達樂 (DG) 2021 Q3 法說會逐字稿

Good morning. My name is Robert, and I'll be your conference operator today. At this time, I'd like to welcome everyone to the Dollar General Third Quarter 2021 Earnings Conference Call. Today is Thursday, December 2, 2021. (Operator Instructions) The call is being recorded. (Operator Instructions)

早上好。我的名字是羅伯特，今天我將成為您的會議接線員。在這個時候，我想歡迎大家參加 Dollar General 2021 年第三季度收益電話會議。今天是 2021 年 12 月 2 日，星期四。（操作員說明）通話正在錄音。 （操作員說明）

Now I'd like to turn the conference over to Mr. Donny Lau, Vice President of Investor Relations and Corporate Strategy. Mr. Lau, you may begin your conference.

現在我想將會議轉交給投資者關係和企業戰略副總裁 Donny Lau 先生。劉先生，你可以開始你的會議了。

Thank you, and good morning, everyone. On the call with me today are Todd Vasos, our CEO; Jeff Owen, our COO; and John Garratt, our CFO. Our earnings release issued today can be found on our website at investor.dollargeneral.com under News & Events.

謝謝大家，大家早上好。今天與我通話的是我們的首席執行官 Todd Vasos；傑夫歐文，我們的首席運營官；和我們的首席財務官 John Garratt。我們今天發布的收益報告可以在我們的網站investor.dollargeneral.com 的新聞和事件下找到。

Let me caution you that today's comments include forward-looking statements as defined in the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995, such as statements about our financial guidance, strategy, initiatives, plans, goals, priorities, opportunities, investments, expectations or beliefs about future matters and other statements that are not limited to historical fact. These statements are subject to risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from our expectations and projections. These factors include, but are not limited to, those identified in our earnings release issued this morning under Risk Factors in our 2020 Form 10-K filed on March 19, 2021, and in the comments that are made on this call.

讓我提醒您，今天的評論包括 1995 年《私人證券訴訟改革法案》中定義的前瞻性陳述，例如關於我們的財務指導、戰略、舉措、計劃、目標、優先事項、機會、投資、期望或信念的陳述未來事項和其他不限於歷史事實的陳述。這些陳述受到風險和不確定性的影響，可能導致實際結果與我們的預期和預測存在重大差異。這些因素包括但不限於我們今天上午在我們於 2021 年 3 月 19 日提交的 2020 年 10-K 表中的風險因素下發布的收益報告中以及在本次電話會議上發表的評論中確定的因素。

You should not unduly rely on forward-looking statements, which speak only as of today's date. Dollar General disclaims any obligation to update or revise any information discussed in this call unless required by law. We will also reference certain non-GAAP financial measures. Reconciliations to the most comparable GAAP measures are included in this morning's earnings release, which, as I mentioned, is posted on investor.dollargeneral.com under News & Events. At the end of our prepared remarks, we will open the call up for your questions. (Operator Instructions)

您不應過度依賴前瞻性陳述，這些陳述僅在今天發表。除非法律要求，否則 Dollar General 不承擔更新或修改本次電話會議中討論的任何信息的義務。我們還將參考某些非公認會計準則財務指標。與最具可比性的 GAAP 指標的對賬包含在今天上午的收益發布中，正如我所提到的，發佈在investor.dollargeneral.com 的新聞與事件下。在我們準備好的評論結束時，我們將打開電話詢問您的問題。 （操作員說明）

Now it's my pleasure to turn the call over to Todd.

現在我很高興將電話轉給托德。

Thank you, Donny, and welcome to everyone joining our call. We are pleased with our third quarter results, and I want to thank our associates for their unwavering commitment to meeting the needs of our customers, communities and each other.

謝謝你，唐尼，歡迎大家加入我們的電話。我們對第三季度的業績感到滿意，我要感謝我們的員工堅定不移地致力於滿足我們的客戶、社區和彼此的需求。

Despite what continues to be a challenging operating environment, including elevated cost pressures and broad-based supply chain disruptions, our teams remained focused on controlling what we can control and they are delivering for our customers. We are grateful for their efforts.

儘管運營環境仍然充滿挑戰，包括成本壓力升高和廣泛的供應鏈中斷，但我們的團隊仍然專注於控制我們可以控制的內容，並為我們的客戶提供服務。我們感謝他們的努力。

Looking ahead, we believe we are well positioned to navigate the current environment. And although we've experienced higher-than-expected costs, both from a product and supply chain perspective, we're very confident in our price position as our price indexes relative to our competitors and other classes of trade remain in line with our targeted and historical ranges. And because so many families depend on us for everyday essentials, at the right price, we believe products at the $1 price point are important for our customers, and they will continue to have a significant presence in our assortment. In fact, approximately 20% of our overall assortment remains at $1 or less. And moving forward, we will continue to foster and grow this program where appropriate.

展望未來，我們相信我們已經做好了應對當前環境的準備。儘管從產品和供應鏈的角度來看，我們經歷了高於預期的成本，但我們對我們的價格定位非常有信心，因為我們相對於競爭對手和其他貿易類別的價格指數仍然符合我們的目標和歷史範圍。由於如此多的家庭依靠我們以合適的價格提供日常必需品，我們相信 1 美元價位的產品對我們的客戶來說很重要，他們將繼續在我們的產品系列中佔有重要地位。事實上，我們總分類中大約 20% 的價格保持在 1 美元或更低。展望未來，我們將繼續在適當的情況下培育和發展該計劃。

As the largest retailer in the U.S. by store count, with over 18,000 stores located within 5 miles of about 75% of the U.S. population, we believe our presence in local communities across the country provides another distinct advantage and positions us well for continued success. Overall, we remain focused on advancing our operating priorities and strategic initiatives as we continue to strengthen our competitive position, while further differentiating and distancing Dollar General from the rest of the discount retail landscape.

作為按店鋪數量計算的美國最大零售商，在 5 英里範圍內擁有超過 18,000 家店鋪，約占美國人口的 75%，我們相信我們在全國各地社區的存在提供了另一個明顯的優勢，並使我們能夠繼續取得成功。總體而言，我們將繼續專注於推進我們的運營重點和戰略計劃，同時繼續加強我們的競爭地位，同時進一步區分和拉開 Dollar General 與其他折扣零售市場的距離。

To that end, I'm excited to share an update on some of our more recent plans. First, as you saw in our release, we expect to execute a total of nearly 3,000 real estate projects in 2022, including 1,100 new store openings as we continue to lay and strengthen the foundation for future growth. Of note, these plans include the acceleration of our pOpshelf concept, as we expect to nearly triple our store count next year as compared to our fiscal '21 year-end target of up to 50 locations. In addition, given the sustained performance of our pOpshelf concept, which continues to exceed our expectations, we plan to further accelerate the pace of new store openings as we move ahead, targeting a total of about 1,000 pOpshelf locations by fiscal year-end 2025. Importantly, we anticipate these new pOpshelf locations will be incremental to our annual Dollar General store opening plans as we look to further capitalize on the significant growth opportunities we see for both brands.

為此，我很高興與大家分享我們最近的一些計劃的更新。首先，正如您在我們的新聞稿中看到的，我們預計在 2022 年總共執行近 3,000 個房地產項目，其中包括 1,100 家新店開業，因為我們將繼續為未來的增長奠定和加強基礎。值得注意的是，這些計劃包括加速我們的 pOpshelf 概念，因為我們預計明年我們的門店數量將是我們 21 財年年底目標（最多 50 個地點）的近三倍。此外，鑑於我們的 pOpshelf 概念的持續表現持續超出我們的預期，我們計劃在前進的過程中進一步加快新店開業的步伐，目標是到 2025 財年末共開設約 1,000 個 pOpshelf 門店。重要的是，我們預計這些新的 pOpshelf 地點將增加我們的年度 Dollar General 商店開業計劃，因為我們希望進一步利用我們看到的兩個品牌的重大增長機會。

We are also now at the early stages of plans to extend our footprint into Mexico, which will represent our first store locations outside the Continental United States. We believe Mexico represents a compelling expansion opportunity for Dollar General, given its demographics and proximity to the U.S., and we are confident that our unique value and convenience proposition will resonate with the Mexican consumer. While our initial entry into Mexico is focused on piloting a small number of stores in 2022, we expect the seeds we plant today will ultimately turn into additional growth opportunities in the future.

我們現在也處於計劃將我們的足跡擴展到墨西哥的早期階段，這將代表我們在美國大陸以外的第一家門店。鑑於其人口結構和靠近美國，我們認為墨西哥代表了 Dollar General 的一個引人注目的擴張機會，我們相信我們獨特的價值和便利性主張將引起墨西哥消費者的共鳴。雖然我們最初進入墨西哥的重點是在 2022 年試行少量商店，但我們預計我們今天種植的種子最終將在未來轉化為額外的增長機會。

Finally, as previously announced, we recently introduced our digital services by partnering with DoorDash to provide delivery in under an hour in over 10,000 locations, further enhancing our convenience proposition while broadening our reach with new customers. Jeff will discuss these updates in more detail later in the call. But first, let's recap some of the top line results for the third quarter.

最後，正如之前宣布的那樣，我們最近通過與 DoorDash 合作推出了我們的數字服務，在 10,000 多個地點提供不到一小時的送貨服務，進一步增強了我們的便利性，同時擴大了我們與新客戶的聯繫。 Jeff 將在稍後的電話會議中更詳細地討論這些更新。但首先，讓我們回顧一下第三季度的一些頂級業績。

Net sales increased 3.9% to $8.5 billion, following a 17.3% increase in Q3 of 2020. Comp sales declined 0.6% to the prior year quarter, which translates to a robust 11.6% increase on a 2-year stack basis. From a monthly cadence perspective, comp sales were lowest in September, with October being our strongest month of performance. And I'm pleased to report that Q4 sales to date are trending in line with our expectations. Our third quarter sales results include a year-over-year decline in customer traffic, which was largely offset by growth in average basket size, even as we lapped significant growth in average basket size last year.

繼 2020 年第三季度增長 17.3% 之後，淨銷售額增長 3.9% 至 85 億美元。比較銷售額比上年同期下降 0.6%，這意味著兩年堆棧基礎上強勁增長了 11.6%。從月度節奏的角度來看，9 月份的複合銷售額最低，10 月份是我們表現最強勁的月份。我很高興地報告，迄今為止第四季度的銷售趨勢符合我們的預期。我們第三季度的銷售業績包括客戶流量同比下降，這在很大程度上被平均購物籃規模的增長所抵消，儘管我們去年的平均購物籃規模顯著增長。

In addition, during the quarter, we saw an improvement in customer traffic as compared to Q2 of 2021, and we continue to be pleased with the retention of the new customers acquired in 2020. We're also pleased with the market share gains as measured by syndicated data in our frozen and refrigerated product categories. And even as our market share in total highly consumable product sales decreased slightly in Q3, we feel good about our overall share gains on a 2-year stack basis.

