好市多 (COST) 2020 Q1 法說會逐字稿

Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for standing by, and welcome to the Q1 earnings call. (Operator Instructions) Please be advised that today's conference is being recorded.

女士們、先生們，感謝各位的耐心等待，歡迎參加第一季財報電話會議。（操作人員指示）請注意，今天的會議正在錄音。

I would now like to hand the conference over to your speaker today, Mr. Richard Galanti, CFO. Please go ahead, sir.

現在我謹將會議交給今天的主講人，財務長理查‧加蘭蒂先生。請繼續，先生。

Thank you, Laurie, and good afternoon to everyone. I'll start by stating that these discussions will include forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. These statements involve risks and uncertainties that may cause actual events, results and/or performance to differ materially from those indicated by such statements. 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.

謝謝你，勞裡，大家下午好。首先我要說明的是，這些討論將包含1995年《私人證券訴訟改革法案》所界定的前瞻性陳述。這些聲明涉及風險和不確定性，可能導致實際事件、結果和/或績效與此類聲明所指出的內容有重大差異。風險和不確定性包括但不限於今天電話會議中概述的風險和不確定性，以及公司不時在公開聲明和提交給美國證券交易委員會的報告中確定的其他風險和不確定性。前瞻性聲明僅代表其發布之日的情況，除法律要求外，本公司不承擔更新這些聲明的義務。

In today's press release, we reported operating results for the first quarter of fiscal 2020, the 12 weeks ended November 24.

在今天的新聞稿中，我們公佈了 2020 財年第一季（截至 11 月 24 日的 12 週）的營運業績。

Reported net income for the quarter came in at $844 million or $1.90 per share compared to $767 million or $1.73 a share last year in the first quarter. This year's first quarter results included a $77 million or $0.17 per share income tax benefit related to stock-based compensation. Last year's first quarter results included a $59 million or $0.13 per share income tax benefit related to stock-based compensation.

報告顯示，本季淨利為 8.44 億美元，即每股 1.90 美元，去年同期淨利為 7.67 億美元，即每股 1.73 美元。今年第一季的業績包括與股票選擇權相關的 7,700 萬美元（每股 0.17 美元）所得稅優惠。去年第一季的業績包括與股票選擇權相關的 5,900 萬美元（每股 0.13 美元）所得稅優惠。

Net sales for the quarter came in at $36.24 billion, a 5.6% increase over the $34.31 billion sold during the first quarter of last year.

本季淨銷售額為 362.4 億美元，比去年第一季的 343.1 億美元成長了 5.6%。

Comparable sales for the first quarter of fiscal 2020, in the U.S., on a reported basis, was 4.7%, ex gas deflation it was 5.0%. Canada reported a 2.9%, ex gas deflation and FX plus 5.1%. Other international reported 3.2%, ex gas deflation and FX plus 4.5%. So total company was a 4.3% reported, and ex gas deflation and FX of 5.0%.

2020 財年第一季，美國同店銷售額以報告基準計算為 4.7%，若不計天然氣通貨緊縮，則為 5.0%。加拿大報告稱，不計天然氣通貨緊縮和外匯影響，通縮幅度為 2.9%，匯率影響為 5.1%。其他國際經濟報告為 3.2%，剔除天然氣通貨緊縮和外匯因素後為 4.5%。因此，公司總報告成長率為 4.3%，剔除天然氣通貨緊縮和匯率因素後為 5.0%。

Our e-commerce, on a reported basis was a 5.5% and a 5.7% on a reported basis.

據報告，我們的電子商務佔比為 5.5% 和 5.7%。

Total and comparable company sales for the quarter were negatively impacted by approximately 0.5% due to Thanksgiving occurring a week later this year. E-commerce sales in the quarter were negatively impacted by an estimated 12 percentage points, so again, the 5.5% and the 5.7% were impacted to the negative by 12 percentage points.

由於今年的感恩節比往年晚了一周，本季公司總銷售額和可比銷售額受到約 0.5% 的負面影響。本季電子商務銷售額受到約 12 個百分點的負面影響，因此，5.5% 和 5.7% 再次受到 12 個百分點的負面影響。

In terms of Q1 comp sales metrics, first quarter traffic or shopping frequency increased 3.4% worldwide, and 3.1% in the U.S. This again includes the impact of the Thanksgiving holiday shift.

就第一季同店銷售指標而言，全球第一季客流量或購物頻率成長了 3.4%，美國成長了 3.1%。這再次包含了感恩節假期變化的影響。

Weakening foreign currencies relative to the U.S. dollar negatively impacted sales by approximately 30 basis points, and gasoline price deflation negatively impacted sales by approximately 40 basis points.

外幣兌美元貶值對銷售額產生了約 30 個基點的負面影響，汽油價格通貨緊縮對銷售額產生了約 40 個基點的負面影響。

Our average transaction or ticket was up [0.9%] during the quarter, including the negative impacts of gas deflation, FX and the holiday shift.

本季我們的平均交易量或出票量增加了0.9%，其中包括天然氣通貨緊縮、外匯波動和假日調整的負面影響。

And next on the income statement, membership fee income. Reported membership fee income came in at $804 million, up 6.1% or $46 million from last year's $758 million. Deflation -- foreign -- FX currencies would have impacted that by $1 million to the negative, so it would be about $1 million higher ex FX.

接下來是損益表上的會員費收入。據報道，會員費收入為 8.04 億美元，比去年的 7.58 億美元增長了 6.1%，即 4,600 萬美元。通貨緊縮－外幣－外匯匯率將對其產生100萬美元的負面影響，因此剔除匯率因素後，實際金額將增加約100萬美元。

In terms of renewal rates, at Q1 end our U.S. and Canada renewal rates was -- came in at 90.9%, and worldwide rate was 88.4%. Both of these figures remaining at the same renewal rate levels that were achieved at the 12 weeks ago at the fiscal year-end.

就續約率而言，第一季末，我們在美國和加拿大的續約率為 90.9%，全球續約率為 88.4%。這兩個數字均維持在 12 週前財政年度末達到的續約率水準。

In terms of number of members at Q1 end, member households and total cardholders, at Q4 end, back in, I think, on September 1, we had 53.9 million member households, at Q1 and 12 weeks later, it was 54.7 million. And total cardholders increased from fiscal year-end of 98.5 million to 99.9 million at Q1 end.

就第一季末的會員人數、會員家庭數和持卡人總數而言，到第四季末，我記得是在 9 月 1 日，第一季我們有 5,390 萬個會員家庭，12 週後，這個數字達到了 5,470 萬。截至第一季末，持卡人總數從上一財年末的 9,850 萬增加到 9,990 萬。

During the quarter, we had 3 new openings, all in the U.S., a business center in Dallas, Texas; and 2 additional Costco warehouses in Connecticut and Minnesota. We also relocated 1 of our units in Canada.

本季度，我們新增了 3 家門市，全部位於美國，分別是位於德州達拉斯的一家商務中心；以及位於康乃狄克州和明尼蘇達州的 2 家 Costco 倉庫。我們也搬遷了我們在加拿大的1個部門。

At Q1 end, paid executive memberships were -- totaled 21.4 million, an increase of 579,000 or 48,000 per week since Q4 end. This included the recent launch of offering executive memberships to our

截至第一季末，付費高級會員總數為 2,140 萬，比第四季末增加了 57.9 萬，即每週增加 4.8 萬。這其中包括最近推出的我們會員的行政會員資格。

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the first time as of the beginning of the fiscal year. Even taking those out, the average weekly increase would have been, ex the new Japan -- executive members, it would have been 41,000 a week.

這是自本財政年度開始以來的第一次。即使扣除這些，平均每週的增長金額（不包括新日本的執行委員）也將達到每週 41,000 美元。

Going down the gross margin line -- to the gross margin line. Our reported gross margin in the fourth quarter was higher year-over-year by 30 basis points, coming in at 11.05% as compared to a year ago, 10.75%, and again, on a reported basis, 30, ex gas deflation it would have been plus 26.

沿著毛利率線向下－到達毛利率線。我們報告的第四季毛利率年增 30 個基點，達到 11.05%，而去年同期為 10.75%。同樣，以報告基準計算，毛利率為 30，如果剔除天然氣價格下跌的影響，則毛利率將為 26。

Doing the little chart that we do each quarter, 2 columns, reported ex gas deflation, first line item would be core merchandise year-over-year in Q1 of '20 compared to a year-earlier quarter, minus 3 basis points on a reported basis and minus 6 on an ex gas deflation basis. Ancillary businesses, plus 20 and plus 19, no change to the 2% reward; and other was plus 13 and plus 13, so a total of plus 30 basis points on a reported basis and plus 26 ex deflation.

我們每季都會製作一個小圖表，分為兩列，第一行是 2020 年第一季核心商品同比數據，與上年同期相比，按報告基準下降 3 個基點，按不計天然氣通縮基準下降 6 個基點。輔助業務加 20 和加 19，2% 的獎勵不變；其他業務加 13 和加 13，因此按報告計算總共加 30 個基點，扣除通貨緊縮後加 26 個基點。

Now the core merchandise component of gross margin, again, lower by 3 year-over-year, reported minus 6 ex gas deflation. Looking at the core merchandise categories in relation to their own sales, core-on-core, if you will, margins year-over-year were higher by 4 basis points. Subcategories within the core margins year-over-year in Q1 showed increases in hard lines, soft lines and food and sundries, and a decrease in fresh foods. Nearly all of that decrease in fresh foods was the result of the initial operating losses from our new poultry complex. That will be a small headwind throughout the year. And recall that we commenced operations at the Nebraska chicken plant on September 10, with a -- roughly a 45 week plan to get to full production and processing capacity, and we're currently on track to do so.

現在，毛利率的核心商品部分再次較去年同期下降 3%，剔除天然氣通貨緊縮因素後為 -6%。從核心商品類別本身的銷售額來看，也就是從核心商品與核心商品的比較來看，利潤率比去年同期提高了 4 個基點。第一季核心利潤率各子類別較去年同期顯示，硬商品、軟商品和食品雜貨有所成長，而新鮮食品則下降。新鮮食品的減少幾乎全部都是由於我們新建的家禽養殖場初期營運虧損造成的。那將是全年的一個小小的不利因素。請記住，我們於 9 月 10 日在內布拉斯加州雞肉加工廠開始運營，計劃用大約 45 週時間達到全面生產和加工能力，目前我們正按計劃進行。

Ancillary and other businesses gross margin higher by 20, reported a 19 ex gas deflation. The highlights being -- year-over-year, being gas, optical, tire shop and hearing aids. The other, the plus 13, compared to a year ago, this relates to what we mentioned last year in the quarter to adjusting our estimate of breakage on rewards for the Citi/Visa cobranded card program last year. And that was, again, sort of [a comparison] of the hit last year versus 0 this year.

輔助業務和其他業務的毛利率提高了 20%，但剔除天然氣價格後出現 19% 的通貨緊縮。與去年同期相比，亮點包括汽油、眼鏡、輪胎店和助聽器。另一個是與一年前相比增加的 13%，這與我們去年在季度中提到的調整去年花旗/維薩聯名卡計劃獎勵中斷的估計有關。這又一次將去年的打擊率與今年的打擊率（0）進行了比較。

Moving to SG&A. Our reported SG&A percentage in Q1 over Q1 year-over-year was higher by 17 basis points, coming in at 10.30%, up from 10.13% last year. Ex gas deflation, SG&A was higher or worse by 13 basis points. Again, the little matrix that we do, both reported and without gas deflation: Operations, minus 9 basis points -- meaning higher by 9 basis points versus minus 5 basis points in -- ex deflation; central, minus 4 and minus 4; stock compensation, minus 4 and minus 4; for a total, again, of minus 17 and minus 13.

