好市多 (COST) 2023 Q3 法說會逐字稿

Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for standing by, and welcome to Costco Wholesale Corporation's Fiscal Q3 2023 Conference Call. (Operator Instructions) Thank you.

女士們，先生們，感謝你們的支持，歡迎來到 Costco Wholesale Corporation 的 2023 財年第三季度電話會議。 （操作員說明）謝謝。

Richard Galanti, CFO, you may begin your conference.

首席財務官理查德·加蘭蒂 (Richard Galanti)，您可以開始您的會議了。

Thank you, Josh, and good afternoon to everyone.

謝謝你，喬希，大家下午好。

I will start by stating that these discussions will include forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. These statements involve risks and uncertainties that may cause actual events, results and/or performance to differ materially from those indicated by such statements. The risks and uncertainties include, but are not limited to, those outlined in today's call as well as other risks identified from time to time in the company's public statements and reports filed with the SEC. Forward-looking statements speak only as of the date they are made, and the company does not undertake to update these statements, except as required by law.

我將首先聲明，這些討論將包括 1995 年《私人證券訴訟改革法案》含義內的前瞻性陳述。這些陳述涉及風險和不確定性，可能導致實際事件、結果和/或表現與所示內容存在重大差異通過這樣的陳述。風險和不確定性包括但不限於今天的電話會議中概述的風險和不確定性，以及公司向美國證券交易委員會提交的公開聲明和報告中不時確定的其他風險。前瞻性陳述僅代表作出之日的情況，除法律要求外，公司不承諾更新這些陳述。

In today's press release, we reported operating results for the third quarter of fiscal 2023, the 12 weeks ended this past May 7. Reported net income for the quarter was $1.30 billion or $2.93 per diluted share. This compared to $1.35 billion or $3.04 per diluted share a year ago in the third quarter. This year's results included a nonrecurring charge to merchandise costs of $298 million pretax or $0.50 per share, primarily for the discontinuation of our charter shipping activities. Last year's results included a nonrecurring $77 million pretax charge or $0.13 per share for incremental employee benefits.

在今天的新聞稿中，我們報告了 2023 財年第三季度的經營業績，即截至今年 5 月 7 日的 12 週。報告的本季度淨收入為 13 億美元或攤薄後每股收益 2.93 美元。相比之下，去年第三季度為 13.5 億美元或每股攤薄收益 3.04 美元。今年的業績包括 2.98 億美元的稅前商品成本或每股 0.50 美元的非經常性費用，主要用於終止我們的包機運輸活動。去年的業績包括 7700 萬美元的非經常性稅前費用或每股 0.13 美元的增量員工福利。

As many of you know, 2 years ago, we initially leased 3 ships and thousands of containers to help mitigate some of the significant overseas freight challenges that we were experiencing. Later, we added 4 additional vessels and several thousand additional containers with commitments made for up to then 3 additional years. Procuring these ships and containers was integral to us being able to stay in stock for our members during those challenging times. It also allowed us to do so initially at a lower cost than the market rates at that time.

正如你們許多人所知，2 年前，我們最初租賃了 3 艘船和數千個集裝箱，以幫助緩解我們正在經歷的一些重大海外貨運挑戰。後來，我們又增加了 4 艘船和數千個集裝箱，並承諾最多再增加 3 年。採購這些船舶和集裝箱對於我們能夠在那些充滿挑戰的時期為我們的會員保留庫存是不可或缺的。它還使我們能夠以低於當時市場價格的成本開始這樣做。

Shipping and freight markets have improved dramatically since that time, which led us to reevaluate our position. As you recall, in the first quarter of this fiscal year, we took a charge to downsize by 2 vessels our charter shipping activities. Since then, shipping and container rates have continued to fall. And in the third quarter, this third quarter, we concluded that it would be appropriate to completely discontinue the remainder of our charter shipping activities. As a result of this decision, we recorded an impairment charge for all remaining charter assets. This decision allows our merchandising teams to take full advantage of the current shipping market rates as opposed to much higher contracted charter rates. In turn, this allows us to do what we do best and lower prices for our members.

自那時以來，航運和貨運市場有了顯著改善，這促使我們重新評估我們的地位。您還記得，在本財年的第一季度，我們負責將我們的包機運輸活動減少 2 艘。從那以後，航運和集裝箱運價持續下跌。在第三季度，這個第三季度，我們得出結論，完全停止剩餘的包機運輸活動是合適的。由於這一決定，我們記錄了所有剩餘包租資產的減值費用。這一決定使我們的銷售團隊能夠充分利用當前的航運市場費率，而不是更高的合同包機費率。反過來，這使我們能夠做我們最擅長的事情，並為我們的會員降低價格。

In terms of sales. Net sales for the third quarter increased 1.9% to $52.6 billion versus $51.61 billion reported last year in the third quarter. Comparable sales for the quarter were as follows: in the U.S., on a reported basis, minus 0.1%, and excluding gas deflation and FX, plus 1.8%; Canada, reported, minus 1.0%, ex gas and FX, plus 7.4%; and Other International, reported, plus 4.1%, and ex gas and FX, plus 8.4%. So total company, on a reported basis, 0.3% comp sales, and ex gas deflation and FX at plus 3.5%. And our e-commerce on a reported basis was minus 10.0% and minus 9.0%, excluding FX.

在銷售方面。第三季度淨銷售額增長 1.9% 至 526 億美元，而去年第三季度報告的淨銷售額為 516.1 億美元。本季度的可比銷售額如下：在美國，報告基礎上，負 0.1%，不包括天然氣通縮和外匯，增加 1.8%；加拿大，據報導，負 1.0%，不包括天然氣和外匯，增加 7.4%；據報導，其他國際公司上漲 4.1%，不包括天然氣和外匯，上漲 8.4%。因此，根據報告，公司總計銷售額為 0.3%，不包括天然氣通貨緊縮和外匯 3.5%。我們的電子商務在報告的基礎上分別為負 10.0% 和負 9.0%，不包括外匯。

In terms of third quarter comp sales metrics. Traffic or shopping frequency remains pretty good, increasing 4.8% worldwide and 3.5% in the U.S. during the quarter. Our average daily transaction or ticket was down 4.2% worldwide and down 3.5% in the U.S., impacted, in large part, from weakness in bigger-ticket nonfood discretionary items. Foreign currencies relative to the U.S. dollar negatively impacted sales by approximately 1.5%, and gasoline price deflation negatively impacted sales by approximately 1.7%.

就第三季度的銷售指標而言。流量或購物頻率仍然相當不錯，本季度全球增長 4.8%，美國增長 3.5%。我們的平均每日交易量或票價在全球範圍內下降了 4.2%，在美國下降了 3.5%，這在很大程度上受到了大件非食品非必需品的疲軟的影響。外幣兌美元匯率對銷售額產生了約 1.5% 的負面影響，汽油價格通縮對銷售額產生了約 1.7% 的負面影響。

Next on the income statement is membership fee income. For the quarter, we reported $1.044 billion of membership fee income or 1.98% of sales compared to $984 million or 1.91% a year ago in the third quarter, so a $60 million or 6.1% increase in membership fees. Excluding the headwinds in FX, the $60 million increase would have been higher by $17 million or up year-over-year 8%, adjusted for FX.

損益表的下一個是會員費收入。本季度，我們報告的會員費收入為 10.44 億美元，佔銷售額的 1.98%，而去年第三季度為 9.84 億美元或 1.91%，因此會員費增加了 6000 萬美元或 6.1%。排除外匯方面的不利因素，6000 萬美元的增長本應高出 1700 萬美元或同比增長 8%（針對外匯進行調整）。

In terms of renewal rates, at third quarter end, our U.S. and Canada renewal rate was 92.6%, and our worldwide rate came in at 90.5%. These figures are the same all-time high renewal rates that were achieved in the second quarter, just 12 weeks ago here.

在續訂率方面，在第三季度末，我們的美國和加拿大續訂率為 92.6%，我們的全球續訂率為 90.5%。這些數字與 12 週前的第二季度達到的歷史最高續訂率相同。

Membership growth continues. We ended Q3 with 69.1 paid household members and 124.7 million cardholders, both up approximately 7% versus a year ago. At third quarter end, we had 31.3 million paid executive members, an increase of 681,000 or 57,000 per week during the 12-week fiscal third quarter. Executive members now represent a little over 45% of our paid members and approximately 73% of worldwide sales.

會員繼續增長。截至第三季度末，我們有 69.1 名付費家庭成員和 1.247 億持卡人，均比一年前增長約 7%。在第三季度末，我們有 3130 萬付費執行成員，在為期 12 週的第三財季每週增加 681,000 或 57,000。執行會員現在占我們付費會員的 45% 多一點，約佔全球銷售額的 73%。

Moving down the income statement. Next is our gross margin. Our reported gross margin in the third quarter was higher year-over-year on a reported basis by 13 basis points, coming in at 10.32% as compared to a 10.19% number a year earlier. The 13 basis point positive ex gas deflation was minus 3 basis points. Both of these numbers, of course, includes a little more than 50 basis point impairment charge to margin mentioned in today's earnings release.

向下移動損益表。接下來是我們的毛利率。我們報告的第三季度毛利率同比增長 13 個基點，達到 10.32%，而去年同期為 10.19%。 13 個基點的積極 ex 氣體通貨緊縮是負 3 個基點。當然，這兩個數字都包括略高於 50 個基點的利潤率減值費用，在今天的收益發布中提到。

As I normally do, I'll ask you to jot down a few numbers, 2 columns: a reported column and then column excluding gas deflation. The first item would be, for the third quarter of '23, core merchandise margin. On a reported basis, it was up year-over-year 39 basis points and ex gas deflation, up 24; ancillary and other, plus 13 and plus 9; 2% Reward, minus 11 and minus 9; LIFO, plus 25 and plus 25; and other, minus 53 and minus 52. If you add up the 2 columns, again, you get to the reported number of, on a reported basis, gross margin year-over-year in the quarter was up 13 basis points, and ex gas deflation, down 3 basis points.

像往常一樣，我會要求您記下一些數字，分為 2 列：報告的列和不包括氣體通縮的列。第一項是 23 年第三季度的核心商品利潤率。根據報告，它同比上漲 39 個基點，不包括天然氣通貨緊縮，上漲 24 個基點；輔助和其他，加13加9； 2%獎勵，負11和負9； LIFO，加上 25 和加上 25；和其他，負 53 和負 52。如果你將 2 列加起來，你會得到報告的數量，在報告的基礎上，本季度毛利率同比增長 13 個基點，並且前氣通縮，下跌3個基點。

So starting over the core. Again, core was up, on a reported basis, 39 basis points year-over-year and 24 ex gas deflation. In terms of core margins on their own core sales, or core-on-core margins, they were higher by 17 basis points, with food and sundries and nonfoods being up and fresh foods being down a little.

所以從核心開始。同樣，根據報告，核心指數同比上漲 39 個基點，不包括天然氣通貨緊縮 24 個基點。就其自身核心銷售額的核心利潤率或核心對核心利潤率而言，它們高出 17 個基點，其中食品、雜貨和非食品上升，新鮮食品略有下降。

Ancillary and other businesses gross margin was higher by 13 and again higher by 9 ex gas deflation. Within the ancillary businesses, gasoline, business centers, food court and travel were better year-over-year, offset in part by e-com.

