頻率，讓它更積極一些？今年你們在食品雜貨領域佔據了很大的市場份額，這是你們打算專注於發展的領域嗎？我很好奇你們是如何看待商品銷售的——商家們是如何為來年做準備的。

Well, as it relates to promotional forms that we do like the MVM mailers or even online type of mailers, needless to say, some of those have been changed because some of the big ticket nonfood -- not big ticket, I'm sorry. Some of the big size items that are always in there, like paper goods, like cleaning supplies, in some cases, we've had eliminated some of those items from the mailer. We put other items in. In some cases, it's done fine. In some cases, it's a little bit less of a sales increase. But that's not just going forward. That's been in the last few months as well that we've changed those things.

至於我們常用的促銷形式，例如MVM郵件或線上郵件，不用說，其中一些已經做了調整，因為一些大件的非食品類商品——抱歉，不是大件商品，而是一些體積較大的商品，比如紙製品、清潔用品等等，我們有時會從郵件中移除這些商品，換成其他商品。有些情況下，效果不錯；有些情況下，銷售成長略有放緩。但這並非一成不變，過去幾個月我們也一直在進行這些調整。

I think we've been pretty good at pivoting and adding new items. I think the examples of -- for Christmas, while we may have -- maybe we went a little too deep into cutting back, not that they were big cuts, but we're running out of some of those decorative things a week or 2 earlier than we would have liked to.

我認為我們在調整策略和增加新品方面做得相當不錯。舉個例子——比如聖誕節，雖然我們可能——或許在削減開支方面做得有點過頭了，倒不是說削減幅度很大，但有些裝飾品的庫存比我們預期的提前了一兩週就用完了。

We also though have found success in lots of essential, basic fundamental items. I don't think this -- I think this is the first Christmas that we probably brought in barbecue grills and pressure washers to market. And they're doing well because people are buying gifts for the home.

不過，我們也發現很多基本必需品都賣得很好。我覺得——這可能是我們第一次在聖誕節期間把燒烤架和高壓清洗機推向市場。而且它們賣得不錯，因為人們都在買家居用品作為禮物。

Ramp-up of [groceries].

食品雜貨供應增加。

And your next question comes from the line of Mr. Mike Baker of D.A. Davidson.

你的下一個問題來自 D.A. Davidson 的 Mike Baker 先生。

I was a little curious on the holiday trends. 2 questions, really. One, by trying to advertise and get customers to spread out their sales and come in a little bit early, do you think there was any pull forward of holiday sales into November from December? And then a second part of the holiday question, I think you said that you're out of stock quickly in some of the seasonal items. Do you think you could have made -- been a little bit more aggressive on the seasonal stuff? How much do you think your sales could have been up if you had done that?

我對節日銷售趨勢有點好奇。其實有兩個問題。第一，您認為透過廣告宣傳，鼓勵顧客分散購物時間，提早到店，是否能將原本在12月的節日銷售額提前到11月？第二，關於節日銷售，您之前提到過一些季節性商品很快就售罄。您覺得如果當初在季節性商品上更積極一些，銷售額可能會提高多少？

Yes. Well, first of all, talking to the buyers, they definitely feel that some of the merchandise and sales were pulled forward into November, not only from December but even the week of November. There's been articles out there about Thanksgiving and overall, not a Costco-specific, but just in general about what's going on online and what have you. And so certainly, some of that kind of got pushed forward.

是的。首先，我和採購員聊過，他們確實感覺到有些商品和促銷活動提前到了11月，不僅是12月的，甚至還有11月那週的。網路上有很多關於感恩節的文章，也有一些文章提到了整體情況，雖然不是專門針對Costco的，但都是關於線上促銷活動等等。所以，肯定有一些促銷活動被提前了。

In terms of some decorative things, I mean, there are examples where instead of buying 10% more this year of a given item, we bought 10% or 20% less. So we still bought a lot. We -- it's not like we cut our order back by half. But in retrospect, we probably could have sold a little bit more. I don't have a dollar number. It's probably not that meaningful. For every negative, there's another positive. Needless to say, our comps overall have been very strong.

就一些裝飾品而言，例如，有些商品我們今年沒有像往年那樣增加10%的採購量，而是減少了10%或20%。所以我們的採購量仍然很大。我們——並不是說我們把訂單量削減了一半。但事後看來，我們或許可以賣得更多。我沒有具體的金額數據。這可能意義不大。凡事有利必有弊。毋庸置疑，我們的整體業績表現非常強勁。

Yes. That's fair. And if I could ask one more, I guess, unrelated question. The MFI, the 7.1% increase, that's better than it has been. A nice acceleration there. Any color as to where that acceleration came from, from what have been more in the 4%, 5% range in the last few quarters?

是的，這很合理。如果可以的話，我再問一個可能不太相關的問題。 MFI（市場融資指數）成長了7.1%，比之前好多了，成長相當可觀。能否解釋一下這種加速成長的原因？畢竟過去幾季的成長率都在4%到5%之間。

Well, I think -- in terms of shopping frequency?

嗯，我覺得──就購物頻率而言？

No, membership fee income.

不，是會員費收入。

No, the -- correct.

不，是——正確。

Oh, membership fee -- oh, I'm sorry. Okay. I didn't hear the first part of the question. Well, I think we opened a few more units than we did a year earlier. That -- without looking that deeply, that's probably most of it.

哦，會員費——哦，不好意思。好的。我沒聽清楚問題的前半部。嗯，我想我們今年新開的店比去年同期多了一些。這——我沒仔細查，大概就是主要原因了。

And your next question comes from Chuck Grom of Gordon Haskett.

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

Richard, when you look at your online offering, can you remind us where it stands in terms of total mix of business and also level of profitability relative to the store? And looking ahead, what categories you may start going into more?

理查德，你審視一下你們的線上業務，能否簡要介紹一下它在整個業務組合中的位置，以及相對於實體店的盈利水平？展望未來，你們可能會拓展哪些品類？

Well, I think in terms of -- in store, of course, in warehouse, we've got about 3,800 active items online. We typically have somewhere in the high single-digit thousands, I mean, call it, 9,000-plus. I'm sorry.

嗯，我覺得就實體店和倉庫而言，我們線上大約有3800件在賣商品。我們通常線上商品數量在幾千件左右，我的意思是，大概9000件以上吧。不好意思。

7%.

7%。

And in terms of percent of sales, it's about 7% of sales. Now we don't include in that number, as I mentioned, like the...

就銷售額百分比而言，約佔7%。正如我剛才提到的，這個數字不包括…

Third party.