移至銷售、一般及行政管理部門。我們報告的 SG&A 百分比與去年同期相比上升了 17 個基點，達到 10.30%，高於去年的 10.13%。剔除天然氣價格下跌的影響，銷售、一般及行政費用上漲或惡化了 13 個基點。再次，我們做了一個小矩陣，包括報告的和未報告的天然氣通縮：運營，-9 個基點——這意味著比 -5 個基點高出 9 個基點——不包括通縮；中央，-4 和 -4；股票補償，-4 和 -4；總計，再次為 -17 和 -13。

The figure -- these figures include -- in terms of the core being minus 5 on an ex gas deflation basis, this figure includes the impact from the wage increases that we've talked about in the last couple of quarters. This impact relates to the wage increases that occurred in March of 2019, which hit the year-over-year comparison by 3 to 4 basis points in the quarter. As mentioned previously, we would expect a similar impact that will occur in Q2 before we anniversary that wage increase midway through Q3.

這些數據包括—就核心數據而言，在不考慮天然氣通貨緊縮的情況下為-5，該數據包含了我們在過去幾個季度討論過的工資增長的影響。這一影響與 2019 年 3 月發生的工資上漲有關，導致該季度同比下降了 3 至 4 個基點。如前所述，我們預計在第二季會出現類似的影響，然後在第三季中期迎來薪資成長週年紀念日。

Central was higher again by 4 basis points year-over-year. IT was the biggest driver of the increase as we continue not only to maintain and upgrade but expand our capabilities and activities, and certainly, we have a lot going on there. And stock comp, again, minus 4 basis points of hit there. That hit usually is in Q1 year-over-year based on the fact that we grant our issues in that quarter and how we do things for employees, 25, 30 and 35 years out.

中心利率較去年同期再上漲 4 個基點。IT 是成長的最大驅動力，因為我們不僅要繼續維護和升級，還要擴展我們的能力和活動，當然，我們在這方面有很多工作要做。股票比較數據再次下降了 4 個基點。這種衝擊通常發生在第一季度，與去年同期相比，這是因為我們在該季度處理問題，以及我們如何為員工做事，影響到未來 25 年、30 年和 35 年。

On the income statement. Next on it is the preopening expense, it's lower by $8 million, it came in at $14 million this year in the first quarter versus $22 million. This year, in the quarter, we had 4 total openings, 3 plus the relocation. Last year, we had 8 total openings, 6 plus 2 relocations. All told, operating income in Q1 increased by 11.8%, coming in at $1,061 million this year compared to $949 million last year.

在損益表上。其次是開業前費用，比去年同期減少了 800 萬美元，今年第一季為 1,400 萬美元，而去年同期為 2,200 萬美元。今年本季度，我們共有 4 個職缺，其中 3 個是搬遷職缺。去年，我們總共有 8 個職位空缺，其中 6 個是新職位，另外 2 個是搬遷職位。總的來說，第一季營業收入成長了 11.8%，達到 10.61 億美元，而去年同期為 9.49 億美元。

Below the operating income line, interest expense was $2 million higher year-over-year, $38 million this year in Q1 compared to $36 million last year. Interest income in other for the quarter was higher or better by $13 million. Interest income was actually higher by $11 million; and other, the plus $2 million variance, was primarily favorable FX year-over-year.

在營業收入之外，利息支出比去年同期增加了 200 萬美元，今年第一季為 3,800 萬美元，而去年同期為 3,600 萬美元。本季其他利息收入比預期高出1300萬美元。利息收入實際上增加了 1,100 萬美元；其他方面的 200 萬美元差異主要是由於匯率同比有利。

Overall, pretax income in the first quarter of 2020 was up 13%, coming in at $1,058 million compared to last year's $935 million.

2020 年第一季稅前總收入成長 13%，達到 10.58 億美元，去年同期為 9.35 億美元。

In terms of income taxes. Our reported tax rate in Q1 2020 was 19.1% compared to 16.9% in Q1 of last year. Both of these first quarter tax rates, this year and last year, benefited from the tax treatment of stock-based compensation, as mentioned earlier. Last year's rate also benefited from an additional discrete items, which we mentioned in the quarter last year.

就所得稅而言。2020 年第一季度，我們的報告稅率為 19.1%，而去年第一季為 16.9%。如前所述，今年和去年的第一季稅率都受益於股票選擇權激勵的稅收待遇。去年的利率也受益於一些額外的獨立項目，我們在去年的季度報告中提到。

A few other items of note. In terms of warehouse expansion, we expect to open net new units of somewhere around 20, plus or minus, with a lot of it -- planned new openings, much of it back-loaded towards the end of the fiscal year. As of Q1 end, we had total warehouse square footage of 114 million square feet.

還有一些其他值得注意的地方。在倉庫擴建方面，我們預計將淨增 20 個左右的新倉庫，上下浮動，其中許多是計劃中的新倉庫，大部分將在本財年末集中開放。截至第一季末，我們的倉庫總面積為 1.14 億平方英尺。

Regarding capital expenditures, in Q1, our total spend was approximately $700 million, and our estimate [of CapEx] for all of fiscal '20 remains right around the $3 billion amount.

關於資本支出，第一季我們的總支出約為 7 億美元，我們對 2020 財年全年資本支出的估計仍在 30 億美元左右。

In terms of e-commerce. Our overall e-commerce sales on a reported basis in the quarter was a 5.5%, as I mentioned earlier, and again, ex FX a 5.7%. Again, those numbers, you could add roughly 12 percentage points to each of those to account for our estimate of the impact of the holiday shift.

就電子商務而言。如我之前所述，本季我們整體電子商務銷售額按報告計算成長了 5.5%，剔除匯率因素後成長了 5.7%。同樣，這些數字，你可以給每個數字加上大約 12 個百分點，以反映我們對假日變化影響的估計。

A few of the stronger departments: home furnishings, domestics, tires and pharmacy. Majors, electronics were not among those departments as we feel that was -- we believe it's the one most impacted by the holiday shift. Total online grocery continues to grow at a faster rate than the core e-commerce comps, although, again, it's still a relatively small piece of the business.

一些較強的部門有：家居用品部、家政部、輪胎部和藥局。主修科目和電子工程係不在其中，因為我們認為電子工程係是受假期調整影響最大的系。雖然線上雜貨業務的整體成長速度仍然比核心電子商務業務更快，但即便如此，它仍然只佔業務的一小部分。

New online during the quarter, expanded tickets offerings, including airline gift cards, Lyft and Uber cards and Super Bowl packages. We also, during the quarter, launched as a test in a few locations same-day prescription RX Delivery with Instacart. And we launched in the quarter, same-day alcohol delivery also through Instacart in California, such that as of today, it's being offered in 12 states.

本季新增線上服務，擴大了票務產品範圍，包括航空公司禮品卡、Lyft 和 Uber 卡以及超級盃套餐。本季度，我們也在部分地區試行了與 Instacart 合作的當日處方藥配送服務。本季度，我們也透過 Instacart 在加州推出了當日送達酒類飲品的服務，截至目前，這項服務已覆蓋 12 個州。

And lastly, this week -- earlier this week, we launched our Japan e-commerce site, with our Australia site planned to open in the first half of 2020 -- calendar 2020.

最後，本週早些時候，我們推出了日本電子商務網站，而我們的澳洲網站計劃於 2020 年上半年（2020 年日曆年）開業。

In terms of tariffs, there continues to be a lot of moving parts and changes, up to and including an hour ago. Currently, there, again, there's 3.5 lists, if you will, it's 1, 2, 3 and 4A, totaling about $360 billion-worth of imports. There were possibilities that there would be 4B list, would go into place December 15. Although the current news out today is that China and the U.S. are close to a deal on finalizing a Phase 1 part of the trade deal, and so we'll have to wait and see.

就關稅而言，情況仍然瞬息萬變，甚至在一小時前還在改變。目前，那裡又有 3.5 個清單，也就是 1、2、3 和 4A 類清單，進口總額約 3,600 億美元。有可能會有 4B 名單，名單將於 12 月 15 日生效。儘管今天傳出的消息是，中美兩國即將就第一階段貿易協議的最終敲定達成一致，但我們仍需拭目以待。

In terms of EU, currently, again, there's $7.5 billion of U.S. imports that are subject to a current 25% tariff, mostly food items like olive oil, cheese, wine, whiskey, butter cookies, et cetera. Again, last week -- last Monday, the White House announced that a proposed 100% -- increase to 100% tariff on $24 billion in imports, which would include those, among other items. We'll just have to wait and see where that is. I believe comments aren't even anticipated to be complete until early to mid-January.

就歐盟而言，目前有價值 75 億美元的美國進口商品需繳納 25% 的關稅，其中大部分是食品，如橄欖油、起司、葡萄酒、威士忌、奶油餅乾等。上週一，白宮再次宣布，擬對價值 240 億美元的進口商品徵收 100% 的關稅，其中包括上述商品及其他商品。我們只能拭目以待了。我認為評論工作預計要到一月初到一月中旬才能完成。

That's pretty much it on our part. Lastly, in terms of upcoming releases, we will announce our December sales results for the 5 weeks ending Sunday, January 5, on Wednesday, January 8, after market close.

我們這邊的工作就差不多完成了。最後，關於即將發布的產品，我們將於 1 月 8 日星期三收盤後公佈截至 1 月 5 日星期日的 5 週的 12 月銷售業績。

And with that, I'll open it up to Q&A and turn it back to Laurie. Thank you.

接下來，我將進入問答環節，把話題交還給勞瑞。謝謝。

(Operator Instructions) Your first question comes from the line of Christopher Horvers from JPMorgan.

（操作員說明）您的第一個問題來自摩根大通的克里斯多福·霍弗斯。

So I just wanted to step back and get your thoughts in terms of how you plan the holiday season this year, given that there are 6 fewer days. It seems like a lot of retailers are expecting a big surge at the end, bigger than normal into Christmas given the shortened season. Is that something -- I'm not asking about December, just how you planned it. Is this something you saw in [2013]? Is this something you're planning for in 2019? And maybe any comment through what you've reported so far.

所以我想先了解一下，鑑於今年假期少了6天，你們打算如何規劃今年的假期。鑑於銷售季縮短，許多零售商似乎都預計年底會出現銷售激增，甚至比往年聖誕節期間的銷售量還要大。那是什麼呢？ ——我不是問你十二月的事，只是問你是怎麼計劃的。這是你在[2013年]看到的嗎？這是你2019年的計畫嗎？或許您還能就您目前報道的內容發表一些評論。

Well I think we've planned it with some historical knowledge of what's happened in the past when you've got the shortest period of time between Thanksgiving and Christmas. And we plan assuming that we're going to continue to have the types of levels of comps that we have in general, recognizing sometimes there's a switch between months, as an example, being the switch -- Thanksgiving being in November versus -- of Q1 rather, versus Q2 for us, in our example.

我認為我們已經根據以往感恩節到聖誕節這段時間最短時間內發生的事情，制定了相應的計劃。我們計劃繼續保持目前這種水平的業績比較，同時也意識到，有時月份之間會有變化，例如，感恩節在 11 月，而我們這裡是第一季度，而不是第二季度。

But -- so yes, we expect to ramp up on a per day basis. We'll have to wait and see where it goes. But we went into the planning, I think, with the confidence that we've had good shopping frequency increases and good renewal rates and pretty good comps.

