Sprouts Farmers Market Inc (SFM) 2025 Q3 法說會逐字稿

Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for standing by. Welcome to Sprout's third-quarter 2025 earnings conference call. (Operator Instructions) Please be advised that today's conference is being recorded.

女士們、先生們，感謝你們的耐心等待。歡迎參加 Sprout 公司 2025 年第三季財報電話會議。（操作人員指示）請注意，今天的會議正在錄音。

I would now like to turn the conference over to Susannah Livingston, Vice President, Investor Relations and Treasury. Please go ahead.

現在我將把會議交給投資者關係和財務副總裁蘇珊娜·利文斯頓。請繼續。

Thank you, and good afternoon, everyone. We are pleased you are joining Sprouts on our third quarter 2025 earnings call. Jack Sinclair, Chief Executive Officer; Curtis Valentine, Chief Financial Officer; and Nick Konat, President and Chief Operating Officer, are with me today. The earnings release announcing our third quarter 2025 results, the webcast of this call and financial slides can be accessed through the Investor Relations section of our website at investors.sprouts.com.

謝謝大家，大家下午好。我們很高興您能參加 Sprouts 2025 年第三季財報電話會議。今天與我在一起的有：執行長傑克·辛克萊爾、財務長柯蒂斯·瓦倫丁以及總裁兼營運長尼克·科納特。您可以透過我們網站 investors.sprouts.com 的投資者關係部分存取我們 2025 年第三季業績的收益報告、本次電話會議的網路直播和財務幻燈片。

During this call, management may make certain forward-looking statements, including statements regarding our expectations for 2025 and beyond. These statements involve several risks and uncertainties that could cause results to differ materially from those described in the forward-looking statements. For more information, please refer to the risk factors discussed in our SEC filings and the commentary on forward-looking statements at the end of our earnings release.

在本次電話會議中，管理階層可能會發表一些前瞻性聲明，包括關於我們對 2025 年及以後的預期聲明。這些聲明涉及若干風險和不確定性，可能導致實際結果與前瞻性聲明中所述的結果有重大差異。如需了解更多信息，請參閱我們在提交給美國證券交易委員會的文件中討論的風險因素以及我們在盈利報告末尾對前瞻性陳述的評論。

Our remarks today include references to non-GAAP financial measures. Please see the tables in our earnings release for a reconciliation of our non-GAAP financial measures to the comparable GAAP figures. With that, let me hand it over to Jack.

我們今天的演講中會提及非GAAP財務指標。請參閱我們獲利報告中的表格，以了解我們的非GAAP財務指標與可比較GAAP資料的調節情況。那麼，就讓我把麥克風交給傑克吧。

Thanks, Susannah, and good afternoon, everyone. In the third quarter, we delivered strong earnings growth, up 34% year-on-year with a 5.9% comp and strong new store performance. Our results continue to be driven by our execution on the key pillars of our strategy. We saw an increase in customer traffic as we effectively engaged with our target customers, while our most differentiated and attribute-based products continued to drive sales as we continue to expand our store presence from sea to shining sea.

謝謝蘇珊娜，大家下午好。第三季度，我們實現了強勁的獲利成長，年增 34%，同店銷售額成長 5.9%，新店業績表現強勁。我們的業績持續得益於我們對策略關鍵支柱的執行。隨著我們有效地與目標客戶互動，我們看到了客流量的增加，同時，隨著我們不斷擴大從東海岸到西海岸的門市規模，我們最具差異化和基於屬性的產品繼續推動銷售。

In addition, our ongoing inventory management improvements in supply chain contributed to the expansion of our EBIT margin. Together, these achievements demonstrate the strength of our teams and the durability of our strategy. While it was a solid third quarter, it fell short of our top line expectations.

此外，我們在供應鏈中不斷改善庫存管理，也促進了我們息稅前利潤率的提升。這些成就共同展現了我們團隊的實力和我們策略的持久性。雖然第三季業績穩健，但仍未達到我們的營收預期。

As the quarter progressed, our comp sales moderated faster than expected as we came up against challenging year-on-year comparisons as well as signs of a softening consumer. As we look ahead, the investments we have made provide us with levers to manage our business and deliver earnings growth.

隨著季度的推進，由於面臨嚴峻的同比形勢以及消費者信心減弱的跡象，我們的同店銷售額增速放緩的速度比預期更快。展望未來，我們所做的投資為我們提供了管理業務和實現獲利成長的槓桿。

Today, we'll walk you through our performance highlights, update you on our strategic initiatives and share how we're positioning Sprouts for the rest of 2025 and beyond. I want to thank the team for their ongoing commitment to supporting our customers on their health journey. For now, I'll hand it over to Curtis to review our third quarter financial results as well as our updated 2025 outlook. Curtis?

