達樂 (DG) 2023 Q1 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 First Quarter 2023 Earnings Conference Call. Today is Thursday, June 1, 2023. (Operator Instructions) This call is being recorded. Instructions for listening to the replay of the call are available in the company's earnings press release issued this morning. Now I'd like to turn the conference over to your host, Mr. Kevin Walker, Vice President of Investor Relations. You may now begin your conference.

早上好。我叫羅伯特，今天我將擔任你們的會議接線員。此時，我想歡迎大家參加 Dollar General 2023 年第一季度收益電話會議。今天是 2023 年 6 月 1 日，星期四。（接線員說明）正在錄製此通話。收聽電話重播的說明可在公司今天上午發布的收益新聞稿中找到。現在我想把會議轉交給你的主持人，投資者關係副總裁凱文沃克先生。您現在可以開始會議了。

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

謝謝大家，早上好。今天與我通話的有我們的首席執行官 Jeff Owen、我們的總裁 John Garratt；以及我們的首席財務官 Kelly Dilts。我們今天發布的收益報告可在我們網站 investor.dollargeneral.com 的新聞與活動下找到。

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, vision, initiatives, plans, goals, priorities, opportunities, investments, customer, 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.

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、願景、舉措、計劃、目標、優先事項、機會、投資、客戶、對未來事項的預期或信念以及其他不限於歷史事實的陳述。這些陳述受風險和不確定因素的影響，這些風險和不確定因素可能導致實際結果與我們的預期和預測存在重大差異。

These factors include, but are not limited to, those identified in our earnings release issued this morning, under Risk Factors in our 2023 Form 10-K filed on March 24, 2023, and any later filed periodic report and in the comments that are made on this call. 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 otherwise required by law. (Operator Instructions) Now it is my pleasure to turn the call over to Jeff.

這些因素包括但不限於我們今天上午發布的收益報告中確定的因素、我們於 2023 年 3 月 24 日提交的 2023 年 10-K 表格中風險因素下的因素，以及任何後來提交的定期報告和我們發表的評論中確定的因素在這個電話上。您不應過分依賴前瞻性陳述，這些陳述僅代表今天的情況。除非法律另有要求，否則 Dollar General 不承擔任何更新或修改本次電話會議中討論的任何信息的義務。 （操作員說明）現在我很高興將電話轉給 Jeff。

Thank you, Kevin, and welcome to everyone joining our call. In addition to our first quarter results and updated outlook for 2023, we'll spend our time this morning discussing the significant progress we have made on multiple fronts, including improving execution in our distribution centers and stores, an update on the rapidly changing macroeconomic environment and the important actions we are taking to support our customers.

謝謝你，凱文，歡迎大家加入我們的電話會議。除了我們第一季度的業績和 2023 年的最新展望外，今天上午我們還將花時間討論我們在多個方面取得的重大進展，包括改善我們的配送中心和商店的執行力、快速變化的宏觀經濟環境的最新進展以及我們為支持客戶而採取的重要行動。

Despite a more challenging macroeconomic environment than previously anticipated, which has negatively impacted our sales and full year EPS outlooks, we are confident in Dollar General's ability to deliver strong and sustainable growth in the years ahead. As a reminder, Dollar General is uniquely positioned at the intersection of value and convenience. Regarding value, although we continue to feel very good about our price position relative to competitors as well as other classes of trade, we are always looking for ways to better serve our customers and provide them with the items they need at prices they can afford. And right now, we believe our customers need Dollar General more than ever.

儘管宏觀經濟環境比之前預期的更具挑戰性，這對我們的銷售額和全年每股收益前景產生了負面影響，但我們對 Dollar General 在未來幾年實現強勁和可持續增長的能力充滿信心。提醒一下，Dollar General 在價值和便利性的交匯點上處於獨特的位置。關於價值，儘管我們仍然對我們相對於競爭對手以及其他貿易類別的價格定位感到非常滿意，但我們一直在尋找更好地為客戶服務的方法，並以他們能夠負擔得起的價格為他們提供他們需要的物品。現在，我們相信我們的客戶比以往任何時候都更需要 Dollar General。

As it relates to convenience, with more than 19,000 stores located within 5 miles of approximately 75% of the U.S. population, we believe we are uniquely positioned to provide our customers with convenient access to everyday household essentials, particularly in rural America. We delivered progress across multiple fronts in Q1, including our supply chain recovery efforts as we ended the quarter with our best distribution center service levels in nearly 2 years.

就便利性而言，我們有超過 19,000 家商店位於約 75% 的美國人口的 5 英里範圍內，我們相信我們具有獨特的優勢，可以為我們的客戶提供方便的日常家居必需品，特別是在美國農村地區。我們在第一季度在多個方面取得了進展，包括我們在本季度末以近 2 年來最佳的配送中心服務水平結束供應鏈恢復工作。

With our previously announced investment in incremental store labor hours, we continue to enhance the customer experience, including a material improvement in customer satisfaction scores since prior year-end. And while we are pleased with our progress on these fronts, we are focusing even more structurally, strategically and operationally on serving our core customer. I'll provide more details on these actions in a moment.

通過我們之前宣布的增加商店工時的投資，我們繼續提升客戶體驗，包括自上年年底以來客戶滿意度得分的實質性提高。雖然我們對在這些方面取得的進展感到滿意，但我們在結構上、戰略上和運營上更加專注於為我們的核心客戶提供服務。我稍後會提供有關這些操作的更多詳細信息。

But first, let me provide some details on our Q1 results. The quarter was highlighted by same-store sales growth of 4.3% in our consumables category. This increase was partially offset by a decline of 8.5% in our combined non-consumable categories as customers continue to shift more of their spending away from discretionary goods. Overall, we had softer-than-expected sales in the quarter, which we believe was primarily driven by deterioration in the macroeconomic environment, including headwinds from lower tax refunds than customers expected and reductions in SNAP benefits as well as unfavorable weather during the months of March and April.

但首先，讓我提供一些關於我們第一季度結果的細節。本季度的亮點是我們的消耗品類別的同店銷售額增長了 4.3%。由於客戶繼續將更多支出從可自由支配的商品上轉移，這一增長被我們合併的非消耗品類別下降 8.5% 所部分抵消。總體而言，我們本季度的銷售額低於預期，我們認為這主要是受宏觀經濟環境惡化的推動，包括退稅低於客戶預期的逆風和 SNAP 福利的減少以及 2018 年幾個月的不利天氣。三月和四月。

Regarding tax refunds, we believe our customers were caught off-guard by the reduced amounts, which exacerbated the inflationary pressures they were already experiencing. Our customers typically use these refunds to repay debt, purchase big ticket items, make repairs, build a safety net in savings or a combination thereof. The changes this year are contributing to their financial insecurity, and many are using lower refunds to simply afford basic household essentials while others are contracting their overall spending.

關於退稅，我們認為我們的客戶對減少的金額措手不及，這加劇了他們已經經歷的通脹壓力。我們的客戶通常使用這些退款來償還債務、購買大件物品、進行維修、建立儲蓄安全網或將其組合使用。今年的變化加劇了他們的財務不安全，許多人使用較低的退款來支付基本的家庭必需品，而其他人則縮減了總體支出。

Turning to SNAP. As we mentioned on our Q4 2022 call, we did not see a notable sales impact in states that eliminated the emergency allotment early. Instead, our data suggests that customers who used SNAP simply made up the difference in their basket with another form of tender. However, in the states where reductions occurred in March of this year, we have seen an impact to sales as our customers appear to primarily have reduced the size of their basket instead of using other forms of tender to complete their purchases at the same level. Additionally, these and other customers appear to be shopping closer to payday. Finally, like other retailers, the cold and rainy weather also had a negative impact on our top line performance, particularly in March and April, which created a slow start to the spring season.

轉向 SNAP。正如我們在 2022 年第四季度的電話會議上提到的那樣，我們沒有看到提前取消緊急撥款的州對銷售產生顯著影響。相反，我們的數據表明，使用 SNAP 的客戶只是用另一種形式的投標來彌補他們購物籃中的差額。然而，在今年 3 月發生減價的州，我們看到了對銷售的影響，因為我們的客戶似乎主要減少了購物籃的大小，而不是使用其他形式的招標來完成相同級別的購買。此外，這些和其他客戶似乎在臨近發薪日時購物。最後，與其他零售商一樣，寒冷多雨的天氣也對我們的營收業績產生了負面影響，尤其是在 3 月和 4 月，這導致春季開局緩慢。

Now let me recap some additional financial results for the first quarter. Net sales increased 6.8% to $9.3 billion and same-store sales increased 1.6%. Our same-store sales results were driven by increased basket size, partially offset by a decrease in customer traffic. While we gained market share in non-consumables again this quarter, our share in consumables was essentially flat as we believe the macro headwinds have had a disproportionate impact on our core customer. From a monthly cadence perspective, same-store sales growth was strongest in February at 4.8% and ahead of our expectations. We continue to see positive results from March at 2.2% growth, even though the back half of the month was impacted by the headwinds I mentioned earlier. This pressure continued into April, resulting in a same-store sales decline of 2% for the last month of the quarter. This pressure has continued into May, as we continue to see sales performance below the expectations contemplated in our initial financial guidance for the year.

現在讓我回顧一下第一季度的一些額外財務結果。淨銷售額增長 6.8% 至 93 億美元，同店銷售額增長 1.6%。我們的同店銷售業績受到購物籃數量增加的推動，部分被客戶流量的減少所抵消。雖然本季度我們在非消耗品市場份額再次增加，但我們在消耗品市場的份額基本持平，因為我們認為宏觀逆風對我們的核心客戶產生了不成比例的影響。從每月節奏的角度來看，2 月份同店銷售增長最為強勁，達到 4.8%，超出了我們的預期。我們繼續看到 3 月份的積極結果，增長率為 2.2%，儘管 3 月份的下半月受到了我之前提到的不利因素的影響。這種壓力一直持續到 4 月份，導致本季度最後一個月的同店銷售額下降了 2%。這種壓力一直持續到 5 月份，因為我們繼續看到銷售業績低於我們今年初步財務指導中預期的預期。

However, as our actions have begun to take hold, we have seen an encouraging uptick with positive comp sales through the first 3 weeks of the quarter as well as gains in our most recent market share results. As a result of these headwinds and the impact on our top line performance as well as an increasingly challenging shrink environment, we are revising our outlook for the year, which Kelly will discuss in more detail shortly.

然而，隨著我們的行動開始生效，我們看到本季度前 3 週的銷售業績出現了令人鼓舞的增長，而且我們最近的市場份額結果也有所增長。由於這些逆風和對我們的收入業績的影響以及日益具有挑戰性的收縮環境，我們正在修改我們今年的展望，Kelly 將在短期內對此進行更詳細的討論。

Turning to our customer, who is under greater pressure than we have seen in quite some time. In addition to the ongoing mix shift I mentioned earlier, we continue to see signs of increasing financial strain on our customers as they seek affordable options, including increased reliance on private brands and items at or below the $1 price point. Being there for our customer is our most important calling at Dollar General. And while past experience suggests our customers will adjust their budgets after a couple of quarters, we are taking action now to better support them both in the near and longer term.

