好市多 (COST) 2022 Q2 法說會逐字稿

Good afternoon, and thank you for standing by. Welcome to the Q2 earnings call and February sales results. (Operator Instructions)

下午好，感謝您的支持。歡迎參加第二季度財報電話會議和 2 月份銷售業績。 （操作員說明）

I would now like to hand the conference over to your speaker today, Richard Galanti, Chief Financial Officer. Please go ahead.

我現在想把會議交給你今天的演講者，首席財務官理查德加蘭蒂。請繼續。

Thank you, Jerome, and good afternoon to everyone. 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.

謝謝你，杰羅姆，大家下午好。我將首先說明這些討論將包括 1995 年《私人證券訴訟改革法案》含義內的前瞻性陳述。這些陳述涉及風險和不確定性，可能導致實際事件、結果和/或業績與所示內容大不相同通過這樣的陳述。風險和不確定性包括但不限於今天電話會議中概述的風險以及公司向 SEC 提交的公開聲明和報告中不時確定的其他風險。前瞻性陳述僅在作出之日起生效，公司不承諾更新這些陳述，除非法律要求。

In today's press release, we reported operating results for the second quarter of fiscal '22, the 12 weeks ended this past February 13, as well as February retail results for the 4 weeks ended this past Sunday, February 27.

在今天的新聞稿中，我們報告了 22 財年第二季度的經營業績，截至 2 月 13 日的 12 週，以及截至 2 月 27 日星期日的 4 週的 2 月零售業績。

Net income for the quarter came in at $1.299 billion or $2.92 per diluted share. Last year's second quarter net income came in at $951 million or $2.14 per diluted share. That latter number included a $246 million pretax or $0.41 per share costs incurred primarily from COVID-19 premium wages. Net income for the 24 weeks was $2.62 billion or $5.90 per share compared to $2.12 billion or $4.76 per diluted share last year in the first half.

本季度的淨收入為 12.99 億美元或每股攤薄收益 2.92 美元。去年第二季度的淨收入為 9.51 億美元或稀釋後每股收益 2.14 美元。後一個數字包括 2.46 億美元的稅前或每股 0.41 美元的成本，主要來自 COVID-19 的溢價工資。 24 週的淨收入為 26.2 億美元或每股 5.90 美元，而去年上半年為 21.2 億美元或每股攤薄收益 4.76 美元。

Net sales for the quarter increased 16.1% to $50.94 billion, up from $43.89 billion last year in the second quarter. Comparable sales in the second quarter for fiscal '22. On a reported basis, U.S. sales increase during the 12-week period was 15.8%, excluding gas inflation, 11.3%. Canada, 16% reported, 12.4% ex gas inflation and FX. Other International, 6.2%, and plus 9% ex gas inflation and FX. For the total company, reported number of 14.4% on a same-store comparable basis and up 11.1% excluding gas inflation and FX. E-commerce, on a reported basis, up 12.5%, and FX, up 12.6%.

本季度淨銷售額增長 16.1% 至 509.4 億美元，高於去年第二季度的 438.9 億美元。 '22 財年第二季度的可比銷售額。根據報告，美國在 12 週期間的銷售額增長了 15.8%，不包括天然氣通脹，增長了 11.3%。加拿大，16% 報告，12.4% 不含天然氣通脹和外匯。其他國際，6.2%，加上 9% 的天然氣通脹和外匯。對於整個公司，報告的同店可比數字為 14.4%，不包括天然氣通脹和外匯，增長 11.1%。據報告，電子商務增長 12.5%，外匯增長 12.6%。

In terms of our second quarter comp sales metrics, traffic or shopping frequency increased 9.3% worldwide and up 8.3% year-over-year in the quarter in the United States. Our average transaction or ticket was up 4.6% worldwide and up 6.9% in the U.S. during the second quarter. Foreign currencies relative to the U.S. dollar negatively impacted sales by approximately 60 basis points while gasoline price inflation positively impacted sales by approximately 390 basis points. I will review our February sales results later in the call.

就我們第二季度的綜合銷售指標而言，全球流量或購物頻率增加了 9.3%，美國該季度同比增長 8.3%。第二季度，我們在全球的平均交易或機票增長了 4.6%，在美國增長了 6.9%。相對於美元的外幣對銷售產生了約 60 個基點的負面影響，而汽油價格通脹對銷售產生了約 390 個基點的積極影響。稍後我將在電話會議中回顧我們 2 月份的銷售結果。

Going down our second quarter fiscal 2022 income statement. Membership fee income reported came in at $967 million, up $86 million or up 9.8% from a year earlier, $881 million. There was about a $6.5 million impact -- negative impact due to FX. So on an ex FX basis, if you will, the $86 million increase would have been up $92 million or 10.4%.

繼續我們的 2022 財年第二季度損益表。報告的會員費收入為 9.67 億美元，比去年同期的 8.81 億美元增加 8600 萬美元或 9.8%。大約有 650 萬美元的影響——由於外彙的負面影響。因此，如果您願意，如果您願意的話，如果您願意的話，8600 萬美元的增長將增加 9200 萬美元或 10.4%。

In terms of renewal rates, they continue to increase. At second quarter end, our U.S. and Canada renewal rate stood at 92.0%, up 0.4 percentage point from the 12-week earlier at Q1 end. And worldwide rate, it came in at 89.6%, up 0.6% from where it stood 12 weeks earlier at Q1 end. Our renewal rates are continuing to benefit from more members' auto-renewing as well as increased penetration of Executive Members who, on average, renew at a higher rate than Nonexecutive Members and higher first year renewal rates for our new members.

在續訂率方面，它們繼續增加。在第二季度末，我們的美國和加拿大續訂率為 92.0%，比第一季度末的 12 週前上升了 0.4 個百分點。全球利率為 89.6%，較 12 週前第一季度末的水平上升 0.6%。我們的續訂率繼續受益於更多會員的自動續訂以及執行會員滲透率的提高，這些會員的平均續訂率高於非執行會員以及我們新會員的第一年續訂率更高。

In terms of the number of members at second quarter end, member households and total cardholders, total households was 63.4 million, up 900,000 from the 62.5 million just 12 weeks earlier; and total cardholders at Q2 end, 114.8 million, up 1.7 million from the 113.1 million figure 12 weeks ago. At second quarter end, paid Executive Memberships stood at $27.1 million, an increase of $644,000 during the 12-week period since Q1 end. Executive Members, by the way, represent now 42.7% of our total membership base and 70.9% of our total sales.

從第二季度末的會員數量、會員家庭和持卡人總數來看，家庭總數為 6,340 萬戶，比 12 週前的 6,250 萬戶增加了 90 萬戶；第二季度末持卡人總數為 1.148 億，比 12 週前的 1.131 億增加了 170 萬。在第二季度末，付費執行會員為 2710 萬美元，在第一季度末的 12 週內增加了 644,000 美元。順便說一句，執行會員現在占我們會員總數的 42.7%，占我們總銷售額的 70.9%。

Moving down to the gross margin line. Our reported gross margin in the second quarter was lower year-over-year by 32 basis points but up 5 basis points, excluding gas inflation. As I always do, I'll ask you to jot down a few numbers, 2 columns. The first column is reported, and the second column would be excluding gas inflation.

向下移動到毛利率線。我們報告的第二季度毛利率同比下降 32 個基點，但上升 5 個基點，不包括天然氣通脹。像往常一樣，我會要求你記下一些數字，兩列。報告第一列，第二列將不包括氣體膨脹。

First line item, merchandise -- core merchandise on a reported basis was down 75% -- 75 basis points year-over-year, and ex gas inflation, down 43. Ancillary and other businesses, reported, plus 40 basis points, and ex gas inflation, plus 49 basis points. 2% Reward, plus 3 and minus 1 basis points. LIFO, minus 14 and minus 14 basis points. Other, plus 14 and plus 14 basis points. So totally, on a reported basis, again year-over-year, minus 32 basis points, and excluding gas inflation, plus 5 basis points. Now in terms of the core merchandise component being lower by 75 year-over-year reported and 43 -- minus 43 basis points ex gas inflation, recall last year in Q2 that the core reported was plus 71 basis points and ex gas, plus 63, so still improved to where we were 2 years ago, prepandemic and ex gas.

第一項，商品——報告基礎上的核心商品下降 75%——同比下降 75 個基點，不含天然氣通脹下降 43 個。輔助和其他業務，報告，加上 40 個基點，前天然氣通脹，加上 49 個基點。 2% 獎勵，加 3 和減 1 個基點。 LIFO，負 14 和負 14 個基點。其他，加 14 和加 14 個基點。因此，總體而言，在報告的基礎上，再次同比下降 32 個基點，不包括天然氣通脹，加上 5 個基點。現在就核心商品部分而言，報告的同比下降 75 個基點和 43 - 扣除天然氣通脹後的負 43 個基點，回想去年第二季度報告的核心是 + 71 個基點和不含天然氣的 + 63 個基點，所以仍然改善到我們 2 年前的水平，流行前和前氣。

In terms of the core margin on its own sales, in Q2, our core-on-core margin, if you will, was lower by 28 basis points year-over-year, approximately 2/3 of this coming from fresh foods and a little from foods and sundries and nonfoods as well. Fresh continues to lap exceptional labor productivity and low product spoilage that occurred from the outside sales a year ago in the second quarter.

就其自身銷售的核心利潤率而言，在第二季度，我們的核心對核心利潤率同比下降 28 個基點，其中約 2/3 來自新鮮食品和食物、雜物和非食物也很少。 Fresh 繼續保持一年前第二季度外部銷售帶來的出色勞動生產率和低產品損壞率。

Ancillary and other business gross margin was higher by 40 basis points and by 49 ex gas in the quarter. Gas, travel, business centers and pharmacy were all better year-over-year, offset by e-comm and optical. LIFO, we had a 14 basis point hit year-over-year to LIFO, or $71 million LIFO charge during the quarter, both with and without gas inflation. Recall that our Q1 LIFO charge year-over-year was $14 million -- or in the first quarter was $14 million or a 3 basis point delta versus the prior year. It's been the last 3 fiscal quarters that we've actually pointed out LIFO as we saw a little bit of inflation going back to December or Q4 of fiscal '21, a little more in Q1 of this fiscal year and, as with everything you read in the news, a little -- quite a bit more in Q2.

本季度輔助和其他業務毛利率提高了 40 個基點和 49 個基點。天然氣、旅遊、商務中心和藥房同比均有所好轉，但被電子商務和光學抵消了。 LIFO，我們對 LIFO 的影響同比下降了 14 個基點，即本季度的 LIFO 費用為 7100 萬美元，無論有沒有天然氣通脹。回想一下，我們的第一季度 LIFO 費用同比為 1400 萬美元 - 或第一季度為 1400 萬美元或與去年相比增加 3 個基點。在過去的 3 個財政季度，我們實際上已經指出了 LIFO，因為我們看到一點點通脹可以追溯到 21 財年的 12 月或第四季度，在本財年的第一季度還有一點點，就像你讀到的所有內容一樣在新聞中，第二季度會更多。

Our 2% Reward was higher on a reported basis by 3 and minus 1 excluding gas inflation, a reflection of increased penetration of the 2% Reward Executive Members. And other was plus 14 basis points year-over-year. This is related to the COVID-related costs from a year ago, about $60 million. That's the portion of COVID-related wages that go into cost of sales that -- like related to manufacturing businesses as well as their meat and bakery departments. Overall, a pretty good showing on gross margin given the ongoing and increasing inflationary pressures.

