美元樹 (DLTR) 2024 Q3 法說會逐字稿

Greetings, and welcome to the Dollar Tree Q3 2024 Earnings Call and Webcast. (Operator Instructions) As a reminder, this conference is being recorded.

您好，歡迎參加 Dollar Tree 2024 年第三季財報電話會議和網路廣播。 （操作員指示）謹此提醒，本次會議正在錄製中。

It's now my pleasure to turn the call over to Bob LaFleur, Senior Vice President, Investor Relations. Please go ahead, Bob.

現在我很高興將電話轉給投資者關係高級副總裁 Bob LaFleur。請繼續，鮑伯。

Good morning, and thank you for joining us today to discuss Dollar Tree's third quarter fiscal 2024 results. With me today are Dollar Tree's Interim CEO, Mike Creedon and CFO, Jeff Davis. Before we begin, I would like to remind everyone that some of the remarks that we will make today about the company's expectations, plans and future prospects are considered forward-looking statements under the safe harbor provision of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995.

早安，感謝您今天加入我們討論 Dollar Tree 2024 財年第三季業績。今天與我在一起的有 Dollar Tree 的臨時執行長 Mike Creedon 和財務長 Jeff Davis。在開始之前，我想提醒大家，根據 1995 年《私人證券訴訟改革法案》的安全港條款，我們今天將發表的有關公司預期、計劃和未來前景的一些言論被視為前瞻性陳述。

These statements are subject to risks and uncertainties, which could cause actual results to differ materially from those contemplated by our forward-looking statements. For information on the risks and uncertainties that could affect our actual results, please see the risk factors, Business and Management Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations sections in our annual report on Form 10-K filed on March 20, 2024, our most recent press release and Form 8-K and other filings with the SEC.

這些陳述存在風險和不確定性，可能導致實際結果與我們前瞻性陳述中預期的結果有重大差異。有關可能影響我們實際結果的風險和不確定性的信息，請參閱我們於2024 年3 月20 日提交的10-K 表格年度報告中的風險因素、業務和管理討論以及財務狀況和運營結果分析部分，我們最新的新聞稿和 8-K 表以及向 SEC 提交的其他文件。

We caution against reliance on any forward-looking statements made today, and we disclaim any obligation to update any forward-looking statements, except as required by law. Also during this call, we will discuss certain non-GAAP financial measures. Reconciliations of these non-GAAP items to the most directly comparable GAAP financial measures are provided in today's earnings release available on the IR section of our website. These non-GAAP measures are not intended to be a substitute for GAAP results. Unless otherwise stated, we will refer to our financial results on a GAAP basis.

我們告誡不要依賴今天發表的任何前瞻性聲明，並且我們不承擔更新任何前瞻性聲明的義務，除非法律要求。此外，在本次電話會議中，我們還將討論某些非公認會計準則財務指標。我們網站的投資者關係部分今天發布的收益報告中提供了這些非公認會計準則項目與最直接可比較的公認會計準則財務指標的對帳。這些非 GAAP 衡量標準無意取代 GAAP 結果。除非另有說明，我們將根據公認會計原則（GAAP）參考我們的財務表現。

Additionally, unless otherwise stated, all comparisons discussed today for the third quarter of fiscal 2024 are against the same period a year ago. Please note that a supplemental slide deck outlining selected operating metrics is available on the IR section of our website. Following our prepared remarks, Mike and Jeff will take your questions. Given the number of callers you would like to participate in today's session, we ask that you limit yourself to 1 question.

此外，除非另有說明，今天討論的 2024 財年第三季的所有比較均與一年前同期進行。請注意，我們網站的 IR 部分提供了概述選定營運指標的補充幻燈片。在我們準備好的發言之後，麥克和傑夫將回答您的問題。鑑於您希望參加今天會議的來電者數量，我們要求您將自己的問題限制在 1 個以內。

I'd now like to turn the call over to Mike.

我現在想把電話轉給麥克。

Thanks, Bob, and good morning. I want to welcome everyone to today's call. This is my first time speaking to you as interim CEO following our recent leadership transition. I'm honored that the board has named me to this role at a critical time in our transformation. To all our stakeholders, please know that I take this responsibility very seriously and with great humility. I also want to thank Rick Dreiling for his leadership and the support he provided to all our associates and leaders. From all of us at Dollar Tree, we wish him the very best.

謝謝，鮑勃，早安。我歡迎大家參加今天的電話會議。這是我在最近的領導層換屆之後第一次以臨時執行長的身份與大家交談。我很榮幸董事會在我們轉型的關鍵時刻任命我擔任這一職位。對於我們所有的利害關係人，請知道我非常認真並且非常謙虛地承擔這項責任。我還要感謝 Rick Dreiling 的領導以及他為我們所有同事和領導者提供的支持。 Dollar Tree 的所有人祝他一切順利。

As an organization, our top priorities remain accelerating the growth of Dollar Tree and finalizing the strategic review to identify the optimal ownership structure for Family Dollar. Executing against these objectives is the first priority for this leadership team and our Board.

作為一個組織，我們的首要任務仍然是加速 Dollar Tree 的發展並完成策略審查，以確定 Family Dollar 的最佳所有權結構。執行這些目標是領導團隊和董事會的首要任務。

Throughout the strategic review process, we have maintained our operational focus and driven meaningful improvements in Family Dollar sales productivity and profitability. Our ultimate goal remains positioning both banners for long-term success and unlocking value for Dollar Tree shareholders.

在整個策略審查過程中，我們保持了營運重點，並推動了 Family Dollar 銷售生產力和盈利能力的有意義的提高。我們的最終目標仍然是建立長期成功的旗幟，並為 Dollar Tree 股東釋放價值。

At the Dollar Tree banner, we're converting stores to our in-line multiprice 3.0 format, opening new stores and improving the in-store experience through renovations and customer service enhancements. We believe there is ample runway ahead for Dollar Tree to meaningfully grow its square footage over a multiyear horizon. Value always resonates with the customer, and that is why our business model has stood the test of time across decades in multiple economic cycles.

在 Dollar Tree 旗幟下，我們正在將商店轉變為內聯多價 3.0 格式，開設新商店並透過翻新和增強客戶服務來改善店內體驗。我們相信，Dollar Tree 未來還有充足的空間，可以在多年的時間裡有意義地擴大其面積。價值總是能引起客戶的共鳴，這就是為什麼我們的商業模式在數十年的多個經濟週期中經受住了時間的考驗。

We have made good progress on store conditions and operations, but there is more work to be done. At the end of the day, retail fundamentals are the key to unlocking value at Dollar Tree, and I am confident that we have the right team in place to deliver improved merchandising execution and store standards.

我們在門市條件和營運方面取得了良好進展，但還有更多工作要做。歸根結底，零售基礎是 Dollar Tree 釋放價值的關鍵，我相信我們擁有合適的團隊來提供改進的銷售執行和商店標準。

One of the things that originally attracted me to Dollar Tree was its culture and clear understanding of what we do and who we serve. We offer unparalleled value and convenience for our customers and our scale provides us with a unique competitive advantage through our procurement power and distribution reach.

Dollar Tree 最初吸引我的原因之一是它的文化以及對我們的工作和服務對象的清晰了解。我們為客戶提供無與倫比的價值和便利，我們的規模透過我們的採購能力和分銷範圍為我們提供了獨特的競爭優勢。

We empower our associates and support their career aspirations or as we like to say, this is a career, not a job. And it is my responsibility to ensure that every aspect of our culture supports this goal. From the many stores and DCs that I've visited in my two-plus years at Dollar Tree, and from the time I've spent here at home in the store support center, it is clear to me that our leadership team and dedicated associates are aligned and our objectives are in focus, position Dollar Tree for sustainable growth and create value for our fellow shareholders.

我們賦予員工權力並支持他們的職業抱負，或者正如我們想說的那樣，這是一份職業，而不是一份工作。我有責任確保我們文化的各個方面都支持這一目標。從我在 Dollar Tree 的兩年多時間裡參觀過的許多商店和配送中心，以及從我在家裡的商店支援中心度過的時光來看，我清楚地看到，我們的領導團隊和敬業的員工我們的目標一致，目標明確，讓Dollar Tree 實現永續成長，並為我們的股東創造價值。

While I've already talked to many of you in the investment community, I look forward to getting to know many more of you in the days and months ahead. With that, I'd like to share our third quarter highlights and update you on several of our key initiatives. As a reminder, we said that third quarter results were in line with expectations when we announced our leadership transition in early November.

雖然我已經與投資界的許多人進行了交談，但我期待在未來的幾天和幾個月內認識更多的人。在此，我想分享我們第三季的亮點，並向您介紹我們的幾項關鍵舉措的最新情況。提醒一下，我們在 11 月初宣布領導層換屆時表示，第三季業績符合預期。

In Q3, our Dollar Tree and Family Dollar merchandising efforts produced tangible results and sales came in at the high end of our outlook range. Total net sales got a big boost from our noncomp stores with Dollar Tree noncomp sales contributing over 3 times more revenue this year. This reflects the increased pace of Dollar Tree store openings overall and the especially strong out-of-the-gate performance of the 99 Cents Only portfolio.

第三季度，我們的 Dollar Tree 和 Family Dollar 行銷工作取得了切實成果，銷售額達到了我們預期範圍的高端。我們的非公司商店的總淨銷售額得到了大幅提升，今年 Dollar Tree 非公司銷售額貢獻的收入增加了 3 倍以上。這反映了 Dollar Tree 商店整體開張速度的加快以及 99 Cents Only 產品組合特別強勁的開張表現。

Dollar Tree's comp improved sequentially over Q2, driven by market share gains and positive trends in both traffic and ticket. Family Dollar's comp also improved sequentially, with its first positive discretionary comp since 2022.

受市場份額成長以及客流量和門票積極趨勢的推動，Dollar Tree 的業績在第二季度連續改善。 Family Dollar 的薪資也持續改善，自 2022 年以來首次實現正的可自由支配薪資。

Turning to the current environment and tone of business. Customers continue to seek value and many are focused on buying for need and buying closer to the time of that need. We continue to see evidence of belt tightening, particularly among lower-income customers and, to a lesser extent, among middle and higher income families with young children.

轉向當前的環境和商業基調。客戶繼續尋求價值，許多人專注於按需購買和接近需求時間購買。我們繼續看到勒緊褲腰帶的跡象，特別是在低收入客戶中，在較小程度上，在有幼兒的中高收入家庭中。

While this dynamic remains a discretionary headwind, it does create some opportunities across both banners and consumables. As consumption data shows lower and middle income households are increasingly shifting more of their spending toward food at home. Given these trends, it's worth reminding everyone of the strong value proposition we offer at Dollar Tree, a customer that walks in to a typical Dollar Tree store will find over 90% of the products in the store priced at $1.25. So we offer a powerful solution for customers looking to stretch their dollar.

