達樂 (DG) 2024 Q4 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 fourth quarter 2024 earnings call. Today is Thursday, March 13, 2025. (Operator Instructions)

早安.我叫羅伯特，今天我將擔任您的會議主持人。現在，我歡迎大家參加 Dollar General 2024 年第四季財報電話會議。今天是 2025 年 3 月 13 日，星期四。（操作員指令）

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. Kevin, you may now begin your conference.

本次通話正在錄音。有關如何收聽電話會議重播的說明，請參閱該公司今天上午發布的收益新聞稿。現在，我想將會議交給主持人、投資者關係副總裁凱文沃克先生。凱文，現在您可以開始您的會議了。

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

謝謝大家，早安。今天與我一起通話的是我們的執行長 Todd Vasos；以及我們的財務長凱利迪爾茨（Kelly Dilts）。您可以在我們網站 investor.dollargeneral.com 的「新聞與事件」欄位下找到我們今天發布的收益報告。

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, long term growth framework, strategy, initiatives, plans, goals, priorities, opportunities, expectations, or beliefs about future matters, and other statements that are not limited to historical fact.

我要提醒您，今天的評論包括 1995 年《私人證券訴訟改革法案》定義的前瞻性陳述。例如關於我們的財務指導、長期成長框架、策略、舉措、計劃、目標、優先事項、機會、期望或對未來事務的信念的陳述，以及其他不限於歷史事實的陳述。

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 2023 Form 10-K filed on March 25, 2024, and any later filed periodic report, and in the comments that are made on this call.

這些聲明受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有重大差異。這些因素包括但不限於我們今天早上發布的收益報告中在 2024 年 3 月 25 日提交的 2023 年 10-K 表和任何隨後提交的定期報告中的風險因素下確定的因素，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.

您不應過度依賴僅代表今日觀點的前瞻性陳述。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資訊的義務。

At the end of our prepared remarks, we will open up the call for your questions. To allow us to address as many questions as possible in the queue, please limit yourself to one question. Now it is my pleasure to turn the call over to Todd.

在我們準備好的發言結束時，我們將開始回答大家的提問。為了使我們能夠解答隊列中盡可能多的問題，請將問題限制為一個。現在我很高興將電話轉給托德。

Thank you, Kevin, and welcome to everyone joining our call. We are pleased with our performance in the fourth quarter, including solid execution and top line results. As we reflect on the quarter as well as the full year, it is clear back to basics work has yielded positive results, positioning us well as we enter 2025 and look to the future.

謝謝凱文，歡迎大家參加我們的電話會議。我們對第四季的表現感到滿意，包括穩健的執行力和營收業績。當我們回顧本季以及全年時，很明顯，回歸基礎的工作已經取得了積極的成果，為我們進入 2025 年並展望未來做好了準備。

I want to thank our associates for their ongoing commitment to serving our customers and communities. Their dedication is on display every day in thousands of Dollar General stores and in our distribution centers, private fleet and store support center as we all work together to fulfill our mission of serving others.

我要感謝我們的同事一直致力於服務我們的客戶和社區。他們的奉獻精神每天都在數千家 Dollar General 商店以及我們的配送中心、私人車隊和商店支援中心展現，我們共同努力實現為他人服務的使命。

On today's call, I will begin by recapping some of the highlights of our Q4 performance as well as discussing the portfolio optimization actions we recently undertook for both Dollar General and pOpshelf. After that, Kelly will share details of our financial performance as well as our financial guidance for 2025 and will conclude with thoughts on our long term financial framework.

在今天的電話會議上，我將首先回顧我們第四季度業績的一些亮點，並討論我們最近為 Dollar General 和 pOpshelf 採取的投資組合優化措施。之後，凱利將分享我們的財務表現細節以及 2025 年的財務指導，最後提出我們對長期財務框架的看法。

And then I will wrap up the call with an update on some of our key initiatives that we believe will be important drivers of our performance in 2025 and beyond. Turning now to the fourth quarter performance. Net sales increased 4.5% to $10.3 billion in Q4 compared to net sales of $9.9 billion in last year's fourth quarter.

然後，我將在電話會議結束時介紹我們的一些關鍵舉措，我們認為這些舉措將成為我們在 2025 年及以後業績的重要驅動力。現在來談談第四季的表現。第四季淨銷售額較去年同期的 99 億美元成長 4.5% 至 103 億美元。

With this solid finish to 2024, I am excited to note that for the first time in the company's history, we delivered fiscal year sales of more than $40 billion. This is a testament to the essential role Dollar General serves as America's neighborhood general store in more than 20,000 communities across the country.

隨著 2024 年圓滿成功，我很高興地指出，這是公司歷史上首次實現財年銷售額超過 400 億美元。這證明了 Dollar General 作為美國社區雜貨店在全國 20,000 多個社區中發揮的重要作用。

We are here for what matters for the customers every day, and the relevance of our value and convenience offering is clear. During the fourth quarter, we continued to grow market share in both dollars and units in highly consumable product sales, and also grew market share in non-consumable product sales.

我們每天都致力於滿足客戶的重要需求，我們提供的價值和便利性的相關性是顯而易見的。第四季度，我們在高度消耗性產品銷售的美元和單位市佔率持續成長，在非消耗性產品銷售的市佔率也有所成長。

Same-store sales increased 1.2% during the quarter and was driven entirely by growth of 2.3% in average transaction amount. This included relatively even contributions from increases in average unit retail price per item and average items per transaction.

本季同店銷售額成長1.2%，完全受平均交易金額2.3%成長的推動。這包括每件商品平均零售價和每筆交易平均商品數量增長帶來的相對均勻的貢獻。

This growth was partially offset by a decline of 1.1% in customer traffic during the quarter, which was impacted by ongoing financial pressures of our core consumer as well as lapping the strong traffic increase of 3.7% from Q4 of 2023.

這一成長被本季客戶流量下降 1.1% 部分抵消，這受到我們核心消費者持續的財務壓力以及 2023 年第四季 3.7% 的強勁流量成長的影響。

The comp sales increase was driven entirely by growth in our consumable category and was partially offset by declines in our seasonal home and apparel categories. From a monthly cadence perspective, all three periods were positive, with comp sales growth in December and January relatively even and both outpacing November.

同店銷售額的成長完全是由我們消費品類別的成長所推動的，而季節性家居和服裝類別的下滑則部分抵消了這一增長。從月度節奏來看，三個時期均呈現正成長，12 月和 1 月的同店銷售成長相對均衡，且均超過 11 月。

Our customers continue to report that their financial situation has worsened over the last year as they have been negatively impacted by ongoing inflation. Many of our customers report that only have enough money for basic essentials with some noting that they have had to sacrifice even on the necessities.

我們的客戶不斷報告說，由於受到持續通貨膨脹的負面影響，他們的財務狀況在過去一年中惡化了。許多顧客表示，他們的錢只夠購買基本必需品，有些人甚至表示，甚至還得犧牲一些生活必需品。

As we enter 2025, we are not anticipating improvement in the macro environment, particularly for our core customer. In turn, we know our customers expect value and convenience more than ever. We are committed to providing the value they need and continue to feel very good about our everyday low price position relative to competitors and other classes of trade.

進入 2025 年，我們預計宏觀環境不會有所改善，尤其是對我們的核心客戶而言。反過來，我們知道我們的客戶比以往任何時候都更期待價值和便利。我們致力於提供他們所需的價值，並且相對於競爭對手和其他貿易類別，我們繼續對我們每天的低價地位感到非常滿意。

With regards to current tariffs that have been announced on products that we sell, we believe we are well positioned to mitigate the impact in 2025. We were able to successfully mitigate the tariff impact in 2018 and 2019, though we did take retail price increases in some instances along with others across the industry.

對於我們所銷售產品的現行關稅，我們相信我們有能力在 2025 年減輕其影響。2018 年和 2019 年，我們成功減輕了關稅的影響，儘管我們在某些​​情況下以及整個行業的其他情況下都提高了零售價格。

Given the already stressed financial condition of our core customer, we're closely monitoring these and any other potential economic headwinds, including any changes to government entitlement programs. Importantly, we remain focused on doing everything we can to deliver the value our customers want and need.

鑑於我們核心客戶的財務狀況已經緊張，我們正在密切關注這些因素以及任何其他潛在的經濟不利因素，包括政府福利計劃的任何變化。重要的是，我們將繼續專注於盡一切努力提供客戶想要和需要的價值。

Before I turn the call over to Kelly, I want to share an update on our work to continue to strengthen our foundation for future growth. As we look to build on the success of our back to basics work, we have undertaken a thorough review of our business to identify opportunities to further strengthen our foundation.

在我將電話轉給凱利之前，我想分享我們工作的最新進展，以繼續鞏固我們未來發展的基礎。在我們期待鞏固回歸基本工作成果的同時，我們對我們的業務進行了徹底的審查，以尋找進一步鞏固基礎的機會。

With this in mind, we conducted a real estate portfolio optimization review of both our Dollar General and pOpshelf banners during the fourth quarter. As a result of the review of our Dollar General portfolio, we made the decision to close 96 stores.

考慮到這一點，我們在第四季度對 Dollar General 和 pOpshelf 橫幅進行了房地產投資組合優化審查。在對 Dollar General 投資組合進行審查後，我們決定關閉 96 家商店。

While this is less than 1% of our overall store base, those stores, many of which are in urban locations, have become increasingly challenging to successfully operate. These stores likely would have been closed in ordinary course of the store's life cycle when their leases expired. However, we determined that closing these locations now will allow us to optimize our allocation of resources going forward.

雖然這還不到我們整體門市總數的 1%，但這些門市（其中許多位於城市地區）的成功營運已變得越來越具有挑戰性。這些商店很可能會在租約到期後在其正常生命週期內關閉。然而，我們確定，現在關閉這些地點將使我們能夠優化未來的資源分配。

I also want to discuss the results of our pOpshelf portfolio review. After analyzing business performance and revised outlooks for our current portfolio of pOpshelf locations, we identified 51 store closure candidates based on financial and operational considerations from our test and learn phase.

我還想討論一下我們的 pOpshelf 投資組合審查的結果。在分析了我們目前的 pOpshelf 門市組合的業務表現和修訂前景後，我們根據測試和學習階段的財務和營運考慮，確定了 51 家門市關閉候選名單。

We plan to convert 6 of these 51 locations to Dollar General stores and close the remaining 45 stores. This will leave 180 stores remaining as part of the pOpshelf banner. As a result of these actions as well as impairment charges primarily associated with pOpshelf go-forward stores, our Q4 financial results include a negative impact to operating profit of $232 million or approximately $0.81 in EPS.