第三者。

Third-party sales like the Instacart same-day fresh because they're employee or contracted employees coming in to Costco shopping just like any other customer coming to shop. So you can add a little bit more to that. But in terms of what we call online, it's about 7%. I think it was 6% in fiscal '20 for the entirety. And of course, it was halfway through the year when you saw e-com percentages increases jumped dramatically with the advent of COVID.

第三方銷售，例如Instacart的當日新鮮配送，因為他們是Costco的員工或合約工，像其他顧客一樣到Costco購物。所以這部分銷售可以再增加一些。但就我們所說的線上銷售而言，大約佔7%。我記得2020財年全年是6%。當然，到了年中，隨著新冠疫情的爆發，電商銷售額的佔比出現了大幅成長。

And then just level of profitability?

那麼，獲利水平又如何呢？

Overall, e-commerce is a little less profitable. You've got -- category-wise, it's profitable. You've got -- category-wise, you've got merchandise categories that don't include some of the highest gross margin components of our business like fresh, like apparel in a big way in terms of the penetration. You've got electronics, which is a lower-than-average margin business, both in-store and online and a much bigger percentage of penetration online. So those are examples. Certainly, the profitability of e-commerce has been helped with the types of comp sales increases we've had over the past year.

整體而言，電子商務的獲利能力略遜一籌。從品類來看，它仍然有盈利。但有些商品類別並不包含我們業務中毛利率最高的部分，例如生鮮食品，以及滲透率較高的服裝。電子產品的毛利率低於平均水平，無論線上或線下都是如此，而且其線上滲透率更高。以上僅舉幾例。當然，過去一年同店銷售額的成長也提升了電子商務的獲利能力。

But also over this past year, there's some of the cost inefficiencies of growing it so fast, we -- in terms of fulfillment, as we are continually adding locations where it can be shipped out of and getting closer to the customer as this overall size of the business has grown a lot. Yes. And as I mentioned earlier, the investment in Innovel or call -- what's now we're calling Costco Logistics, that was, as we expected, a hit year-over-year to margin simply because we're -- it's being ramped up and upgrading.

但過去一年，業務快速成長也帶來了一些成本效益的不足，例如在物流配送方面。由於業務規模大幅擴張，我們不斷增加出貨地點，力求更貼近客戶。是的。正如我之前提到的，對Innovel（現在我們稱之為Costco物流）的投資，正如我們預期的那樣，對利潤率造成了同比影響，原因很簡單，我們正在擴大規模並進行升級。

Got you. And then just a follow-up on Mike's question. And I pardon my near-term orientation of it. But when you look at the comp in November and the falloff at the end of the month, albeit still strong, just when you look back, if there's any learnings on to why you think sales fell off. And I'm curious if the revenue trends have started to bounce back.

明白了。然後我想就Mike的問題再補充一點。請原諒我比較關注短期情況。但是，看看11月份的同店銷售額，以及月底的下滑（儘管仍然強勁），回顧一下，您認為銷售額下滑的原因是什麼？我很想知道營收趨勢是否已經開始反彈。

I think it's -- I mean our best guess is it's complete pull forward. I mean the fact is people who have been marketing bigger ticket items and some of those types of holiday items earlier in November...

我認為——我的意思是，我們最好的猜測是，銷售會完全提前。事實上，那些早在11月初就開始銷售高價商品和一些節日商品的人…

Our Black Friday promotions, for the whole month.

我們的黑色星期五促銷活動將持續整個月。

Yes. Bob here mentioned that our Black Friday promotions this year, more of those things we promoted earlier in the month.

是的。鮑伯提到，我們今年的黑色星期五促銷活動，和我們月初推廣的那些活動有許多相似之處。

Everybody.

所有人。

And not just us but everybody else out there, too.

不僅是我們，也包括其他所有人。

And your next question comes from Mr. Michael Lasser of UBS.

下一個問題來自瑞銀集團的麥可‧拉塞爾先生。

Richard, you outlined some nice holiday gifts that some people on this call might be considering getting for loved ones this season. When you look at your sales compared to the rest of the consumable retail landscape, most others are seeing a deceleration in their comp where Costco has seen an acceleration in its comp. Why do you think that is? Is it simply because customers -- members are coming in to buy the discretionary goods and loading up their baskets with the consumable items?

理查德，你列舉了一些不錯的節日禮物，在座的各位或許會考慮在這個節日季節送給親朋好友。當你把你們的銷售額與整個消費品零售市場進行比較時，你會發現大多數其他零售商的同店銷售額都在放緩，而好市多的同店銷售額卻在加速成長。你認為這是為什麼呢？只是因為顧客──也就是會員們──來店裡購買非必需品，同時也順便買了一些消耗品嗎？

We definitely think that -- look, being essential and recognizing that people clearly are coming in to buy food and key cleaning items and health and beauty aids and the like, that gets you in the door. And certainly, in our view, given that money is being spent on other things in normal years, perhaps it's being spent more for things for the home, we have that as well. And I think that has helped us in that regard.

我們確實認為——你看，作為必需品，並且意識到人們顯然是來購買食品、關鍵清潔用品、保健美容用品等等，這就能吸引顧客進店。當然，在我們看來，考慮到往年人們的錢會花在其他方面，也許今年會更多地花在家居用品上，而我們正好有這方面的產品。我認為這在這方面對我們有幫助。

Okay. So it really comes down to mix [that Costco puts off but not enough to really compare].

好的。所以關鍵在於配料組合（Costco 的配料組合雖然也有，但不足以進行真正的比較）。

I'm bias. I'd like to think part of it is people feel hopefully at least relatively safe coming in to a big wide open box environment, where we've done, we think, a pretty good job of social distancing and other safety protocols.

我承認我帶有偏見。我願意相信，部分原因是人們覺得來到這樣一個寬敞明亮的場所至少相對安全，因為我們在保持社交距離和其他安全措施方面做得相當不錯。

Okay. And the core, core gross margin increase, it seems like it's a function of just the strong sales, allowing Costco to be able to sell through better than it might otherwise has been able to. Is that right that we should -- it could have gone both ways if...

好的。核心毛利率的成長，似乎只是強勁銷售的結果，使得 Costco 的銷售情況比以往更好。是這樣嗎？ ——如果情況有所不同，結果也可能相反…

I think -- yes. I think most of it is strong sales, which shows its brightest colors with fresh food, where you've got 2 cost components that have improved dramatically: spoilage and labor productivity. So that has certainly helped. The -- I had one other thought on it, but I can't seem to [call to mind]. Sorry. Oh, less promotion.