輔助和其他業務的毛利率高出 13 個，並再次高出 9 個（不包括天然氣通貨緊縮）。在輔助業務中，汽油、商務中心、美食廣場和旅遊同比增長較好，部分被電子商務抵消。

2% Reward, again, higher by 11 basis points and higher by 9 ex gas deflation. Higher sales penetration coming from our executive members is certainly part of that.

2% 的回報率再次提高 11 個基點，並提高 9 個基點（不包括天然氣通貨緊縮）。來自我們執行成員的更高銷售滲透率當然是其中的一部分。

LIFO, plus 25 basis points year-over-year, both with and without gas deflation. As you recall, a year ago, in the third quarter, we had $130 million charge for LIFO. In this fiscal year, we had no LIFO charge. So $130 million year-over-year improvement on that line item. Note also that in the fourth quarter a year ago, we had a $223 million LIFO charge. So we'll see how that goes in the fourth quarter this year.

後進先出法，同比增加 25 個基點，包括和不包括天然氣通貨緊縮。您還記得，一年前，在第三季度，我們為 LIFO 收取了 1.3 億美元的費用。在本財年，我們沒有後進先出費用。因此，該訂單項同比增長 1.3 億美元。另請注意，在一年前的第四季度，我們有 2.23 億美元的後進先出費用。因此，我們將在今年第四季度看到情況如何。

Other was lower by 53 basis points reported and 52 ex gas deflation. This was net of items for both years. This year, there was a 57 basis point negative impact from the $298 million pretax charge, again, primarily related to terminating our charter shipping activities. This was partially offset by lapping last year's $77 million charge for incremental employee benefits, of which $20 million or 4 basis points related to gross margin. The remaining $57 million, I'll talk about it in a minute under SG&A.

其他報告下跌 53 個基點和 52 個基點（不含天然氣通貨緊縮）。這是兩年的淨項目。今年，2.98 億美元的稅前費用產生了 57 個基點的負面影響，主要與終止我們的包機運輸活動有關。這被去年 7700 萬美元的增量員工福利費用部分抵消，其中 2000 萬美元或 4 個基點與毛利率相關。剩下的 5700 萬美元，我稍後會在 SG&A 下討論。

Moving on to SG&A. Our reported SG&A this year was 9.11% compared to 8.62% a year ago. So on a reported basis, higher by 49 basis points, and ex gas deflation, higher by 34%. As with gross margin, I'll ask you to jot down 2 columns of numbers, both reported and one excluding gas deflation. First item is operations, higher by 48 basis points and minus 35 basis points; central, minus 11 and minus 9; stock compensation, 0 in both columns; preopening, minus 1 and minus 1; other, plus 11 and plus 11. If you add all those up, again, on a reported basis, 49 basis points higher year-over-year, and ex gas deflation, 34.

轉到 SG&A。我們今年報告的 SG&A 為 9.11%，而一年前為 8.62%。因此，在報告的基礎上，上漲了 49 個基點，不包括天然氣通貨緊縮，上漲了 34%。至於毛利率，我會要求你記下兩列數字，包括報告的數字和一列不包括天然氣通貨緊縮的數字。第一項是操作，上調 48 個基點和負 35 個基點；中央，負 11 和負 9；股票薪酬，兩列均為 0；開市前，負 1 和負 1；其他，加 11 加 11。如果你把所有這些加起來，再一次，在報告的基礎上，同比增加 49 個基點，不包括天然氣通貨緊縮，34。

Now to core operations. This negative included, of course, the impact of slower sales growth as well as the impact of a few of the wage increases that we did that are typically out of the normal cycle over the last year -- over a year. And that included the impact of 4 weeks of wage and benefits increases implemented last March, the additional top-of-scale increase that went into effect July 4, and 8 weeks of this March is higher than normal top-of-scale increase. Despite the slowing sales growth, we've continued to invest in our employees over the past year, and that's always been a priority for us.

現在到核心業務。當然，這種負面影響包括銷售增長放緩的影響以及我們所做的一些工資增長的影響，這些增長通常在去年的正常週期之外 - 超過一年。這包括去年 3 月實施的 4 週工資和福利增長的影響，7 月 4 日生效的額外最高漲幅，以及今年 3 月的 8 周高於正常最高漲幅。儘管銷售增長放緩，但我們在過去一年中繼續投資於我們的員工，這一直是我們的首要任務。

Central, higher by 11 and higher by 9 ex gas deflation. Again, sales growth -- there's no big single item that was an outlier there. But sales growth overall, in my view, was the impact.

中央，高 11 和高 9 ex 氣體通貨緊縮。同樣，銷售增長——沒有一個大的單一項目是異常值。但在我看來，整體銷售增長是影響因素。

Stock comp, flat both with and without gas deflation, so no impact there. Preopening again, higher by 1 basis point. We had 5 openings this year in the quarter and 3 last year but, again, 1 basis point delta year-over-year. And Other, 11 basis point positive, both with and without gas deflation. This is a result of lapping that $77 million charge, within SG&A, lapping $57 million of that $77 million charge for the incremental employee benefits, again, discussed earlier in the release.

Stock comp，無論有沒有氣體通縮都持平，所以沒有影響。再次開盤前，上漲 1 個基點。今年本季度我們有 5 個職位空缺，去年有 3 個職位空缺，但同比增長 1 個基點增量。和其他，11 個基點積極，有和沒有氣體通縮。這是在 SG&A 中重複支付 7700 萬美元費用的結果，在 7700 萬美元的增量員工福利費用中重複支付 5700 萬美元，同樣在本新聞稿的前面討論過。

Below the operating income line, interest expense came in at $36 million, $1 million over last year's $35 million number. And interest income and other for the quarter was higher by $57 million year-over-year. This was driven by an increase in interest income due to higher interest rates and cash balances. And an increase in interest income was partially offset by less favorable FX versus last year.

在營業收入線以下，利息支出為 3600 萬美元，比去年的 3500 萬美元增加了 100 萬美元。本季度的利息收入和其他收入同比增加 5700 萬美元。這是由於較高的利率和現金餘額導致利息收入增加所致。利息收入的增加部分被較去年不利的外匯所抵消。

In terms of income taxes, our tax rate in the third quarter came in at 26.5%. That compared to 24.9% in Q3 last year. The fiscal '23 effective rate, excluding discrete items, is currently projected to be in the 26% to 27% range.

在所得稅方面，我們第三季度的稅率為 26.5%。相比之下，去年第三季度為 24.9%。不包括離散項目的 23 財年有效利率目前預計在 26% 至 27% 的範圍內。

Overall, reported net income was down year-over-year by 4 percentage points, net of the 2 nonrecurring items in both years' third quarters. Net income would have been up 8% even being reflected with that higher income tax rate.

總體而言，報告的淨收入同比下降 4 個百分點，扣除兩個年度第三季度的 2 個非經常性項目。即使用更高的所得稅率反映出來，淨收入也會增長 8%。

In terms of warehouse expansion, to date, we've opened 17 locations in the first 3 quarters and also including 3 relocations, so net of that, 14 net new locations. In Q4, we have 9 new openings with no relos, so net of 9. That will put us at 26 openings, less the 3 relos, to be a 23 net new for this year.

在倉庫擴張方面，迄今為止，我們在前 3 個季度開設了 17 個地點，還包括 3 個搬遷地點，除此之外，還有 14 個淨新地點。在第 4 季度，我們有 9 個新開張，沒有轉盤，所以減去 9 個。這將使我們有 26 個開盤，減去 3 個轉盤，今年淨新增 23 個。

In the quarter, again, we opened 5, with 4 being net new. In addition to the relocation in Canada, we had 2 new buildings in the U.S. opened, and 1 additional building opened in each of Japan and China. Again, of the 9 new buildings planned for our fiscal fourth quarter, that includes our North Tulsa, Oklahoma opening that opened this morning, and our fourth and fifth buildings in China planned for June and August. These Q4 planned openings will bring our full year account to 26 less the 3, or net of 23, and that is made up of 13 in the U.S. and 10 outside of the U.S.

在本季度，我們又開了 5 家，其中 4 家是全新的。除了在加拿大搬遷外，我們還在美國開設了 2 座新大樓，並在日本和中國各開設了 1 座新大樓。同樣，在我們第四財季計劃的 9 座新建築中，包括今天早上在俄克拉荷馬州北塔爾薩開業的新建築，以及我們計劃在 6 月和 8 月在中國開設的第四座和第五座建築。這些第四季度的計劃開放將使我們的全年賬戶達到 26 個減去 3 個，即淨額 23 個，其中 13 個在美國，10 個在美國以外。

Regarding capital expenditures. In Q3 of the fiscal year, we spent approximately $819 million. Our estimate for all of fiscal '23, CapEx is approximately $4 billion.

關於資本支出。在本財年的第三季度，我們花費了大約 8.19 億美元。我們對整個 23 財年的估計，資本支出約為 40 億美元。

Moving on to e-commerce. You saw in the release that e-commerce was a minus 10% sales decline on a comp basis and ex FX, minus 9%. E-com sales, more to the same story in terms of the sales, as I discussed on our second quarter call and in our monthly sales recordings. In Q3, big-ticket discretionary departments, notably majors, home furnishings, small electrics, jewelry and hardware, were down about 20% in e-com and made up 55% of e-com sales. These same departments were down about 17% in warehouse, but they only make up 8% in warehouse sales.

繼續電子商務。你在新聞稿中看到，電子商務的銷售額下降了 10%，在 comp 基礎上，除外匯之外，下降了 9%。正如我在第二季度電話會議和月度銷售記錄中所討論的那樣，電子商務銷售，就銷售而言更像是同一個故事。在第三季度，大件非必需品部門，尤其是專業、家居、小電器、珠寶和五金，在電子商務中下降了約 20%，佔電子商務銷售額的 55%。這些相同的部門在倉庫中下降了約 17%，但它們僅佔倉庫銷售額的 8%。

A few comments on inflation. Inflation continues to abate somewhat. If you go back a year ago to the fourth quarter of '22 last summer, we had estimated that year-over-year inflation at the time was up 8%. And by Q1 and Q2, it was down to 6% and 7% and then 5% and 6%. In this quarter, we're estimating the year-over-year inflation in the 3% to 4% range. We continue to see improvements in many items, notably food items like nuts, eggs and meat, as well as items that include, as part of their components, commodities like steel and resins on the nonfood side.

關於通貨膨脹的一些評論。通貨膨脹繼續有所減弱。如果你回到一年前的去年夏天 22 年第四季度，我們估計當時的同比通貨膨脹率上升了 8%。到第一季度和第二季度，下降到 6% 和 7%，然後下降到 5% 和 6%。本季度，我們估計同比通脹率在 3% 至 4% 之間。我們繼續看到許多物品的改進，特別是堅果、雞蛋和肉類等食品，以及作為其組成部分的非食品方面的鋼鐵和樹脂等商品。

Switching over to inventory levels. Inventories overall are in pretty good shape. As of quarter end, our inventories year-over-year as of the end of the third quarter were down 7%. Recall that they had been up during some of the supply chain challenges of last year.

切換到庫存水平。整體庫存狀況良好。截至季度末，截至第三季度末，我們的庫存同比下降了 7%。回想一下，他們在去年的一些供應鏈挑戰中一直處於上升狀態。

Finally, in terms of upcoming releases, we will announce our May sales results for the 4 weeks ending Sunday, May 28, next Thursday on June 1, after market close. And also remember that our fiscal fourth quarter has an extra week this year. So our quarter ending September 3, 2023, will have 17 weeks versus 16 weeks in the fiscal fourth quarter.