我們計劃將這 51 家門市中的 6 家改造成 Dollar General 商店，並關閉剩下的 45 家商店。這樣，剩下的 180 家商店將作為 pOpshelf 橫幅的一部分。由於這些行動以及主要與 pOpshelf 前進商店相關的減值費用，我們第四季度的財務業績對營業利潤產生了 2.32 億美元的負面影響，或每股收益約 0.81 美元。

As we enter 2025, we are optimistic about the pOpshelf banner and our opportunity to drive improvements in our sales results as customers' feedback on the brand and shopping experience continue to be strong. Going forward, we plan to build on the strength to increase sales through a variety of initiatives centered around new brand partnerships, an enhanced in-store experience, new and expanded categories, and a new loyalty and digital experience.

隨著我們進入 2025 年，我們對 pOpshelf 橫幅和推動銷售業績改善的機會感到樂觀，因為客戶對品牌和購物體驗的反饋持續強勁。展望未來，我們計劃透過以新的品牌合作夥伴關係、增強的店內體驗、新的和擴大的類別以及新的忠誠度和數位體驗為中心的各種舉措，鞏固提高銷售額的優勢。

As an example of these efforts, we recently implemented a new store layout with a heightened focus on toys, party, candy and the beauty categories. While still early, we have been pleased with the results as we have seen a nice double-digit sales lift across a broad array of our pOpshelf stores.

作為這些努力的一個例子，我們最近實施了新的商店佈局，重點是玩具、派對、糖果和美容類別。雖然還處於早期階段，但我們對結果感到滿意，因為我們看到我們的眾多 pOpshelf 商店的銷售額都實現了兩位數的良好增長。

In addition to the opportunity to increase sales and ultimately realize further growth in the pOpshelf banner, we are also able to leverage learnings from this banner and apply them in our non-consumable categories in our Dollar General stores to further strengthen that offering for our DG customers.

除了有機會增加銷售額並最終實現 pOpshelf 橫幅的進一步成長之外，我們還能夠利用從該橫幅中獲得的經驗，並將其應用到我們 Dollar General 商店的非消耗品類別中，以進一步加強對 DG 客戶的服務。

We are looking forward to the opportunity to improve pOpshelf results in 2025, and we will continue to evaluate the brand to ensure we are seeing the desired impact of these activities and optimization. In summary, while we never like to close stores before their lease expiration, we believe this portfolio review across both our DG and pOpshelf banners has further strengthened the foundation of this business as we position the company for the future.

我們期待有機會在 2025 年改善 pOpshelf 的業績，並將繼續評估品牌，以確保我們看到這些活動和優化的預期效果。總而言之，雖然我們不想在租約到期前關閉商店，但我們相信，對 DG 和 pOpshelf 品牌的投資組合審查進一步加強了這項業務的基礎，為我們公司的未來做好了準備。

Finally, I want to take a moment to congratulate both Steve Deckard and Tracy Herrmann on their new leadership roles within the organization. Steve has been a value strategic leader at Dollar General for many years, and I'm confident he will serve the company well in his new role, focused on expansion of the Dollar General footprint, process improvement and leadership of our corporate strategy.

最後，我想花點時間祝賀史蒂夫·德卡德和特蕾西·赫爾曼在該組織內擔任新的領導職務。史蒂夫多年來一直擔任 Dollar General 的價值策略領導者，我相信他將在新的職位上為公司做出良好的服務，專注於擴大 Dollar General 的影響力、改進流程和領導我們的公司策略。

And Tracy's deep experience and connection with our field teams, along with her commitment to operational excellence, execution and innovation, make her the ideal leader for our store operations team as we focus on delivering the best in-store experience for our customers and associates.

Tracy 的豐富經驗和與我們的現場團隊的聯繫，以及她對卓越營運、執行和創新的承諾，使她成為我們店鋪營運團隊的理想領導者，因為我們專注於為我們的客戶和員工提供最佳的店內體驗。

Overall, we are proud of the continued progress we're making and are pleased with how it has positioned us to drive profitable sales growth and capture growth opportunities while creating long term shareholder value.

整體而言，我們為所取得的持續進步感到自豪，並對它如何幫助我們推動獲利性銷售成長、抓住成長機會、同時創造長期股東價值感到滿意。

I will discuss more about our plans and initiatives to drive these results in a few moments. But first, let me turn the call over to Kelly to discuss our Q4 financial results as well as our 2025 financial guidance and long term financial goals.

稍後我將進一步討論我們為實現這些成果而製定的計劃和舉措。但首先，讓我將電話轉給凱利，討論我們的第四季財務表現以及 2025 年的財務指導和長期財務目標。

Thank you, Todd, and good morning, everyone. Now that Todd has taken you through a few of the top line highlights of the quarter, let me take you through some of the other 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.

謝謝你，托德，大家早安。現在，托德已經向您介紹了本季的一些重要亮點，以下讓我向您介紹其他一些重要的財務細節。除非我們另有特別說明，所有比較均為同比比較，所有每股收益均指稀釋每股收益，所有年份均指相應的財政年度。

For Q4 gross profit as a percentage of sales was 29.4%, a decrease of 8 basis points. This decrease was primarily attributable to increases in markdowns, inventory damages and distribution costs and a greater proportion of sales coming from the consumables category. These factors were partially offset by lower shrink and higher inventory markups.

第四季毛利佔銷售額的百分比為29.4%，下降了8個基點。下降的主要原因是降價、庫存損壞和分銷成本的增加，以及來自消耗品類別的銷售比例增加。這些因素被較低的損耗和較高的庫存加價部分抵消。

We continue to be pleased with the results of our shrink mitigation efforts, which drove a year-over-year shrink improvement of 68 basis points in Q4. Shrink improvements have continued through the early part of the first quarter, and we anticipate this benefit should continue throughout 2025.

我們對我們的收縮緩解措施的成果繼續感到滿意，這推動第四季度的收縮同比改善了 68 個基點。第一季初收縮的改善持續進行，我們預計這種好處將持續到 2025 年。

Now turning to SG&A, which was 26.5% as a percentage of sales, an increase of 294 basis points. The increase reflects the fourth quarter impairment charges totaling $214 million related to the portfolio optimization review Todd discussed earlier.

現在來看看銷售、一般及行政費用，佔銷售額的百分比為 26.5%，增加了 294 個基點。這一增長反映了 Todd 之前討論的投資組合優化審查相關的第四季度總計 2.14 億美元的減值費用。

The other expenses that were a greater percentage of net sales in the fourth quarter were retail labor, incentive compensation, repairs and maintenance, depreciation and amortization, and technology related expenses, partially offset by a decrease in professional fees.

第四季度佔淨銷售額較大比例的其他費用包括零售勞動力、獎勵性薪酬、維修和保養、折舊和攤銷以及技術相關費用，但專業費用的減少部分抵消了這些費用的增加。

Moving down the income statement. Operating profit for the fourth quarter decreased 49% to $294 million, including the negative impact of approximately $232 million associated with the charges resulting from the portfolio review.

降低損益表。第四季營業利潤下降 49% 至 2.94 億美元，其中包括與投資組合審查費用相關的約 2.32 億美元的負面影響。

As a percentage of sales, operating profit was 2.9%, a decrease of 302 basis points. Net interest expense for the quarter decreased to $66 million compared to $77 million in last year's fourth quarter. Our effective tax rate for the quarter was 16.2% and compares to 20% in the fourth quarter last year. This lower rate is primarily due to the effect of certain rate impacting items on lower earnings before taxes.

以銷售額的百分比計算，營業利潤為 2.9%，下降了 302 個基點。本季淨利息支出從去年第四季的 7,700 萬美元下降至 6,600 萬美元。我們本季的有效稅率為 16.2%，而去年第四季為 20%。稅率降低主要是因為某些影響稅率的項目導致稅前收益降低。

Finally, EPS for the quarter decreased 52.5% to $0.87, including a negative impact of approximately $0.81 per share associated with the charges resulting from the portfolio review. Turning now to our balance sheet and cash flow. Merchandise inventories were $6.7 billion at the end of the year, a decrease of $283 million or 4% compared to prior year, and a decrease of 6.9% on a per store basis.

最後，本季每股收益下降 52.5% 至 0.87 美元，其中包括與投資組合審查產生的費用相關的每股約 0.81 美元的負面影響。現在來看看我們的資產負債表和現金流。年末商品庫存為 67 億美元，比上年減少 2.83 億美元或 4%，以每家商店計算則減少 6.9%。

I'd like to recognize the great work the team has done to reduce our inventory position while increasing sales and improving in-stocks, while also providing positive operational impacts in both our stores and distribution centers.

我要表揚團隊所做的出色工作，他們幫助我們減少了庫存，增加了銷售額，改善了庫存，同時也為我們的商店和配送中心帶來了積極的營運影響。

In 2024, the business generated cash flows from operations of $3 billion, an increase of $604 million or 25%, which was driven by improved working capital management. In 2024, total capital expenditures were $1.3 billion and included our planned investments in new stores, remodels and relocations, distribution and transportation projects and spending related to our strategic initiatives.

2024 年，該業務的營運現金流為 30 億美元，增加 6.04 億美元，增幅 25%，這得益於營運資本管理的改善。2024 年，總資本支出為 13 億美元，其中包括我們對新店、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的計劃投資。

During the quarter, we returned cash to shareholders through a quarterly dividend of $0.59 per common share outstanding for a total payout of $130 million. Overall, we're pleased with our cash and inventory positions and the progress we've made in strengthening our balance sheet over this last year.

在本季度，我們透過每股普通股 0.59 美元的季度股息向股東返還現金，總股息為 1.3 億美元。總體而言，我們對我們的現金和庫存狀況以及去年在加強資產負債表方面取得的進展感到滿意。

These results are a testament to the strength of this business model as well as the focused efforts on getting back to basics across the organization. With that in mind, I'd like to discuss our financial outlook for 2025. We plan to continue building on the progress we've made, and our guidance for 2025 contemplates continued investment and work to further strengthen the foundation of this business.

這些結果證明了該商業模式的實力以及整個組織回歸基礎的專注努力。考慮到這一點，我想討論一下我們 2025 年的財務前景。我們計劃繼續鞏固已取得的進展，我們對 2025 年的指導方針是繼續投資並努力進一步加強這項業務的基礎。

Importantly, we believe these efforts will lay the groundwork for growth in the years ahead, which I'll discuss in just a moment. With that in mind, we expect the following for 2025. Net sales growth in the range of 3.4% to 4.4%, same-store sales growth in the range of 1.2% to 2.2%, and EPS in the range of $5.10 to $5.80.

重要的是，我們相信這些努力將為未來幾年的成長奠定基礎，我稍後將討論這一點。考慮到這一點，我們預計 2025 年將出現以下情況。淨銷售額成長在 3.4% 至 4.4% 之間，同店銷售額成長在 1.2% 至 2.2% 之間，每股收益在 5.10 美元至 5.80 美元之間。

Our EPS guidance assumes an effective tax rate of approximately 23.5%. We expect capital spending in the range of $1.3 billion to $1.4 billion, designed to support our ongoing growth and which is aligned to our capital allocation priorities that continue to serve us well.