轉向我們的客戶，他們承受著比我們在相當長一段時間內看到的更大的壓力。除了我之前提到的持續組合轉變之外，我們繼續看到客戶在尋求負擔得起的選擇時財務壓力越來越大的跡象，包括增加對價格在 1 美元或以下的自有品牌和商品的依賴。為我們的客戶服務是我們在 Dollar General 最重要的使命。雖然過去的經驗表明我們的客戶會在幾個季度後調整他們的預算，但我們現在正在採取行動，以便在短期和長期內更好地支持他們。

First and foremost, we are taking action to provide even more affordable solutions and lower prices for our customers. We are doing this in a targeted fashion on the items that matter most as we believe we can be even sharper within our established target range. Next, we are leaning into our Save to Serve approach as we evaluate opportunities to take costs out of the business while pursuing efficiencies in our cost structure that will allow us to reduce spending without impacting the customer experience.

首先，我們正在採取行動，為我們的客戶提供更實惠的解決方案和更低的價格。我們正在以有針對性的方式對最重要的項目進行此操作，因為我們相信我們可以在既定目標範圍內更加敏銳。接下來，我們在評估降低業務成本的機會時，將傾向於採用“節省服務”方法，同時追求成本結構的效率，這將使我們能夠在不影響客戶體驗的情況下減少支出。

We are also refining our inventory management process, including making some structural reporting realignments within our team to allow us to move more nimbly to respond to customer demand and the needs of the business. Finally, we are prioritizing and optimizing our capital expenditures to maintain flexibility and enhance our focus on the core business. Included in these plans, we have made the decision to moderate our rollout of pOpshelf in 2023 as we now plan to open approximately 90 stores compared to our original expectation of approximately 150 openings. We believe this is a prudent reduction based on the current environment. And as other retailers navigate what this environment means for their businesses, we believe there may be more favorable real estate opportunities to come.

我們還在改進我們的庫存管理流程，包括在我們的團隊內部進行一些結構性報告調整，使我們能夠更靈活地響應客戶需求和業務需求。最後，我們正在優先考慮和優化我們的資本支出，以保持靈活性並加強我們對核心業務的關注。在這些計劃中，我們已決定在 2023 年緩和 pOpshelf 的推出，因為我們現在計劃開設大約 90 家商店，而我們最初的預期是大約 150 家。我們認為這是基於當前環境的審慎削減。隨著其他零售商了解這種環境對其業務的意義，我們相信未來可能會有更多有利的房地產機會。

While we are operating in a different and more challenging environment than previously anticipated, we believe we are taking the right actions to serve our customers and communities. And we know that taking care of our customer is not only the right decision for the near term but that it will prove to be the right answer for the long term as well. Despite the near-term headwinds, this business model, which has proven to be successful in a variety of economic environments, remains very strong.

雖然我們在一個與之前預期不同且更具挑戰性的環境中運營，但我們相信我們正在採取正確的行動來服務我們的客戶和社區。我們知道，照顧我們的客戶不僅是短期的正確決定，而且從長遠來看也是正確的答案。儘管近期存在逆風，但這種已被證明在各種經濟環境中取得成功的商業模式仍然非常強大。

And we have multiple strategic initiatives in place to drive future growth while also distancing and differentiating our model from others in the discount retail space. We have a clear vision to be a force for opportunity, which I will discuss in greater detail in a few minutes. And most importantly, our mission of serving others is unchanged and is our north star regardless of the external environment.

我們制定了多項戰略舉措來推動未來的增長，同時也使我們的模式與折扣零售領域的其他模式保持距離和差異化。我們有成為機會力量的清晰願景，我將在幾分鐘後更詳細地討論這一點。最重要的是，無論外部環境如何，服務他人的使命始終不變，是我們的北極星。

I also want to highlight that we recently published our fifth annual Serving Others Report, which provides updates on our ongoing ESG efforts. Finally, I want to take this opportunity to congratulate John Garratt on his retirement. John is with us in the room today, and I just want to publicly thank him for his service to our customers, employees and shareholders. He has been a wonderful business partner, and we will certainly miss him.

我還想強調，我們最近發布了第五份年度《服務他人報告》，其中提供了我們正在進行的 ESG 工作的最新情況。最後，我想藉此機會祝賀 John Garratt 退休。約翰今天和我們在一起，我只想公開感謝他為我們的客戶、員工和股東提供的服務。他一直是一個很棒的商業夥伴，我們一定會想念他的。

With that said, I also want to congratulate Kelly Dilts on her promotion to Chief Financial Officer. Kelly has provided meaningful leadership since joining our team in 2019 and has worked closely with John and myself during this transition process. I am confident she will continue to elevate our team while driving the strong financial discipline we are committed to at Dollar General. With that, I will now turn the call over to Kelly.

話雖如此，我還要祝賀 Kelly Dilts 晉升為首席財務官。自 2019 年加入我們的團隊以來，Kelly 發揮了重要的領導作用，並在此過渡過程中與 John 和我本人密切合作。我相信她將繼續提升我們的團​​隊，同時推動我們在 Dollar General 致力於嚴格的財務紀律。有了這個，我現在將把電話轉給凱利。

Thank you, Jeff, and good morning, everyone. I also want to thank John for his outstanding leadership during his time at Dollar General as well as for his mentorship as I step into this role. It's a tremendous honor to serve as CFO of this great company and work with this incredible team to serve our customers. I'm excited about the opportunity we have in front of us as we drive growth and create long-term shareholder value.

謝謝你，傑夫，大家早上好。我還要感謝約翰在 Dollar General 期間的出色領導，以及他在我接任這一職位時給予的指導。能夠擔任這家偉大公司的首席財務官並與這支令人難以置信的團隊一起為我們的客戶服務，我深感榮幸。在我們推動增長和創造長期股東價值的過程中，我對擺在我們面前的機會感到興奮。

Now that Jeff has taken you through a few highlights of the quarter, let me take you through some of the 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.

既然 Jeff 已經向您介紹了本季度的一些亮點，那麼讓我向您介紹一些重要的財務細節。除非我們另有特別說明，否則所有比較均為同比，所有提及的每股收益均指稀釋後每股收益，所有註明的年份均指相應的財政年度。

Jeff has already discussed sales so I'll start with gross profit. For Q1, gross profit as a percentage of sales was 31.6%, an increase of 34 basis points. This was primarily attributable to higher inventory markup, decreased transportation costs and a decreased LIFO provision. These were partially offset by increases in shrink, markdowns and inventory damages as well as a greater proportion of sales coming from the consumables category. SG&A as a percentage of sales was 23.7%, an increase of 94 basis points. This increase was driven by certain expenses that were a greater percentage of sales in the current year period, the most significant of which were retail labor, including a $27 million targeted incremental labor hour investment, as well as repairs and maintenance and depreciation and amortization. These were partially offset by a decrease in incentive compensation.

傑夫已經討論過銷售，所以我將從毛利開始。第一季度，毛利潤佔銷售額的百分比為 31.6%，增長了 34 個基點。這主要歸因於較高的庫存加價、降低的運輸成本和減少的後進先出法準備金。這些部分被收縮、降價和庫存損壞的增加以及來自消耗品類別的更大比例的銷售額所抵消。 SG&A 佔銷售額的百分比為 23.7%，增加了 94 個基點。這一增長是由某些費用推動的，這些費用在本年度期間的銷售額中所佔比例更大，其中最重要的是零售勞動力，包括 2700 萬美元的目標增量工時投資，以及維修和保養以及折舊和攤銷。這些被激勵性薪酬的減少部分抵消了。

Moving down the income statement. Operating profit for the first quarter decreased 0.7% to $741 million. As a percentage of sales, operating profit was 7.9%, a decrease of 60 basis points. Interest expense increased to $83 million in Q1 compared to $40 million in the first quarter of '22, primarily driven by higher average borrowings and higher interest rates. Our effective tax rate for both this quarter and the first quarter of '22 was 21.8%. The effective income tax rate was flat due to a lower state effective tax rate, offset by a reduced benefit from stock-based compensation compared to the first quarter of '22. Finally, EPS for the quarter decreased 2.9% to $2.34.

向下移動損益表。第一季度營業利潤下降 0.7% 至 7.41 億美元。營業利潤佔銷售額的百分比為 7.9%，下降了 60 個基點。與 2022 年第一季度的 4000 萬美元相比，第一季度的利息支出增加到 8300 萬美元，這主要是由於平均借款增加和利率上升所致。我們本季度和 22 年第一季度的有效稅率均為 21.8%。由於州有效稅率較低，有效所得稅率持平，與 22 年第一季度相比，股票補償帶來的收益減少抵消了這一影響。最後，本季度每股收益下降 2.9% 至 2.34 美元。

Turning now to our balance sheet and cash flow. Merchandise inventories were $7.3 billion at the end of the quarter, an increase of 14.7% on a per-store basis. This increase continues to reflect the impact of product cost inflation. While inventory growth is still elevated, the pace has moderated from its peak last year. Looking ahead, we plan to further sharpen our focus on inventory as we adjust to an evolving customer demand, and we continue to anticipate more normalized growth rates as we move through the back half of the year. Importantly, we continue to believe the quality of our inventory is in good shape.

現在轉向我們的資產負債表和現金流量。本季度末商品庫存為 73 億美元，按每家商店計算增長 14.7%。這一增長繼續反映了產品成本通脹的影響。雖然庫存增長仍然很高，但增速已從去年的峰值放緩。展望未來，我們計劃在適應不斷變化的客戶需求時進一步加強對庫存的關注，並且隨著我們在今年下半年的發展，我們將繼續預期更正常的增長率。重要的是，我們仍然相信我們的庫存質量狀況良好。

During Q1, the business generated cash flows from operations of $191 million, a decrease of 57%, which was primarily attributable to higher inventory levels. Total capital expenditures were $363 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 also paid a quarterly dividend of $0.59 per common share outstanding for a total payment of $129 million. As planned, we did not repurchase any shares this quarter.

第一季度，該業務產生的運營現金流為 1.91 億美元，下降了 57%，這主要歸因於較高的庫存水平。總資本支出為 3.63 億美元，包括我們計劃在新店、改造和搬遷、分銷和運輸項目以及與我們的戰略計劃相關的支出方面的投資。本季度，我們還支付了每股已發行普通股 0.59 美元的季度股息，支付總額為 1.29 億美元。按照計劃，本季度我們沒有回購任何股票。

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. Next, we remain committed to returning cash to shareholders through quarterly dividend payments and, over time and when appropriate, share repurchases, all while targeting a leverage ratio of approximately 3x adjusted debt to EBITDAR in order to maintain our current investment-grade credit rating.

我們的資本配置優先事項繼續為我們服務，並且保持不變。我們的首要任務是投資於高回報增長機會，包括新店擴張和我們的戰略舉措。接下來，我們仍然致力於通過季度股息支付向股東返還現金，並在適當的時候適時回購股票，同時將調整後債務與 EBITDAR 的槓桿比率設定為大約 3 倍，以維持我們目前的投資級信用評級。

Moving to an update on our financial outlook for the fiscal 2023 year. As Jeff noted, we're seeing a much more challenging macroeconomic environment than we anticipated, and this is having a significant impact on our customer spending levels and behavior. We're taking swift and decisive action to adjust to this environment while maintaining our ability to save our customers both time and money. We remain confident in the business and our long-term growth prospects.