今天，我們將帶您了解我們的業績亮點，向您介紹我們的策略舉措，並分享我們如何為 Sprouts 在 2025 年剩餘時間及以後的發展做好準備。我要感謝團隊一直以來對客戶健康之旅的支持與幫助。現在，我將把這項工作交給柯蒂斯，讓他來回顧我們第三季的財務表現以及我們更新後的 2025 年展望。柯蒂斯？

Thanks, Jack, and good afternoon, everyone. In the third quarter, total sales were $2.2 billion, up $255 million or 13% compared to the same period last year. This growth was driven by a 5.9% increase in comparable store sales and the strong results from new stores. Traffic remained positive and accounted for approximately 40% of our third quarter comp.

謝謝你，傑克，大家下午好。第三季總銷售額為 22 億美元，比去年同期成長 2.55 億美元，增幅達 13%。這一成長主要得益於同店銷售額成長 5.9% 以及新店的強勁業績。交通流量維持成長勢頭，約占我們第三季同店銷售額的 40%。

Our key points of differentiation continued to drive our sales with attribute-forward products growing faster than our core business. E-commerce sales grew 21%, representing approximately 15.5% of our total sales for the quarter, with good performance from all partners. Additionally, Sprouts brand continues to resonate with our target customers and now represents more than 25% of our total sales for the quarter.

我們的關鍵差異化優勢繼續推動銷售成長，其中以屬性為導向的產品成長速度超過了我們的核心業務。電子商務銷售額成長了 21%，約佔本季總銷售額的 15.5%，所有合作夥伴均表現出色。此外，Sprouts 品牌繼續受到我們目標客戶的歡迎，目前已佔本季總銷售額的 25% 以上。

While our third quarter yielded solid results, we expected more from our top line as we underestimated the impact of lapping strong numbers from last year in the context of a softening consumer backdrop. We believe our strategy always has us well-positioned to capitalize on the surging interest in health and wellness.

雖然我們第三季取得了穩健的業績，但由於我們低估了去年強勁業績在消費環境疲軟的情況下所帶來的影響，因此我們對營收的預期更高。我們相信，我們的策略始終使我們能夠充分利用人們對健康和保健日益增長的興趣。

Last year, we saw outsized gains in new customers, substantially growing our customer base. And by and large, we've kept those customers. Against that backdrop, we have managed our costs and margins effectively. Our third quarter gross margin was 38.7%, an increase of 60 basis points compared to the same period last year. This improvement was mainly attributable to improved shrink.

去年，我們的新客戶數量大幅成長，客戶群也因此顯著擴大。總的來說，我們留住了這些客戶。在此背景下，我們有效地控制了成本和利潤。我們第三季的毛利率為38.7%，比去年同期成長了60個基點。這項改進主要歸功於收縮率的降低。

SG&A for the quarter totaled $653 million, an increase of $73 million and 13 basis points of leverage compared to the same period last year. This improvement was largely driven by lower compensation expense, which was partially offset by increased benefit costs and pressure from our new store growth.

本季銷售、一般及行政費用總計 6.53 億美元，比去年同期增加了 7,300 萬美元，槓桿率為 13 個基點。這項改善主要得益於薪資支出的降低，但部分被福利成本的增加和新店擴張帶來的壓力所抵銷。

Depreciation and amortization, excluding depreciation included in the cost of sales, was $39 million. For the third quarter, our earnings before interest and taxes were $157 million. Interest income was approximately $690,000, and our effective tax rate was 24%, including a benefit of $0.03 predominantly from a purchase discount for transferable tax credits. Net income was $120 million and diluted earnings per share were $1.22, an increase of 34% compared to the same period last year.

折舊和攤提（不包括計入銷售成本的折舊）為 3,900 萬美元。第三季度，我們的息稅前利潤為 1.57 億美元。利息收入約為 69 萬美元，實際稅率為 24%，其中包括 0.03 美元的收益，主要來自可轉讓稅收抵免的購買折扣。淨利潤為 1.2 億美元，稀釋後每股收益為 1.22 美元，比去年同期成長 34%。

During Q3, we opened nine new stores, ending the quarter with 464 stores across 24 states. We are encouraged by our new store performance and the positive response we are getting from customers as we enter new communities across the country. The team continues to improve our processes and partnerships to accelerate our development cycle and our planned expansion into the Midwest and the Northeast is providing fertile ground for site approvals.

第三季度，我們開設了九家新店，季度末我們在 24 個州擁有 464 家門市。我們新店的業績以及進軍全國各地新社區後獲得的顧客正面回饋都令我們倍感鼓舞。團隊不斷改進流程和合作夥伴關係，以加快開發週期，我們計劃向中西部和東北部擴張，這為獲得場地批准提供了沃土。

We plan to open more stores in 2026 than in 2025 and believe we are on track to get to our 10% unit growth in 2027. A strong and healthy balance sheet has underpinned our financial performance. Year-to-date, we generated $577 million in operating cash flow, which allowed us to self-fund our investments of $194 million in capital expenditures, net of landlord reimbursement to grow our business.