但是——所以，是的，我們預計每天都會逐步提高產量。我們只能拭目以待了。但我認為，我們在製定計劃時充滿信心，因為我們的購物頻率增長良好，續訂率也很好，而且同店銷售情況也相當不錯。

Understood. And then on the pricing environment, it seems like Sam's has been taking some bigger hits to the gross margin line, and it seems to be benefiting comps. So are you seeing a step-up in terms of -- in that core club channel, are you seeing a step-up in price investment from your peers?

明白了。而在定價環境方面，山姆會員店的毛利率似乎受到了更大的衝擊，但這似乎有利於同店銷售。那麼，在核心俱樂部管道方面，您是否看到同行在價格投入方面有所提升？

In a word, no.

簡而言之，不。

Got it. That's fair enough. And then my last question is, in 2Q, you're going to lap, I think, a pretty big benefit on -- in the ancillary line last year. I think it was up 33 basis points, big part of that being gas. So you're going to have gas prices, do we have to give that all back? I mean, gas prices look like they will be up year-over-year at this point, but it's still going to be down a bit sequentially. And I know there's an interplay between those 2 dynamics. So any thoughts you could give us around lapping that 33 basis points, given those dynamics would be super helpful?

知道了。這很合理。最後一個問題是，我認為在第二季度，你們在輔助生產線方面將會取得相當大的進步，比去年同期取得的成績要好得多。我認為上漲了 33 個基點，其中很大一部分原因是天然氣價格上漲。所以，汽油價格上漲了，難道我們要把這些錢都退還給別人嗎？我的意思是，目前看來汽油價格年比會上漲，但環比仍會略有下降。我知道這兩種動態之間存在著相互作用。鑑於這些動態因素，您能否就如何將差距縮小到 33 個基點提出一些想法，這將非常有幫助？

Well, I think profitability for gas for us and as we've read from other retailers -- big retailers that have gas stations as part of their retail concept, the new normal over the last few years is it's been a more profitable business. We -- I think, benefit from the fact that we've seen our gallon increases on a comp basis in the very high single digits compared -- so we know we're taking market share.

我認為，就我們而言，汽油的盈利能力，以及我們從其他零售商那裡了解到的情況——那些將加油站作為其零售理念一部分的大型零售商——在過去幾年裡的新常態是，汽油業務的盈利能力越來越高。我認為，我們受益於同店銷售成長了非常高的個位數——所以我們知道我們正在搶佔市場份額。

Despite increased profitability in that business, our savings, in our view [when we come to do] price shops of competitors' gas, has never been as strong. So we feel very good about where we are with that. Now sequentially -- part of the increase, when you look at it on a year-over-year basis, last year's plus 30 or whatever, I don't have it in front of me, but whatever it was, had as much to do with what it was the year before.

儘管該業務的盈利能力有所提高，但我們認為，當我們對競爭對手的汽油進行價格比較時，我們的節省力度從未像以前那麼大了。所以我們對目前的情況非常滿意。現在按順序來看——部分增長，如果你按年來看，去年的增長加上 30 或其他數字，我手頭沒有具體數據，但無論是什麼，都與前一年的情況有很大關係。

I think when you -- again, when you read what others have said and what we've said in the last couple of quarters, it's been pretty good for all of us. So maybe you're not going to see that kind of delta on top of the big delta last year. But it's still -- nor are you going to see the big negative from that, a negative from it coming back to 2 years ago.

我認為，當你——再說一遍，當你讀讀其他人以及我們在過去幾個季度裡說過的話，就會發現這對我們所有人來說都相當不錯。所以，你可能不會看到在去年巨大差異的基礎上再出現那種差異。但即便如此──你也不會看到由此產生的巨大負面影響，也不會看到它回到兩年前所帶來的負面影響。

But we'll have to wait and see. The thing we've learned about gas profitability is it can be very fleeting. Right now, it's been good as it was last quarter and as it was over the last couple of years in general. But you never know how to predict it from sometimes week-to-week.

但我們只能拭目以待。我們從天然氣產業的獲利能力中了解到，它的獲利能力可能非常短暫。目前的情況和上個季度一樣好，也和過去幾年整體情況一樣好。但你永遠無法預測，有時甚至每週都會有變化。

Your next question comes from the line of Michael Lasser from UBS.

你的下一個問題來自瑞銀集團的麥可·拉塞爾。

Richard, you touched on this briefly, but how have tariffs impacted Costco's profitability? And if some of the tariffs are rolled back, how is Costco going to handle this? Should we be modeling margin benefit over the next couple of quarters from this dynamic?

理查德，你剛才簡要地提到了這一點，但關稅對 Costco 的獲利能力有何影響？如果部分關稅被取消，Costco 將如何應對？我們是否應該根據這種動態，預測未來幾季利潤率的提升？

I think generally we've said on a qualitative basis that overall, I think, companies of scale, and certainly we are one of those, and the fact that we feel that we've had a relatively good mitigation plan, if you will, are easier on a 10% tariff than a 25%; I think one thing, again, on top of our scale in general, our ability to move in and out of items.

我認為總的來說，從定性角度來看，我認為，規模較大的公司（當然我們就是其中之一）以及我們認為我們已經制定了相對不錯的緩解計劃，10% 的關稅比 25% 的關稅更容易應對；我認為還有一點，除了我們總體上的規模之外，我們有能力進出各種商品。

If all of your items are 25% tariff, because you were a furniture retailer or whatever retailer, that's different than a company that has a small percentage of our business in that area. Like others, we've moved a few things where we can and sourced it from other countries. I think our total China imports into the U.S. is about -- is just a few percentage points lower than a year ago. So nobody can do a lot of that, nor can we.

如果你的所有商品都要徵收 25% 的關稅，因為你是家具零售商或其他零售商，這與在該地區業務佔很小的公司的情況不同。和其他人一樣，我們也盡可能地轉移了一些物品，並從其他國家採購。我認為我們從中國進口到美國的總金額大約——比一年前只下降了幾個百分點。所以，很多人都做不到這一點，我們也做不到。

But generally speaking, I don't think it's -- it's hard enough for us to budget into our numbers. What we look at is the fact that in some cases when the price has gone up, and we've passed on all or some of it, we haven't seen an impact to the unit sales, on others we have. And we never know until it happens which ones are more elastic than others, if you will.

但總的來說，我不認為這是——對我們來說，把這些納入預算已經夠難的了。我們觀察到，在某些情況下，當價格上漲，而我們把全部或部分漲幅轉嫁給消費者時，並沒有對銷量產生影響；但在另一些情況下，銷量卻受到了影響。而且，不到事情發生，我們永遠無法知道哪些因素比其他因素更有彈性。

But at the end of the day, we think that we've done as good as anybody in terms of being able to mitigate the impact. And so again, I think the fact that our margins -- our core margins, generally speaking, even in the departments like hardlines and softlines, have been slightly up year-over-year. And certainly, we haven't done that without, first and foremost, being the most competitive out there. That makes us feel that it's -- now, we don't want it to continue and we don't want List 4B to come on or anything else to go higher. But I think we've done okay by it.

但歸根結底，我們認為在減輕影響方面，我們已經做得和其他人一樣好了。因此，我認為，我們的利潤率——總的來說，我們的核心利潤率，即使在硬線和軟線等部門，也比前一年略有上升。當然，我們之所以能有這樣的成就，首先是因為我們一直是市場上最具競爭力的公司。這讓我們覺得——現在，我們不希望這種情況繼續下去，我們不希望第 4B 名單上出現，也不希望任何其他名單排名上升。但我認為我們做得還不錯。

So in cases where you have taken price or reengineered a product to make it cheaper, how do you handle that?

那麼，如果你已經降低了價格或重新設計了產品以降低成本，你是如何處理這種情況的呢？

Well, first of all, I don't think, ever, we try to reengineer a product. We're going to try to figure out how to get the price down a little bit with the help of our suppliers, sometimes our own money, or whatever else we can -- or moving a few items to another country, and sometimes eliminating an item and putting something else in its place here.

首先，我認為我們從來不會嘗試對產品進行重新設計。我們將嘗試在供應商的幫助下，有時甚至動用我們自己的資金，或者採取其他任何我們能做的措施，來降低價格——或者將一些商品轉移到另一個國家，有時甚至取消一件商品，用其他商品來代替它。

So I remember -- I think, one anecdotal story would be in late calendar '08, when the economic downturn hit hard and what hit hard in our case was a lot of -- as good as our values are on $1,000 and $1,500 patio furniture, we had a lot of markdowns to take care -- to get through that in January, February and March, when that stuff hit the floors. I can remember vividly, come June, following that, when we were still in a bad economic downturn and our head of merchandising and our CEO, reminding everybody at the budget meeting, "I don't want to see us bringing down the quality and stuff to hit a price point." I don't want -- we've taken 20, 30 years to get our members comfortable with the types of items we can bring, particularly on better-end goods. And so, might we buy a few less units or something? Yes. Might we augment it a little bit with some offerings? Yes, but we try not to.

所以我記得——我想，一個軼事是，在 2008 年末，經濟衰退來勢洶洶，而對我們來說，受打擊最大的就是——儘管我們 1000 美元和 1500 美元的露台家具物有所值，但我們還是不得不進行大量的降價促銷——以度過 1 月、2 月和 3 月，因為那些東西都降價了。我清楚地記得，到了六月，經濟仍然低迷，我們的商品部主管和首席執行官在預算會議上提醒大家：「我不想看到我們為了降低價格而降低產品質量。」我不想——我們花了二三十年的時間才讓我們的會員對我們能夠提供的商品類型感到滿意，尤其是在高端商品方面。那麼，我們是不是可以少買幾台之類的呢？是的。我們能否再增加一些產品呢？是的，但我們盡量避免。

That's helpful. And my follow-up question is given the well-publicized website outage over the holiday weekend, should we read that as Costco needs to make a more meaningful investment in its technology infrastructure to keep up with the growing size of that business?

那很有幫助。我的後續問題是，鑑於假日週末期間網站宕機事件廣為人知，我們是否應該將其解讀為 Costco 需要對其技術基礎設施進行更有意義的投資，以跟上其不斷增長的業務規模？

Well, first of all, we live it every day here. And certainly -- and we are. It was unfortunate. Despite all the efforts to have plenty of capacity -- processing capacity, if you will, there was something that incurred. When we looked at the 5 days between Thanksgiving and Monday -- Cyber Monday, those 5 days on a year-over-year basis, I mean, we still were up in the very high teens as a percentage on e-commerce. So consistent with what we've showed you what we've currently been running. What tells us, we could have done better than that.

首先，我們每天都在這裡經歷這一切。當然——我們確實是。真是不幸。儘管我們盡一切努力確保擁有充足的產能——或者說處理能力——但還是產生了一些問題。當我們查看感恩節到網路星期一之間的 5 天，與去年同期相比，這 5 天的電子商務成長率仍然高達 10% 以上。這與我們之前向您展示的以及我們目前正在運行的程式完全一致。這告訴我們，我們本來可以做得更好。

So we did leave something on the table there. And again, we were able to correct it. It took several hours that day, unfortunately. But rest assured, we're spending a lot of money on things like that.

所以，我們確實在那件事上留下了一些東西。我們再次成功糾正了這個問題。不幸的是，那天花了幾個小時。但請放心，我們在這類事情上投入了大量資金。

Your next question comes from the line of Chuck Grom from Gordon Haskett.

你的下一個問題來自戈登·哈斯克特的查克·格羅姆的詩句。

First question, on MFI, now that we're past the fee increase and FX is normalizing, just wondering if you see any material reason why the 6% growth you reported in the quarter wouldn't be a good proxy in the coming quarters.