我們的 2% 獎勵在報告的基礎上高出 3 和負 1，不包括氣體通貨膨脹，這反映了 2% 獎勵執行會員的滲透率增加。其他同比增長14個基點。這與一年前的 COVID 相關成本有關，約為 6000 萬美元。這是與 COVID 相關的工資中計入銷售成本的部分，例如與製造企業及其肉類和烘焙部門有關。總體而言，鑑於持續和不斷增加的通脹壓力，毛利率表現相當不錯。

Moving to expenses, to SG&A. Our reported SG&A in the second quarter was lower or better year-over-year by 94 basis points and better by 63 basis points excluding gas inflation. Again, jotting down 2 columns of numbers, reported and the second one, ex gas inflation. Operations, plus 36 basis points and plus 9. Here, a plus is good. It means it's lower year-over-year. Central, plus 13 and plus 10. Stock compensation, plus 3 and plus 2. Other, plus 42 and plus 42. For a total of plus 94 and plus 63, so better or lower by 94 basis points reported and better or lower by 63 basis points ex gas inflation.

轉向開支，轉向 SG&A。我們在第二季度報告的 SG&A 同比下降或好於 94 個基點，不包括天然氣通脹，好於 63 個基點。再一次，記下兩列數字，報告和第二列，前氣體膨脹。操作，加 36 基點和加 9。在這裡，加是好的。這意味著它同比下降。 Central，加 13 和加 10。股票補償，加 3 和加 2。其他，加 42 和加 42。總共加 94 和加 63，因此報告的好或低 94 個基點，好或低 63不含天然氣通脹的基點。

Now again, looking at the first line item, operations, the core operations component, better again by 36 but as well better by 9 or lower by 9 basis points excluding the impact from gas inflation. Keep in mind that this improvement occurred despite both the permanent $1 an hour wage increase that began in March of 2021 is now anniversary-ing and the additional starting wage increases from our 2 basic hourly scale, service assistant and service clerk, by an additional $0.50 an hour. That occurred in October of 2021. On central, better by 13 basis points or 10 ex gas inflation. It's pretty straightforward, operating leverage on strong sales figures. Stock comp, plus 2 and plus 2, again a reflection of good sales. And other, this plus 42 basis points, this was the $2 COVID wages of $186 million that goes into SG&A in Q2 a year ago. So again, on a year-over-year basis, that was that improvement.

現在再來看第一個項目，運營，核心運營部分，再次好轉 36，但也好轉 9 或更低 9 個基點，不包括天然氣通脹的影響。請記住，儘管從 2021 年 3 月開始的每小時 1 美元的永久性工資增長現在是周年紀念日，而且我們的 2 個基本小時工資標準、服務助理和服務員的起薪額外增加了 0.50 美元，但這種改善還是發生了一小時。這發生在 2021 年 10 月。在中部，好於 13 個基點或 10 個天然氣通脹率。這是非常簡單的，對強勁銷售數據的經營槓桿作用。庫存補償，加 2 和加 2，再次反映了良好的銷售。再加上 42 個基點，這是一年前第二季度進入 SG&A 的 2 美元 COVID 工資 1.86 億美元。所以再一次，在逐年的基礎上，這就是改進。

In terms of preopening expenses. In past conference calls, really since we went public, I think, we've covered that preopening expenses next on this discussion. Starting this fiscal year, going forward, preopening is now included in SG&A. The year-over-year change in SG&A related to preopening was flat year-over-year, no basis point delta year-over-year in the second quarter. All told, reported operating income in Q2 increased 35% on a reported basis, coming in at $1.812 billion this year compared to $1.340 billion a year ago in the second quarter.

在開業前費用方面。在過去的電話會議中，我認為，自從我們上市以來，我們已經在接下來的討論中涵蓋了開幕前的費用。從本財年開始，今後，預開業現在已包含在 SG&A 中。與開業前相關的 SG&A 同比變化與去年同期持平，第二季度同比沒有基點增量。總而言之，第二季度報告的營業收入在報告的基礎上增長了 35%，今年為 18.12 億美元，而去年第二季度為 13.40 億美元。

Below the operating income line, interest expense was $36 million this year versus $40 million last year. Interest income and other for the quarter was higher by $6 million year-over-year, $25 million this year versus $19 million last year primarily due to favorable FX. Overall, reported pretax income in the quarter was up 37%, coming in at $1.801 billion compared to $1.319 billion a year earlier.

在營業收入線以下，今年的利息支出為 3600 萬美元，而去年為 4000 萬美元。本季度的利息收入和其他收入同比增長 600 萬美元，今年為 2500 萬美元，而去年為 1900 萬美元，主要是由於有利的外匯。總體而言，本季度報告的稅前收入增長了 37%，達到 18.01 億美元，而去年同期為 13.19 億美元。

In terms of income taxes, our tax rate in Q2 was slightly higher than it was in Q2 a year ago. It came in at 26.7% compared to 26.4% a year ago in the second quarter. Our effective tax rate is currently -- it continues to be projected to be in the 26% to 27% range for the fiscal year.

在所得稅方面，我們第二季度的稅率略高於一年前的第二季度。與去年第二季度的 26.4% 相比，這一比例為 26.7%。我們目前的有效稅率是——預計本財政年度將在 26% 至 27% 的範圍內。

A few other items of note. Warehouse expansion, for the year, we now plan to have 32 new units and -- 32 units, including 4 relocations, so replacing existing units to larger and better-located facilities, so net total of 28. I think a quarter ago, we actually said it was a net total of 27, so 1 more than that. However, remember, several of these are slotted to open in Q4, our fiscal Q4, 15 of them or 14 net new. So there's always a potential for one of those to shift into the next fiscal year. The 5 openings in Q2 that we had, 1 each in Mexico, our 40th in Mexico, our second in France, our second in China, our fourth in Spain and one additional unit in Florida, where we now have 29 locations.

其他一些注意事項。倉庫擴建，今年，我們現在計劃擁有 32 個新單元和 -- 32 個單元，包括 4 個搬遷，因此將現有單元替換為更大、位置更好的設施，因此淨總數為 28 個。我想一個季度前，我們實際上說它總共是27個，所以比那個多1個。但是，請記住，其中一些將在第四季度（我們的財政第四季度）開張，其中 15 家或 14 家是全新的。因此，其中一個總是有可能轉移到下一個財政年度。我們在第二季度有 5 個職位空缺，墨西哥各 1 個，墨西哥第 40 個，法國第二個，中國第二個，西班牙第四個，佛羅里達州還有一個，現在我們在佛羅里達有 29 個地點。

Regarding capital expenditures, our Q2 spend for CapEx was approximately $723 million, and our full year CapEx spend is still estimated to be approximately $4.0 billion.

關於資本支出，我們第二季度的資本支出約為 7.23 億美元，我們全年的資本支出估計仍約為 40 億美元。

Moving on to e-commerce. E-commerce sales in Q2 ex FX, as I mentioned earlier, increased 12.6% year-over-year. And that's, of course, on top of a second quarter fiscal '21 increase of 75% increase last year, benefiting, of course, from COVID. Stronger departments in e-commerce in terms of year-over-year percentage increases were jewelry, tires, special or kiosk items, patio and garden and home furnishings. Our largest online merchandise department majors, which consists of consumer electronics, appliances, TVs, et cetera, was up in the high single digits on very strong sales increases a year earlier.

轉向電子商務。正如我之前提到的，第二季度除外匯外的電子商務銷售額同比增長 12.6%。當然，這是在去年第二季度 21 財年增長 75% 的基礎上，當然受益於 COVID。就同比百分比增長而言，電子商務中較強的部門是珠寶、輪胎、特殊或售貨亭項目、庭院和花園以及家居用品。我們最大的在線商品部門專業，包括消費電子產品、電器、電視等，由於去年同期非常強勁的銷售增長而以高個位數增長。

In terms of an update on Costco Logistics, that continues to drive big and bulky sales for the quarter. Deliveries were up year-over-year, 22%. And now about 85% of our U.S. e-comm less-than-truckload shipments are from Costco Logistics. We're doing ourselves. Average during the quarter, we averaged more than 65,000 stops per week with Costco Logistics, which translates into a little over $3 million planned drops in Costco Logistics for the fiscal year.

就 Costco Logistics 的最新情況而言，這將繼續推動本季度的大量銷售。交付量同比增長 22%。現在，我們大約 85% 的美國電子商務零擔貨物來自 Costco 物流。我們在做自己。在本季度，我們平均每週在 Costco Logistics 停站超過 65,000 次，這意味著本財年 Costco Logistics 計劃減少超過 300 萬美元。

In terms of e-comm and mobile apps, it continues to improve, much improved layout, the ability to view warehouse receipts online, the ability to reschedule e-comm deliveries in the U.S. and Canada as well as reschedule returns pickups. Later this month, we'll have our warehouse inventory along with the Instacart inventory online and be able to see all the detail of our in-line -- in-store merchandise as well. In terms of our e-commerce platform, Costco Next, we added a few additional suppliers. So we now have 37 suppliers online and growing. Again, Costco Next has about 1,000 items on it, curated items that Costco values. Please give it a -- check it out.

在電子商務和移動應用程序方面，它繼續改進，大大改進了佈局，在線查看倉單的能力，重新安排美國和加拿大的電子通訊交付以及重新安排退貨取貨的能力。本月晚些時候，我們將在線查看我們的倉庫庫存以及 Instacart 庫存，並且能夠查看我們在線 - 店內商品的所有細節。在我們的電子商務平台 Costco Next 方面，我們增加了一些額外的供應商。所以我們現在有 37 家在線供應商並且還在不斷增長。同樣，Costco Next 上有大約 1,000 件商品，是 Costco 重視的精選商品。請給它一個-檢查一下。

From a supply chain perspective, similar issues that we outlined both 12 and 24 weeks ago on the past quarterly earnings calls, the factors pressuring supply chains and inflation include port delays, container shortages, COVID disruptions, shortages of various components and raw materials and ingredients and supplies, labor cost pressures, of course, as well as truck and driver shortages. Overall, we've done a pretty good job of -- given these supply chain challenges. I think that's evidenced in our sales strength. They continue to be delayed to -- the container arrivals. So we continue to advance order in many cases as we are able to. Virtually all departments are impacted, less product and packaging challenges but still a few. Still some limitations on key items, but again, that's improving a little. Chip shortages are still one of the things that are impacting many items, some more than others. But again, we're managing to have our shelves full and driving sales.