我們計劃在 2026 年開設比 2025 年更多的門市，並且相信我們能夠實現 2027 年 10% 的門市成長目標。穩健的資產負債表是我們財務表現的堅實基礎。今年迄今為止，我們產生了 5.77 億美元的營運現金流，這使我們能夠自籌資金進行 1.94 億美元的資本支出投資（扣除房東補償後），以發展我們的業務。

We have also returned $342 million to our shareholders by repurchasing 2.4 million shares. We have $966 million remaining under our new $1 billion share repurchase authorization that was approved by the Board of Directors in August. We ended the third quarter with $322 million in cash and cash equivalents and $23 million of outstanding letters of credit.

我們也透過回購 240 萬股股票，向股東返還了 3.42 億美元。我們根據董事會8月批准的10億美元新股票回購授權，目前還剩下9.66億美元。第三季末，我們持有現金及現金等價物 3.22 億美元，未償信用證金額為 2,300 萬美元。

On July 25, we closed a $600 million revolving credit facility, which replaced our previously existing $700 million revolver. The terms and conditions are substantially similar to our previous agreement with a new expiration date of July 2030. While we plan to fund operations and unit growth through our robust cash flow generation, this facility provides Sprouts with financial flexibility as we grow.

7 月 25 日，我們完成了 6 億美元的循環信貸安排，取代了我們先前已有的 7 億美元循環信貸。條款和條件與我們先前的協議基本相同，新的到期日為 2030 年 7 月。雖然我們計劃透過強勁的現金流來為營運和業務成長提供資金，但該設施為 Sprouts 的發展提供了財務靈活性。

As we look ahead for the remainder of this year, we are balancing the strength of our business strategy against the consumer uncertainty and challenging year-over-year comp compares. For the full year, we expect total sales growth to be approximately 14% and comp sales to be approximately 7%. Given the strong execution of our real estate pipeline and fewer time line delays, we now plan to open 37 new stores in 2025.

展望今年剩餘時間，我們將權衡業務策略的優勢與消費者不確定性以及具有挑戰性的同比數據。我們預計全年總銷售額成長約 14%，同店銷售額成長約 7%。鑑於我們的房地產項目進展順利，時間延誤較少，我們現在計劃在 2025 年開設 37 家新店。

Earnings before interest and taxes are expected to be between $675 million and $680 million, and earnings per share are expected to be between $5.24 and $5.28, assuming no additional share repurchases. That said, we expect to continue repurchasing shares opportunistically. We also expect our corporate tax rate to be approximately 24% -- during the year, we expect capital expenditures, net of landlord reimbursements, to be between $230 million and $250 million.

預計息稅前利潤將在 6.75 億美元至 6.8 億美元之間，每股收益將在 5.24 美元至 5.28 美元之間（假設沒有額外的股票回購）。儘管如此，我們預計仍會擇機回購股票。我們也預計公司稅率約為 24%——在這一年中，我們預計扣除房東補償後的資本支出將在 2.3 億美元至 2.5 億美元之間。

For the fourth quarter, we expect comp sales to be in the range of 0% to 2% and earnings per share to be between $0.86 and $0.90. In the fourth quarter, year-over-year margin rate in both gross margin and SG&A are normalizing. Despite pressure to our top line, we expect to be able to grow EBIT dollars in line with our sales growth to deliver stable year-over-year margins in the fourth quarter.

我們預期第四季同店銷售額將成長0%至2%，每股盈餘將在0.86美元至0.90美元之間。第四季度，毛利率和銷售、管理及行政費用年增率將趨於正常化。儘管營收面臨壓力，但我們預計第四季息稅前利潤將與銷售額同步成長，從而實現穩定的同比利潤率。

Despite facing challenging revenue comparisons, we remain confident that we have a resilient business capable of delivering solid earnings growth. This reflects our ongoing commitment to operational efficiency and disciplined cost management. These factors provide us with earnings stability while we continue to invest in our future growth. And with that, I'll turn it back to Jack.

儘管面臨嚴峻的營收年比挑戰，但我們仍然相信我們擁有強大的業務韌性，能夠實現穩健的獲利成長。這體現了我們對營運效率和嚴格成本管理的持續承諾。這些因素為我們提供了穩定的收益，同時我們也能繼續投資於未來的成長。好了，現在我把麥克風交還給傑克。

Thanks, Curtis. Over the years, we have built a strong foundation for sustainable long-term value creation. We focus on driving growth through differentiated innovation, strengthening our operations, enhancing our digital capabilities to deepen customer engagement and expanding our store footprint, all while investing in our talent and technology.

謝謝你，柯蒂斯。多年來，我們為永續的長期價值創造奠定了堅實的基礎。我們致力於透過差異化創新推動成長，加強營運，提升數位化能力以加深客戶互動，並擴大門市規模，同時投資於人才和技術。

Together, these elements form the cornerstone of our strategy, positioning us to compete effectively. The broader health and wellness movement in the United States continues to gain popularity. With this in mind, we remain committed to expanding and strengthening our unique product offering. We continue to see strong customer demand for our attribute-driven products, which remain a key driver of our sales growth.