我們的每股盈餘指引假設有效稅率約為 23.5%。我們預計資本支出將在 13 億至 14 億美元之間，旨在支持我們持續成長，這與繼續為我們帶來良好服務的資本配置優先事項保持一致。

As a reminder, our first priority is investing in our business, including our existing store base as well as high return growth opportunities such as new store expansion and strategic initiatives. To that end, we're excited to begin work on approximately 4,885 real estate projects in 2025, including 575 new store openings in the United States, 2,000 full remodels, 2,250 Project Elevate remodels and 45 locations and up to 15 additional new stores in Mexico.

提醒一下，我們的首要任務是投資我們的業務，包括我們現有的門市基礎以及新店擴張和策略性舉措等高回報成長機會。為此，我們很高興在 2025 年開始開展約 4,885 個房地產項目，包括在美國開設 575 家新店、2,000 項全面改造、2,250 項 Project Elevate 改造和 45 個地點以及在墨西哥開設多達 15 家新店。

In addition, we are investing in a number of technology projects, including a finance and HR modernization project, which is primarily focused on a new enterprise resource planning system that will be implemented over the next couple of years.

此外，我們還投資了一些技術項目，包括財務和人力資源現代化項目，該項目主要專注於將在未來幾年實施的新的企業資源規劃系統。

Next in our capital allocation priorities, we seek to return cash to shareholders through a quarterly dividend payment, and over time and when appropriate, share repurchases. To that end, our Board of Directors recently approved a quarterly cash dividend of $0.59 per share. We do not plan to repurchase common stock this year, although share repurchases remain an important part of our future capital allocation strategy.

在我們的資本配置優先事項中，我們尋求透過季度股息支付以及隨著時間的推移和適當的時候股票回購來向股東返還現金。為此，我們的董事會最近批准了每股 0.59 美元的季度現金股息。儘管股票回購仍然是我們未來資本配置策略的重要組成部分，但我們今年不打算回購普通股。

Finally, although our leverage ratio remains above our target of approximately 3 times adjusted debt to adjusted EBITDAR, we are focused on improving our debt metrics in support of our commitment to our current investment-grade credit ratings, which, as a reminder, are BBB and Baa2.

最後，儘管我們的槓桿率仍然高於調整後債務與調整後 EBITDAR 之比約 3 倍的目標，但我們專注於改善我們的債務指標，以支持我們對當前投資級信用評級的承諾，提醒一下，我們的評級是 BBB 和 Baa2。

Now let me provide some additional context as it relates to our outlook for 2025. While our guidance is centered around a macro-neutral outlook, the full range does recognize that there's still uncertainty both in the broader macro environment as well as for our core customer.

現在，讓我提供一些與我們對 2025 年的展望相關的額外背景資訊。雖然我們的指導以宏觀中性前景為中心，但全方位確實認識到，無論是更廣泛的宏觀環境還是我們的核心客戶，仍然存在不確定性。

We are currently anticipating continued economic pressure on our core customer though at a relatively consistent level to what they were experiencing as we close 2024. With regards to gross margin, we expect the most significant factor to be continued positive shrink results, which we anticipate will be a tailwind throughout 2025.

我們目前預計，我們的核心客戶將繼續面臨經濟壓力，但壓力水平與 2024 年末他們所經歷的壓力水平相對一致。就毛利率而言，我們預計最重要的因素是持續的積極收縮結果，我們預計這將成為整個 2025 年的順風。

Within SG&A, we're taking action to reduce controllable expenses throughout the business. That said, we expect to deleverage in 2025 at our current expected levels of sales and operating expenses. This pressure includes an ongoing headwind from retail wage rate inflation, which we expect to continue between 3.5% and 4%.

在銷售、一般及行政開支方面，我們正在採取措施減少整個業務的可控開支。儘管如此，我們預計在目前預期的銷售和營運費用水準下，2025 年將實現去槓桿。這種壓力包括零售工資率通膨的持續阻力，我們預計將持續在 3.5% 至 4% 之間。

In addition, we expect our operating leverage to be pressured by a return to normalized short-term and long-term incentive compensation after two years of significantly lower-than-average payouts. At target payout, this represents a headwind of approximately $120 million.

此外，我們預計，在經歷了兩年遠低於平均水平的薪酬支出後，短期和長期激勵薪酬恢復正常化將對我們的經營槓桿造成壓力。以目標支出計算，這意味著約 1.2 億美元的逆風。

Finally, we expect a continued headwind from depreciation and amortization primarily as a result of higher capital spending and inflation in building materials in prior years. While we do not anticipate providing quarterly financial guidance, I do want to provide a couple of notes on our expected cadence of financial results in 2025.

最後，我們預期折舊和攤銷將繼續面臨阻力，這主要是由於前幾年資本支出增加和建築材料通膨所致。雖然我們預計不會提供季度財務指導，但我想就我們 2025 年預期的財務業績節奏提供一些說明。

We expect the first half of the year to be more pressured by initial expenses related to our remodels, including Project Elevate, as we expect to execute more real estate projects in the first half of 2025 than we did in the first half of 2024. Importantly, we are working to complete the vast majority of our real estate projects by the end of Q3 in order to maximize the number of operating weeks which will benefit 2025.

我們預計，今年上半年與改造（包括 Project Elevate）相關的初始費用將帶來更大壓力，因為我們預計 2025 年上半年執行的房地產項目將比 2024 年上半年多。重要的是，我們正在努力在第三季末之前完成絕大多數房地產項目，以最大限度地增加營運週數，這將有利於 2025 年。

In addition, we expect Q1 to be impacted by additional labor expense and -- labor expense headwinds compared to Q1 of 2024 when we still had self-checkout in a majority of the stores. Importantly, we believe our plans for 2025 will position us well to drive growth in subsequent years as we look to begin moving toward our medium and longer term financial goals in the subsequent years.

此外，與 2024 年第一季（當時大多數商店仍採用自助結帳方式）相比，我們預計第一季將受到額外勞動成本和勞動成本阻力的影響。重要的是，我們相信，我們的 2025 年計劃將使我們在接下來的幾年裡處於有利地位，推動成長，因為我們希望在接下來的幾年裡開始朝著我們的中長期財務目標邁進。

While the recent focus has been on back to basics actions and supporting the core business, we believe we are poised for future growth as we look to 2026 and beyond. With that in mind, I want to discuss our long-term financial framework.

雖然我們最近的重點是回歸基礎行動和支援核心業務，但我們相信，展望 2026 年及以後，我們已為未來成長做好了準備。考慮到這一點，我想討論一下我們的長期財務框架。

We manage our business with a sharp focus on creating sustainable long-term shareholder value. Following a successful year of strengthening the foundation and as a part of our ongoing strategic planning process, we have updated our medium and longer term financial framework, particularly for the next three to five years, and we'd like to share our updated perspective with you today.

我們管理業務時高度重視創造可持續的長期股東價值。在成功鞏固基礎的一年之後，作為我們正在進行的策略規劃過程的一部分，我們更新了中長期財務框架，特別是未來三到五年的財務框架，今天我們想與大家分享我們的最新觀點。

It's important to note that we are aiming to achieve some of these components of this model sooner than others. So I will note our specific goals as well as the respective targeted time lines. Starting with net sales. We are targeting annual growth in the range of approximately 3.5% to 4%, including approximately 2% new unit growth, both of which we plan to begin in 2025.

值得注意的是，我們的目標是比其他模型更快實現該模型的某些組成部分。因此我會記錄我們的具體目標以及各自的目標時間表。從淨銷售額開始。我們的目標是年增長率約為 3.5% 至 4%，其中包括約 2% 的新單位成長，這兩項目標都計劃從 2025 年開始實現。

Beginning in 2026, we're targeting annual same-store sales growth in the range of approximately 2% to 3%. These ranges assume that our core customer, while always seeking value, returns to a more stable financial condition and also that we will drive more of our same-store sales through our mature stores.

從 2026 年開始，我們的目標是年同店銷售額成長率達到約 2% 至 3%。這些範圍假設我們的核心客戶在始終尋求價值的同時，恢復到更穩定的財務狀況，並且我們將透過成熟的商店推動更多的同店銷售。

Turning to operating margin. We're targeting expansion to begin in 2026, and then longer term, to continue expanding toward our goal in the range of approximately 6% to 7% as early as 2028. We have a variety of gross margin and SG&A catalysts to drive this expansion moving forward.

轉向營業利潤率。我們的目標是從 2026 年開始擴張，然後從更長遠來看，繼續擴張，最早在 2028 年實現約 6% 至 7% 的目標。我們擁有多種毛利率和銷售、一般及行政費用催化劑來推動這項擴張。

Specifically, within gross margin, we are working to drive improvement that will build over the next five years centered around the following. First, expanding the contribution from our initiatives, particularly our DG Media Network, but also including other efforts such as our non-consumable merchandising strategy.

具體來說，在毛利率方面，我們正致力於推動未來五年內圍繞以下方面進行的改進。首先，擴大我們各項措施的貢獻，特別是我們的 DG 媒體網絡，同時也包括其他努力，例如我們的非消耗品商品推銷策略。

Collectively, we believe the potential benefit from all of our initiatives, some of which Todd will discuss, is approximately 150 basis points. Next, we're focused on returning to pre-pandemic shrink levels, which we believe represents a potential benefit of approximately 80 basis points; and also improving damages, which we believe represents a potential benefit of approximately 40 basis points.

總的來說，我們認為所有舉措的潛在收益（Todd 將討論其中一些舉措）約為 150 個基點。接下來，我們專注於恢復到大流行前的萎縮水平，我們認為這代表著大約 80 個基點的潛在收益；同時還改善了損害賠償，我們認為這代表著大約 40 個基點的潛在收益。

And within SG&A, we are targeting reductions over the next five years through initiatives aimed at simplifying work and driving efficiencies, reducing repairs and maintenance expense, and optimizing capital expenditures to stabilize depreciation and amortization expense.

在銷售、一般及行政開支方面，我們計劃在未來五年內透過簡化工作、提高效率、減少維修和維護費用以及優化資本支出以穩定折舊和攤銷費用等措施來降低開支。

Much of the focus of Steve Deckard and his team will be centered around many of these areas. Ultimately, our goal with these efforts is to increase profitability and minimize SG&A deleverage on sales over the medium to longer term.

史蒂夫·德卡德和他的團隊的大部分注意力將集中在這些領域。最終，我們這些努力的目標是提高獲利能力，並在中長期內盡量減少銷售、一般及行政費用對銷售的去槓桿作用。

Our capital allocation priorities will continue to drive our financial strategies. We are targeting annual capital expenditures to be approximately 3% of sales and expect to be in position to restart share repurchases as early as 2027.