從供應鏈的角度來看，我們在過去的季度財報電話會議中概述了 12 周和 24 週前的類似問題，壓力供應鍊和通貨膨脹的因素包括港口延誤、集裝箱短缺、COVID 中斷、各種組件和原材料和配料的短缺和供應、勞動力成本壓力，當然還有卡車和司機短缺。總體而言，鑑於這些供應鏈挑戰，我們已經做得很好。我認為我們的銷售實力證明了這一點。他們繼續被推遲到——集裝箱到達。因此，在許多情況下，我們會盡可能地繼續推進訂單。幾乎所有部門都受到影響，產品和包裝挑戰較少，但仍然很少。對關鍵項目仍有一些限制，但同樣，情況有所改善。芯片短缺仍然是影響許多項目的因素之一，有些比其他項目更嚴重。但同樣，我們正在設法讓我們的貨架裝滿並推動銷售。

One of the things that we've done that I mentioned last quarter, I mentioned we had chartered 3 small container vessels to help provide us with additional flexibility on shipping. We have now charged a total of 7 ocean vessels, up from those 3, for the next 3 years. And these would transport containers between Asia and the U.S. and Canada. We've also leased containers for use in these ships. With these additions, about 1/4 of our annual transpacific containers and shipment needs are being accommodated this way, which gives us additional supply chain flexibility. Despite all the supply chain issues, we're staying in stock and continue to work to mitigate cost and price increases as best we can. From -- every day and every week, you're going to see in -- different items in different departments, certain things on allocation or short, but other things are filling its place. And again, some things are seeming to get a little better.

我在上個季度提到的其中一件事是，我提到我們已經租用了 3 艘小型集裝箱船，以幫助我們在運輸方面提供額外的靈活性。在接下來的 3 年裡，我們現在已經向總共 7 艘遠洋船隻收費，而之前的 3 艘。這些將在亞洲與美國和加拿大之間運輸集裝箱。我們還租用了集裝箱供這些船隻使用。通過這些新增功能，我們每年約有 1/4 的跨太平洋集裝箱和貨運需求都以這種方式得到滿足，這為我們提供了額外的供應鏈靈活性。儘管存在所有供應鏈問題，但我們仍保持庫存並繼續努力盡可能降低成本和價格上漲。從 - 每天和每週，你會看到 - 不同部門的不同項目，某些分配或短缺的事情，但其他事情正在填補它的位置。再一次，有些事情似乎變得更好了。

Moving to inflation. Inflation, of course, continues, as evidenced by our LIFO charge. The inflationary pressures that we and others continue to see include higher labor costs, higher freight costs as well as higher transportation demand, along with the container shortages and port delays that I just mentioned, increased demand in certain product categories, various shortages of everything from computer chips to oils and chemicals to resins, higher commodity prices from foodservice oils to additives and motor oils, to plastics, to detergents, to paper products as well, on the fresh side proteins and butter and eggs and things like that, not very different than what you hear and read and see from others. But again, we think we've done a pretty good job of corralling it as best we can.

轉向通貨膨脹。當然，通貨膨脹仍在繼續，我們的 LIFO 收費證明了這一點。我們和其他人繼續看到的通脹壓力包括更高的勞動力成本、更高的貨運成本以及更高的運輸需求，以及我剛才提到的集裝箱短缺和港口延誤，某些產品類別的需求增加，從計算機芯片到油和化學品再到樹脂，從食品服務油到添加劑和機油，再到塑料，到洗滌劑，再到紙製品，以及新鮮的蛋白質、黃油和雞蛋之類的東西，商品價格上漲，並沒有太大的不同比你從別人那裡聽到、讀到和看到的。但同樣，我們認為我們在盡可能地控制它方面做得很好。

For first quarter, a year -- a quarter ago, I mentioned that we estimated, at that time, overall price inflation to have been in the 4.5% to 5% range. For the second quarter and talking with senior merchants, estimated overall price inflation was in the 6% range. All of these said, again, I want to give another shout-out to the job that our merchants and our traffic department and operators have all been able to do to keep -- in order to keep the products that we need, pivot when and where necessary, keep our warehouses full, like keeping prices as low as we can for our members and continue to show great value versus our competitors.

對於第一季度，一年前 - 一個季度前，我提到我們當時估計總體價格通脹一直在 4.5% 到 5% 的範圍內。對於第二季度並與資深商家交談，估計總體價格通脹在 6% 範圍內。所有這些再次表明，我想再次為我們的商家、我們的交通部門和運營商都能夠做的工作來保持 - 為了保持我們需要的產品，在何時和必要時，保持我們的倉庫滿載，例如為我們的會員保持盡可能低的價格，並繼續與我們的競爭對手相比顯示出巨大的價值。

Now turning to our February sales results, the 4 weeks ended this past Sunday, February 27, compared to the same 4-week period a year ago. As reported in our release, net sales for the month of February came in at $16.29 billion, an increase of 15.9% from $14.05 billion a year earlier. Recall from January sales results that Lunar New Year/Chinese New Year occurred on February 1. That's 11 days earlier this past -- this year than last. This shift negatively impacted February's Other International by about 4 percentage points and total company by about 0.5 percentage point. Comparable sales for the 4 weeks on a reported basis, U.S. was 17.4%, ex gas and FX, 12.9%. Canada reported, 11.7%, ex gas and FX, 8.8%. Other International, minus 0.9%, and ex gas and FX, 1.3% to the positive. Total company, 14% and 10.6%. And e-comm within that number is 10.2% reported and 10.4% ex gas and FX.

現在轉向我們 2 月的銷售結果，與去年同期的 4 週相比，2 月 27 日上週日結束的 4 週。正如我們在新聞稿中報導的那樣，2 月份的淨銷售額為 162.9 億美元，比去年同期的 140.5 億美元增長了 15.9%。回想一下 1 月份的銷售結果，農曆新年/農曆新年發生在 2 月 1 日。這比過去早了 11 天——今年比去年要早。這一轉變對 2 月份的 Other International 產生了約 4 個百分點的負面影響，對整個公司產生了約 0.5 個百分點的負面影響。根據報告的 4 周可比銷售額，美國為 17.4%，不含天然氣和外匯，為 12.9%。加拿大報告為 11.7%，不含天然氣和外匯，為 8.8%。其他國際，負 0.9%，不含天然氣和外匯，正值 1.3%。公司總數，14% 和 10.6%。該數字中的電子商務是報告的 10.2% 和 10.4% 的天然氣和外匯。

Our comp traffic and frequency for February was up 8% worldwide and 8.2% in the United States. Foreign currencies year-over-year relative to the dollar negatively impacted total and comp sales as follows: Canada by approximately 0.2%, Other International by approximately 4.5%, and total company by approximately 0.7%. Gas price inflation positively impacted total reported comps by about 4%, and average worldwide selling price per gallon was up year-over-year by 37%. Worldwide, the average transaction for February was up 5.5%. Our U.S. regions with the strongest sales were Texas, the Southeast and the Northeast. Other International and local currencies saw the strongest results in Australia, Mexico and the U.K.

我們 2 月份的比賽流量和頻率在全球範圍內增長了 8%，在美國增長了 8.2%。外幣兌美元同比對總銷售額和復合銷售額產生如下負面影響：加拿大約 0.2%，其他國際約 4.5%，公司總銷售額約 0.7%。天然氣價格通脹對報告的總成分產生了約 4% 的積極影響，全球每加侖平均售價同比上漲 37%。在全球範圍內，2 月份的平均交易量增長了 5.5%。我們銷售最強勁的美國地區是德克薩斯州、東南部和東北部。其他國際和當地貨幣在澳大利亞、墨西哥和英國的表現最為強勁。

Moving to merchandise highlights for the month of February. Food and sundries was -- came in at a positive high single digits, fresh foods in the mid-single digits, and nonfoods in the positive high single digits. Ancillary businesses sales were up mid-40s, with gas being certainly a driver of that as well as food court and hearing aids were the top performers.

轉到 2 月份的商品亮點。食品和雜貨——以正高個位數出現，新鮮食品處於中個位數，非食品處於正高個位數。輔助業務的銷售額在 40 年代中期上升，其中天然氣無疑是其中的推動力，而美食廣場和助聽器則是表現最好的。

With that, I want to mention just a couple of recent executive changes. A month ago, we reported that Ron Vachris became President of Costco. Ron started his career 39 years ago at Price Company, at Price Club at the young age of 17. Most of his career was in operations through 2015. Then he spent a little over a year in real estate, traveling the world and working on both worldwide and domestic expansion and since that time in 2016 has been in merchandising with certainly responsibility not only for in-line merchandising but online merchandising as well as very involved with logistics and transportation.

有了這個，我只想提幾個最近的高管變動。一個月前，我們報導了 Ron Vachris 成為 Costco 的總裁。 Ron 39 年前在 Price Company 開始了他的職業生涯，17 歲時在 Price Club全球和國內擴張，自 2016 年以來一直從事商品銷售，不僅負責在線銷售，還負責在線銷售，並且非常參與物流和運輸。

As well, just this week, internally, we reported that taking Ron's previous spot as Head of Merchandising is Claudine Adamo. Claudine has been with us for 30 years. She began in an hourly position in our Kirkland warehouse in 1992, 30 years ago but a year later came into buying and has been in buying ever since and most recently was senior VP of nonfoods sales -- of nonfoods merchandising. And again, she'll be taking over -- looking overall at merchandising.

同樣，就在本週，我們在內部報導說，接替羅恩之前擔任商品銷售主管的是克勞丁·阿達莫（Claudine Adamo）。 Claudine 已經和我們在一起 30 年了。 30 年前，她於 1992 年開始在我們的柯克蘭倉庫擔任小時工，但一年後開始購買並一直從事採購工作，最近擔任非食品銷售高級副總裁 - 非食品商品銷售。再一次，她將接管 - 全面關注商品銷售。

Finally, in terms of upcoming releases, we will announce our March sales results for the 5 weeks ending April 3, on a Sunday, April 3, on Wednesday, April 6 after the markets close.

最後，就即將發布的版本而言，我們將在 4 月 3 日星期日和 4 月 6 日星期三市場收盤後公佈截至 4 月 3 日的 5 週的 3 月銷售結果。

With that, I will open it up to Q&A and turn it back to Jerome. Thank you very much.

有了這個，我將把它打開到問答環節，然後把它交給杰羅姆。非常感謝。

(Operator Instructions) Your first question comes from the line of Michael Lasser from UBS.

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

First one is on the fee increase for the potential for a fee increase. If there is no increase this year, should the market interpret that as some reflection of how Costco -- either it is pricing power especially in light of companies like Amazon and Netflix raising their fees this year or should we interpret a sign as the interval with Costco (inaudible) over time?

第一個是關於費用增加的潛在費用增加。如果今年沒有增加，市場是否應該將其解釋為 Costco 的某種反映——要么是定價能力，特別是鑑於亞馬遜和 Netflix 等公司今年提高了費用，要么我們應該將一個跡象解釋為與Costco（聽不清）隨著時間的推移？

Well, certainly, I don't think you should interpret anything related to why or when. Historically, we always look at things like do we feel we can -- we look at ourselves in the mirror, do we feel that we've continued to increase the value of the membership? Certainly, we look at renewal rates. We look less at what others do frankly but certainly is out there what others are doing. And what I do note is that I looked at the last 3 increases over the last 15 years. And on average, they were done about every 5 -- a little over every 5.5 years, about 5 years and 7 months. And 5 years from the anniversary of the June of '17 would be this June. So I think the question will continue to be asked until we do or don't do something. But at the end of the day, we certainly feel very good about our member loyalty, our success in getting members to move to Executive Member, which are the most loyal. And so you guys will know when we tell you, and at some point, it will happen but stay tuned.