這些要素共同構成了我們策略的基石，使我們能夠有效地參與競爭。在美國，更廣泛的健康養生運動持續受到歡迎。基於此，我們將繼續致力於拓展和加強我們獨特的產品系列。我們持續看到客戶對我們以屬性為導向的產品的強勁需求，這仍然是我們銷售成長的關鍵驅動力。

Currently, more than 1/3 of our sales come from organic products, and we'll continue investing in this important attribute for our customers, ensuring they have access to the best in organic offerings at a great value. The supplement sector is also evolving within our stores, focused on areas such as longevity, women's health and gut health, trends that resonate with our health enthusiast customers.

目前，我們超過三分之一的銷售額來自有機產品，我們將繼續投資於這對客戶而言重要的屬性，確保他們能夠以優惠的價格獲得最好的有機產品。我們的門市內的保健品領域也在不斷發展，重點關注長壽、女性健康和腸道健康等領域，這些趨勢引起了我們熱愛健康的顧客的共鳴。

The Sprouts brand now accounts for more than 25% of our sales and with a robust product pipeline planned for the next three years, we are committed to continuing our growth. What makes our Sprouts brand unique are our innovative products and flavors, such as herb-stuffing potato chips and maple-flavored coconut pillows, new for this year's fall season.

Sprouts 品牌目前占我們銷售額的 25% 以上，並且我們已為未來三年制定了強大的產品線計劃，致力於繼續保持成長。Sprouts 品牌的獨特之處在於我們創新的產品和口味，例如今年秋季新推出的香草餡薯片和楓糖味椰子枕。

In the third quarter, we launched new wellness bowls, each priced under $10. These bowls feature attributes like grass-fed beef, organic tofu and responsibly-sourced salmon. They're packed with protein, bold flavors such as sesame garlic ponzu and high-quality fresh ingredients at a fantastic price. Our customers are responding, and we're pleased with the early results.

第三季度，我們推出了新的健康餐碗，每份售價均低於 10 美元。這些餐點的特色在於使用了草飼牛肉、有機豆腐和來源可靠的鮭魚等食材。它們富含蛋白質，口味濃鬱，例如芝麻蒜蓉柚子醋口味，並採用優質新鮮食材，而且價格非常實惠。我們的客戶反應良好，我們對目前的成果感到滿意。

As we look to the future of forging, we're investing to ensure that we continue to lead in this space, supported by a robust pipeline of innovation and deep partnerships with entrepreneurial brands that view Sprouts as the ideal launch platform. These partnerships energize us. And together, we're excited to introduce approximately 7,000 new products for 2025 that align with our customers' values and lifestyles.

展望鍛造產業的未來，我們正在加大投入，以確保我們繼續在該領域保持領先地位，並依靠強大的創新產品線和與創業品牌的深度合作，這些品牌將 Sprouts 視為理想的發布平台。這些合作關係激勵著我們。我們很高興共同推出約 7,000 款符合客戶價值觀和生活方式的新產品，這些產品將於 2025 年面世。

To stay ahead in a rapidly evolving market, we're expanding the capabilities of our forging team to better anticipate emerging trends and customer needs. Over the past year and into early 2025, we expanded our customer base, attracting a meaningful number of new shoppers.

為了在快速變化的市場中保持領先地位，我們正在擴大鍛造團隊的能力，以便更好地預測新興趨勢和客戶需求。在過去一年到 2025 年初，我們擴大了客戶群，吸引了相當數量的新顧客。

We are pleased to see that the vast majority have remained engaged. On the marketing front, we continue to partner with our influencers, extend our reach in new markets and have started utilizing our Sprouts Rewards to engage with our customers. Speaking of the Sprouts Rewards loyalty program, it's fully launched this week, marking an essential step in our Sprouts customer engagement and personalization journey.

我們很高興看到絕大多數人仍然保持參與。在行銷方面，我們繼續與有影響力的人士合作，拓展在新市場的影響力，並已開始利用我們的 Sprouts Rewards 來與客戶互動。說到 Sprouts Rewards 會員忠誠度計劃，它已於本周全面推出，這標誌著 Sprouts 客戶互動和個人化之旅邁出了重要一步。

We have seen good growth in our identifiable customers and the stores are taking ownership of this important initiative. Although it's still early in the program, we are observing encouraging indications of increased shopping frequency and sales per customer in our early rollout geographies and are excited to see our progress in the coming months.

我們看到目標客群實現了良好的成長，各門市也積極回應並落實了這項重要措施。雖然該計劃仍處於早期階段，但我們觀察到，在早期推廣地區，購物頻率和每位顧客的銷售額都有所增加，這令人鼓舞，我們期待在未來幾個月看到進展。

On the supply chain front, we're excited about our ongoing transition to self-distribution in fresh meat and seafood. It has been a difficult year for us in the meat category as multiple third-party supply disruptions led to availability challenges and customer disruption, further underscoring the importance of controlling our destiny through self-distribution. Through October, we have successfully completed the transition at four of our existing distribution centers, leading to increased delivery frequency to our stores and improved fill rates.