最後，就即將發布的消息而言，我們將在 6 月 1 日下週四收市後公佈截至 5 月 28 日星期日的 4 週的 5 月銷售結果。還要記住，我們今年的第四財季多了一周。因此，我們截至 2023 年 9 月 3 日的季度將有 17 週，而第四財季為 16 週。

With that, I'll open it up for questions and answers and turn it back over to Josh. Thank you.

有了這個，我會打開它來提問和回答，然後把它轉回給 Josh。謝謝。

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

（操作員說明）您的第一個問題來自瑞銀的 Michael Lasser。

Richard, how broadly and widely is Costco willing to roll back prices in order to drive traffic and sustain a mid-single-digit comp growth? How are you thinking about the prospect of deflation across your entire portfolio?

理查德，好市多願意在多大程度上降低價格以推動客流量並維持中等個位數的收入增長？您如何看待整個投資組合的通貨緊縮前景？

Well, look, that's something that our merchants work on literally every day and every week. I remember when inflation was peaking at 8% and 9% and some out there would say -- and we're known for trying to hold the line and work with our suppliers, how much will they eat of that, how much will we eat of that. At the end of the day, if margins year-over-year were down 50 or 100 basis points back then, that implies that some portion of it, maybe instead of an 8% or 9% increase, our members were seeing a 6% or 7% or 8% increase.

好吧，看，這就是我們的商家每天和每週都在做的事情。我記得當通貨膨脹率達到 8% 和 9% 的峰值時，有些人會說——我們以試圖堅持到底並與供應商合作而聞名，他們會吃多少，我們會吃多少那個。歸根結底，如果當時的利潤率同比下降 50 或 100 個基點，這意味著其中的一部分，而不是 8% 或 9% 的增長，我們的成員看到了 6%或增加 7% 或 8%。

Whatever that was, we felt that we were doing as good a job as anyone out there given the item nature of our business to lower prices for our members and hopefully drive sales. Certainly, right now, we're -- we've always been a little bit, compared to others, over indexed in bigger-ticket discretionary items. That's getting hit arguably more than others. If you look at our fresh foods and food and sundries, they're in the mid- to mid-high singles. You look at the nonfoods and some of the ancillaries, notably gasoline, which is 11% year-over-year deflation in gas prices, that's in the mid-single negatives. So it all adds up to where it is.

不管那是什麼，我們覺得我們做的和其他人一樣好，因為我們業務的項目性質是為我們的會員降低價格並希望推動銷售。當然，現在，我們 - 與其他人相比，我們一直有點過度索引更大的可自由支配項目。可以說，這比其他人受到的打擊更大。你看我們的生鮮食品和雜貨，都是中等偏上的單品。你看看非食品和一些輔助產品，尤其是汽油，汽油價格同比下降 11%，處於中單負值。所以這一切加起來就是它所在的位置。

Every day, we look to drive sales. What will it take to get to whatever X is? Who the heck knows? I just know that our merchants and Craig and Ron and Claudine, our Head of Merchandising, are pushing the buyers each day to do that and figuring out how can we take the monies that we get, any types of monies, from the vendors that can be used to drive business.

每一天，我們都希望推動銷售。到達 X 是什麼需要什麼？誰他媽知道？我只知道我們的商人和我們的銷售主管 Craig、Ron 和 Claudine 每天都在敦促買家這樣做，並弄清楚我們如何才能從供應商那裡得到我們得到的任何類型的錢用於推動業務。

One of the reasons that it made sense for us to discontinue the containers and the shipping vessels is to reduce the cost that our buyers are seeing relative to these much higher contract rates now. We were smart for a year. And now looking back, it was good to get out of it. And that allowed us to be more competitive as well.

我們停止集裝箱和運輸船的原因之一是為了降低我們的買家看到的相對於現在這些高得多的合同費率的成本。我們聰明了一年。現在回想起來，擺脫它是件好事。這也讓我們更具競爭力。

So I feel we're doing a great job of being very competitive. When we do comp shops against our direct warehouse club competitors as well as different components, whether it's retail food or general merchandise on the buildings, home improvement side, we feel very good about our competitive position and what we're doing to do that.

所以我覺得我們在保持競爭力方面做得很好。當我們針對我們的直接倉庫俱樂部競爭對手以及不同的組件進行比較時，無論是零售食品還是建築物上的一般商品，家居裝修方面，我們對我們的競爭地位以及我們正在做的事情感到非常滿意。

So are you not expecting broad-based deflation, Richard? And my follow-up question is going to be, given the amount of value you give to your members, wouldn't it make sense to raise your fees right now because your renewal rates have been so high and you would be providing even more value in this difficult economic environment.

所以你不期待廣泛的通貨緊縮嗎，理查德？我的後續問題是，鑑於您為會員提供的價值，現在提高費用是否有意義，因為您的續訂率如此之高，並且您將提供更多價值在這個困難的經濟環境中。

Well, first of all, on the question of deflation, let's hope that there is. And you will be the first to see it at Costco, in my view. As it relates to membership fees, nice try, Michael. But at the end of the day, with the headline being inflation, we feel very good about if we want to do it, can we do it without impacting, in any meaningful way, renewal rates or sign-ups or anything. And at some point, we will. But our view right now is that we've got enough leverage out there to drive business, and we feel that it's incumbent upon us to be that beacon of light to our members in terms of holding them for right now. It's not a matter of a big time, but we'll let you know as soon as we know.

好吧，首先，關於通貨緊縮的問題，我們希望存在。在我看來，您將是第一個在 Costco 看到它的人。因為它涉及會員費，邁克爾，不錯的嘗試。但歸根結底，由於標題是通貨膨脹，我們對是否要這樣做感到非常滿意，我們能否在不以任何有意義的方式影響續訂率或註冊或任何其他方面的情況下做到這一點。在某個時候，我們會的。但我們現在的觀點是，我們有足夠的影響力來推動業務發展，而且我們認為，就目前持有會員而言，我們有責任成為會員的燈塔。這不是什麼大事，但我們會在知道後立即通知您。

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

你的下一個問題來自 Simeon Gutman 與摩根士丹利的合作。

Richard, my first question is on the comps and the stacks. It's obviously been slowing, and you probably took more than your fair share over the last 3 years. Curious when you sit around how you're diagnosing it, macro, I don't know if it's gas attachment, merchandising, weather, any of those options, how do you diagnose what's happening?

理查德，我的第一個問題是關於比賽和籌碼。它顯然一直在放緩，在過去的 3 年裡，你可能拿走了比你應得的更多的錢。很好奇當你坐在那裡如何診斷它時，宏觀，我不知道它是否是氣體附件，商品銷售，天氣，任何這些選項，你如何診斷正在發生的事情？

Well, first of all, we look at traffic. We're getting people in the door, and we know what they're buying. They're buying nondiscretionary items. They're buying fresh foods. They're buying food and sundries. They're buying apparel in a big way. They're buying patio furniture now that the weather has turned in a big way; indoor furniture, not as much. We all know what's going on with consumer electronics out there. While all the numbers, industry-wide, are down, ours are down a little less, but they're down.

好吧，首先，我們看一下流量。我們讓人們進門，我們知道他們在買什麼。他們正在購買非自由支配的物品。他們正在購買新鮮食品。他們在買食物和雜物。他們正在大量購買服裝。現在天氣大變，他們正在購買庭院家具；室內家具，沒那麼多。我們都知道那裡的消費電子產品正在發生什麼。雖然整個行業的所有數字都在下降，但我們的下降幅度要小一些，但它們已經下降了。

So overall, when we look at what else can we do to drive more nonfood business but, at the same time, can we bring in a few more items on the food and sundry side because we know traffic is good there. It's simple impulse items that sell for $15 to $25. So that's what we do every day, and that's what Claudine and her staff and merchants are doing.

所以總的來說，當我們看看我們還能做些什麼來推動更多的非食品業務時，但與此同時，我們能否在食品和雜貨方面引入更多項目，因為我們知道那裡的交通很好。這是售價 15 到 25 美元的簡單衝動商品。這就是我們每天都在做的事情，這也是克勞丁和她的員工以及商家正在做的事情。

And then my follow-up, can you give us some information or color on gasoline gross profit year-over-year, how that profit pool is trending, obviously, inclusive of both gallons and the penny profit?

然後我的後續行動，你能給我們一些關於汽油毛利潤同比的信息或顏色嗎？這個利潤池的趨勢如何，顯然，包括加侖和便士利潤？

Well, yes, gallons are close to flat. The average price per gallon during the quarter was down 11%. So that's, I don't have the number, 12% or 13% of our sales, which was -- the average price point per cell unit, if you will, was down 11%. Year-over-year, gasoline was profitable in both quarters nicely. As I've said, I'm sure I said last year, in Q3 and this year, it helped a little year-over-year but not a lot. Last year, in Q4, it was a strong number. And then you got an extra week, and we'll see how it goes this year. But right now, gasoline continues to be quite profitable for us.

嗯，是的，加侖接近持平。本季度每加侖的平均價格下降了 11%。所以，我不知道我們銷售額的 12% 或 13%，這是——如果你願意的話，每個電池單元的平均價格下降了 11%。與去年同期相比，汽油在兩個季度都實現了良好的盈利。正如我所說，我確信我去年說過，在第三季度和今年，它比去年同期有所幫助，但不是很多。去年第四季度，這是一個強勁的數字。然後你還有一周的時間，我們看看今年會怎樣。但現在，汽油對我們來說仍然非常有利可圖。

Your next question comes from the line of Christopher Horvers with JPMorgan.

你的下一個問題來自摩根大通的 Christopher Horvers。

So I just want to jump back to the pricing question. From a strategy perspective, typically, if you see things that are dis-inflating or deflating on more of the commodity side, you'll take price ahead of that. I guess is that what you're doing currently? And we've heard a lot of talk in the market about the vendors funding more promotions, how are you thinking about the balance between the retailer funding the promotion or the price investment versus the vendors?

所以我只想回到定價問題。從策略的角度來看，通常情況下，如果您看到更多商品方面出現通貨緊縮或通貨緊縮的情況，您會先考慮價格。我想這就是你目前正在做的事情嗎？我們在市場上聽到很多關於供應商資助更多促銷活動的討論，您如何看待零售商資助促銷或價格投資與供應商之間的平衡？

Well, first, look, we work with our suppliers every day and it's going to be a partnership there. Again, I think it's easier for us, on the one hand, that we do a lot of volume on a fewer items. We have buyers that literally are managing a couple of dozen items, not 200 items. And I remember, when certain commodity prices like resins and steel were going up, in our monthly budget meeting hearing from the merchants how, while we're committing out 5, 6 months for seasonal items, like patio furniture, barbecue grills, a couple of years ago, we want to know when the vendor was increasing the price on whatever it was, whether it was a major consumer products company or some manufacturer of nonfood items like that.