我們的資本配置重點將繼續推動我們的財務策略。我們的目標是年度資本支出約佔銷售額的 3%，並預計最早在 2027 年重新開始股票回購。

We believe this long term framework will enable us to continue investing in growth initiatives that expand our ability to serve customers with value and convenience while also returning cash to shareholders. Finally, beginning in 2026, our long term financial framework seeks to deliver annual EPS growth of at least 10% on an adjusted basis.

我們相信，這個長期框架將使我們能夠繼續投資於成長計劃，擴大我們為客戶提供價值和便利的能力，同時向股東返還現金。最後，從 2026 年開始，我們的長期財務架構致力於實現經調整後的年度每股盈餘成長至少 10%。

In conclusion, we're excited about the plan and the future of DG and are confident in our long term approach. We believe the business model is strong, and we are well positioned to drive sustainable long term growth on both the top and bottom lines while creating long-term shareholder value.

總而言之，我們對 DG 的計劃和未來感到興奮，並對我們的長期方針充滿信心。我們相信該商業模式是強大的，而且我們有能力在創造長期股東價值的同時推動營收和利潤的長期永續成長。

With that, I'll turn the call back over to Todd.

說完這些，我會把電話轉回給托德。

Thank you, Kelly. We're excited about our plans for both the near term and long term. And I want to take the next few minutes to highlight some of the most important initiatives across four areas of the business. I'll start with some of the near-term actions focused on building on our back to basics work to further enhance and store experience for our associates and customers.

謝謝你，凱利。我們對我們的近期和長期計劃都感到興奮。接下來的幾分鐘我想重點介紹一下四個業務領域的一些最重要的舉措。我將首先介紹一些近期行動，重點是回歸基礎工作，進一步增強和改善我們的員工和客戶的體驗。

We know that an essential part of convenience for our customers is the ability to not only reach the store easily, but also the quality and speed of their in-store experience. We are focused on retraining in our stores and asking our teams to recommit to creating a fast and friendly experience for our customers on every visit.

我們知道，為顧客提供便利的一個重要部分是不僅能夠輕鬆到達商店，而且還能享受店內體驗的品質和速度。我們專注於在我們的商店進行再培訓，並要求我們的團隊致力於為我們的客戶在每次訪問時創造快速友好的體驗。

To enable our associates to deliver on this effort and focusing on serving our customers, we are also working to further simplify the operating model by removing unnecessary activities and friction points from our stores. These efforts include a continued focus on inventory reduction and SKU productivity.

為了使我們的員工能夠履行這項努力並專注於服務我們的客戶，我們也致力於透過消除商店中不必要的活動和摩擦點來進一步簡化營運模式。這些努力包括繼續專注於減少庫存和提高 SKU 生產力。

We believe these efforts, along with further assortment and allocation optimization, will contribute to the shrink and damage improvement contemplated in our long term framework. We are also working on tasks upstream, such as sorting in our distribution centers and case pack optimization, to allow our teams to get products to the shelf even quicker with less touches.

我們相信，這些努力以及進一步的分類和分配優化將有助於實現我們長期框架中所設想的收縮和損害改善。我們也致力於上游任務，例如在我們的配送中心進行分類和包裝箱優化，以使我們的團隊能夠以更少的接觸速度更快地將產品放到貨架上。

Finally, we are targeting completion of our next-generation point-of-sale rollout in the first half of the year, which will simplify the checkout process as well as other in-store activities. Ultimately, we believe these efforts focused on our core business will build on the progress we've made and allow us to better serve our stores and our customers.

最後，我們的目標是在今年上半年完成下一代銷售點的推出，這將簡化結帳流程以及其他店內活動。最終，我們相信這些專注於核心業務的努力將會鞏固我們已經取得的進步，並使我們能夠更好地服務我們的商店和客戶。

Next, I want to briefly mention Project Elevate, which we announced in December. As a reminder, this is our new incremental remodel initiative aimed at bolstering performance in portions of our mature store base that are not yet old enough to be part of a full remodel pipeline.

接下來我想簡單提一下我們在12月宣布的Project Elevate。提醒一下，這是我們新的漸進式重塑計劃，旨在提高成熟門市群中那些尚未成熟到可以納入全面重塑流程的部分門市的表現。

As we focus on driving greater profitability in our mature store base, our goal for Project Elevate stores is to drive first year comp sales lifts in the range of 3% to 5% while also mitigating future expenses, particularly in repairs and maintenance.

由於我們專注於提高成熟門市的獲利能力，因此，Project Elevate 門市的目標是將第一年的銷售額提升 3% 至 5%，同時降低未來的開支，特別是維修和保養方面的開支。

These projects include physical asset refreshes as well as merchandising, optimization and will impact approximately 80% of the total store. When combined with our enhanced full remodel program, which we call Project Renovate, we expect to touch approximately 20% of our store base annually, and to significantly improve the shopping experience in our stores while elevating the brand and driving greater top and bottom line contributions from our expansive mature store base.

這些項目包括實體資產更新以及商品推銷、優化，將影響約 80% 的整個商店。結合我們增強的全面改造計劃（我們稱之為「Project Renovate」），我們預計每年將覆蓋約 20% 的門市，並顯著改善門市的購物體驗，同時提升品牌影響力，並從我們廣闊的成熟門市基礎中帶來更大的營收和利潤貢獻。

The third area I want to discuss is our digital initiative, which is an important complement to our unique physical footprint as we continue to deploy and leverage technology to further enhance convenience and access for our customers.

我想討論的第三個領域是我們的數位化計劃，這是對我們獨特的實體足跡的重要補充，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可訪問性。

We are pleased with the growing engagement we are seeing across our digital properties, including our mobile app, website, delivery options and the DG Media Network. We have a highly successful and incremental delivery partnership with DoorDash in more than 16,000 of our stores.

我們很高興看到我們的數位資產（包括行動應用程式、網站、交付選項和 DG 媒體網路）的參與度日益提高。我們與 DoorDash 在我們超過 16,000 家門市建立了非常成功且不斷增加的配送合作關係。

We expect to continue growing sales through this channel exclusive partnership in 2025 as we continue to expand the number of stores in the program. In addition, we recently began processing both Snap and EBT transactions through this program, which we believe will drive new customer acquisition and continue to drive incremental sales.

隨著我們繼續擴大該計劃中的商店數量，我們預計到 2025 年，透過這項管道獨家合作夥伴關係，銷售額將繼續增長。此外，我們最近開始透過該計劃處理 Snap 和 EBT 交易，我們相信這將推動新客戶的獲取並繼續推動增量銷售。

Importantly, the learnings from this initiative, along with our own customer work, have provided the foundation from which to launch our own delivery offering with our unique customer base. As we announced last quarter, we began a test of same-day home delivery from a handful of our stores in September.

重要的是，從這項舉措中獲得的經驗以及我們自己的客戶工作為我們向獨特的客戶群推出自己的交付服務奠定了基礎。正如我們上個季度宣布的那樣，我們從 9 月開始在部分門市試行當日送貨上門服務。

We have begun expanding this offering more broadly and are currently partnering with DoorDash to fully execute a delivery offering through our DG digital solutions from approximately 400 stores. While it's still very early, we have been pleased with the initial customer response to this offering, including higher average baskets than those in our brick-and-mortar stores.

我們已開始更廣泛地擴展此項服務，目前正在與 DoorDash 合作，透過我們的 DG 數位解決方案在約 400 家商店全面實施配送服務。雖然還處於早期階段，但我們對該產品的初步客戶反應感到滿意，包括平均購物籃比實體店的購物籃更高。

We believe our expansive real estate footprint uniquely positions us to offer a compelling home delivery option and ultimately become the fastest delivery alternative for customers and our communities, further expanding their access to value and convenience that saves them time and money every day.

我們相信，我們廣泛的房地產足跡使我們能夠提供引人注目的送貨上門選擇，並最終成為客戶和社區最快的送貨方式，進一步擴大他們獲得價值和便利的途徑，從而節省他們每天的時間和金錢。

Looking ahead, we plan marketing to drive awareness of this opportunity in the current stores while also beginning to scale this offering more significantly with the goal of up to 10,000 stores by the end of 2025. The linchpin of our digital initiative is our DG Media Network, which enables a more personalized experience for our unique customer base while delivering a higher return on ad spend for our partners.

展望未來，我們計劃進行行銷，以提高現有門市對此機會的認識，同時開始更大規模地擴大這一服務規模，目標是到 2025 年底達到 10,000 家門市。我們的數位計畫的關鍵是我們的 DG 媒體網絡，它為我們獨特的客戶群提供更個人化的體驗，同時為我們的合作夥伴帶來更高的廣告支出回報。

With the expansion of our delivery offering, our multichannel platform will enable us to accelerate the scaling of our media network in 2025 as well. In turn, we believe we can further evolve the relationship with our customers, driving greater customer loyalty within the digital platform, while ultimately increasing market share and driving profitable sales growth.

隨著我們交付服務的擴展，我們的多通路平台將使我們能夠在 2025 年加速擴大我們的媒體網路。反過來，我們相信我們可以進一步發展與客戶的關係，在數位平台內提高客戶忠誠度，同時最終增加市場份額並推動獲利性銷售成長。

The final initiative I want to discuss is our non-consumable growth strategy. Our three non-consumable categories, home, seasonal and apparel, combined to deliver more than $7 billion in sales in 2024. Our customers have continued to respond favorably to the treasure-hunt approach we introduced in our stores as evidenced by our continued market share gains in these categories.

我想要討論的最後一個舉措是我們的非消耗品成長策略。我們的三個非消耗品類別（家居、季節性和服裝）的總銷售額將在 2024 年超過 70 億美元。我們的顧客對於我們在商店中推出的尋寶活動持續給予積極響應，這從我們在這些類別中的市場份額持續增長中可見一斑。

However, as the overall discretionary shopping environment has softened, we have seen our consumable sales well outpaced our non-consumable sales in recent years. As a result, the lower-margin sales have pushed our overall gross and operating margins as consumable sales mix has continued to climb to 82%.

然而，隨著整體非必需品購物環境的疲軟，我們發現近年來我們的消耗品銷售額遠遠超過非消耗品銷售。因此，由於消耗品銷售組合持續攀升至 82%，低利潤銷售額推高了我們的整體毛利率和營業利益率。

In conjunction with the financial framework Kelly laid out earlier, our goal is to increase non-consumable mix by at least 100 basis points by the end of 2027 and ultimately return non-consumable sales closer to approximately 20% of the overall sales mix over the next five years while maintaining our strong performance in our consumable businesses.