在供應鏈方面，我們對正在進行的新鮮肉類和海鮮自營分銷轉型感到非常興奮。對於我們肉類產業來說，今年是艱難的一年，因為多個第三方供應中斷導致供應困難和客戶受到影響，這進一步凸顯了透過自主分銷掌控自身命運的重要性。截至 10 月，我們已成功完成現有四個配送中心的過渡工作，從而提高了門市的送貨頻率和訂單滿足率。

Looking ahead, we anticipate completing this transition by the second quarter of 2026 with the opening of our new Northern California distribution center, further solidifying our commitment to operational excellence. The new stores we've opened this year are performing well, both in terms of top line revenue and bottom-line profitability.

展望未來，我們預計將在 2026 年第二季完成這項轉型，屆時我們將開設新的北加州配送中心，進一步鞏固我們對卓越營運的承諾。我們今年新開的門市業績良好，無論是營收或利潤都表現良好。

Additionally, last year's vintage is entering the comp base well, further validating the effectiveness of our model. We're particularly pleased about our robust new store pipeline, which currently includes 140 approved locations. This highlights the strength of our brand and also demonstrates the scalability of our format.

此外，去年年份的葡萄酒進入比較基數良好，進一步驗證了我們模型的有效性。我們尤其對我們強大的新店籌建計畫感到滿意，目前已有 140 個獲批的門市選址。這凸顯了我們品牌的實力，也證明了我們模式的可擴展性。

We are confident that we will be able to meet the evolving needs of our customers while also achieving our ambitious growth targets. To that end, we are pleased that we plan to open 37 stores in 2025, exceeding our original target of 35. We're excited to welcome 3,700 new Sprouties to our team and to expand access for our target customers, allowing us to bring the Sprouts experience to more communities nationwide.

我們有信心在滿足客戶不斷變化的需求的同時，實現我們雄心勃勃的成長目標。為此，我們很高興地宣布，我們計劃在 2025 年開設 37 家門市，超過了我們最初設定的 35 家的目標。我們很高興迎來 3,700 位新的 Sprouties 加入我們的團隊，並擴大目標客戶的管道，使我們能夠將 Sprouts 的體驗帶到全國更多的社區。

The effective execution of our strategic initiative is made possible by the dedication and talent of our team members throughout the organization. Central to our culture is a shared belief in our purpose and values, which form the foundation of our long-term success. I want to express my gratitude to our 35,000 team members for their unwavering commitment to serving our customers every day.

我們策略計劃的有效實施離不開公司全體團隊成員的奉獻精神和才華。我們文化的核心是對我們的目標和價值觀的共同信念，這構成了我們長期成功的基礎。我要對我們35,000名團隊成員表示衷心的感謝，感謝他們每天堅定不移地為客戶服務。

We acknowledge the challenges of sustaining the momentum built from last year's exceptional results alongside an evolving consumer backdrop. We have an amazing business that has significant potential. We are confident in the resilience of our business model and are dedicated to investing in our foundations for sustainable long-term earnings growth. Thank you for joining us today. We look forward to sharing more of this journey with you in the quarters to come.

我們意識到，在不斷變化的消費環境下，要維持去年取得的卓越業績所帶來的發展勢頭，面臨著許多挑戰。我們擁有一個極具發展潛力的優秀企業。我們對自身商業模式的韌性充滿信心，並致力於投資於實現可持續長期獲利成長的基礎建設。感謝您今天蒞臨。我們期待在接下來的幾個季度與您分享這段旅程的更多內容。

And with that, I'd like to turn it over for questions. Operator?

那麼，接下來我將把發言權交給各位提問。操作員？

(Operator Instructions)

（操作說明）

Michael Montani, Evercore.

Michael Montani，Evercore。

Yes, hi, good evening. I just wanted to ask; we've had some questions about concerns around competition that might be potentially encroaching on your core consumer. I just wanted to see kind of how you would respond to that, if there was other cyclical temporal headwinds that we should be thinking about in the quarter and then how that could play out in the fourth quarter? And also, do you see this as a function of competition? Or is it something else?

是的，你好，晚上好。我只是想問；我們收到了一些關於競爭可能對你們的核心消費者造成潛在威脅的問題。我只是想看看您對此有何回應，本季是否還有其他週期性的時間性不利因素需要考慮，以及這些因素在第四季度可能會如何發展？另外，您認為這是競爭的結果嗎？還是另有隱情？

Well, I think what we talked about in the script there, Mike, was very much there's -- we're lapping some tough numbers from last year. And at the same time, there's a kind of consumer context that feels like things are getting a little bit more difficult for the consumer. So putting that into context, we always look at what our competitors are also doing and what the competitors are playing in there.

嗯，我覺得我們在劇本裡討論的，麥克，就是──我們正在超越去年的一些艱難數字。同時，消費者似乎也面臨一些越來越艱難的處境。所以，從這個角度來看，我們總是會關注競爭對手在做什麼，以及他們在市場上扮演什麼角色。

But our strategy is pretty clear. We've got 7,500 new innovative products launched. I don't think -- I haven't seen anyone else launching that kind of number of innovation and differentiation. We're building a lot of stores up to 37 stores, which we're very confident about, and we've got a great pipeline of stores coming through going forward. And we're very excited about the loyalty and personalization work. So the context of all of that, I think, shields us from what we've seen happening from our competitors. And as I say, we're pretty confident about the future, Mike.