雖然這種動態仍然是一種可自由支配的逆風，但它確實在橫幅和消費品方面創造了一些機會。消費數據顯示，中低收入家庭越來越多地將更多支出轉向家庭食品。鑑於這些趨勢，值得提醒每個人我們在 Dollar Tree 提供的強大價值主張，走進典型的 Dollar Tree 商店的顧客會發現商店中 90% 以上的產品價格為 1.25 美元。因此，我們為希望節省開支的客戶提供了強大的解決方案。

Moving on to Dollar Tree's multi-price rollout. We converted another 720 stores to the 3.0 format in the quarter, bringing the total number of converted stores to approximately 2,300. The converted stores produced approximately 30% of Dollar Tree's total net sales in Q3 and continue to produce comps nicely above our portfolio average.

接下來是 Dollar Tree 的多價格推出。本季我們又將 720 家商店轉換為 3.0 格式，使轉換後的商店總數達到約 2,300 家。改造後的商店在第三季約佔 Dollar Tree 總淨銷售額的 30%，並且繼續產生遠高於我們投資組合平均值的業績。

The multi-price 3.0 stores in aggregate produced a 3.3% comp in the quarter with a strong 6.6% consumables comp and a modestly positive discretionary comp. Importantly, comps at these stores are being driven by traffic and ticket in roughly equal proportion. Focusing in on some Q3 category highlights at our 3.0 stores, we saw a 7 comp across our full seasonal assortment, including a 10 comp for Halloween-specific products.

本季度，多價 3.0 商店的綜合成長率為 3.3%，消費品綜合成長率為 6.6%，可自由支配的綜合成長率為適度的正值。重要的是，這些商店的贈品受到客流量和門票的推動，比例大致相等。重點介紹我們 3.0 商店的一些第三季度品類亮點，我們在整個季節性品種中看到了 7 種產品，其中包括萬聖節專用產品的 10 種產品。

Looking out to the balance of the year, we expect to convert an additional 300 to 400 stores to the 3.0 format by the end of Q4. This will put us a bit below the 2,800 figure we provided last quarter. But we are taking our time to ensure that each store is ready for conversion before we give it the final green light.

展望今年剩餘時間，我們預計到第四季末將另外 300 至 400 家商店轉換為 3.0 格式。這將使我們略低於我們上季度提供的 2,800 數字。但我們正在花時間確保每家商店都已準備好進行改造，然後再給予最終批准。

To reiterate what I said last quarter, it's better to get the conversion done right then to get them done fast. That being said, including converted and newly opened stores, we will have approximately 3,000 multi-price 3.0 stores open and operating by year-end, including most of the former 99 sent only stores.

重申我上個季度所說的，最好立即完成轉換，以便快速完成。話雖這麼說，包括改建和新開的商店，到年底我們將有大約 3,000 家多價 3.0 商店開業和運營，其中包括之前 99 家僅發送商店中的大部分。

And speaking of the former 99 Cents Only stores, we are just about done with the integration of this portfolio. To date, we've converted and reopened 158 stores as Dollar Trees and should finish up the remaining handful of stores by the end of this month. The strong initial sales performance of these stores confirms our original optimism about the quality of these assets and their locations across California and the Southwest.

說到前 99 Cents Only 商店，我們剛剛完成了這個產品組合的整合。迄今為止，我們已將 158 家商店改建為 Dollar Trees 並重新開業，並應在本月底之前完成剩餘的少數商店。這些商店強勁的初始銷售業績證實了我們最初對這些資產的品質及其在加州和西南部的位置的樂觀態度。

Stepping back and looking at our real estate efforts more broadly, we are well on our way towards meeting our full year goal of opening 600 to 650 new stores. Through the end of Q3, we've opened 567 new stores with over 85% of those coming under the Dollar Tree banner. Year-over-year, we have increased our Dollar Tree store base by over 7% and still see a long growth runway ahead of us given the growing market resonance of multi-price.

退後一步，更廣泛地審視我們的房地產工作，我們正在順利實現全年開設 600 至 650 家新店的目標。截至第三季末，我們開設了 567 家新店，其中超過 85% 位於 Dollar Tree 旗下。與去年同期相比，我們的 Dollar Tree 商店數量增加了 7% 以上，而且鑑於多價市場的反應日益強烈，我們仍然看到了漫長的成長道路。

In supply chain, our team continues to do outstanding work in the face of challenges related to our DC in Marietta, Oklahoma that was destroyed by a tornado. The biggest challenge is elevated stem miles across our network. On top of that, absorbing 158 new 99 Cents Only stores within a relatively concentrated geography required additional resource allocation.

在供應鏈方面，面對被龍捲風摧毀的俄克拉荷馬州瑪麗埃塔配送中心所面臨的挑戰，我們的團隊繼續出色地工作。最大的挑戰是我們網路中乾線里程的增加。除此之外，在相對集中的地區吸收 158 家新的 99 Cents Only 商店需要額外的資源分配。

While our newly reopened D.C. and West Memphis has helped to relieve some of the network pressure, additional measures are needed to restore the network to peak efficiency. To this end, we are working to add new capacity to our network, including replacing the capacity we lost in Marietta. On loan times continue to improve at the stores using rotor carts out of our DCs in West Memphis, Matthews, North Carolina and here in Chesapeake.

雖然我們新重新開放的華盛頓特區和西孟菲斯有助於緩解部分網路壓力，但仍需要採取額外措施來將網路恢復到最高效率。為此，我們正在努力為我們的網路增加新的容量，包括替換我們在瑪麗埃塔失去的容量。在西孟菲斯、馬修斯、北卡羅來納州和切薩皮克的配送中心，使用轉子推車的商店的貸款時間持續改善。

In Q3, our proactive steps to reduce shrink delivered year-over-year improvements at both banners, particularly Family Dollar. While the expansion of multiprice at Dollar Tree has necessitated some stepped-up shrink mitigation efforts, we still saw modest reduction in shrink during the quarter.

在第三季度，我們採取的積極措施減少損耗，使兩個產品（尤其是 Family Dollar）實現了同比改善。儘管 Dollar Tree 的多價擴張需要增加一些緩解損耗的力度，但我們在本季仍看到損耗略有減少。

Now let me recap some of the operational highlights from the quarter. On a consolidated basis, net sales increased 3.5% to $7.6 billion and adjusted diluted EPS was $1.12. Looking at performance by banner. Dollar Tree segment comp increased 1.8% on a 1.5% increase in traffic and a 0.3% increase in average ticket. This was Dollar Tree's first positive ticket comp since Q4 of 2022. Dollar Tree's Q3 consumable mix was 49.9%, a year-over-year increase of 150 basis points.

現在讓我回顧一下本季的一些營運亮點。合併後淨銷售額成長 3.5%，達到 76 億美元，調整後稀釋後每股收益為 1.12 美元。按橫幅查看效能。 Dollar Tree 細分市場的銷售額成長了 1.8%，客流量成長了 1.5%，平均票價成長了 0.3%。這是 Dollar Tree 自 2022 年第四季以來首次獲得正面門票優惠。

Mix had been shifting towards consumables by over 200 basis points in each of the previous 4 quarters. So this is clearly a step in the right direction. Consumable comp was 6.2%, which came on top of an 11.1% comp. Snacks, beverages and candy were the best-performing categories. Discretionary comp declined 1.8%, reflecting consumers' ongoing focus on needs-based purchases.

在過去 4 個季度中，每季的組合向消費品的轉變都超過 200 個基點。因此，這顯然是朝著正確方向邁出的一步。消費品比率為 6.2%，高於 11.1% 的比率。點心、飲料和糖果是表現最好的類別。可自由支配的支出下降了 1.8%，反映出消費者持續專注於基於需求的購買。

Discretionary comp was modestly positive at the multi-price 3.0 stores in the quarter. Hardware, electronics, health care and personal care were our best-performing discretionary categories with additional strength seen in Halloween and textiles at the 3.0 stores.

本季多價 3.0 商店的可自由支配競爭略有積極。硬體、電子產品、醫療保健和個人護理是我們表現最好的非必需品類別，3.0 商店的萬聖節和紡織品也表現強勁。

Our soft discretionary demand was consistent with trends we saw across the broader retail industry during the quarter. Based on Nielsen data, Dollar Tree's consumables market share gain accelerated in the quarter with growth in dollar volume outpacing the industry by 480 basis points and unit volume outpacing by 280 basis points.

我們的軟可自由支配需求與我們在本季看到的更廣泛零售業的趨勢一致。根據尼爾森數據，Dollar Tree 的消費品市佔率在本季加速成長，美元銷售成長超過產業 480 個基點，單位銷售成長超過 280 個基點。

Before moving on to Family Dollar, let me take a moment to comment on Dollar Tree's recent performance in the context of broader market trends. Given Dollar Tree's particular consumer product and price point mix, its comps are running below our long-term run rate expectations. We attribute this to the unique challenges our customers are facing at this point in the economic cycle, which might not necessarily be aligned with the cycle timing at other retailers, whether looking at comps or store growth, we believe our multiyear results stack up well against any retailer in the country.

在繼續討論 Family Dollar 之前，讓我花點時間評論一下 Dollar Tree 在更廣泛的市場趨勢背景下的近期表現。鑑於 Dollar Tree 特定的消費產品和價格點組合，其比較結果低於我們的長期運行率預期。我們將此歸因於我們的客戶在經濟週期的此時點面臨的獨特挑戰，這可能不一定與其他零售商的周期時間一致，無論是考慮比較還是商店增長，我們相信我們的多年業績與此國的任何零售商。

With a two-year comp stack of 17%, our consumable business is as strong as ever, but that is only half of Dollar Tree's business. The other half is discretionary. And these are the categories where shoppers have pulled back the most, given the cumulative impact of the economic pressures they feel.

我們的消費品業務的兩年利潤率為 17%，一如既往的強勁，但這只是 Dollar Tree 業務的一半。另一半則可酌情決定。考慮到經濟壓力的累積影響，這些是購物者撤退最多的類別。

Moving on to the Family Dollar segment. Comp increased 1.9% with the gain driven almost entirely by traffic. Average ticket was flat after three consecutive quarters of declines. Consumables comp increased 1.3%, which came on top of a 6.2% comp increase last year.

繼續討論家庭美元部分。比較增加了 1.9%，成長幾乎完全由流量推動。平均票價在連續三個季度下降後持平。消耗品年增 1.3%，高於去年 6.2% 的年增幅。

Discretionary comp increased 3.7%, which was a 540 basis point sequential improvement over Q2. More importantly, Q3 was Family Dollar's first positive discretionary comp since Q4 2022, children's apparel, electronics and hardware were the best-performing discretionary categories. We believe Family Dollar's positive discretionary results are the direct result of our targeted merchandising efforts.