我想——是的。我認為主要歸功於強勁的銷售，尤其是在生鮮食品方面，因為生鮮食品有兩個成本要素得到了顯著改善：損耗和勞動生產力。所以這肯定有所幫助。 ——我還有一點想法，但我一時想不起來了。抱歉。哦，還有，減少促銷活動。

The other, Michael, is I think you've all read about this from an industry perspective. There's been less promotional activities out there, while we were still giving great values on things, when you look at TVs in general, while prices have come down across the board just because they always do over time, and TVs keep getting -- seem to be getting better, bigger and less expensive, there's not the kind of promotional money being thrown at it by the manufacturers because they haven't had to. And so I think that too has had some impact.

邁克爾，另一方面，我想你們都從行業角度了解過這個問題。促銷活動減少了，雖然我們仍然提供很優惠的價格，但就電視而言，雖然價格總體上有所下降（這是必然趨勢），而且電視似乎一直在變得更好、更大、更便宜，但製造商並沒有像以前那樣投入大量資金進行促銷，因為他們沒有必要這樣做。所以我認為這也產生了一定的影響。

And your next question comes from the line of Mr. Scot from RBC Capital Markets.

你的下一個問題來自加拿大皇家銀行資本市場的史考特先生。

Scot Ciccarelli. So I believe some of the products you guys sell via your website or e-commerce are for members only, but not all of them, or it doesn't look like that from a labeling perspective. So assuming it's not just a labeling difference, how much of your e-commerce sales are coming from members?

斯科特·西卡雷利。所以，我認為你們網站或電商平台上銷售的部分產品是會員專享，但並非全部，或至少從標籤上看並非如此。假設這不只是標籤上的差異，那麼你們電商平台的銷售額有多少來自會員？

Virtually all. I believe part of the challenges is on some items -- as we work with our suppliers and ourselves as well, we want you to be able to have to sign in to see the prices.

幾乎所有商品都是如此。我認為部分挑戰在於某些商品——由於我們與供應商以及我們自己都在努力，我們希望您能夠登入後查看價格。

I got it. Okay. And then, Richard, what's the update today regarding how much of your e-commerce sales are being drop-shipped from vendors versus kind of delivered through Costco?

我明白了。好的。那麼，理查德，今天關於你們電商銷售額中由供應商直接發貨和透過 Costco 配送的比例有什麼最新進展嗎？

About 50-50.

大約五五開。

About 50-50.

大約五五開。

A little less.

少一點。

A little less than 50% is being...

略低於50%…

Drop-shipped.

代發貨。

Drop-shipped.

代發貨。

And next question from Karen Short of Barclays.

接下來是巴克萊銀行的凱倫·肖特提出的問題。

A couple of questions I wanted to ask. So first, just on COVID and wages. So the $212 million you called out obviously gave us a breakout on the impact on cost of goods versus SG&A. But that was a little higher than the number, I think, the $14 million per week that you've guided. So wondering if that's -- what the delta would have been because that would have gotten us to about $168 million. And then wondering if you can give a little color on what the -- like other cleaning component might be, would have been in this quarter and then how to think about it into next quarter because presumably, just like I asked last quarter, that January 3 date is probably not the end date, I would assume.

我想問幾個問題。首先，關於新冠疫​​情和工資。您提到的2.12億美元顯然讓我們了解了商品成本和銷售、管理及行政費用（SG&A）受到的影響。但這個數字比您之前預測的每週1400萬美元略高。我想知道這其中的差額是多少，因為如果按照您之前預測的，這個數字應該會達到1.68億美元左右。另外，我想請您簡要說明一下，其他清潔費用項目在本季可能的情況，以及下個季度的情況。因為就像我上個季度問的那樣，1月3日可能不是最終的截止日期。

Well, we'll find out. But needless to say I can't comment on that. But a big chunk of the difference of $14 million or -- I may have rounded honestly down to $14 million, and now it's rounding up to whatever. But at the end of the day, there's more hours, the biggest delta, more cumulative hours. We have...

嗯，我們會知道的。但不用說，我無法對此置評。不過，1400萬美元的差額中很大一部分——我可能誠實地向下取整到了1400萬美元，現在取整到多少就多少了。但歸根究底，最大的差距在於工時，也就是累積工時。我們有…

Okay. And then the cleaning component?

好的。那麼清潔部分呢？

Immaterial amount.

數量微不足道。

That's relatively small.

這相對來說比較小。

Okay. And then I'm wondering if you could give a little color on the expansion of the Instacart relationship. You obviously listed a couple of SKUs that you've added on to that with respect to the third party. Can you give color on what the markup is on nonfood items versus food and then give a breakdown on what that would be for members versus nonmembers on the markup?

好的。接下來我想請您詳細介紹一下與 Instacart 合作關係的拓展。您顯然列出了一些您透過第三方平台新增的 SKU。可否說明非食品類商品和食品類商品的加價幅度，並分別細分一下會員和非會員的加價幅度？

Well, I can't be that specific. We continue -- over the last 3 or 4 years, we've continued to work to lower the effective average markup across the board on items. There is some discretion, some can be a little lower than that and some can be a little higher, but there's an average, which includes both their markup plus whatever other fees that person is spending, whether it's a per delivery fee or per monthly fee to Instacart. As -- given some of the unique issues during the end of the year with the high demand for shipping and the capacity issues out there with the third-party shippers, we -- and given that Instacart is always coming in, we've added some items to the fray. In some cases, there is a maximum markup on those that don't -- that is, in many cases, smaller than that -- quite a bit smaller than that other -- that mid- to high-teen number percentage-wise.

嗯，我無法給出具體細節。在過去三、四年裡，我們一直在努力降低所有商品的平均有效加價。當然，我們會酌情考慮，有些商品的加價可能會略低一些，有些可能會略高一些，但有一個平均值，其中包含了商品的加價以及顧客支付的其他費用，例如每次配送費或每月支付給 Instacart 的費用。考慮到年底期間配送需求激增以及第三方物流公司運力不足等特殊情況，再加上 Instacart 的持續運營，我們對部分商品的加價進行了調整。在某些情況下，我們對部分商品的加價設定了最高限額——也就是說，很多情況下，這些商品的加價幅度遠低於平均水平，通常比平均水平低很多，也就是十幾到十幾個百分點。

Okay. And then just last question. In terms of the MFI, obviously, the -- I think January of '21 would be the new time line in terms of the tax deductibility in California. Is there any thoughts in terms of time line in terms of how you would think about an MFI or a membership fee increase? Because I think in the past, you've historically done that when you've actually seen counterintuitively traffic slowing, and it seems like you may be looking at slower traffic just based on tough compares as we get into parts of next year. So philosophically color on that.