但我們的策略非常明確。我們推出了7500款創新產品。我認為——我還沒見過其他公司推出如此多的創新和差異化產品。我們正在建造許多門市，最多將達到 37 家，對此我們非常有信心，而且我們未來還有大量門市正在籌建中。我們對客戶忠誠度和個人化方面的工作感到非常興奮。所以，我認為，所有這些背景讓我們免受競爭對手所發生的事情的影響。正如我所說，我們對未來相當有信心，麥克。

Seth Sigman, Barclays.

巴克萊銀行的塞思‧西格曼。

Thanks. Hey, good afternoon, everyone. There's a concern in the market that there have been some unique drivers helping your business over the last 12 months. You've had great performance and the concern is that those drivers are going away. As you reflect on that and the current slowdown that you're seeing, is there anything you would call out that's proving more difficult to lap?

謝謝。大家好，下午好。市場擔心，在過去 12 個月中，有一些獨特的因素對您的業務有所幫助。你們的表現非常出色，但令人擔憂的是，這些司機可能會離開。考慮到這一點以及目前你所看到的放緩趨勢，你認為有哪些方面更難超越？

And then you talked about keeping your customers. You grew your customers quite a bit last year. I mean, how are you seeing that play out? Are we seeing perhaps a change in spending behavior, lower spend per customer? Thank you so much.

然後你談到如何留住客戶。去年你的客戶數量增加了不少。我的意思是，你覺得這件事會如何發展？我們是否可能看到消費行為發生變化，即每位顧客的消費額下降？太感謝了。

Hi Seth, this is Curtis. We've just seen some pockets and windows where we've had some outsized growth and gains. We've talked about those on the call. Certainly, last October was our strongest month that we've compared against. It was a 13-and-change comp. February, we had some help from a strike at a competitor that was upside.

嗨，Seth，我是Curtis。我們剛剛看到一些市場波動和機遇，在這些波動中我們獲得了超乎尋常的成長和收益。我們在電話會議上討論過那些人。當然，去年十月是我們迄今業績最好的一個月。這是一場13人多一點的比賽。二月份，我們得到了競爭對手罷工帶來的一些好處，這對我們有利。

And then May and June, we had strong months with a good customer season from produce and some challenges in the industry from a supply and a cyber issue. We saw customers come our way in those moments. We're always well positioned to kind of capitalize in those moments. But we don't see anything structural in -- outside of those types of things that we're up against. But we do have those moments that we'll be up against over the course of the next 10 months.

五月和六月，我們經歷了強勁的銷售旺季，農產品銷售旺季客戶眾多，但產業也面臨一些挑戰，例如供應問題和網路安全問題。那些時刻，我們看到顧客紛至沓來。我們總是能很好地把握住這些機會。但除了我們目前面臨的這些問題之外，我們沒有看到任何結構性問題。但在接下來的 10 個月裡，我們確實會遇到一些挑戰。

And then just, yes, a little bit of softness in our business. I mean we see things in more of our middle-income trade areas, some of our younger trade areas where we see those demographics, we've seen the business soften just a little bit more than the rest of the business. And those are the things that we're kind of pointing to as it relates to the customer pressure.

是的，我們的業務中也需要一點柔情。我的意思是，我們在中等收入貿易區和一些年輕貿易區（這些地區的人口結構較為年輕）看到，這些地區的商業活動比其他地區的商業活動略微疲軟。而這些正是我們所說的與客戶壓力相關的因素。

Leah Jordan, Goldman Sachs.

莉亞喬丹，高盛集團。

Thank you. Good afternoon. I'll kind of stick with the same theme around the comp slowdown. Just seeing if you could provide some more detail on the key surprises versus your expectations because this was a notable miss, right, below even your guide. Has there been any major difference across the regions or product categories?

謝謝。午安.我還是會繼續圍繞電腦運行速度變慢這個主題來討論。我只是想看看您能否詳細說明一下與您的預期相比有哪些主要驚喜，因為這確實是一個明顯的疏忽，對吧，甚至低於您的指南。不同地區或產品類別之間是否有重大差異？

And I think ultimately, you've historically talked about your offering being resilient to macro pressures as people are committed to their diets. But now you're talking about a softer consumer. So I think ultimately, has something shifted around your value proposition today? How do you view it? And I guess, why don't you see the need to invest a bit more to reengage your core consumer as you're really implying market share losses in the fourth quarter?

而且我認為，歸根究底，你一直以來都談到，由於人們對飲食的堅持，你的產品能夠抵禦宏觀壓力。但現在你面對的是一個消費觀念較為溫和的消費者。所以我覺得，歸根究底，你現在的價值主張是否發生了一些變化？你對此有何看法？我想，既然你們在第四季確實暗示市佔率有所下降，為什麼不考慮加大投入重新吸引核心消費者呢？

Well, I think the first thing we'd say is we're lapping some tough numbers from last year, and we may have underestimated the challenge of lapping those numbers. And it happened through the quarter as opposed to in the quarter. And as we look forward, we're anticipating a challenging environment. We know what we've got to lap going forward, and we're anticipating a little bit of pressure on the consumer going forward.