結合凱利先前列出的財務框架，我們的目標是到 2027 年底將非消耗品組合提高至少 100 個基點，並最終在未來五年內使非消耗品銷售額接近整體銷售組合的 20% 左右，同時保持我們在消耗品業務中的強勁表現。

To reach this goal, we have identified four pillars of growth to drive sales in non-consumable categories over the next three years. These pillars include, first, brand partnerships, where we look to build on the success of current programs to work with well-known brands to showcase quality and value for our customers.

為了實現這一目標，我們確定了未來三年推動非消耗品類別銷售的四大成長支柱。這些支柱包括：首先，品牌合作夥伴關係，我們希望在現有計劃成功的基礎上，與知名品牌合作，為我們的客戶展示品質和價值。

The second is a revamped treasure hunt, where we plan to upgrade our rotational home assortment to enhance the value equation for our customers. Next is the reallocation of space within our home category. This pillar is focused on reducing less productive space in certain departments and reallocating to more productive and relevant offerings for our customers.

第二個是改進的尋寶活動，我們計劃升級我們的輪換家居產品組合，以增強我們客戶的價值方程式。接下來是我們家庭類別內空間的重新分配。這支柱致力於減少某些部門中生產力較低的空間，並重新分配給客戶更有效率、更相關的產品。

The final pillar is focused on increasing productivity in non-consumable categories by injecting newness in core planograms and non-core space allocation, such as new programs in certain categories, while leveraging category innovation in more established programs.

最後一個支柱是透過在核心規劃圖和非核心空間分配中註入新鮮事物（例如某些類別中的新計劃）來提高非消耗品類別的生產力，同時利用更成熟的計劃中的類別創新。

We are implementing a multipronged marketing approach to showcase the breadth and quality of our assortment in these areas while amplifying the value message. Ultimately, we believe we can capture additional market share to drive significant top and bottom line growth in alignment with our long-term financial goals.

我們正在實施多管齊下的行銷方式，以展示我們在這些領域的產品組合的廣度和質量，同時擴大價值資訊。最終，我們相信我們能夠佔領更多的市場份額，從而推動營收和利潤的大幅成長，這與我們的長期財務目標一致。

In closing, we are pleased with our fourth quarter performance and the way we ended the year. While 2024 had its challenges, particularly for our core customer, it was an important year for Dollar General to get back to basics and fortify the foundation of this great business. We are proud of the progress we made on this front, and it has positioned us to take the next steps forward in 2025.

最後，我們對第四季的表現以及今年的收官方式感到滿意。雖然 2024 年面臨挑戰，尤其是對我們的核心客戶而言，但對 Dollar General 來說，這是回歸本源、鞏固偉大業務基礎的重要一年。我們為在這方面取得的進展感到自豪，這為我們在 2025 年邁出下一步做好了準備。

And as Kelly noted, this work has also enabled us to lay the groundwork for our long term financial goals over the next few years. Our mission of serving others continues to guide everything we do, and we are excited about our plans for 2025 and beyond.

正如凱利所說，這項工作也使我們為未來幾年的長期財務目標奠定了基礎。服務他人的使命將繼續指導我們所做的一切，我們對 2025 年及以後的計劃感到興奮。

We were pleased to have the opportunity to spend time with more than 1,500 field leaders in various cities across the country in February. From that time together, I can tell you this team is energized and confident in our strategy to restore operational excellence and deliver value for our customers and shareholders alike.

我們很高興有機會在二月份與全國各個城市的 1,500 多名現場領導者共度時光。從那時起，我可以告訴你們，這個團隊充滿活力，對我們的策略充滿信心，能夠恢復卓越運營，為我們的客戶和股東創造價值。

I want to thank our more than 194,000 employees for their commitment to each other and to our customers. I'm looking forward to all that we can accomplish together in 2025. With that, operator, we would now like to open the lines for questions.

我要感謝我們超過 194,000 名員工對彼此以及對客戶的承諾。我期待著我們在 2025 年能夠共同取得所有成就。接線員，我們現在可以開始回答問題了。

(Operator Instructions) Kate McShane, Goldman Sachs.

（操作員指示）高盛的凱特·麥克沙恩。

Hi, good morning, thanks for taking our question. Your guidance today of getting to operating margin of 6% to 7% by 2028. We were wondering if you can talk about what you expect the arc of the margin expansion to look like between now and then. And what do you think are the biggest structural changes in the business that are preventing you from getting back to historical margins?

大家好，早安，感謝您回答我們的問題。您今天的指導目標是到 2028 年將營業利潤率達到 6% 到 7%。我們想知道您是否可以談談您預計從現在到那時利潤率擴張的曲線會是怎樣的。您認為業務中阻礙您恢復歷史利潤率的最大結構性變化是什麼？

Thanks, Kate, for your question. So maybe I'll just walk through a few of the assumptions as we think about that mid to longer term. It's not necessarily going to be a straight line, but we know we have a lot of action plans in place so that we are focused on hitting those targets and the time lines that we identified.

謝謝凱特的提問。因此，當我們考慮中長期問題時，我可能會簡單介紹一些假設。這不一定是一條直線，但我們知道我們已經制定了很多行動計劃，以便我們專注於實現這些目標和我們確定的時間表。

So I'll just start with sales. Most of our sales that we're expecting are going to be driven through that mature store comp. We're taking a lot of action now to drive that mature store base and really building on the back to basics. And all the initiatives that we have here in 2025, that will get us ahead on that sales number.

因此我就從銷售開始。我們預計，大部分銷售都將透過成熟的商店來實現。我們現在正在採取許多措施來推動商店基礎的成熟，並真正回歸基本面。我們在 2025 年採取的所有措施都將使我們的銷售數字領先。

As you think about the gross margin piece, there's a couple of things. I think the first thing that I'm excited about is both the shrink and damage lines are well in our control. We've already started seeing improvement on the shrink side with the back to basics work there.

當你考慮毛利率時，有幾件事需要考慮。我認為讓我興奮的第一件事是收縮和損壞線都在我們的控制範圍內。隨著回歸基礎工作的開展，我們已經開始看到收縮的改善。

So between those two, you've got 80 basis points of shrink and about 40 basis points of damages. And it's good to see that we have a positive trajectory right now, and we're really already winning. Just as a reminder, the other things that we have in play are private brands. We still have great category management. And we're working hard on inventory optimization.

因此，在這兩者之間，您將獲得 80 個基點的縮水和大約 40 個基點的損失。我很高興看到我們現在有了積極的發展軌跡，而且我們確實已經取得了勝利。需要提醒的是，我們正在研究的其他東西是自有品牌。我們的品類管理仍然很出色。我們正在努力優化庫存。

I'm sure you'll hear a little bit more about that today, supply chain efficiencies as well as just our approach to the safe to serve kind of cost control that we always have in place. I think the other important piece of this is really around the initiatives. DG Media Network, the non-consumable mix and all the other initiatives that we have in play may take a little while to get there, but we're certainly driving to the framework that we laid out.

我相信今天你們會聽到更多關於這方面的信息，包括供應鏈效率以及我們始終實施的安全成本控制方法。我認為這件事的另一個重要部分實際上是圍繞著這些舉措。DG 媒體網路、非消耗品組合以及我們正在實施的所有其他舉措可能還需要一段時間才能實現，但我們肯定會朝著我們制定的框架前進。

Simeon Gutman, Morgan Stanley.

摩根士丹利的西緬古特曼 (Simeon Gutman)。

Good morning everyone. Todd, I wanted to ask if you can diagnose the consumer. It's obviously very fluid at the moment. And I don't normally ask about even quarter-to-date, but if you can bring us through the chronology of the last few months and as much as quarter-to-date as you're willing to talk about, what the consumer is doing in terms of spend, number of trips, level of stress, all the above. Thank you.

大家早安。托德，我想問你是否能對消費者進行診斷。目前情況顯然非常不穩定。我通常不會詢問本季度迄今為止的情況，但如果您能為我們介紹一下過去幾個月的時間順序，以及您願意談論的本季度迄今為止的情況，那麼消費者在支出、出行次數、壓力水平等方面的情況如何？謝謝。

Yeah, sure, Simeon. It is fluid, as you indicated. But I would tell you that from our core consumer perspective, what we've seen is about the same here in 2025 as she was exiting really Q3 of last year. She's always strained, as we always say, right, because of her economic well-being.

是的，當然，西緬。正如您所說，它是流動的。但我想告訴你，從我們的核心消費者角度來看，我們看到的 2025 年的情況與去年第三季的情況大致相同。正如我們常說的，由於經濟狀況不佳，她總是生活得很緊張。

But I would tell you that she is also resourceful. And so with that, we have started to see where she's getting her sea legs, if you will, on the additional inflation that's been very sticky out there. And she's starting to understand her budgets even more.

但我要告訴你，她也很足智多謀。因此，如果你願意的話，我們已經開始看到她如何適應持續高企的額外通貨膨脹。她開始更了解自己的預算。

What has really become apparent leaving Q4 and moving into Q1 is the trade-down is back, both the mid- and upper-end trade-down, and as we moved into Q4 seems to be accelerating. We'll know a little bit more as we poll Q1 here.

從第四季開始進入第一季度，真正明顯的變化是降級趨勢又回來了，無論是中端還是高端的降級趨勢，而且隨著第四季度的到來，降級趨勢似乎還在加速。當我們對第一季進行民意調查時，我們會了解更多。

But I would tell you, nothing that we've seen so far would show that, that train will slow down. If anything, we may have seen it accelerate a little bit in the last few weeks. But we'll know a little bit more in the next upcoming weeks as we poll our consumers, both our core as well as the upper end, if you will, or noncore type of customer.

但我要告訴你，到目前為止我們所看到的任何情況都沒有顯示那列火車會減速。如果有的話，我們可能已經看到它在過去幾週內有所加速。但在接下來的幾週內，我們將對我們的消費者進行調查，包括我們的核心客戶以及高端客戶，或非核心客戶，從而了解更多資訊。

The other thing I think to keep in mind is the initiatives that we have laid out and have been at work here have started to really play into what we've seen in -- on the top line as well as the bottom line. And again, not to reiterate, but I'm very proud of what the team has done on our back to basics work that has gotten us to this position.

我認為要記住的另一件事是，我們在這裡制定並實施的舉措已經開始真正發揮我們所看到的作用——無論是在營收還是利潤方面。我再一次重申，我對團隊在回歸基礎工作所做的努力感到非常自豪，而正是這些努力讓我們獲得了現在的地位。

And it's going to really be that framework and foundation to let us deliver that long-term framework. We believe that everything is in our control. We just have to execute at a real high level, and that's exactly what we're aiming to do as we move through '25 and beyond and be there for that customer. We believe it's going to get even more fluid with some of the tariffs. So we're watching that very closely as we move through the upcoming weeks.