此外，在本季度，與 2021 年第二季度相比，我們看到客戶流量有所改善，我們繼續對 2020 年獲得的新客戶的保留感到滿意。我們也對衡量的市場份額增長感到滿意通過我們冷凍和冷藏產品類別中的聯合數據。儘管我們在第三季度的高消耗品總銷售額中的市場份額略有下降，但我們對 2 年堆棧基礎上的整體份額增長感到滿意。

Collectively, our third quarter results reflect strong execution across many fronts and further validates our belief that we are pursuing the right strategies to enable sustainable growth, while supporting long-term shareholder value creation. We operate in one of the most attractive sectors in retail. And as a mature retailer in growth mode, we continue to lay the groundwork for future initiatives, which we believe will unlock additional growth opportunities as we move forward.

總的來說，我們第三季度的業績反映了許多方面的強勁執行，並進一步驗證了我們的信念，即我們正在追求正確的戰略以實現可持續增長，同時支持長期股東價值創造。我們在零售業最具吸引力的行業之一開展業務。作為一家處於增長模式的成熟零售商，我們將繼續為未來的舉措奠定基礎，我們相信這將在我們前進的過程中釋放更多的增長機會。

Overall, I've never felt better about the underlying business model, and we are excited about the significant growth opportunities we see ahead. With that, I'll now turn the call over to John.

總體而言，我對潛在的商業模式感覺從未如此好過，我們對我們看到的重大增長機會感到興奮。有了這個，我現在將把電話轉給約翰。

Thank you, Todd, and good morning, everyone. Now that Todd has taken you through a few highlights of the quarter, let me take you through some of its important financial details. Unless we specifically note otherwise, all comparisons are year-over-year. All references to EPS refer to diluted earnings per share and all years noted refer to the corresponding fiscal year. As Todd already discussed sales, I will start with gross profit.

謝謝你，托德，大家早上好。既然托德已經帶您了解了本季度的一些亮點，讓我帶您了解一些重要的財務細節。除非我們另有特別說明，否則所有比較都是同比。所有對每股收益的引用均指稀釋後的每股收益，所有註明的年份均指相應的財政年度。正如托德已經討論過銷售，我將從毛利潤開始。

As a reminder, gross profit in Q3 2020 was positively impacted by a significant increase in sales, including net sales growth of 24% in our combined non-consumable categories. For Q3 2021, gross profit as a percentage of sales was 30.8%, a decrease of 57 basis points but an increase of 121 basis points compared to Q3 2019. The decrease compared to Q3 2020 was primarily attributable to a higher LIFO provision, increased transportation costs, a greater proportion of sales coming from our consumables category and an increase in inventory damages. These factors were partially offset by higher inventory markups and a reduction in shrink as a percentage of sales.

提醒一下，2020 年第三季度的毛利潤受到銷售額顯著增長的積極影響，包括我們綜合非消耗品類別的淨銷售額增長 24%。 2021 年第三季度，毛利潤佔銷售額的百分比為 30.8%，比 2019 年第三季度下降 57 個基點，但增加了 121 個基點。與 2020 年第三季度相比，下降的主要原因是 LIFO 撥備增加、運輸增加成本、更大比例的銷售來自我們的消耗品類別以及庫存損失的增加。這些因素被較高的庫存加價和減少佔銷售額的百分比所抵消。

SG&A as a percentage of sales was 22.9%, an increase of 105 basis points. This increase was driven by expenses that were greater as a percentage of sales in the current year period, the most significant of which were retail labor and store occupancy costs. The quarter also included $16 million of disaster-related expenses attributable to Hurricane Ida.

SG&A 佔銷售額的百分比為 22.9%，增加了 105 個基點。這一增長是由本年度佔銷售額百分比較高的費用推動的，其中最重要的是零售勞動力和商店入住成本。本季度還包括 1600 萬美元與颶風艾達有關的災害相關費用。

Moving down the income statement, operating profit for the third quarter decreased 13.9% to $665.6 million. As a percentage of sales, operating profit was 7.8%, a decrease of 162 basis points. And while the unusual and difficult prior year comparison created pressure on our operating margin rate, we're very pleased with the improvement of 78 basis points compared to Q3 2019. Our effective tax rate for the quarter was 22.2% and compares to 21.6% in the third quarter last year. Finally, EPS for Q3 decreased 10% to $2.08, which reflects a compound annual growth rate of 21% over a 2-year period.

在損益表中，第三季度的營業利潤下降了 13.9% 至 6.656 億美元。營業利潤佔銷售額的百分比為 7.8%，下降 162 個基點。儘管與去年不同尋常和困難的比較給我們的營業利潤率帶來了壓力，但我們對與 2019 年第三季度相比提高了 78 個基點感到非常滿意。我們本季度的有效稅率為 22.2%，而上一季度為 21.6%去年第三季度。最後，第三季度每股收益下降 10% 至 2.08 美元，這反映了 2 年期間 21% 的複合年增長率。

Turning now to our balance sheet and cash flow, which remains strong and provide us the financial flexibility to continue investing for the long term, while delivering significant returns to shareholders. Merchandise inventories were $5.3 billion at the end of the third quarter, an increase of 5.4% overall and a decrease of 0.1% on a per store basis. And while we're not satisfied with our overall in-stock levels, we continue to make good progress and are focused on improving our in-stock position, particularly in our consumables business. Looking ahead, we are pleased with our inventory position for the holiday shopping season, and our teams continue to work closely with suppliers to ensure delivery of goods for the remainder of the year. Year-to-date through the third quarter, we generated significant cash flow from operations totaling $2.2 billion.

現在轉向我們的資產負債表和現金流，它們仍然強勁，為我們提供了繼續長期投資的財務靈活性，同時為股東帶來了可觀的回報。第三季度末商品庫存為 53 億美元，整體增長 5.4%，單店下降 0.1%。雖然我們對整體庫存水平不滿意，但我們繼續取得良好進展，並專注於改善我們的庫存狀況，特別是在我們的消耗品業務方面。展望未來，我們對假日購物季的庫存狀況感到滿意，我們的團隊將繼續與供應商密切合作，以確保今年剩餘時間的貨物交付。年初至今到第三季度，我們從運營中產生了總計 22 億美元的大量現金流。

Capital expenditures through the first 3 quarters were $779 million and included our planned investments in new stores, remodels and relocations, distribution and transportation projects and spending related to our strategic initiatives. During the quarter, we repurchased 1.6 million shares of our common stock for $360 million and paid a quarterly dividend of $0.42 per common share outstanding at a total cost of $97 million. At the end of Q3, the total remaining authorization for future repurchases was $619 million. We announced today that our Board has increased its authorization by $2 billion.

前三個季度的資本支出為 7.79 億美元，其中包括我們對新店、改造和搬遷、分銷和運輸項目的計劃投資以及與我們的戰略計劃相關的支出。在本季度，我們以 3.6 億美元的價格回購了 160 萬股普通股，並支付了每股 0.42 美元的季度股息，總成本為 9700 萬美元。截至第三季度末，未來回購的剩餘授權總額為 6.19 億美元。我們今天宣布，我們的董事會已將其授權增加了 20 億美元。

Our capital allocation priorities continue to serve us well and remain unchanged. Our first priority is investing in high-return growth opportunities, including new store expansion and our strategic initiatives. We also remain committed to returning significant cash to shareholders through anticipated share repurchases and quarterly dividend payments, all while maintaining our current investment-grade credit rating and managing to a leverage ratio of approximately 3x adjusted debt to EBITDAR.

我們的資本配置優先事項繼續為我們服務，並保持不變。我們的首要任務是投資於高回報的增長機會，包括新店擴張和我們的戰略舉措。我們還繼續致力於通過預期的股票回購和季度股息支付向股東返還大量現金，同時保持我們目前的投資級信用評級，並管理調整後債務與 EBITDAR 的槓桿比率約為 3 倍。

Moving to an update on our financial outlook for fiscal 2021. We continue to operate in a time of uncertainty regarding the economic recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic, including any changes in consumer behavior and the corresponding impacts on our business. Despite continued uncertainty, including cost inflation and ongoing pressure throughout the supply chain, we are updating our sales and EPS guidance, which reflects our strong performance through the first 3 quarters as well as our expectations for Q4.

繼續更新我們對 2021 財年的財務展望。我們繼續在 COVID-19 大流行後經濟復甦不確定的時期運營，包括消費者行為的任何變化以及對我們業務的相應影響。儘管存在持續的不確定性，包括成本上漲和整個供應鏈的持續壓力，我們正在更新我們的銷售和每股收益指引，這反映了我們前三個季度的強勁表現以及我們對第四季度的預期。

For 2021, we now expect the following: net sales growth of approximately 1% to 1.5%; a same-store sales decline of approximately 3% to 2.5%, but which reflects growth of approximately 13% to 14% on a 2-year stack basis; and EPS in the range of $9.90 to $10.20, which reflects a compound annual growth rate in the range of 22% to 24% or approximately 21% to 23% compared to 2019 adjusted EPS over a 2-year period. Our EPS guidance now assumes an effective tax rate of approximately 22%. Finally, our expectations for capital spending, share repurchases and real estate projects remain unchanged from what we stated in our earnings release on August 26, 2021.

對於 2021 年，我們現在預計：淨銷售額增長約 1% 至 1.5%；同店銷售額下降約 3% 至 2.5%，但反映了 2 年堆棧基礎上約 13% 至 14% 的增長；每股收益在 9.90 美元至 10.20 美元之間，與 2019 年調整後的每股收益在 2 年期間相比，複合年增長率在 22% 至 24% 或約 21% 至 23% 之間。我們的每股收益指引現在假設有效稅率約為 22%。最後，我們對資本支出、股票回購和房地產項目的預期與我們在 2021 年 8 月 26 日發布的財報中所述保持不變。

Let me now provide some additional context as it relates to our outlook. In terms of sales, we remain cautious in our outlook over the next couple of months, given the continued uncertainties arising from the COVID-19 pandemic, including additional supply chain disruptions and the impact of the end of certain federal aid, such as additional unemployment benefits and stimulus payments.

現在讓我提供一些與我們的前景相關的額外背景。在銷售方面，鑑於 COVID-19 大流行帶來的持續不確定性，包括額外的供應鏈中斷和某些聯邦援助結束的影響，例如額外的失業，我們對未來幾個月的前景保持謹慎福利和刺激支付。

Turning to gross margin, please keep in mind, we will continue to cycle strong gross margin performance from the prior year, where we benefited from a favorable sales mix and a reduction in markdowns, including the benefit of higher sell-through rate. Consistent with Q2 and Q3, we expect continued pressure on our gross margin rate in the fourth quarter due to a higher LIFO provision as a result of cost of goods increases, a less favorable sales mix compared to the prior year quarter and an increase in markdown rates as we continue to cycle the abnormally low levels in 2020.