好吧，當然，我認為您不應該解釋與為什麼或何時相關的任何事情。從歷史上看，我們總是以我們認為可以的方式看待事情——我們看著鏡子中的自己，我們是否覺得我們一直在增加會員的價值？當然，我們會關注續訂率。我們很少關注其他人坦率地做的事情，但肯定會看到其他人正在做的事情。我確實注意到的是，我查看了過去 15 年的最後 3 次增長。平均而言，他們大約每 5 年完成一次——每 5.5 年稍微多一點，大約 5 年零 7 個月。從 17 年 6 月的周年紀念日算起 5 年將是今年 6 月。所以我認為這個問題將繼續被問到，直到我們做或不做某事。但歸根結底，我們對我們的會員忠誠度感到非常滿意，我們成功地讓會員轉為執行會員，這是最忠誠的。所以你們會知道我們什麼時候告訴你們，在某個時候，它會發生，但請繼續關注。

My follow-up question is on the core-on-core gross margin. Over the last couple of quarters, you've given back about 1/3 of the core-on-core gross margin gains at Costco during the hardest times like over probably the last couple of years. So is this the right way to think about what's sustainable from here, you may give back 1/3 of it, 2/3? Alternatively, would you expect your growth to...

我的後續問題是關於核心對核心的毛利率。在過去的幾個季度裡，在過去幾年最艱難的時期，你已經退還了 Costco 約 1/3 的核心對核心毛利率增長。那麼這是思考從這裡開始可持續發展的正確方法嗎？你可以退還其中的 1/3，2/3？或者，您是否期望您的增長...

Yes. Look, recognizing -- I'd like to think it was that easy that we could plan it and get there. Sometimes, we'd get there but 10 different variables go in 10 different directions than we had planned. There's lots of moving parts to it. The fact of the matter is we certainly have confidence in our competitive position and our confidence to get some margin as we go forth. The fact of the matter is our margins -- our gross margins are still, even on core-on-core, higher than they were 2 years ago. We had outsized margins 2 years ago, most particularly in fresh. When you had 20% and 30% increases in fresh, you darn near eliminated spoilage and -- where are the 2 years. Labor -- you improved dramatically labor productivity in fresh. And you darn near eliminated all your spoilage. Some of that's not sustainable. So -- but even with some of the giveback, if you will, on a 2-year stack, if you will, we've -- we're still showing higher year-over-year numbers on core-on-core.

是的。看，認識到——我想我們可以很容易地計劃它並到達那裡。有時，我們會到達那裡，但 10 個不同的變量會朝著 10 個不同的方向發展，而不是我們計劃的。它有很多活動部件。事實是，我們當然對我們的競爭地位充滿信心，並且我們有信心在前進的過程中獲得一些利潤。事實是我們的利潤率——我們的毛利率仍然高於 2 年前的水平，即使在核心核心上也是如此。 2 年前，我們的利潤非常大，尤其是新鮮的。當您的新鮮食品增加 20% 和 30% 時，您幾乎消除了腐敗，並且 - 2 年在哪裡。勞動——你極大地提高了新鮮的勞動生產率。而且你幾乎消除了所有的腐敗。其中一些是不可持續的。所以 - 但即使有一些回饋，如果你願意的話，如果你願意的話，如果你願意的話，如果你願意的話，我們已經 - 我們仍然在核心上顯示出更高的同比數字。

The other thing is as we've said, and we don't sit around and just pound our chest on it, despite these inflationary pressures, we've tried to hold where we can. Now needless to say, you can't do that in -- near in its entirety, but we've probably been a little later than others in terms of raising some things in our view. We've worked with our suppliers to eat a little of it and we eat a little of it. And I think that these margins, particularly given the sales strength and the operating leverage, allow us to be ever more competitive and drive our business. So when asked the question, as some -- many of you know over the years, who's our toughest competitor, it's us. And I don't really look at this as being a reflection of what's going out there. We're ever competitive. We're always checking our competition, and we feel that, that competitive -- our competitive position is as strong as ever.

另一件事就像我們所說的那樣，儘管存在這些通脹壓力，但我們不會坐以待斃，儘管存在這些通脹壓力，但我們已盡力保持。現在不用說，你不能完全做到這一點，但在我們認為提出一些事情方面，我們可能比其他人晚了一點。我們已經與我們的供應商合作吃了一點，我們也吃了一點。而且我認為這些利潤率，特別是考慮到銷售實力和運營槓桿，使我們能夠更具競爭力並推動我們的業務發展。所以當被問到這個問題時，你們中的許多人多年來都知道，誰是我們最強大的競爭對手，那就是我們。而且我並不認為這是對正在發生的事情的反映。我們一直很有競爭力。我們一直在檢查我們的競爭，我們覺得，那種競爭——我們的競爭地位和以往一樣強大。

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

您的下一個問題來自摩根士丹利的 Simeon Gutman。

Richard, I'd like to follow up on the core-on-core question just asked differently. About, I could say, a year ago, supply chain costs were rising, input costs were rising, and it felt like you were not ahead of it. And in the last 2 quarters, it seems like you're now more ahead of it. You feel better. You called out the 2-year trend in the core-on-core. So does it feel like we are past the worst and that you're able to either move pricing or have some visibility on supply chain?

理查德，我想跟進剛才以不同方式提出的核心核心問題。大約，我可以說，一年前，供應鏈成本在上升，投入成本在上升，感覺就像你沒有領先。在過去的兩個季度中，您現在似乎更加領先。你感覺好點。您提到了核心對核心的 2 年趨勢。那麼，是否感覺我們已經度過了最糟糕的時期，並且您可以調整定價或對供應鏈有一定的了解？

And then related to the perishable piece, it sounds like you're going to keep some efficiencies. So there is a reason to believe that some of this, you will keep going forward. I don't know if that's fair or not.

然後與易腐爛的部分相關，聽起來您將保持一些效率。所以有理由相信其中的一些，你會繼續前進。我不知道這是否公平。

Yes. Certainly, on the fresh and the fact that we're at higher sales levels, that allows for higher labor productivity and hopefully a little lower D&D or spoilage. I don't disagree with what you say but there's -- you never know what's going to happen tomorrow. I know that for 35 years, when things get better, we figure out how to give a little more of it back. And certainly, right now, with all the inflation, first and foremost, is getting merchandise on the shelves and then mitigating those various cost components as much as you can, which is not a lot. And again -- but hopefully being as, if not, a little more competitive than others.

是的。當然，在新鮮和我們處於更高銷售水平的事實下，這可以提高勞動生產率，並希望降低 D&D 或損壞。我不同意你所說的，但有——你永遠不知道明天會發生什麼。我知道 35 年來，當情況好轉時，我們會想辦法回饋更多。當然，現在，隨著所有的通貨膨脹，首先是商品上架，然後儘可能地降低各種成本組成部分，這並不多。再一次 - 但希望比其他人更具競爭力，如果不是的話。

And maybe a follow-up. I'd love your take on the price gaps out there. It feels like every company we cover in the mass space, supermarket space, they're all pleased with price gaps. And yet, I'm not sure -- I don't know if that's right or wrong and we're seeing gross margins actually start to go up in some places. So it seems like companies, your competition, they're taking price. That would imply that the gaps actually should be widening and making you more valuable. Curious -- I know you guys have folks running around stores a lot. Curious how -- what's your take on it.

也許還有後續。我希望你對那裡的價格差距採取行動。感覺就像我們在大眾空間、超市空間所覆蓋的每一家公司，他們都對價格差距感到滿意。然而，我不確定——我不知道這是對還是錯，我們看到某些地方的毛利率實際上開始上升。所以看起來公司，你的競爭對手，他們在拿價格。這意味著差距實際上應該擴大並使您更有價值。好奇——我知道你們有很多人在商店裡跑來跑去。好奇如何——你對此有何看法。

Well, we like when they feel more comfortable, frankly. Look, our most direct competitor is Sam's. We -- and I'm sure they do too, do comp shops every week in every -- darn near every location. We feel good about those gaps. It's not that they've widened or shrunk that overall. They're a tough competitor, and so are we. As it relates to other traditional, yes, you've seen -- I think we've called out strength in gas business. I think overall, what I read externally about gross margins in retail gas by the supermarkets and others is up. And there's a little bit more -- that gives us breathing room as well. But we want to be ever more competitive.

好吧，坦率地說，我們喜歡他們感覺更舒服的時候。看，我們最直接的競爭對手是山姆的。我們——我相信他們也會這樣做，每週都會在每個地點附近開店。我們對這些差距感覺良好。並不是說它們總體上擴大或縮小了。他們是一個強大的競爭對手，我們也是。因為它與其他傳統有關，是的，你已經看到了——我認為我們已經在天然氣業務中表現出了實力。我認為總體而言，我從外部了解到的超市和其他公司零售天然氣的毛利率上升了。還有一點點——這也給了我們喘息的空間。但我們希望更具競爭力。

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

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

Over the past few months, you guys have had success raising retails. And I'm wondering if that trend has continued or if you're starting to see some limits or demand destruction in any parts of the club.

在過去的幾個月裡，你們成功地提高了零售額。我想知道這種趨勢是否會持續下去，或者你是否開始在俱樂部的任何地方看到一些限製或要求破壞。

Not -- no. And we haven't. I think certainly, the more inflation creates some demand pressure. I'd like to think some of that in inflation (inaudible) wanting to shop across and save more frankly. But we haven't seen that.

不——不。而我們沒有。我當然認為，通脹越多，就會產生一定的需求壓力。我想考慮一下通貨膨脹（聽不清）想要購物並更坦率地儲蓄。但我們還沒有看到。

Okay, okay. Great. And then just another near-term question. Historically, I'm wondering if with gas prices where they are and where they're likely to go, I heard today, California is close to $5. Historically, has there really been a tipping point and how it impacts traffic for you guys? I understand how it impacts the margin structure of your business, but historically, is there a tipping point for you?

好吧好吧。偉大的。然後只是另一個近期問題。從歷史上看，我想知道汽油價格在哪里以及可能去哪裡，我今天聽說，加利福尼亞接近 5 美元。從歷史上看，是否真的有一個轉折點以及它如何影響你們的交通？我了解它如何影響您業務的利潤率結構，但從歷史上看，您是否有一個轉折點？

We haven't seen that. The only time in my recollection is a number of years ago when prices got to $4, $5 per gallon. And like then and now, we see our gallons improve, relatively speaking, because we have still the cheapest [gas out there]. So at some point, if it goes to $5, $6, $7, who knows? Will people stop driving a little bit? It's hard to say. I'd like to think that the hybrid models of working from home has helped save a little bit there.

我們還沒有看到。在我的記憶中，唯一一次是幾年前價格達到每加侖 4 美元、5 美元的時候。就像過去和現在一樣，相對而言，我們看到我們的加侖量有所提高，因為我們仍然擁有最便宜的 [汽油]。所以在某個時候，如果它漲到 5 美元、6 美元、7 美元，誰知道呢？人們會停止開車嗎？很難說。我想認為在家工作的混合模式有助於在那裡節省一點。

Your next question comes from the line of Paul Lejuez from Citi.

您的下一個問題來自花旗的 Paul Lejuez。

This is Brandon Cheatham on for Paul. I was wondering, are you seeing any change in consumer behavior such as trade down or maybe trade to private label brands, anything of that nature?