好的。最後一個問題。關於MFI，顯然，我認為2021年1月將是加州稅收抵扣的新時間節點。您對MFI或會費上漲有什麼想法嗎？因為我認為，過去您通常會在流量反而下降的時候提高會員費，而從明年年初的對比來看，流量似乎也會下降。所以，請您從理論上談談您的看法。

Well, I mean, historically, as you know, for 35 years, we've effectively raised the basic fee $5 every roughly 5 years. When I say roughly, it could be 5, 5.5 years. And the executive membership has been raised to -- originally started at 100, now it's 110 to 120. The last time we did the increase was -- I believe, was in June-ish of '16. So 5 years...

嗯，我的意思是，正如您所知，過去35年來，我們基本上每五年左右就會將基本會費提高5美元。我說“大約”，可能是五年，也可能是五年半。執行會員人數也提高了——最初是100人，現在是110到120人。我們上次提高會費是在－我記得是2016年6月左右。所以，五年…

'17.

'17。

That was June of '16.

那是2016年6月。

['17. It'd be 4 years.]

【17年。那將是4年。 】

Are you sure?

你確定嗎？

[I can check that].

我可以查證一下。

We'll check on that. But if you -- it was June of one of the years, either '16 or '17. But it will be 5 years from then that we might look. You mentioned that we've done it when things are -- sales have been stronger and when sales have been weaker, when the economies took a hit or whatever else. We look at it somewhat independently of that. We look at it and we feel, have we improved the value of the membership by more than that $5 or respective $5 or $10? And I'm not suggesting we might wait or not, but time will tell. Historically, we've always felt very good about when we've done it, and certainly the value proposition has been enhanced much -- at a much greater multiple than the $5 or $10.

我們會核實一下。但如果你──那是某年的六月，可能是2016年或2017年。不過，從那以後，我們可能要等五年才能再考慮這個問題。你提到過，無論銷售情況好壞，經濟受到衝擊或其他什麼原因，我們都做過這件事。我們考慮這個問題時，會獨立於這些因素。我們會評估，我們是否透過增加會員費，使會員價值提升了超過5美元或10美元？我並不是說我們可能會等，也可能不會，但時間會證明一切。從歷史經驗來看，我們一直對這樣做感到非常滿意，而且會員價值的提升幅度肯定遠遠超過了5美元或10美元。

The next question is from Oliver Chen of Cowen.

下一個問題來自 Cowen 公司的 Oliver Chen。

Richard, regarding what's ahead with vaccinations, do you see a role that your pharmacy will play in that? And also in this dynamic environment, how are you thinking about managing inventory versus sales as we look forward to hopefully a pathway to vaccination, et cetera?

理查德，關於疫苗接種的未來發展，您認為您的藥局將在其中扮演什麼角色？此外，在當前瞬息萬變的環境下，隨著我們期待疫苗接種之路的順利開啟，您打算如何管理庫存和銷售？

I believe there -- we, in the country, are currently in the first phase of the vaccination process. We are not participating in that, but I believe Phase 2, which will be just a short period down the road, our pharmacies will also be part of the many pharmacies throughout the country that are going to be providing the service of vaccinations for that.

我相信，我們國家目前正處於疫苗接種的第一階段。我們尚未參與第一階段，但我相信，在不久之後的第二階段，我們的藥局也將像全國其他許多藥局一樣，提供疫苗接種服務。

We are in Phase 1...

我們目前處於第一階段…

We are in Phase 1 in the state of Alaska only currently. But I think throughout the country, we plan to be in Phase 2, which will be the big push after this first initial round. And in terms of managing inventories, while space is not infinite, certainly, the cost of carrying a little extra inventory isn't very expensive right now given the very low interest rates. But at the end of the day, as I mentioned a little earlier, we -- I think we plan positively in terms of how our sales have been. And to the extent that -- in the example of those seasonal items, we came down a little bit but not a lot. And I think we'll continue to do that kind of planning. A lot of times, on items that are short, but there's certainly no risk of having -- the only risk of having some extra paper towels for a few weeks is the risk of having them. There's not any obsolescence or markdown risk on it. We always tried in times when there's more of that available, we'll build up a few extra weeks of supply. But overall, I don't see a big change in our inventory turns or payables ratios.

目前我們僅在阿拉斯加州處於第一階段。但我認為，在全國範圍內，我們計劃進入第二階段，這將是第一輪之後的大力推進。至於庫存管理，雖然空間並非無限，但鑑於目前的低利率，持有少量額外庫存的成本並不高。但最終，正如我之前提到的，我認為我們根據銷售情況制定了積極的計劃。以季節性商品為例，我們略微減少了庫存，但幅度不大。我認為我們會繼續採取這種計劃方式。很多時候，對於缺貨的商品，我們不會承擔任何風險——例如，儲備一些額外的紙巾幾週，唯一的風險就是庫存本身。不存在任何過時或降價的風險。我們總是會在供應充足的時候，盡可能儲備幾週的庫存。但總體而言，我認為我們的庫存週轉率或應付帳款比率不會發生太大變化。

Okay. And e-commerce...

好的。還有電子商務…

They're dictated more by comp sales than anything. When we were enjoying a -- pre-COVID, a 6% to 8% comp sales number, inventories as a percent of -- payables as a percent of inventories was whatever the number was. When we saw the big increase in comps, you saw the payables as a percent of inventories going up.

它們主要受同店銷售額的影響。在新冠疫情之前，同店銷售額成長6%到8%的時候，庫存佔庫存的百分比——應付帳款佔庫存的百分比——是固定的。當同店銷售額大幅成長時，應付帳款佔庫存的百分比也隨之上升。

Got it. That's very helpful. And on the topic of e-commerce, as we think about longer-term growth rates as well as new customer acquisition that you're seeing an engagement online, what are some of the major catalysts for innovation going forward that you'll implement or that you're looking to implement? And then how do you think growth rates may evolve as hopefully reopenings occur eventually?