談到毛利率，請記住，我們將繼續從去年開始循環強勁的毛利率表現，我們受益於有利的銷售組合和降價幅度的減少，包括更高的銷售率。與第二季度和第三季度一致，我們預計第四季度毛利率將繼續承壓，原因是由於商品成本增加導致後進先出準備金增加、與去年同期相比銷售組合不利以及降價幅度增加隨著我們在 2020 年繼續循環異常低的水平。

We also anticipate higher supply chain costs in Q4 compared to the 2020 period. Like other retailers, our business continues to be impacted by higher costs due to transit and port delays as well as elevated demand for services at third-party carriers. However, despite these challenges, we're confident in our ability to continue navigating these transitory pressures.

我們還預計，與 2020 年相比，第四季度的供應鏈成本會更高。與其他零售商一樣，由於過境和港口延誤以及第三方承運人對服務的需求增加，我們的業務繼續受到成本上升的影響。然而，儘管存在這些挑戰，我們對繼續應對這些暫時壓力的能力充滿信心。

With regards to SG&A, we continue to expect about $70 million to $80 million in incremental year-over-year investments in our strategic initiatives. This amount includes $56 million in incremental investments made during the first 3 quarters of 2021. However, in aggregate, we continue to expect our strategic initiatives will positively contribute to operating profit and margin in 2021, driven by NCI and DG Fresh, as we expect the benefits to gross margin from our initiatives will more than offset the associated SG&A expense.

關於 SG&A，我們繼續預計在我們的戰略計劃中的同比投資增加約 7000 萬至 8000 萬美元。這一金額包括 2021 年前 3 個季度進行的 5600 萬美元增量投資。但是，總體而言，我們繼續預計，在 NCI 和 DG Fresh 的推動下，我們的戰略舉措將在 2021 年為營業利潤和利潤率做出積極貢獻，正如我們預期的那樣我們的舉措對毛利率的好處將超過相關的 SG&A 費用。

Finally, our updated guidance does not include any impact from the proposed federal vaccine and testing mandate, including potential disruptions to the business or labor market or any incremental expense.

最後，我們更新的指南不包括擬議的聯邦疫苗和測試任務的任何影響，包括對商業或勞動力市場的潛在干擾或任何增加的費用。

In closing, we are pleased with our third quarter results, which are a testament to the strong performance and execution by the team. As always, we continue to be disciplined in how we manage expenses and capital, with the goal of delivering consistent, strong financial performance, while strategically investing for the long term. We remain confident in our business model and our ongoing financial priorities to drive profitable same-store sales growth, healthy new store returns, strong free cash flow and long-term shareholder value.

最後，我們對第三季度的業績感到滿意，這證明了團隊的強勁表現和執行力。與往常一樣，我們繼續嚴格管理費用和資本，目標是提供一致、強勁的財務業績，同時進行長期戰略投資。我們對我們的商業模式和持續的財務優先事項充滿信心，以推動盈利的同店銷售增長、健康的新店回報、強勁的自由現金流和長期股東價值。

With that, I will turn the call over to Jeff.

有了這個，我會把電話轉給傑夫。

Thank you, John. Let me take the next few minutes to update you on our operating priorities and strategic initiatives. Our first operating priority is driving profitable sales growth. The team did a great job this quarter executing against a robust portfolio of growth initiatives.

謝謝你，約翰。讓我在接下來的幾分鐘內向您介紹我們的運營重點和戰略計劃。我們的首要經營任務是推動可盈利的銷售增長。該團隊本季度在執行強大的增長計劃組合方面做得很好。

Let me highlight some of our more recent efforts. Starting with our nonconsumables initiative, or NCI. The NCI offering was available in nearly 11,000 stores at the end of Q3 and we continue to be very pleased with the strong performance we are seeing across our NCI store base. Notably, this performance is contributing an incremental 2.5% total comp sales increase on average and NCI stores, along with a meaningful improvement in gross margin rate as compared to stores without the NCI offering. Overall, we now plan to expand this offering to a total of more than 11,500 stores by year-end, including over 2,000 stores in our light version and we expect to complete the rollout of NCI across nearly the entire chain by year-end 2022.

讓我強調一下我們最近的一些努力。從我們的非消耗品計劃或 NCI 開始。截至第三季度末，近 11,000 家商店提供 NCI 產品，我們繼續對我們在 NCI 商店群中看到的強勁表現感到非常滿意。值得注意的是，與沒有提供 NCI 產品的商店相比，這一表現使 NCI 商店的平均總銷售額增加了 2.5%，同時毛利率顯著提高。總體而言，我們現在計劃在年底前將此服務擴展到總共 11,500 多家商店，其中包括 2,000 多家我們的輕量版商店，我們預計到 2022 年底將在幾乎整個連鎖店完成 NCI 的推出。

Moving to our pOpshelf concept, which further builds on our success and learnings with NCI. pOpshelf aims to engage customers by offering a fun, affordable and differentiated treasure hunt experience delivered through continually refreshed merchandise, a unique in-store experience and exceptional value with the vast majority of our items priced at $5 or less. During the quarter, we added 14 new pOpshelf locations, bringing the total number of stores to 30, opened our first 14 store-within-a-store concepts and celebrated the 1-year anniversary of our first pOpshelf store opening.

轉向我們的 pOpshelf 概念，它進一步建立在我們與 NCI 的成功和學習的基礎上。 pOpshelf 旨在通過提供有趣、實惠和差異化的尋寶體驗來吸引客戶，通過不斷更新的商品、獨特的店內體驗和非凡的價值來提供我們絕大多數商品的價格在 5 美元或以下。在本季度，我們新增了 14 家 pOpshelf 門店，使門店總數達到 30 家，開設了首個 14 家店中店概念，並慶祝了我們第一家 pOpshelf 門店開業一周年。

For 2021, we remain on track to have a total of up to 50 pOpshelf locations by year-end as well as up to an additional 25 store-within-a-store concepts, which incorporates a smaller footprint pOpshelf shop into one of our larger format Dollar General Market stores. Importantly, as Todd noted earlier, we continue to be very pleased with the performance of our pOpshelf stores, which have far exceeded our expectations for both sales and gross margin. In fact, we anticipate year 1 annualized sales volumes for our current locations to be between $1.7 million and $2 million per store, and expect the initial average gross margin rate for these stores to exceed 40%. We believe this bodes well for the future as we move towards our goal of about 1,000 pOpshelf locations by year-end 2025.

到 2021 年，我們仍有望在年底前總共擁有多達 50 個 pOpshelf 門店，以及多達 25 個店中店概念，這會將佔地面積較小的 pOpshelf 商店整合到我們較大的一個格式化美元綜合市場商店。重要的是，正如 Todd 之前指出的，我們仍然對我們的 pOpshelf 商店的表現感到非常滿意，這遠遠超出了我們對銷售和毛利率的預期。事實上，我們預計我們當前位置的第一年年化銷售額將在每家商店 170 萬美元到 200 萬美元之間，並預計這些商店的初始平均毛利率將超過 40%。我們相信，隨著我們朝著到 2025 年底約 1,000 個 pOpshelf 地點的目標邁進，這對未來來說是個好兆頭。

Turning now to DG Fresh, which is a strategic, multiphase shift to self-distribution of frozen and refrigerated goods. As a reminder, we completed the initial rollout of DG Fresh across the entire chain in Q2 and are now delivering to more than 18,000 stores from 12 facilities. The primary objective of DG Fresh is to reduce product cost on our frozen and refrigerated items, and we continue to be very pleased with the savings we are seeing as DG Fresh remains a meaningful contributor to our gross margin rate.

現在轉向 DG Fresh，這是一個向冷凍和冷藏商品自我分銷的戰略性多階段轉變。提醒一下，我們在第二季度完成了 DG Fresh 在整個連鎖店的首次推廣，現在從 12 個設施向 18,000 多家商店提供服務。 DG Fresh 的主要目標是降低我們冷凍和冷藏產品的產品成本，我們繼續對我們看到的節省感到非常滿意，因為 DG Fresh 仍然是我們毛利率的重要貢獻者。

Another goal of DG Fresh is to increase sales in these categories, and we are very happy with the performance on this front as overall comp sales of our frozen and refrigerated goods outperformed all other product categories in Q3, even against the difficult prior year sales comparison. Going forward, we expect to realize additional benefits from DG Fresh as we continue to optimize our network, further leverage our scale, deliver an even wider product selection and build on our multiyear track record of growth in cooler doors and associated sales.

DG Fresh 的另一個目標是增加這些類別的銷售額，我們對這方面的表現非常滿意，因為我們的冷凍和冷藏商品的整體組合銷售額在第三季度優於所有其他產品類別，即使與去年的銷售比較困難.展望未來，隨著我們繼續優化我們的網絡、進一步利用我們的規模、提供更廣泛的產品選擇以及建立我們在冷藏門和相關銷售方面的多年增長記錄，我們預計將從 DG Fresh 獲得更多收益。

With regards to our cooler expansion program, during the first 3 quarters, we added more than 52,000 cooler doors across our store base. In total, we expect to install approximately 65,000 additional cooler doors in 2021, the majority of which will be in high-capacity coolers.

關於我們的冷卻器擴展計劃，在前三個季度，我們在我們的商店基地增加了超過 52,000 個冷卻器門。總體而言，我們預計到 2021 年將額外安裝大約 65,000 個冷卻器門，其中大部分將安裝在大容量冷卻器中。

Turning now to an update on our expanded health offering, which consists of about 30% more feet of selling space and nearly 400 additional items as compared to our standard offering. This offering was available in nearly 800 stores at the end of Q3, with plans to expand to approximately 1,000 stores by year-end. Looking ahead, our plans include further expansion of our health offering with the goal of increasing access to basic health care products and ultimately services over time, particularly in rural America.

現在轉向我們擴展的健康產品的更新，與我們的標準產品相比，它包括大約 30% 的銷售空間和近 400 個額外的項目。截至第三季度末，該產品在近 800 家門店中提供，併計劃在年底前擴大至約 1,000 家門店。展望未來，我們的計劃包括進一步擴展我們的醫療服務，目標是隨著時間的推移增加獲得基本醫療保健產品和最終服務的機會，尤其是在美國農村地區。

In addition to the gross margin benefits associated with the initiatives I just discussed, we continue to pursue other opportunities to enhance gross margin, including improvements in private brand sales, global sourcing, supply chain efficiencies and shrink. Our second priority is capturing growth opportunities. We recently celebrated a significant milestone with the opening of our 18,000th store, which reflects the fantastic work of our best-in-class real estate team as we continue to expand our footprint and further enhance our ability to serve additional customers.