這是保羅的布蘭登·奇塔姆。我想知道，您是否看到消費者行為發生任何變化，例如降價交易或轉為自有品牌，或者任何類似性質的變化？

It's interesting. On the one hand, the only thing I can think of is in fresh when there's been big fluctuations in prices or big increase in prices on beef relative to chicken or something, you'll see some trade down within the protein family. Other than that, a couple of anomalies that are perverse in the sense that it's almost just the opposite. We've seen strength in jewelry and in big-ticket furniture items and the like and more conversions to Executive Membership, which -- again, there's more value long term to that customer but it's adding $60 to their fee.

這真有趣。一方面，我唯一能想到的就是新鮮的，當牛肉相對於雞肉或其他東西的價格出現大幅波動或價格大幅上漲時，你會看到蛋白質家族中的一些交易下降。除此之外，還有一些反常的異常，從某種意義上說，它幾乎正好相反。我們已經看到珠寶和大件家具等方面的實力，以及更多轉換為行政會員資格的情況，這對客戶來說具有更多的長期價值，但他們的費用增加了 60 美元。

Got it. And just a point of clarification on price inflation. Has that moderated the past couple of months as I think some of your monthly updates have indicated? Or are you still seeing that accelerate?

知道了。只是對價格通脹的一點澄清。正如我認為您的一些每月更新所表明的那樣，在過去的幾個月裡，這種情況是否有所緩和？還是您仍然看到這種加速？

It has not moderated. It continues to go up.

它沒有緩和。它繼續上漲。

Got it.

知道了。

Now it's going up perhaps at a little less slope. The bigger slope was probably 4 to 2 months ago, and it's gone up from there. I think there -- if I recall, there was a little low -- talking to the buyers, a little low in the last couple of months of the year. But many suppliers are already talking back 2 months prior to that to come January, we'll be coming back and talking to you again.

現在它的上升幅度可能會小一些。較大的坡度可能是 4 到 2 個月前，並且從那裡開始上升。我認為那裡 - 如果我記得，有一點低 - 與買家交談，在今年的最後幾個月有點低。但是許多供應商已經在 1 月份之前 2 個月回復了，我們會回來再次與您交談。

Your next question comes from the line of Scot Ciccarelli from Truist Securities.

您的下一個問題來自 Truist Securities 的 Scot Ciccarelli。

Scot Ciccarelli. So Richard, you guys are running with nearly double the cash balance that you historically would have run with kind of prepandemic. Obviously, there's still a lot of uncertainty in the market. I guess the question is because we've seen this pattern for probably 8-plus quarters now to continue to run with much higher cash levels than what you historically have or should we start thinking about the potential return of capital to shareholders like you've done periodically.

斯科特·西卡雷利。所以，理查德，你們的現金餘額幾乎是疫情前的兩倍。顯然，市場仍然存在很多不確定性。我想這個問題是因為我們已經看到這種模式可能已經有 8 個多季度了，它繼續以比你歷史上更高的現金水平運行，或者我們應該開始考慮像你一樣向股東返還資本的潛在回報定期進行。

Well, at some point, we'll figure out what to do. And mind you, our Q2 balance sheet -- Q2 end balance sheet is probably our -- the highest point from a seasonal standpoint because of -- you've built a lot of sales and you still have some of the bills to pay from the Christmas time, not a lot but some. And frankly, knock on wood, our operating cash flow has certainly exceeded what we had expected 2 years ago. So yes, there is a little more.

好吧，在某個時候，我們會弄清楚該怎麼做。請注意，我們的第二季度資產負債表——第二季度末資產負債表可能是我們的——從季節性的角度來看是最高點，因為——你已經建立了很多銷售額，但你仍然需要支付一些賬單聖誕節，不是很多，而是一些。坦率地說，敲木頭，我們的經營現金流肯定超過了我們兩年前的預期。所以是的，還有一點。

At some point, certainly, one of the arrows in our quiver is a special dividend along with the regular dividend increase that we've done every year as well as some stock buybacks. But first and foremost is CapEx. CapEx this year of $4-ish plus million is up from the $3 million, $3.5 million over the last couple of years and up from numbers lower than that, the 2 to 4 years prior to that. So that's, first and foremost, what we want to spend money on. But we've done 4 specials. And as one of the Board members said, we are a little quirky and it seems to have worked for us. So it's certainly an arrow in our quiver, but we haven't made any decision at this point.

當然，在某些時候，我們箭袋中的一個箭頭是特殊股息以及我們每年所做的定期股息增加以及一些股票回購。但首先是資本支出。今年的資本支出為 4 美元以上，高於過去幾年的 300 萬美元和 350 萬美元，也高於此前 2 到 4 年的數字。所以這首先是我們想要花錢的地方。但是我們做了4個特價。正如一位董事會成員所說，我們有點古怪，它似乎對我們有用。所以這肯定是我們箭筒中的一支箭，但我們目前還沒有做出任何決定。

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

您的下一個問題來自巴克萊銀行的 Karen Short。

I just wanted to ask the membership fee question a little differently. So in the past, you've talked about raising the membership fee in the context that you obviously have an inflow of dollars to then reinvest in price. So I guess the question is maybe with the assumption that consumer is going to continue to feel a little more and more stretched as the year progresses, how does that factor into your thought process? And then also tying that in with the fact that there was obviously the increase on membership at Amazon.

我只是想問一些不同的會員費問題。因此，在過去，您曾談到提高會員費，因為您顯然有資金流入，然後再投資於價格。所以我想問題可能是假設隨著時間的推移消費者會繼續感到越來越緊張，那麼這個因素是如何影響你的思考過程的？然後也將其與亞馬遜會員人數明顯增加的事實聯繫起來。

I think we -- that doesn't hurt, but at the end -- honestly, at the end of the day, first and foremost, the factors that doesn't give us any concerns is the fact that our sales are strong. Our renewal rates and loyalty are at all-time highs. So that's all positive. And yes, when we do it, we use it to be even more competitive. So on the one hand, you might argue that because of inflation, would this allow us to mitigate some of that? We're already doing that, by the way, without a fee increase. But we've done it 7 times in 35 years. And sometime between summer and 6 or 9 months down the road, is it likely? It's possible, but we'll have to wait and see.

我認為我們——這並沒有什麼壞處，但歸根結底——老實說，歸根結底，最重要的是，我們不擔心的因素是我們的銷售強勁。我們的續訂率和忠誠度處於歷史最高水平。所以這都是積極的。是的，當我們這樣做時，我們會利用它來提高競爭力。因此，一方面，您可能會爭辯說，由於通貨膨脹，這是否可以讓我們減輕其中的一些影響？順便說一句，我們已經在這樣做了，而且沒有增加費用。但我們在 35 年裡做了 7 次。在夏季和 6 或 9 個月之間的某個時間，這可能嗎？這是可能的，但我們必須拭目以待。

But we don't really consider what Amazon or what -- we were asked the question the other way with some of our direct warehouse club competitors that theirs is -- they have not changed theirs in a number of years. And that does not concern us either. We look at what we're doing, how it affects our members. And we look at ourselves in the mirrors. Have we improved the value of the membership? And we've always felt that we've done that in a more dramatic fashion in these increases. And then we take those increases and use it to become even more competitive. So I cannot give you an answer other than we feel good about if and when we want to do it, we'll be able to.

但是我們並沒有真正考慮亞馬遜是什麼或什麼——我們被問到與我們的一些直接倉庫俱樂部競爭對手的問題相反的問題——他們多年來沒有改變他們的問題。這也與我們無關。我們看看我們在做什麼，它如何影響我們的會員。我們看著鏡子裡的自己。我們是否提高了會員的價值？而且我們一直覺得我們在這些增長中以更加戲劇性的方式做到了這一點。然後我們採取這些增加並利用它變得更具競爭力。所以我不能給你一個答案，除非我們覺得我們是否願意以及何時願意這樣做，我們將能夠做到。

Okay. And then my second question is just on the net income margin or I guess you could talk about pretax margin. Obviously, that has come up quite a bit over the last several years. And I think the question on a lot of people's mind is just, is there more of a willingness to flow through margin on that line? And I know -- again, you don't run your business that way. You run it for units and volume and leverage on strong comps, but just wondering how you would frame that.

好的。然後我的第二個問題只是關於淨利潤率，或者我想你可以談談稅前利潤率。顯然，這在過去幾年中已經出現了很多。而且我認為很多人心中的問題是，是否有更多的意願通過這條線的保證金流動？我知道 - 再說一遍，你不是那樣經營你的生意的。您可以針對單位和數量運行它，並利用強大的組合，但只是想知道您將如何構建它。

Well, first of all, certainly in this quarter as well, the bottom line margin improvement was the sum of great expense improvement and some margin detriment. I'm taking out all the anomalies of each. And that's the way we want to do it. The old saying is we want to lower prices and raise margins. Same thing is we want to improve the bottom line while not raising prices. And I'm not talking about necessarily specific inflation right now.

好吧，首先，當然在本季度也是如此，底線利潤率的提高是巨大的費用改善和一些利潤率損失的總和。我正在清除每個異常。這就是我們想要做的方式。古語是我們要降低價格並提高利潤。同樣的事情是我們希望在不提高價格的同時提高底線。而且我現在並不是在談論必然的特定通貨膨脹。

I think -- I recall a few of these on the -- of you on the call might remember this when we had our May 1 and last all-hands -- the analyst meeting out here with about 300 people. And at the time, we had a 2.8% pretax return on sales, pretax. And our founder was up there saying that we're a great company and great companies deserve to make good money. And over the next several years, we wanted to go from 2.8% to a number -- I won't get everybody excited, but a bigger number. And at the end of the day, it went up and down, but it has improved. I think that we've got a lot of great things going on. We're not embarrassed to make money for our shareholders as well, but we're going to do it within the confines of being ever more competitive from a pricing and value standpoint to our members.

我想——我記得其中的一些——當我們在 5 月 1 日和最後一次全體會議上——分析師與大約 300 人在這裡開會時，你們中的一些人可能會記得這一點。當時，我們的稅前銷售回報率為 2.8%。我們的創始人在那裡說我們是一家偉大的公司，偉大的公司應該賺大錢。在接下來的幾年裡，我們希望從 2.8% 提高到一個數字——我不會讓每個人都興奮，而是一個更大的數字。在一天結束時，它起起落落，但已經有所改善。我認為我們有很多很棒的事情正在發生。我們也不為為我們的股東賺錢而感到尷尬，但我們將在從定價和價值的角度對我們的會員更具競爭力的範圍內做到這一點。

Your next question goes from the line of Chris Horvers from JPMorgan.

您的下一個問題來自摩根大通的 Chris Horvers。

I guess my first question is, do you look at the U.S. sort of core comp on a 2- and 3-year basis? Really, since the summer, there's been a bit more volatility to the 2- and 3-year trends even over the past few months. Do you read into that? How much do you think that was maybe just like a holiday shift, maybe some Omicron impact in January? Curious how you're thinking about that.

我想我的第一個問題是，您是否會以 2 年和 3 年為基礎來看待美國的核心競爭力？確實，自夏季以來，即使在過去幾個月中，2 年和 3 年趨勢的波動性也有所增加。你讀進去了嗎？您認為這在多大程度上可能只是像假期輪班一樣，可能是 1 月份的 Omicron 影響？好奇你是怎麼想的。

It would be the all-inclusive, yes. It's all of the above. I remember when we had particularly strong -- early in the Christmas holidays -- or Thanksgiving, Christmas holiday season, we had strength. Part of that was bringing in some things early. Part of it was this increased demand that COVID has created for goods for the home and the shortages of those same goods. And so once they hit the shelves, you sold quickly. And then, of course, it was a little -- it was still positive but a little less than that trend at the end of the calendar year. And without doing a lot of work, it seemed like that was the reason. Then you've got storms that affect the things. You've got shifts and things like Chinese and Lunar New Year.