明白了，這很有幫助。關於電子商務，當我們考慮長期成長率以及新客戶獲取時，您也看到了線上互動，那麼未來推動創新的主要因素有哪些？您會實施哪些措施，或正在考慮實施哪些措施？此外，隨著疫情最終得到控制，您認為成長率會如何變化？

Well, look, we, as much as anybody, want things to get back to normal from a business standpoint but also most importantly from a personal standpoint. And over the next couple of years, God willing, starting with this process of vaccinations and vaccines and hopefully a big chunk of this progress through by the beginning of -- during the summer, people will get out more, will be going back to restaurants and the like. And will that have an impact on our food sales? Of course, it will. Some of this positive will be sticky. Some of the new members will be sticky. And we'll go from there. I think that there are lots of attributes to value and customer loyalty.

嗯，你看，我們和大家一樣，都希望一切盡快恢復正常，這不僅關乎商業，更重要的是關乎個人生活。如果上帝保佑，未來幾年，隨著疫苗接種工作的推進，希望到今年夏天初，大部分疫苗接種工作都能順利完成，人們會更多地外出活動，重返餐廳等等。這會對我們的食品銷售產生影響嗎？當然會。其中一些正面因素會持續存在，有些新客戶也會長期留存。我們會根據實際情況再做打算。我認為價值和客戶忠誠度有很多方面需要考慮。

Certainly, the best prices on great quality merchandise that the member trusts, in our view, is the biggest attribute, and that's where we start from. We -- e-commerce is certainly -- and the acquisition of Innovel in terms of big ticket items and having a great service at a great value for those items, we think, helps us. But ultimately, we still want our members to come into the warehouse. When they come in, they see the items, and they're more likely to buy some of those items. And certainly, driving them in with great value and great quality is what we're all about.

當然，我們認為，以最優惠的價格提供會員信賴的高品質商品是最重要的優勢，也是我們一切工作的出發點。我們——當然——電子商務，以及收購 Innovel，尤其是在高價商品方面，能夠以極具競爭力的價格提供優質服務，我們認為這對我們大有裨益。但最終，我們仍然希望會員能夠親臨實體店。當他們走進店裡，看到商品時，他們更有可能購買其中的一些。當然，以高性價比吸引他們進店是我們一切工作的核心。

That's helpful. And last on that logistics, Costco Logistics part. What should we know about as we model that going forward in terms of the margin headwinds and the dimensions around the size of that business relative to total?

這很有幫助。最後一點是關於物流，也就是Costco物流部分。在建立未來模型時，我們應該了解哪些方面，例如利潤率面臨的不利因素以及該業務規模相對於整體規模的影響？

Well, the only 2 data points we've given you is in Q4, year-over-year, it was about, I think, an 8 basis point margin hit. In Q1, which we just reported for this new fiscal year, it was a 6 basis point margin hit. As guessing games go, assume that there'll be constant improvement in that over the next several quarters so that it won't be a negative. Now mind you, that doesn't include any benefit we get from increased sales of those items and the margin associated with that. But when we bought this thing, we knew that it would be dilutive from an earnings standpoint for certainly the first year and perhaps into the second year, hopefully, on a decreasing basis. And certainly, the first 2 quarters would indicate a little of that. But at the end of the day, we think it -- those companies that have had their own infrastructure to be able to do last-mile delivery and installations, it's a positive. Certainly, the home improvement companies have done that, the retailers, and it works out for us, and we're excited about what we can do with it.

嗯，我們目前只提供了兩個數據點：第四季度同比來看，利潤率下降了大約8個基點；第一季（我們剛剛公佈了新財年的業績）下降了6個基點。我們假設未來幾季情況會持續改善，因此不會造成負面影響。需要注意的是，這還不包括這些產品銷售成長帶來的收益以及相應的利潤率。但是，當我們收購這項業務時，我們就知道它肯定會在第一年甚至第二年稀釋我們的盈利，希望稀釋程度能夠逐漸降低。當然，前兩季的業績也印證了這一點。但最終，我們認為，對於那些擁有自有基礎設施，能夠進行最後一公里配送和安裝的公司來說，這是一件好事。當然，家居裝飾公司和零售商都這麼做了，這對我們來說是好事，我們對能用它做什麼感到興奮。

Your next question, from Edward Kelly of Wells Fargo.

下一個問題來自富國銀行的愛德華‧凱利。

Richard, you mentioned freight. I was hoping you could provide just a little bit more color on the headwind. And then you talked about an improvement maybe coming in March. Any more color behind that?

理查德，你提到了貨運。我希望你能更詳細地介紹一下逆風的情況。你還說三月情況可能會有所改善。關於這一點，還有其他消息嗎？

Not really. Before each call, I'll sit down with the head of merchandising and some of the other senior people in merchandising and just get the color on their departments and what's going on. And it was -- by the way, comment that with things coming from Asia, as an example, there's -- or in general, there's container shortages. And so it may take a few extra days to get things on to a ship or the ship may go sailing not full in some cases. The same thing is on some of the big ports in the United States like on the West Coast, particularly, they were -- they mentioned 2 to 4 days of delay. Again, 2 days to 4 days is not a lot. But when you're moving inventory fast, you want to have it -- once it's -- you ordered it, you want it built and put on the ship and get here and on to our floor. So it's not a big deal. It's -- and the comment was, I said, when will it improve? And he said probably not until February, March. So just -- that's what I threw out. Not any more impactful than that.

其實不然。每次通話前，我都會和商品部主管以及其他一些資​​深人員坐下來，了解他們部門的情況和正在發生的事情。順便提一下，例如從亞洲進口的貨物，普遍存在貨櫃短缺的問題。因此，貨物可能需要額外幾天才能裝船，或者在某些情況下，船隻可能無法滿載出港。美國一些大型港口，特別是西海岸的港口，也有同樣的問題，他們提到會延誤2到4天。當然，2到4天不算多。但是，當你需要快速週轉庫存時，你希望一旦訂購，就能盡快生產、裝船、運抵我們這裡並擺上貨架。所以，這不算什麼大問題。我問他，這種情況什麼時候才能改善？他說可能要到二月或三月。所以，我就把這些都說了。沒什麼比這更有影響力的了。

Okay. And then I just had a question on e-com and just digital strategy generally. Any updated thoughts on buy online, pick up at store? I mean it has essentially kind of become a standard offering across the industry, and we've obviously accelerated a lot of digital adoption. Just curious as to whether you're rethinking that at all.

好的。我剛才還有一個關於電子商務和整體數位化策略的問題。對於「線上購買，線下取貨」這種模式，您有什麼最新的想法嗎？我的意思是，它基本上已經成為整個行業的標準服務，而且我們顯然也加速了數位轉型。我只是好奇您是否正在重新考慮這種模式。

We're not rethinking it. We continue to look at it and scratch our heads a little bit. But at this juncture, we don't have any current plan to do so.