轉向更新我們 2023 財年的財務展望。正如 Jeff 指出的那樣，我們看到的宏觀經濟環境比我們預期的更具挑戰性，這對我們的客戶支出水平和行為產生了重大影響。我們正在採取迅速果斷的行動來適應這種環境，同時保持我們為客戶節省時間和金錢的能力。我們仍然對業務和我們的長期增長前景充滿信心。

In the near term, we are revising our outlook for 2023 to reflect those headwinds, and we now expect the following: first, net sales growth in the range of approximately 3.5% to 5% compared to our previous expectation of 5.5% to 6%. Both of these include an anticipated negative impact of approximately 2 percentage points due to lapping 2022's 53rd week.

在短期內，我們正在修改我們對 2023 年的展望以反映這些不利因素，我們現在預計如下：首先，淨銷售額增長率約為 3.5% 至 5%，而我們之前的預期為 5.5% 至 6% .由於 2022 年的第 53 週即將到來，這兩者都包括約 2 個百分點的預期負面影響。

Next, same-store sales growth is expected to be in the range of approximately 1% to approximately 2%. This compares to our previous expectation of 3% to 3.5%. Finally, EPS is expected to be in the range of an approximate 8% decline to flat. This compares to our previous expectation of growth in the range of approximately 4% to 6%. Both of these ranges include an estimated negative impact of approximately 4 percentage points due to lapping 2022's 53rd week.

接下來，同店銷售增長預計在約1%至約2%的範圍內。這與我們此前預期的 3% 至 3.5% 相比。最後，每股收益預計將下降約 8% 至持平。相比之下，我們之前的增長預期約為 4% 至 6%。由於 2022 年第 53 週即將到來，這兩個範圍都包括約 4 個百分點的估計負面影響。

The updated diluted EPS guidance also includes an anticipated negative impact of approximately 4 percentage points due to higher interest expense in fiscal 2023. This compares to the anticipated negative impact of approximately 3 percentage points included in the prior EPS guidance. Our EPS guidance assumes an effective tax rate of approximately 22.5%. This compares to our previous assumption in the range of 22.5% to 23%.

由於 2023 財年的利息支出增加，更新後的稀釋後每股收益指引還包括約 4 個百分點的預期負面影響。相比之下，之前的每股收益指引中預期的負面影響約為 3 個百分點。我們的 EPS 指南假設有效稅率約為 22.5%。相比之下，我們之前的假設範圍為 22.5% 至 23%。

We now expect capital spending to be in the range of $1.6 billion to $1.7 billion compared to our previous expectation of $1.8 billion to $1.9 billion, all of which include the impact of significant inflation in the cost of certain building materials, construction of new distribution centers and continued investment in our strategic initiatives and core business to support and drive future growth. We will continue to evaluate our capital expenditures. Our current expectations do reflect reductions in spending that we believe are prudent while we continue to prioritize meeting the needs of the business and supporting our ongoing growth.

我們現在預計資本支出將在 16 億至 17 億美元之間，而我們之前的預期為 18 億至 19 億美元，所有這些都包括某些建築材料成本大幅上漲的影響、新配送中心的建設並繼續投資於我們的戰略計劃和核心業務，以支持和推動未來的增長。我們將繼續評估我們的資本支出。我們目前的預期確實反映了我們認為謹慎的支出減少，同時我們繼續優先滿足業務需求並支持我們的持續增長。

Finally, in order to maintain financial flexibility and stay in line with our goal to maintain our investment-grade credit ratings and our associated debt leverage ratio target, we do not plan to repurchase shares in 2023. This compares to our previous expectation to repurchase a total of approximately $500 million of our common stock.

最後，為了保持財務靈活性並與我們維持投資級信用評級和相關債務槓桿率目標的目標保持一致，我們不打算在 2023 年回購股票。這與我們之前的預期回購相比我們的普通股總額約為 5 億美元。

Let me now provide some additional context as it relates to our outlook. In terms of quarterly cadence, we anticipate the EPS decline to be the most significant in the second quarter as a result of continued financial strain on our customer as well as lapping our strongest quarterly gross margin performance from 2022. We are also pulling forward a larger portion of our labor investment and anticipate more than $40 million of the investment will be made in the second quarter. Looking ahead, we expect the fourth quarter to be our strongest quarter from both a comp sales and EPS growth perspective as we anticipate a benefit from lapping the significant supply chain costs and winter storm impact as well as generating momentum from the actions we're taking this year as we head into 2024.

現在讓我提供一些與我們的前景相關的額外背景。就季度節奏而言，由於我們的客戶持續面臨財務壓力，以及我們從 2022 年開始表現最強勁的季度毛利率，我們預計第二季度每股收益下降幅度最大。我們的一部分勞動力投資，預計超過 4000 萬美元的投資將在第二季度進行。展望未來，我們預計第四季度從銷售和每股收益增長的角度來看將是我們最強勁的季度，因為我們預計將從應對重大供應鏈成本和冬季風暴影響中獲益，以及從我們正在採取的行動中產生動力今年我們即將邁入 2024 年。

Our sales guidance assumes our customer will remain under pressure for the remainder of the year. While we believe they will ultimately adjust their budgets and recover, the depth and the duration of the current pressure is difficult to predict. Additionally, while we have attracted and retained a significant number of customers in higher income brackets in recent years, our guidance does not assume a significant trade in benefit for this year.

我們的銷售指南假設我們的客戶在今年剩餘時間裡仍將面臨壓力。雖然我們相信他們最終會調整預算並複蘇，但目前壓力的深度和持續時間很難預測。此外，雖然我們近年來吸引並留住了大量高收入客戶，但我們的指導意見並未假設今年會有重大的利益交易。

Turning now to gross margin for 2023. In addition to the material benefit from lapping the increased supply chain expenses in the second half of '22, we expect the benefits from greater distribution center capacity and performance, lower carrier rates, expansion of our private tractor fleet and other distribution and transportation efficiencies. We also expect to continue realizing benefits from our initiatives, including DG Fresh. Furthermore, we continue to anticipate a significant contribution from our DG Media Network. Partially offsetting some of these expected benefits are increased inventory shrink as well as pressure from sales mix and higher markdowns throughout the remainder of the year.

現在轉向 2023 年的毛利率。除了從 22 年下半年增加的供應鏈費用中獲得物質利益外，我們預計還會從更大的配送中心容量和性能、更低的承運人費率、我們的私人拖拉機的擴張中獲益車隊和其他配送和運輸效率。我們還希望繼續從我們的舉措中獲益，包括 DG Fresh。此外，我們繼續期待我們的 DG 媒體網絡做出重大貢獻。部分抵消了這些預期收益中的一些是庫存減少的增加以及銷售組合的壓力和今年剩餘時間的降價幅度更大。

Regarding SG&A, we expect continued investments in our strategic initiatives as we further their rollout. However, in the aggregate, we continue to expect they will positively contribute to operating profit and margin in 2023 as we expect the benefits to gross margin from our initiatives will more than offset the associated SG&A expense. And we plan to continue making the remainder of the planned total incremental investment of approximately $100 million in our stores, primarily through additional labor hours. And as I just noted, we expect this investment to be more heavily weighted towards the first half of the year. While this investment will pressure SG&A in 2023, we believe it's the right thing to do for the business, and it will drive stronger in-store execution, positioning us well to serve our customers even better. Finally, we also expect a headwind from higher interest expense over the next couple of quarters.

關於 SG&A，我們希望在進一步推出戰略計劃時繼續投資於我們的戰略計劃。然而，總的來說，我們繼續預計它們將在 2023 年為營業利潤和利潤率做出積極貢獻，因為我們預計我們的舉措對毛利率的好處將超過相關的 SG&A 費用。我們計劃繼續對我們的商店進行計劃的總增量投資中的剩餘部分，即大約 1 億美元，主要是通過額外的工時。正如我剛才指出的那樣，我們預計這項投資將在今年上半年獲得更大的權重。雖然這項投資將在 2023 年給 SG&A 帶來壓力，但我們認為這對企業來說是正確的做法，它將推動更強大的店內執行力，使我們能夠更好地為客戶服務。最後，我們還預計未來幾個季度利息支出增加將帶來不利影響。

In closing, we are grateful for the team's hard work as we strive to deliver for our customers. We're sharpening our focus and continue to be disciplined in how we manage expenses and capital with the goal of delivering consistent, strong financial performance while strategically investing in the long term. Finally, we're 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. With that, I'll turn the call back over to Jeff.

最後，我們感謝團隊在我們努力為客戶提供服務時的辛勤工作。我們正在加強我們的重點，並繼續嚴格控制我們如何管理費用和資本，以期在長期戰略投資的同時提供一致、強勁的財務業績。最後，我們對我們的商業模式和我們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。有了這個，我會把電話轉回給傑夫。

Thank you, Kelly. We have a clear vision for the future of this company, which is to be a force for opportunity for our customers, employees, communities and shareholders. To bring this vision to life in the years ahead, we have developed a strategic framework to serve as our road map into the future. I want to briefly introduce this framework today and we'll provide further detail and updates in the quarters ahead.

謝謝你，凱利。我們對這家公司的未來有著清晰的願景，即成為為我們的客戶、員工、社區和股東創造機會的力量。為了在未來幾年實現這一願景，我們制定了一個戰略框架作為我們未來的路線圖。今天我想簡要介紹一下這個框架，我們將在未來幾個季度提供更多細節和更新。

We call this road map DG Forward, and it is focused on the powerful combination of execution and innovation. For us, our execution is driven by our operating priorities. While these priorities are not changing, we are going to sharpen our strategic focus in 4 key ways. First, we are going to focus even more on rural by doubling down on serving and providing our rural customers with what they need when they need it. This company was founded to serve the underserved, and today, approximately 80% of our stores, many of which are in rural America, serve communities with fewer than 20,000 residents.

我們將此路線圖稱為 DG Forward，它側重於執行與創新的強大結合。對我們而言，我們的執行取決於我們的運營重點。雖然這些優先事項沒有改變，但我們將在 4 個關鍵方面加強我們的戰略重點。首先，我們將更加關注農村，加倍努力為農村客戶提供服務，並在他們需要的時候提供他們需要的東西。這家公司的成立是為了服務於服務不足的人群，如今，我們大約 80% 的商店（其中許多位於美國農村）為居民少於 20,000 人的社區提供服務。

Second, we are going to extend our reach. We will focus on expanding the DG universe by serving new customers through new formats or existing customers in new and differentiated ways. Third, we are going to fuel our growth by strengthening and modernizing 3 critical components to improve execution: our operating model, our supply chain and our IT foundation. We will fuel our best-in-class growth by investing in resources to enable our team to execute at the highest levels to serve our customers.

其次，我們將擴大我們的影響範圍。我們將專注於通過新格式為新客戶或以新的差異化方式為現有客戶提供服務來擴展 DG 領域。第三，我們將通過加強和現代化 3 個關鍵組件來提高執行力來推動我們的增長：我們的運營模式、我們的供應鍊和我們的 IT 基礎。我們將通過投資資源來推動我們一流的增長，使我們的團隊能夠以最高水平執行以服務我們的客戶。

The fourth and most important area of focus with DG Forward is that it's all powered by our people. We believe Dollar General is truly powered by the best team in retail, and we are leaning into 3 specific areas to double down on this strategic advantage: investing in our people and creating opportunities for growth and development, amplifying our culture and reinforcing Dollar General as a destination for starting, growing and enjoying a meaningful career where the work we do every day makes a difference.