好吧，首先，看，我們每天都與我們的供應商合作，這將成為一種夥伴關係。同樣，我認為一方面對我們來說更容易，因為我們在更少的項目上做了大量的工作。我們的買家實際上管理著幾十件商品，而不是 200 件商品。我記得，當樹脂和鋼鐵等某些商品價格上漲時，在我們的月度預算會議上聽取了商家的意見，同時我們為季節性商品（如露台家具、燒烤架）承諾了 5、6 個月的時間，一對夫婦多年前，我們想知道供應商什麼時候提高了價格，不管它是一家主要的消費品公司還是像這樣的非食品製造商。

Why? Exactly why? How much of it's labor? How much of it's the commodity cost? And how much is transportation cost and wage pressure? Whatever. And as we saw commodities coming down, I'd like to think that we were the first ones on the phone with our suppliers wanting to know when the price is going to drop. And understandably, in some cases, the supplier had committed to a season of 3 or 4 months. And so there was some delay, and we worked with them there. In addition, as we said, we're going to invest a little on price. How much are you willing to invest in price? So it's a partnership. And I think we are in a better position to do that simply because, if you take our $230 billion or $240 billion in sales and divide it by 3,800 SKUs, it's a lot more pricing power per SKU and a lot more focus on an item-by-item basis. So that's what we do.

為什麼？到底為什麼？有多少勞動力？其中商品成本是多少？運輸成本和工資壓力有多大？任何。當我們看到大宗商品價格下跌時，我想我們是第一個與我們的供應商通電話的人，他們想知道價格何時會下降。可以理解的是，在某些情況下，供應商承諾了 3 或 4 個月的銷售季。所以有一些延遲，我們在那裡與他們合作。此外，正如我們所說，我們將在價格上進行一些投資。你願意在價格上投入多少？所以這是一種夥伴關係。而且我認為我們可以更好地做到這一點，因為如果您將我們的 2300 億美元或 2400 億美元的銷售額除以 3,800 個 SKU，那麼每個 SKU 的定價權就會大得多，並且會更加關註一個項目 -按項目計算。這就是我們所做的。

And as there are promotional monies out there from the suppliers, this goes back to the beginning of time around here. I remember with the traditional co-op advertising dollars, a supplier wanted you to spend $0.05 of our own money and add it to $0.05 of theirs to do $0.10 of advertising of their product. And we said, just give us the $0.05 and we'll base it on a $0.95 cost, not a dollar cost. And that's what we still do. And so I think we have to be smart about knowing what every bucket of money is out there, whether it's promotional monies or ad monies, or ad monies online now, and work with our suppliers to do that.

由於供應商提供促銷資金，這可以追溯到這裡的時間開始。我記得對於傳統的合作社廣告費用，一家供應商希望您花費我們自己的 0.05 美元，然後將其添加到他們的 0.05 美元中，為他們的產品做 0.10 美元的廣告。我們說，只要給我們 0.05 美元，我們就會根據 0.95 美元的成本計算，而不是一美元的成本。這就是我們現在所做的。所以我認為我們必須聰明地知道每一桶錢都在那裡，無論是促銷資金還是廣告，還是現在的在線廣告，並與我們的供應商合作來做到這一點。

And in our case, also, we do what we call the MVM, the multi-vendor mailers, the coupon books that we send out 11 times a year, and not only that but hot buys in-store and what we call temporary price discounts and what can drive sales. The other part of that is, when we get monies, in some cases, how much elasticity is there in driving business by lowering their price. In some categories, particularly some of the bigger-ticket categories right now, there's not an appetite by the consumer necessarily for that. So how do we add value to the item or do more things to it to drive business? It's all of the above.

在我們的案例中，我們也做我們所說的 MVM，多供應商郵寄，我們每年發送 11 次的優惠券書，不僅如此，還有店內熱賣和我們所說的臨時價格折扣什麼可以推動銷售。另一部分是，當我們獲得資金時，在某些情況下，通過降低價格來推動業務的彈性有多大。在某些類別中，尤其是目前一些價格較高的類別，消費者不一定對此有興趣。那麼我們如何為項目增加價值或做更多的事情來推動業務呢？以上都是。

And so as you look forward, you said, I think, 3% to 4% inflation in the quarter. If you look at the Nielsen data, that was sort of low double digit, right, I mean, Walmart talked about that. So a 2-part question, one is, is the difference just mix that you have more fresh commodity exposure? And then if you project forward that you'll have sort of no inflation potentially 6, 8 months out, so how do you think about your ability to continue to comp overall?

因此，當您展望未來時，我認為本季度的通貨膨脹率為 3% 至 4%。如果你看一下尼爾森的數據，那是有點低的兩位數，對，我的意思是，沃爾瑪談到了這一點。所以一個由兩部分組成的問題，一個是，不同之處在於你有更多的新鮮商品曝光嗎？然後，如果你預測未來 6、8 個月內可能不會出現通貨膨脹，那麼你如何看待你繼續整體競爭的能力？

Well, when there was low inflation and not an overarching concern about a recession, when the world was seen to be comping 3, 4, 5 and 6 years ago at 2% to 4%, we were 5% to 7%. Our view is, because we got great members buying more with great loyalty and the best prices by a major difference and quality, and so we've succeeded under those. I think right now, in my view, more of it relates to the fact that we're not only dealing with big-ticket discretionary items weakness which, again, when we look at like [MPD] and everything, we're doing better in most of those categories. Our negative is not as negative as others out there.

好吧，當通貨膨脹率低且對經濟衰退沒有總體擔憂時，當世界在 3、4、5 和 6 年前被視為 2% 至 4% 時，我們是 5% 至 7%。我們的觀點是，因為我們有優秀的會員以極大的忠誠度和最優惠的價格購買更多商品，而且價格差異很大，所以我們在這些方面取得了成功。我認為現在，在我看來，更多的是與這樣一個事實有關，即我們不僅要處理大件可自由支配物品的弱點，再一次，當我們看 [MPD] 和所有事情時，我們做得更好在大多數這些類別中。我們的消極情緒並不像其他人那樣消極。

In addition, we're comparing against 2 years of outsized growth in some of those things as people were buying things from their home. We saw outsized sales in indoor and outdoor furniture and electronics and TVs and exercise equipment. And so we're not only comparing against this "recession" or concerns about big-ticket items but comparing against uber strength over the last 2 years prior to that. So I think we'll come out of this fine. We're pretty good at figuring out new items and new things to do. And we're not just focused on how do we drive sales another 1% or 2% but how can we drive sales when bringing in new and exciting stuff. And we continue to do that.

此外，我們將其中一些東西的 2 年超額增長與人們從家中購買東西進行比較。我們看到室內和室外家具、電子產品、電視和健身器材的銷售量很大。因此，我們不僅要與這種“經濟衰退”或對大件商品的擔憂進行比較，還要與之前過去 2 年的超強實力進行比較。所以我認為我們會擺脫這種罰款。我們非常擅長找出新項目和新事情要做。我們不僅關注如何將銷售額再提高 1% 或 2%，還關注如何在引入新的和令人興奮的東西時推動銷售額。我們繼續這樣做。

And this is anecdotal, but over the last year, 1.5 years, we've always been very good at taking what I'll call big American cross-scale products, including a lot of KS, and having huge success overseas. We're now, on a conscious basis, figuring out what the unique, exciting overseas items can we bring elsewhere in the world, including the U.S. and Canada. And we're having good experience with some of those things. These are all small things, but there's lots of little small things around here that add up.

這是軼事，但在過去的一年裡，1.5 年，我們一直非常擅長採用我稱之為美國大型跨規模產品，包括很多 KS，並在海外取得巨大成功。我們現在有意識地弄清楚我們可以將哪些獨特、令人興奮的海外商品帶到世界其他地方，包括美國和加拿大。我們在其中一些方面有很好的經驗。這些都是小事，但這裡有很多小事加起來。

Your next question comes from the line of Scott Ciccarelli with Truist.

您的下一個問題來自 Scott Ciccarelli 與 Truist 的合作。

Richard, I think you mentioned fresh foods were a bit on the softer side. When you kind of look at the data, is that a function of your members moving to less expensive packaged goods? Or is that more just do the COVID-driven comparisons like you were just talking about on the discretionary side?

理查德，我想你提到過新鮮食物有點偏軟。當您查看數據時，這是您的會員轉向更便宜的包裝商品的功能嗎？還是像您剛剛在自由裁量權方面談論的那樣，更多地只是進行 COVID 驅動的比較？

Yes. By the way, when I was talking earlier about down, the margins were a little weaker on fresh. Sales have been fine. In the quarter, again, when you look at a reported total company sales number of 0.3%, or 3.5% ex gas and FX, but within that 0.3% reported, fresh was mid-singles, food and sundries is mid- to high singles, nonfoods was a little over mid-single negative.

是的。順便說一句，當我之前談到羽絨服時，新鮮羽絨服的利潤率要低一些。銷售一直很好。同樣，在本季度，當您查看報告的公司總銷售額為 0.3% 或 3.5%（不包括天然氣和外匯）時，但在報告的 0.3% 內，新鮮食品是中等單品，食品和雜貨是中高單品，非食品略高於中單陰性。

Got it. All right. I'm not sure I understood that. So the second question related to that, though, is are you seeing any other kind of trade, let's call it, trade-down type activity, whether it's more private label sales, et cetera, that you kind of identified from your members?

知道了。好的。我不確定我是否理解這一點。那麼與此相關的第二個問題是，你是否看到任何其他類型的交易，我們稱之為降價交易類型的活動，是否是更多的自有品牌銷售等等，你從你的會員那裡識別出來？

Yes. And by the way, not just in this current "recession" or concern for recession, historically, like within fresh protein, we've always seen when there's a recession, whether it was '99 or '00 or '08, '09, '10, we would see some sales penetration shift from beef to poultry and pork. We have seen some of that now. I think anecdotally, I heard a few months ago from our Head of Food and Sundries buyer, that we saw some switch even to some canned products, like canned chicken and canned tuna and things like that. But on the KS side, we've also seen that. I think last quarter, I mentioned that on a year-over-year basis, there's a 150 basis point increase in private label sales penetration. And this year, at the end of the quarter, it's 120 basis points. So still, over a full percentage point delta in sales penetration.

是的。順便說一下，不僅僅是在當前的“經濟衰退”或對經濟衰退的擔憂中，從歷史上看，就像在新鮮蛋白質中一樣，我們總是看到經濟衰退，無論是 '99 或 '00 還是 '08，'09， '10，我們會看到一些銷售滲透從牛肉轉向家禽和豬肉。我們現在已經看到了其中的一些。我認為有趣的是，幾個月前我從我們的食品和雜貨採購主管那裡聽說，我們甚至看到一些人轉向一些罐頭產品，比如雞肉罐頭和金槍魚罐頭等。但在 KS 方面，我們也看到了這一點。我認為上個季度，我提到與去年同期相比，自有品牌銷售滲透率增加了 150 個基點。而今年，在本季度末，它是 120 個基點。因此，銷售滲透率仍然超過了一個百分點。

If you go back over the last 10 years, my guess is that on a year-over-year basis, maybe we've gone from, I'm guessing, 22% or 23% to 25% or 26%. So call it, 300 basis points over 10 years or 8 years. So 30 to 50 basis points versus 120 and 150 in the last couple of quarters. So yes, that would, again, at least anecdotally, suggest that we've seen people looking for better bargains. We try to correct people when they said was it a downgrading because, arguably, it was an upgrade when they went to Kirkland Signature.