全權委託薪酬成長 3.7%，較第二季較上季提高 540 個基點。更重要的是，第三季是 Family Dollar 自 2022 年第四季以來第一個積極的非必需品類別，兒童服裝、電子產品和硬體是表現最好的非必需品類別。我們相信 Family Dollar 的積極業績是我們有針對性的行銷努力的直接結果。

In recent quarters, we adjusted our pricing strategy with more emphasis on value and higher frequency purchase items like everyday Home Essentials. As part of this strategy, we increased the number of items priced at or below $5. We updated our in-store signage and shelf strips to better communicate our price value image, and we identified additional ways to optimize our planograms to drive sales and space productivity.

最近幾個季度，我們調整了定價策略，更加重視價值和更高頻率的購買物品，例如日常家居必需品。作為該策略的一部分，我們增加了價格等於或低於 5 美元的商品數量。我們更新了店內標誌和貨架條，以更好地傳達我們的價格價值形象，並且我們確定了優化貨架圖的其他方法，以推動銷售和空間生產力。

These initiatives are clearly resonating with our core Family Dollar customer, and we are seeing the positive results at the cash register. We are also pleased to report that Family Dollar's renovation and store conversion program is generating positive results. Since the beginning of the program in 2022, we have completed over 1,500 projects and year-to-date comps are up by high single digits at our 8 2.5 format stores and by double digits at our urban extra small box format stores.

這些舉措顯然引起了我們的核心 Family Dollar 客戶的共鳴，我們在收銀機上看到了積極的結果。我們也很高興地報告，Family Dollar 的翻新和商店改造計劃正在產生積極的成果。自2022 年該計劃啟動以來，我們已經完成了1,500 多個項目，年初至今，我們的8 家2.5 格式商店的銷售業績實現了高個位數增長，我們的城市超小盒子格式商店的銷售業績實現了兩位數增長。

As a reminder, these formats feature customized product assortments that better meet the needs of our diverse customer base. For example, a 2.5 stores include additional coolers, expanded seasonal offerings and an enhanced shopping experience with customized end caps and space optimization that drive better unit economics.

提醒一下，這些格式具有客製化的產品分類，可以更好地滿足我們多樣化客戶群的需求。例如，a 2.5 商店包括額外的冷卻器、擴大的季節性產品以及透過客製化端蓋和空間優化增強的購物體驗，從而提高單位經濟效益。

Lastly, on Family Dollar, we estimate reduced SNAP benefits or a 30 basis point comp headwind in the quarter. While overall SNAP payments were down by 5% nationally in Q3, we think the comp headwinds from SNAP will continue to moderate over the balance of the year.

最後，就 Family Dollar 而言，我們預計本季 SNAP 福利將減少或出現 30 個基點的競爭阻力。雖然第三季全國 SNAP 支付總額下降了 5%，但我們認為 SNAP 帶來的競爭阻力將在今年餘下時間繼續緩和。

Shifting gears, we have received questions about the potential impact of tariffs in the new administration. While the situation remains fluid and the exact nature, scope and eventual timing of any new tariffs is not yet clear, we are prepared to act on multiple fronts.

換個話題，我們收到了有關新政府關稅潛在影響的問題。儘管情況仍然不穩定，任何新關稅的確切性質、範圍和最終時間尚不清楚，但我們準備在多個方面採取行動。

Rick McNeely and his team of merchants have many years of experience successfully navigating a variety of tariff landscapes. Back in 2018 and 2019, when we last dealt with this issue, we were able to mitigate the majority of the potential impact by negotiating lower costs with our suppliers, changing product specs or pack sizes or dropping noneconomical items. Today, all 3 of those options are still at our disposal.

里克·麥克尼利（Rick McNeely）和他的商人團隊擁有多年成功駕馭各種關稅環境的經驗。早在 2018 年和 2019 年，當我們上次處理這個問題時，我們就能夠透過與供應商協商降低成本、改變產品規格或包裝尺寸或放棄不經濟的物品來減輕大部分潛在影響。今天，這三個選項仍然可供我們使用。

On top of those, we now have detailed plans in place to shift supply sources for most of our products to alternate countries and multi-price gives us additional flexibility on our product assortment. Based on our scale and our past history of navigating through similar challenges, we believe there is a wide range of potential actions that we can take to help mitigate additional tariffs if and when they materialize.

最重要的是，我們現在已經制定了詳細的計劃，將我們大部分產品的供應源轉移到其他國家，而多價格為我們的產品分類提供了額外的靈活性。根據我們的規模和過去應對類似挑戰的歷史，我們相信，如果額外關稅成為現實，我們可以採取一系列潛在行動來幫助減輕關稅。

With respect to freight, markets continue to be relatively stable, particularly in relation to domestic freight. On ocean freight, we continue to manage through a fluid environment despite disruptions over the past year in the Red Sea and Panama Canal as well as the strikes at North American ports. Regarding potential strikes, we're proactively managing our seasonal imports in the event that the East and Gulf Coast port workers don't approve their tentative contract by the current January deadline.

貨運方面，市場持續相對穩定，特別是國內貨運。在海運方面，儘管過去一年紅海和巴拿馬運河以及北美港口發生了罷工，但我們仍繼續在多變的環境中進行管理。關於潛在的罷工，我們正在積極管理我們的季節性進口，以防東部和墨西哥灣沿岸港口工人在當前一月份的截止日期前未批准他們的暫定合約。

I also want to comment briefly on the proposed Department of Labor overtime rule. Last month, a U.S. District Court in Texas struck down the proposed rule and the decision that applied nationwide. The court invalidated both phases of the threshold increase the 1 from this past July and the pending 1 for next month. We absorbed the first increase back in July and won't reverse that change. It remains to be seen whether the current administration will appeal the ruling in its waiting days or if the incoming administration will revisit the issue, but we are prepared for various scenarios.

我還想簡單評論一下勞工部擬議的加班規則。上個月，德克薩斯州的一家美國地方法院駁回了擬議的規則以及適用於全國的決定。法院宣布了從今年 7 月開始提高門檻的兩個階段以及下個月懸而未決的提高門檻的兩個階段都無效。我們在七月份吸收了第一次增長，並且不會逆轉這種變化。現任政府是否會在等待期間對該裁決提出上訴，或者即將上任的政府是否會重新考慮該問題還有待觀察，但我們已為各種情況做好了準備。

We remain committed to completing the formal review of strategic alternatives for Family Dollar, which could include a potential sale, spin-off or other disposition of the business, among others. The process is moving forward as planned. While good progress is being made by the team, there remains no set deadline or definitive timeline for completion and at this time, we can't comment on any specific outcome. We will continue to share updates when we have new public information.

我們仍致力於完成對 Family Dollar 策略替代方案的正式審查，其中可能包括潛在的出售、分拆或其他業務處置等。該過程正在按計劃進行。雖然團隊取得了良好進展，但仍然沒有設定最後期限或明確的完成時間表，目前我們無法對任何具體結果發表評論。當我們有新的公開資訊時，我們將繼續分享更新。

The guideposts of the review remain, as always, to maximize shareholder value through finding the optimal structure for each banner. We have made solid operational progress at Family Dollar over the past few years, even as our core customer was navigating their way through an extremely challenging macro landscape.

像往常一樣，審查的指導方針仍然是透過為每個橫幅找到最佳結構來最大化股東價值。儘管我們的核心客戶正在經歷極具挑戰性的宏觀環境，但在過去幾年中，我們 Family Dollar 的營運取得了堅實的進展。

We're proud of the work we've accomplished to date, and we look forward to the next steps in the review and for the business. Before I turn the call over to Jeff, I'd like to offer a few high-level comments about the current tone of business and our outlook for the balance of the year. Jeff will cover this in greater detail in his remarks.

我們對迄今為止所完成的工作感到自豪，並期待著審查和業務的下一步。在我把電話轉給傑夫之前，我想就當前的業務基調和我們對今年剩餘時間的展望提出一些高層評論。傑夫將在他的演講中更詳細地介紹這一點。

Our merchandising teams have laid the foundation for a successful year-end holiday season. We're especially excited by our expanded Christmas assortment at Dollar Tree and our ability to deliver exceptional value to consumers at a wider range of price points. While the response to our expanding multi-price assortment continues to be positive, the fourth quarter got off to a softer start given the election and later than usual Thanksgiving timing.

我們的銷售團隊為年終假期的成功奠定了基礎。我們對 Dollar Tree 擴大的聖誕品種以及以更廣泛的價位為消費者提供卓越價值的能力感到特別興奮。儘管對我們不斷擴大的多價格品種的反應仍然積極，但由於選舉和比平常感恩節時間晚，第四季度的開局較為疲軟。

That said, we remain optimistic about December. While there are five fewer selling days in total between Thanksgiving and Christmas this year, we should get some extra help from Christmas falling in the middle of the week. Our merchant and operation teams have done an excellent job preparing for the holidays. The stores look great, and our merchandise assortment is more compelling than it's ever been.

儘管如此，我們對 12 月仍持樂觀態度。雖然今年感恩節和聖誕節之間的銷售天數減少了五個，但我們應該從本週中間的聖誕節中得到一些額外的幫助。我們的商家和營運團隊為假期做好了出色的準備工作。商店看起來很棒，我們的商品種類比以往任何時候都更加引人注目。

Even with these moving pieces, we are confident in our ability to deliver low single-digit comps in the fourth quarter at both the Dollar Tree and Family Dollar banners.

即使有這些變化，我們仍然有信心在第四季度在 Dollar Tree 和 Family Dollar 旗幟下實現低個位數的業績。

Before I wrap up, I am sure you saw our announcement earlier this morning that Jeff Davis will be stepping down as Chief Financial Officer. The company has launched an external search and to facilitate a smooth transition. Jeff has agreed to remain on board through the filing of our 10-K. Ideally, we plan to announce a successor prior to his departure. We thank Jeff for his service and appreciate the contributions he has made to the business during his time with Dollar Tree.

在我結束演講之前，我相信您已經看到了我們今天早上早些時候宣布的傑夫戴維斯將辭去首席財務官一職。該公司已啟動外部搜尋並促進平穩過渡。透過提交我們的 10-K，Jeff 同意繼續留在公司。理想情況下，我們計劃在他離職之前宣布繼任者。我們感謝 Jeff 的服務，並感謝他在 Dollar Tree 工作期間為公司做出的貢獻。

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

這樣，我就把電話轉給傑夫。

Thank you, Mike, and good morning. Before I discuss the details of our third quarter results, I want to extend my thanks to our Interim CEO, Mike Creedon, our former Chairman and CEO, Rick Dreiling, my finance team and the extended Dollar Tree management team.

謝謝你，麥克，早安。在討論第三季業績的細節之前，我想向我們的臨時執行長 Mike Creedon、我們的前董事長兼執行長 Rick Dreiling、我的財務團隊以及擴展的 Dollar Tree 管理團隊表示感謝。

During my time here, I've had the privilege of working with talented colleagues navigating exciting challenges and celebrating many milestones along the way. I'm proud of what we've accomplished together, and I'm confident in this management team and the business strategies that are in place. I remain energized about the future possibilities for both Dollar Tree and Family Dollar.