除了與我剛才討論的舉措相關的毛利率收益外，我們繼續尋求其他機會來提高毛利率，包括改善自有品牌銷售、全球採購、供應鏈效率和收縮。我們的第二要務是抓住增長機會。我們最近慶祝了一個重要的里程碑，開設了第 18,000 家門店，這反映了我們一流的房地產團隊在我們繼續擴大業務範圍並進一步提高服務更多客戶的能力時所做的出色工作。

Through the first 3 quarters, we completed a total of 2,386 real estate projects, including 798 new stores, 1,506 remodels and 82 relocations. For 2021, we remain on track to open 1,050 new stores, remodel 1,750 stores and relocate 100 stores, representing 2,900 real estate projects in total. In addition, we now have produce in approximately 1,900 stores, with plans to expand this offering to a total of over 2,000 stores by year-end. For 2022, we plan to execute 2,980 real estate projects in total, including 1,110 new stores, 1,750 remodels and 120 store relocations. We also plan to add produce in approximately 1,000 additional stores next year, with the goal of ultimately expanding this offering to a total of up to 10,000 stores over time.

前三季度，我們共完成房地產項目2386個，其中新店798個，改造1506個，搬遷82個。 2021年，新開1050家，改造1750家，搬遷100家，共計2900個房地產項目。此外，我們現在在大約 1,900 家門店生產，併計劃在年底前將這一產品擴展到 2,000 多家門店。 2022年，我們計劃共執行2,980個房地產項目，其中包括1,110家新店、1,750家改造和120家門店搬遷。我們還計劃明年在大約 1,000 家額外的商店中增加產品，目標是隨著時間的推移最終將這種產品擴展到多達 10,000 家商店。

Of note, we expect approximately 800 of our new stores in 2022 to be in our larger 8,500 square foot new store prototype, allowing for a more optimal assortment and room to accommodate future growth. Importantly, we continue to be very pleased with the sales productivity of this larger format as average sales per square foot continue to trend about 15% above an average traditional store. Our 2022 real estate plans also include opening approximately 100 additional pOpshelf locations, bringing the total number of pOpshelf stores to about 150 by year-end as well as up to an additional 25 store-within-a-store concepts.

值得注意的是，我們預計 2022 年約有 800 家新店將在我們更大的 8,500 平方英尺的新店原型中，從而提供更優化的分類和空間以適應未來的增長。重要的是，我們繼續對這種更大格式的銷售生產力感到非常滿意，因為每平方英尺的平均銷售額繼續比平均傳統商店高出約 15%。我們 2022 年的房地產計劃還包括開設大約 100 個額外的 pOpshelf 地點，到年底將 pOpshelf 商店的總數增加到約 150 家，以及多達 25 家店中店概念。

As Todd noted, we are also very excited about our plans to expand our footprint internationally for the first time, with plans to open up to 10 stores in Mexico by year-end 2022 as we look to extend our value and convenience offering to even more communities, while continuing to lay the foundation for future growth. Overall, our proven high-return, low-risk real estate model continues to be a core strength of our business. And the good news is we believe we still have a long runway for new unit growth ahead of us.

正如托德所說，我們也對首次在國際上擴大業務的計劃感到非常興奮，我們計劃到 2022 年底在墨西哥開設多達 10 家門店，因為我們希望將我們的價值和便利服務擴展到更多社區，同時繼續為未來的發展奠定基礎。總體而言，我們久經考驗的高回報、低風險房地產模式仍然是我們業務的核心優勢。好消息是，我們相信新單位的增長還有很長的路要走。

In fact, across our Dollar General, pOpshelf and DGX format types, we estimate there are approximately 17,000 new store opportunities potentially available in the Continental United States alone. Although these opportunities are available to all small box retailers, we expect to continue capturing a disproportionate share as we move forward. And while still early, we expect our entry into Mexico will ultimately unlock a significant number of additional new unit opportunities in the years to come. When taken together, our real estate pipeline remains robust, and we are excited about the significant new store opportunities ahead.

事實上，在我們的 Dollar General、pOpshelf 和 DGX 格式類型中，我們估計僅在美國大陸就有大約 17,000 個新店機會。儘管所有小包裝零售商都可以獲得這些機會，但我們預計隨著我們的前進，我們將繼續獲得不成比例的份額。雖然還為時過早，但我們預計我們進入墨西哥最終將在未來幾年釋放大量額外的新單位機會。綜合起來，我們的房地產管道仍然強勁，我們對未來的重要新店機會感到興奮。

Next, our digital initiative, which is an important complement to our physical store footprint as we continue to deploy and leverage technology to further enhance convenience and access for our customers. Our efforts remain centered around building engagement across our digital properties, including our mobile app. Of note, we ended Q3 with over 4.4 million monthly active users on the app and expect this number to grow as we look to further enhance our digital offerings.

接下來，我們的數字計劃是對我們實體店足蹟的重要補充，因為我們將繼續部署和利用技術來進一步提高客戶的便利性和訪問權限。我們的努力仍然集中在建立我們的數字資產的參與度，包括我們的移動應用程序。值得注意的是，我們在第三季度結束時擁有超過 440 萬的月度活躍用戶，並且隨著我們尋求進一步增強我們的數字產品，這個數字將會增長。

As Todd noted, our partnership with DoorDash is another example of meeting the evolving needs of our customers by providing the savings offered by Dollar General, combined with the convenience of same-day delivery in an hour or less. And while still early, we are pleased with the initial results, including better-than-expected customer trial, strong repurchase rates, high levels of sales incrementality and a broadening of our customer base.

正如 Todd 所指出的，我們與 DoorDash 的合作是通過提供 Dollar General 提供的節省以及一小時或更短時間當日送達的便利性來滿足客戶不斷變化的需求的另一個例子。雖然還處於早期階段，但我們對初步結果感到滿意，包括好於預期的客戶試用、強勁的回購率、高水平的銷售增量和擴大我們的客戶群。

Our DG Media Network, which we launched in 2018, is also seeing strong results, including significant growth in the number of campaigns on our platform. Overall, we remain very excited about the long-term growth potential of this business, and we look to better connect our brand partners with our customers in a way that is accretive to the customer experience.

我們於 2018 年推出的 DG 媒體網絡也取得了強勁的成果，包括我們平台上的活動數量顯著增長。總體而言，我們對該業務的長期增長潛力仍然感到非常興奮，我們希望以一種增加客戶體驗的方式更好地將我們的品牌合作夥伴與我們的客戶聯繫起來。

Going forward, our plans include providing more relevant, meaningful and personalized offerings with the goal of driving even higher levels of customer engagement across our digital ecosystem.

展望未來，我們的計劃包括提供更相關、更有意義和個性化的產品，目標是在我們的數字生態系統中推動更高水平的客戶參與。

Our third operating priority is to leverage and reinforce our position as a low-cost operator. We have a clear and defined process to control spending, which continues to govern our disciplined approach to spending decisions. This zero-based budgeting approach, internally branded as Save to Serve, keeps the customer at the center of all we do, while reinforcing our cost control mindset. Our Fast Track initiative is a great example of this approach, where our goals include increasing labor productivity in our stores, enhancing customer convenience and further improving on-shelf availability.

我們的第三個運營重點是利用和鞏固我們作為低成本運營商的地位。我們有一個明確而明確的流程來控制支出，這將繼續指導我們嚴格的支出決策方法。這種從零開始的預算方法，內部品牌為“節省服務”，將客戶放在我們所做的一切的中心，同時加強我們的成本控制心態。我們的 Fast Track 計劃就是這種方法的一個很好的例子，我們的目標包括提高我們商店的勞動生產率、提高客戶便利性和進一步提高貨架上的可用性。

The first phase of Fast Track consisted of both rolltainer and case pack optimization, which has led to the more efficient stocking of our stores. The second component of Fast Track is self-checkout, which provides customers with another flexible and convenient checkout solution, while also driving greater efficiencies for our store associates. Looking ahead, our plans now include expanding this offering to over 6,000 stores by year-end 2021 and to the majority of our store base by the end of 2022 as we look to further extend our position as an innovative leader in small box discount retail. Our underlying principles are to keep the business simple, but move quickly to capture growth opportunities, while controlling expenses and always seeking to be a low-cost operator.

Fast Track 的第一階段包括行李箱和箱包優化，這使得我們商店的庫存更加高效。 Fast Track 的第二個組成部分是自助結賬，它為客戶提供了另一種靈活方便的結賬解決方案，同時也為我們的店員提高了效率。展望未來，我們現在的計劃包括到 2021 年底將這項服務擴展到 6,000 多家商店，到 2022 年底擴展到我們的大部分商店，因為我們希望進一步擴大我們作為小盒折扣零售創新領導者的地位。我們的基本原則是保持業務簡單，但迅速採取行動以抓住增長機會，同時控制費用並始終尋求成為低成本運營商。

Our fourth operating priority is investing in our diverse teams through development, empowerment and inclusion. As a growing retailer, we continue to create new jobs in the communities we serve. As evidence, in 2022, we plan to create more than 8,000 net new jobs. In addition, our growth also fosters an environment, where employees have opportunities to advance to roles with increasing levels of responsibility and meaningful wage growth and a relatively short time frame. In fact, over 75% of our store associates at or above the lead sales associate position were internally placed, and we continue to innovate on the development opportunities we offer our teams.

我們的第四個運營重點是通過發展、授權和包容對我們多元化的團隊進行投資。作為一家成長中的零售商，我們繼續在我們服務的社區創造新的就業機會。作為證據，我們計劃在 2022 年創造 8,000 多個淨新工作崗位。此外，我們的成長還營造了一種環境，在這種環境中，員工有機會晉升到責任水平不斷提高、工資增長有意義且時間相對較短的職位。事實上，超過 75% 的擔任首席銷售助理職位或以上職位的門店員工是內部安置的，我們將繼續創新我們為團隊提供的發展機會。

Importantly, we believe these efforts continue to yield positive results across our store base, as evidenced by our robust promotion pipeline, healthy applicant flows and staffing above traditional levels. We believe the opportunity to start and develop a career with a growing and purpose-driven company is a unique competitive advantage and remains our greatest currency in attracting and retaining talent.

重要的是，我們相信這些努力將繼續在我們的商店基礎上產生積極成果，我們強大的促銷渠道、健康的申請人流動和高於傳統水平的人員配置證明了這一點。我們相信，有機會在一家成長中且以目標為導向的公司開始和發展職業生涯是一種獨特的競爭優勢，並且仍然是我們吸引和留住人才的最大貨幣。

We also recently completed our annual community giving campaign, where our employees came together to raise funds for a variety of important causes. And I was once again inspired by the generosity and compassion of our people. Our mission of serving others is deeply embedded in the daily culture at Dollar General, and I am so proud to be a part of such an incredible team.