如果回顧過去 10 年，我的猜測是與去年同期相比，也許我們已經從 22% 或 23% 下降到 25% 或 26%。所以稱之為 10 年或 8 年的 300 個基點。因此，過去幾個季度是 30 到 50 個基點，而 120 和 150 個基點。所以，是的，至少在軼事上，這再次表明我們已經看到人們在尋找更划算的東西。當人們說這是降級時，我們會嘗試糾正他們，因為可以說，當他們去 Kirkland Signature 時，這是升級。

Your next question comes from the line of Karen Short with Credit Suisse.

你的下一個問題來自瑞士信貸的 Karen Short。

Two questions. One is your pretax margin is one of the highest that I think I've seen in the model, like I'm not even sure I could go back to when it was as high as it was. So I'm curious if you could just make some color or commentary on that.

兩個問題。一個是你的稅前利潤率是我認為我在模型中看到的最高利潤率之一，就像我什至不確定我能回到它曾經那麼高的時候。所以我很好奇你是否可以對此做一些顏色或評論。

And then the second question I had was not that we're necessarily going into a deflationary environment in food, but if we were to go into a deflationary environment in food, what would be the deleverage you would see on the EBIT line on that front?

然後我的第二個問題不是我們一定會進入食品通貨緊縮環境，而是如果我們進入食品通貨緊縮環境，你會在這方面的息稅前利潤線上看到什麼去槓桿化？

Well, I'd be remiss if I even can think of a number off the top of my head here. In our view, first of all, in a deflation, we'll be the first out there lowering prices with it. And I'd like to think that we could drive business with it. The other thing is look at even something like gasoline. I think all retailers out there that have gasoline operations have, in the last few years, reflected higher profitability from gas. In our view, we have higher profitability, and we have the most extreme savings versus everybody else, so we've been able to make a little more per gallon because others have decided to make more than a little more. And I think that same thing holds true elsewhere.

好吧，如果我能在這裡想到一個數字，那我就失職了。我們認為，首先，在通貨緊縮的情況下，我們將率先降低價格。我想我們可以用它來推動業務。另一件事甚至是汽油之類的東西。我認為，在過去幾年中，所有從事汽油業務的零售商都反映出天然氣的盈利能力更高。在我們看來，我們有更高的盈利能力，而且與其他人相比，我們的節省最多，所以我們能夠每加侖多賺一點，因為其他人已經決定多賺一點。我認為同樣的事情在其他地方也適用。

When we look at our competitive price shops against our direct club competitors and against others on key items like fresh with supermarkets, again, those price gaps between us and our competition have not changed. They're still as strong as we feel they should be.

當我們與我們的直接俱樂部競爭對手以及與超市生鮮等關鍵商品相比，我們的競爭價格商店與其他商店相比時，我們與競爭對手之間的價格差距並沒有改變。他們仍然像我們認為的那樣強大。

And so again, it's hard to say what -- your comment about some of the highest pretax margins, let's face it, I remember looking at even like SG&A, which was up year-over-year, of course. If you go back pre-COVID, I think our SG&A on a reported basis had a 10 in front of it. It was like 10.1% or 10.0%. And our view is could it even ever get below 10. And with COVID and crazy sales for 2 years, we benefited, of course, more than we were detrimented by COVID in many of our categories. And we got down below 9. And of course, normalized, it's still better than it was, and margins are still better than they were, so I think some of it is sustainable.

再說一次，很難說什麼——你對一些最高稅前利潤率的評論，讓我們面對現實吧，我記得甚至看到了 SG&A，當然，它比去年同期有所上升。如果你回到 COVID 之前，我認為我們的 SG&A 在報告的基礎上有一個 10。大概是 10.1% 或 10.0%。我們的觀點是它甚至可以低於 10。有了 COVID 和瘋狂銷售 2 年，我們當然受益，而不是我們在許多類別中受到 COVID 的損害。我們降到了 9 以下。當然，標準化後，它仍然比以前好，利潤率仍然比以前好，所以我認為其中一些是可持續的。

Wages are not going to go down. The question is will they continue to go up. Again, we're going to be ahead of that, too, in terms of wanting to make sure we take care of our employees. But let's assume that a big chunk of that is -- if overall inflation subsides a little bit, I think we'll see a little less wage pressure.

工資不會下降。問題是它們會繼續上漲嗎？同樣，在確保我們照顧好員工方面，我們也將領先於此。但讓我們假設其中很大一部分是——如果整體通脹有所消退，我認為我們會看到工資壓力有所減輕。

But look, as you know, Karen, with us, it's top line sales mostly. And the biggest thing can affect anything. I think we've shown that even with some lesser top line sales, we've been able to pull the levers in a way that still allows us to drive bottom line. And we'll continue to be pragmatic about it, but we'll have to wait and see.

但是，正如你所知，凱倫，在我們這裡，主要是銷售收入。最重要的事情可以影響任何事情。我認為我們已經表明，即使銷售額有所下降，我們也能夠以一種仍然允許我們推動利潤的方式拉動槓桿。我們將繼續對此保持務實態度，但我們必須拭目以待。

Sorry, just to follow up on that. So is there any way to frame what ex gas, ex gas margins, ex fuel prices -- like, what delta in sales would result in a delta in EBIT?

抱歉，只是想跟進一下。那麼有沒有什麼方法可以確定不包括天然氣、不包括天然氣利潤率、不包括燃料價格——比如，銷售額的多少增量會導致息稅前利潤的增量？

Well, it's hard to say.

好吧，這很難說。

Is there any way to calculate that?

有什麼方法可以計算嗎？

Not really. I mean we used to look at almost like the old Y equals an X plus B model. Based on incremental sales, what's the variable rate of expenses in a warehouse. And in our collective view, this goes back several years, but our collective view was you needed somewhere around 4.5%, whether it was 4% or 5% of a comp number, to have flat SG&A or flat expenses at the warehouse. Certainly taking the weakness right now in big-ticket items and then taking the weakness of gas deflation, those things impact that SG&A percentage more than anything.

並不真地。我的意思是，我們過去常常認為舊的 Y 等於 X 加 B 模型。基於增量銷售，倉庫中的可變費用率是多少？在我們的集體觀點中，這可以追溯到幾年前，但我們的集體觀點是你需要大約 4.5%，無論是 4% 還是 5% 的公司數量，才能在倉庫中保持 SG&A 或固定費用。當然，現在考慮大件商品的弱點，然後考慮天然氣通貨緊縮的弱點，這些因素對 SG&A 百分比的影響最大。

When I look every month at our budget meetings, when the operators report on labor productivity, for example, in fresh, we're still improving in the 3% to 6% labor productivity and pounds of protein, processing pork, poultry and meat through the system. When we look at front-end labor or warehouse labor, not the ancillary business or the fresh foods or anything, but labor hours, we've shown labor productivity. Now in the last year, with a little slowing of sales and with 3 unusual additional wage increases, that's going to still show a labor percent number higher as a percent of sales, which is our single biggest SG&A item, bigger than other things.

當我每個月查看我們的預算會議時，當操作員報告勞動生產率時，例如，在新鮮方面，我們仍在提高 3% 至 6% 的勞動生產率和蛋白質磅數，加工豬肉、家禽和肉類通過系統。當我們看前端勞動力或倉庫勞動力時，不是輔助業務或新鮮食品或任何東西，而是工時，我們已經顯示了勞動生產率。現在在去年，隨著銷售略有放緩和 3 次不尋常的額外工資增長，這仍將顯示勞動力百分比數字佔銷售額的百分比更高，這是我們最大的 SG&A 項目，比其他項目更大。

But look, at the end of the day, we're still a top line company. In our view, that will mend all things. I'm sure we'd like to see something pre-inflation, back in the 5% to 7% or 8% range. But let's get from where we are now to 3% and 4%, and we'll go from there. Now the good news also is, if I look back the last -- well, this is the second quarter that we've seen that discussion of lower sales of big-ticket discretionary items. It started actually, I think, a little bit in the quarter prior to that, not the entire quarter, just a little bit in there. So if you will, all things being equal, we'll be comparing against easier compares 6 months from now. But hopefully, we can do them on our own as well.

但是看，歸根結底，我們仍然是一家頂級公司。在我們看來，這將解決所有問題。我確定我們希望看到通貨膨脹前的情況，回到 5% 到 7% 或 8% 的範圍內。但是讓我們從現在的位置到 3% 和 4%，我們將從那裡開始。現在好消息也是，如果我回顧過去——好吧，這是我們看到的第二個季度，我們看到了關於大件非必需品銷售額下降的討論。我認為，它實際上開始於之前的一個季度，而不是整個季度，只是那裡的一點點。因此，如果您願意，在所有條件都相同的情況下，我們將在 6 個月後與更簡單的比較進行比較。但希望我們也可以自己做。

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

你的下一個問題來自古根海姆證券公司的 John Heinbockel。

So Richard, core-on-core, food and sundries and nonfood were up, right? So it's kind of a 2-part on core-on-core. One, what drove that, right? Was that predominantly mix?

所以理查德，核心對核心，食品、雜貨和非食品都上漲了，對吧？所以它有點像核心對核心的兩部分。一，是什麼推動了它，對吧？那主要是混合嗎？

And then secondly, fresh food was down. Where is fresh food versus '19? And are we kind of getting to the point where that erosion is going to stop, right, because we're pretty close to '19?

其次，新鮮食品價格下降。新鮮食品與 19 年相比在哪裡？我們是否已經到了侵蝕停止的地步，對吧，因為我們已經非常接近 19 年了？

Yes. Look, fresh foods are still up year-over-year on margins.

是的。看，新鮮食品的利潤率仍在同比增長。

No, versus '19.

不，與 19 年相比。

Oh, versus '19, right. Fresh foods margins are up versus '19. It went way up. Hold on a minute. I had a little cheat sheet. Yes, if I look back at just fresh foods, if I go back to '21, we had a couple of quarters where fresh foods margins were up 200 and 300 basis points year-over-year. By the end of '21, this was near the end of -- just lapping that craziness, that crazy goodness, we were down 190 basis points. And for all of '22, we were down anywhere from 50 to 120 basis points on a year-over-year basis, some of that compared to those plus 200 and 300 basis point numbers. This year, we're down again versus last year but down versus that giant increase in fiscal '21. When I look at where our food gross margin is today in Q3 versus pre-COVID, we're still up.

哦，與 19 年相比，對。與 19 年相比，新鮮食品的利潤率有所上升。它一路上升。堅持一分鐘。我有一個小備忘單。是的，如果我回顧新鮮食品，如果我回到 21 年，我們有幾個季度的新鮮食品利潤率同比增長 200 和 300 個基點。到 21 年底，這已經接近尾聲——只是在瘋狂，瘋狂的善良，我們下降了 190 個基點。在整個 22 年，我們同比下降了 50 到 120 個基點，其中一些與那些加上 200 和 300 個基點的數字相比。今年，我們再次低於去年，但低於 21 財年的大幅增長。當我查看我們今天第三季度的食品毛利率與 COVID 之前的情況時，我們仍然處於上升狀態。

Okay. But the other categories that were up, right, is that predominantly mix, private brand and less big ticket?

好的。但是其他上升的類別，對吧，主要是混合，自有品牌和不太大的門票嗎？

Yes. I think it's mixed. Like, some of the nonfood strength, as I mentioned, I threw out apparel as one of them, apparel has a strong margin. Apparel has a strong margin relative to all of our departments anyway. And majors has a weak margin generally anyway and then, of course, lower penetration of that. By the way, freight has helped too, particularly on big-ticket items, the furniture, the white goods, exercise equipment, things like that.