這確實會成為我們實現長期框架的框架和基礎。我們相信，一切盡在我們的掌控之中。我們只需要在真正高水準上執行，這正是我們在 25 年及以後為客戶服務的目標。我們相信，隨著部分關稅的實施，情況將變得更加不穩定。因此，我們將在接下來的幾週內密切關注這一情況。

Matthew Boss, JPMorgan.

摩根大通的馬修‧博斯 (Matthew Boss)。

Great, thanks. So Todd, maybe first, could you recap learnings from your back to basics strategy in 2024? And just how would you rank incremental initiatives that we should consider for 2025? And then, Kelly, just maybe what's the comp needed to leverage SG&A in 2025?

非常好，謝謝。所以 Todd，首先，您能否回顧一下您在 2024 年回歸基礎策略中所學到的東西？那麼您如何對我們在 2025 年應該考慮的漸進式舉措進行排名呢？那麼凱利，也許 2025 年需要什麼樣的公司才能充分利用銷售、一般及行政開支？

And can you just recap? I think you cited some SG&A as well as gross margin puts and takes that we should just consider for the first quarter relative to the year.

能簡單回顧一下嗎？我認為您提到了一些銷售、一般及行政費用以及毛利率的損益，我們應該只考慮第一季相對於全年的情況。

Yeah, Matt, I'll start and then pass it over to Kelly. Again, we are very proud of what the team has done here on that foundational work. That back to basics work was exactly what we needed here at Dollar General, and we've been executing against it for the better part of 13, now about 15 months or so.

是的，馬特，我先開始，然後交給凱利。再次，我們對團隊在這項基礎工作上所做的工作感到非常自豪。回歸基本的工作正是我們 Dollar General 所需要的，而且我們已經執行了 13 個月左右，現在大約 15 個月左右。

And I would tell you that some of the big takeaways, I would tell you is, and you heard from Kelly, shrink is starting to turn into a tailwind, which we knew would happen with all the work that we've done.

我要告訴你們的一些重要收穫是，正如凱利所說，心理治療正開始成為一股順風，我們知道，透過我們所做的所有工作，這將會發生。

We've done this before. We know exactly how to attack that shrink line. It's not easy work. It's pick-and-shovel work, but I would tell you, the teams have done a really nice job. And the great thing with that is it should be the gift that keeps on giving as we move into '25 and even '26.

我們以前做過這個。我們確切地知道如何攻擊那條收縮線。這不是一件容易的工作。這是一項艱苦的工作，但我要說的是，這些團隊做得非常好。而最棒的是，當我們進入 2025 年甚至 2026 年時，這將是一份持續不斷的禮物。

So stay tuned. A lot of work is being done as we speak around ensuring that the productivity of our stores is exactly where it needs to be. So we started that work on back to basics last year. But I would tell you that it is in overdrive starting in '25.

敬請關注。正如我們所說，我們正在做大量工作以確保我們商店的生產力達到應有的水平。因此，我們去年就開始了回歸基本面的工作。但我要告訴你，從 25 年開始，它就處於超速運轉狀態。

By moving Steve Deckard into that role, where he's going to be squarely focused on productivity measures and being able to leverage what we do at a really high level, I know for sure that we're going to be working every single lever that we can to better our numbers as we move into 2025 here.

透過讓史蒂夫·德卡德擔任這一職務，他將完全專注於生產力衡量指標，並能夠在真正高的水平上發揮我們的工作成果，我確信，在邁入 2025 年之際，我們將竭盡全力提高我們的數字。

We're already starting to see some of the effects of that. Inventory was the other piece that I want to highlight for '25. When you look at our inventory levels and you see the work that's been done there with a 6.9% decrease per store in Q4, very, very strong. A 1,000 SKUs have been taken out of the planogram. So the stores are much more productive and our DCs are more productive.

我們已經開始看到它的一些影響。庫存是我想重點強調的另一件事。當你查看我們的庫存水準時，你會看到我們已經完成了工作，第四季度每家商店的庫存下降了 6.9%，非常非常強勁。已從規劃圖中刪除了 1,000 個 SKU。因此商店的生產效率更高，我們的配送中心的生產效率也更高。

I would tell you, we're not finished. There'll be more SKU reduction in 2025 along with even more SKU optimization in 2025, so both of those pieces. And then as you take a look at that, the productivity that Steve is working on with our DCs is the other piece, and that is where we can optimize what's coming into our stores through the rolltainer process and optimizing that.

我想告訴你，我們還沒完成。2025 年 SKU 將會進一步減少，同時 SKU 也會進一步優化，所以這兩個部分都是如此。然後，當您看到這一點時，史蒂夫在我們的 DC 上所做的工作生產力是另一個方面，這就是我們可以透過滾動式貨櫃運輸流程優化進入我們商店的貨物並對其進行優化的地方。

The less touches that the store has to do, the better off we'll be. So rolltainer sort is important, planogram sort by delivery is important. And that work was done in 2025, and we're starting to reap the benefits of that in '20 -- I'm sorry, it was done in '24, we're reaping that in '25.

商店需要做的事情越少，我們的狀況就越好。因此，滾動容器分類很重要，以交付方式進行規劃圖分類也很重要。這項工作是在 2025 年完成的，我們將在 2020 年開始收穫成果——對不起，這項工作是在 2024 年完成的，我們將在 2025 年收穫成果。

And then as you think about the next step is case pack optimization here. And that -- what that does for us is ensures whatever comes in goes to the shelf, where the store doesn't have to touch it multiple times from the time they stock it to the time it gets put into the customer's bag.

然後，當您考慮下一步時，這裡是案例包裝優化。而這 — — 它對我們來說可以確保所有進貨的商品都能放到貨架上，從入庫到放入顧客的袋子，商店不必多次觸碰它。

When you think about 20,000 stores across our network, if I can save a few touches per store per day, that adds up to very meaningful numbers at the end of the day. So a lot to be proud of, a lot of work yet to do, but we're squarely focused on getting that done, Matt.

當你考慮到我們網路內的 20,000 家商店時，如果我每天可以在每家商店節省一些接觸，那麼到一天結束時，這將是一個非常有意義的數字。所以有很多值得驕傲的事情，也有很多工作要做，但我們會全心全意地專注於完成這些工作，馬特。

Yeah. And if I can just jump in on that a little bit. Before I go into the details, and I think what I'll do, Matt, to kind of address your question on '25 is just tell you what we're thinking about all the way through the P&L and then just some of the SG&A headwinds that we're seeing in '25 to talk to your leverage question.

是的。如果我可以稍微參與一下的話。在我深入介紹細節之前，我想我會做的，馬特，為了回答你關於 25 年的問題，只是告訴你我們對損益表的看法，然後只是我們在 25 年看到的一些銷售、一般和行政費用逆風，以回答你的槓桿問題。

But before I go into all of that, and I just want to reiterate, we're excited about our 2025 plans. We think that what we've done in back to basics sets us up nicely. And then all of the actions that Todd has been talking about is going to continue to drive growth in subsequent years, really moving towards that medium- and longer-term financial goals that we laid out today.

但在深入討論這些之前，我只想重申一下，我們對我們的 2025 年計劃感到非常興奮。我們認為，我們在回歸基礎所做的努力為我們帶來了良好的結果。托德談到的所有行動將在未來幾年繼續推動成長，真正朝著我們今天制定的中長期財務目標邁進。

And maybe I'll start with just kind of what is reflected in our 2025 guidance, especially from the consumer side of things. Currently, we're anticipating that there is continued economic pressure on that core consumer though at a relatively consistent level as they were experiencing as we exited 2024.

也許我會先談談我們 2025 年指引中所反映的內容，尤其是從消費者方面來看。目前，我們預計核心消費者將繼續面臨經濟壓力，儘管壓力水平相對穩定，就像我們在 2024 年結束時所經歷的那樣。

The guidance is centered around a macro-neutral outlook. And I'll tell you that the full range really allows for some uncertainty on macro and our core customer both at that low end and high end. But there's a couple of things that are not contemplated in our guidance.

該指引以宏觀中性前景為中心。我要告訴你的是，全方位確實對宏觀和我們的核心客戶（無論是低端還是高端）都存在一些不確定性。但有幾件事我們的指導沒有考慮到。

One would be any changes to the tariff expectations from what we maybe don't know as of today. We also don't specifically contemplate any changes to Snap or other benefit programs in our guidance. And then the other thing would be any significant impact to consumer demand brought on by those impacts of tariffs has not been contemplated in the guidance as well.

一是關稅預期是否會發生變化，目前我們可能還不知道。我們的指導中也沒有特別考慮對 Snap 或其他福利計劃進行任何更改。另一件事是，關稅對消費者需求帶來的任何重大影響也沒有在指導意見中被考慮。

But what has been contemplated as we kind of move through, if we think about margin, really, the primary driver there is going to be the shrink improvement as we move through the year. On the SG&A side, I think this will probably talk to a cadence question that I'm sure that you all are wondering as well as to your headwind question.

但是，如果我們考慮利潤率，那麼隨著我們度過這一年，我們已經考慮到的主要驅動力將是收縮改善。在銷售、一般及行政費用方面，我認為這可能會涉及到一個節奏問題，我相信大家都在想這個問題，以及你們的逆風問題。

During Q1 and Q2, we are expecting the most pressure on a year-over-year comparison and are expecting EPS to be below last year for those two quarters. When we think about the first half, there's a couple of things that are going on.

在第一季和第二季度，我們預計將年比壓力最大，預計這兩個季度的每股盈餘將低於去年同期。當我們思考上半場時，有幾件事正在發生。

First, there are just initial expenses related to our remodels, including Project Elevate. And so as we expect to execute more real estate projects in the first half this year than we did last year, you'll see some pressure on that. But the goal here is really to complete a vast majority of our real estate projects by the end of the third quarter.

首先，這些只是與我們的改造相關的初始費用，包括 Project Elevate。因此，由於我們預計今年上半年實施的房地產項目將比去年多，所以你會看到一些壓力。但這裡真正的目標是在第三季末完成絕大多數房地產項目。

And that helps us maximize those operating weeks that can benefit us later in 2025. As I think about Q1 and Q2, there's another couple of call-outs. Q1 obviously has the toughest comp lap to prior year, and that's going to pressure SG&A as a percent of sales.

這有助於我們最大限度地利用這些營運週，這將在 2025 年後期為我們帶來好處。當我思考 Q1 和 Q2 時，又有另外幾個呼聲。與去年同期相比，第一季顯然面臨最嚴峻的競爭，這將對銷售、一般及行政開支佔銷售額的百分比造成壓力。

And we do have some additional labor expense headwinds in Q1, and that's really related to self-checkout. So we still had the self-checkout in the majority of our store base before the conversions began in later Q1 of last year.