這將是包羅萬象的，是的。以上就是全部了。我記得當我們特別強壯的時候——在聖誕節假期的早些時候——或者感恩節、聖誕節假期的時候，我們就有了力量。部分原因是提早引入了一些東西。部分原因是 COVID 對家用商品的需求增加以及這些商品的短缺。因此，一旦它們上架，您就會迅速售出。然後，當然，它有點——它仍然是積極的，但比日曆年年底的趨勢要小一些。沒有做很多工作，這似乎就是原因。然後你會遇到影響事物的風暴。你有輪班，比如中國和農曆新年。

We really don't spend a lot of time doing that. We try to understand why overall something -- some level of sales either generally were reduced. If it increased, we don't worry about it as much and -- but I don't think we spend a lot of time thinking about that. We're -- as we've been reminded from the day of our founding, we're a top line company and it's all about driving sales and value. And it's going to be as good as we can get it. And so we don't read a lot into what you asked.

我們真的不會花很多時間來做這件事。我們試圖理解為什麼總體上有些東西——某種程度的銷售額要么普遍下降。如果它增加了，我們就不會那麼擔心了——但我認為我們不會花很多時間考慮這個問題。我們 - 正如我們從成立之日起就被提醒的那樣，我們是一家頂級公司，一切都是為了推動銷售和價值。它會盡可能好。因此，我們沒有深入了解您的要求。

Got it. It's a good segue. I guess your Executive trends, the renewal rates, the comps, the traffic, you're one of the few big retailers with really strong traffic. But at the same time, is there a point where just the culture becomes uncomfortable with passing through price? I mean the vendors have talked about more price increases that have come starting January 1. It seems like there's more coming in September. I could think of [Jim] sort of being paranoid and worried about do we just push too far and do we not want to risk that and invest more in price before even seeing any deterioration in the sales trends.

知道了。這是一個很好的轉場。我猜你的執行趨勢、續訂率、補償、流量，你是為數不多的擁有真正強大流量的大型零售商之一。但與此同時，是否有一種文化對傳遞價格感到不舒服？我的意思是供應商已經談到了從 1 月 1 日開始的更多價格上漲。看起來 9 月份還會有更多的價格上漲。我可以認為 [Jim] 有點偏執，擔心我們是否太過分了，我們是否不想冒險並在看到銷售趨勢惡化之前在價格上進行更多投資。

I would say we're more aggressive when things are good and -- we're aggressive when things are good and bad. I remember somebody years ago asked the question given that sales for whatever reason had been weak for a month or 2. And that was more the reason to be even more strong on pricing. And I think it actually had -- related to a pending membership fee increase based on this kind of 5-plus year anniversary. And the view was, no, our members are loyal and we're going to use it to drive more sales. So no, I don't -- I think we're still borne of that same DNA of trying to constantly drive more value and not worry about how strong or weak we are today, just keep driving more value. And if we keep focusing on that, nobody can catch us or it's harder...

我想說，當事情好轉時，我們會更加激進——當事情好壞時，我們會更加激進。我記得幾年前有人問過這個問題，因為無論出於何種原因，銷售已經疲軟了一個月或兩個月。這更是定價更加強勁的原因。而且我認為它實際上與基於這種 5 年多周年的未決會員費增加有關。觀點是，不，我們的會員是忠誠的，我們將用它來推動更多的銷售。所以不，我不——我認為我們仍然具有相同的 DNA，即不斷努力推動更多價值，而不用擔心我們今天的強弱，只要繼續推動更多價值。如果我們繼續專注於此，沒有人能抓住我們，或者更難......

And then just one quick one -- sorry. Say that again.

然後只是一個快速的 - 抱歉。再說一次。

It's harder to catch us at least. So...

至少要抓住我們更難。所以...

Yes. And then just a quick question on LIFO. If price increases have continued into this year, does -- that LIFO number should stay at this level? And as we lap through it, do we actually get that back?

是的。然後只是一個關於 LIFO 的快速問題。如果價格上漲一直持續到今年，那麼 LIFO 數字應該保持在這個水平嗎？當我們通過它時，我們真的把它拿回來了嗎？

Well, in theory, you don't get it back. If -- as I said earlier, if inflation is continuing, you should see some additional LIFO charges, maybe not as big, but who knows. And at some point, at the beginning, as you start a new fiscal year, you've had whatever LIFO charge you'll have for this past year. And those -- that's kind of the new set point for costs for each item. And then to the extent -- if there's additional inflation relative to that starting point, you'll have some additional LIFO next year. If things came down a little bit, let's say things -- I'm making these numbers up in the extreme. But things were up in 1 year, 20%, and the next year, they were down 10%, you had a big LIFO charge this year, and you actually have some LIFO credit in the following year. I gave you an extreme example. That's not the reality.

好吧，理論上，你不會把它拿回來。如果 - 正如我之前所說，如果通貨膨脹繼續存在，您應該會看到一些額外的 LIFO 費用，也許沒有那麼大，但誰知道呢。在某個時候，在開始新的財政年度時，你已經獲得了過去一年的任何 LIFO 費用。還有那些——這是每個項目成本的新設定點。然後在某種程度上——如果相對於那個起點有額外的通貨膨脹，明年你會有一些額外的後進先出。如果事情有所下降，讓我們說事情 - 我正在極端地彌補這些數字。但是事情在 1 年上升了 20%，第二年下降了 10%，今年你有一個很大的 LIFO 費用，而你實際上在第二年有一些 LIFO 信用。我給你舉了一個極端的例子。事實並非如此。

Your next question comes from the line of Mike Baker from D.A. Davidson.

您的下一個問題來自 D.A. 的 Mike Baker。戴維森。

Okay. I guess I'll stay on the inflation question but ask 2 different inflation questions. One, if prices do come down -- eventually, they will. Historically, what do you see in terms of your ability to maintain the comp prices, in other words not to come down and then to gain some margin in that sense?

好的。我想我會繼續討論通脹問題，但會問兩個不同的通脹問題。第一，如果價格確實下降——最終，它們會下降。從歷史上看，您對維持競爭價格的能力有什麼看法，換句話說，不下降然後在這個意義上獲得一些利潤？

And then a second inflation-related question. Historically, when you see outsized inflation -- now it's been a long time since we've seen inflation like this but you've been around for a long time. When you see inflation, do you get more customers coming into Costco to save money? You alluded to that earlier. You said that's what you hope happens. But I guess -- I'm sure you've looked at it historically. What have you seen?

然後是第二個與通貨膨脹相關的問題。從歷史上看，當你看到過大的通貨膨脹時——現在我們已經很久沒有看到這樣的通貨膨脹了，但你已經存在了很長時間。當您看到通貨膨脹時，您是否會吸引更多客戶進入 Costco 以省錢？你之前提到過。你說這就是你希望發生的事情。但我想——我相信你已經從歷史上看過它。你看到了什麼？

On the latter question, past history has indicated, yes, not in a big way, but the answer is yes, directionally. As it relates to if prices come down, if our costs come down, we want to be the first to lower the price, period.

關於後一個問題，過去的歷史表明，是的，不是很大，但答案是肯定的，方向性的。因為它關係到如果價格下降，如果我們的成本下降，我們想成為第一個降低價格的人。

Okay. That makes sense. One last one, if I could. Similar to that, do you get more customers, one, in an inflationary environment? Do you see more customers wanting to sign up to take advantage of your value in a tougher economic situation? In other words, in 2022, no stimulus does appear as if the economy might not be -- or at least the consumer economy might not be as strong as last year. How does that impact your memberships or renewal rates?

好的。這就說得通了。如果可以的話，最後一個。與此類似，在通貨膨脹的環境中，您是否獲得了更多的客戶？您是否看到更多客戶希望註冊以在更嚴峻的經濟形勢下利用您的價值？換句話說，到 2022 年，經濟似乎不會出現任何刺激措施——或者至少消費經濟可能不會像去年那樣強勁。這對您的會員資格或續訂率有何影響？

I think if you asked us 2 years ago, how would the next 2 years be in terms of new member sign-ups, we would be positive. But we probably have achieved greater than those expected -- than our own expectations, by a little. And so arguably that -- it was not just the stimulus. But notwithstanding the stimulus, there wasn't a lot of positive feelings out there in terms of the consumer and we did just fine. So one of the good things that we've been blessed with is that we are the extreme value proposition, and it generally bodes well for us in good and bad economic times. And so I think -- we don't pay a lot of attention to it other than seeing -- really being focused on driving price and value of our products and services and taking care of the customer and then the rest seems to work.

我認為，如果您在 2 年前問我們，就新會員註冊而言，未來 2 年將如何，我們會是積極的。但我們可能已經取得了比預期更大的成就——比我們自己的預期高出一點點。可以說——這不僅僅是刺激。但是，儘管有刺激措施，但就消費者而言，並沒有太多積極的感受，我們做得很好。因此，我們有幸擁有的一件好事是，我們是極端的價值主張，這通常對我們來說在經濟形勢好壞時都是好兆頭。所以我認為——除了看到之外，我們並沒有太多關注它——真正專注於推動我們的產品和服務的價格和價值以及照顧客戶，然後其餘的似乎都奏效了。

Yes. It sure does.

是的。確實如此。

Your next question comes from the line of Rupesh Parikh from Oppenheimer.

您的下一個問題來自 Oppenheimer 的 Rupesh Parikh。

So I had a question just on the labor front. I was just curious what you guys are seeing from a labor availability standpoint and then what your comfort is with your wage levels in the marketplace just given we continue to see others raise their wages.

所以我有一個關於勞工陣線的問題。我只是好奇你們從勞動力可用性的角度看到了什麼，然後考慮到我們繼續看到其他人提高工資，你們對市場上的工資水平感到滿意。

Well, we continue to raise them as others have, and we will continue to do that. The biggest single area of challenge is, one, we're headquartered in Seattle, which has become an increasingly expensive market. And within that, IT, where you not only have 2 big -- tech behemoths but the next 3 tech behemoths all have 10,000 to 20,000 employees in this town as well. So we've had to raise wages there, and it didn't happen overnight in the last 2 weeks. It's happened continually over the last couple of years. And we will also lose a few people because we're not 100% work from home. We have a -- we think, a good fair hybrid work model. But for some -- a few, they want that. Overall though, if you look at our total compensation and benefits package, 90% of our employees are hourly in the warehouse. And we -- while maybe there's a city or 2 where we've got to occasionally start it one step above the entry level, we've continued to raise the wages, as I mentioned in the thing, and we'll do it again.