是的。我認為這是混合的。就像，一些非食品實力，正如我提到的，我把服裝作為其中之一，服裝有很大的利潤。無論如何，服裝部門相對於我們所有的部門都有很高的利潤率。無論如何，專業通常都有微弱的利潤率，當然，它的滲透率也較低。順便說一下，貨運也有幫助，尤其是大件商品、家具、白色家電、健身器材等。

And then secondly, where are we on the personalization journey, right? Because I know you've done more data analytics in the last couple of years. You've got the old loyalty program, right? So when you think about wallet share and targeting promotions and e-mails and so forth, it looks like a huge opportunity. Where are we on that?

其次，我們在個性化之旅中處於什麼位置，對嗎？因為我知道你在過去幾年做了更多的數據分析。你有舊的忠誠度計劃，對吧？因此，當您考慮錢包份額、目標促銷和電子郵件等時，這看起來是一個巨大的機會。我們在哪裡？

Sure. By the way, one other question that we've gotten a couple of times of late because of some of the companies out there that reported much higher shrink, our shrink is intact. We haven't seen any major change in shrinkage. It fluctuated a couple, 3 basis points up really before COVID as we rolled out self-checkout. And since then, it's come back down a little bit. And so it's been a very tight range. And so we've been fortunate in that regard.

當然。順便說一句，由於一些公司報告的收縮率更高，我們最近收到了幾次另一個問題，我們的收縮率完好無損。我們沒有看到收縮有任何重大變化。當我們推出自助結賬時，它確實在 COVID 之前波動了幾個，3 個基點。從那以後，它又回落了一點。所以這是一個非常狹窄的範圍。所以我們在這方面很幸運。

In terms of where we are in personalization, for those of you on the call that have known me forever, it was probably 4 years ago that we talked about that sometime soon, we'll do targeting and after that, do personalization. Well, we're still in the early innings. But I guess what I'd like to tell you, and I think I mentioned this on the last quarter's call, just under a year ago, we hired a new VP of Digital, Digital Transformation, if you will, both in e-com and mobile sites and applications, that complemented 3 other outside VPs we hired, one of which was in the data analytics area. And we've really, over the last 6 to 9 months, began a 2-year road map to improve and re-platform our primary e-commerce website and the same goes for our mobile apps and mobile site. Working, of course, again, with the data analytics people, the architect people as well as the business users, we're currently building and dramatically increasing the number of engineering capabilities that we have. And we're on our way.

就我們在個性化方面的進展而言，對於你們中那些永遠認識我的人來說，大概是 4 年前我們談到過這個問題，我們將進行定位，然後再進行個性化。好吧，我們還處於早期階段。但我想我想告訴你的是，我想我在上個季度的電話會議上提到了這一點，就在不到一年前，我們聘請了一位新的數字化、數字化轉型副總裁，如果你願意的話，他們都在電子商務領域和移動網站和應用程序，補充了我們聘請的其他 3 位外部副總裁，其中一位在數據分析領域。在過去的 6 到 9 個月裡，我們真的開始了一個為期 2 年的路線圖，以改進和重新平台化我們的主要電子商務網站，我們的移動應用程序和移動網站也是如此。當然，再次與數據分析人員、架構師以及業務用戶合作，我們目前正在構建並顯著增加我們擁有的工程能力的數量。我們正在路上。

But I'd say we're in the early innings. First order of business, which we now feel we've gotten to a much better clean data site. We're still sending you too many e-mails a week that don't pertain specifically to what you do. But I think you're going to see incremental changes, and I'll be able to hopefully report more on that at the next quarterly call.

但我會說我們處於早期階段。第一項業務，我們現在覺得我們已經獲得了一個更好的干淨數據站點。我們仍然每周向您發送太多與您的工作無關的電子郵件。但我認為你會看到漸進的變化，我希望能夠在下一個季度電話會議上報告更多相關信息。

And just in the last 3 months, as an example, we've had 3 small releases to our mobile app that are improvements of it. And we're now on plans to have small improvements in that app each month for the several months going forward. As you know, you've heard me say for the past couple of years that we're in the early innings. I'll repeat that. We are, but we actually got, I think, a good game plan, and you'll see more to that over the future. A little longer than we had hoped to do some of this stuff, but I think we're on our way in that regard.

舉個例子，就在過去 3 個月裡，我們的移動應用程序發布了 3 個小版本，是對它的改進。我們現在計劃在未來幾個月內每月對該應用程序進行小幅改進。如你所知，在過去的幾年裡你聽我說過我們處於早期階段。我再說一遍。我們是，但我認為我們實際上有一個很好的遊戲計劃，你會在未來看到更多。比我們希望做的一些事情要長一點，但我認為我們在這方面正在努力。

Your next question comes from the line of Oliver Chen with TD Cowen.

你的下一個問題來自 Oliver Chen 與 TD Cowen 的對話。

Richard, when you think about household income, what kind of trends are you seeing in terms of your customers and people trading in and the new Costco at large? And then the big-ticket item question, what are your thoughts on how you're planning inventory there? Do the compares ease? Do you expect improvement? And within big ticket, any color in terms of how that may proceed sequentially?

理查德，當您考慮家庭收入時，您在客戶和交易人員以及整個新 Costco 方面看到了什麼樣的趨勢？然後是大件商品問題，您對如何規劃那裡的庫存有何看法？比較容易嗎？你期待改進嗎？在大票中，關於如何按順序進行的任何顏色？

Sure. Our annual household income has actually gone up a little, but I think that's more to do with wage increases than anything. We still over-index to higher-end people, higher-end income people. And so that's still there. As it relates to our inventories, again, if you had asked me 6 months ago -- in fact, I think it was Q4 and Q1 where year-over-year inventories were up 26% as was our competitors and everybody else. A lot of that has to do with, one, some people had enough big-ticket items but also just the terrible supply chain challenges that we all had. And since then, like others, we've shown a reduction in that dramatically, and that's good.

當然。我們的家庭年收入實際上增加了一點，但我認為這更多地與工資增長有關，而不是什麼。我們仍然對更高端的人、更高收入的人過度指數化。所以它仍然存在。關於我們的庫存，如果你在 6 個月前問過我——事實上，我認為是第四季度和第一季度，我們的競爭對手和其他所有人的庫存同比增長了 26%。這在很大程度上與，第一，有些人有足夠的大件商品，但也只是我們所有人都面臨的可怕的供應鏈挑戰。從那以後，和其他人一樣，我們已經顯著減少了這種情況，這很好。

We feel pretty good about where we stand right now. Some of you have noted and called us on back, again, 6, 5, 4, 3 months ago, we had a lot of promotional things going on. If you bought 3-or-more-thousand dollars of these 10 items, and they were all like different patio items or different in-store furniture items, if you did $3,000 or more, you got a $500 cash card on already great pricing. And that was a lot of our promotional money, markdown money, to get our inventories back in line, particularly on things where we were over-inventoried because of the supply chain delays.

我們對我們現在所處的位置感覺很好。你們中的一些人已經註意到並再次打電話給我們，6、5、4、3 個月前，我們正在進行很多促銷活動。如果您在這 10 件商品中購買了 3 美元或更多美元，並且它們都像不同的庭院物品或不同的店內家具物品，如果您購買了 3,000 美元或更多，您將以已經非常優惠的價格獲得一張 500 美元的現金卡。這是我們大量的促銷資金，降價資金，用於使我們的庫存恢復正常，特別是在我們因供應鏈延遲而庫存過多的情況下。

And then on some examples, I think air conditioners might be an example. Because of the supply chains last summer, we did great in selling through fans and air conditioners. And these are not exact numbers, but let's say we plan to sell $500 million of it, easily 20%, 25% of it got here after the summer because of the supply chain challenges. There is no need to mark those down to try to get rid of them in September, October. We held them, and we're selling through them now, and that's not an issue at all.

然後舉一些例子，我認為空調可能就是一個例子。由於去年夏天的供應鏈，我們在通過風扇和空調進行銷售方面做得很好。這些不是確切的數字，但假設我們計劃出售其中的 5 億美元，很容易 20%，由於供應鏈的挑戰，其中的 25% 是在夏季之後到達這裡的。沒有必要在 9 月、10 月將它們標記下來以試圖擺脫它們。我們持有它們，現在我們正在通過它們進行銷售，這根本不是問題。

So in talking to Claudine Adamo, our Head of Merchandising, and her nonfood people, we feel pretty good about where we are both on existing inventory levels of what we have in there and as well as what we've committed to going forward for upcoming seasons, notably back-to-school and Christmas and things like that.

因此，在與我們的銷售主管克勞丁·阿達莫 (Claudine Adamo) 和她的非食品部門人員交談時，我們對現有庫存水平以及我們為即將到來的未來所做的承諾感到非常滿意季節，特別是返校和聖誕節之類的事情。

Okay. And Richard, you've made a lot of great strides in Asia and China and other regions. I'd love just some highlights in terms of what's ahead for the back half there.

好的。理查德，你在亞洲、中國和其他地區取得了長足的進步。就後半部分的前景而言，我只喜歡一些亮點。

And a second question on that connected consumer experience between digital and physical, are there evolved thoughts in terms of BOPUS and curbside and what your members want and delivering the ultimate convenience?

第二個問題是關於數字和物理之間的連接消費者體驗，在 BOPUS 和路邊以及您的會員想要什麼和提供終極便利方面是否有進化的想法？

Sure. Well, first of all, in terms of expansion outside of the United States, if you look at just even this year, at '23, I think it was, what, 13 and 10. So 60-ish, 60%, 65%, 60% in the U.S., Canada, which I combine as one because it's well saturated, but we're still opening a bunch of units there, and it's our oldest areas. But I see that, over the next 5 years, going from 65-35 or 60-40 to at least 50-50, if not trending a little bit towards outside the U.S. and Canada.

當然。嗯，首先，就美國以外的擴張而言，如果你只看今年，在 23 年，我認為是，什麼，13 和 10。所以 60 歲左右，60%，65% , 60% 在美國，加拿大，我將它們合併為一個，因為它已經飽和了，但我們仍然在那裡開設了一堆單位，這是我們最古老的地區。但我看到，在接下來的 5 年裡，從 65-35 或 60-40 增加到至少 50-50，如果沒有向美國和加拿大以外的地區傾斜的話。

Now that, again, is the same answer I would have given you 6, 7 years ago for now. And I think that's a function of, one, having more opportunities every day than we thought we had before in the U.S. and Canada, and there's plenty of opportunities going forward elsewhere. But I think you're still going to see us open in Korea, Taiwan a unit each year on a base of somewhere in the mid- to high teens; in Japan, more than a unit a year on a base in the low 30s; a unit a year in Australia, not exactly each year, maybe there's 1 in 1 year, none and then 2. But in Australia, we've got 14, I believe.