我們在第一季確實面臨一些額外的勞動力費用阻力，這與自助結帳確實有關。因此，在去年第一季末開始轉換之前，我們的大多數門市仍然採用自助結帳方式。

And then the other call out I would just say in Q1 with the store closures that we announced, we do expect to have costs associated with those in the realm of about $20 million in the first quarter. And then as you think about the second quarter, it's really SG&A is impacted by incentive comp headwinds.

然後我要說的是，在第一季度，隨著我們宣布關閉商店，我們預計相關成本將在第一季達到約 2000 萬美元。然後當您想到第二季時，銷售、一般及行政開支確實受到了激勵補償阻力的影響。

Last year, the accrual was lower than what we would expect in Q1 of '25, and that's really when we lowered expectations last year in Q2. And then finally, I'll just talk through kind of the full year, and we talked about this in our prepared remarks but just to reiterate it a little bit. We are expecting for the full year wage rate inflation of between 3.5% and 4%.

去年，應計金額低於我們對 25 年第一季的預期，而這正是我們去年第二季降低預期的時候。最後，我將談談全年的情況，我們在準備好的發言中也談到了這一點，但只是稍微重申一下。我們預計全年薪資通膨率將在 3.5% 至 4% 之間。

And then that normalized short term and long term incentive compensation at our target, it's about $120 million. But depending on where we land with the guide, it could be less and could be more a headwind as we move forward.

然後，按照我們的目標，標準化的短期和長期激勵薪酬約為 1.2 億美元。但是，根據我們與導遊一起到達的位置，在我們前進的過程中，逆風可能會變小，也可能會變大。

And then finally, depreciation, rent, utilities, R&M, the things that we've been talking about are presenting a headwind. But the good news there is we have a lot of actions in place. They're going to help mitigate that deleverage as we move into '26 and beyond, and that's what's embedded in our framework.

最後，我們一直在談論的折舊、租金、水電費、維修與維護等都面臨阻力。但好消息是我們已經採取了很多行動。它們將有助於緩解我們進入26年及以後的去槓桿現象，而這正是我們框架中所包含的內容。

So all that said, I think that '25 is a year that's just going to position us well to drive that growth in subsequent years. And you saw our call-out of expecting double digit EPS growth in 2026, and we're looking forward to moving towards those medium and long term financial goals.

所以總而言之，我認為 25 年將為我們在接下來的幾年推動成長奠定良好的基礎。您看到了我們預計 2026 年每股收益將實現兩位數成長的呼籲，我們期待著朝著這些中長期財務目標邁進。

Zhihan Ma, Bernstein.

馬志涵，伯恩斯坦。

Great. Thank you for taking my question. This is Zhihan from Bernstein. I guess a follow-up on the real estate side. First of all, beyond the existing kind of 96 Dollar General stores, 45 pOpshelf stores, are you expecting more to be closed based on your portfolio optimization?

偉大的。感謝您回答我的問題。我是伯恩斯坦的志涵。我想這是關於房地產方面的後續行動。首先，除了現有的 96 家 Dollar General 商店和 45 家 pOpshelf 商店之外，您是否預計根據投資組合優化還會關閉更多商店？

And longer term, as you think about the IRR between new store openings, Project Elevate and the store remodels, how would you compare the returns on those projects? And how does that change how you think about the balance between the three going forward? Thank you.

從長遠來看，當您考慮新店開幕、Elevate 專案和商店改造之間的內部報酬率 (IRR) 時，您如何比較這些專案的回報？這會如何改變您對未來三者之間平衡的看法？謝謝。

Yeah, thank you for the question. I'll start and I'll pass it over to Kelly. I believe that we did exactly the right thing in taking a look at our full portfolio of stores. We do that every year, but we did it with a little bit of a different eye this year and ensuring that we looked at both our Dollar General and pOpshelf locations.

是的，謝謝你的提問。我先開始，然後交給凱利。我認為，審視我們的全部門店組合是完全正確的。我們每年都會這樣做，但今年我們的眼光略有不同，並確保同時關注 Dollar General 和 pOpshelf 門市。

And I have to say, while it's never easy to close stores, it was exactly the right thing to do, 96 Dollar General stores, less than 1% of our fleet, if you will. And it comes at no surprise probably to you and maybe others, they were predominantly in urban and metro settings, where it has become very, very difficult to run a profitable store for a lot of different reasons that obviously have been out in the news for many years.

我必須說，雖然關閉商店從來都不是一件容易的事，但這卻是完全正確的選擇，96 家 Dollar General 商店，占我們商店總數的不到 1%，如果你願意這麼說的話。這對您或其他人來說可能並不奇怪，他們主要位於城市和大都市環境中，在那裡經營一家盈利的商店變得非常非常困難，原因有很多，這些原因顯然已經在新聞中出現了很多年。

So we continue to watch that. The great thing is, as we look at our prospects, we still see there's 12,000 C points out there in the US to put a Dollar General store, a pOpshelf store. While we won't get all those, we still believe there's a lot of runway for growth within the Continental United States, not to even mention Mexico, which we've committed to put in upwards of 15 stores this year in the ground in Mexico.

因此我們將繼續關注此事。最棒的是，當我們展望未來時，我們仍然看到美國有 12,000 個 C 點可以開設一家 Dollar General 商店和一家 pOpshelf 商店。雖然我們無法實現所有這些目標，但我們仍然相信美國大陸有很大的成長空間，更不用說墨西哥了，我們承諾今年在墨西哥開設 15 家以上的商店。

And then as I think about pOpshelf, they have done a really nice job. The customer is still very, very positive on the brand. We need a little economic help there, but I'd tell you, we're not waiting around. You heard in our prepared remarks, we've seen the vast majority of our go-forward pOpshelf stores have some double digit increases as of late on the top line.

然後當我想到 pOpshelf 時，他們做得非常好。顧客對該品牌仍然非常非常積極。我們需要一點經濟援助，但我要告訴你，我們不會等待。您在我們的準備好的演講中聽到了，我們已經看到，我們絕大多數的 pOpshelf 商店的營收最近都實現了兩位數的增長。

And that's from all the work that the team has done to position that pOpshelf brand exactly where the customer wants it. So more to come. I would call that we're in the very early innings of our test and learn with pOpshelf.

這就是團隊為將 pOpshelf 品牌定位在客戶想要的位置所做的所有工作。接下來還有更多。我想說我們正處於測試的早期階段，並透過 pOpshelf 進行學習。

And by the way, when we closed 51 stores and obviously turning 6 of those into Dollar Generals, it was really centered squarely around our test and learn mentality. And what I mean by that is, we tested the outer limits and bounds in many instances to see what that elasticity would look like on different demographics to put a pOpshelf store.

順便說一句，當我們關閉 51 家商店並將其中 6 家轉變為 Dollar General 時，這實際上完全圍繞著我們的測試和學習心態。我的意思是，我們在許多情況下測試了外部極限和範圍，以了解在不同的人口統計數據中，開設 pOpshelf 商店的彈性是什麼樣的。

And some worked really well and some didn't work as well. We learned a lot there. And so those are the ones that we're closing down. So while we'll always watch and look at our portfolio, we believe this was exactly the right thing to do at the right time.

有些效果很好，有些則效果不佳。我們在那裡學到了很多。所以我們要關閉的就是這些。因此，雖然我們會一直關注並審視我們的投資組合，但我們相信這是在正確的時間做出的正確的事情。

Yeah, and just to cover the financial side of all of that. What I would say is we're still very excited the opportunities that we have around new store growth. And so we're seeing IRRs still of 17%. We've got a payback period of approximately two years.

是的，只是為了涵蓋所有這些的財務方面。我想說的是，我們仍然對新店成長的機會感到非常興奮。因此我們看到 IRR 仍然為 17%。我們的投資回收期約為兩年。

And we have a lot of locations left that we can go into. So we're feeling good about the pipeline and just the ability to produce the results that we have seen historically. I think right now, we've done a nice job of balancing the capital allocation between new stores and existing stores.

我們還有許多地方可以去。因此，我們對這條管道以及產生我們歷史上所見過的結果的能力感到很滿意。我認為目前我們在平衡新店和現有店之間的資本配置方面做得很好。

And as we think about that, maximizing the current store base is just really powerful as we work to gain that mature store comp. So with Project Elevate, we're expecting a sales lift of between 3% and 5%. And the exciting thing there is we're going to cover about 20% of our stores this year.

當我們考慮這一點時，當我們努力獲得成熟商店的補償時，最大化現有的商店基礎是非常有效的。因此，透過 Project Elevate，我們預計銷售額將成長 3% 至 5%。令人興奮的是，今年我們將涵蓋約 20% 的商店。

And if you think about that in terms of the mature store base, that's actually about 25% of our mature stores. So very significant for us. And then on our traditional remodel, which we're calling Project Renovate, we still expect to see that 6% to 8% lift.

如果你從成熟商店基礎的角度來考慮，這實際上約占我們成熟商店的 25％。這對我們來說意義重大。然後，對於我們傳統的改造，即所謂的“項目改造”，我們仍然預計會看到 6% 到 8% 的提升。

And we're also going in and enhancing some of the things that we're doing, specifically to work towards mitigating repairs and maintenance. And so all of what we're expecting, we have seen, and we're excited about how this is going to play out over the next couple of years in our framework.

我們也將進一步加強我們正在做的一些事情，特別是為了減少維修和維護。我們已經看到了所有期待的事情，並且很高興看到未來幾年這將在我們的框架內如何展開。

Rupesh Parikh, Oppenheimer.

魯佩什·帕里克（Rupesh Parikh），奧本海默。

Good morning and thanks for taking my questions. So two areas of focus. One is the latest on your store conditions at this point versus your expectations, inventory and stock staffing, et cetera. And secondly, related to that, just curious on the opportunities you still see to further improve working capital from here.

早上好，感謝您回答我的問題。所以有兩個重點領域。一是目前您店舖的最新狀況與您的預期、庫存和庫存人員配備等的比較。其次，與此相關，我只是好奇您現在還看到哪些機會可以進一步改善營運資金。

Yeah, I'll take that and then, Kelly, add anything you would like to. I would tell you that, again, our back to basic work has done exactly what we thought it would do. Exiting Q4, we're at 70% or better in our conditions in our stores, meaning 70% or better, stores that will serve the customer very well. We're still working, like we always will work on some of those that -- we still have some pockets that we're working on.

是的，我會接受的，然後，凱利，添加任何你想要的東西。我想告訴你們，我們重新開始的基礎工作已經達到了與我們所想完全一樣的效果。截至第四季度，我們門市的狀況已達到或超過 70%，這意味著 70% 或更好的門市能夠為客戶提供良好的服務。我們仍在努力，就像我們一直會努力做的那樣——我們仍在努力做一些事情。

But I would tell you, with the recent move with Steve coming in and then Tracy moving to Head of Stores, her number one and only goal is execution, execution, execution for '25. And with that, we feel very confident that will make even further headwinds in our in-stock positions, which by the way, are at some of the highest levels we've seen in years right now and getting better.