第一個問題是關於小額信貸業務的，既然我們已經度過了費用上漲期，匯率也正在恢復正常，我想知道您是否認為本季度報告的 6% 的增長率不能很好地代表未來幾個季度的增長率。

Well, who knows? Certainly, one of the reasons why it's growing a little faster than the total sales line, a little of it -- a couple of recent openings, like the China opening, that's a little of it. I think more importantly -- and some of the things that we have done a much better job of getting new members to sign up as an executive member. You saw the -- in terms of the number of new member -- which is a combination of new memberships signing up as executive members as well as conversions to the executive member, we're doing a better job of that as well.

誰知道呢？當然，它成長速度略快於整體銷售額的原因之一，就是最近新開的幾家分店，例如中國分店，這算是原因之一。我認為更重要的是——而且我們在吸引新成員註冊成為執行委員方面做得更好。您已經看到了——就新會員數量而言——這包括新會員註冊成為執行會員以及轉為執行會員，我們在這方面也做得更好了。

And of course, that -- aside from improving membership fees, they are a more loyal member that shop more frequently and renew at a slightly higher rate. And so I think a lot of it is some of the things that we're doing, getting those that use -- the growing number of members, I'm using U.S. as an example here, with the Citi/Visa card, signing up for that and having auto renewal as well as opting into auto renewal on other Visa cards that somebody may choose to use at Costco.

當然，除了提高會員費之外，他們還會培養出更忠誠的會員，這些會員購物更頻繁，續費率也會略高一些。所以我覺得很大程度上是因為我們正在做一些事情，例如讓越來越多的會員（我以美國為例）註冊花旗/維薩卡並設定自動續費，以及讓其他人在 Costco 使用的其他維薩卡也選擇自動續費。

And so those are the things that help as well. I'd like to think it's all related to just great value, and that's more things that we offer the member, which is certainly part of it, too.

所以，這些因素也很有幫助。我願意相信這一切都與超值有關，而我們為會員提供的服務也正是價值所在，這當然也是其中的一部分。

Okay, that's great. And just -- sorry, just to switch over to the balance sheet a little bit. Inventory levels were a little bit heavy. I presume that's just the timing of Thanksgiving. Any way to normalize for that, maybe inventory per club or some other metric, just to get a sense for what sort of apples-to-apples would look like?

好的，太好了。抱歉，我稍微換個角度談談資產負債表。庫存水準有點高。我猜這只是感恩節的時間安排。有沒有辦法進行標準化處理，例如按俱樂部庫存或其他指標，以便更好地進行同類比較？

Yes. Well, I think it's mostly the shift of holiday. Some of it is a build up with e-commerce in those holidays as well, with more in the system. We're doing more fulfillment on that side. Again, in the few days since then, it's come down as we've expected, so I don't think there's a whole lot to read into it.

是的。我覺得主要是假期安排的改變。部分原因是假日期間電子商務的蓬勃發展，系統中還有更多此類數據。我們在那方面做了更多訂單履行工作。再說，從那時起的幾天裡，價格也如我們預期的那樣下降了，所以我認為沒什麼好解讀的。

Okay. Great. And then just last one on the quarter-on-quarter up 4, maybe quantify for us the drag that you're going to continue to see, and then what you saw here in the current quarter from the chicken plant, just to get a sense for how much that was to the quarter.

好的。偉大的。最後，關於季度環比增長 4，能否量化一下你將繼續看到的拖累，以及你在本季度從雞肉加工廠看到的情況，以便了解這對本季度的影響有多大。

Well, if you think about it, if we opened the chicken plant -- the first chicken, if you will, went through on September 10. Hopefully, 45 weeks later, there'll be roughly 2.2 million chickens a week going through there. The first 3 months, if you will, which is Q1 here, September, October and part of most of November, you were at the lowest end of that. I don't want to straight line it completely, but it's close enough for this discussion going from 1 chicken to 2.2 million chickens, if you will.

嗯，如果你仔細想想，如果我們開設了雞肉加工廠——第一隻雞，如果你願意這麼稱呼的話，是在 9 月 10 日下線的。希望45週後，每週將有大約220萬隻雞通過那裡。如果要說前三個月的話，也就是我們這裡的第一季度，9 月、10 月以及 11 月的大部分時間，你們的業績處於最低水平。我不想完全把它簡化成直線，但就本次討論而言，從 1 隻雞到 220 萬隻雞，這個近似值已經足夠了。

There's a lot of operating costs in running the plant. And while we don't have both production lines running yet, now -- there's just a lot of costs associated with that. It will be a -- it should be a diminishing drag in Q2 and then Q3 and then Q4 and then not be an issue.

工廠運作成本很高。雖然我們目前還沒有兩條生產線同時運作——但這會產生許多相關成本。在第二季度，這種拖累應該會逐漸減弱，然後在第三季、第四季逐漸減弱，之後就不會再成為問題了。

And we have Chris Mandeville from Jefferies.

我們也邀請到了來自傑富瑞集團的克里斯·曼德維爾。

So a quick question on central SG&A similar to Michael's. I'm just curious with respect to the IT investment if we should be assuming that, that pressure that was realized in the quarter actually progressively gets a little bit more prominent on a go-forward basis. I don't know if that's what you were trying to reference or allude to with respect to expanding your capabilities and activities, or if we should be thinking about something similar on a go-forward basis.

所以，關於中央銷售、一般及行政費用，我有一個和麥可類似的問題。我只是好奇，關於 IT 投資，我們是否應該假設，本季所感受到的壓力實際上會在未來逐漸變得更加明顯。我不知道你指的是不是這樣，或者說是不是暗示著要擴大你的能力和活動範圍，或者我們是否應該考慮在未來採取類似的措施。

If I look over the last several years with that word we've stopped using completely called modernization, and now it's some modernization, but other things as well, we talked about in the last -- I talked about it the last several quarters, things like income fulfillment, spending a lot of money on that. A lot of that hits SG&A in terms of all that technology -- the chicken plant, to some extent. There's -- we've also, over the last couple of years, done a reset of certain departments within IT based on salary -- wage competition in this part of the woods, up here in the northwest.

如果我回顧過去幾年，用我們已經完全停止使用的那個詞——現代化，現在它包含一些現代化，但也包含其他一些東西，我們在上個季度——我在過去幾個季度裡談到過，比如收入實現，在這方面投入了大量資金。許多技術方面的支出都會影響到銷售、一般及行政費用——例如雞肉加工廠——在某種程度上也是如此。過去幾年，我們也根據薪資水平，對IT部門內部的某些部門進行了重組——在這個西北地區的薪資競爭方面。

So I mean, there's a lot of things that go into it. And we've got a lot going on, whether it's e-com, continued increases in infrastructure and vertical integration as well as our depot operations and modernization. So I don't know. I think the -- when we first started talking about modernization years ago, it was just that. As best we could, we estimated, originally, over a few years, it would be an incremental 10 basis points to the company. And then quickly, we found it could be 13, and ultimately it was 18 or 19.

我的意思是，這裡面涉及很多因素。我們有很多事情要做，無論是電子商務、基礎設施的持續成長和垂直整合，還是我們的倉庫營運和現代化。所以我也不知道。我認為——當我們幾年前第一次開始談論現代化的時候，它就是如此。我們最初估計，在幾年內，這將為公司帶來 10 個基點的成長。然後很快，我們發現可能是 13，最終是 18 或 19。

And then there are a couple of years when on a quarter-over-quarter basis, some quarters, it was 6 and some quarters it was 0 or -- 2 or 0. So I think a couple of quarters ago, maybe 3 quarters ago, it was flat year-over-year, that impact. And I reminded people that don't read anything into that like we've hit an inflection point.

然後有那麼幾年，按季度環比來看，有些季度是 6，有些季度是 0 或 2 或 0。所以我覺得大概兩、三個季度前，比去年同期影響持平。我提醒大家，不要由此解讀出我們已經到達了一個轉捩點。

We have a lot going on, both related to modernization stuff as well as expanding as well as vertical integration. So my guess is it will still be a negative year-over-year. There's a negative -- when those negatives anniversary a year hence, will we have incremental negative? That I can't say. At some point, it's supposed to slow down.

我們有很多事情要做，既包括現代化改造方面的事情，也包括擴張和垂直整合方面的事情。所以我估計同比仍將出現負成長。還有一個負面因素──一年後，當這些負面因素達到週年紀念日時，我們會不會面臨更大的負面影響？我無法回答。它的速度總有一天會減慢。

Okay. And then just my follow-up would be with respect to the Instacart pilot and delivering RX to your members. I guess just what exactly you're attempting to accomplish there? Is the structure of delivering pharmacy any different in terms of how you're approaching things from a grocery perspective?

好的。然後，我的後續問題是關於 Instacart 試點計畫以及向會員配送處方藥的情況。我想問的是，你到底想用這種方式達到什麼目的？從雜貨店的角度來看，藥品配送的結構是否有所不同？

Yes -- well, no, I mean, look, it's convenience. Like anything in life out there, as you might expect, we're always asked, "When are you going to start to do order online and pick up in store? When are you going to do this? When are you going to have something else?" And we kind of do things our own way.

是的——好吧，不，我的意思是，你看，這很方便。就像生活中的其他事情一樣，不出所料，我們總是被問到：“你們什麼時候開始提供線上訂購、店內取貨的服務？”你打算什麼時候做這件事？你們什麼時候再吃點別的？我們做事的方式比較獨特。

We look at all these things, and this is one area that, with the Instacart relationship, where we have them already coming into our locations. Let's give this a shot. We already have a good and growing mail order business.

我們會考慮所有這些因素，而在這個領域，透過與 Instacart 的合作，我們已經讓他們進入了我們的門市。我們來試試看。我們已經擁有良好且不斷成長的郵購業務。

We have 500-and-whatever-40-ish pharmacies around the country. But this is another opportunity. Our pharmacies are sometimes -- somebody doesn't want to come out if they're not feeling well, and so it was an opportunity, given -- and as density increases, that should help. But you've already got these drivers delivering groceries to others, so hopefully, we can do this. And it is something to add to the competitive belt here.

我們在全國各地有 500 多家藥局。但這又是一次機會。我們的藥局有時會出現這種情況——有些人如果身體不舒服就不想出門，所以這是一個機會——隨著人口密度的增加，這應該會有所幫助。但是現在已經有司機在給其他人送貨了，所以希望我們也能做到這一點。這無疑會為我們的競爭優勢錦上添花。

Is that a notable impact to one's RX margin profile? I guess I'm just curious about the economics there.

這會對個人的處方藥利潤率產生顯著影響嗎？我只是對那裡的經濟狀況感到好奇。

No, no. And first of all, it's brand new. And it's in just a few locations. We're going to roll out to a few more shortly, so we'll see where it goes.

不，不。首先，它是全新的。而且它只在少數幾個地方有售。我們很快會推廣到更多地區，看看效果如何。

Your next question is from Simeon Gutman from Morgan Stanley.

下一個問題來自摩根士丹利的西蒙古特曼。

This is Michael Kessler on for Simeon. So a question on the competitive environment, we've seen Sam's Club undergoing kind of an unexpected round of investments recently. And I guess, is there anything notable that you would feel the need to respond to as far as what they're doing? Or anything that changes on your end from some of their investments?

這是代表西蒙的麥可凱斯勒。關於競爭環境的問題，我們看到山姆會員店最近經歷了一輪出乎意料的投資。那麼，就他們正在做的事情而言，有沒有什麼值得注意的地方，是你覺得需要回應的呢？或者他們的某些投資對您那邊產生了任何影響？

Not really. I mean look, our warehouse managers are in their locations every week. We hear about it, and I hear about it here every month by location -- or by region, rather. And look, they're a good operator and a good competitor, and we feel that we do a lot of things very well, too. And -- but there's nothing that I could point out. A year or so ago, we had pointed out that they had gotten a little more aggressive on fresh. And some of these things ebb and flow, but at the end of the day, we feel very good about our competitive position.