現在，這又是我 6、7 年前會給你的相同答案。我認為這是一個功能，一個，每天都有比我們以前在美國和加拿大想像的更多的機會，而且在其他地方也有很多機會。但我認為你仍然會看到我們每年在韓國和台灣開設一個單位，基地在中高青少年的某個地方；在日本，每年有超過 30 台的基數；在澳大利亞每年一個單位，不完全是每年，也許一年有 1 個，然後是 2 個。但在澳大利亞，我們有 14 個，我相信。

And in Europe, most of our units are in the U.K., where we're in the low 30s. We're still going to open 1 or 2 a year there or 1 a year probably there. And we've opened a few others. We opened our fourth in Spain, and we now have 2 in France and one each in Iceland and Sweden. So a little growth there. But certainly, in China, I mean China is a big story this year for us. One of the stories is that we opened our first unit in China 3.5, 4 years ago; our second, 1.5 years ago; our third, last December; and 3 more this year. We're going to be at 6 at the end of this year.

在歐洲，我們的大部分單位都在英國，我們的人數在 30 多歲左右。我們仍將每年在那裡開設 1 或 2 家，或者可能每年在那裡開設 1 家。我們還開了其他幾個。我們在西班牙開設了第四家，現在我們在法國有兩家，在冰島和瑞典各有一家。所以那裡有一點增長。但當然，在中國，我的意思是中國今年對我們來說是一個大故事。其中一個故事是 4 年前，我們在中國 3.5 開設了第一家分店；我們的第二個，1.5 年前；我們的第三次，去年十二月；今年還有 3 個。我們將在今年年底達到 6 點。

Calendar year.

公曆年。

Yes, I'm sorry, this calendar year, 2 more this fiscal year and then one more in the fall. So there's certainly more growth there, but that's not a lot of growth relative to some companies that have tried to go in and open 20 somewhere or something. But we feel good about how we do that. But we think there's plenty on -- bottom line, if we're opening 23 to 25 a year, we'd like to be a little 25-plus a year for the next 5 years and somewhere closer to 30 a year in year 6 through 10, that would make us feel quite good. And we feel very comfortable that we can do that at this juncture.

是的，很抱歉，這個日曆年，本財政年度還有 2 個，然後在秋季再增加一個。所以那里肯定有更多的增長，但相對於一些試圖進入並在某處開設 20 家的公司來說，增長並不多。但我們對我們如何做到這一點感覺很好。但我們認為有很多 - 底線，如果我們每年開放 23 到 25 家，我們希望在接下來的 5 年每年開放 25 家以上，並在第 6 年接近每年 30 家到 10 點，那會讓我們感覺很好。我們很高興我們能在這個時候做到這一點。

In terms of curbside, we're not very thrilled about it or maybe a little stubborn about it. We tried it in a few locations a year ago and successfully proved to ourselves we don't like it. And we want you to come in. And now we do have lockers from big-ticket nonfood items. Interestingly, when people do that, they come in and over half of them shop while they're in the location. And one of our challenges, which is a good quality problem to have, is our average volume per warehouse has continued to grow way more than we had thought a few years ago. And last year, we had over 150 locations doing over $300 million, I think over 27 or 28 million doing over $400 million -- or 26. And so we've had to open more units. And so we're continuing to look at a lot of places even in the U.S.

在路邊方面，我們對此不是很興奮，或者可能有點固執。一年前我們在幾個地方嘗試過，並成功地向自己證明我們不喜歡它。我們希望你進來。現在我們確實有存放大件非食品物品的儲物櫃。有趣的是，當人們這樣做時，他們會進來，並且超過一半的人會在他們在該地點時購物。我們面臨的挑戰之一，也是一個很好的質量問題，是我們每個倉庫的平均體積持續增長，遠遠超過我們幾年前的預期。去年，我們有超過 150 個地點的營業額超過 3 億美元，我認為超過 27 或 2800 萬個營業額超過 4 億美元——或 26 個。因此我們不得不開設更多單位。因此，即使在美國，我們也會繼續關注很多地方。

And we don't get a lot of ask for it, honestly. Now we're not asking a lot about it either, but we don't get a lot of ask for it. So I don't see that being a big thing. One of the things that we will be doing though, even online, when you go to look at an online product, if we're selling in a warehouse near you based on where you've shopped, in the next several months, cross my fingers, you will be able to say, you can go ahead and get it in store at the curb from [Squall] location, which also has it in stock right now.

老實說，我們並沒有得到很多要求。現在我們也沒有對此提出太多要求，但我們並沒有得到很多要求。所以我不認為這是一件大事。我們將要做的事情之一，即使是在網上，當你去看在線產品時，如果我們根據你購物的地方在你附近的倉庫裡銷售，在接下來的幾個月裡，穿過我的手指，你可以說，你可以繼續在 [Squall] 位置的路邊商店購買它，該位置現在也有庫存。

Same-day grocery, of course, we already have with delivery, mostly with Instacart. We partner with a couple of other people as well, but they're the big kahuna there, both in the U.S. and Canada. And we do 2-day dry -- yes. By the way, in that number, which is continuing to grow, is not reported in our income numbers. In that case, their employee or contract employee comes in, shops, rings it up and takes it to you. So that's what we consider a warehouse sale.

當然，當日雜貨，我們已經有了送貨服務，主要是 Instacart。我們也與其他幾個人合作，但他們是美國和加拿大的大人物。我們會進行 2 天的干燥——是的。順便說一句，在我們的收入數字中沒有報告這個數字，這個數字還在繼續增長。在這種情況下，他們的員工或合同工會進來、購物、打電話給您。這就是我們認為的倉庫銷售。

Your next question comes from the line of Scott Mushkin with R5 Capital.

你的下一個問題來自 R5 Capital 的 Scott Mushkin。

Richard, so I wanted to talk about competition a little bit. But first, shorter term, and maybe I missed the answer to this if it was asked, promotional activities now, are they -- one of your competitors said they kind of ramped up. Is that what you're seeing as well?

理查德，所以我想談談競爭。但首先，短期內，如果有人問我，我可能會錯過這個問題的答案，現在的促銷活動，是嗎——你的一個競爭對手說他們有點增加了。這也是你所看到的嗎？

Yes. It's higher than it was. Now mind you, it was a lot lower for a couple of years because of the supply chain challenges. I mean every TV we could sell, whatever, particularly on the nonfood, we could sell, every paper good we could sell, we actually took some items out of like the MVM mailers on the sundries side because, one, there were shortages like paper goods, why promote it when, first of all, we've got to limit 1 per customer. And so some of those comparisons, there's more versus a lot less for a couple of years as well. But yes, we are seeing more now.

是的。它比以前高了。現在請注意，由於供應鏈挑戰，幾年來它要低得多。我的意思是我們可以賣的每一台電視，特別是非食品，我們可以賣，我們可以賣的每一種紙製品，我們實際上從雜物方面拿走了一些東西，比如 MVM 郵寄，因為，第一，像紙一樣短缺商品，為什麼要推廣它，首先，我們必須限制每個客戶 1 個。因此，其中一些比較，在幾年內也有更多與更少。但是，是的，我們現在看到了更多。

And is that purely from the vendors? Or is that some activities you're seeing from retailers themselves?

那是純粹來自供應商的嗎？還是您從零售商那裡看到的一些活動？

Well, I can speak for us. Yes, I mean, certainly, when we see something that other retailers are doing, we want to make sure we ask our supplier. Maybe they can't tell us, but we're putting the pressure on to know that we're seeing some unusual things out there. And we'll only hold -- sometimes we see better deals the following day to us. So we just got to stay on top of that. As I said a little earlier, I think we've got a lot of levers to pull. Certainly, all retailers that have gas right now has continued to be helped with that. Unusual things, like fresh has been relatively strong, and so we feel good about that. Even for like apparel, which is close to an $8 billion business for us worldwide, $7-plus billion business worldwide, that's been strong. So that's not promotional. That's just better margins, in some cases.

好吧，我可以為我們說話。是的，我的意思是，當然，當我們看到其他零售商正在做的事情時，我們要確保詢問我們的供應商。也許他們不能告訴我們，但我們正在施加壓力，讓我們知道我們在那裡看到了一些不尋常的事情。我們只會持有——有時我們會在第二天看到更好的交易。所以我們必須保持領先地位。正如我之前所說，我認為我們有很多槓桿可以使用。當然，所有現在有天然氣的零售商都繼續得到幫助。不尋常的東西，比如新鮮感一直比較強，所以我們對此感覺很好。即使是類似的服裝，它在全球範圍內為我們帶來了接近 80 億美元的業務，在全球範圍內的業務超過 70 億美元，這也很強勁。所以這不是促銷。在某些情況下，這只是更好的利潤率。

Okay. So then I wanted to talk a little bit more long term about competition. It's been a long time, I think, what we've seen as many openings from non-Costco people. You are going to see that over the next year or 2, 3. The other competitors also, they tout their omnichannel and their technology about just scanning and going. Just give us an overall view of the competitive environment over the next 1 to 3 years and how Costco fits, and whether you think some of those technologies and e-com stuff are competitive advantages for people that are competing against you?

好的。所以我想從更長遠的角度談談競爭。很長一段時間以來，我想，我們已經看到很多非 Costco 人的職位空缺。你會在接下來的一年或 2、3 年看到這一點。其他競爭對手也在吹捧他們的全渠道和他們的技術，只是掃描和運行。請給我們一個關於未來 1 到 3 年競爭環境的總體看法，以及 Costco 如何適應，以及您是否認為其中一些技術和電子商務對與您競爭的人來說是競爭優勢？

Well, I think we're fortunate in one way that, first and foremost, the biggest value attribute or customer attraction attribute is the best-quality goods at the lowest price, and we dwarf everybody in that regard. I mean our average markup on goods is in the low double digits, 12%, 13%. You know what they are at other traditional retailers, anywhere from 25% to 35% to 100%. So we have that extreme benefit to start with. Arguably, we've been somewhat simple, in our own arrogant way, over the years. One of the things we've done, as I mentioned earlier, on the question that John, I think, had, forget about personalization, even target marketing, I view it now as some low-hanging fruit that we're finally going around to do over the next couple of years. So that will be a positive to us relative to others.

好吧，我認為我們在某種程度上是幸運的，首先，最大的價值屬性或客戶吸引力屬性是以最低價格提供最優質的商品，在這方面我們讓所有人都相形見絀。我的意思是我們的商品平均加價率處於兩位數以下，12%、13%。你知道他們在其他傳統零售商那裡是什麼，從 25% 到 35% 到 100% 不等。所以我們從一開始就有了極大的好處。可以說，多年來，我們以自己傲慢的方式變得有些簡單。正如我之前提到的，我們所做的其中一件事是關於約翰，我認為，忘記個性化，甚至是目標營銷，我現在將其視為我們終於要解決的一些容易實現的問題在接下來的幾年裡做。因此，相對於其他人，這對我們來說是積極的。

In terms of the benefit of buying online and picking up in store and things like that, we, frankly, view that as more costly than it is beneficial. And again, we haven't been asked a lot about it other than by analysts who are responding, in fairness, to the different retailers that feel they have to do it. Many of them want to do it. But there's a cost of doing that. So we feel pretty good about driving the business. We think we can certainly do more online. We don't have some strategic goal to go from 8%, which is still a $20 billion business, but to go from 8% of sales to 16%. But let's go from 8% to 9% to 10%, 10% to 11% over a certain period of time. And we think that, with some of the things we're doing on that side, we can.