但我要告訴你，隨著史蒂夫最近加入，以及特蕾西調任商店主管，她的首要和唯一目標就是執行、執行、執行'25。因此，我們非常有信心，這將對我們的庫存狀況造成進一步的阻力，順便說一句，我們的庫存狀況目前處於我們多年來的最高水平，並且正在好轉。

And I believe that, that execution will also move over to moving that 70%-plus that we have today closer to the 80% range, where we feel more comfortable in. So we're moving toward that direction. But I would tell you that the customer is already seeing it, feeling it.

我相信，這項執行率也將從目前的 70% 以上上升至 80% 左右，讓我們感覺更加舒適。所以我們正朝著那個方向前進。但我想告訴你，客戶已經看到它、感受到它了。

We're hearing it in our customer work, our customer surveys. And obviously, we're seeing it in our sales. And so feel very good about what that looks like and where we'll continue to make good headwind -- sorry, good headway into '25.

我們在客戶工作和客戶調查中聽到了這一點。顯然，我們在銷售中看到了這一點。所以，對於這種情況以及我們將繼續取得良好進展的地方感到非常高興 - 對不起，在 25 年取得了良好進展。

Yeah, no, and to piggyback off of that, I just want to call out, I really think the team threaded the needle here on inventory in-stock. So making significant reductions in inventory while increasing in-stocks and having positive sales is just remarkable.

是的，不，為了順便提一下，我只想說，我真的認為團隊在庫存方面做得很好。因此，大幅減少庫存、增加存貨並實現積極銷售是非常了不起的。

And to your point, Rupesh, it did play well with our working capital. So we felt like we did manage that very well. Our cash flow from operations was up 25%, free cash flow is up 144%, so good discipline around capital expenditures.

正如您所說，Rupesh，它確實對我們的營運資金發揮了很好的作用。因此我們覺得我們確實做得很好。我們的經營現金流成長了 25%，自由現金流成長了 144%，因此資本支出的紀律很好。

We were able earlier this year to pay down debt to help our leverage there at $750 million. And as we look ahead in 2025, we have another $500 million maturing in the fall, but we expect to pay down that early and with cash in Q1. So making additional progress on that as well.

今年早些時候，我們償還了債務，以幫助我們的槓桿率達到 7.5 億美元。展望 2025 年，我們還有 5 億美元將於秋季到期，但我們預計將在第一季提前償還，並使用現金。因此在這方面也取得了進一步的進展。

Yeah. The last thing I'll say on that, Kelly, is that as we move into '25, as I mentioned earlier, we're not finished with that optimization of inventory. There will be further reductions of SKUs and further optimization. So more to come as we move into '25.

是的。凱利，我要說的最後一件事是，正如我之前提到的，當我們進入25年時，我們還沒有完成庫存優化。SKU將會進一步減少，並進一步優化。隨著我們進入 25 年，還會有更多。

Seth Sigman, Barclays.

巴克萊銀行的塞思‧西格曼。

Hey, good morning, everyone. I wanted to follow up on the long term margin bridge to 6% to 7%. When you add up the different buckets that you cited, it would seem to drive margins well above that target. So I'm just curious, what is the offset there?

嘿，大家早安。我想跟進長期保證金比率從 6% 升至 7%。如果將所引用的不同桶子加起來，利潤率似乎會遠高於該目標。所以我很好奇，那裡的偏移量是多少？

It sounds like the message on investments is relatively stable outside of some of the early pressures here in 2025. So is that conservative? Or are there offsets that we should be thinking about? Thanks so much.

聽起來，除了 2025 年早期的一些壓力之外，投資方面的資訊相對穩定。那麼這是保守的嗎？或者是否存在我們應該考慮的抵消因素？非常感謝。

Yeah, I'll start and then pass it over to Kelly. As we look at it, obviously, it's a long-term framework. We believe it strikes the right balance that we need to ensure that we continue to serve the customer the way we need to serve the customer, and also serve our employee base the way we need to and then obviously serve our shareholders.

是的，我先開始，然後交給凱利。我們認為，顯然這是一個長期框架。我們相信，它達到了我們需要的正確平衡，即確保我們繼續以我們需要的方式為客戶服務，同時也以我們需要的方式為我們的員工服務，然後顯然也為我們的股東服務。

And saying that, we always strive to do more, and we'll do that. It wasn't lost on us that it does add up to a higher number. But as we continue to move forward, those of you that know me pretty well know that as we laid out an algorithm way back in the day, we strive to outpace that, and we did in many instances, and that will be no different here. But in the meantime, I would tell you that we believe this is the right anchor point as we move in.

話雖如此，我們總是努力做得更多，我們也會這樣做。我們並沒有忘記，這個數字加起來確實更高。但隨著我們繼續前進，那些了解我的人都知道，正如我們很久以前設計出的演算法一樣，我們努力超越它，而且我們在很多情況下都做到了，這次也不會例外。但同時，我想告訴你，我們相信這是我們行動的正確錨點。

Thank you.

謝謝。

Robbie Ohmes, Bank of America.

美國銀行的羅比·奧姆斯（Robbie Ohmes）。

Oh hey, thanks for sneaking me in here. Todd, I was hoping -- maybe to conclude, you could talk a little bit about the puts and takes on how you see the competitive environment in 2025 and if it's different one way or another from 2024.

喔嘿，謝謝你偷偷帶我到這裡。托德，我希望——也許最後，您可以談談您如何看待 2025 年的競爭環境，以及它與 2024 年是否有任何不同。

And maybe specifically, thoughts on Walmart, delivery penetration in new markets, the drug stores closing? Any benefit from Family Dollar closings? Just would love your thoughts on how -- what kind of environment you see any changes for this year versus 2024.

也許具體來說，您對沃爾瑪的看法、新市場的配送滲透率、藥局的關閉？Family Dollar 關閉有什麼好處嗎？只是想問您認為今年與 2024 年相比環境會有什麼變化。

Yeah, absolutely. Again, I have to say, it's always a competitive market. So I'll start there. But I would tell you, it is fluid. You named some of the things that we're obviously watching and some of the competitors. There's been a lot of competitors closing, many not in our space directly but some that were like, for instance, with Party City moving out, that's one reason.

是的，絕對是如此。我必須再說一遍，這始終是一個競爭激烈的市場。因此我就從那裡開始。但我要告訴你，它是流動的。您列舉了一些我們顯然正在關注的事物和一些競爭對手。有很多競爭對手都倒閉了，很多並不直接在我們的領域，但也有一些像 Party City 這樣的公司搬走了，這就是原因之一。

And you heard in our prepared remarks that we went in and rebalanced the inventory in our pOpshelf stores bringing in more party, more occasions, more toys, things that will go directly for that consumer that is probably left looking for a place to shop.

您在我們準備好的發言中也聽到了，我們進入並重新平衡了 pOpshelf 商店的庫存，引入了更多的派對、更多場合、更多玩具，這些東西將直接賣給那些可能正在尋找購物場所的消費者。

So I believe in the competitive closings, there are opportunities. Drug continues to be our largest share donor as we look at our non -- or I'm sorry, our consumable share gains, which we're very proud of, and our non-consumable share gains, which we've been very proud of coming out of Q4 now moving into Q1.

因此我相信在競爭激烈的成交中，還是有機會的。從我們的非消費品份額增長（對不起，我們對此感到非常自豪）以及非消費品份額增長（我們對從第四季度進入第一季感到非常自豪）來看，藥品仍然是我們最大的份額貢獻者。

So I believe that there'll be further opportunity. And for us, that's the reason we're squarely focused on ensuring that we have our best foot forward. So when these customers come in our stores, they become sticky and continue to shop with us.

因此我相信還會有更多機會。對我們來說，這就是我們全心全意確保盡最大努力向前邁進的原因。因此，當這些顧客來到我們的商店時，他們就會變得黏稠並繼續在我們這裡購物。

The good thing is what we're seeing is that trade-down or trade-in, as we'd like to speak to it, has accelerated going through Q4 and into Q1. So it's really nice to see that. That tells me that she likes what she sees as she comes in. We're going to deliver even more of that as we move forward.

好消息是，我們看到，降價或以舊換新（正如我們想說的）的現像已經從第四季度加速進入第一季。看到這一點我真的很高興。這告訴我她喜歡她進來時所看到的一切。隨著我們不斷前進，我們將提供更多這樣的服務。

As it relates to delivery, I would tell you that expanding our delivery up to 400 stores and then aiming to move to 10,000 by the end of the year is and should be a competitive advantage. And the reason being is that there is no one out there today that can deliver to small town rural America within an hour. We can do that.

至於配送方面，我想告訴大家的是，將我們的配​​送範圍擴大到 400 家門店，併計劃在年底前達到 10,000 家門店，這是一個競爭優勢，也應該是一個競爭優勢。原因在於，目前還沒有人能在一小時內送到美國鄉村小鎮。我們可以做到。

And that's what we aim to do with our delivery initiative. I'm very pleased with how we've started the 400 stores. The basket is at a very large pace, a lot larger than our basket that, obviously, when people come in our stores.

這正是我們實施交付計畫所要實現的目標。我對我們開設這400家門市的方式感到非常滿意。這個籃子的規模非常大，比我們以前人們走進我們商店時買的籃子要大得多。

So a lot of the go-forward initiatives that would say, continue to move forward are flashing green. And it's all systems go for us as we look to light up close to 10,000 stores or more as we move into the back half of this year.

因此，許多將繼續向前推進的舉措都亮起了綠燈。我們正在全力以赴，爭取在今年下半年為近 10,000 家甚至更多的商店提供照明。

The linchpin there, and I have to say, is the Dollar General Media Network. And the reason being is that it gives us the opportunity to be able to get more eyes on our apps, more on our website, all of our digital tools, which we then can turn around and work with our vendor partners to leverage that.

我必須說，其中的關鍵是 Dollar General Media Network。原因是，它使我們有機會讓更多人關注我們的應用程式、我們的網站和所有數位工具，然後我們可以與我們的供應商合作夥伴合作，充分利用這一點。

As you may remember, we were one of the first to institute a media network years ago. And so we've got a really good track record of ensuring that we can maximize that. And so more to come. There's a nice margin tailwind that's contemplated in our long term framework around the media network. And we feel very confident in our ability to get our arms around that and deliver that as well.

你們可能還記得，我們​​是幾年前最早建立媒體網絡的公司之一。因此，我們擁有非常好的記錄來確保能夠最大限度地發揮這一點。接下來還會有更多。我們圍繞媒體網絡的長期框架中考慮了良好的利潤順風。我們對自己實現這目標的能力充滿信心。

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。您現在可以斷開您的線路，我們感謝您的參與。