我們並沒有重新考慮這個問題。我們一直在研究這個問題，也一直在思考這個問題。但就目前而言，我們沒有任何相關的計劃。

Okay. And then just lastly for you. Fuel, I think, gross profit per gallon this quarter was probably up quite a bit. I mean I look at the OPIS data, it looks like maybe double. Is that about right? And then what did gallons sold do this quarter?

好的。最後一個問題。我覺得本季每加侖燃油的毛利可能大幅成長。我看了一下OPIS的數據，好像翻了一番。是這樣嗎？那麼本季燃油銷量如何呢？

We don't -- gallons sold were down, not down as much as they had been in its trough a few months ago. And you're right on margins. Not a double, I can't give you any quantitative number there. But in terms of -- margins were up year-over-year as a percent, and gallons were down year-over-year.

銷量沒有下降——雖然銷量下降了，但沒有幾個月前低谷時期下降那麼多。你說的利潤率是對的。不是翻倍，我無法給出具體的數字。但就利潤率而言，同比增長了，而銷量同比下降了。

And your next question, from Chris Horvers of JPMorgan.

下一個問題來自摩根大通的克里斯霍弗斯。

So I wanted to follow up on the holiday pull-forward question. I was curious what the merchants are thinking about how the season progresses, particularly as we get close to Christmas, some retailers think that given the earlier cutoff time to get the gifts in time for Christmas that there could be a big brick-and-mortar surge. I think other retailers are saying that, no, it just started like with Prime Day. And it's just been a pull forward, so don't expect anything out of the -- anything unusual close to Christmas. So curious what your merchants are thinking.

所以我想就假日提前銷售的問題繼續探討一下。我很好奇商家們對銷售季的走向有何看法，尤其是在聖誕節臨近之際。一些零售商認為，由於聖誕節禮物的截止日期提前，實體店的銷售可能會大幅增加。但我認為其他零售商則表示，並非如此，銷售季才剛開始，就像亞馬遜會員日一樣。這只是提前銷售，所以不要指望聖誕節臨近時會出現任何異常情況。我很想知道你們的商家是怎麼想的。

Well, merchants are feeling pretty, I would say, aggressive with a small A. They feel that, again, some of it was pulled forward, but there's still -- and again, running out of some gift wrapping paper 2 weeks before you wanted to is not the end of the world. But every sale is a sale that we want. In the same token, bringing in fundamental items that if you end up having a few extra SKUs or a few extra quantity of certain SKUs the day after Christmas is not going to kill you because it's not stuff that's seasonal that has to be marked down in a big way. So I think that we're going into it recognizing that our sales overall, particularly brick-and-mortar, have done well, that we're basing our assumptions of what we're going to do even over the next 2 weeks positive relative to this -- recognizing that there could be some pull forward and there could be some because of the dates got a little longer on shipping. But at the end of the day, we think that -- we agree with you, that could help the in-store experience, and we'll see.

嗯，商家們現在感覺相當積極，可以說是相當樂觀。他們覺得，雖然部分銷售提早了，但——而且，提前兩週發現禮品包裝紙賣完了，這也不是什麼世界末日。但每一筆銷售我們都想要。同樣，聖誕節後幾天，一些基本款商品的庫存或特定商品的數量稍微多一些，也不會造成太大影響，因為它們不是季節性商品，不需要大幅降價。所以，我認為我們現在的銷售情況總體良好，尤其是實體店的銷售情況，因此我們對未來兩週的計劃也持樂觀態度——當然，我們也意識到可能會有一些提前銷售的情況，以及一些發貨時間延長的情況。但歸根結底，我們認為——我們同意你的看法，這可能有助於提升店內體驗，我們拭目以待。

Got it. And then in terms of the -- you called out travel, in gross margin, as a big impact there. Is there something around the accounting of that? You haven't called it out prior, maybe it was just because it's relative to other things in the ancillary business. But is there an accounting thing? Is there seasonality to that? And would we expect that to sort of get worse for some reason?

明白了。然後，關於您提到的差旅費用對毛利率的影響——您之前提到過，差旅費用影響很大。這方面的會計處理有什麼特殊之處嗎？您之前沒有特別提到，可能是因為它與其他輔助業務項目相比影響較小。但是否有會計處理的問題？是否存在季節性因素？我們是否可以預期這種情況會因為某些原因而惡化？

Well, what the accounts make you do, just like in the 10-K, you got to rank them in order of dollars. So in the case of travel, first of all, it's a very high gross margin business. To the extent that we're simply acting as a broker like our car rentals, there's sales -- and no cost of sales equals gross margin or very little cost of sales. Only when we curate an item and take ownership of it, if you will, like 100 cruise ship weeks or whatever, I'm making this example up, where you sell $100,000 of something and make a few thousand dollars or $5,000 of margin, that's a 5%. But you have big chunks of that business that are 80-plus percent margin. So it's a business that started to show a little bit of life as the summer -- we entered summer. But with the spiking of COVID in the last several weeks, that has dissipated quite a bit. And even some of the life that occurred in the summer were bookings out as -- for Christmas, some of those are being canceled as you would expect them to be. So it's -- that's just -- it's the rank order of them, which one hit harder a little bit.

嗯，就像在10-K表格裡一樣，帳目要求你按金額大小對各項業務進行排序。就旅遊業務而言，首先，這是一個毛利率非常高的行業。如果我們只是像租車業務一樣充當經紀人，那麼就有銷售——銷售成本為零就意味著毛利率很高，或者銷售成本很低。只有當我們策劃並負責某個專案時，例如100週的郵輪行程（我只是舉個例子），你賣出價值10萬美元的產品，賺幾千美元或5000美元的利潤，也就是5%。但這個業務的大部分利潤率都在80%以上。所以，隨著夏季的到來，這個行業開始出現一些復甦跡象。但隨著過去幾週新冠疫情的再次爆發，這種復甦勢頭已經消退了不少。甚至夏季的一些活動也像聖誕節一樣被預訂一空，這也在意料之中。所以，這只是──這只是它們影響程度的排序，哪個打擊更大一些而已。

Got it. And then the last question is on price gaps relative to peers and club and grocery, how are you -- what do you -- have they widened? Where do you see them now? I think if you go back to this '09 time frame where you sort of lapped peak food-at-home inflation and you lapped some food-at-home wallet gains, you seem to get more aggressive on price. So just want to get your thoughts on where you see the price gaps now and how you're thinking about that into '21.