嗯，我想我們首先要說的是，我們正在超越去年的一些艱難數字，而且我們可能低估了超越這些數字的挑戰性。而且這件事是在整個季度內發生的，而不是在季度內發生的。展望未來，我們預期會面臨充滿挑戰的環境。我們知道未來需要超越哪些方面，也預期未來消費者會面臨一些壓力。

The health and wellness macro trends are still strong for us, and we see a real opportunity in doubling down on the loyalty program behind that going forward. And there are some macro pressures that I think you'll see coming through in the marketplace that we are certainly experiencing.

健康和保健的大趨勢仍然強勁，我們認為未來加大對相關忠誠度計畫的投入是一個真正的機會。我認為，市場中確實存在一些宏觀壓力，我們目前正在經歷這些壓力。

With regard to thinking about what should we do with -- we're not seeing a competitive dynamic changing dramatically in the marketplace in terms of pricing or activity. We've always promoted and we're very comfortable with promoting going forward. And we'll do what we need to do, but we're very strong in terms of managing our margins, managing our costs, and we'll consistently do that.

至於我們該如何應對——我們並沒有看到市場在價格或活動方面出現劇烈的競爭動態變化。我們一直以來都在進行推廣，而且我們非常樂意繼續進行推廣。我們會盡一切努力，但我們在利潤率管理和成本控制方面非常強大，我們會一直保持這種優勢。

You can see that from the numbers that we've just produced and the numbers that we will produce going forward. So no, we're not seeing anything dramatic in terms of the competitive dynamic in this space. We are seeing consumers under a bit of pressure, and we'll have to react to that in some ways, and we are reacting to that in the appropriate way.

從我們剛剛公佈的數據以及我們將來會公佈的數據中，就可以看出這一點。所以，不，我們並沒有看到這個領域的競爭格局有任何劇烈的變化。我們看到消費者面臨一些壓力，我們必須在某些方面做出反應，而我們正在以適當的方式做出反應。

And then to the miss in Q3, Leah, yes, I think we sailed through that first step change in the comp in May and June and didn't really see the underlying pressure again, probably masked a little bit of what was starting to go on there. But it was really the end of Q3, as Jack mentioned, where it really started to drop off a bit, and that's when we get up against the 10-plus comps here in September and then 13-plus in October.

至於第三季的失利，莉亞，是的，我認為我們在五六月份順利度過了競爭的第一個階段性變化，並沒有真正感受到潛在的壓力，可能掩蓋了當時開始發生的事情。但正如傑克所提到的，真正開始下滑是在第三季末，那時我們在9月份要面對10個以上的競爭對手，然後在10月又要面對13個以上的競爭對手。

And so being a little bit cautious with where we are and looking ahead as we go up against the 10.5% and 10.5% roughly in November and December.

因此，我們應該對目前的狀況保持謹慎，並展望未來，因為我們將在 11 月和 12 月面臨 10.5% 和 10.5% 左右的成長率。

Okay. That's super helpful. And I was going to ask about the compares in November, December. So that's really helpful. I guess -- so my related follow-up would be then for -- as we look into '26, right, you're going to have some difficult lapse in the front half of the year. You just talked about how you sailed through it in March of last year. So -- how should -- I know you haven't -- it's a little bit early for the guide, but how should we think about the building blocks for the comp next year, driving engagement and lapping that as well?

好的。這太有幫助了。我原本想問11月和12月的對比情況。這真的很有幫助。我想——所以我的相關後續問題是——當我們展望 2026 年時，對吧，你們在上半年將會遇到一些困難的低谷期。你剛才還說了你去年三月是如何輕鬆度過難關的。所以——應該——我知道你還沒有——現在製定指南還為時過早，但我們應該如何思考明年比賽的構建基礎，推動參與度並在此基礎上不斷進步呢？

Well, from the building blocks point of view, I'll let Curtis talk a little about how the numbers play through. From the building blocks point of view, Leah, we've got real confidence in the innovation pipeline that we've got coming through. We're really confident about the store pipeline that we've got coming through in terms of new stores.

嗯，從基本組成部分的角度來看，我讓柯蒂斯來談談這些數字是如何運作的。從基礎架構的角度來看，莉亞，我們對即將推出的創新產品線充滿信心。我們對即將開設的新店項目非常有信心。

We're really confident about the work we've been doing that hasn't come through yet in loyalty and personalization, which we're excited about. So there's a lot of real positives in terms of the consumer side of this equation going forward. I'll let Curtis talk a little bit about the numbers.