DG Forward 的第四個也是最重要的關注領域是，它全部由我們的員工提供支持。我們相信 Dollar General 真正由零售業最優秀的團隊提供支持，我們正致力於 3 個特定領域以加倍發揮這一戰略優勢：投資於我們的員工並為增長和發展創造機會，擴大我們的文化並加強 Dollar General 作為一個開始、成長和享受有意義的職業生涯的目的地，我們每天所做的工作都會有所作為。

This DG Forward framework is the lens through which we see the future of this company, and we are excited about what lies ahead. You will hear more from us in the quarters ahead about some of the innovation that is well underway, but I want to spend our last few minutes providing a quick update on how we are executing through our operating priorities. Our first operating priority is driving profitable sales growth. We continue to focus on providing value to customers in non-consumable categories through our NCI offering in Dollar General stores as well as through the treasure hunt experience in our stand-alone pOpshelf format.

這個 DG Forward 框架是我們看到這家公司未來的鏡頭，我們對未來感到興奮。在接下來的幾個季度中，您會從我們那裡聽到更多關於一些正在進行的創新的信息，但我想在最後幾分鐘快速介紹一下我們如何執行我們的運營優先事項。我們的首要運營重點是推動盈利性銷售增長。我們繼續專注於通過我們在 Dollar General 商店中提供的 NCI 產品以及通過我們獨立的 pOpshelf 格式的尋寶體驗為非消耗品類別的客戶提供價值。

During the quarter, we opened 24 new pOpshelf locations, bringing the total number of stores to 164 at the end of Q1, located in 16 states. While sales in this economic environment are softer than our earlier results, we continue to be pleased with the customer response. Looking ahead, we are taking a balanced approach to opening the right number of new pOpshelf stores in the right locations in this environment and now expect to operate a total of approximately 230 stores by the end of 2023. As a result of our slower pace of openings, we are reevaluating our plans with regards to our timing of reaching 1,000 stores by the end of 2025 and plan to provide an updated expectation at a later date. Importantly, we still believe pOpshelf adds approximately 3,000 opportunities to our total addressable market over the long term, and we remain as excited as ever about the growth opportunity.

在本季度，我們開設了 24 個新的 pOpshelf 地點，使商店總數在第一季度末達到 164 個，位於 16 個州。雖然在這種經濟環境下的銷售比我們之前的結果疲軟，但我們仍然對客戶的反應感到滿意。展望未來，我們正在採取平衡的方法在這種環境下的正確位置開設正確數量的新 pOpshelf 商店，現在預計到 2023 年底將運營總共約 230 家商店。由於我們的步伐較慢開業，我們正在重新評估到 2025 年底達到 1,000 家門店的時間計劃，併計劃在晚些時候提供更新的預期。重要的是，我們仍然相信 pOpshelf 從長遠來看會為我們的總潛在市場增加大約 3,000 個機會，我們對增長機會一如既往地感到興奮。

Turning now to DG Fresh, which has delivered significant cost savings while enhancing the profitability of our perishables offering. Our current area of focus for DG Fresh is increasing sales in frozen and refrigerated categories through enhanced product offerings and building on our multiyear track record of growth in cooler doors and associated sales. During Q1, we added more than 18,000 cooler doors across our store base, and we plan to install a total of more than 65,000 incremental cooler doors in 2023. And while produce is not currently serviced by our internal supply chain, we continue to believe that DG Fresh provides a potential path forward to expanding our produce offering to more than 10,000 stores over time.

現在轉向 DG Fresh，它顯著節省了成本，同時提高了我們易腐產品的盈利能力。我們目前的 DG Fresh 重點領域是通過增強產品供應並鞏固我們多年來在冷藏門和相關銷售方面的增長記錄來增加冷凍和冷藏類別的銷售額。在第一季度，我們在我們的商店基地增加了超過 18,000 個冷卻門，我們計劃在 2023 年安裝總共超過 65,000 個增量冷卻門。雖然我們的內部供應鏈目前不提供產品服務，但我們仍然相信隨著時間的推移，DG Fresh 為將我們的農產品產品擴展到 10,000 多家商店提供了一條潛在的途徑。

To that end, at the end of Q1, we offered fresh produce in nearly 3,900 stores, with plans to expand this offering to a total of more than 5,000 stores by the end of 2023. Importantly, despite the meaningful improvements we have made and savings that we have realized to date as a result of DG Fresh, we believe we still have an opportunity to drive significant additional returns with this initiative in the years ahead.

為此，在第一季度末，我們在近 3,900 家商店提供新鮮農產品，併計劃到 2023 年底將此服務擴展到總數超過 5,000 家商店。重要的是，儘管我們做出了有意義的改進並節省了成本迄今為止，我們已經意識到 DG Fresh 的成果，我們相信我們仍然有機會在未來幾年通過這一舉措推動顯著的額外回報。

Turning now to an update on our health initiative, branded as DG Well Being. Our expanded health assortment offering was available in nearly 5,000 stores at the end of Q1, and we now plan to expand to a total of more than 7,000 stores by the end of 2023. Looking ahead, our plans include further expansion of our health offering and also of our partnership with a third-party payment platform to allow customers to use health plan supplemental benefits to purchase various health and wellness-related items in their local Dollar General stores. This health benefit option is now available in approximately 7,500 stores, with the goal of being available chain-wide by the end of the year as we continue to focus on increasing access to basic health care products and ultimately services over time, particularly in rural America.

現在談談我們健康倡議的最新情況，該倡議被稱為 DG Well Being。第一季度末，我們擴大後的健康產品種類在近 5,000 家門店有售，我們現在計劃到 2023 年底將門店總數擴大到 7,000 多家。展望未來，我們的計劃包括進一步擴大我們的健康產品和我們還與第三方支付平台合作，允許客戶使用健康計劃補充福利在當地的 Dollar General 商店購買各種與健康和保健相關的物品。這種健康福利選項現已在大約 7,500 家商店提供，目標是到今年年底在全連鎖店提供，因為我們將繼續專注於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，特別是在美國農村地區.

In addition to these initiatives, we continue to pursue other opportunities to enhance gross margin, including supply chain efficiencies, private brand enhancements and improvements in global sourcing.

除了這些舉措之外，我們還繼續尋求其他機會來提高毛利率，包括供應鏈效率、自有品牌增強和全球採購的改進。

Our second priority is capturing growth opportunities. As I mentioned earlier, our high-return, low-risk real estate model continues to serve us well as a core strength of the business. In the first quarter, we completed more than 800 real estate projects, including 212 new stores, 582 remodels and 22 relocations. For 2023, we are revising our real estate plans to reflect the reduced pace of pOpshelf opening. We now plan to execute 3,110 real estate projects in total in the U.S., including 990 new stores, 2,000 remodels and 120 relocations. We continue to expect approximately 80% of our new stores and nearly all of our relocations will be in one of our larger store formats, which continue to drive increased sales productivity per square foot as compared to our traditional store.

我們的第二要務是抓住增長機會。正如我之前提到的，我們的高回報、低風險的房地產模式繼續作為我們業務的核心優勢為我們服務。一季度完成房地產項目800餘個，其中新店212個，改造582個，搬遷22個。對於 2023 年，我們正在修改我們的房地產計劃，以反映 pOpshelf 開放速度的放緩。我們現在計劃在美國總共執行 3,110 個房地產項目，包括 990 個新店、2,000 個改造和 120 個搬遷。我們繼續預計我們大約 80% 的新店和幾乎所有搬遷都將採用我們較大的商店格式之一，與我們的傳統商店相比，這將繼續推動每平方英尺銷售效率的提高。

With regard to remodels, approximately 80% will be in our DGTP format, which provides the opportunity for a significant increase in cooler count as well as the ability to add fresh produce in many stores. In addition to our planned Dollar General and pOpshelf growth, we opened our first Mi Súper Dollar General store in Monterrey, Mexico in Q1. We have been very encouraged by the customer response and the early results, which include sales results that are exceeding our pro forma expectations. Looking ahead, our goal is to have up to 20 stores serving the underserved communities in northern Mexico by the end of 2023 as we look to leverage our brand awareness while extending our value and convenience proposition to a customer base that is similar to our core customer in the United States.

關於改造，大約 80% 將採用我們的 DGTP 格式，這為顯著增加冷卻器數量以及在許多商店中添加新鮮農產品的能力提供了機會。除了我們計劃的 Dollar General 和 pOpshelf 增長之外，我們還在第一季度在墨西哥蒙特雷開設了第一家 Mi Súper Dollar General 商店。我們對客戶的反應和早期結果感到非常鼓舞，其中包括超出我們預估預期的銷售結果。展望未來，我們的目標是到 2023 年底最多有 20 家商店為墨西哥北部服務欠缺的社區服務，因為我們希望利用我們的品牌知名度，同時將我們的價值和便利主張擴展到與我們的核心客戶類似的客戶群在美國。

Next, our digital initiative, which is an important complement to our physical footprint as we continue to deploy and leverage technology to further enhance convenience and access for customers. We are extending our reach in a variety of important ways, including driving customer engagement through our app and extending our partnership with DoorDash, which is now available in more than 14,800 stores.

接下來，我們的數字計劃是對我們物理足蹟的重要補充，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。我們正在通過多種重要方式擴大我們的影響力，包括通過我們的應用程序推動客戶參與，以及擴大我們與 DoorDash 的合作夥伴關係，DoorDash 現在在 14,800 多家商店有售。

Our DG Media Network provides another important avenue of growth as we seek to connect our unique rural-based customer network with CPG companies and brands to deliver a more personalized experience for our customers, a higher return on ad spend for our partners and profitable growth for our business. Overall, our strategy consists of building a digital ecosystem specifically tailored to provide our customers with an even more convenient, frictionless and personalized shopping experience. And we are pleased with the growing engagement we are seeing across our digital properties.

我們的 DG 媒體網絡提供了另一個重要的增長途徑，因為我們尋求將我們獨特的農村客戶網絡與 CPG 公司和品牌聯繫起來，為我們的客戶提供更加個性化的體驗，為我們的合作夥伴提供更高的廣告支出回報，並為我們的業務。總的來說，我們的戰略包括建立一個專門定制的數字生態系統，為我們的客戶提供更加方便、順暢和個性化的購物體驗。我們對我們在數字資產中看到的越來越多的參與感到高興。

Our third operating priority is to leverage and reinforce our position as a low-cost operator. Kelly and her team are rigorously applying our Save to Serve lens to the business to guide our approach to keeping costs low for our customer. As she discussed, we will be particularly focused on managing expenses this year without compromising long-term growth. We continue to focus on driving efficiencies in the organization, including through our Fast Track initiative. The current phase of this initiative is focused on self-checkout, which provides customers with even greater convenience in our stores. This offering was available in approximately 12,600 stores at the end of Q1, and we are on track to be in more than 14,000 stores by the end of 2023 as we look to further extend our position as an innovative leader in small box discount retail.