明白了。最後一個問題是關於與同行、俱樂部和超市的價格差距，您認為這些差距擴大了嗎？您現在的預期是什麼？我認為，如果回顧2009年，也就是家庭食品通膨達到高峰並經歷了消費者支出成長的時期，您似乎會在價格方面採取更激進的策略。所以我想聽聽您對目前價格差距的看法，以及您對2021年價格走勢的展望。

Well, I mean, when we look at our comp shops compared to other warehouse clubs as well as comp shops specifically on certain items and other traditional retail formats, we feel very good about our competitive moat, if you will. And we don't think that's an issue at all for us right now. But we're the ones that keep pushing the limits further.

嗯，我的意思是，當我們把我們的門市與其他倉儲式超市，以及特定商品和其他傳統零售業態的門市進行比較時，我們對自身的競爭優勢感到非常滿意。我們認為這目前對我們來說完全不是問題。而且，我們一直在不斷突破極限。

And next question, from Robert Moskow of Credit Suisse.

下一個問題來自瑞士信貸的羅伯特·莫斯科。

Richard, you mentioned that manufacturers, I guess, for packaged goods, they're not promoting as much, not giving as many discounts as usual because they don't have to. At any point, do you think that could flip the other way? And if so, what would drive it? Is it availability of supply or maybe a more intense competitive environment?

理查德，你提到過，包裝商品的生產商們，我想，他們現在促銷力道不如往常，折扣也少了，因為他們沒必要這麼做。你覺得這種情況有可能會逆轉嗎？如果會，是什麼因素導致這種情況發生？是供應情況，還是競爭環境更激烈？

Gosh, when I find out, I'll let you know. I mean what's happened, of course, with everything -- you mean the strength -- both the strength in electronics items, TVs, AirPods and everything else in between, and laptops and -- the demand for those things is enormous. And in some cases, some shortages of supplies in general, even if capacity has gone up, it could go up a lot more. So it's hard to say.

哎呀，等我弄清楚了，我會告訴你。我是說，當然，現在所有東西都出現了這種情況——你是說電子產品、電視、AirPods 以及其他各種電子產品，還有筆記型電腦等等——需求量巨大。而且在某些情況下，即使產能已經提高，供應仍然短缺，而且產能可能會大幅提升。所以很難說。

Okay. I was thinking more on the lines of packaged food. We've heard some categories putting promotions back in. Do you have any insight into that?

好的。我主要指的是包裝食品方面。我們聽說有些品類又開始搞促銷了。您對此有什麼了解嗎？

Okay. I don't. I'm sorry.

好吧，我不知道。對不起。

And next question, [from Greg Melich of] Evercore ISI.

下一個問題，來自 Evercore ISI 的 Greg Melich。

It's Greg Melich. I think that was me. So I have really 2 questions. One, was there any grocery inflation showing up? And we see CPI for grocery picking up, and there's less promotion. What are you guys seeing there?

我是格雷格·梅利奇。我想剛才那段話是我說的。我其實有兩個問題。第一，食品雜貨價格上漲了嗎？我們看到食品雜貨的消費者物價指數（CPI）在上漲，促銷活動卻減少了。你們那邊是怎麼看的？

Very, very, very little.

非常非常非常少。

3 verys.

3個非常。

So there's something but it's nothing like 4% or 5%, some of those other numbers we see out there?

所以確實有一些進展，但遠不及4%或5%之類的其他數字？

Oh, it's not even 1%. It's very, very, very little. 3 verys.

哦，連1%都不到。非常非常非常少。三個“非常”。

Triple verys.

三重非常。

On cash, so the special dividend, congratulations on keeping the special and getting it done. You should be back a little under $10 billion of cash. What's the right number that you want to run the business with, either still during COVID or even on the other side of it?

關於現金流，也就是特別股息，恭喜你們成功保留並完成了這項特別股息。你們的現金儲備應該會略低於100億美元。你們希望用多少現金來營運公司，無論是在新冠疫情期間還是疫情結束後？

Well, keep in mind, there's a chunk of it that is weekend debit and credit card receivables that could be $1 billion or $1.5 billion. There's upwards of just under $1 billion that is related to insurance captives and the like. There's a $2 billion to $3 billion that overseas, in different countries, which for whatever reasons, it's the last money you want to bring back because of whatever withholding or other taxes related to it. So at the end of the day, someone asked the question, after we announced the $10 dividend, we could have done more. The answer is we could have, but why rush? I mean right now, we still don't know what's going to happen with COVID and what may happen next year in the economy. And so we'll probably have a little more cash than normal than pre-COVID, if you will, but that's okay, too.

嗯，請記住，其中一部分是週末的金融卡和信用卡應收款，可能高達10億到15億美元。還有近10億美元與保險公司自保業務等相關。另外還有20億到30億美元在海外，分佈在不同的國家，出於各種原因，由於可能涉及預扣稅或其他稅費，這筆錢是你最不想匯回來的。所以，最終，有人在我們宣布每股10美元的股息後問，我們是否可以做得更多。答案是，我們確實可以，但為什麼要急於求成呢？我的意思是，現在我們仍然不知道新冠疫情會如何發展，也不知道明年經濟會如何。所以，我們的現金流可能會比疫情前略多一些，但這也沒關係。

And then last, could you just -- where are average wage rates today to sort of level set where the -- we know the COVID top up, thanks for that, helping us there. But where are we now before all that?

最後，您能否簡單說明一下—目前的平均薪資水準是多少？這樣我們才能大致了解一下—我們知道新冠疫情期間薪資有所上漲，謝謝您提供的協助。但在這一切發生之前，我們的薪資水平又是多少？

You mean the average U.S. hourly wage?

您指的是美國平均時薪嗎？

Yes.

是的。

I think we're in the -- well, ex the $2, we're at the -- we're either right above or just approaching $24 average in the U.S.

我認為我們現在處於——嗯，除了 2 美元之外，我們現在處於——我們要么剛好高於，要么剛剛接近美國 24 美元的平均水平。

Approaching $24 in the U.S. And so the --- and the changes for the base rates going up, that was -- you did that -- that was completed when?

美國接近24美元。所以——以及基本利率上漲的變化，那是——你做的——那是什麼時候完成的？

The -- in March, I believe, last year.

——我記得是去年三月。

March, last March.

三月，去年三月。

Last March, beginning of March.

去年三月，三月初。

March '19. March of 2019.

2019年3月。

March of 2019. I believe it was near the beginning of March, whatever that Monday start for that weekly pay period was -- or biweekly pay period. And that was $2 across the board.