在此期間，我有幸與才華橫溢的同事一起應對激動人心的挑戰，並在此過程中慶祝許多里程碑。我為我們共同取得的成就感到自豪，我對這個管理團隊和現有的業務策略充滿信心。我對 Dollar Tree 和 Family Dollar 的未來可能性仍然充滿信心。

With that, let's get back to business. As usual, I'll start with a discussion of our quarterly results. and then I'll provide our outlook for the balance of 2024. Where applicable, I will focus on our adjusted results. A reconciliation of non-GAAP adjusted results is provided in our earnings release. Third quarter adjusted EPS increased 16% to $1.12. Overall results benefited from sequential top line improvement at both banners and positive discretionary trends at Family Dollar.

說到這裡，讓我們回到正題。像往常一樣，我將首先討論我們的季度業績。然後我將提供我們對 2024 年剩餘時間的展望。我們的收益報告中提供了非公認會計準則調整後績效的調節表。第三季調整後每股收益成長 16% 至 1.12 美元。整體業績受益於兩個橫幅的營收連續改善以及 Family Dollar 的積極可自由支配趨勢。

Turning to the business results. On a consolidated basis, adjusted operating income was $343 million, a 14% increase from last year. Adjusted operating margin increased by approximately 40 basis points to 4.5%, reflecting a 120 basis point increase in gross margin offset by an 80 basis point increase in adjusted SG&A rate.

轉向業務成果。合併後，調整後營業收入為 3.43 億美元，比去年成長 14%。調整後營業利潤率成長約 40 個基點，達到 4.5%，反映出毛利率成長 120 個基點，抵銷了調整後 SG&A 率成長 80 個基點。

Our adjusted effective tax rate was 23.8% compared to 21.8%, reflecting lower workers' opportunity tax credits in the current year. Adjusted net income increased 13% and to $241 million. Now let's move to our business segment results. At Dollar Tree, adjusted operating income decreased 3% to $466 million.

我們調整後的有效稅率為 23.8%，而去年則為 21.8%，反映了本年度工人機會稅收抵免的減少。調整後淨利成長 13%，達到 2.41 億美元。現在讓我們看看我們的業務部門的結果。 Dollar Tree 的調整後營業收入下降 3%，至 4.66 億美元。

Adjusted operating margin decreased 140 basis points, driven by a 60 basis point increase in gross margin offset by a 180 basis point increase in adjusted SG&A rate. Gross margin improved primarily from lower freight costs, partially offset by markdowns and higher distribution costs. Adjusted SG&A expenses increased primarily due to higher depreciation and temporary labor for the 3.0 rollout.

調整後的營業利潤率下降了 140 個基點，原因是毛利率增長了 60 個基點，但調整後的 SG&A 率增長了 180 個基點，抵消了這一增長。毛利率的增加主要來自貨運成本的下降，但部分被降價和分銷成本上升所抵消。調整後的 SG&A 費用增加主要是由於 3.0 部署的折舊和臨時勞動力增加。

At Family Dollar, adjusted operating income was $10 million compared to an adjusted operating loss of $66 million last year. Adjusted operating margin improved 220 basis points on a 130 basis points increase in gross margin and a 90 basis point decrease in adjusted SG&A rate. Gross margin increased primarily from lower freight costs, lower markdowns from the OTC recall last year and lower shrink. Adjusted SG&A rate decreased primarily from lower payroll and lower store supplies.

Family Dollar 的調整後營業收入為 1,000 萬美元，而去年調整後營業虧損為 6,600 萬美元。調整後的營業利潤率提高了 220 個基點，毛利率提高了 130 個基點，調整後的 SG&A 率降低了 90 個基點。毛利率的成長主要得益於貨運成本的降低、去年 OTC 召回導致的降價幅度降低以及損耗率的降低。調整後的銷售、管理及行政費用率下降主要是因為薪資減少和商店供應減少。

Moving on to the balance sheet and free cash flow. Total inventory was $5.5 billion, flat to last year. With cash and cash equivalents of $698 million and senior notes of $3.4 billion, our balance sheet remains strong. Our bank-defined leverage at quarter end stood at approximately 2.4 times. On the cash flow statement, we generated $786 million from operating activities compared to $506 million last year. Capital expenditures were $426 million versus $541 million last year. Our free cash flow improved by $395 million over last year.

接下來是資產負債表和自由現金流。總庫存為 55 億美元，與去年持平。我們的現金和現金等價物為 6.98 億美元，優先票據為 34 億美元，資產負債表仍然強勁。截至季末，我們的銀行定義槓桿約為 2.4 倍。在現金流量表中，我們的營運活動產生了 7.86 億美元，而去年為 5.06 億美元。資本支出為 4.26 億美元，去年為 5.41 億美元。我們的自由現金流比去年增加了 3.95 億美元。

We ended the quarter with no borrowings under our revolver and no commercial paper outstanding. Year-to-date, we repurchased approximately 3.3 million shares of common stock for approximately $404 million, which is consistent with our year-to-date free cash flow generation of $389 million. At quarter end, we had approximately $952 million remaining under our existing share repurchase program.

本季結束時，我們的左輪手槍沒有借款，也沒有未償還的商業票據。年初至今，我們以約 4.04 億美元的價格回購了約 330 萬股普通股，這與我們年初至今 3.89 億美元的自由現金流產生量一致。截至季末，我們現有的股票回購計畫剩餘約 9.52 億美元。

Now let me provide some perspective on our fourth quarter and full year expectations. The current outlook reflects the following: as Mike mentioned, November comps got off to a slow start. We believe part of this was the so-called CNN effect. Something we've seen in prior cycles where customers defer shopping trips to closely follow the ins and outs of a national election.

現在讓我對我們第四季和全年的預期提供一些看法。目前的前景反映了以下幾點：正如麥克所提到的，11 月的比較起步緩慢。我們認為部分原因是所謂的 CNN 效應。我們在之前的周期中已經看到過這樣的情況：顧客推遲購物行程，以密切關注全國選舉的來龍去脈。

Also, Thanksgiving fell in the fourth week of November this year versus the third week of last year. As such, customers didn't start their Thanksgiving shopping until later in the month. There are also 5 fewer shopping days between Thanksgiving and Christmas this year.

此外，今年的感恩節是在 11 月的第四周，而去年是第三週。因此，顧客直到本月晚些時候才開始感恩節購物。今年感恩節和聖誕節之間的購物日也減少了 5 個。

However, Christmas falls on a Wednesday this year versus Monday last year, which does help extend the selling season. All of this was factored into our plans, and we feel good about our position leading into the Christmas home stretch.

然而，今年聖誕節是周三，而不是去年的周一，這確實有助於延長銷售季節。所有這些都已納入我們的計劃中，我們對進入聖誕節衝刺階段的位置感到滿意。

With that as a background for the fourth quarter, we expect net sales will be in the range of $8.1 billion to $8.3 billion based on low single-digit comp sales growth for the enterprise and both the Dollar Tree and Family Dollar segments. Adjusting for stores closed as part of the portfolio optimization and the extra week in the fourth quarter of fiscal 2023, we expect fourth quarter net sales for Family Dollar to decline by 10% to 12% on a year-over-year basis. We expect adjusted EPS will be in the range of $2.10 to $2.30.

以此為背景，我們預計第四季度的淨銷售額將在 81 億美元至 83 億美元之間，基於企業以及 Dollar Tree 和 Family Dollar 部門的低單位數銷售成長。在作為投資組合優化一部分而關閉的商店以及 2023 財年第四季額外一周進行調整後，我們預計 Family Dollar 第四季淨銷售額將年減 10% 至 12%。我們預計調整後每股收益將在 2.10 美元至 2.30 美元之間。

For the full year, we expect net sales to be in the range of $30.7 billion to $30.9 billion based on low single-digit comp sales growth for the enterprise and both the Dollar Tree and Family Dollar segments. Adjusted for stores closed as part of the portfolio optimization and the extra week in the fiscal 2023, we expect full year net sales for Family Dollar to decline by 3.5% to 4.5% on a year-over-year basis. Adjusted EPS for the full year is expected to be in the range of $5.31 to $5.51.

基於企業以及 Dollar Tree 和 Family Dollar 細分市場的低個位數銷售成長，我們預計全年淨銷售額將在 307 億美元至 309 億美元之間。在根據投資組合優化而關閉的商店以及 2023 財年額外一周的情況進行調整後，我們預計 Family Dollar 的全年淨銷售額將同比下降 3.5% 至 4.5%。全年調整後每股收益預計在 5.31 美元至 5.51 美元之間。

In the interest of time, I will direct you to our supplemental financial presentation, which is available on our IR website for the remaining details that support our current outlook.

由於時間關係，我將引導您查看我們的補充財務演示文稿，該演示文稿可在我們的 IR 網站上獲取，以了解支持我們當前前景的其餘詳細信息。

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

這樣，我會將電話轉回給麥克。

Before I go, I want to acknowledge our associates who were affected by Hurricane Helen and Milton. Those in the affected areas face significant challenges, and many of them were personally and directly impacted by the storms. While rightly concerned about themselves and their families, they nonetheless stepped up to serve others.

在我離開之前，我想向受到颶風海倫和米爾頓影響的同事們表示感謝。受影響地區的人們面臨著巨大的挑戰，其中許多人直接受到了風暴的影響。儘管他們正確地關心自己和家人，但他們仍然挺身而出為他人服務。

The two storms closed over 1,800 of our stores but within a day or two, two-third of those stores were back open and serving their communities. The resilience, dedication and commitment of our associates to their communities is inspiring. By quickly reopening these stores to provide essential services to those in need, our associates truly demonstrated what it means to live our values.

兩場風暴導致我們 1,800 多家商店關閉，但在一兩天之內，其中三分之二的商店重新開業並為社區提供服務。我們的員工對社區的堅韌、奉獻和承諾令人鼓舞。透過迅速重新開放這些商店，為有需要的人提供基本服務，我們的員工真正展現了實踐我們價值觀的意義。

Finally, I also want to take the opportunity to thank all of our associates and team leaders during this especially important holiday season. In the face of a challenging and rapidly changing landscape, I am extremely proud of the contributions made by each and every one of our associates. As a result of all your hard work, we expect to turn in a very good year-end and a very bright future lies ahead for our business.

最後，我還想藉此機會在這個特別重要的假期期間感謝我們所有的同事和團隊領導。面對充滿挑戰和快速變化的環境，我為我們每位員工所做的貢獻感到非常自豪。由於你們的辛勤工作，我們預計將迎來一個美好的年底，並為我們的業務帶來光明的未來。

With that, we're ready to take your questions.

這樣，我們就準備好回答您的問題了。

(Operator Instructions)

（操作員說明）

I have two-part question on your earnings outlook moving forward. The first part is, you obviously had some onetime items this year that should come back next year. So as you see today, is there anything that would stand in the way for us to simply add the impact of these onetime items to your base earnings next year?