好吧，我們繼續像其他人一樣提高他們，我們將繼續這樣做。最大的單一挑戰領域是，第一，我們的總部設在西雅圖，這已經成為一個越來越昂貴的市場。在這其中，IT 不僅擁有 2 大科技巨頭，而且接下來的 3 大科技巨頭在這個城鎮也都有 10,000 到 20,000 名員工。所以我們不得不在那裡提高工資，而且這不是在過去兩週內一夜之間發生的。在過去的幾年裡，這種情況一直在發生。我們也會失去一些人，因為我們不是 100% 在家工作。我們有一個 - 我們認為，一個很好的公平混合工作模式。但對於一些人——少數人來說，他們想要那個。總體而言，如果您查看我們的總薪酬和福利方案，我們 90% 的員工按小時在倉庫工作。而且我們——雖然可能有一兩個城市我們必須偶爾比入門水平高出一級，但我們繼續提高工資，正如我在事情中提到的那樣，我們會再做一次.

Okay. Great. And then maybe one additional question. Just on the ancillary front, if you can just remind us where you are with your recovery versus prepandemic in some of the more challenged categories, travel, food court, et cetera.

好的。偉大的。然後也許還有一個問題。只是在輔助方面，如果您能提醒我們在一些更具挑戰性的類別、旅行、美食廣場等方面，您的恢復與大流行前的情況相比處於什麼位置。

Yes. Well, the biggest one is gas, and that's gone nothing but up. And again, as I mentioned earlier, the retail competitive price pressure is probably lessened over the last couple of years. Travel, you mentioned, is one that has been extreme ups and downs. There was a period during the mid-2020 year lockouts -- COVID lockouts where we had negative -- we had lost money in the business and had negative revenues because you're getting more cancellations and no new orders. And that's fluctuated. It's come back. It fell a little bit with Delta. It came back after that. It fell a little bit with Omicron, although now we seem to be upon the upward trend and it is profitable -- not as profitable as it was 2 years ago but continuing in that direction, huge business in both vacation packages as well as auto renewal -- rental cars and the like.

是的。嗯，最大的一個是氣體，除了上升什麼都沒有了。同樣，正如我之前提到的，零售競爭價格壓力在過去幾年中可能有所減輕。你提到的旅行是一種經歷了極大起伏的旅行。在 2020 年中期的停工期間——COVID 停工期間我們出現負數——我們在業務中虧損並且收入為負數，因為您收到更多的取消訂單並且沒有新訂單。這是波動的。它回來了。它與Delta一起下降了一點。在那之後它又回來了。與 Omicron 一起下降了一點，儘管現在我們似乎處於上升趨勢並且它是有利可圖的 - 不像 2 年前那樣有利可圖，但繼續朝這個方向發展，度假套餐和汽車更新方面的巨大業務——出租汽車等。

So that's the business that's coming out nicely. It was businesses like where there's face-to-face touch, if you will, with -- in our hearing aid and optical shops. That was actually closed for a number of weeks in the mid-2020 but just for 10 or 15 weeks, I think. That's come back as well. Food courts have come back because we have chairs and tables back out and we expanded the menu. So overall, a few of those ancillary business, they're not back to where they were but they're getting there. And then of course, the one business that dwarfs all the other is gas just in its size and its increased profitability. So overall, ancillary is doing fine, and some of the ones that were hurt the most are picking up.

這就是發展良好的業務。如果您願意，可以在我們的助聽器和眼鏡店中進行面對面接觸之類的業務。這實際上在 2020 年中期關閉了數週，但我認為只有 10 或 15 週。那也回來了。美食廣場又回來了，因為我們有椅子和桌子，我們擴大了菜單。所以總的來說，其中一些輔助業務並沒有回到原來的位置，但他們正在到達那裡。當然，使其他所有業務相形見絀的一項業務是天然氣，其規模和盈利能力有所提高。所以總的來說，輔助設備做得很好，一些受傷最嚴重的設備正在恢復。

Your next question comes from the line of Kelly Bania from BMO Capital.

您的下一個問題來自 BMO Capital 的 Kelly Bania。

Just a follow-up real quickly on the gas. Richard, you made the comment about gas margins going up kind of across the space. Can you help us understand a little bit about how Costco's gas margins are relative to 2019? Are they up, maybe just up a little less? And where are we with gallons versus 2019?

只是一個跟進真的很快就加油了。理查德，你發表了關於天然氣利潤率上升的評論。你能幫助我們了解一下 Costco 的天然氣利潤率相對於 2019 年的情況嗎？他們起來了嗎，也許只是少了一點？與 2019 年相比，我們的加侖數在哪裡？

I don't have that detail in front of me. Margins are up, prices are up, and it's a huge business. It's a little more than 10% of our sales. It's a $20-plus billion business now, recognizing there's been, as I mentioned earlier, a 30-plus percent increase in just the price per gallon. But it's definitely been up the last couple of years and it's less volatile than it was 5 and 10 years ago in terms of a big margin fluctuation. But I don't have the detail related to 2 years ago.

我面前沒有那個細節。利潤上漲，價格上漲，這是一項巨大的業務。這是我們銷售額的10%多一點。這是一項價值超過 20 億美元的業務，正如我之前提到的，每加侖的價格已經上漲了 30% 以上。但在過去的幾年裡，它肯定一直在上升，就利潤率的大幅波動而言，它的波動性比 5 年和 10 年前要小。但我沒有兩年前的細節。

Okay. I'll just ask another one just on white space then just in the U.S. Just curious if you can just give us an update on how you're looking at that today over the next couple of years. Do you have to at all change your target demographics or target population density in terms of where you'll plan on opening up new clubs in the U.S.? Just the eventual number that you see, just an update there.

好的。我只是在空白處再問另一個，然後在美國。只是想知道您是否可以向我們提供有關您在接下來的幾年中今天如何看待它的最新信息。就您計劃在美國開設新俱樂部的地點而言，您是否必須改變您的目標人口統計數據或目標人口密度？只是您看到的最終數字，只是那裡的更新。

Sure. I mean if you had asked me 5 years ago how many -- 5 years hence or now how many -- what would it look like, 5 years ago, we were opening about 25 a year, call it 26 to make the math easy for a second, and maybe 70-30, U.S. and Canada, our most successful mature -- our most mature markets. And then over the next 5 or 10 years, the 70-30 would probably go to 60-40 outside of the U.S. and Canada. And here we are 5 years into this -- that incorrect answer, and we're pretty 65-35, U.S.-Canada, for 2 reasons. Partly is our expectations of what we can do in the U.S. and Canada has increased not just in the last 5 years but in general over many years. And it's taken a little longer, the time lines internationally, although we've got more feet on the ground and more staff, we think.

當然。我的意思是，如果你在 5 年前問我有多少 - 5 年後或現在有多少 - 它會是什麼樣子，5 年前，我們每年開 25 家，稱之為 26 以方便計算第二個，也許是 70-30，美國和加拿大，我們最成功的成熟市場——我們最成熟的市場。然後在接下來的 5 或 10 年內，70-30 可能會在美國和加拿大以外達到 60-40。在這裡，我們已經 5 年了——那個不正確的答案，我們是 65-35，美國 - 加拿大，有兩個原因。部分原因是我們對我們在美國和加拿大可以做的事情的期望不僅在過去 5 年中有所增加，而且在總體上多年來都在增加。我們認為，雖然我們有更多的腳踏實地和更多的工作人員，但國際上的時間線需要更長的時間。

So if you ask me today, I look 5 years from now, we'll go from 65-35 or whatever excess today, probably down to 50-50. I think the good news with that answer from that perspective is that we feel we still have plenty of opportunities in the U.S. and Canada, and we've ramped up our activities to do more in these other countries where we've also been quite successful. The -- if you said -- asked over the next 10 years, we're opening -- I think this year, 16 of our 28 are in the U.S. I could be off by 1 or 2. Our view is there's no reason to think for the next 10 years, we can't open 15-or-so a year in the U.S. Now mind you, 1 or 2 of those and growing to 2 or 3 will be the business centers. We now have 22 business centers in the U.S. and 5 in Canada. That's been a good adjunct to our business.

所以如果你今天問我，我看 5 年後，我們將從今天的 65-35 或任何多餘的數字下降到 50-50。從這個角度來看，我認為這個答案的好消息是，我們覺得我們在美國和加拿大仍有很多機會，我們已經加大了我們的活動，在我們也非常成功的其他國家做更多的事情. - 如果你說 - 問未來 10 年，我們將開放 - 我認為今年，我們 28 家中有 16 家在美國，我可能會落後 1 或 2 家。我們的觀點是沒有理由想想未來 10 年，我們不能在美國一年開 15 家左右 現在請注意，其中的 1 或 2 家以及增長到 2 或 3 家將成為商業中心。我們現在在美國有 22 個商務中心，在加拿大有 5 個。這對我們的業務來說是一個很好的輔助。

But we're also -- and we're infilling. I gave an example at an internal meeting yesterday, and I've given it before to you guys. In San Jose, about 4 or 5 years ago, we opened our fourth in the Greater San Jose market. At the time, the 3 units were doing about 250 each. Now the 4 units are averaging right at 300 each, averaging, and on fewer members per location because you've got existing members driving less far. So there's a combination of infill. Now we're in 46 states. So there's not a lot of additional states. We're less penetrated versus our direct competitors in certain locations in the Midwest and Texas and parts of the Southeast, and we're still opening there as well.

但我們也在——而且我們正在填充。我昨天在內部會議上舉了一個例子，之前我已經給你們了。在聖何塞，大約 4 或 5 年前，我們在大聖何塞市場開設了第四家。當時，這 3 個單位每個都在做大約 250 個。現在這 4 個單位平均每個單位有 300 個，平均每個位置的成員更少，因為現有成員駕駛的距離更少。所以有一個填充的組合。現在我們在 46 個州。所以沒有很多額外的狀態。與我們在中西部和德克薩斯州以及東南部部分地區的直接競爭對手相比，我們的滲透率較低，而且我們仍然在那裡開業。

So it really is a combination of all those things. I think our view is -- the good news is that there's still -- we're far from saturating our most saturated markets. And we've upped the ante in terms of feet on the ground, real estate feet on the ground, if you will, in terms of getting some more into the pipeline.

所以它真的是所有這些東西的結合。我認為我們的觀點是 - 好消息是仍然存在 - 我們遠未使我們最飽和的市場飽和。如果你願意的話，我們已經提高了在地面上的腳，房地產腳在地面上的賭注，以便更多地進入管道。

Your next question comes from the line of John Heinbockel from Guggenheim.

您的下一個問題來自古根海姆的 John Heinbockel。

Richard, first thing, philosophically, how do you guys think about closing the gap on the 2 membership tiers, right, maybe encouraging some further conversion to Executive. And I don't know if you've done any kind of work with your current Executive Members. What would they like in the membership that's not there today, right, that perhaps might just -- it might help you take the monthly -- the annual fee higher.

理查德，首先，從哲學上講，你們如何看待縮小兩個會員級別的差距，對，也許會鼓勵進一步轉變為執行官。我不知道你是否與現任執行成員做過任何工作。他們希望在今天不存在的會員資格中得到什麼，對，這可能只是 - 它可能會幫助您每月收取更高的年費。

Yes. A lot -- I don't know exactly what is -- I need to ask our membership marketing people. I think we've frankly been very pleased of our success of getting more existing -- more new members -- more existing members to convert and frankly more new members to sign up initially as an Executive. Mind you, 8 or 10 years ago, in the U.S. where it started -- we've had it for 15 years now probably, you came in and we just signed you up. We asked you what you wanted. We didn't do a lot. And maybe 20 or 25, at most 25, of every 100 signed up as an Executive Member. Today, it's in the 50s, closing -- close to 60, and that's with just trying a little bit and showing them the value of it. So I think we've done a better job of doing that. We do a better job when we go into a new country. We're now in, I think, 5 of our -- 6 of our countries, which are the largest ones. You want to have at least 15-or-so locations before you're looking at it to put an Executive Membership on it.