並不真地。我的意思是，你看，我們的倉庫經理每週都會到倉庫現場。我們每個月都會聽到有關此事的消息，我每個月都會聽到來自不同地區（或更確切地說是不同區域）的消息。你看，他們是一家優秀的營運商，也是一個強大的競爭對手，我們也覺得我們在很多方面都做得很好。但是——但我卻找不到任何可以指出的地方。大約一年前，我們曾指出他們對新鮮食材的佔有欲有所增強。有些事情會有起伏，但最終，我們對自身的競爭地位感到非常滿意。

Got it. Okay. Great. And just one follow-up on China, the new store that you opened there. You're a little further away from the opening. Is there anything notable that you've learned over the last couple of months? And any changes to your plans as far as the rollout, which I know is a little more on the slower side, but any updates on that front?

知道了。好的。偉大的。還有一點關於中國的問題，您在那裡開設的新店。你離入口還有一段距離。在過去的幾個月裡，你有沒有學到什麼值得注意的？關於產品推廣計劃，是否有任何變動？我知道推廣速度比較慢，請問這方面有什麼最新進展嗎？

Well first of all, on the rollout side, and we have one other one planned, which was planned previously, that's probably about a year and a quarter -- 1.5 years away, and we'll continue to look -- see what we want to do next. But not a lot of change there. There's -- overall, it's -- the location has exceeded our expectations. We brought in additional help from neighboring places to help, but the sales continue to grow. The sign-ups continue to do very well there. And we'll see.

首先，在推廣方面，我們還有一個計劃，也是之前就計劃好的，那大概還需要一年零三個月——也就是一年半的時間，我們會繼續觀察——看看接下來我們想做什麼。但那方面並沒有太大變化。總的來說，這個地方超出了我們的預期。我們從鄰近地區調集了更多人手幫忙，但銷售額仍在持續成長。那裡的報名情況依然非常好。我們拭目以待。

So we've had a great reception. We feel good about from a merchandising standpoint and maintaining a supply chain, very good. And we're getting, I think, good reviews over there.

我們受到了熱烈歡迎。從商品銷售和供應鏈維護的角度來看，我們感覺非常好。我認為我們在那邊獲得了不錯的評價。

We've also identified a few items, one in particular that -- and is again just anecdotal, we've done a very good job over there with sea cucumbers, which I still have never tried. But we have found is, is that, particularly on the West Coast in several cities where you've got customers that value that as a great item, we have done very well. So just like anything in life we have found items that makes sense in other parts of our operation throughout the world. And it's fun to see out there, and it's a high-value -- high-priced item at a great value at Costco.

我們還發現了一些品種，其中一種——這只是個軼事——我們在海參方面做得非常好，但我自己還沒有嘗試過。但我們發現，尤其是在西海岸的幾個城市，那裡的顧客非常重視這件商品，所以我們做得非常好。就像生活中的其他事情一樣，我們發現了一些物品，它們在我們世界各地的其他業務中也發揮作用。而且在 Costco 看到它很有趣，它是一款物超所值的商品——原價很高，但在這裡卻非常划算。

And we have a question from the line of Greg Badishkanian from Citi.

我們收到來自花旗銀行的 Greg Badishkanian 的提問。

This is actually Spencer Hanus on for Greg. You guys called out some sales headwinds related to the website issue. Do you think those sales have been lost? Or do you think they were just pushed out?

實際上，這是 Spencer Hanus 代替 Greg 發言。你們指出了與網站問題相關的銷售阻力。你認為這些銷售額已經損失了嗎？還是你認為他們是被排擠出去的？

I think some was pushed out, some went to the warehouse and some was lost. In the scope of things, given our whole company, recognizing that e-commerce, while growing faster than the rest of inline, is still 5 -- a little over 5% of our company. So it's not -- I don't want to be cavalier about it. We -- it didn't excite the members that were delayed.

我認為有些被趕走了，有些被送到了倉庫，有些則遺失了。從整個公司的角度來看，雖然電子商務的成長速度比其他業務更快，但它仍然只占我們公司的 5%——略高於 5%。所以，我不想對此掉以輕心。我們——這並沒有讓那些被耽擱的成員感到興奮。

And -- but we feel we've got some -- we extended the values that hit the 30-plus million e-mails that we sent out in the early hours of Thursday. We extended those deals for an extra 2 days, and so we think we got some of it back. And again, for that 5-day period, we did just fine. Frankly, we feel we did lose something though, we could have done better than we had anticipated.

而且——但我們感覺我們已經取得了一些成果——我們擴展了周四凌晨發送的 3000 多萬封電子郵件中體現的價值觀。我們將這些優惠活動延長了兩天，所以我們認為我們已經挽回了一些損失。再說一遍，在那五天裡，我們一切都很好。坦白說，我們覺得確實有所損失，我們本來可以做得比預期更好。

And then any comment on big ticket sales trends that you're seeing? And then how does the consumer feel heading into the holiday season this year?

那麼，您對目前觀察到的商品銷售趨勢有什麼看法？那麼，消費者今年對即將到來的假期季節有何感受呢？

Yes, big ticket items are strong, particularly electronics items. The fact that back in March or April this past year, we were able now to offer a full line of Apple products, including the Macs and the watches and the like, and we've done very well with those.

是的，高價商品表現強勁，尤其是電子產品。去年三、四月的時候，我們已經能夠提供全系列的蘋果產品，包括Mac電腦、蘋果手錶等等，而且這些產品的銷售情況非常好。

If I -- and online, we've done even better with those. And it's not just the Apple products, it's other big-ticket high-end game computers and game consoles, big screen TVs are huge, recognizing the price and value of those things for consumers keep coming down, which is great. Those are the things that have done very well for us.

如果我——而且在網路上，我們在這方面做得更好。不只是蘋果產品，其他昂貴的高階遊戲電腦和遊戲機，以及大螢幕電視的銷售量也非常火爆，消費者意識到這些產品的價格和價值都在不斷下降，這真是太好了。這些措施對我們非常有效。

Your next question comes from the line of Karen Short from Barclays.

你的下一個問題來自巴克萊銀行的凱倫·肖特。

Just a couple of questions, I guess starting with the quarter-on-quarter. So you've obviously had pretty meaningful stability, I guess, in the quarter-on-quarter, and you alluded to this a couple of quarters ago in terms of your scale and your buying power. But I'm wondering if you could just frame a little bit on how we should think about quarter-on-quarter going forward because it does seem like we're kind of in a new norm of that being stable to up generally.

我想問幾個問題，先從季度環比開始。所以，顯然你們的季度業績相當穩定，我想，你們在幾個季度前也曾提到過這一點，指的是你們的規模和購買力。但我很想知道您能否稍微闡述我們應該如何看待未來的季度環比增長，因為看起來我們似乎已經進入了一種新的常態，即季度環比增長總體上保持穩定或上升。

Well, I think the fact is that you're right, all the things that we do to drive value or to get better pricing or based on our volume or Kirkland Signature or whatever, just when you think it's safe to go out, we're going to use it to drive business, which we've done. We talked in the past about the monies from increasing the membership fee, the monies from the changing credit cards, the income tax reform, recognizing about a little over 1/3 of the income tax reform went to improve hourly wages.

嗯，我認為事實是你說得對，我們所做的一切，無論是為了創造價值、獲得更好的價格，還是基於我們的銷量、Kirkland Signature 或其他任何因素，只要你認為可以安全外出，我們就會利用這些來推動業務，而我們也確實這樣做了。我們過去曾討論過提高會員費的收入、信用卡變更帶來的收入、所得稅改革，並意識到所得稅改革中大約有超過三分之一的資金用於提高小時工資。

But at the end of the day, those have given us additional monies to continue to drive value. And there are times when we see something, a particular department or something, where the margin might be very strong year-over-year, that's the first thing we look at. Even if we're giving a greater savings to the customer, is it too much? And so again, we are a for-profit business. We want to grow our top line first, and that will help the other things. But we don't manage it completely to the basis point. Net-net, we'd like to see year-over-year EBITDA go up a little bit, but we have avenues to do that.

但歸根結底，這些都為我們提供了額外的資金，讓我們能夠繼續創造價值。有時我們會發現某個部門或某個方面，其利潤率比去年同期非常強勁，這是我們首先要關注的事情。即使我們為客戶節省了更多費用，這樣做是不是太多了？所以，我們再次強調，我們是一家以營利為目的的企業。我們首先要提高營收，這將有助於其他方面的發展。但我們並沒有完全做到最基本的層次。總而言之，我們希望看到 EBITDA 年比略有成長，但我們有辦法實現這一目標。

Okay. And then on tariffs, just specifically to the tariffs for this Sunday, if they were or not to go into effect. Sorry, I'm just -- can you just clarify, I mean, the rest of the list like went through 4A, I guess, obviously it's kind of already embedded. But is there anything to think about in terms of 4B does not go into effect with respect to your positioning or the model or anything?

好的。然後是關於關稅的問題，特別是本週日的關稅是否生效的問題。抱歉，我只是──你能解釋一下嗎？我的意思是，清單的其餘部分好像都經過了 4A，我想，顯然它已經算是嵌入其中了。但是，就你的定位、模型或其他任何方面而言，4B 是否不起作用，這方面有什麼需要考慮的嗎？

Well, in a way, we don't know. I mean to the extent that we bought in advance certain merchandise, to the extent we could, anticipating that, that was going to go into place, and so let's get it in before the tariff, we did. But -- what's that -- it wouldn't change it, right? Someone here was saying -- it wouldn't change things immediately there. So if any -- I mean, if anything, we've had a little extra inventory in advance of it.

某種程度上來說，我們並不知道。我的意思是，我們提前購買了一些商品，盡可能地提前購買，預料到這種情況將會發生，所以我們在關稅生效前就把商品運到了，我們也確實這麼做了。但是——那又怎樣——這不會改變什麼，對吧？有人說——這不會立即改變那裡的情況。所以，如果有什麼——我的意思是，如果有什麼的話，我們事先準備了一些額外的庫存。

Okay. And then last few for me is just housekeeping on inflation in food and also in nonfood, and then thoughts on cash on the balance sheet as it continues to build.

好的。最後，我想談談食品和非食品價格的通膨情況，以及資產負債表上現金持續成長的情況。

Inflation is almost a nonissue. It's not either inflation or deflation, generally speaking. I mean yes, we mentioned there's slightly deflationary year-over-year. Tariffs is slightly inflationary, of course, on those limited items. Yes, proteins are up a little. My understanding, that has to do partly with China and with the swine flu as well as more demand for beef. Other than that, not a lot to talk about there. But what was the other part of the question?

通貨膨脹幾乎不成問題。一般來說，既不是通貨膨脹，也不是通貨緊縮。我的意思是，是的，我們提到同比略有通貨緊縮。當然，對於這些有限的商品而言，關稅會帶來輕微的通貨膨脹。是的，蛋白質含量略有上升。據我了解，這部分與中國、豬流感以及牛肉需求增加有關。除此之外，也沒什麼好說的了。但問題的另一部分是什麼？

It was cash on the balance sheet building.

這是資產負債表上的現金累積。

Yes. Yes, well, we have 2 debt payments coming due this week or the next Monday -- next week and in mid-February, totaling $1.7 billion from prior debt offerings. Beyond that, of course, cash at the end of Q1, generally, is the highest level because you've started to sell more, but you haven't paid for everything yet relative to seasonal stuff for Thanksgiving and Christmas. So like our AP ratio is always the strongest then on a quarterly basis. Beyond that, stay tuned.