我們最近還完成了年度社區捐贈活動，我們的員工齊聚一堂，為各種重要事業籌集資金。我再次受到我們人民的慷慨和同情的啟發。我們為他人服務的使命深深植根於 Dollar General 的日常文化中，我很自豪能成為這樣一個令人難以置信的團隊的一員。

In closing, we are making great progress against our operating priorities and strategic initiatives. And with the actions and multiyear initiatives we have in place, we are confident in our plans to drive long-term sustainable growth and shareholder value creation. As we are in the midst of a truly unique and busy holiday season, I want to offer my sincere thanks to each of our more than 162,000 employees across the company for their hard work and dedication to fulfilling our mission of serving others.

最後，我們在運營重點和戰略舉措方面取得了長足的進步。通過我們採取的行動和多年計劃，我們對推動長期可持續增長和股東價值創造的計劃充滿信心。由於我們正處於一個真正獨特而忙碌的假期，我想向全公司 162,000 多名員工的每一位員工表示衷心的感謝，感謝他們辛勤工作並致力於履行我們為他人服務的使命。

With that, operator, we would now like to open the lines for questions.

有了這個，操作員，我們現在想打開問題線。

(Operator Instructions) Our first question comes from Simeon Gutman with Morgan Stanley.

（操作員說明）我們的第一個問題來自摩根士丹利的 Simeon Gutman。

My first question, I'd like to put the spotlight on the low-income consumer. We have stimulus rolling off, we're going to be lapping massive stimulus in the first half of next year. And on the other side, you have jobs and wages starting to grow. Can you talk about your stance? Are you seeing any signs that the customer is getting stronger or weaker?

我的第一個問題，我想把焦點放在低收入消費者身上。我們推出了刺激措施，我們將在明年上半年推出大規模刺激措施。另一方面，你的工作和工資開始增長。能談談你的立場嗎？您是否看到任何跡象表明客戶正在變強或變弱？

Simeon, it's Todd. I would tell you that our core consumer continues to be in pretty good shape. You're 100% right that a lot of the stimulus money has now dissipated. But I've always said, and our core customer has always said, as long as she is gainfully employed, that is probably the biggest driver of her confidence to spend. And there is no doubt that she is gainfully employed right now and can work as many hours as she may or may not want to. But as we look through the remainder of this year and into next, we believe that she'll continue to be gainfully employed. And with that, will have money to spend.

西蒙，是托德。我會告訴你，我們的核心消費者仍然處於非常好的狀態。你是 100% 正確的，很多刺激資金現在已經消散了。但我一直說，我們的核心客戶也一直說，只要她有收入，這可能是她消費信心的最大推動力。毫無疑問，她現在的工作是有報酬的，並且可以工作盡可能多的時間，無論她願意或不願意。但當我們回顧今年剩餘時間和明年時，我們相信她將繼續獲得有報酬的工作。有了這個，就會有錢花。

And then the other thing to think about with this low-cost consumer, to your point, we continue to show great value, right? When you look at how we operate, our pricing is as good as ever against all classes of trade. And as we talked about in our prepared remarks, we're not walking away from a $1 price point. We believe that's so important to her as we continue to move forward. Not that we believe it, she tells us that each and every day. So I think that value and convenience message will continue to resonate with our core consumer.

然後要考慮這個低成本消費者的另一件事，就您而言，我們繼續展示出巨大的價值，對嗎？當您查看我們的運營方式時，我們的定價與所有類別的貿易一樣好。正如我們在準備好的評論中談到的那樣，我們不會放棄 1 美元的價格點。我們相信，隨著我們繼續前進，這對她來說非常重要。不是我們相信它，她每天都告訴我們。所以我認為價值和便利信息將繼續與我們的核心消費者產生共鳴。

And maybe transitioning to the fourth quarter, more of a near-term financial question, it implies that the fourth quarter EBIT margin is going to be pretty below where it was 2 years ago, I think, by about 80 bps, even though year-to-date, you're up nicely versus 2 years ago and even Q3 was as well. So besides the typical conservatism in the way you model, anything else can we speak to discrete incremental expense for investments?

也許過渡到第四季度，更多的是一個近期的財務問題，這意味著第四季度的息稅前利潤率將大大低於兩年前的水平，我認為，大約是 80 個基點，儘管年-迄今為止，與 2 年前相比，你的表現很好，甚至第三季度也是如此。因此，除了您建模方式中的典型保守主義之外，我們還可以談論投資的離散增量費用嗎？

No, nothing incremental in terms of investments. We noted the $70 million, $80 million of investments in the strategic initiatives, which again are accretive overall. And then the other thing we pointed out is just on the gross margin. You certainly have a continued pressure that we anticipate, associated with the supply chain, which, again, we believe that's transitory in nature. It's a supply and demand issue, but we saw that increase as we went into -- from Q2 to Q3, and we expect that to remain elevated year-over-year as we look at Q4.

不，在投資方面沒有任何增量。我們注意到對戰略計劃的 7000 萬美元、8000 萬美元的投資，總體上再次具有增值作用。然後我們指出的另一件事就是毛利率。您肯定會面臨我們預期的持續壓力，與供應鏈相關，我們再次認為這在本質上是暫時的。這是一個供需問題，但隨著我們進入第二季度到第三季度，我們看到了這種增長，我們預計第四季度的增長將保持同比增長。

And then obviously, the other big piece here is inflation. We're seeing higher prices passed along from vendors, and that's showing up in terms of the LIFO provision, which we noted. But that's really the key drivers I would point to on a 2-year basis. And then on a 1-year basis, I would just point to the very difficult lap as we're lapping extremely high sales of nonconsumable goods, which have a higher margin as well as unusually low markdowns around clearance items, just given the extremely high sell-through last year.

然後很明顯，這裡的另一個重要因素是通貨膨脹。我們看到供應商傳遞的價格更高，這體現在我們注意到的 LIFO 條款中。但這確實是我在 2 年的基礎上指出的關鍵驅動因素。然後在 1 年的基礎上，我只想指出非常困難的一圈，因為我們正在研究非常高的非消耗品銷售額，這些商品的利潤率更高，而且清倉商品的降價幅度非常低，只是考慮到極高的去年銷售。

Our next question comes from Matthew Boss with JPMorgan.

我們的下一個問題來自摩根大通的 Matthew Boss。

Congrats on a nice quarter. So Todd, the high end of your full year comp guidance implies a 12.7% stack in the fourth quarter. I think that's more than 100 basis points improvement from the third quarter. Any drivers behind the recent reacceleration in business? Is this value in convenience as you cited in the face of rising cost of living for your core consumer? Or is this confidence based on what you've seen in November? Just any color on the fourth quarter so far.

祝賀一個不錯的季度。所以托德，你全年薪酬指導的高端意味著第四季度的籌碼為 12.7%。我認為這比第三季度提高了 100 多個基點。最近業務重新加速的背後有什麼驅動因素嗎？面對核心消費者不斷上漲的生活成本，您提到的便利價值是否如此？或者這種信心是基於你在 11 月看到的情況？到目前為止，第四季度的任何顏色。

Thanks for the question, Matt. As you know, right, we put out a range and we definitely see that the consumer is still shopping at a pretty good rate. But I would tell you there's a lot of the quarter left. So let's make sure we temper that just a bit. But the great thing about Dollar General is that we have never taken our eye off the ball on what that consumer is looking for. And that gives us that confidence as we move through this year and into next on our ability to continue to service that consumer and if there is any trade down that tends to come in that, that consumer will also enjoy those benefits.

謝謝你的問題，馬特。如您所知，對，我們推出了一個範圍，我們肯定看到消費者仍然以相當不錯的價格購物。但我會告訴你，這個季度還有很多。所以讓我們確保我們稍微緩和一下。但 Dollar General 的偉大之處在於，我們從未將注意力從消費者的需求上移開。這給了我們信心，因為我們今年和明年有能力繼續為該消費者提供服務，如果有任何貿易下降趨勢，該消費者也將享受這些好處。

And then lastly, we still are very positive on the trade-down consumer that came in during the pandemic or trade-in is probably a better term for it. And those numbers continue to exceed our expectation on retention rate. So we've got that moving through the fourth quarter and into next year as well. So with all that high end of the guidance is very attainable. But on the other side, we've got a lot of quarter left and that's why we give you that nice range.

最後，我們仍然非常看好大流行期間出現的以舊換新的消費者，或者以舊換新可能是一個更好的術語。這些數字繼續超出我們對保留率的預期。因此，我們已經將其貫穿到第四季度並進入明年。因此，有了這麼多高端的指導是非常容易實現的。但另一方面，我們還剩下很多四分之一，這就是我們為您提供這麼好的範圍的原因。

Great. It's a perfect follow-up, I think, for my second question. If I use that same math, 12.7% 2-year stack in the fourth quarter, again, high end of your guide exiting the year. It basically translates to a 6% to 7% 1-year comp, and that's double your pre-pandemic 3-year average. I think it was around 3% to 3.5%. So is this new customer acquisition? Is this market share gains? Is this a trade-down consumer? I guess, question being is, how best do you think about your ability to hold some of these gains as we think about next year and beyond?

偉大的。我認為，對於我的第二個問題，這是一個完美的跟進。如果我使用相同的數學計算，第四季度 12.7% 的 2 年堆棧，再次，您的指南的高端退出今年。它基本上轉化為 6% 到 7% 的 1 年補償，這是大流行前 3 年平均水平的兩倍。我認為大約在 3% 到 3.5% 之間。那麼這是新的客戶獲取嗎？這是市場份額的增長嗎？這是一個以舊換新的消費者嗎？我想，問題是，當我們考慮明年及以後的時間時，您如何看待自己保持其中一些收益的能力？

You're right, Matt. This is John. And you're right. As you look at the implied 2-year stacks, it is a significant outperformance versus pre-pandemic levels. And I'd really point to 2 things. You mentioned and Todd mentioned the retention of the new customers that came into the brand. And the other piece I would point to is the larger baskets, growing our baskets on top of basket growth last year.

你是對的，馬特。這是約翰。你是對的。當您查看隱含的 2 年堆棧時，與大流行前的水平相比，它的表現明顯優於大流行前的水平。我真的要指出兩件事。你提到了，Todd 提到了保留進入該品牌的新客戶。我要指出的另一部分是更大的籃子，在去年籃子增長的基礎上增加了我們的籃子。

And so I think both of these are really enabled by the strategic initiatives. The strategic initiatives have really increased the relevance of Dollar General, providing a fuller fill in trip for bigger baskets. You can do more of your grocery shop, you can do more of your home shop on the nonconsumables side, purchase services as well as the broader appeal to these new customers. And I think also the initiatives really highlight and further enhance the unique combination of value and convenience that we bring to the consumer. That's what I see as the key drivers of that outperformance.