就在線購買和實體店提貨等的好處而言，坦率地說，我們認為成本大於收益。再一次，除了公平地回應認為他們必須這樣做的不同零售商之外，我們並沒有被問到很多關於它的問題。他們中的許多人都想這樣做。但這樣做是有代價的。因此，我們對推動業務感到非常滿意。我們認為我們當然可以在網上做更多的事情。我們沒有什麼戰略目標要從 8% 提高到 8%，這仍然是一項 200 億美元的業務，但要從 8% 提高到 16%。但是讓我們在一段時間內從 8% 到 9% 再到 10%，從 10% 到 11%。我們認為，通過我們在這方面所做的一些事情，我們可以做到。

I think we've also done an incredible job, day in and day out, on the merchandising side of bringing in more exciting items. And that's something that is focused on that I hear about at every budget meeting and every Monday morning meeting with Greg and Ron and a few other senior colleagues, including our merchandising head. So I think that's what's going to keep driving our business. I think we are getting better on the technology side. Playing from behind a little bit on that, but I think we've finally got a game plan and some people that are helping build those areas up both from a marketing and advertising standpoint, taking advantage of the advertising dollars that are out there that we've done pretty well despite ourselves but we know we can do a lot better in grabbing some of those dollars. And what we will use it for is to drive sales.

我認為我們日復一日地在推銷方面也做得非常出色，推出了更多令人興奮的商品。這是我在每次預算會議和每週一早上與格雷格和羅恩以及其他一些高級同事（包括我們的銷售主管）的會議上聽到的重點。所以我認為這將繼續推動我們的業務。我認為我們在技術方面正在變得更好。在這方面有點落後，但我認為我們終於有了一個遊戲計劃，一些人正在從營銷和廣告的角度幫助建立這些領域，利用我們現有的廣告資金儘管我們自己做得很好，但我們知道我們可以做得更好，抓住其中的一些美元。我們將用它來推動銷售。

And the club openings, I don't think you touched on that.

還有俱樂部的開張，我想你沒有提到這一點。

The big club opening thing is we're on our target. I think the last 3 years, there was a big down year because of the first year of COVID. But fiscal '21, '22 and '23, I think we averaged around 23 net new units a year, 22, 23. We'd like to get above 25 over each of the next 5 years and closer to 30 year 6 through 10. That's kind of the game plan. And that really is a bottom-up approach by each of the 8 U.S. geographic regions, the 2 Canadian regions and every other country region, working with operations in our real estate department kind of which ones are likely and what's our priority. And we feel pretty comfortable we've got a good pipeline of pending openings, for sure, over the next 3 or 4 years and with an equal level of comfort that we feel that we'll continue to have plenty of opportunities to open units.

大俱樂部開幕式是我們的目標。我認為過去 3 年，由於 COVID 的第一年，出現了大幅下滑。但在 21、22 和 23 財年，我認為我們平均每年約有 23 個淨新單位，22、23。我們希望在接下來的 5 年中每年都超過 25 個，並在 6 到 10 年接近 30 年. 這就是遊戲計劃。這實際上是美國 8 個地理區域、2 個加拿大區域和所有其他國家/地區中的每一個區域的自下而上的方法，與我們房地產部門的業務合作，哪些是可能的，哪些是我們的優先事項。我們感到非常自在，我們有一個很好的未決空缺管道，當然，在未來 3 或 4 年內，我們同樣感到舒適，我們將繼續有很多機會打開單元。

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

你的下一個問題來自花旗銀行的 Paul Lejuez。

Richard, this Brandon Cheatham on for Paul. I want to follow up on what you mentioned about the digital investments that you all are making. It sounds like it's something that eventually you might monetize partnering with your vendors. How do you balance that with your view that you really want your members in your warehouse? And how do you see that working kind of over the long term?

Richard，Brandon Cheatham 代替 Paul。我想跟進你提到的關於你們所有人正在進行的數字投資的內容。這聽起來像是您最終可能通過與您的供應商合作獲利的東西。您如何平衡這一點與您真正希望您的會員進入您的倉庫的觀點？從長遠來看，您如何看待這種工作方式？

Well, first of all, as part of that monetizing of digital is in warehouse. We've been very successful at moving the needle, if you will, on a holiday weekend with hot prices on strip steaks or, at the beginning of the season, with the planting season, with green items. And so I think it's just we're getting around and doing a better job of it, and we're bringing in people that have done it before, frankly. Even in membership marketing, Sandy Torrey, Senior VP of Membership and Marketing, she's doing more things today than we did even a year ago, trying some things. And again, I think that our first order of business is to drive business in store, certainly driving it online as well, but not to just replace what's in store.

好吧，首先，作為數字貨幣化的一部分是在倉庫中。如果您願意的話，我們已經非常成功地在移動針頭方面取得了成功，在假期週末，條狀牛排的價格很高，或者在季節開始時，在種植季節，綠色食品。所以我認為這只是我們正在四處走動並做得更好，坦率地說，我們正在引進以前做過這件事的人。即使在會員營銷方面，會員和營銷高級副總裁桑迪·托里 (Sandy Torrey) 今天所做的事情甚至比我們一年前做的還要多，她正在嘗試一些事情。再說一次，我認為我們的首要任務是推動店內業務，當然也推動在線業務，但不僅僅是取代店內商品。

Again, I tried to stay a little low key on this subject because we're not -- I hate to use the word this new strategic effort. But what we've learned over the last few years is everybody is a technology company today, and there are some things that we have been a little slow to doing, and we know there's a lot of opportunity there to do some of the even basic things. Not how do you get 5 e-mails a week that none of which relates specifically to you. If it was an e-mail, even just based on a couple of items you purchased in store that had a banner of items that you might be interested in, you could literally double the click rate on them. So those are the kind of things that bringing in the fore, what we call catalyst VP hires, in our IT department over the last few years. One is data analytics and one is digital, and it's not just 2 individuals, it's the teams that they have built in short order. So we'll continue to do that and tell you more as we go along.

再一次，我試圖在這個問題上保持低調，因為我們不是——我討厭使用這個新的戰略努力這個詞。但我們在過去幾年中學到的是，今天每個人都是一家科技公司，有些事情我們做起來有點慢，但我們知道有很多機會去做一些甚至最基本的事情事物。不是你如何每週收到 5 封電子郵件，其中沒有一封與你具體相關。如果它是一封電子郵件，即使只是基於您在商店購買的帶有您可能感興趣的商品橫幅的幾件商品，您實際上可以將它們的點擊率提高一倍。因此，過去幾年在我們的 IT 部門中，這些都是脫穎而出的事情，我們稱之為催化劑 VP 聘用。一個是數據分析，一個是數字化，不僅僅是兩個人，而是他們在短期內建立的團隊。因此，我們將繼續這樣做，並在進行過程中告訴您更多信息。

Got it. And if I could follow up on the membership side, you mentioned membership marketing. Are you seeing any difference in promotions from your competitors for their memberships? How has that informed what you all are doing? And is there any major change on promotions, on membership from your competitors?

知道了。如果我可以跟進會員方面，你提到了會員營銷。您是否發現競爭對手在會員資格方面的促銷活動有何不同？這對你們所做的有何影響？促銷活動、競爭對手的會員資格是否有重大變化？

Well, for us, there's really no change. I mean we do a few promotional things each year. But the biggest thing that we don't do is in any big way discount our membership. Some of the brochure things that you may sign up for a membership and you get a certain number of coupons related to stuff. I don't want to go into that, but you can look at our competitors and see what they do. There's a lot more promotional activity going on elsewhere. And we're still getting, as I mentioned on the call, year-over-year 7% increase in new memberships with about just under a 3% increase in number of new warehouses.

好吧，對我們來說，真的沒有改變。我的意思是我們每年都會做一些促銷活動。但我們不做的最重要的事情就是大大降低我們的會員資格。一些小冊子的東西，你可以註冊成為會員，你會得到一定數量的相關東西的優惠券。我不想談這個，但你可以看看我們的競爭對手，看看他們在做什麼。其他地方正在進行更多的促銷活動。正如我在電話會議上提到的那樣，我們仍在獲得新會員數量同比增長 7%，而新倉庫數量的增長略低於 3%。

So we're still getting people indoor. I think in fairness, that's been helped by COVID. We being warehouse clubs was a big cavernous place to come and get a lot of things, and that certainly helped us. I'd like to think we're pretty good at what we do, and that's why more people are signing up, and we're opening new units and driving more business that way. But really, we have not done -- if anything, we've done a little less on the promotional side in membership. We do a few promotional things each year, but not a lot.

所以我們仍然讓人們呆在室內。公平地說，我認為 COVID 幫助了這一點。我們作為倉庫俱樂部是一個巨大的海綿狀地方，可以得到很多東西，這當然對我們有幫助。我想我們在我們所做的事情上非常擅長，這就是為什麼越來越多的人註冊，我們正在開設新單位並以這種方式推動更多業務。但實際上，我們還沒有做——如果有的話，我們在會員促銷方面做得少了一點。我們每年都會做一些促銷活動，但不是很多。

I'm going to take one more question.

我要再回答一個問題。

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

你的下一個問題來自 Rupesh Parikh 與 Oppenheimer & Co. 的合作。

So in China, I was curious with the reopening there, how the locations are performing versus your expectations.

因此，在中國，我對那裡的重新開放感到好奇，這些地點的表現與您的預期有何不同。

They're doing great. End of story. We've been blessed by those first openings that we have over there. Needless to say, we were impacted, like everybody over there, during the shutdown and what have you. And we had some great video clips in our budget meetings here showing what we did to create care packages not only for our members but for the neighborhoods around us. And we were told they were the best care packages of any of the big retailers, so that made us feel good.

他們做得很好。故事結局。我們為在那裡的第一個空缺而感到幸運。不用說，我們受到了影響，就像那裡的每個人一樣，在停工期間以及你有什麼。我們在這裡的預算會議上有一些很棒的視頻剪輯，展示了我們為不僅為我們的成員而且為我們周圍的社區創建關懷包所做的工作。我們被告知它們是所有大型零售商中最好的護理包，這讓我們感覺很好。

Great. And then maybe just one follow-up question. So as you look at your bigger-ticket categories, consumer electronics, et cetera, any sense at this point whether trends have bottomed? Just curious if you think trends have bottomed or whether we could see further softening in some of these bigger-ticket areas?

偉大的。然後可能只是一個後續問題。因此，當您審視價格較高的類別、消費電子產品等時，趨勢是否已經觸底有任何意義嗎？只是想知道您是否認為趨勢已經觸底，或者我們是否可以看到其中一些更大的票務領域進一步走軟？

I have one of my colleagues here on the merchandising side, and she was saying to me softly the negatives are getting better. And again, it's about 7 or 8 months ago, 7-ish months ago, when we started seeing the decline. And so if nothing else, we'll be having an easier compare 5 months, hence. But certainly, we've seen a little bit of improvement in the negatives.

我有一位同事在推銷方面，她輕聲對我說底片越來越好。再一次，大約在 7 或 8 個月前，大約 7 個月前，當我們開始看到下降時。因此，如果沒有別的，我們將有一個更容易的比較 5 個月，因此。但可以肯定的是，我們已經看到負面影響有所改善。

Well, thank you, everyone. David, Josh and I are around to answer questions if you have any more, which I'm sure you will. Have a good afternoon.

嗯，謝謝大家。如果您還有其他問題，大衛、喬希和我會隨時回答，我相信您會的。祝你下午好。

This concludes today's conference call. Thank you.

今天的電話會議到此結束。謝謝。