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。 Kelly 和她的團隊正在嚴格地將我們的“為服務而節省”的鏡頭應用到業務中，以指導我們為客戶保持低成本的方法。正如她所討論的那樣，我們今年將特別專注於管理開支，而不影響長期增長。我們繼續專注於提高組織效率，包括通過我們的快速通道計劃。該計劃的當前階段側重於自助結賬，這為顧客在我們的商店提供了更大的便利。該產品在第一季度末在大約 12,600 家商店有售，我們有望在 2023 年底之前在超過 14,000 家商店提供服務，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。

We also continue to reduce costs through the expansion of our private tractor fleet, which consisted of more than 1,700 tractors at the end of Q1 and accounted for approximately 45% of our outbound transportation needs. Looking ahead, we plan to have more than 2,000 tractors in our private fleet by the end of 2023, which would account for more than 50% of our outbound transportation fleet. Overall, we are taking action to drive efficiencies and drive cost savings as 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.

我們還通過擴大我們的私人拖拉機車隊繼續降低成本，該車隊在第一季度末擁有 1,700 多台拖拉機，約占我們出境運輸需求的 45%。展望未來，我們計劃到 2023 年底在我們的私人車隊中擁有超過 2,000 台拖拉機，這將占我們出境運輸車隊的 50% 以上。總的來說，我們正在採取行動來提高效率和節約成本，因為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，同時控制開支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 I mentioned within our DG Forward framework, everything we do at this company is powered by our people, and we continue to focus on creating opportunities for personal and professional development and ultimately, career advancement. Our internal promotion pipeline remains robust as evidenced by internal placement rates of more than 70% at or above the lead sales associate position. Additionally, more than 10% of our growing private fleet team began their careers with us in either a store or distribution center.

我們的第四個運營重點是通過發展、授權和包容來投資於我們的多元化團隊。正如我在 DG Forward 框架中提到的那樣，我們在這家公司所做的一切都由我們的員工提供動力，我們將繼續專注於為個人和職業發展以及最終的職業發展創造機會。我們的內部晉升渠道依然強勁，內部安置率達到或超過首席銷售助理職位的 70% 就證明了這一點。此外，在我們不斷壯大的私人車隊團隊中，超過 10% 的人在商店或配送中心開始了他們的職業生涯。

We continue to have great success hiring the talent we need and we are pleased with our staffing levels and average [inflow]. Ultimately, we believe the opportunity to start and develop a career with a growing and purpose-driven company is what sets Dollar General apart from our competition and remains our greatest currency in attracting and retaining talent.

我們繼續在招聘所需人才方面取得巨大成功，我們對我們的人員配置水平和平均 [流入] 感到滿意。歸根結底，我們相信有機會在一家不斷發展和以目標為導向的公司開始和發展職業生涯，這使 Dollar General 在競爭中脫穎而出，並且仍然是我們吸引和留住人才的最大貨幣。

Just recently, we added to the strength of our executive team with the promotion of Steve Deckard to Executive Vice President of Growth and Emerging Markets, where he will oversee our real estate, data science, pOpshelf, Mexico and DG Well Being teams. His position will facilitate an even sharper organizational focus on driving execution in our core business while also innovating for the future. And there is no one better suited for this role than Steve, who has been a key strategic leader with Dollar General for 17 years, most recently leading our international expansion in Mexico. I look forward to his continued leadership and ongoing contributions to our success.

就在最近，我們將 Steve Deckard 提拔為增長和新興市場執行副總裁，增強了我們的執行團隊的實力，他將在那裡監督我們的房地產、數據科學、pOpshelf、墨西哥和 DG Well Being 團隊。他的職位將促進組織更加專注於推動我們核心業務的執行，同時也為未來進行創新。沒有人比史蒂夫更適合擔任這一角色，他在 Dollar General 擔任關鍵戰略領導已有 17 年，最近領導我們在墨西哥的國際擴張。我期待著他繼續發揮領導作用，為我們的成功做出持續貢獻。

In closing, we are focused on delivering our DG Forward strategy to be a force for opportunity for our customers, employees, communities and shareholders. We believe our short-term adjustments position us well to serve our customers in this environment, and our execution on our initiatives and operating priorities positions us well to drive long-term growth. I want to thank our more than 175,000 employees for their diligence and dedication to fulfilling our mission of Serving Others every day. Our customers and communities need Dollar General right now, and we are poised and ready to serve when and where they need us most. With that, operator, we would now like to open the lines for questions.

最後，我們專注於實施我們的 DG Forward 戰略，成為為我們的客戶、員工、社區和股東創造機會的力量。我們相信，我們的短期調整使我們能夠在這種環境下很好地為我們的客戶服務，而我們對我們的計劃和運營優先事項的執行使我們能夠很好地推動長期增長。我要感謝我們 175,000 多名員工的勤奮和奉獻，他們每天都在履行我們為他人服務的使命。我們的客戶和社區現在需要 Dollar General，我們已做好準備，隨時準備在他們最需要我們的時間和地點提供服務。有了這個，接線員，我們現在想打開問題熱線。

(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。

This is Michael Kessler on for Simeon. First question, so Dollar General has encountered some supply chain, labor, macro challenges in the midst of changes in management as well. And it does seem like issues are continuing to kind of creep in a bit. As you -- Jeff, as you look backwards over the last 6 to 9 months, can you diagnose maybe what the root -- if there is a root of these issues, if any, of what I just mentioned is intertwined at all? And how do we and investors get comfortable that, I guess, the full extent of the challenges, I guess, are known today?

這是 Simeon 的 Michael Kessler。第一個問題，所以Dollar General在管理變革中也遇到了一些供應鏈、勞動力、宏觀挑戰。而且看起來問題確實在繼續蔓延。正如你 - 傑夫，當你回顧過去 6 到 9 個月時，你能否診斷出這些問題的根源 - 如果有這些問題的根源，如果有的話，我剛才提到的問題是交織在一起的？我想，我們和投資者如何才能放心，我想，挑戰的全部範圍，我想，今天是眾所周知的？

Yes, Mike, thank you for the call -- the question. I'd say when I think back on the supply chain, we mentioned in Q3 and Q4, we had challenges. We said we would get better in Q4 and we did exactly that. And we also said we'd improve in Q1. And quite frankly, our supply chain improved at a faster rate than even we expected. And you heard me in my prepared comments talk about we ended that quarter in the best position service level-wise in 2 years.

是的，邁克，謝謝你的電話 - 這個問題。我想說的是，當我回想供應鏈時，我們在第三季度和第四季度提到過，我們遇到了挑戰。我們說我們會在第四季度變得更好，我們也確實做到了。我們還表示我們會在第一季度進行改進。坦率地說，我們的供應鏈改善速度甚至比我們預期的還要快。你在我準備好的評論中聽到我談論我們在 2 年內以最好的位置服務水平結束了那個季度。

On the store side, certainly, we tested and learned increasing our labor hour investment in the store. We liked what we saw last year. We said we would continue that in 2023, primarily through labor hours. And we liked what we saw in Q1 as well. Our customer is telling us they're seeing the improvement. And as a result of that, we're going to do more.

當然，在商店方面，我們測試並了解到增加我們在商店的工時投資。我們喜歡我們去年看到的。我們說我們將在 2023 年繼續這樣做，主要是通過工時。我們也喜歡我們在第一季度看到的東西。我們的客戶告訴我們他們看到了改進。因此，我們將做更多的事情。

And when you think about how we came into 2023 and started the year, we started strong. In February, our comp was actually 4.8%, as we mentioned, and was ahead of our expectations. And in mid-March, as we mentioned on our call, we're watching 2 significant events that disproportionately, we believe, impact our customer, tax refunds and SNAP. And unfortunately, that impacted her even more than we expected and, quite frankly, more than she expected. And so in March, she simply pulled back. And back half of March, we saw her pull back and really pull out of spending. The good news is in April, she started to return and she continues to return in May as well.

當你想想我們是如何進入 2023 年並開始新的一年時，我們的開局很強勁。正如我們所提到的，2 月份我們的薪酬實際上是 4.8%，超出了我們的預期。正如我們在電話會議上提到的那樣，在 3 月中旬，我們正在觀察 2 件重大事件，我們認為這些事件對我們的客戶、退稅和 SNAP 產生了不成比例的影響。不幸的是，這對她的影響甚至超出了我們的預期，坦率地說，超出了她的預期。所以在三月份，她乾脆退縮了。回到三月半，我們看到她退縮並真正退出支出。好消息是在四月，她開始回歸，並在五月繼續回歸。

Now as you know, at Dollar General, we know our customer, we believe, better than anybody. And she certainly is telling us she's under pressure. And we have always said this and we will continue to do this that we will be there for her when she needs us most. And so the team is taking action, and I'm pleased to see the actions our team has taken in the short term and really from a position of strength. We're going to be there for affordability, primarily through the items that matter most to her. And so we're going to get even sharper. Even though we're pleased with our pricing position overall and have been for quite some time, we think there's an opportunity to be there for her even more. And so the team has already taken action on pricing on the items that matter most.

正如您所知，在 Dollar General，我們相信我們比任何人都更了解我們的客戶。她當然是在告訴我們她承受著壓力。我們一直這麼說，我們將繼續這樣做，當她最需要我們的時候，我們會在她身邊。因此，團隊正在採取行動，我很高興看到我們的團隊在短期內採取的行動，而且確實處於有利地位。我們將在那裡提供可負擔性，主要是通過對她來說最重要的項目。因此，我們將變得更加敏銳。儘管我們對整體定價狀況感到滿意並且已經有一段時間了，但我們認為有機會為她提供更多服務。因此，該團隊已經對最重要的項目採取了定價行動。

We're doing it surgically like we always do and very pleased with where we're seeing the customer resonate. But certainly, that will take time to drive traffic as it typically will do. The other action we're taking is we liked what we saw with the labor, and we're going to do more of it. So we're pulling forward our labor investment into the second quarter. And quite honestly, we're pulling it forward because we liked what we saw and our supply chain is improving at a faster rate. So it allows us to do that and get the returns we're looking for, and quite frankly, make improvements in the store that we need to do and we'll continue to do.

我們像往常一樣像外科手術一樣做這件事，並且對我們看到客戶產生共鳴的地方感到非常滿意。但可以肯定的是，這需要時間來推動流量，因為它通常會這樣做。我們正在採取的另一項行動是我們喜歡我們在勞動中看到的東西，我們將做更多的事情。因此，我們將勞動力投資提前到第二季度。老實說，我們正在推動它向前發展，因為我們喜歡我們所看到的，而且我們的供應鏈正在以更快的速度改進。因此，它使我們能夠做到這一點並獲得我們正在尋找的回報，並且坦率地說，對我們需要做的商店進行改進，我們將繼續這樣做。

So these actions, certainly on the short term, will help. But also, they're going to help us emerge stronger as we look to the balance of this year and into 2024. And also, I continue to be pleased on the progress we're making on our strategic initiatives. We continue to make strong progress in the first quarter. And as I mentioned, we've made further investments in the structure of this to allow us to make even more progress on our innovation front. But also with the addition of our new executive in Steve Deckard, it will also provide us the ability to enhance our focus on the execution of the core DG business, which I'm seeing already and I'm pleased to see as we move forward.