我對你們未來的獲利前景有兩個問題。第一部分是，你今年顯然有一些一次性的物品，明年應該會回來。因此，正如您今天所看到的，是否有任何因素會阻礙我們將這些一次性項目的影響簡單地添加到您明年的基本收入中？

And the second part of that question is the two wildcards might be anything that happens with Family Dollar. So how should we think about that potentially impacting your earnings outlook and then tariffs? What's the downside case to your earnings for next year from tariffs?

這個問題的第二部分是兩個通配符可能是 Family Dollar 發生的任何事情。那麼我們應該如何考慮這可能會影響您的獲利前景以及關稅呢？關稅對您明年的收入有何不利影響？

Thanks, Michael. I'll let Jeff handle the onetime and the FD, and then I'll jump in on the tariffs. But Jeff?

謝謝，麥可。我會讓傑夫處理一次性和 FD，然後我會介入關稅。但是傑夫？

Yes. Michael, on the onetime, as we had discussed last quarter, those items would be added back to sort of a base level for going into FY '25. And then as it relates to the second part, which was around Family Dollar. As it relates to Family Dollar and a strategic review, we're not giving any guidance as to what that might -- how that might impact us in 2025 at this point in time. There are a number of factors that you just mentioned, we have to work through, but it would be inappropriate for us to make any discussions or points of adjustment at this point in time.

是的。邁克爾，正如我們上季度討論的那樣，這些項目將被添加回 25 財年的基本水平。然後與第二部分相關，即圍繞家庭美元。由於它與 Family Dollar 和策略審查有關，因此我們不會就這可能會發生什麼以及在 2025 年對我們產生什麼影響提供任何指導。你剛才提到的許多因素，我們都需要解決，但現在不適合做任何討論或調整。

And Michael, on the tariffs, it's still unclear what will make its way to policy. But we managed through this before. Rick McNeely and his team in 2018 and 2019 -- they did a very good job of mitigating the vast majority of the impact with only a few levers to pull.

邁克爾，關於關稅，目前還不清楚什麼將成為政策。但我們之前已經解決過這個問題。 Rick McNeely 和他的團隊在 2018 年和 2019 年做得很好，只用了幾個槓桿就減輕了絕大多數影響。

Back then, the choices were they could change some of the specs on the they could negotiate furiously with our suppliers or they can eliminate the product altogether. They still have all three of those levers to pull.

當時，他們的選擇是可以改變一些規格，可以與我們的供應商進行激烈的談判，或者可以完全消除該產品。他們仍然擁有這三個槓桿。

And yet we add to it now, we've done a tremendous amount of work over the years looking at alternative countries of origin. Our China plus 1 strategy basically backs up our key categories so that we could move if we needed to. And then finally, we've got multi-price. Multi-price gives us the ability to flex where we need to if a certain product becomes something that we've got to move in the market to be competitive.

但我們現在補充一點，多年來我們在尋找替代原產國方面做了大量工作。我們的「中國+1」策略基本上支持我們的關鍵類別，以便我們可以在需要時採取行動。最後，我們有多種價格。如果某種產品成為我們必須進入市場以保持競爭力的產品，多價格使我們能夠在需要時靈活調整。

Edward Kelly from Wells Fargo.

富國銀行的愛德華‧凱利。

Mike, I was hoping -- can you talk a little bit more about the softness that you mentioned in November. I know you started the year, you're pretty optimistic around Q4, and I think a lot of that was around the seasonal product for holiday. So have you seen that bounce post Thanksgiving?

麥克，我希望——你能多談談你在 11 月提到的柔軟度嗎？我知道您在今年開始時對第四季度非常樂觀，我認為其中很大一部分是圍繞假期的季節性產品。那麼你看到感恩節後的反彈了嗎？

And I guess the question I'm really trying to get at is how much optimism is in the forecast for an improvement off of November. Can you just dive a little bit more help related to all that?

我想我真正想要解決的問題是，對 11 月的改善的預測有多少樂觀程度。您能否提供與這一切相關的更多協助？

Sure, Ed. One of the keys we're seeing is, and I mentioned it earlier, our customer is focusing on their needs, and we see that in our consumables. I mean, it's an incredible -- the growth we've seen in our consumables, both Dollar Tree and Family Dollar. And when you look at the multi price, I mean we ran a 6, 6 in consumables on Dollar Tree multi-price.

當然，艾德。我們看到的關鍵之一是，我之前提到過，我們的客戶正在關注他們的需求，我們在我們的消耗品中看到了這一點。我的意思是，我們在我們的消費品（Dollar Tree 和 Family Dollar）中看到了令人難以置信的成長。當你查看多價時，我的意思是我們在 Dollar Tree 多價上運行了 6、6 種消耗品。

So the customer is clearly buying for need, and she's also buying what we call closer to need. So we saw this in Q3 as you saw a cadence built as we got to Halloween, which occurred at the end of the quarter, you could see the strength with which she showed up in terms of buying at the end. We ran -- multiple, we're in a 10 comp for Halloween specific products. So that buying for need and then buying closer to need. And then as you look at Q4 and how it unfolds, we saw it with Thanksgiving.

因此，顧客顯然是為了需要而購買的，而且她也在購買我們所說的更接近需要的東西。因此，我們在第三季度看到了這一點，因為你看到了萬聖節的節奏，發生在季度末，你可以看到她在最後的購買方面表現出的實力。我們跑了很多次，我們為萬聖節特定產品準備了 10 款產品。這樣就可以根據需要購買，然後購買更接近需要的產品。然後當你看看第四季度及其發展時，我們在感恩節看到了這一點。

I mean it was -- it came at the end I always take the foil pans, which are such a key component of Thanksgiving for us. the last week was just incredible. So we see her getting closer and closer to the need. And then what we're trying to do in terms of the for the rest of the quarter is really balancing that, okay, there's 5 fewer days, yes. But there are also -- you've got more days before Christmas when you move it to the middle of the week.

我的意思是——最後我總是拿鋁箔鍋，這對我們來說是感恩節的一個重要組成部分。上週真是令人難以置信。所以我們看到她越來越接近需要。然後我們在本季度剩餘時間要做的就是真正平衡，好吧，少了 5 天，是的。但也有——當你把聖誕節移到周中時，你在聖誕節前還有更多天。

And so we have a wide range in the fourth quarter, but that contemplates that balance of her buying for need and then buying closer to the need and how that unfolds, especially with the 5 fewer days. But the set is fantastic, especially when you look at the holiday set, what we're seeing, what we're seeing in toys, what we're seeing in We really like the cadence we're seeing of the customer as she navigates through this holiday.

因此，我們在第四季度有一個廣泛的範圍，但這考慮了她根據需要購買和隨後購買更接近需求的平衡，以及這種情況如何展開，特別是在減少 5 天的情況下。但是這個佈景太棒了，尤其是當你看假日佈景時，我們所看到的，我們在玩具中看到的，我們在玩具中看到的，我們真的很喜歡客戶在導航時看到的節奏通過這個假期。

Matthew Boss from JPMorgan.

摩根大通的馬修·博斯。

So Mike, maybe could you speak to customer demand trends across income cohorts best you can decipher out any notable trends you're seeing between consumables and discretionary. And just for perspective, were comps at the Dollar Tree banner positive in November.

那麼麥克，也許您可以談談不同收入群體的客戶需求趨勢，您可以最好地解讀消費品和非必需品之間的任何顯著趨勢。從長遠來看，11 月份 Dollar Tree 的業績表現是正面的。

And then, Jeff, on the conversions, I guess, is there a way to elaborate maybe on top line and margin performance versus your initial plan? And just a mindset for further slowing the rollout this year and what the expansion looks like for next year?

然後，傑夫，關於轉換，我想，有沒有一種方法可以詳細說明與您最初的計劃相比的營收和利潤表現？只是今年進一步放慢推出速度的心態以及明年的擴張情況如何？

Yes, I'll take the first part and Jeff to take the margin. When you look at the customer cohort our low-end customer is definitely pressured. We see that. We see that she is clearly focused on consumables. We see a rise in the heated home, which helps us, and you see that in our consumables comp. And then the low -- the middle income and even the higher income is still feeling some pressure.

是的，我將承擔第一部分，傑夫承擔利潤。當你觀察客戶群時，我們的低端客戶肯定面臨壓力。我們看到了這一點。我們看到她顯然專注於消耗品。我們看到家庭暖氣的增加，這對我們有幫助，你也可以在我們的消耗品比較中看到這一點。然後低收入、中等收入甚至高收入仍然感受到一些壓力。

And basically, when you look at a year ago, they were cutting out big purchases. TV, things like that. If you look at the early part of this year, they started eating more at home and cutting going out. Now they're reducing some parties, and we see that -- or the party is not as big, they don't invite as many people as they did. So we're seeing that throughout.

基本上，當你看看一年前時，他們正在削減大筆採購。電視之類的。如果你看看今年早些時候，你會發現他們開始更多地在家吃飯並減少外出。現在他們正在減少一些聚會，我們看到——或者聚會沒有那麼大，他們沒有邀請那麼多人。所以我們自始至終都看到了這一點。

But I think when you look at the share we're taking and you look at Dollar Tree and Family Dollar as an answer for this customer as they're pursuing need and closer to need, we like what we're seeing from that customer. The shift is tough. It is really tough to start the year when you have Thanksgiving later and all those days are comping against days from last year that are different in the calendar.

但我認為，當你看看我們所獲得的份額，以及將 Dollar Tree 和 Family Dollar 作為該客戶的答案時，因為他們正在追求需求並更接近需求，我們喜歡從該客戶那裡看到的東西。這種轉變是艱苦的。當感恩節晚些時候開始新的一年時，所有這些日子都與去年日曆中不同的日子進行比較，這真的很困難。

It -- look, it happens every six years. It's one of the things that we have to deal with. And it definitely is a reason for the soft start. But when we double-click and we look into fall in Thanksgiving sell-through. When we double-click on some of the early subcategories for Christmas. We believe that we're set up really well for the fourth quarter, and our guidance implies that we'll hit that low single digit in both Family Dollar and Dollar Tree.

看，它每六年發生一次。這是我們必須處理的事情之一。這絕對是軟啟動的一個原因。但當我們雙擊時，我們會看到感恩節銷售量的下降。當我們雙擊聖誕節的一些早期子類別時。我們相信，我們為第四季度做好了準備，我們的指導意味著我們的 Family Dollar 和 Dollar Tree 都將達到低個位數。

Matt, this is as it relates to the conversions, we've talked about this in prior quarters. But if you think about our stores as being a little bit of a bell curve, we've got the stores that are far exceeding our expectation with respect to multi-price across not only consumables, but discretionary and some of those are that are laggards.

馬特，這與轉換有關，我們在前幾個季度已經討論過這一點。但是，如果您認為我們的商店有點鐘形曲線，那麼我們的商店不僅在消耗品方面，而且在非必需品方面的多價方面遠遠超出了我們的預期，其中一些是落後者。

But as we think about on the quantum of the business, it is absolutely meeting our expectation. What we're really excited about, and Mike has been talking about it is as we've been transitioning now into the time of the year where discretionary is a much more important complex for our customer purchases we're actually seeing a customer really lean into our multi-price and that's something else that's very attractive to us.