是的。是的，我們有兩筆債務將於本週或下週一到期——分別是下週和二月中旬，總額為 17 億美元，來自先前的債務發行。當然，除此之外，通常來說，第一季末的現金水平最高，因為你已經開始銷售更多商品，但你還沒有支付所有與感恩節和聖誕節等季節性商品相關的費用。所以，我們的應付帳款比率在季度層級總是最強的。除此之外，敬請期待。

And we have a question from John Heinbockel from Guggenheim Securities.

我們還有一個來自古根漢證券的約翰·海因博克爾提出的問題。

So Richard, where do you stand now with self-checkout? I know you've been expanding that. How many clubs is that in? What are your learnings, right, in terms of consumer -- member satisfaction, speed of checkout? And then what do you think the rate of expansion of that is going to be?

理查德，你現在對自助結帳持什麼態度？我知道你一直在拓展這方面的內容。那屬於幾個俱樂部？就消費者而言，例如會員滿意度、結帳速度等方面，您有哪些經驗教訓？那你認為它的擴張速度會是多少呢？

Well, we currently have it in the U.S. and Canada in about 135 locations. It's going well. We have another 92 planned for rollout in early calendar 2020, so up above the -- in the low 200s. And the senior operators continue to discuss additional rollouts with Craig based on the performance. But overall, it's a positive. And so we'll continue to do it, is my expectation.

目前，我們在美國和加拿大的大約 135 個地點提供這項服務。一切順利。我們計劃在 2020 年初推出另外 92 個，所以高於——在 200 個左右。高層營運人員將繼續根據業績情況與克雷格討論進一步的推廣計劃。但總體而言，這是件好事。因此，我預計我們會繼續這樣做。

I mean roughly speaking, when you think about savings, right, I don't know how material that is, but is there an idea that you reinvest that -- can it be enough to reinvest back into the business in something like expanded BOPUS? Or I know you've been sort of reticent about BOPUS because of the cost, is that something you can now begin to get your arms around or no?

我的意思是，粗略地說，當你考慮節省開支時，對吧？我不知道這筆錢有多大，但是有沒有可能再投資這筆錢──這筆錢是否足以再投資到業務中，例如擴大線上訂購線下取貨服務（BOPUS）？我知道你一直對BOPUS手術有所顧慮，主要是因為費用問題，現在你能開始接受這個治療方案了嗎？

Well, first of all, I think thoughts on either of those are mutually exclusive to one other. When I look at the millions or billions of front-end seconds we save in labor, we know full well that some of it is -- you don't get it all back. But even if you take a conservative amount, there is money to be saved there. More importantly, the members like it.

首先，我認為關於這兩種想法是互斥的。當我們看到我們在前端節省的數百萬甚至數十億秒的勞動力成本時，我們非常清楚，其中一些成本是——你不可能全部收回。即使你採取保守的做法，也能省下一筆錢。更重要的是，會員都很喜歡。

The only thing the member doesn't like is when there's a number in front of them that is going through with their full basket and it is taking longer. But generally speaking, even in the high volume -- the few high-volume units that I've actually gone to of late, like the ones in Seattle, and I use them when I'm in and out there fast, they work well and fast. So there is a savings, but I think as well, it improves that customer experience.

會員唯一不喜歡的就是前面有人提著滿滿一籃商品正在結帳，導致結帳時間過長。但總的來說，即使在客流量很大的場所——我最近去過的幾家客流量很大的場所，比如西雅圖的那些，而且我都是快速進出的時候才去的，它們都能很好地工作，速度也很快。所以這樣既能節省成本，而且我認為也能改善客戶體驗。

As it relates to buy online and pick up in store, we continue to look at what others do and continue to scratch our head, and recognizing the average Costco, even compared to our 2 direct competitors, is 2 and almost 3x the volume per location -- almost 2 and almost 3x the volume per location. So we'll have to wait and see. We're still not at a point -- we look at it, but we're not at a point that we're planning to do anything with that.

至於線上購買線下取貨，我們一直在觀察其他商家的做法，也一直在思考這個問題。我們意識到，即使與我們的兩家直接競爭對手相比，Costco 的平均單店銷量也是我們的 2 倍到近 3 倍。所以，我們只能拭目以待了。我們目前還沒有到那種程度——我們會關注它，但我們還沒有計劃就此採取任何行動。

Your next question is from Kate McShane from Goldman Sachs.

下一個問題來自高盛的凱特·麥克沙恩。

We wanted to ask about apparel. I know that this is a category where you've been a little bit more focused. I wondered if you could give some color about the performance of apparel during the quarter, what you see the opportunity to be, and how Costco can kind of position itself to capture some share going into the next year.

我們想諮詢一下服裝方面的問題。我知道你在這個領域投入了更多精力。我想請您介紹本季服裝業務的表現，您認為有哪些機遇，以及 Costco 如何在明年更好地定位自己，從而獲得一些市場份額。

Yes. Look, I think it's part of the same story that we talked about, fortunately, for the last few years. Apparel is a combination of both expanded Kirkland Signature as well as a few additional brands willing to sell us or expanding what they're selling us as well, and great value. And it's a category in the several billions of dollars that continues to grow in the roughly high single digits, compared to retail apparel overall, that's a lot less than that.

是的。你看，我認為這和我們過去幾年一直在討論的故事是同一個故事的一部分，幸運的是，我們一直在討論這個問題。服裝方面，我們既有擴大的 Kirkland Signature 產品線，也有其他一些願意向我們銷售產品或擴大銷售範圍的品牌，而且物超所值。而且，這是一個價值數十億美元的品類，其成長率仍然保持在接近兩位數的較高水平，相比之下，整個零售服裝行業的成長率要低得多。

So -- and no, I think -- I'm always amazed at our monthly budget meetings when, in this case, buyers are bringing in and showing what's coming in for the new season, whether it's outerwear -- a few months ago, outerwear for the fall or both men's, women's and children's stuff.

所以——不，我想——我總是對我們的月度預算會議感到驚訝，在這種情況下，採購員們會帶來並展示新一季的商品，無論是外套——幾個月前是秋季外套，還是男裝、女裝和童裝。

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

下一個問題來自加拿大皇家銀行資本市場的史考特·西卡雷利。

Richard, I had a follow-up question on the Shanghai location. Could you just provide any context on the sign-up activity of that location relative to a more traditional facility?

理查德，我還有一個關於上海辦事處的後續問題。能否提供一些關於該地點註冊活動與傳統機構相比的背景資訊？

It's beyond good. I'm sitting here with my colleagues, [what I'm allowed to say]. The average Costco in the world has somewhere in the mid- to high-60,000 of member households. We've had locations in other countries in Asia, where we might be at 100,000, 120,000 after a few years, maybe even after 1 or 2 years. This one is more than twice that. That's a lot of press in a city that is populated with 25-plus million people.

簡直好到爆。我和我的同事坐在這裡，[我可以說什麼呢？ ]全球平均每家 Costco 門市擁有 6 萬至 6 萬個會員家庭。我們在亞洲其他國家也有分支機構，幾年後，甚至可能一、兩年後，我們的員工人數可能會達到 10 萬、12 萬人。這個的價格是那一個的兩倍多。在一個擁有超過2500萬人口的城市裡，這可是相當大的媒體關注。

Yes, I understand. So just given the fact that in the past, you've kind of talked about how long it takes locations to hit a breakeven point. I guess given the early sales and membership trajectory of that location, does that help change how you're kind of thinking about the breakeven point for that warehouse, and hence, the China opportunity? Or do you need more distribution scale to really get the profitability to where you want it?

是的，我明白了。鑑於您過去曾談到各個地點需要多長時間才能達到損益平衡點。我想，鑑於該地點的早期銷售和會員發展軌跡，這是否會改變您對該倉庫盈虧平衡點的看法，從而改變您對中國市場機會的看法？或者，您是否需要更大的分銷規模才能真正實現您想要的利潤水平？

Well, getting to 7 or 8 or 10 locations in a country where a bunch of stuff is American-supplied or -- and barge-shipped, not air-flown, you become more efficient as you go from 1 to 3. You may be using some third-party consolidation or storage to do high-volume bulk items because you don't want to run out of water or toilet paper, as you may. They're no-brainer items. And over time, by the time we get up to 8 or 10, we want to have a bigger cross dock that then can -- with enough land to continue to expand it over time. Across docks in the U.S. and Canada, serve 40 to 60 locations each, and 40 to 60 relatively high-volume locations.

嗯，在一個很多東西都依賴美國供應或用駁船運輸而不是空運的國家，如果你要設立 7 個、8 個甚至 10 個倉庫，那麼從 1 個倉庫增加到 3 個倉庫，效率就會更高。你可能需要利用一些第三方整合或倉儲服務來處理大批量貨物，因為你不想出現缺水或缺廁紙的情況，這種情況是可能發生的。這些都是顯而易見的選擇。隨著時間的推移，當我們達到 8 或 10 個裝卸貨點時，我們希望擁有一個更大的交叉裝卸平台，並且有足夠的土地可以隨著時間的推移繼續擴建。在美國和加拿大的各個碼頭，每個碼頭服務 40 至 60 個地點，其中 40 至 60 個地點的貨運量相對較高。

So we have 1 in Australia that services 11 locations. That will continue to be a little bit of economic improvement to that country as it serves 15 and 20 locations. We've opened 2 in Japan. Essentially south to north for all 26 or 27 locations. We plan to have a lot more there over time.

我們在澳洲有 1 家公司，服務 11 個地點。這對該國來說將繼續帶來一些經濟上的改善，因為它服務於 15 到 20 個地點。我們在日本開了兩家分店。基本上所有 26 或 27 個地點都是從南向北的。我們計劃隨著時間的推移在那裡增加更多設施。

So certainly -- in addition, we have a lot of extra help there. We're doing big volume, and we brought over additional people from Taiwan that speak the local language and that understand our concept. And it's been -- we've been fortunate to have that additional history and expertise when we've gone there, but also it cost some more. So I think you've got to -- what is the normal once it's doing whatever volume it's doing and it's efficiently run at the warehouse, maybe you don't have all the efficiencies from cross dock, that will take several years. But the most efficiencies are what's in the building and how many people do you need to help that process. And you become more efficient. So that may take a couple of years to do that. And that's one of the reasons why we generally go slow in new countries because we want to get it right from a customer experience and an operational side.

所以當然——此外，我們在那裡還有很多額外的幫助。我們做了很多工作，也從台灣引進了更多會說當地語言、理解我們理念的人。而且，我們很幸運，去那裡的時候能有額外的歷史和專業知識，但同時也花了更多。所以我覺得你必須考慮——一旦倉庫達到目前的吞吐量並高效運轉，正常情況會是怎麼樣的？也許你無法從交叉轉運中獲得所有效率，這需要幾年時間。但效率最高的還是建築物內的資源以及需要多少人來協助完成這項工作。你會變得更有效率。所以這可能需要幾年時間才能完成。這也是為什麼我們在新國家通常進展緩慢的原因之一，因為我們希望從客戶體驗和營運方面都做到盡善盡美。

Your next question is from Oliver Chen from Cowen and Company.

您的下一個問題來自 Cowen and Company 的 Oliver Chen。

Richard, on your digital innovation road map, what are your thoughts about fulfillment from in-store and micro fulfillment centers? And also thinking about the robotic capabilities across inventory management or supply chain from in-store, would love your thoughts.