所以我認為這兩者都是戰略舉措真正實現的。這些戰略舉措確實增加了 Dollar General 的相關性，為更大的籃子提供了更充分的填充之旅。你可以做更多的雜貨店，你可以在非消耗品方面做更多的家庭商店，購買服務以及對這些新客戶的更廣泛的吸引力。而且我認為這些舉措確實突出並進一步增強了我們為消費者帶來的價值和便利的獨特結合。這就是我認為表現優異的關鍵驅動因素。

Our next question is from Michael Lasser with UBS.

我們的下一個問題來自瑞銀的 Michael Lasser。

Recognizing that your multi-stack -- multiyear stacks are much more difficult than other retailers, your 1-year comps are trailing behind others, suggesting that you might be [seeing] some market share this year. Why do you think that is? And what actions do you need to take in order to reverse those market share trends?

認識到您的多堆棧 - 多年堆棧比其他零售商要困難得多，您的 1 年組合落後於其他零售商，這表明您今年可能 [看到] 一些市場份額。你認為這是為什麼？為了扭轉這些市場份額趨勢，您需要採取哪些行動？

Yes, this is Todd. I would tell you that the way we've been looking at this all along this year has been on a 2-year stack basis, right? Because some of our laps are pretty difficult as you know, Michael. But we're happy with where our 2-year stacks are right now on market share. And quite frankly, in some of our key initiative categories like Fresh, it will outpace where we thought it would be on a market share basis.

是的，這是托德。我會告訴你，我們今年一直在看待這個問題的方式是基於 2 年的堆棧，對嗎？因為你知道，我們的一些單圈非常困難，邁克爾。但我們對我們的 2 年堆棧目前在市場份額上的位置感到滿意。坦率地說，在我們的一些關鍵計劃類別中，比如 Fresh，它將超過我們認為的市場份額基礎。

We're confident as we go forward that we'll continue to pick up market share at the same rate, if not accelerated as we move into 2022 and beyond, with all of the initiatives that we have. And keep in mind, that value and convenient message resonates across not only our core customer, but many different customer bases. And that is being preserved at all costs. Our pricing continues to be as good, if not -- was as good as I've seen it over the last few quarters and over the last few years. And as we continue to look out, we don't see that changing either. Promotional environment has been pretty tame.

我們有信心在前進的過程中繼續以相同的速度增加市場份額，如果在我們進入 2022 年及以後的時候沒有加速，我們將採取所有舉措。請記住，這種價值和便捷的信息不僅會在我們的核心客戶中產生共鳴，還會在許多不同的客戶群中產生共鳴。並且不惜一切代價保留了這一點。我們的定價仍然很好，如果不是的話——就像我在過去幾個季度和過去幾年中看到的一樣好。隨著我們繼續關注，我們也沒有看到這種變化。促銷環境相當溫和。

So when you put all that together, we feel that our market share gains will continue to move in a real positive manner with really, the same classes of trade being those donors as we continue to move into '22.

因此，當您將所有這些放在一起時，我們認為我們的市場份額增長將繼續以真正積極的方式發展，隨著我們繼續進入 22 世紀，這些捐助者確實是相同類別的貿易。

Understood. And speaking of '22, you were helpful to provide a piece of the formula and the algorithm that you typically target. For next year, would you expect the same-store sales element to be in line with your typical 2% to 4% comp growth that's part of your long-term algorithm? Or given the stimulus roll off along with some of the other uncertainties out there, would you expect another year of below 2% to 4% before returning to that in 2023?

明白了。談到'22，您提供了您通常針對的公式和算法的一部分。對於明年，您是否期望同店銷售元素與您的典型 2% 到 4% 的複合增長率保持一致，這是您長期算法的一部分？或者考慮到刺激措施的減少以及其他一些不確定性，您是否會期望在 2023 年恢復到 2% 到 4% 的另一年？

Michael, this is John. I'll take the question. What I'll say is it's early to provide specific 2022 guidance, we'll do that on the next call. But as you think about next year, I would tell you, as we said in our prepared comments, we've never felt better about the business model. We feel great about the fundamentals and the initiatives as well as the performance of the real estate, including the new formats that further boost sales.

邁克爾，這是約翰。我會回答這個問題。我要說的是，現在提供具體的 2022 年指導還為時過早，我們將在下一次電話會議上這樣做。但是當你想到明年時，我會告訴你，正如我們在準備好的評論中所說，我們對商業模式的感覺從未如此好過。我們對房地產的基本面和舉措以及表現感到非常滿意，包括進一步促進銷售的新形式。

As you think about headwinds and tailwinds for next year, I do -- and as you think about the cadence of the year, I would point to, as you noted in the first half, Q1, in particular, it's a difficult -- very difficult lap with stimulus. Certainly, that will be a tough lap, but again, I think we're well positioned with the initiatives and the value and convenience we bring to consumers when they need it most.

當你考慮明年的逆風和順風時，我會 - 當你考慮今年的節奏時，我會指出，正如你在上半年指出的那樣，特別是第一季度，這是一個非常困難的 - 非常刺激困難的一圈。當然，這將是艱難的一圈，但我再次認為，我們在消費者最需要時為他們帶來的舉措、價值和便利方面處於有利地位。

And then also, as you think about next year in general, we come into the year with elevated inflationary pressures. We have, as we said, expectations that the supply chain costs will continue to be elevated through Q4, and they won't magically drop right out of the gate in Q1 as well as the product cost pressures. But we do think there's reasons to think that this is a supply and demand calculation here. And over time, it will moderate. And so that could flip as you move through the year into a tailwind.

然後，正如您總體上考慮明年的那樣，我們在進入通脹壓力升高的一年。正如我們所說，我們預計供應鏈成本將在第四季度繼續上升，並且不會在第一季度神奇地下降以及產品成本壓力。但我們確實認為有理由認為這是一個供需計算。隨著時間的推移，它會緩和。因此，當您在一年中順風順水時，這可能會翻轉。

So more to come on the specifics. But as you think about next year, I would tell you the fundamentals are fantastic. But the beginning of the year will be more pressured than the latter part of the year.

所以更多的細節來。但是當你想到明年時，我會告訴你基本面非常棒。但年初的壓力會比下半年更大。

Our next question is from Karen Short with Barclays.

我們的下一個問題來自 Barclays 的 Karen Short。

I want to try the EBIT growth question a little differently. So -- for 4Q implied that is, versus 2019. So with the range of basically up 1% to up 14%, maybe just a little more color there. Because even if I back out your LIFO charge, you had a range of kind of 48% to 77% EBIT growth in 1Q, 2Q, 3Q, depending on the quarter. So is this -- how much of this is an expectation on LIFO for 4Q versus supply chain versus maybe not passing on cost increases? And then I had a bigger picture question.

我想嘗試一些不同的 EBIT 增長問題。所以 - 與 2019 年相比，第 4 季度隱含。因此，基本上上漲 1% 到 14% 的範圍內，可能只是顏色多一點。因為即使我取消你的 LIFO 費用，你在第一季度、第二季度、第三季度的息稅前利潤增長幅度在 48% 到 77% 之間，具體取決於季度。那麼，這是對 LIFO 對 4Q 與供應鏈的預期與可能不轉嫁成本增加的預期有多大關係？然後我有一個更大的問題。

I'll take that, Karen. If you look at -- obviously, there's a lot of year left, and it's a pretty dynamic environment. Certainly, there's uncertainties that creates -- that we thought it was prudent to keep the range wide, although narrowing it in half and taking the top half of our earnings and sales guidance. But as we looked at the key pressures and unknowns in Q4, certainly, supply chain remains elevated, and we expect that to remain elevated. And it's unclear as the pandemic continues to evolve, what that's going to mean specifically in terms of supply chain costs, but we do believe that's going to remain elevated as well as with the LIFO provision, that also is a pressure.

我會接受的，凱倫。如果你看 - 顯然，還有很多年，這是一個非常動態的環境。當然，存在不確定性——我們認為保持範圍較寬是謹慎的做法，儘管將範圍縮小了一半並佔據了我們收益和銷售指導的上半部分。但是，當我們審視第四季度的主要壓力和未知因素時，供應鏈當然仍然處於高位，我們預計供應鏈仍將處於高位。目前尚不清楚隨著大流行的繼續發展，這對供應鏈成本意味著什麼，但我們確實相信這將保持高位以及後進先出的規定，這也是一種壓力。

What we have done is accrued year-to-date based on our projections of full year inflationary costs passed along to us by vendors. But certainly, that could change as well, although the team, I think, is doing a very good job of mitigating both. And I think compared to some of our peers, we've done quite well in terms of delivering year-to-date, the operating margin expansion. So it's really reflective of those key inflationary pressures, which, again, we believe are transitory in nature, but could still be volatile in the near term.

根據我們對供應商轉嫁給我們的全年通脹成本的預測，我們所做的是年初至今的累計。但當然，這也可能會改變，儘管我認為團隊在緩解這兩種情況方面做得很好。而且我認為與我們的一些同行相比，我們在實現年初至今的營業利潤率擴張方面做得很好。因此，它確實反映了那些關鍵的通脹壓力，我們再次認為這些壓力本質上是暫時的，但在短期內仍可能波動。

Okay. And then just maybe switching gears to unit opportunity. I guess maybe a little more color on why Mexico, maybe what makes the market attractive? Any color you could give on where your first stores will be and how the supply chain will work? And I guess I ask it also in the context of the fact that, as you point out, there's so much growth opportunity domestically. Do you really need to go into another -- or another country, I guess?

好的。然後只是可能會切換到單位機會。我想為什麼墨西哥可能會有更多色彩，也許是什麼讓市場有吸引力？您可以為您的第一家商店的位置以及供應鏈的運作方式提供任何顏色？而且我想我也是在這樣一個事實的背景下提出的，正如你所指出的那樣，國內有很多增長機會。你真的需要去另一個 - 或者另一個國家，我猜？

Karen, this is Todd. We're really excited about that, the potential opportunity. And as you stated, we do have a lot of opportunity right here in the Continental United States. And you know us pretty well. I don't -- we won't take our eye off the ball on that. We are squarely committed, seeing 17,000 opportunities in the Continental United States to put a store between pOpshelf and Dollar General. That hasn't changed and nor has our focus on that.

凱倫，這是托德。我們對此感到非常興奮，潛在的機會。正如你所說，我們在美國大陸確實有很多機會。你很了解我們。我不——我們不會把注意力從球上移開。我們堅定地承諾，在美國大陸看到 17,000 個機會在 pOpshelf 和 Dollar General 之間開設商店。這沒有改變，我們的關注點也沒有改變。

I think as you look at Mexico, the intriguing piece, there's a couple of things. Number one, as you know, going into another country, it's a little bit more complex than going into your 47 state as an example. So we started working on this well over a year ago. And it takes many years to cultivate this initiative. And as we indicated, up to 10 stores next year is fairly aggressive, but it will take us many years to build out Mexico, right? And with that thought, even though we've got so many opportunities here, why not start now was more our kind of thinking because it will take many years.