但當我們考慮到業務量時，它絕對符合我們的預期。我們真正感到興奮的是，麥克一直在談論這一點，因為我們現在已經進入一年中的這個時期，自由裁量權對於我們的客戶購買來說是一個更加重要的綜合體，我們實際上看到客戶真的很精益進入我們的多價格，這對我們來說是非常有吸引力的。

The merchant teams have done an extraordinary job of going out and sourcing and determining how to bring good value to our customers. From a margin perspective, in the third quarter, we actually saw the impact of multiprice being more muted than what we thought it would be, meaning that the margins came in stronger for us. And a lot of that is, once again, that mix and the discretionary versus the consumables is what we're seeing.

商家團隊在外出採購和確定如何為我們的客戶帶來良好價值方面做得非常出色。從利潤率的角度來看，在第三季度，我們實際上看到多價的影響比我們想像的要小，這意味著我們的利潤率更高。其中很多是，我們再次看到的是混合和可自由支配的與消耗品的對比。

Rupesh Parikh from Oppenheimer.

奧本海默的魯佩什·帕里克。

This is actually Eric Hyler on for Rupesh. So I wanted to dive a little bit deeper into Family Dollar. So traffic picked up. You talked a lot about the positive inflection discretionary -- so can you talk about your confidence in being able to sustain the momentum on both these fronts.

這實際上是埃里克·海勒 (Eric Hyler) 為魯佩什 (Rupesh) 配音。所以我想更深入地了解 Family Dollar。於是流量就回升了。您談了很多關於積極變化的自由裁量權——所以您能談談您對能夠維持這兩個方面的勢頭的信心嗎？

Sure. Yes, it was a really nice quarter at Family Dollar. And one of the things I mentioned in my remarks earlier, is that we feel that, yes, you've got some of the SNAP that you're sunsetting over time, but it's still an impact. We feel the actions we took and the team took to really improve the discretionary, move a little bit on the discretionary side to the, if you will, the consumable side of discretionary -- The things that people will buy more often and buy each year or each quarter within the discretionary we feel that, that's set and the resets that we've done to the stores, targeted end caps that really provide the customer with what they need, we believe those are long lived.

當然。是的，Family Dollar 度過了一個非常美好的季度。我之前在演講中提到的一件事是，我們覺得，是的，隨著時間的推移，你已經有了一些 SNAP，但它仍然是一種影響。我們認為我們和團隊採取的行動是為了真正改善可自由支配的商品，將可自由支配的商品稍微向可自由支配商品的消費品方面轉移——人們會更頻繁地購買並且每年都會購買的東西或者每個季度，我們認為，我們對商店進行的設置和重置，有針對性的最終上限，真正為客戶提供了他們所需要的東西，我們相信這些是長期存在的。

We believe that the actions we're taking today help us as we go through. And then the changes to the stores, when you -- over 1,500 renovations now. Our 2.5s, which is our latest and greatest format. I mean the comps are fantastic and really fueling it. And then the which is this urban smaller footprint store is resonating incredibly well with the customer. Those changes are long lasting. Those are the ones that really help us.

我們相信，我們今天採取的行動對我們的經驗有所幫助。然後是商店的變化，現在已經進行了超過 1,500 次翻新。我們的 2.5s，這是我們最新、最好的格式。我的意思是，這些比賽非常棒，並且確實為它提供了動力。然後，這家城市佔地面積較小的商店與顧客產生了令人難以置信的共鳴。這些變化是持久的。這些才是真正對我們有幫助的人。

Your next question is coming from from Bernstein.

你的下一個問題來自伯恩斯坦。

I wanted to ask on the multi-price side of things. I think last quarter, you mentioned more mid-single-digit comp lift for the Q1 and Q2 conversions. Can you talk about the cadence of the multi-price rollout, how the Q3 conversions compared to the Q1 and Q2? Has there been some sort of a deceleration given that we're seeing a more low single-digit comp sales lift this quarter?

我想問一下多價格方面的問題。我認為上個季度，您提到了第一季和第二季轉換的中個位數比較提升。您能談談多價格推出的節奏嗎？鑑於本季我們看到單位數銷售額增幅更低，是否有某種減速？

Sure. First of all, the customer response has been incredibly positive to multi-price. If you look the basket has 5 more units in it. It's nearly double the value of a traditional Dollar Tree basket, and we're seeing more trips from the customer in terms of our typical customer, which means they're really embracing that treasure hunt of what they'll find on the next visit via multi-price -- in terms of the cadence, not all conversions are created equal.

當然。首先，客戶對多價的反應非常正面。如果你看看籃子裡還有 5 個單位。它的價值幾乎是傳統美元樹籃子的兩倍，而且就我們的典型客戶而言，我們看到客戶的旅行次數越來越多，這意味著他們真的很喜歡在下次訪問時通過以下方式尋找寶藏：多價格－就節奏而言，並非所有轉換都是相同的。

When you're going -- if you look at -- the vast majority of those stores were going from what we call a 1.0. So just $1.25, they don't have Dollar Tree Plus, they don't have the three, four, five coolers. And so they're going from a 1.0 all the way to a 3.0. And we look at Q2, that was kind of balanced across the two cohorts going from a 1.0 to a 3.0 versus a 2.0 to 3.0.

當你去的時候——如果你看一下——絕大多數商店都是從我們所說的 1.0 開始的。所以只要 1.25 美元，他們沒有 Dollar Tree Plus，他們沒有三、四、五個冷卻器。所以他們將從 1.0 一路走向 3.0。讓我們來看看第二季度，兩個隊列之間的情況比較平衡，從 1.0 到 3.0 與從 2.0 到 3.0。

When I look at the Q3, and this is where the comes in, we were 75% coming from 2.0 to 3.0. And as we look out have to convert them by distribution center. And so when you pick a distribution center that's heavily geographically weighted on Ohio, Pennsylvania and New York, you also tend to hit maybe some of our harder geographies and you hit stores that already have Dollar Tree us.

當我查看第三季時，這就是出現的地方，我們有 75% 是從 2.0 到 3.0。正如我們所見，必須透過配送中心將它們轉換。因此，當您選擇一個地理位置偏重於俄亥俄州、賓夕法尼亞州和紐約州的配送中心時，您也可能會選擇一些較困難的地理位置，並且您將選擇已經擁有 Dollar Tree 的商店。

So what we've done is we look out over next year as we're really trying to balance that out. so that we keep a perspective of that 1.0 to 3.0 and 2.0 to 3.0 in terms of the balance. One of the things I'm most encouraged by, though, is as multi-price unfolds, the stores from Q1 continue to be our strongest. Q2, second strongest, and then Q3.

因此，我們所做的是展望明年，因為我們確實在努力平衡這一點。這樣我們就可以從平衡的角度看待1.0到3.0和2.0到3.0。不過，最令我鼓舞的事情之一是，隨著多價格的展開，第一季的商店仍然是我們最強大的。 Q2，第二強，然後 Q3。

So the longer they're on multi-price, the more the customer finds it and the more the customer shops it and the better the experience is. And then finally, one of the -- when you look at some of the geographies of going from 1.0 to 3.0 as we did in Q1, they got the very best of the learnings of Dollar Tree us from the last couple of years. And so as we go back we now take those Dollar Tree plus learnings and we revisit other Dollar Tree plus stores and we're upgrade. We're taking some categories out or some SKUs out, and we're adding in ones that resonate better.

因此，他們使用多價的時間越長，顧客發現它的次數就越多，顧客購買的次數就越多，體驗就越好。最後，當你看看我們在第一季所做的從 1.0 到 3.0 的一些地區時，他們從過去幾年中學到了 Dollar Tree 的最佳經驗。因此，當我們回去時，我們現在吸取了這些 Dollar Tree plus 的經驗，並重新訪問了其他 Dollar Tree plus 商店，並且進行了升級。我們刪除了一些類別或一些 SKU，並添加了更能引起共鳴的類別。

Categories that were a bigger hit or SKUs that really resonated with our customers and help them. So -- this is -- we're 9 months into this. This is still test and learn, but we like what we're learning, and we love what the customer is experiencing and the feedback that they're giving us.

更受歡迎的類別或真正引起客戶共鳴並為他們提供幫助的 SKU。所以 - 這是 - 我們已經做了 9 個月了。這仍然是測試和學習，但我們喜歡我們正在學習的東西，我們喜歡客戶正在體驗的東西以及他們給我們的回饋。

John Heinbockel from Guggenheim Securities.

古根漢證券公司的約翰·海因博克爾。

Mike, a couple, you did can talk about the performance of the non 3.0, right? So I think they comped about 1, which is a little bit better than last quarter. And that gap versus the 3.0, right, is the -- which maybe like 200-plus bps, is that -- is the gap -- if you segregate it, is it entirely multi-price point items that are driving that gap -- and then the last thing, right, it's working as well as it is.

Mike，一對，你們確實可以談談非3.0的表現吧？所以我認為他們的表現大約是 1，比上個季度好一點。與 3.0 的差距（右）是——可能是 200 多個基點，是——差距——如果你把它分開，是否完全是多價位項目推動了這一差距——最後一件事，對，它運行得很好。

How can you accelerate the process, right, of without letting execution slip, right? Because you'd like to get chain-wide done here probably in the next 18 months, no.

如何才能加快進程，同時又不讓執行失敗，對嗎？因為您可能希望在接下來的 18 個月內完成整個連鎖店的工作，但不行。

Yes. So John, it's -- first, in terms of the non- 3.0 performance, it's not just about the base stores. We'll get to those, we'll convert them. I think 1 of the keys in accelerating the is in what we're doing going back to Dollar Tree Plus, which has been in place for several years now and refreshing that. We take whole sections and refresh them and really like the results that we're seeing.

是的。所以約翰，首先，就非 3.0 性能而言，這不僅僅與基礎商店有關。我們會得到這些，我們會轉換它們。我認為加速這一進程的關鍵之一是我們正在做的事情回到 Dollar Tree Plus，它已經存在了好幾年了，並且令人耳目一新。我們對整個部分進行了刷新，並且非常喜歡我們所看到的結果。

In terms of the -- and yes, we did see one of the -- we always measure our gap in terms of how are multi-price comparing to the chain. And one of the reasons that gap closed is the chain got better. Dollar Tree Plus, definitely, those base stores got closer to multi-price, which is encouraging.

就這一點而言——是的，我們確實看到了其中之一——我們總是根據多價格與連鎖店的比較來衡量我們的差距。縮小差距的原因之一是鏈條變得更好。 Dollar Tree Plus 毫無疑問，這些基礎商店越來越接近多價，這是令人鼓舞的。

And then there's 2 ways to accelerate -- the first is in the conversions themselves. And you'll see we slowed that conversion. Part of that is just from an execution standpoint. We introduced some milestones where we said our district manager has to sign off in a store 4 weeks before we go live and then a regional director, our next level up, has to sign off on a store 2 weeks before.