Richard，在你的數位創新路線圖中，你對店內配送和微型配送中心的配送有什麼看法？另外，我還在思考機器人技術在門市庫存管理或供應鏈中的應用，很想聽聽大家的想法。

Well, we have -- just because of what we did currently a couple of years ago, we have our business centers that act as a focal point, as you know, for today. We have our depot operations. We've moved some of that fulfillment to annexes off some of our depots as well, where we put in, to our biggest depot, some automation fulfillment, which I talked about over the last few quarters, the last 6 months, and we continue to roll some of that out.

嗯，我們之所以有——正是因為我們幾年前所做的事情，我們現在才有了業務中心，正如您所知，這些中心如今成為了業務的焦點。我們有自己的倉庫營運部門。我們也把部分訂單履行轉移到了部分倉庫的附屬倉庫，並在我們最大的倉庫中安裝了一些自動化訂單履行系統。我在過去幾個季度，也就是過去六個月一直在談論這個問題，我們將繼續推廣其中的一些系統。

One of the things we've done is particularly things like how do we improve the time, particularly of items that mightn't even be presented in-store but are only sold online, like white goods, or what I'll call big and bulky and those that require, not only installation but sometimes takes away the old one. While many third parties do that, we do a little of it.

我們所做的一件事，特別是如何縮短交貨時間，特別是那些可能根本不會在實體店展示，而只在網上銷售的商品，比如白色家電，或者我稱之為大型笨重的商品，以及那些不僅需要安裝，有時還需要拆除舊家電的商品。雖然很多第三方都會這麼做，但我們也會做一些類似的事情。

We've also figured out what are some of these items, based on our volumes, that can be staged efficiently in a dozen -- I'm making the number up, but a dozen geographic locations across the Canada and the United States to take the shipping times down dramatically. And we've done some of that stuff. And that's evolved over the last couple of years, and we'll do more.

根據我們的銷量，我們也弄清楚了哪些商品可以有效率地在加拿大和美國的十幾個地理位置進行分類——我舉個例子，就是十幾個——這樣就能大幅縮短運輸時間。我們已經做了一些這樣的事情。過去幾年裡，這種情況一直在發展，我們還會做得更多。

You've got a business just white goods, and that's certainly not the only big and bulky. There's furniture. There's patio stuff. There's exercise equipment. But just on white goods, we've gone from essentially sub-$50 million a year 4 years ago to over $650 million and growing. And that's -- part of that is not just selling this stuff at great prices, it's getting it delivered to you in fewer days.

你的生意只賣白色家電，但這當然不是唯一又大又笨重的家電。這裡有家具。有露台用品。這裡有健身器材。但僅就白色家電而言，我們的銷售額就從 4 年前每年不到 5,000 萬美元成長到超過 6.5 億美元，而且還在成長。這其中一部分不僅僅是以優惠的價格出售這些商品，還包括在更短的時間內將它們送到您手中。

Okay. And Richard, on the vertical integration opportunities ahead, what are you thinking could or should be possible? And what's your framework for evaluating what makes sense for you in terms of owning more parts of the supply chain across different categories?

好的。理查德，關於未來的垂直整合機遇，你認為哪些是可能或應該實現的？那麼，在評估擁有不同品類供應鏈的更多環節對您而言是否合理時，您的評估架構是什麼？

Well, what started 25 years ago as a ground beef plant, to save $0.04, $0.06 a pound, we thought, on ground beef, is now -- are now 2 major meat plants, one in Tracy, California, where we started and one in Illinois, which is still growing into itself over the last 1.5 years, 2 years since it opened.

嗯，25 年前，我們最初是一家牛肉加工廠，當時的想法是每磅牛肉可以節省 0.04 或 0.06 美元。如今，我們已經擁有兩家大型肉類加工廠，一家位於加州特雷西市（我們的發源地），另一家位於伊利諾州，自開業以來，在過去的 1.5 到 2 年裡，這家工廠仍在不斷發展壯大。

I think the one in California does well over 4 million pounds a week of just a handful of items that we -- that's ours, that gave us confidence to do the hotdog plant. We did almost, partly by necessity, a bakery commissary in Canada, which we're finding can serve not only Canada but the U.S. on making more consistent and more efficiently [costed] items like the cookie dough and croissants.

我認為加州那家工廠每週只生產我們——我們——的幾種產品，就超過 400 萬磅，這給了我們信心去建造熱狗工廠。我們幾乎是在加拿大建立了一個烘焙食品中央廚房，部分原因是出於必要性。我們發現，它不僅可以為加拿大服務，還可以為美國服務，以生產更穩定、更經濟的產品，例如曲奇麵團和羊角麵包。

So we learn each time we do something. I think there's been some press out there about testing greenhouses for produce. We've got one up and running just the last few months in California that I think some of the product is just starting to hit our shelves. But we think there's some great opportunities on the produce side for hothouses and greenhouses, if you will, particularly -- and where transportation costs and time is a necessity on stuff that spoils quickly and easily.

所以每次做事情我們都能學到東西。我認為最近有一些媒體報導了對溫室農產品試驗的討論。我們在加州建造了一個工廠，最近幾個月才開始運營，我認為部分產品現在才剛開始上架。但我們認為，溫室和大棚在農產品領域蘊藏著巨大的機遇，尤其是在那些運輸成本和時間至關重要的易腐農產品領域。

Right now much of the produce that we ship to our Hawaii locations is air-shipped. If you can do some more of that over there, that's a no-brainer. And given our volume and limited SKUs, we think that we -- it's an efficient model to help. But that's not just us. Others are trying that. Again, we think that the structure of our business allows us to take more advantage of that. But it's new.

目前，我們運往夏威夷的農產品大部分都是透過空運運輸的。如果你能在那邊多做一些那樣的事情，那還用說嗎？鑑於我們的銷售量和有限的 SKU，我們認為這是一個能夠幫助我們的高效模式。但不僅僅是我們這樣。其他人也在嘗試這樣做。我們再次認為，我們目前的業務結構使我們能夠更好地利用這一點。但它是新的。

I don't know if there's anything big. There's nothing as big as the chicken complex on the drawing boards. But I think we'll continue to do things. But we're catching our breath a little bit right now. We've made some major investments in a second meat plant and the bakery commissary just recently and the chicken complex, and even more recently, the first of a few green hothouses. So we've got a lot going on. And the answer is it works. And so far, so good.

我不知道有沒有什麼大事發生。目前還沒有任何像養雞場那樣龐大的項目正在籌劃中。但我認為我們會繼續做這些事。但我們現在可以稍微喘口氣了。我們最近對第二家肉類加工廠、麵包烘焙食品加工中心和雞肉加工廠進行了一些重大投資，而且就在不久前，我們還投資建造了幾個溫室大棚中的第一個。所以我們有很多事情要做。答案是：它有效。目前為止，一切順利。

And our last question, Richard. Kirkland is a nice competitive advantage. What are your thoughts on how that percentage of mix may increase and categories that it may be suitable for that you're not in yet? And also you cited the new services that you've added to your product assortment, how will services evolve as a percentage of total? Just would love the magnitude of what may happen there over time.

理查德，我們的最後一個問題。柯克蘭是一個很好的競爭優勢。您認為這種混合比例可能會如何增加？它可能適合哪些您尚未涉足的類別？另外，您也提到了您產品系列中新增的服務，那麼服務在總服務中所佔的比例將如何改變？我很想知道隨著時間的推移，那裡可能會發生多麼巨大的變化。

Well, first on the Kirkland Signature side, there aren't a lot of $0.5 billion and $1 billion items, like water and various paper goods and things like that, and there are many, but not a lot of many new few hundred million dollar items. But at the end of the day, there's lots of $20 million and $50 million items that can go to $50 million and $100 million. And certainly, I think, like on high-end packaged food items, on everything from not only organic but antibiotic-free and -- I don't have all the adjectives in front of me, but there's lots of things that we can do that are high-end and that our members want and, frankly, has added benefits of it seemingly gets in the millennials on some of this stuff.

首先，就 Kirkland Signature 而言，5 億美元和 10 億美元的商品並不多，例如水、各種紙製品等等，而幾億美元的新產品雖然很多，但不多。但歸根結底，許多價值 2,000 萬美元和 5,000 萬美元的物品最終都能賣到 5,000 萬美元甚至 1 億美元。當然，我認為，就像高端包裝食品一樣，不僅包括有機食品，還包括不含抗生素的食品——我手頭上沒有所有的形容詞，但我們可以做很多高端的事情，這些都是我們的會員想要的，坦白說，這樣做似乎對千禧世代也有額外的好處。

So -- but I think -- we've expanded into some sporting goods. So there's lots of little things that will add to it. But if the number -- and I don't have it exactly in front of me, but ex gas, if the number is 24%, 25%, does it go to 30% over the next 10 or 15 years? Maybe. We think this is going to go up, yes, likely a little bit because we found ourselves and our ability -- and our suppliers, some of our private label suppliers are very good at what they do. But we also are still a branded retailer. We have very good savings, as you know, on branded items.

所以——但我認為——我們已經拓展到一些體育用品領域。所以有很多小因素都會對它產生影響。但是，如果這個數字——我手頭上沒有確切的數字，但以汽油為例，如果這個數字是 24%、25%，那麼在未來 10 年或 15 年內會達到 30% 嗎？或許。我們認為這個數字會上升，是的，可能會略微上升，因為我們發現我們自身以及我們的能力——還有我們的一些自有品牌供應商——都非常擅長他們所做的事情。但我們仍然是一家品牌零售商。如您所知，我們購買品牌商品可以享受非常優惠的價格。

On the service side, we don't talk about a lot because they're small relative to the size of our company, but it's other things that make the membership sticky and are very profitable, whether it's the auto -- Costco Auto Program or our Travel business, which continues to grow. We now -- a year or so ago, we added the hotel only booking engine, and more recently, the airline reservation only, not just packaged items, packaged trips, and everything. And so I think we'll keep adding things. I can't tell you what yet, but we keep looking at things.

在服務方面，我們很少談及，因為相對於我們公司的規模而言，服務業務規模較小，但其他一些方面卻能讓會員保持黏性，並帶來豐厚的利潤，例如汽車業務——好市多汽車計劃，以及我們持續增長的旅遊業務。大約一年前，我們增加了飯店預訂引擎，最近又增加了機票預訂引擎，不再是打包商品、打包旅行等等。所以我覺得我們會繼續增加一些東西。我現在還不能告訴你具體情況，但我們會繼續關注。

Your next question is from Greg Melich from Evercore ISI.

您的下一個問題來自 Evercore ISI 的 Greg Melich。

Richard, I wanted to get an update on how the private label card -- now that you've had a few years for it to properly season and scale, anything you could say on the penetration or how the sales are doing outside the club and maybe link that to what the auto renewal rates are now as part of the renewal rates.

理查德，我想了解一下自有品牌卡的最新情況——現在它已經發展了幾年，規模也擴大了，你能談談它的滲透率或在俱樂部之外的銷售情況嗎？也許可以把這些與現在的自動續費率連結起來，作為續費率的一部分。

Yes. I don't know if [I'm able to do auto renewal rates or if they are] increasing. The big issue is where we converted -- prior to conversion, when it was the other provider, there's both the cobranded card plus other branded cards of that provider, like Delta SkyMiles or something. And all those are -- all those non-cobrand ones, all those auto renewals went away, went to 0. So that had to be picked up over time, and we saw that impact to our overall renewal rate a little bit.