因此，這些行動肯定會在短期內有所幫助。而且，在我們展望今年和 2024 年的平衡時，它們將幫助我們變得更強大。而且，我繼續對我們在戰略計劃方面取得的進展感到高興。我們在第一季度繼續取得強勁進展。正如我所提到的，我們已經對此結構進行了進一步投資，以使我們能夠在創新方面取得更大進展。而且隨著我們在 Steve Deckard 的新高管的加入，它也將使我們能夠加強對核心 DG 業務執行的關注，我已經看到了這一點，並且我很高興看到我們向前邁進.

So bottom line, we're making improvements. The macroeconomic environment certainly shifted on us in the back half of March. We're seeing her return to us. We're liking what we see and we're positioned well for the long term.

所以歸根結底，我們正在改進。宏觀經濟環境在 3 月下半月確實發生了變化。我們看到她回到我們身邊。我們喜歡我們所看到的，並且我們在長期內處於有利地位。

Our next question is from Matthew Boss with JPMorgan.

我們的下一個問題來自摩根大通的 Matthew Boss。

So Jeff, on the rapidly changing backdrop that you cited, could you maybe speak to the changes in customer behavior that you're seeing today relative more so to 3 months ago, if we broke it down with traffic versus ticket? And then can you elaborate on some of the drivers of the May comp improvement? And just where exactly do you stand today relative to that 1% to 2% updated full year comp guide?

因此，傑夫，在您提到的快速變化的背景下，如果我們將流量與門票分開，您能否談談您今天看到的客戶行為的變化與 3 個月前相比更多？然後你能詳細說明 5 月薪酬改善的一些驅動因素嗎？相對於 1% 到 2% 更新的全年補償指南，您今天的確切位置是什麼？

Thanks, Matt. If you recall back to the Q4 call, we talked about our customer, and we talked about the fact that her financial situation was getting worse. And quite honestly, what we do in our survey work and talking to our customers as we do and our first-party data that we have really tells us that our customer's even under more pressure as we have progressed into 2023. And quite honestly, it's some of the most pressure we've seen in quite some time.

謝謝，馬特。如果你回想起第四季度的電話會議，我們談到了我們的客戶，我們談到了她的財務狀況越來越糟的事實。老實說，我們在調查工作中所做的工作和與客戶的交談以及我們擁有的第一方數據確實告訴我們，隨著我們進入 2023 年，我們的客戶甚至承受著更大的壓力。老實說，這是我們在很長一段時間內看到的一些最大壓力。

The good news is she's still employed. That's always an important factor in her health, so that's a good thing to see. But quite honestly, our customers, some of the details, food inflation continues to persist. And even though it's moderated somewhat, if you think about the 2-year stack, it's almost 20%. And our customer certainly is seeing that pressure. And then quite honestly, when you think about the child tax credit and the removal of that and how that impacted her tax refunds, that's an incredible buffer for her, that quite frankly surprised her on the level of refund she did not receive.

好消息是她還在工作。這始終是影響她健康的一個重要因素，所以這是一件好事。但老實說，我們的客戶，一些細節，食品通脹繼續存在。即使它有所緩和，但如果你考慮 2 年的堆棧，它幾乎是 20%。我們的客戶當然看到了這種壓力。然後老實說，當你想到兒童稅收抵免和取消它以及它如何影響她的退稅時，這對她來說是一個令人難以置信的緩衝，坦率地說，她對她沒有收到的退稅水平感到驚訝。

And in some cases, some of our customers are saying that they're even having to pay taxes this year, which is something that they typically don't have to do. So when you think about that, they're saying to us, you look at those 2 shocks to her also with the SNAP benefit and the $95 reduction on a per household basis, last year and last time this happened, we saw through our first-party data, they were able to shift to other types of tender. But quite frankly, in this environment, and we have the luxury of having first-party data, we're seeing they're not able to do that.

在某些情況下，我們的一些客戶表示他們今年甚至必須納稅，而這通常是他們不必做的。因此，當您考慮到這一點時，他們對我們說，您還看到了 SNAP 福利和每個家庭減少 95 美元對她的兩次沖擊，去年和上次發生這種情況時，我們看到了我們的第一個-方數據，他們能夠轉移到其他類型的招標。但坦率地說，在這種環境下，我們有幸擁有第一方數據，但我們發現他們無法做到這一點。

And not only are the states where the SNAP benefits were reduced having an impact but also the states that happened last year, they're also seeing pullback as well. And unfortunately, our customers are saying they're having to rely more on food banks, savings, credit cards. As we all know, credit card rates are at an all-time high. So saying all that, what we're seeing her do is really rely more in the shopping behavior. We're seeing her buy fewer items per basket. We're seeing her really utilize that $1 price point, and we're very pleased that we still offer that.

不僅 SNAP 福利減少的州產生了影響，而且去年發生的州也出現了回落。不幸的是，我們的客戶說他們不得不更多地依賴食品銀行、儲蓄和信用卡。眾所周知，信用卡利率處於歷史最高水平。綜上所述，我們看到她所做的實際上更多地依賴於購物行為。我們看到她在每個籃子裡購買的商品變少了。我們看到她真的利用了 1 美元的價格點，我們很高興我們仍然提供這個價格點。

And then we're also seeing her buy closer to payday in the first of the month. And -- but what we are seeing through the actions we've taken, we're seeing that our customer's continuing to return to shopping. We're pleased to see our share gains in the month of April and May returning, so we're excited about that. And quite frankly, when you step back and think about share, we grew share in February. Our customer pulled back in March and really pulled out of the spending. She returned in April. And even though we had a negative comp, we still gained share and then we gained share in May as well.

然後我們還看到她在本月的第一天臨近發薪日購買。而且 - 但我們通過我們採取的行動看到的是，我們看到我們的客戶繼續返回購物。我們很高興看到我們在 4 月和 5 月的股價回升，因此我們對此感到興奮。坦率地說，當你退一步考慮份額時，我們在 2 月份的份額有所增加。我們的客戶在 3 月份退出並真正退出了支出。她在四月份回來了。即使我們的收入為負，我們仍然獲得了份額，然後我們在 5 月份也獲得了份額。

So we're pleased to see that not only are customers leaning more on Dollar General as we expected she would, but the actions that we're taking are beginning to take hold. So we feel good. We're positioned to serve our customer in times like this. And with primarily 80% of our stores in communities that's 20,000 or less, we're uniquely positioned to be there for her.

因此，我們很高興看到客戶不僅像我們預期的那樣更加依賴 Dollar General，而且我們正在採取的行動也開始發揮作用。所以我們感覺很好。在這樣的時候，我們有能力為我們的客戶提供服務。我們 80% 的商店都位於 20,000 人或更少的社區中，因此我們處於獨特的位置，可以為她服務。

Great. And then maybe, Kelly, as a follow-up, so just in light of this backdrop, how do you feel about your pricing position today? What actions might you take? And then could you just overall walk through the puts and takes that you've embedded in your gross margin forecast for the second quarter or the back half of the year relative to the expansion that we saw in the first quarter?

偉大的。然後，凱利，作為後續行動，鑑於這種背景，您對今天的定價狀況有何看法？你可能會採取什麼行動？然後，您能否全面介紹一下您在第二季度或下半年相對於我們在第一季度看到的擴張的毛利率預測中嵌入的看跌期權？

Yes, I'll start with the pricing. We feel great about our pricing position. And just like Jeff said, we're investing in a targeted everyday low-price investment. And in this environment, we feel like it's really important to do so on those key items that are important to our customer. And what I would say is that is embedded in our gross margin guidance.

是的，我將從定價開始。我們對我們的定價地位感到滿意。就像傑夫說的那樣，我們正在投資有針對性的日常低價投資。在這種環境下，我們覺得在那些對我們的客戶很重要的關鍵項目上這樣做真的很重要。我要說的是，這已包含在我們的毛利率指導中。

I'm just stepping back on guidance, just taking a look at it from a high level for the full year. Our revised guidance is really a function of the macroeconomic environment, and it's putting pressure on 2 things, and that's sales and shrink. And as Jeff alluded to, we're taking actions to address both as well as actively managing the rest of the P&L, our working capital and our capital investments. We're not going to sacrifice long-term growth as we do that either.

我只是退後一步，只是從全年的高水平來看一下。我們修訂後的指引實際上是宏觀經濟環境的一個函數，它對兩件事施加壓力，那就是銷售和收縮。正如傑夫提到的那樣，我們正在採取行動來解決這兩個問題，並積極管理其餘的損益、我們的營運資金和資本投資。我們這樣做也不會犧牲長期增長。

So we do expect this customer to remain under pressure for the foreseeable future. The depth and the duration of that is really difficult to predict. But as history always tells us, they'll ultimately recover and get their budgets back in line. So when we think about that and think about then the cadence of the year, really I want to focus on Q2. And that's where we're going to see the most pronounced headwinds and probably the highest decrease in EPS.

因此，我們確實希望該客戶在可預見的未來繼續承受壓力。其深度和持續時間真的很難預測。但正如歷史總是告訴我們的那樣，他們最終會恢復過來並使他們的預算回到正軌。因此，當我們考慮這一點並考慮當年的節奏時，我真的很想關注第二季度。這就是我們將看到最明顯的逆風和每股收益下降幅度最大的地方。

And to your point on gross margin, Q2 is going to be the toughest year-over-year lap on the gross margin rate. And then we've got some other pressures this year to consider. So one is shrink, and it's going to be the most difficult comparison on a year-over-year basis. And then the other one is that targeted pricing investment will put some pressure on gross margin. So with that, we're expecting the gross margin rate for the second quarter to be around or somewhat lower than the gross margin rate for the first quarter.

至於你關於毛利率的觀點，第二季度將是毛利率最艱難的一年。然後我們今年還要考慮其他一些壓力。所以一個是收縮，這將是最困難的同比比較。然後另一個是定向定價投資會對毛利率造成一定壓力。因此，我們預計第二季度的毛利率將接近或略低於第一季度的毛利率。

Adding to a little bit more pressure in Q2 is also just interest expense. We're going to add the most pressure to Q2 versus the remaining quarter just as the cadence of the interest works through. And then finally, the pull forward of the labor investment with over $40 million being spent in Q2 will also pressure Q2. That said, like we talked about, we really like the trends that we're seeing around that investment. It gives us a lot of confidence that it's the right thing to do for our customers and for our business, and we're expecting sustained benefits from that investment.

在第二季度增加一點壓力也只是利息支出。我們將在第二季度對剩餘季度施加最大壓力，就像興趣的節奏一樣。最後，第二季度花費超過 4000 萬美元的勞動力投資的提前也將給第二季度帶來壓力。就是說，就像我們談到的那樣，我們真的很喜歡圍繞該投資看到的趨勢。它給了我們很大的信心，這對我們的客戶和我們的業務來說是正確的，我們期待從這項投資中獲得持續的收益。

And you know it well. So everything we do is centered around the customer, and we're going to continue to execute on that. And while we do like the momentum that we're building with these actions on price and labor investment, we think that sets us up for the back half of the year because there could just be a little bit of a lag to the full benefit of those investments.

你很清楚。所以我們所做的一切都以客戶為中心，我們將繼續執行這一點。雖然我們確實喜歡我們通過這些價格和勞動力投資行動建立的勢頭，但我們認為這為我們下半年做好了準備，因為可能只是有點滯後才能充分受益那些投資。

And then finally, just importantly, I think it's always good to ground ourselves in history. And history also suggests that we tend to come out of these types of environments even better positioned. And that's as a result of a more productive core customer as well as a trading customer. And that's why we really believe that Q4 will have the best comp of the year. And then as we move into 2024, we'll do so in an even stronger position.