然後有兩種加速方法——第一種是轉換本身。你會發現我們放慢了轉換速度。其中一部分只是從執行的角度來看。我們介紹了一些里程碑，我們說我們的地區經理必須在我們上線前 4 週在商店上簽字，然後區域總監（我們的下一個級別）必須在 2 週前在商店上簽字。

And they have the power to say, no, yes. They have the power to say we need some support to make sure we're ready or change or whatever reason they might have. And so it does slow us, but we believe that done right is better than done fast there. And that's not our only means of accelerating -- we also have the opportunity to go back in and look at the SKUs that are working for us. We're several years into Dollar Tree us.

他們有權力說，不，是。他們有權說我們需要一些支持，以確保我們做好準備或做出改變，或無論他們有什麼理由。因此，它確實減慢了我們的速度，但我們相信，做得正確比做得快要好。這並不是我們唯一的加速手段——我們還有機會回顧並查看對我們有用的 SKU。我們進入美元樹已經好幾年了。

We're only 9 months into multi-price 3.0. And going back and looking at what resonated with the customer and how do we change going forward? How do we change a season? How do we change in every day. And then finally, and this kind of goes to the rollout cadence. Yes, we leverage third party. You see that in our SG&A, but there's also an org capacity that we're managing through.

多價 3.0 的推出僅 9 個月。回顧什麼引起了客戶的共鳴，以及我們未來如何改變？我們如何改變季節？我們每天都在發生怎樣的變化。最後，這就是推出節奏。是的，我們利用第三方。您可以在我們的 SG&A 中看到這一點，但我們也透過組織能力進行管理。

And one of the reasons we slowed in Q3 is we had all those 99 Cents Only that opened in Q3 that taps on a lot of the same resources in terms of our store setup crews, the leadership that goes out and works these stores. And so we shifted rightly. We wanted to get those 99 Cents Only stores converted as quickly as we could so that we didn't let a customer forget about us. If we can flip those in 30 days or 60 days, that's far better than 90 days or 120 days. The longer you're close the more likelihood is the customer will change their habit. We put a ton of focus on getting those stores open.

我們在第三季放緩的原因之一是，我們在第三季開設了所有99 Cents Only 店，這些店在我們的商店設置人員、外出和在這些商店工作的領導層方面利用了許多相同的資源。所以我們的轉變是正確的。我們希望盡快改造這些 99 Cents Only 商店，這樣我們就不會讓顧客忘記我們。如果我們能在 30 天或 60 天之內翻轉這些，那比 90 天或 120 天要好得多。與您關係的時間越長，客戶改變習慣的可能性就越大。我們非常注重讓這些商店開業。

As you saw, we have almost all of them now open and converted and now we can kind of put some resources back towards that multi-price rollout in '25.

正如您所看到的，我們幾乎所有這些現在都已開放和轉換，現在我們可以將一些資源投入到 25 年的多價格推出中。

Simeon Gutman from Morgan Stanley.

摩根士丹利的西蒙古特曼。

Mike, I have a follow-up on multi-price. The $5.1 million that we talked about the prior quarter versus the $3.3 billion -- are you saying those are apples-to-apples or not necessarily given timing of 1.0 and 3.0. If it is apples-to-apples, is it because some of the old 1.0s that got converted are seeing inherent or slowing? Or is it that the new 3.0 are not as impactful as they were when they were initially rolled out?

麥克，我有關於多價的後續行動。我們討論的上一季的 510 萬美元與 33 億美元相比，您是說這些是同類的，還是不一定考慮到 1.0 和 3.0 的時間安排。如果是同類比較，是否是因為一些已轉換的舊 1.0 出現了固有的或放緩的情況？還是新3.0的影響力不如剛推出時那麼大？

Yes. So the $5.1 million was just how did the Q1 conversions perform in Q2? That's what that was. And as I rolled that out to Q3, Simeon, those Q1 conversions continue to be the strongest performing then Q2 and then Q3 in that order. So the longer they're on, the better they perform.

是的。那麼 510 萬美元只是第一季的轉換在第二季的表現如何？就是這樣。當我將其推廣到第三季度時，Simeon，第一季的轉換仍然是表現最強的，然後是第二季度，然後是第三季度。因此，他們的工作時間越長，他們的表現就越好。

And going from a 1.0 to a 3.0 to use our power loss, $1.25 is a 1.0, $1.3-plus is a 2.0, multi-price in line is 3.0. The stores that went from 1.0 to 3.0 have the biggest bank. We see them because they're getting everything, if you will. And so then we go back to stores that just have Dollar Tree Plus, and we take the learnings of what's working what's resonating the most and we go upgrade those stores. And physically, the cost we have for resetting the store, we get that once.

從 1.0 到 3.0，利用我們的功率損耗，1.25 美元是 1.0，1.3 美元以上是 2.0，多重價格是 3.0。從1.0到3.0的商店擁有最大的銀行。我們看到他們是因為他們得到了一切，如果你願意的話。然後我們回到那些只有 Dollar Tree Plus 的商店，我們學習什麼是有效的，什麼是最能引起共鳴的，然後我們去升級這些商店。從物理上來說，我們重置商店的成本，我們一次就得到了。

Yes, it plays out because of the conversions over 18 months or 2 years. But we don't have to go back and change hardware in that store. We don't have to add steel. We do that once. And then Rick and his team can go and make sure we have the best assortment that's resonating the most with the customer. And so as you look at that cadence, yes, our Q3 were the softest. They had the fewest amount of 1.0 all the way to 3.0. And I also think there's some geography mix in there.

是的，它的發揮是因為 18 個月或 2 年的轉化。但我們不必回去更換那家商店的硬體。我們不必添加鋼材。我們這樣做一次。然後，里克和他的團隊可以去確保我們擁有最能引起客戶共鳴的最佳品種。所以當你看到這個節奏時，是的，我們的第三季是最柔和的。他們的數量最少，從 1.0 一直到 3.0。我還認為其中存在一些地理因素。

If you look -- I mentioned in the Q2 call, we saw California really resonate well with multi-price Florida, we expect to resonate well. We did have some execution issues. I was really pleased to see them kind of have a stronger Q2. And now as we look at the Q3 sets, we're more in our kind of Midwest area, and it doesn't have the same pop that we saw in California and now in Florida.

如果你看一下——我在第二季電話會議中提到，我們看到加州與多價佛羅裡達州確實產生了很好的共鳴，我們預計會產生很好的共鳴。我們確實遇到了一些執行問題。我真的很高興看到他們的第二季表現更強。現在，當我們看到第三季的場景時，我們更多的是在中西部地區，它沒有我們在加州和現在在佛羅裡達州看到的那樣流行。

Kate McShane from Goldman Sachs.

高盛的凱特·麥克沙恩。

Mike, just given your new position, I wondered if you could talk to anything that you might want to accelerate or change with the investments or the strategy -- and can you talk about some of the leadership changes you announced recently for Chief of Dollar Tree stores and President of Family Dollar stores?

麥克，剛剛考慮到你的新職位，我想知道你是否可以談談你可能想透過投資或策略來加速或改變的任何事情——你能談談你最近為Dollar Tree 的執行長宣布的一些領導層變動嗎？

Sure. Yes, I've been here more than two years now. My family and I absolutely love the area. It is a great community to be a part of I've gotten to know the founders here of Dollar Tree, gotten to know a lot of people, our kids go to school together, those types of things. So I'm really embraced this company, this culture and its future. And so that has been just amazing and very humbling. So I'm excited about that.

當然。是的，我來這裡已經兩年多了。我和我的家人非常喜歡這個地區。這是一個很棒的社區，我在這裡認識了 Dollar Tree 的創始人，認識了很多人，我們的孩子一起上學，諸如此類。所以我真的很喜歡這家公司、這種文化及其未來。所以這真是令人驚奇而且非常謙卑。所以我對此感到很興奮。

In terms of the changes, our focus is on the successful execution of the Family Dollar strategic review and setting up Dollar Tree for a multiyear kind of next chapter, if you will. That's my focus. That's what the Board's charged me with. And when we look at the pluses and minuses of that, we're going to continue to test and learn. We're going to continue to make enhancements to the business and what resonates the most with our customer.

就變化而言，我們的重點是成功執行 Family Dollar 策略審查，並為多年的下一章建立 Dollar Tree（如果您願意的話）。這是我的重點。這就是董事會對我的指控。當我們看到它的優點和缺點時，我們將繼續測試和學習。我們將繼續改進業務以及​​最能引起客戶共鳴的方面。

And we're always going to start with our customer and work our way back that doesn't change. So multi-price is a perfect example of that. It's amazing what resonates and what doesn't. And we'll continue to kind of work that to make sure we're relevant for the customer. But it's exciting what we see.

我們始終會從客戶開始，一路回溯，這一點不會改變。多價就是一個完美的例子。什麼能引起共鳴，什麼不能引起共鳴，真是太神奇了。我們將繼續努力確保我們與客戶相關。但我們所看到的令人興奮。

The increased trips, the bigger basket really like to see how the customer is responding to it. And then in terms of the leadership changes, both and Jason Nordin have been here a year now, have both had a big impact on store standards, big impact with our associates. And it's just -- as I looked at the next chapter, as I look at the next five years for Family Dollar, the next five years for Dollar Tree, I wanted to make sure we had the folks that were best suited to that role.

增加的行程、更大的購物籃真的很想看看顧客對此有何反應。然後就領導層變動而言，傑森·諾丁和傑森·諾丁都已經來這裡一年了，他們都對商店標準產生了重大影響，對我們的員工也產生了重大影響。只是——當我展望下一章時，當我展望 Family Dollar 的未來五年、Dollar Tree 的未來五年時，我想確保我們擁有最適合這個角色的人。

So Jason's prior role at Pilot Flying J fits really well with Family Dollar, the convenience element of it. the high consumables element of it. Jose Conrad is the first state. He's one of our biggest customer. She's a crafter. She resonates incredibly well with the team. And so I think these changes position us really well for that next chapter of Family Dollar post review and Dollar Tree go forward.

因此，Jason 先前在 Pilot Flying J 中的角色非常適合 Family Dollar，也就是其中的便利元素。它的高消耗品元素。何塞·康拉德是第一個州。他是我們最大的客戶之一。她是一位手工藝者。她與團隊產生了非常好的共鳴。因此，我認為這些變化使我們能夠很好地迎接 Family Dollar 後審查和 Dollar Tree 的下一章。

Chuck Grom from Gordon Haskett.

戈登·哈斯克特的查克·格羅姆。

This is Ryan Bulger on for Chuck here. I just wanted to ask on -- it didn't come up this quarter, but there's been the general liability claims a couple of times in the past. Is that something that you'd expect to see going forward in FY '25? And just sort of how that may progress going forward?