是的。我不知道是否可以設定自動續費，也不知道續費價格是否會上漲。最大的問題是我們轉換的地點——在轉換之前，也就是當初是另一家供應商的時候，既有聯名卡，也有該供應商的其他品牌卡，比如達美航空 SkyMiles 之類的。所有這些——所有非聯名產品，所有自動續訂都消失了，變成了 0。所以這些損失必須隨著時間的推移而彌補，我們也看到了這對我們整體續訂率的一些影響。

The other thing is, as we continue to add new -- increasing number of members that have this, the cobrand card and -- the value keeps getting better and bigger. And so we think that will continue to be additive. That's helped.

另外，隨著我們不斷增加新會員——越來越多的會員擁有這張聯名卡——其價值也越來越好，越來越大。因此我們認為這種成長勢頭將會持續下去。那很有幫助。

I think overall, we've also done a better job, even when somebody walks in, to sign up, not only to upgrade but when they like to auto renew. And so all those things help. Certainly, the Citi/Visa is probably one of the biggest movers of that because of just the sheer size of it, and the fact that we're still adding new cardholders to that.

我認為總體而言，我們也做得更好了，即使有人走進店裡，註冊時不僅是為了升級，也是為了設定自動續訂。所以所有這些都有幫助。當然，花旗/維薩卡可能是推動這一趨勢的最大因素之一，因為它的規模非常龐大，而且我們還在增加新的持卡人。

Is Citi/Visa doing multiples of sales outside of the club than it's doing in the club at this point?

目前花旗銀行/Visa在俱樂部外的銷售額是否是俱樂部內的數倍？

There's certainly more sales being done outside, as there were over the 16 years in the previous relationship that evolved over time. As we would have expected, this would be even greater than that outside versus inside spend and that's where we have revenue share, which is good for us and them presumably, from the standpoint that the Visa card is offered at more smaller businesses, which tend to have higher merchant fees in general anyway.

當然，現在更多的銷售是在外部進行的，就像之前16年合作關係中隨著時間推移而發展起來的情況一樣。正如我們所預料的那樣，這甚至比店外消費與店內消費的差距還要大，而這正是我們獲得收入分成的地方，這對我們和他們來說大概都是好事，因為 Visa 卡在更多的小型企業中提供，而小型企業的商家費用通常也更高。

So it's a whole new additional market potential of revenue share to those people using that card. If my -- if my card is top of wallet, there are certain places previously that I couldn't use it like the local dry cleaner or a restaurant. Now I can.

因此，對於使用該卡的人來說，這是一個全新的、潛在的額外市場收入份額。如果我的卡片放在錢包最上面，以前有些地方我就不能用它了，例如當地的乾洗店或餐廳。現在我可以了。

Got it. And then you mentioned Japan, and I think it was Australia coming for e-commerce, if you look around the world, any early learnings out of the launch in Japan?

知道了。然後你提到了日本，我想澳洲也是電商領域的佼佼者。放眼全球，從日本的電商推廣有哪些早期經驗值得借鏡？

Other than it went well, it's been 2 days. So I'm happy to report, I have -- I know nothing. We'll take 2 more questions.

除了一切順利之外，已經過了兩天。所以我很高興地報告，我——我什麼都不知道。我們再回答兩個問題。

Your next question is from Scott Mushkin from R5 Capital.

下一個問題來自 R5 Capital 的 Scott Mushkin。

So I wanted to talk a little bit about maybe growth that's being left, I mean obviously -- left on the table. Obviously, your performance is incredible, but the number of club openings have come down a little bit. You might [say through] omnichannel. So I was just -- as you take a step back, we look at our research, we look like you're kind of almost underserving certain markets in the U.S., how do you think about growth? Is it time to speed things up a little bit, get back up to the 30 clubs? Maybe put a little bit more money behind omnichannel, kind of what's the company's thought process here?

所以我想稍微談談可能被忽略的成長機會，我的意思是，很明顯地——被擱置了。顯然，你的表現非常出色，但是俱樂部開業的數量有所下降。你可以說透過全通路。所以我就想說——當我們退後一步，審視我們的研究時，我們發現你們在美國某些市場的服務似乎不足，你們是如何看待成長的？是不是該加快速度，回到30支球隊的水平了？或許應該在全通路投入更多資金，這大概就是公司目前的想法吧？

I think -- I don't disagree with you. We want to open more than 20-ish units a year. Part of that was, I think, some delays in how long it took overseas. We've got the pipeline feeling a little bit better. And 5 years ago, I always said, our open plan is to do more than we were doing. Today, I'd say the same thing. We do have -- I think, we'll increase a little bit, but I can't exactly say by how many and when.

我想——我同意你的看法。我們希望每年開設20多家分店。我認為部分原因是海外運輸時間延誤。管道狀況感覺好多了。五年前，我總是說，我們的開放式計畫就是要做比我們當時做得更多。今天，我還是會這麼說。我們確實有——我想，我們會稍微增加一些，但我不能確切地說增加多少以及何時增加。

We are a very hands-on company, and we have a lot of other things going on. And certainly, there's a lot of emphasis on the e-commerce side, not only getting into a few remaining countries, but building it, not because we're supposed to, but it's working. And we think that in some cases it's either sales that we would have lost anyway, like big white goods, you just don't sell those in-store anymore.

我們是一家非常注重實踐的公司，而且我們還有很多其他事情要做。當然，我們非常重視電子商務方面，不僅要進入剩下的幾個國家，還要發展電子商務，這不是因為我們應該這樣做，而是因為它行之有效。我們認為，在某些情況下，這些銷售額本來就是我們本來就會失去的，例如大型白色家電，這些東西現在已經不在店裡賣了。

And -- but we're getting people in the building still and using these things. So I think -- don't expect some giant change from 20 to 30 in a couple of years, but our goal is to work harder to open a few more of those, while we're doing all these other things as well.

但是——我們仍然能讓人們進入大樓並使用這些設備。所以我覺得——不要指望幾年內門市數量會從 20 家增加到 30 家，但我們的目標是更加努力地開設更多門市，同時我們也在做其他事情。

And your question is from Kelly Bania from BMO Capital.

您的提問者是來自 BMO Capital 的 Kelly Bania。

Richard, just wanted to ask about executive penetration. You called out Japan and the impact there a little bit. But just curious how much in the U.S. you're seeing executive penetration move higher. I know we've asked this over the years, but just -- and where you think that could kind of level out at some point.

理查德，我只是想問一下高階主管滲透率的問題。你提到了日本以及對那裡造成的影響。但我很好奇，在美國，您認為高階主管滲透率上升的幅度有多大？我知道這些年來我們一直在問這個問題，但是——你認為這種情況在某個時候可能會趨於穩定嗎？

Hold on a second, I have some numbers here. When I look by country -- in the U.S. and Canada, where it's been the longest and we've got the most units and the most services as part of the executive membership offering, it's in the mid-70s. In other countries, where it's been -- like Mexico, it's in the 50s and growing. But I think -- and it starts off -- start off lower. I don't know if the marketing department has a plan for where it could go. It's more of what can we do to get people to convert and sign up originally.

稍等片刻，我這裡有一些數據。以國家來看——在美國和加拿大，這是這項服務開展時間最長、單位最多、作為高級會員服務的一部分最多的國家，其會員數量在 70 多位。在其他國家，例如墨西哥，這個數字已經達到 50 多，而且還在增加。但我認為——而且一開始——應該從較低的水平開始。我不知道市場部是否有關於它未來發展方向的計劃。更重要的是，我們如何讓人們轉換並註冊成為會員。

And so I think there's -- if I was shooting from the hip totally, at some point, there's going to be some members that don't want an executive membership, period, and even if it provides them some savings. And there are some people that want it that sometimes it's not as much savings as they thought, but at the end of the day -- and they revert back. But at the end of the day, I'd be thrilled to think that, that could go to 80 one day. But I have no idea where and how long it will take to get there. We know that executive members are more loyal in terms of their renewal rates. They shop more frequently and they spend more each year.

所以我覺得——如果我完全憑直覺說的話——在某個時候，總是會有一些會員根本不想要執行會員資格，即使執行會員資格可以為他們節省一些費用。有些人想要省錢，但有時實際節省的金額並沒有他們想像的那麼多，但最終——他們還是會恢復原狀。但說到底，我還是會很高興地想到，有一天它可以達到 80 歲。但我不知道要到哪裡，也不知道需要多長時間才能到達那裡。我們知道，高級會員的續費率更高，忠誠度也更高。他們購物頻率更高，每年消費額也更高。

Got it. And maybe just one more on gross margin. Obviously, mix impacts some other retailers more than it really impacts you. But I guess, over the years, we've talked about things like private label, organics or international or even e-commerce in terms of mix shift. And just curious, as you kind of look at that quarter-on-quarter up 4, which clearly is very stable, just what kind of mix shift is kind of underlying that?

知道了。或許還可以再補充一點關於毛利率的內容。顯然，商品組合對其他一些零售商的影​​響比對你的影響更大。但我想，這些年來，我們一直在討論自有品牌、有機產品、國際產品，甚至是電子商務等主題，從產品組合轉變的角度來看這個問題。我很好奇，當你看到季度環比增長 4%，這顯然非常穩定時，究竟是什麼樣的組合變化導致了這種變化？

Well, I think it's more than mix shift. I mean certainly, gas has the biggest impact. Gas is more than 10% of our business. It could be a gross margin line -- first of all -- and there's deflation. And so you could have the gross margin contribution, plus or minus, by a number of basis points. You have all these services, while they're small, work on higher gross margins than normal, because they cover the pharmacy, the pharmacists and pharmacy tax, in optical, the optometrist. Things like that. And those are all growing businesses, generally growing a little faster, some of them, at the company. Travel, is an example, would be -- and Travel, some of the things are gross sales and some of them are brokerage fees, so a very high margin. There's really no -- very little cost of sales to commission.

我覺得這不只是混音的問題。我的意思是，當然，天然氣的影響最大。天然氣業務占我們業務的10%以上。首先，這可能是毛利率，現在正處於通貨緊縮時期。因此，毛利率的貢獻可能會有正負幾個基點的誤差。你們提供的所有這些服務，雖然規模不大，但毛利率卻比正常情況高，因為它們涵蓋了藥房、藥劑師和藥房稅，在眼鏡行業，則涵蓋了驗光師。諸如此類的事情。這些都是正在發展中的業務，而且總體來說，其中一些業務在公司內部的發展速度更快一些。以旅遊業為例──旅遊業中，有些是毛銷售額，有些是經紀費，所以利潤率非常高。銷售佣金幾乎沒有任何成本。

But getting back to the core merchandise, private label generally is a slight positive. Although, again, the percentage of stuff that's private label versus branded, while growing, is growing at a slower rate than it has in the past.

但回到核心商品本身，自有品牌整體上略有正面作用。不過，自有品牌商品與品牌商品的比例雖然在成長，但成長速度比過去慢。

So I think -- and then there's that magic word, competition. Our view is as we look -- how do we drive the top line? How do we -- how can we be the most competitive? And we're fortunate that we have different buckets to do that with.

所以我覺得──然後就出現了那個神奇的字：競爭。我們的觀點是，當我們審視問題時──我們如何提高營收？我們如何才能最具競爭力？我們很幸運，因為我們有不同的容器可以用來做這件事。

So it's hard enough for us to know where the margins are going each month and each quarter other than we wanted to be flat or up a little bit, and we want to grow the top line, which will solve a lot of things.

因此，我們很難知道每個月和每季的利潤率走向，而我們只希望利潤率能夠持平或略有成長，並且我們希望提高營收，這將解決許多問題。

Okay. Well, thank you, everyone. And thank you, Laurie.

好的。謝謝大家。謝謝你，勞裡。

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。您現在可以斷開連線了。