最後，同樣重要的是，我認為將自己立足於歷史總是好的。歷史還表明，我們往往會從這些類型的環境中脫穎而出，甚至處於更好的位置。這是因為核心客戶和交易客戶的生產力更高。這就是為什麼我們真的相信第四季度將擁有年度最佳表現。然後，當我們進入 2024 年時，我們將在更強大的位置上這樣做。

Our next question is from Michael Lasser with UBS.

我們的下一個問題來自瑞銀的 Michael Lasser。

Jeff, the market had long measured Dollar General's market share against some of its large publicly traded competitors like Walmart, Family Dollar and others. And on that metric, Dollar General has been a share gainer for a long time. Now it's arguably having to work its P&L harder to generate sales growth or not experience share gains. Why is that the case? Is it that Dollar General now has 19,000 stores, invigorated competitors and it's just much more difficult to gain share or more expensive? And as a result, Dollar General is going to have structurally lower margins moving forward?

傑夫，市場長期以來一直在衡量 Dollar General 與其一些大型公開交易競爭對手（如沃爾瑪、Family Dollar 等）的市場份額。根據該指標，Dollar General 長期以來一直是股票上漲者。現在可以說，它不得不更加努力地工作以實現銷售增長，否則就無法獲得份額收益。為什麼會這樣？是不是 Dollar General 現在擁有 19,000 家商店，激發了競爭對手的活力，只是更難獲得份額或更昂貴？因此，Dollar General 未來的結構性利潤率會降低嗎？

Well, thank you, Michael. When you think about the quarter, and certainly, you're right, Dollar General has historically been a share gainer and we will continue to be a share gainer. When you think about this quarter, in the highly consumables area being flat overall, it really was, again, I go back to the comp cadence in a second, but we were flat overall in the highly consumables but we did grow share on the non-consumable business. So I want to be clear that I share that with you.

嗯，謝謝你，邁克爾。當你考慮這個季度時，當然，你是對的，Dollar General 在歷史上一直是股票上漲者，我們將繼續成為股票上漲者。當你想到本季度時，在高度消耗品領域整體持平，我馬上又回到了競爭節奏，但我們在高度消耗品領域整體持平，但我們在非消費品領域的份額確實增加了-消耗品業務。所以我想明確一點，我與你們分享了這一點。

But as you walk through the comp cadence of the quarter, it really is the story. And when you think about that macro pressure and the fact that we believe our core customer was disproportionately impacted by that, we started to see our share. Actually, when you start the year in February, we actually had a very healthy comp and healthy share gains. And as we went into March, March is when she simply pulled out of the market and had to adjust. And she came back in April, as I mentioned earlier, where we saw share gains resume, and we continue to see share gains resume in May. And quite honestly, as we think about being there for the customer, the majority of the actions we've taken as it relates to our ability to pull forward the labor investment, the supply chain improvements we've made and getting even sharper on the price, that really didn't happen until late in the quarter.

但當您瀏覽本季度的節奏時，它確實是故事。當你考慮到宏觀壓力以及我們認為我們的核心客戶受此影響不成比例的事實時，我們開始看到我們的份額。實際上，當你在 2 月份開始新的一年時，我們實際上有一個非常健康的公司和健康的份額收益。當我們進入三月時，三月是她退出市場並不得不調整的時候。正如我之前提到的，她在 4 月份回歸，我們看到股票收益恢復，我們繼續看到股票收益在 5 月份恢復。老實說，當我們考慮為客戶服務時，我們採取的大部分行動都與我們推動勞動力投資的能力、我們所做的供應鏈改進以及在價格，直到本季度末才真正發生。

So when you think about the share gains and the returns, what we're seeing is our customers coming back to Dollar General as we expect they would. And we believe that the actions we're taking will only make it a more compelling offering for our customer. We're there for her in affordability and value, and we'll provide her with the consistency in the shopping experience that she's grown to be accustomed to at Dollar General. We'll make that even better as we move forward.

因此，當您考慮股票收益和回報時，我們看到的是我們的客戶像我們預期的那樣回到 Dollar General。我們相信，我們正在採取的行動只會使它成為對我們的客戶更具吸引力的產品。我們以可承受性和價值為她服務，我們將為她提供她在 Dollar General 逐漸習慣的一致購物體驗。隨著我們的前進，我們會做得更好。

And so as we think about that, we feel real good about our ability to continue to grow share and also provide healthy operating margins. And as you know, we've made tremendous investments over the years to enable us to structurally be able to do that. When you think about the comp and the composition of our sales mix and the highly consumable sales mix that we're seeing, it's pretty impressive that Dollar General's structural profitability has allowed us to continue to be much more profitable even in an environment like that.

因此，當我們考慮到這一點時，我們對我們繼續擴大份額並提供健康的營業利潤率的能力感到非常滿意。如您所知，多年來我們進行了大量投資，使我們能夠在結構上做到這一點。當你考慮我們的銷售組合的構成和組成以及我們所看到的高度消費的銷售組合時，令人印象深刻的是，Dollar General 的結構性盈利能力使我們即使在這樣的環境下也能繼續獲得更高的利潤。

And we continue to see where areas that we can grow margin and provide us with the ability to not only serve this customer sustainably grow share but also provide healthy returns, and that's something that we are very excited about the ability to do that as we move through this year and then also as we move even stronger into '24 and beyond.

我們繼續看到我們可以在哪些領域增加利潤，並為我們提供能力，不僅可以為該客戶提供可持續增長的份額，還可以提供可觀的回報，這讓我們非常興奮能夠在我們前進的過程中做到這一點通過今年，然後隨著我們更強大地進入 24 世紀及以後。

And my follow-up question is, Jeff, your discussion around price investments come on the heels of one of your large competitors making price investments last year. And so this has sparked the narrative within the investment community that there's just going to be a race to the bottom and a never-ending price war within the small value retail sector. How do you prevent that? And recognizing you're not going to provide guidance for 2024 as of yet, can you still make these types of investments and get back to your double-digit EPS growth algorithm within a reasonable time frame?

我的後續問題是，傑夫，你關於價格投資的討論是在你的一個大型競爭對手去年進行價格投資之後發生的。因此，這在投資界引發了一種說法，即小額零售行業將展開一場逐底競爭和永無止境的價格戰。你如何防止這種情況發生？並且認識到您目前還不會為 2024 年提供指導，您是否仍然可以進行這些類型的投資並在合理的時間範圍內恢復兩位數的 EPS 增長算法？

Yes. Michael, first of all, as we've said historically and continue to say, our price position relative to competition continues to be strong. And quite honestly, our philosophy on price has not changed. Our pricing goal continues to be at parity with mass, plus or minus, call it 2%, 3%, and we're well within that targeted range, and we feel good about that position.

是的。邁克爾，首先，正如我們已經說過並繼續說的那樣，我們相對於競爭的價格地位仍然很強勁。老實說，我們的價格理念沒有改變。我們的定價目標繼續與大眾持平，正負，稱之為 2%、3%，我們很好地在目標範圍內，我們對這個位置感覺很好。

But we believe our customer, and we've said this for many years, that we reserve the right to be there for the customer when she needs us most, and we believe this is a time for that. And we think there's an opportunity to get even sharper on certain items that matter most. And so we believe, again, this is a very targeted structural approach -- excuse me, targeted and surgical approach to being able to be there for this customer.

但我們相信我們的客戶，我們已經說過很多年了，我們保留在客戶最需要我們的時候出現在他們身邊的權利，我們相信現在是時候了。我們認為有機會在某些最重要的項目上變得更加敏銳。因此，我們再次相信，這是一種非常有針對性的結構方法——對不起，有針對性的手術方法能夠為這個客戶提供服務。

And we've done this over the last few weeks. We're pleased with the response we're seeing. But again, our philosophy and our goal has not changed. We still have the same pricing gap targets that we've had for quite some time, and the actions we've taken are in the guidance that we contemplated. And I'll turn the back half of the question over to Kelly.

在過去的幾周里，我們已經做到了這一點。我們對所看到的反應感到滿意。但同樣，我們的理念和目標沒有改變。我們仍然有相當長一段時間的相同價格差距目標，我們採取的行動符合我們預期的指導。我會將問題的後半部分轉交給凱利。

You're absolutely right, Jeff. The guidance does contemplate that. And really, the guidance range is a function of the flow-through of the sales scenarios and with that additional shrink risk largely being offset by the costing actions that we're taking in SG&A. And so we're getting a benefit from that as well. I think as we move into the year with all the actions that we're taking, I'm confident in delivering this EPS guidance. And I think with the impact of those actions that Jeff talked about, that we continue to see Dollar General as a 10% EPS grower over the long term.

你完全正確，傑夫。該指南確實考慮到了這一點。實際上，指導範圍是銷售場景流通的函數，額外的收縮風險在很大程度上被我們在 SG&A 中採取的成本核算行動所抵消。因此，我們也從中受益。我認為隨著我們採取的所有行動進入這一年，我有信心提供這份 EPS 指南。而且我認為，由於 Jeff 談到的那些行動的影響，我們繼續將 Dollar General 視為 10% 的長期每股收益增長者。

Our next question is from Karen Short with Credit Suisse.

我們的下一個問題來自瑞士信貸的 Karen Short。

So actually, just following on that line of thinking, you've basically grown sales per square foot by 15% since 2019, and you're looking at EBIT margins that are below where they were in 2019. So I guess the question is, what do you think a sustainable EBIT margin actually is? And then I guess what I'm still confused by is you were pretty adamant in March that you weren't seeing impact from SNAP reductions. And I understand that other things kind of came into play. But that obviously changed during the first quarter. So what -- like what visibility did you not have in March? And then I guess, sorry, my third question would be, you've obviously always outperformed in a weaker macro with a trade down in your format. So do you still feel confident that, that's doable?

所以實際上，按照這種思路，自 2019 年以來，您基本上每平方英尺的銷售額增長了 15%，並且您看到的息稅前利潤率低於 2019 年的水平。所以我想問題是，您認為可持續的息稅前利潤率究竟是多少？然後我想我仍然感到困惑的是你在三月份非常堅定地認為你沒有看到 SNAP 減少的影響。我知道還有其他事情在起作用。但這在第一季度顯然發生了變化。那麼什麼——比如你在三月份沒有看到什麼？然後我想，抱歉，我的第三個問題是，你顯然總是在較弱的宏觀環境中表現出色，並且你的格式有所下降。所以你仍然相信這是可行的嗎？

Okay, Karen. I'll try. There are several questions in there, so I'll start with the -- let me try to start with the SNAP question first. And then we'll talk about the macro and then I'll toss it over to Kelly to talk about the EBIT margin question.

好的，凱倫。我會盡力。那裡有幾個問題，所以我將從——讓我先嘗試從 SNAP 問題開始。然後我們將討論宏觀，然後我會把它交給凱利來討論息稅前利潤率問題。

So when you think about the SNAP, when we sat here in Q4, what we talked about was there are 2 pending changes that we're watching. And at that point in time, you're right, we had not seen the impact of SNAP. What we did say was we've trended it off our first-party data and what states that had pulled back previously and how that customer responded. But we also mentioned and we continue to feel it's in a much different spot for this customer when that actually took place. So our customer today is certainly in a much worse off position than she was a year ago when those changes happened in those previous states.