我認為當你看到墨西哥這個有趣的部分時，有幾件事。第一，如你所知，進入另一個國家，這比進入你的 47 州要復雜一些。所以我們一年多前就開始著手這方面的工作。並且需要很多年的時間來培養這種主動性。正如我們所指出的，明年多達 10 家商店相當激進，但我們需要很多年才能建立墨西哥，對吧？有了這個想法，即使我們在這裡有很多機會，為什麼不從現在開始更多的是我們的想法，因為這需要很多年。

We don't want to wait till we're down the road and need to move faster. We do everything pretty methodically here. And we feel that for sure, the right thing to do was to start working on it now, with the intent to put many locations down to Mexico. So where will we start? Well, we'll definitely start closer to home, if you will, that Northern Mexico feels right. So it will be probably more in that area. But it will open up as we continue to look at different opportunities as we go.

我們不想等到我們走下坡路，需要更快地行動。我們在這裡有條不紊地做所有事情。我們確信，正確的做法是現在就開始研究它，目的是將許多地點放到墨西哥。那麼我們從哪裡開始呢？好吧，如果您願意，我們肯定會從離家更近的地方開始，墨西哥北部感覺不錯。所以在那個領域可能會更多。但隨著我們繼續尋找不同的機會，它將會開放。

And then distribution-wise, stay tuned. We're not quite ready to talk about all that. But as you can imagine, before you start putting a lot of distribution centers in Mexico, we'll need some more critical mass. So we're working that plan as we speak as well. We've got a lot of folks on board already. The team has done a great job using a term that we've been incorporated, if you will, in the country of Mexico. So we're now hiring and able to transact in Mexico. I think that's very important. And that's what we're doing right now and starting to look at how we build out that assortment and what it looks like.

然後在分配方面，請繼續關注。我們還沒有準備好談論所有這些。但正如你可以想像的那樣，在你開始在墨西哥建立大量配送中心之前，我們需要更多的臨界質量。因此，在我們發言的同時，我們也在製定該計劃。我們已經有很多人加入了。如果您願意的話，該團隊使用我們已在墨西哥國家合併的術語做得很好。所以我們現在正在招聘並能夠在墨西哥進行交易。我認為這非常重要。這就是我們現在正在做的事情，並開始研究我們如何構建該分類以及它的外觀。

And stay tuned. We're excited, as you can probably tell in my voice, this is a real opportunity for us to continue to grow the brand and continue to move forward with Dollar General in different locations other than just the Continental United States.

敬請期待。我們很興奮，正如您可能用我的聲音說的那樣，這對我們來說是一個真正的機會，可以繼續發展品牌並繼續在美國大陸以外的不同地點與 Dollar General 一起前進。

Our next question is from Kate McShane with Goldman Sachs.

我們的下一個問題來自高盛的 Kate McShane。

Our first question was just on traffic. I know you mentioned in the prepared comments that it was sequentially better, but still down. We were wondering your thoughts on that, is it something that got better throughout the quarter? And have you seen any meaningful change in traffic in the last few weeks, given the latest variant news?

我們的第一個問題只是關於交通。我知道你在準備好的評論中提到它順序更好，但仍然下降。我們想知道您對此的看法，整個季度是否有所改善？鑑於最新的變體新聞，您是否看到過去幾週的流量有任何有意義的變化？

Yes. This is Todd. Yes, the traffic number continues to be a little bit soft. But I would tell you that it definitely has been -- it's sequentially better than it was when you look from Q2 to Q3. And as you continue to think about our core consumer, and this is what's so important to continue always to keep in mind, when times are good for her and she has more money, she tends to come less often and spend more. What we've seen in our basket continue to be pretty strong throughout. And so that always happens with our core customer in better times economically for her, and that's what she's seen.

是的。這是托德。是的，流量數字繼續有點軟。但我會告訴你，它肯定是——它比你從第二季度到第三季度看時的順序要好。當你繼續考慮我們的核心消費者時，這是非常重要的，要始終牢記在心，當時機對她有利並且她有更多的錢時，她往往會減少來訪的頻率並花更多的錢。我們在籃子裡看到的東西自始至終都非常強勁。因此，我們的核心客戶總是在經濟上更好的時候發生這種情況，這就是她所看到的。

And then as things switch, if they start to switch, then you'll see her come more often and spend less. So those smaller baskets tend to then grow and that traffic number tends to pick up. We're squarely focused on it. We're not -- we're definitely not happy with traffic overall because we love to see positive, but we understand the drivers and the reasons. And we'll make sure that as things continue to progress, that we're squarely focused on driving traffic and price and convenience is our big mantra, and we'll continue to make sure that both of those are well intact for our core consumer.

然後隨著事情的轉變，如果他們開始轉變，那麼你會看到她來得更頻繁，花費更少。因此，那些較小的籃子往往會增長，並且流量數量往往會增加。我們完全專注於它。我們不是——我們對整體交通絕對不滿意，因為我們喜歡看到積極的一面，但我們了解驅動因素和原因。我們將確保隨著事情的繼續發展，我們將完全專注於增加流量，價格和便利是我們的主要口號，我們將繼續確保這兩者對於我們的核心消費者來說都完好無損.

Okay. And I just want to ask one question on pOpshelf. You had mentioned several times, it's exceeding expectations. We were just wondering if there were certain merchandise categories that have been stronger than expected. And just what the quarter looked like for this concept, given the majority of what you're selling is discretionary?

好的。我只想問一個關於 pOpshelf 的問題。您已經多次提到，它超出了預期。我們只是想知道是否有某些商品類別比預期的要強。鑑於您銷售的大部分商品都是可自由支配的，這個概念的季度情況如何？

Thanks, Kate. This is Jeff. And you're right, we are excited about pOpshelf, and we continue to be very, very pleased with how our customers are responding really to the entire box. And very excited that we're going to triple the store count in 2022 and laying the groundwork for 1,000 stores by 2025. So I think you can tell by our bullish news and our excitement, just how excited we are with what the customer is telling us.

謝謝，凱特。這是傑夫。你說得對，我們對 pOpshelf 感到興奮，我們繼續對我們的客戶對整個盒子的真正反應感到非常、非常滿意。非常興奮的是，我們將在 2022 年將門店數量增加三倍，並為到 2025 年開設 1000 家門店奠定基礎。所以我想你可以從我們的樂觀消息和興奮中看出，我們對客戶所說的話感到多麼興奮我們。

When you think about the store in general, there's many areas that she is gravitating towards and responding well. And quite frankly, there's more than we have time to talk about. But I would tell you right now, certainly, we love what she's seeing around the toys that we've offered, we've got great -- in the home area, she's really finding ways. When you think about it, the majority -- over 90% of our items are less than $5. She's really finding ways that she can treat herself and has a lot of fun in the shopping environment.

總體而言，當您考慮這家商店時，她會吸引許多領域並且反應良好。坦率地說，我們沒有時間談論更多。但我現在要告訴你，當然，我們喜歡她在我們提供的玩具周圍看到的東西，我們做得很好——在家庭領域，她真的在想辦法。仔細想想，我們 90% 以上的商品價格低於 5 美元。她真的在尋找可以犒勞自己的方法，並且在購物環境中獲得了很多樂趣。

And so the team continues. We're just getting started here. We'll get better and better and better. But right now, that concept is really, really performing great, and we're really excited about how it's going to complement the traditional Dollar General network as we move forward.

所以團隊繼續。我們才剛剛開始。我們會越來越好越來越好。但是現在，這個概念真的非常非常出色，我們對它如何在我們前進的過程中補充傳統的 Dollar General 網絡感到非常興奮。

Our next question comes from Rupesh Parikh with Oppenheimer.

我們的下一個問題來自 Rupesh Parikh 和 Oppenheimer。

I also had a few questions on the pOpshelf concept. So first, as you look at the pOpshelf acceleration, how does that impact your longer-term algorithm? And then secondly, as you look at the pOpshelf in-store concept, just curious how you guys think about that in the coming years?

我對 pOpshelf 概念也有一些疑問。首先，當您查看 pOpshelf 加速時，它對您的長期算法有何影響？其次，當您看到 pOpshelf 店內概念時，只是好奇你們在未來幾年對此有何看法？

I'll take the first part of that question, Rupesh. I think it's important to note, and Todd touched on this in his prepared comments, that as we look at pOpshelf, we see this as additive to our Dollar General banner growth plans. And the other thing we've noted is we see over time, as many as 3,000 additional store opportunities from this, incremental to the 13,000 DG banner opportunities. We're accelerating it rapidly, effectively tripling the number of stores next year as we add 100 on top of 50, and then look to have 1,000 by the end of 2025.

我將回答這個問題的第一部分，Rupesh。我認為重要的是要注意，Todd 在他準備好的評論中談到了這一點，當我們查看 pOpshelf 時，我們認為這是對我們的 Dollar General 橫幅增長計劃的補充。我們注意到的另一件事是，隨著時間的推移，我們會看到多達 3,000 個額外的商店機會，增加到 13,000 個 DG 橫幅機會。我們正在迅速加快步伐，明年我們將在 50 家基礎上再增加 100 家，從而有效地將門店數量增加兩倍，到 2025 年底有望達到 1,000 家。

So as you think of the algorithm going forward, I don't want to give any specific long-term guidance at this point, but I think it's important to note that it is additive. As you look at next year, the 100 is additive on top of the 1,000 DG stores, and that's the way we look at that going forward. While in the near term, you do have start-up costs that offset the near-term benefits, but when you look at the fantastic unit level economics of these stores, and we've talked about these, $1.7 million to $2 million sales margins that we see as 40% and growing over time. It's just fantastic unit level economics that we anticipate and fully expect to be increasingly accretive to operating profit long term as we scale it.

因此，當您考慮算法的發展時，我不想在這一點上給出任何具體的長期指導，但我認為重要的是要注意它是累加的。正如您明年所看到的那樣，100 家 DG 商店是在 1,000 家 DG 商店的基礎上增加的，這就是我們看待未來的方式。雖然在短期內，您確實有抵消近期收益的啟動成本，但是當您查看這些商店的出色單位級經濟效益時，我們已經討論過這些，170 萬美元到 200 萬美元的銷售利潤率我們認為這一比例為 40%，並且隨著時間的推移而增長。隨著我們擴大規模，我們預計並完全期望長期增加營業利潤，這只是奇妙的單位水平經濟學。

And Rupesh, I'll talk about the store-within-a-store concept that you mentioned, like pOpshelf, we're very excited about what we're seeing here as well. This is obviously very new here, just been in stores just a few months. But very pleased with what we're seeing again from the customer. And when you think about this store-within-a-store concept, really what it is able to do is it takes about 70% to 80% of the pOpshelf assortment and right inside this Dollar General Market.