我是瑞安·巴爾傑 (Ryan Bulger) 為查克 (Chuck) 發言。我只是想問一下——這個季度沒有出現，但過去已經發生過幾次一般責任索賠。您預計 25 財年會出現這種情況嗎？未來會如何進展？

Jeff, I'll let you handle that.

傑夫，我會讓你處理這件事。

Yes. Maybe that's a little bit of a sore spot for us here because we've spoken about it so many different times. Listen, we believe that the adjustments that we've taken this year addresses the portfolio of claims and the progression of those claims. We do an evaluation twice a year, once in April and then a second time in October time frame.

是的。也許這對我們來說有點痛處，因為我們已經多次討論過這個問題。聽著，我們相信我們今年採取的調整解決了索賠組合和這些索賠的進展。我們每年進行兩次評估，一次在四月，第二次在十月。

We believe we're well positioned based upon the adjustments that we've taken. As we move forward into the future years, it all depends on number of claims and the severity of claims. And what we're doing from a safety and security basis with our stores, how we're helping train our associates how to deal with different situations should help mitigate some of the challenges that we've had in the past.

我們相信，根據我們所採取的調整，我們已處於有利位置。隨著我們進入未來幾年，這一切都取決於索賠的數量和索賠的嚴重程度。我們在商店的安全和保障基礎上所做的事情，我們如何幫助培訓我們的員工如何處理不同的情況，應該有助於減輕我們過去遇到的一些挑戰。

But at this point, it would be, I think, inappropriate for me to start talking about 2025. But as we think about what the claims that we have on the books today and how they've progressed that the reserves that we've taken adequately reflect what that liability would be.

但在這一點上，我認為我開始談論 2025 年是不合適的。

Christina Cotai from Deutsche Bank.

德意志銀行的克里斯蒂娜·路氹。

Mike and I wanted to ask on margin. Obviously, we saw a nice gross margin improvement, but SG&A saw deleverage and you cited higher depreciation on some of the temporary labor associated with the 3.0 rollout. So maybe can you quantify the impact of these 2? And when do you expect these temporary labor costs to normalize? And what is the long-term SG&A leverage opportunity as the 3.0 rollout matures?

麥克和我想問保證金。顯然，我們看到毛利率有了不錯的改善，但 SG&A 看到了去槓桿化，而且您提到了與 3.0 推出相關的一些臨時勞動力的折舊率更高。那麼也許您可以量化這兩者的影響嗎？您預計這些臨時勞動成本何時會正常化？隨著 3.0 推出的成熟，長期 SG&A 槓桿機會是什麼？

Jeff, why don't you take the first.

傑夫，為什麼不選擇第一個呢？

Yes. So there's a couple of elements to this. If we think about, first of all, from a temporary labor perspective, the temporary labor is associated with the multi-price rollout this year being the first year and then over the next 18 to 24 months, we'll complete that. So you would expect that, that would be a headwind on a declining basis over the next 18-months to 24-months.

是的。所以這有幾個要素。如果我們先從臨時勞動力的角度考慮，臨時勞動力與今年作為第一年的多價格推出相關，然後在接下來的 18 到 24 個月內，我們將完成它。因此，您可能會預期，這將是未來 18 個月至 24 個月內不斷下降的阻力。

As it relates to the depreciation, the depreciation reflects the quantum of the investments that we've been making over the last couple of years as it relates to new store growth, the investments we've been making in the supply chain and of course, in our IT system cost. If you take a look at our asset investments, they're actually starting to moderate -- last year, it was about $1.8 million in -- $1.8 billion to $1.9 billion, that was $1.2 billion.

由於它與折舊有關，折舊反映了我們在過去幾年中進行的投資量，因為它與新店成長、我們在供應鏈中進行的投資有關，當然，我們的 IT 系統成本。如果你看我們的資產投資，他們實際上開始放緩——去年，大約是 180 萬美元——18 億美元到 19 億美元，即 12 億美元。

This year, we believe we'll be roughly about $1.8 billion. And as we now kind of hit sort of a high point and as that will moderate as we go forward, the expectation is that the depreciation -- the increase in the depreciation on a period-over-period basis should start to moderate. Unfortunately, where we are in this cycle, given the customer purchasing behaviors with respect to consumables versus discretionary, some of the headwinds that we've had more recently as it relates to shrink and how and mix, how that's been playing out.

今年，我們相信我們的收入將約為 18 億美元。由於我們現在達到了某種高點，並且隨著我們的前進，這種情況將會放緩，因此預計貶值——逐期貶值的增長應該會開始放緩。不幸的是，在我們所處的這個週期中，考慮到客戶對消耗品和非必需品的購買行為，我們最近遇到的一些阻力與收縮、如何和混合以及如何發揮作用有關。

I've mentioned before that in this economic cycle that we needed approximately a low single digit, maybe a low single-digit plus comp in order to leverage the business. And coming in at just shy of 2% this quarter on the Dollar Tree side, you saw that there was some deleverage as it relates to the SG&A. Our expectation is that we will continue to be disciplined in our investments, we discipline in our spend. We'll increase productivity where we can, such that as those sales start to come in at the higher margin rates that we'll be able to flow more of that to the bottom line.

我之前提到過，在這個經濟週期中，我們需要大約一個低個位數，也許是一個低個位數加補償，以便利用業務。 Dollar Tree 方面本季的成長率略低於 2%，您會看到與 SG&A 相關的一些去槓桿化。我們的期望是，我們將繼續嚴格控制我們的投資和支出。我們將盡可能提高生產力，這樣當這些銷售開始以更高的利潤率進入時，我們就能夠將更多的利潤流向利潤。

Yes. The only thing I'd add is these investments that drive the depreciation, the investments we've had to do, the investments we want to do, the cost comes right away, the benefit, the returns come over time. I think new store openings I'm incredibly excited about the pace with which we're opening new stores now compared to in the past.

是的。我唯一要補充的是這些導致折舊的投資，我們必須做的投資，我們想做的投資，成本立即出現，收益和回報隨著時間的推移而出現。我認為新店的開幕與過去相比，我對我們現在開設新店的速度感到非常興奮。

And the real benefit of new stores comes in that year two, year three, year four before they reach kind of the maturity of the enterprise, both in sales and in their profitability. And so you get that over time, that benefit. And that's a great example of -- you hit the cost now, the depreciation over time, but the real benefit in the accelerating benefit is a little delayed.

新店的真正效益出現在第二年、第三年、第四年，然後才達到企業的成熟度，無論是在銷售額或獲利能力上。隨著時間的推移，你會得到這種好處。這是一個很好的例子——你現在達到了成本，隨著時間的推移而折舊，但加速效益中的真正效益有點延遲了。

Then the second thing I'll just say on the leverage is, and I've been in small box for a while, small box math is a beautiful thing. The more sales you can drive through that box, the better you're going to leverage because you get to a point where you need so many people to open the store and close the store, but you can increase the sales and not have to increase the ton of the payroll, and that's really where the leverage comes. So our focus is on retail fundamentals that will drive those sales per box.

關於槓桿，我要說的第二件事是，我已經在小盒子裡待了一段時間了，小盒子數學是一件美麗的事。您可以透過該盒子推動的銷售額越多，您的槓桿作用就越好，因為您需要很多人來開設商店和關閉商店，但您可以增加銷售額而不是必須增加銷售額大量的工資單，而這正是槓桿的來源。因此，我們的重點是推動每盒銷售的零售基本面。

Seth Sigman from Barclays.

來自巴克萊銀行的塞思‧西格曼。

I wanted to follow up on the margins. I think you've raised the benefit from lower freight costs by about $1 to $1 for the year. It seems like that's more than the total guidance change. So I'm curious if you could maybe frame for us what the offsets to that are in the guidance at this point?

我想在邊緣跟進。我認為您今年因運費降低而獲得的收益提高了約 1 至 1 美元。這似乎不僅僅是指導方針的整體變化。因此，我很好奇您是否可以為我們制定目前指南中的抵消內容？

And then specifically on the gross margin in terms of the acceleration that you've built in here into the fourth quarter? And maybe just remind us of some of the key drivers for that.

然後，特別是在第四季的毛利率加速方面？也許只是提醒我們一些關鍵驅動因素。

Jeff?

傑夫？

Yes, I'll take the first part. Yes, we did increase the expectation of the freight benefit, as you had mentioned, by approximately a $0.01 on the top end there are certain offsets that we would have had during the course of the -- and really that $0.01 is for the second half of the year. It's not just for the fourth quarter.

是的，我會選擇第一部分。是的，正如您所提到的，我們確實提高了對貨運收益的預期，最高大約增加了 0.01 美元，在這一過程中我們會進行某些抵消——事實上，這 0.01 美元是下半年的今年的。這不僅僅是第四季度的情況。

We didn't quantify because there was a number of puts and takes. But if you can imagine when Mike was in his prepared remarks, speaking to the storms that we had, there were certain costs that we incurred associated with that. it was $0.02 to $0.03 associated with markdowns and other costs to return the stores back to their normal operating format.

我們沒有量化，因為有很多投入和獲取。但如果你能想像一下，當麥克在他準備好的演講中談論我們所經歷的風暴時，我們會為此付出一定的成本。與降價和使商店恢復正常營運模式的其他成本相關的費用為 0.02 至 0.03 美元。

There are a couple of other expenses associated with some of the balance sheet accruals that we've taken most importantly, we have been running short of what our overall annual plan was going to be with respect to sales. And we take a look at our inventories.

還有一些與我們採取的一些應計資產負債表相關的其他費用，最重要的是，我們一直沒有達到銷售方面的總體年度計劃。讓我們看看我們的庫存。

We want to make sure that we're taking the right markdowns on them to address those liabilities. We did so during the course of the quarter, such we make sure that, that is appropriately reflected. So that starts to offset a portion of the additional freight costs.

我們希望確保對它們進行正確的降價以解決這些負債。我們在本季度期間這樣做了，因此我們確保這一點得到適當反映。這樣就開始抵銷一部分額外的運費。

But all in all, as we think about the balance of the year, and what the opportunities are across the business, the guidance that we've given reflects all those puts and takes.

但總而言之，當我們考慮今年的餘額以及整個業務的機會時，我們給出的指導反映了所有這些看跌期權。

We reached the end of our question-and-answer session. I'd like to turn the floor back over to management for any further or closing comments.

我們的問答環節結束了。我想將發言權交還給管理階層，以徵求進一步的意見或結束意見。

Thank you for your time today. Look forward to wishing everyone a very happy and healthy holiday season. Thanks so much.

感謝您今天抽出時間。期待祝大家有個快樂健康的假期。非常感謝。

Thank you. That does conclude today's teleconference and webcast. You may disconnect your line at this time, and have a wonderful day. We thank you for your participation today.

謝謝。今天的電話會議和網路廣播到此結束。此時您可以斷開線路，度過美好的一天。我們感謝您今天的參與。