2019年3月。我記得應該是3月初，不管那個週薪週期（或是雙週薪週期）是從週一開始的。當時所有員工的薪水都統一上漲了2美元。

Right. And the COVID stuff was on top of it.

沒錯。而且新冠疫情也雪上加霜。

Excuse me?

打擾一下？

The COVID was on top of the actual wage rate.

新冠疫情的影響疊加在實質工資水準之上。

Yes.

是的。

And next question, from Rupesh Parikh of Oppenheimer.

下一個問題來自奧本海默公司的魯佩什·帕里克。

So I wanted to ask, Richard, just some of the countries where you have lower COVID infections, china, Australia seems to be normalizing now, has purchasing behavior in those markets return back to where it was maybe pre pandemic? I'm guessing Australia is probably a better read than China.

所以我想問理查德，在一些新冠感染率較低的國家，比如中國，澳洲現在似乎正在恢復正常，這些市場的消費行為是否已經恢復到疫情前的水平？我猜澳洲的情況可能比中國更值得參考。

They're both strong.

他們兩個都很強壯。

They're -- both, they're stronger comps.

它們——兩者都是更強的競爭對手。

From a category perspective, have you seen the category shift to, I guess, maybe where they were pre pandemic, if you look at the mix?

從品類角度來看，如果你觀察產品組合，你是否看到該品類已經恢復到疫情前的狀態？

Well, I don't have that detail in front of me, unfortunately. And when I look at comps by country in local currencies, in most countries, we're back to normal, if not a little better.

很遺憾，我手邊沒有這方面的詳細資料。不過，當我查看以當地貨幣計算的各國比較數據時，發現大多數國家的情況都已恢復正常，甚至可能略有改善。

Okay. Okay. Great. And then just in the U.S., just given we've seen spikes in infections, and California has had more restrictions recently put in place. Just curious if you can just comment on anything you're seeing more recently just in terms of changes in consumer behavior, traffic to your stores?

好的，好的，太好了。就美國而言，鑑於感染病例激增，加州最近也實施了更多限制。我想問您能否談談最近觀察到的消費者行為變化以及門店客流量方面的情況？

The only thing that I've noted is when it first started a few weeks ago or when the California -- everybody was waiting for California -- in California, everybody was waiting to hear what the new restrictions was going to be in terms of lockdowns, there was a spike in shopping, and people were coming in. So we had particular strength over a couple of week period when more spiking was occurring.

我唯一注意到的是，幾週前疫情剛開始的時候，或者說加州疫情爆發初期——當時大家都在等待加州方面出台新的封鎖限制措施——購物量激增，人們紛紛湧入商店。因此，在疫情再次爆發的那幾周里，我們的銷售額出現了顯著成長。

Your next question, from Kelly Bania of BMO Capital.

下一個問題來自 BMO Capital 的 Kelly Bania。

Great. Richard, just wanted to go back to the buy online and pick up at store question. I know you've said for several quarters now you continue to scratch your head, but it does seem like a lever that maybe you could pull 1 day that's already been pulled by pretty much everybody else in retail. But I guess just given the massive growth that you've seen with Instacart and your third-party partners there, there just does clearly seem to be a segment of your membership base that's willing to pay a premium or that markup for that service. So I'm just curious if you've thought about even a markup type structure for pickup or even like a higher price point membership for a pickup type service?

好的。理查德，我只是想再問關於線上購買線下取貨的問題。我知道您已經連續幾個季度都在為此苦惱，但這似乎是一個您可以嘗試的策略，而其他零售商幾乎都已經這麼做了。考慮到您在 Instacart 和第三方合作夥伴方面取得的巨大增長，顯然您的會員群體中有一部分人願意為這項服務支付更高的價格。所以我很好奇，您是否考慮過為取貨服務設定加價機制，或是推出價格較高的會員制來提供取貨服務？

As it relates to general conversations about it, those are topics that are discussed. One of the challenges right now is that a lot of the buy online and pick up in store traditional retail promotions are the same prices which you can come in and buy it for. So somebody is paying for the picking it up and storing it and waiting for you to pick it up. I think that will shake out to over time as people -- as companies -- somebody has to pay for it, either the company or the customer. I'm not trying to be cute. We're just -- we're looking at all those things, but we haven't made any decisions to go forth with it.

至於相關的日常討論，這些都是人們會談到的話題。目前的一個挑戰是，許多線上購買、線下取貨的傳統零售促銷活動，價格和到店購買的價格是一樣的。也就是說，有人要為取貨、倉儲和等待顧客取貨買單。我認為隨著時間的推移，這種情況會逐漸好轉，因為最終總得有人為此買單，要么是公司，要么是顧客。我不是故弄玄虛。我們只是——我們正在考慮所有這些因素，但還沒有做出任何決定。

Okay. And just maybe a quick follow-up. You mentioned the 7% e-com penetration from a sales perspective. But just curious if you could share just a percent of your maybe membership households that are engaged with Costco from a digital e-commerce perspective.

好的。還有一個後續問題。您提到從銷售角度來看，電商滲透率達到了7%。但我很好奇，您能否分享一下，在您可能的會員家庭中，有多少家庭透過數位電商管道與Costco互動？

We don't give out that information yet. As you might expect, it's growing.

我們目前暫不透露這些資訊。正如您所料，它正在不斷增長。

And your last question, from Steph Wissink of Jefferies.

最後一個問題，來自傑富瑞集團的史蒂芬‧威辛克。

I just want to follow up on Rupesh's earlier question but ask it a slightly different way, which is looking at your cohort of new members that have joined really from kind of the third quarter of last year. Any performance distinctions or category mix distinctions that might give you encouragement that those members might be a bit more sticky going forward or might be a bit longer lifetime value customers for you into the future?

我想就Rupesh之前的問題做個補充，但換個方式問：看看你們從去年第三季度開始加入的新會員群體，在業績或類別構成方面，是否存在任何差異，讓你們覺得這些會員未來可能會更忠誠，或者更有可能成為你們未來價值更高的終身客戶？

We don't have a lot of that information yet. Recognizing that some of them signed up because of COVID and because we can deliver through, start through fresh and -- or we can serve them online. But there's not a lot to go on yet.

我們目前掌握的資訊還不多。我們知道，部分用戶註冊是因為疫情，也因為我們能提供配送服務、重新開始或線上服務。但目前可參考的資訊仍非常有限。

Well, thank you, everyone. Hopefully, you have a happy and healthy holiday season and on to a better 2021. Have a good day.

謝謝大家。祝大家假期快樂健康，並祝福大家2021年一切順利。祝您今天過得愉快。