是的。很多——我不知道到底是什麼——我需要問問我們的會員營銷人員。我認為坦率地說，我們很高興我們成功地吸引了更多現有成員 - 更多新成員 - 更多現有成員進行轉換，坦率地說，更多新成員最初註冊為執行官。請注意，8 或 10 年前，在它開始的美國 - 我們現在可能已經擁有它 15 年了，你進來了，我們剛剛註冊了你。我們問你想要什麼。我們沒有做很多。每 100 人中可能有 20 人或 25 人，最多 25 人註冊為執行會員。今天，它在 50 年代，接近 60 年代，這只是嘗試一點點並向他們展示它的價值。所以我認為我們在這方面做得更好。當我們進入一個新的國家時，我們會做得更好。我認為，我們現在在我們的 5 個國家中——我們的 6 個國家中，它們是最大的國家。在查看它之前，您希望至少擁有 15 個左右的位置，以便在其上添加執行會員資格。

So we've toyed with the idea of having something even higher than the Executive, but we always go back to the fact that what we have works very well. And so I don't think there's anything currently on our plate to change that. We're always asked -- we've also asked the question, at some point, right now it's 72% or 73% of our sales are with the Executive Member. What happens when it gets to 85% or 90%? Do you eliminate the lower membership? At some point, we might, but that's, again, not in the cards at any time in the near future. We kind of like what we're doing, and it's working fine.

所以我們玩弄了擁有比執行官更高的東西的想法，但我們總是回到這樣一個事實，即我們所擁有的東西非常有效。所以我認為我們目前沒有任何事情可以改變這一點。我們總是被問到——我們也問過這個問題，在某個時候，現在我們 72% 或 73% 的銷售額來自執行會員。當它達到 85% 或 90% 時會發生什麼？您是否消除了較低的會員資格？在某個時候，我們可能會這樣做，但這在不久的將來任何時候都不會出現。我們有點喜歡我們正在做的事情，而且效果很好。

And secondly, where are you on the personalization journey? I know you hired somebody maybe 2 years ago to kind of spearhead that. Where are we? And does that pick up steam in the next year or so?

其次，您在個性化之旅中處於什麼位置？我知道你可能在 2 年前雇了一個人來帶頭。我們在哪？這會在明年左右開始嗎？

I think it picks up steam in the next year or so. The first order of business, when we brought in people on that data analytics side 2 years ago, a person, he has built a great team. And we're seeing small deliverables, first and foremost, not online but with the merchants and, to a smaller extent, with some of the operators. And there's been some real deliverables that have saved our buyers time, and those are in the process of being rolled out. On the personalization and targeting, I think we've got a little better at targeting and that -- and still have a journey on the personalization, but that will be coming. But I thank you for asking it when you said a year or 2.

我認為它會在明年左右開始發展。第一項業務，當我們在 2 年前引入數據分析方面的人時，一個人，他建立了一個偉大的團隊。我們看到的交付物很小，首先，不是在網上，而是與商家一起，在較小程度上，與一些運營商一起。並且有一些真正的可交付成果為我們的買家節省了時間，並且正在推出。在個性化和定位方面，我認為我們在定位方面做得更好一些——而且在個性化方面仍有一段旅程，但那將會到來。但我感謝你在你說一兩年的時候問這個問題。

Your next question comes from the line of Laura Champine from Loop Capital.

您的下一個問題來自 Loop Capital 的 Laura Champine。

I'll make it quick. To follow on to the unit growth questions asked earlier, it sounds like you're positioning the business to launch more international stores. Is it -- does it make sense for me to interpret that as unit growth may accelerate next fiscal year and beyond from this -- it looks like it's going to be about 3.5% this year.

我會盡快處理的。繼續之前提出的單位增長問題，聽起來您正在將業務定位為開設更多國際商店。對我來說，這樣解釋是否有意義，因為下一財年及以後的單位增長可能會加速——看起來今年將達到 3.5% 左右。

Yes. Look, our goal for the last several years, there was the unique year of COVID where we went down to 13 openings because there were several that construction had stopped for several months in the middle of 2020. But the reality is if you go back 5 or 6 years, we were opening 25-ish; 7 years, 21 or 22-ish. And the view even then was to get up to closer to 30, certainly 25 to 30. I think this year is we're finally hitting that with the expectation of 28 in my call this morning and, call it, 26 to 30, whatever it comes out to be. And we would certainly be comfortable at 30. One of the things that is unique is we try to be relatively methodical about it, particularly in new international markets. Once you open the first one, if it's successful, you're taking some people from that one to help and succeed in opening the second one. One of the things is it's -- the biggest cost factor on the warehouse P&L is labor and efficiency. And when you're running a high-volume unit, it's helpful when you've got more people coming over from a nearby unit.

是的。看，我們過去幾年的目標，在 COVID 的特殊年份，我們減少到 13 個空缺，因為有幾個在 2020 年中期停止了幾個月的建設。但現實是，如果你回到 5或者 6 年，我們開了 25-ish； 7 年，21 或 22 歲。甚至當時的觀點是接近 30，當然是 25 到 30。我認為今年我們終於達到了這個目標，在我今天早上的電話會議中期望 28 並且，稱之為 26 到 30，無論如何結果是。我們當然會在 30 歲時感到自在。獨特的一件事是我們嘗試相對有條不紊地處理它，尤其是在新的國際市場上。一旦你打開第一個，如果它成功了，你就會從那個人那裡帶一些人來幫助並成功打開第二個。其中一件事是——倉庫損益表的最大成本因素是勞動力和效率。當您運行一個大容量的設備時，當您有更多的人從附近的設備過來時會很有幫助。

So we are pretty methodical about growing somewhat slowly in new markets. We went from 1 to 5 20 years ago over a 5-year period in Japan. We've sped up a little in China, thinking that we've opened 2 now in 3 years and with another several in process, probably several more then a couple more. So we've increased it a little bit and -- but we feel pretty good about that. So I would still say our rounded pat answer right now is 25 to 30. And we'd like it to be more to 30 than 25 right now. But we're not necessarily looking at that percentage. As we get bigger, God willing, in year 6 through 10, we're going to be talking about 30 to 35, but we'll have to wait and see.

因此，我們非常有條不紊地在新市場中緩慢增長。 20 年前，我們在日本的 5 年時間裡從 1 到 5。我們在中國加快了速度，認為我們已經在 3 年內開設了 2 家，並且還有另外幾家正在籌備中，可能會再多幾家。所以我們稍微增加了一點，但我們對此感覺很好。所以我仍然會說我們現在的四捨五入答案是 25 到 30。我們現在希望它比 25 多到 30。但我們不一定要看這個百分比。隨著我們變得更大，上帝保佑，在第 6 年到第 10 年，我們將談論 30 到 35 歲，但我們必須拭目以待。

Your last question comes from the line of Peter Benedict from Baird.

您的最後一個問題來自 Baird 的 Peter Benedict。

So some of my questions have been asked but the -- just thinking about the supply chain situation and just curious if it's caused you guys to rethink or accelerate any of your kind of sourcing initiatives. I mean you talked about the vessels and the containers, and that clearly seems to be in reaction to what's going on. But I'm thinking more along the lines of categories, these efforts you've been underway for a long time going vertical. Are there any that maybe have jumped to the front of the line because of what you've seen over the last year or 2?

所以有人問了我的一些問題，但只是考慮供應鏈的情況，只是好奇它是否會導致你們重新考慮或加速你們的任何採購計劃。我的意思是你談到了船隻和集裝箱，這顯然是對正在發生的事情的反應。但我更多地考慮類別，這些努力你已經進行了很長時間的垂直方向。有沒有人因為你在過去一兩年所看到的而跳到了隊伍的最前面？

Well, I think a couple of things we've done not in a big way, but a couple of things we've done is there's probably a little bit more diversification of suppliers. Particularly on huge, $300 million to $1 billion SKUs, you need a little bit more there. We've brought in certain things -- nontraditional to its season during the winter, bringing in bikes, because we could have access to them and we sold them -- yes, new countries of origin. So there's a few of those things but not in a big way. Part of our success is huge buying power per item. And having less than 4,000 SKUs to do our $200 billion is quite a bit different than having even 100,000 SKUs doing $150 billion to $500 billion, depending on who the retailer is. So we've made changes, and we are more open-minded to bringing in some things. But hopefully, this thing -- the supply chain works out over the next couple of years in a big way -- in a better way.

嗯，我認為我們做的幾件事不是很大，但我們做的幾件事是供應商可能更加多樣化。尤其是在 3 億到 10 億美元的巨大 SKU 上，您需要更多。我們帶來了某些東西——在冬季，非傳統的季節，帶來了自行車，因為我們可以使用它們並且我們出售它們——是的，新的原產國。所以有一些這樣的事情，但不是很大。我們成功的部分原因在於每件商品的巨大購買力。擁有不到 4,000 個 SKU 來完成我們 2000 億美元的交易，與擁有 100,000 個 SKU 完成 1500 億到 5000 億美元的交易有很大不同，這取決於零售商是誰。所以我們做出了改變，我們對引入一些東西更加開放。但希望這件事——供應鏈在接下來的幾年里以一種更好的方式運作起來。

Sure. And then just lastly, just on the Executive Membership, 43% of the members and 71% of the sales. How -- where are those numbers and maybe your more established markets, where you've had it? And maybe how underpenetrated is it in some of the newer markets? Just trying to get a sense of what the pathway might be for some of these newer markets.

當然。最後，就執行會員資格而言，43% 的會員和 71% 的銷售額。怎麼樣——這些數字在哪裡，也許是你更成熟的市場，你在哪裡擁有它？也許它在一些較新的市場中滲透率有多低？只是想了解一些新市場的路徑可能是什麼。

Yes. Well, it's like renewal rates. Renewal rates, irrespective of what it becomes 10 years hence in a location and in a market, it starts off at a lower number and builds up to the higher number. Same thing with that Executive transition. We're doing better today in -- even in first year new markets. I think in the last couple of years, where we added Executive in Japan and Korea and -- what? Yes, I mean that 42% number is hovering in the low 50s, 50% or a little higher in more mature markets and starts off lower in other markets but higher than it started in the previous new market a few years ago. So it grows over time.

是的。嗯，這就像續訂率。更新率，不管它在 10 年後在一個地點和一個市場中變成什麼，它從較低的數字開始並逐漸增加到較高的數字。與行政過渡相同的事情。我們今天在 - 即使在第一年的新市場中做得更好。我想在過去的幾年裡，我們在日本和韓國增加了執行官，而且——什麼？是的，我的意思是 42% 的數字徘徊在 50 年代的低點，在更成熟的市場中為 50% 或略高，在其他市場開始時較低，但高於幾年前在前一個新市場中的開始。所以它會隨著時間的推移而增長。

Well, thank you very much. Everyone, have a good afternoon and evening, and I appreciate you getting on the call.

好的，謝謝。各位，下午和晚上愉快，感謝您接聽電話。

This concludes today's conference call. You may now disconnect. Thank you.

今天的電話會議到此結束。您現在可以斷開連接。謝謝你。