因此，當您想到 SNAP 時，當我們在第四季度坐在這裡時，我們談到的是我們正在觀察的 2 個待定更改。在那個時候，你是對的，我們還沒有看到 SNAP 的影響。我們所說的是我們已經根據我們的第一方數據以及之前撤回的狀態以及該客戶的反應進行了趨勢分析。但是我們也提到了，並且我們仍然認為在實際發生時對於這個客戶來說是一個非常不同的地方。因此，我們的客戶今天的處境肯定比一年前在以前的州發生這些變化時要糟糕得多。

And so since then, what really happened was, certainly, we saw the customer pull back, really a combination of 2 things. I think the tax refund component is the other one we talked about that we had not seen, quite frankly, any impact from that. And as you look at our comp cadence, it pretty much matches the tax refund reduction and it's a very high correlation there. So those are the 2 things that, quite frankly, we saw that changed in the back half of March and persisted into April.

所以從那以後，真正發生的事情當然是，我們看到客戶退縮，實際上是兩件事的結合。我認為退稅部分是我們談到的另一個部分，坦率地說，我們沒有看到任何影響。當您查看我們的競爭節奏時，它與退稅減少非常匹配，並且兩者之間的相關性非常高。因此，坦率地說，我們看到 3 月下半月發生變化並持續到 4 月的兩件事。

I think the good news is, and you're right, we believe this model is built for all seasons, and it's proven that it can deliver to our customer in any economic environment. We continue to believe that. But we also see opportunities, which we see right now for the ability to serve our customer even better than we've served her in the past. And that's what we're doing and that's what we're squarely focused on is responding to the macro environment, taking care of our customer, but also positioning Dollar General long term to be able to continue to serve this customer. And when you think about it, 80% of our stores are serving communities at 20,000 or less. So we're uniquely positioned to be able to do that, and we're squarely focused on delivering on that.

我認為好消息是，你是對的，我們相信這個模型是為所有季節而設計的，而且事實證明它可以在任何經濟環境下交付給我們的客戶。我們繼續相信這一點。但我們也看到了機會，我們現在看到了為我們的客戶提供比過去更好的服務的能力。這就是我們正在做的事情，也是我們正專注於應對宏觀環境、照顧我們的客戶，同時也將 Dollar General 長期定位為能夠繼續為該客戶提供服務。想想看，我們 80% 的商店都在為 20,000 人或更少的社區提供服務。因此，我們處於能夠做到這一點的獨特位置，並且我們正專注於實現這一目標。

I'd say we're squarely focused on delivering operating margin expansion as well. And I think if you look back to '19, you'll see that we're expecting to continue that expansion as we move into 2024 and get through this macro environment. We have a lot of initiatives in place to drive that operating margin profit, and we are making sure that we invest in those even during these times. So we feel good about that on a go-forward basis.

我想說的是，我們也完全專注於實現營業利潤率的增長。而且我認為，如果你回顧 19 年，你會發現我們期望在進入 2024 年並度過這個宏觀環境時繼續擴張。我們有很多舉措來推動營業利潤率，我們確保即使在這些時期也對這些進行投資。因此，我們在前進的基礎上對此感到滿意。

So just a follow-up on that then. What do you think your structural margins -- could EBIT margin could be? Like say not '23 obviously but '24, '25?

所以只是關於那個的後續行動。您認為您的結構性利潤率是多少——息稅前利潤率可能是多少？顯然不是說'23'而是'24，'25？

Yes. I don't want to comment on that year right now but I would just say that everything that we're doing right now sets us up for a successful '24.

是的。我現在不想評論那一年，但我只想說，我們現在所做的一切都為我們成功的 24 年做好了準備。

Our final question is from Rupesh Parikh with Oppenheimer.

我們的最後一個問題來自 Rupesh Parikh 和 Oppenheimer。

So I just want to go back to the comp shortfall that you saw in the quarter and your updated expectations for the full year. Just curious why you believe it's more -- the comp [link] is more driven by macro weather versus changes in competitive dynamics.

所以我只想回到你在本季度看到的補償短缺以及你對全年的最新預期。只是好奇為什麼你相信它更多 - comp [鏈接] 更多地受宏觀天氣而不是競爭動態變化的驅動。

Yes, I'll start that, Rupesh, and I'll turn it over to Kelly to add any color. But again, I think it goes back to the comp cadence. I mean, a couple of things. First, as I said earlier, our February started out extremely strong. And as you look throughout the quarter, March and April, we saw the pullback in March. We saw April continue and then we've seen it respond nicely in May. So that's why we -- when you look at the macroeconomic shock to our customer primarily in the 2 areas I talked about, combined with a really cold and wet spring, we're seeing our customer continue to respond. And we're liking what we see as we enter into the second quarter as it relates to her ability to rebound and spend with us.

是的，我會開始，Rupesh，我會把它交給 Kelly 添加任何顏色。但同樣，我認為這可以追溯到節奏。我的意思是，有幾件事。首先，正如我之前所說，我們的 2 月開局非常強勁。從整個季度來看，三月和四月，我們在三月看到了回調。我們看到 4 月繼續，然後我們看到它在 5 月反應良好。所以這就是為什麼我們 - 當您主要在我談到的兩個領域查看對我們客戶的宏觀經濟衝擊時，再加上真正寒冷潮濕的春季，我們看到我們的客戶繼續做出回應。當我們進入第二季度時，我們喜歡我們所看到的，因為這與她反彈和與我們一起度過的能力有關。

And also, again, I go back to the operational improvements. I mean, our supply chain hasn't been this good since 2 years ago. Our store conditions continue to improve. Our customers are seeing it. They're telling us that. And we haven't seen that movement, quite frankly, in quite some time. Our movement from Q4 to Q1 was significant and we're excited about that. We're also excited about how we're seeing the ability to accelerate that in the second quarter because of our supply chain improvements.

而且，我再次回到運營改進上。我的意思是，自 2 年前以來，我們的供應鏈就沒有這麼好過。我們的商店條件不斷改善。我們的客戶正在看到它。他們是這樣告訴我們的。坦率地說，我們已經有一段時間沒有看到這種運動了。我們從第 4 季度到第 1 季度的進展非常重要，我們對此感到很興奮。由於我們供應鏈的改進，我們也很高興看到第二季度能夠加速這一進程。

And then also, we believe that value is always incredibly important to our customer, and we've been able to show value for many, many years. But we believe now, with the ability for us to be there for her and be even sharper on the things that matter most to her, will drive traffic into the store, will allow us to serve her better and gain share as we've talked about historically doing and we will continue to do here at Dollar General.

然後，我們相信價值對我們的客戶來說總是非常重要，而且我們已經能夠展示價值很多很多年了。但我們相信，現在我們有能力為她服務，並在對她最重要的事情上更加敏銳，這將推動商店的客流量，將使我們能夠更好地為她服務並在我們談話時獲得份額關於歷史上所做的，我們將繼續在 Dollar General 做。

Great. And then one follow-up question. Your inventory balance was up, I think, 20% year-over-year. Just curious how you feel about the health of the inventory position and opportunities you see to improve from here.

偉大的。然後是一個後續問題。我認為你們的庫存餘額同比增長了 20%。只是好奇您對庫存狀況的健康狀況以及從這裡看到的改進機會的看法。

Yes. We continue to feel good about the quality of the inventory. But I will say inventory management remains a focus for us. So inventory growth was relatively consistent with Q4, although we had hoped that it would come in somewhat lower this quarter. The good news here is what I would say is we made some progress on working down the non-consumable inventory. It was offset, though, by improved consumable in-stock levels. And as Jeff noted, with the supply chain health, that's where we got those in-stock levels from.

是的。我們繼續對庫存質量感到滿意。但我會說庫存管理仍然是我們的重點。因此庫存增長與第四季度相對一致，儘管我們曾希望本季度會有所下降。這裡的好消息是我要說的是我們在減少非消耗品庫存方面取得了一些進展。不過，它被消耗品庫存水平的提高所抵消。正如傑夫指出的那樣，隨著供應鏈的健康，這就是我們從中獲得這些庫存水平的地方。

So just a couple of facts for you. We reacted pretty quickly to the current environment by reducing non-consumable receipts. And frankly, I'd say we acted historically as well because some of those receipts were pulled back almost a year ago and in reaction to the discretionary spend trends that we were seeing. So in Q1, our non-consumable receipts were actually down over 30%, and we expect that trend to continue into Q2.

所以只有幾個事實給你。通過減少非消費品收據，我們對當前環境做出了相當迅速的反應。坦率地說，我想說我們也採取了歷史行動，因為其中一些收入在將近一年前被撤回，並且是對我們所看到的可自由支配支出趨勢的反應。因此，在第一季度，我們的非消費品收入實際上下降了 30% 以上，我們預計這一趨勢將持續到第二季​​度。

And with that, what we saw was a 3% reduction in non-consumable inventory per store from Q4. So nice movement there. And we do expect it to get more normalized levels in the back half of the year. Again, at the same time, our supply chain service levels improved faster than we expected, and that drove some consumable products to the store, which was one of the main contributors, as you look, on either a year-over-year basis or a quarter-over-quarter basis.

因此，我們看到每家商店的非消耗品庫存從第四季度開始減少了 3%。那裡的運動真好。我們確實希望它在今年下半年達到更正常的水平。同樣，與此同時，我們的供應鏈服務水平提高得比我們預期的要快，這推動了一些消費品進入商店，這是主要貢獻者之一，正如你所看到的，無論是同比還是環比增長。

So I'd just end with, we know that inventory remains an opportunity for us, and we're going to continue working on reducing those levels with the goal to remain in line with sales, and we believe that the new structure we put in place will make sure that we get that done.

所以我想結束，我們知道庫存對我們來說仍然是一個機會，我們將繼續努力降低這些水平，目標是與銷售保持一致，我們相信我們投入的新結構地方將確保我們完成這項工作。

We have reached the end of the question-and-answer session. I would now like to turn the call back over to Jeff Owen for closing comments.

我們已經結束了問答環節。我現在想把電話轉回給 Jeff Owen 以徵求意見。

Thank you for all the questions, and thanks for your interest in Dollar General. If I can summarize our discussion today, let me leave you with these 3 things. First, Dollar General is built for times like this, and we have a keen focus on enhancing our ability to serve our customer. We are investing and adapting structurally, strategically and operationally to serve our customers even better in this environment, which we believe will drive momentum later in the year and into 2024. And we have a clear vision and a powerful growth strategy for the future. Thank you for listening, and have a great day.

感謝您提出所有問題，並感謝您對 Dollar General 的關注。如果我可以總結我們今天的討論，讓我把這三件事留給你。首先，Dollar General 是為這樣的時代而建，我們非常注重提高我們為客戶服務的能力。我們正在結構、戰略和運營方面進行投資和調整，以便在這種環境下更好地為我們的客戶服務，我們相信這將在今年晚些時候和 2024 年推動增長勢頭。我們對未來有著清晰的願景和強大的增長戰略。感謝您的收聽，祝您有美好的一天。

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。此時您可以斷開線路。我們感謝您的參與。