還有 Rupesh，我會談談你提到的店中店概念，比如 pOpshelf，我們也對在這裡看到的東西感到非常興奮。這顯然在這裡很新，剛進店幾個月。但對我們再次從客戶那裡看到的東西感到非常滿意。當您考慮這種店中店概念時，它真正能夠做的就是佔據大約 70% 到 80% 的 pOpshelf 分類，並且就在這個美元綜合市場內。

And so the store-within-a-store, as you look forward, will continue, as we mentioned earlier, to expand that. But as we think about the long term here, we recently announced a larger square foot store format, which we've talked about, pleased with that productivity. But again, things like that give us the opportunity to create enough theater to perhaps bring some of that merchandise into the broader assortment of the Dollar General network. So we'll have to wait and see long term as we look forward, but the team is continuing to refine and look at ways that we can continue to learn from this store-within-a-store just like we learned from NCI and how it really was the genesis for pOpshelf to begin.

因此，正如您所期待的那樣，店中店將繼續擴大，正如我們之前提到的那樣。但是當我們在這裡考慮長期時，我們最近宣布了一個更大的平方英尺商店格式，我們已經談到過，對這種生產力感到滿意。但同樣，這樣的事情讓我們有機會創造足夠的劇院，或許將其中一些商品帶入更廣泛的 Dollar General 網絡。因此，我們將不得不拭目以待，展望未來，但團隊正在繼續完善和研究我們可以繼續從這家店中店中學習的方法，就像我們從 NCI 那裡學到的一樣，以及如何這確實是 pOpshelf 開始的起源。

So more to come, but very pleased with the store-within-a-store concept and our ability to grow that over time.

還有更多，但對店中店概念以及我們隨著時間的推移而發展的能力感到非常滿意。

Our next question comes from Paul Lejuez with Citi.

我們的下一個問題來自花旗的 Paul Lejuez。

Can you talk about what you tend to see when a drug store closes in your trade area? Any quantification of any lift that a nearby DG store might get?

你能談談當你的貿易區的藥店關門時你會看到什麼嗎？附近 DG 商店可能獲得的任何提升的任何量化？

And then second, just one follow-up on pOpshelf. I was curious about the geographic rollout. Is that going to be kind of concentrated as you think about next year's openings? Or more spread throughout the country?

其次，只是對 pOpshelf 的一次跟進。我對地理推廣感到好奇。當您考慮明年的空缺職位時，這會不會有點集中？還是遍布全國？

Yes. This is Todd. I'll take that. If you think about the drugstore business, the drug business has been our biggest donor of share over the many years, we've been very vocal about that. And with our health initiatives, we continue to gain more and more share from consumers around health and beauty in general. And so when any competitor, as you can imagine, goes out in the marketplace, it does -- it gives us an opportunity to garner more share in that area.

是的。這是托德。我會接受的。如果您考慮藥店業務，多年來，藥品業務一直是我們最大的份額捐助者，我們對此一直非常直言不諱。通過我們的健康計劃，我們繼續在健康和美容方面從消費者那裡獲得越來越多的份額。因此，正如您可以想像的那樣，當任何競爭對手進入市場時，它確實會出現 - 它為我們提供了在該領域獲得更多份額的機會。

Drugstores tend to exist, if you will, in areas that have multiple competitors in them. And that normally spreads out across many competitors. But we're squarely focused on anytime, just gaining share and any opportunity. So we'll continue to watch that very, very carefully. But we believe we're in great position just overall to continue to capitalize on health and beauty in general.

如果你願意的話，藥店往往存在於有多個競爭對手的地區。這通常會分佈在許多競爭對手中。但我們完全專注於任何時間，只是獲得份額和任何機會。因此，我們將繼續非常非常仔細地觀察。但我們相信我們總體上處於有利地位，可以繼續利用健康和美麗。

And then on the pOpshelf question, we'll continue to look -- call it, Southern Midwest to that Southeast is really where we're focused on right now, early on. Mid-Atlantic to a degree too, if you think about Mid-Atlantic being that Virginia type area down into the Carolinas. Those are the areas right now we're focused on. But over time, we see this across the United States as an opportunity. So we won't be limited to certain geographical areas.

然後關於 pOpshelf 問題，我們將繼續關注 - 稱其為，中西部南部到東南部確實是我們現在早期關注的地方。大西洋中部也在一定程度上，如果你認為大西洋中部是弗吉尼亞類型的地區，一直延伸到卡羅來納州。這些是我們現在關注的領域。但隨著時間的推移，我們在整個美國都認為這是一個機會。所以我們不會局限於某些地理區域。

But as we always do, we're very methodical in our rollout. We want to make sure that we're able to supply the goods we need timely and warehouse is important. The great thing about how we've set our warehousing up with this is it's integrated with Dollar General. So we strip all the costs out of that. And we use the mother ship as we talk about the Dollar General mother ship, the brand not only in distribution but in so many different back-of-the-house areas, where we can make this very, very accretive, as John talked about, over the years as we grow the pOpshelf brand.

但就像我們一直做的那樣，我們在推出時非常有條不紊。我們要確保我們能夠及時供應我們需要的貨物，而倉庫很重要。關於我們如何設置倉儲的好處在於它與 Dollar General 集成。所以我們去掉了所有的成本。當我們談論 Dollar General 母艦時，我們使用母艦，該品牌不僅在分銷方面，而且在許多不同的後台區域，正如約翰所說的那樣，我們可以在這些區域非常、非常地增加價值，多年來，隨著我們發展 pOpshelf 品牌。

Next question comes from Krisztina Katai with Deutsche Bank.

下一個問題來自德意志銀行的 Krisztina Katai。

I was just wondering if there were any notable patterns or anything that you could point out to as it relates to performance of rural stores versus some of your urban stores in the quarter? And then also, I guess, with the implied 2-year stack in the fourth quarter, pointing to a potential reacceleration, where do you see the greatest opportunity to start to take back market share?

我只是想知道是否有任何值得注意的模式或任何你可以指出的與本季度農村商店與一些城市商店的表現有關的東西？然後，我想，隨著第四季度隱含的 2 年堆棧指向潛在的重新加速，您認為開始奪回市場份額的最大機會在哪裡？

I'll take the first part. This is Jeff. And when you talk about the geographic footprint of our stores, first of all, we're pleased with the balance in terms of our sales performance, and that's one of the real beautiful things about this company is, is just how evenly distributed and how well the company is performing across all geographic.

我將採取第一部分。這是傑夫。當您談到我們商店的地理足跡時，首先，我們對銷售業績方面的平衡感到滿意，這就是這家公司真正美妙的地方之一，就是分佈有多均勻以及如何公司在所有地區都表現良好。

When you think about the rural, earlier in the pandemic, we did see outsized performance in our rural stores. But it's beginning to normalize where it traditionally has performed, where we continue to perform better in rural, but not to the same degree from a disparity standpoint that we saw early in the pandemic. So as things open up, we're seeing performance open up just like we would expect across all of our store base.

當您想到大流行初期的農村地區時，我們確實在農村地區的商店中看到了出色的表現。但它開始正常化它傳統上的表現，我們繼續在農村表現更好，但從我們在大流行早期看到的差異的角度來看，程度不同。因此，隨著事情的發展，我們看到的表現就像我們對所有商店基礎的預期一樣開放。

So generally speaking, we're very pleased with really, the performance across all of our geographic regions and the demographic regions. So real pleased with what we're seeing there.

所以總的來說，我們對我們所有地理區域和人口區域的表現非常滿意。對我們在那裡看到的非常滿意。

And on the second part of the question, yes, we anticipate as things start to level out in '22. As John indicated, Q1, we still got a pretty big lap with stimulus and other things, the pandemic still in swing in 2021 as we move into '22 early. But as things start to level out as we get into '22 and into mid -- the back end of '22, we believe that the market share gains will probably continue to come from those same areas that were there prior to the pandemic.

在問題的第二部分，是的，我們預計隨著事情在 22 年開始趨於平穩。正如約翰所說，第一季度，我們在刺激和其他方面仍然取得了相當大的成績，隨著我們提前進入 22 年，大流行病在 2021 年仍在蔓延。但是，隨著我們進入 22 年和 22 年中期（即 22 年的後端），情況開始趨於平穩，我們相信市場份額的增長可能會繼續來自大流行之前的相同領域。

And so when you think about it, it's almost against all classes of trade, but definitely, drug being one of the larger [share owners] over time. And again, as I indicated earlier, that won't change. We believe that will continue, and will probably accelerate as we continue our initiatives around health and beauty and our health initiatives in general services and such in the years to come. So we feel good about being lined up nicely for market share gains, but we're squarely focused right now on ending Q4 on a high note and moving into 2022.

因此，當您考慮這一點時，它幾乎反對所有類別的貿易，但毫無疑問，隨著時間的推移，藥物將成為較大的 [股東] 之一。同樣，正如我之前指出的，這不會改變。我們相信，隨著我們在未來幾年繼續圍繞健康和美容以及我們在一般服務等方面的健康舉措，這種情況將繼續下去，並且可能會加速。因此，我們對能夠很好地獲得市場份額增長感到滿意，但我們現在完全專注於以高調結束第四季度並進入 2022 年。

We have reached the end of the question-and-answer session. I'd now like to turn the call back over to Todd Vasos for closing comments.

我們已經到了問答環節的尾聲。我現在想將電話轉回給 Todd Vasos 以結束評論。

Thank you for all the questions, and thanks for your interest in Dollar General. I'll wrap up things by saying we're very pleased with the third quarter results, which I think speaks to our strategy, our culture, and the great execution by our team, even in a constantly evolving environment.

感謝您提出所有問題，並感謝您對 Dollar General 的興趣。最後，我會說我們對第三季度的業績非常滿意，我認為這說明了我們的戰略、我們的文化以及我們團隊的出色執行力，即使在不斷發展的環境中也是如此。

As we look forward, I'm very optimistic about our robust set of initiatives, including today's announcements to accelerate the pace of new unit growth at pOpshelf and expand internationally for the first time. As I said earlier, I never have felt better about the underlying business model. And in fact, I believe this is a much different company than it was just a few years ago and that we are very well positioned to capitalize on the enormous growth opportunities we see in front of us.

展望未來，我對我們一系列強有力的舉措非常樂觀，包括今天宣布的加快 pOpshelf 新單位增長步伐和首次國際擴張的公告。正如我之前所說，我從未對潛在的商業模式感覺更好。事實上，我相信這是一家與幾年前大不相同的公司，我們非常有能力利用我們面前的巨大增長機會。

Thank you for listening. Have a great day and a happy holiday.

謝謝你的聆聽。有一個美好的一天，一個愉快的假期。

This concludes today's conference. You may disconnect your lines at this time, and we thank you for your participation.

今天的會議到此結束。您此時可以斷開線路，我們感謝您的參與。