我們對目前在忠誠度和個人化方面所做的工作充滿信心，這些工作尚未取得成效，我們對此感到非常興奮。因此，從消費者的角度來看，未來有許多真正的正面因素。我讓柯蒂斯來談談這些數字吧。

Yes. And you called it out. We are early. Obviously, we'll be going through our budget process here in the fourth quarter, and we'll talk in more specifics in February. So yes, we'll have a bit of a challenging first half up against the double-digit comps. And then as we get to the second half, again, we've got those building blocks that Jack just referenced. And so we're pretty excited about those things coming online and getting us back into kind of that algorithm range and getting back to driving towards the high end of that algorithm comp as we hit the second half of next year.

是的。你指出了這一點。我們來得早。顯然，我們將在第四季度進行預算編制工作，並在二月討論更多細節。是的，上半季我們將面臨一些挑戰，因為對手都是兩位數的弱旅。然後到了下半場，我們又會再用到傑克剛才提到的那些基本要素。因此，我們對這些功能的上線感到非常興奮，這將使我們重新回到演算法競賽的範疇，並在明年下半年重新向演算法競賽的高端邁進。

Again, we'll get specific when we get to February, but we've been investing in the business to create levers to kind of manage through any environment, and we'll be working through that, and we'll manage our margins effectively here in the first half of 2026.

再說一遍，到了二月我們會給出具體細節，但我們一直在投資這項業務，以創造槓桿來應對任何環境，我們將努力克服這些困難，並在 2026 年上半年有效地管理我們的利潤率。

Very helpful. Thank you.

很有幫助。謝謝。

Mark Carden, UBS.

瑞銀集團的馬克卡登。

Good afternoon, thanks for taking the questions. So to start, you guys called out strength in your most differentiated products even with the slowdown. Do you think customers are spreading out their shopping more and becoming any more price sensitive on some of the less differentiated items like, say, produce?

下午好，謝謝回答問題。首先，你們指出，即使在經濟放緩的情況下，你們最具差異化的產品依然保持優勢。你認為顧客的購物範圍是否正在擴大，以及他們對一些差異化程度較低的商品（例如農產品）的價格是否變得更加敏感？

Have you seen shifts in what you think your overall wallet share is for customers today? And just how you're thinking about really the broader promotional environment over the next few periods?

您認為目前客戶的整體錢包份額發生了哪些變化？那麼，您對未來幾個時期的整體促銷環境有何看法？

Yes. Thanks, Mark. It's Nick. On the differentiation front, we measure that really closely since it's so strategically important to us, and we haven't seen our levels of differentiation wane at all in the last year, even through, as we mentioned, some of the business dynamics here. So we feel really good about where we are from a differentiation standpoint in the market.

是的。謝謝你，馬克。是尼克。在差異化方面，我們對此進行了非常密切的衡量，因為它對我們來說具有非常重要的戰略意義，而且在過去一年中，即使如我們提到的，經歷了一些商業動態，我們也沒有看到我們的差異化水平有任何減弱。因此，從市場差異化的角度來看，我們對自身所處的位置感到非常滿意。

And yes, our most differentiated and innovative products continue to be the place that we see the strongest growth in comps. And so as we continue to fill that pipeline and bring all the new products we do to market, we feel bullish about what that's going to do for us moving forward, as Jack mentioned.

沒錯，我們最具差異化和創新性的產品仍然是同店銷售額成長最強勁的領域。正如傑克所提到的那樣，隨著我們不斷充實產品線，並將我們所有的新產品推向市場，我們對未來的發展前景充滿信心。

I do want to touch on share of wallet to your question. We're actually seeing our share of wallet hold to slightly up. So to the competitive questions and dynamics, we're not seeing our customer take their share of spend other places. We're holding our own on the share of wallet side, which I think portends to some of the macro we're seeing.

我想就你的問題談談錢包份額的問題。實際上，我們看到我們的市場份額保持穩定甚至略有增長。所以，就競爭問題和動態而言，我們並沒有看到我們的客戶將他們的消費份額轉移到其他地方。我們在市場份額方面保持穩定，我認為這預示著我們正在看到的一些宏觀趨勢。

And at the last part of your question, I think for us, we're not seeing a major exodus of customers. We're just seeing our customer at times spend maybe a little bit less on the tail end of their basket as they manage some of those pressures, and that's how we're seeing it come across in our dynamic.

至於你問題的最後一部分，我認為就我們而言，我們並沒有看到客戶大量流失。我們發現，有時客戶在購物籃的最後幾項消費可能會略微減少，因為他們必須應對一些壓力，而這正是我們在動態變化中看到的現象。

Got it. That's helpful. And then you're seeing a lot of strength in private label with penetration climbing again this quarter. Just given the softening of the consumer that you talked about, any changes to how you're thinking about the pace of adding additional SKUs to your assortment?

知道了。那很有幫助。此外，自有品牌也表現強勁，本季滲透率再次攀升。鑑於您剛才提到的消費者需求趨於緩和，您在考慮增加產品種類的速度方面是否有任何變化？

Sure. We've been on a pretty aggressive pace over the last couple of years, adding hundreds of SKUs each year. And our team has done an amazing job of doing that. And I think what's important to keep in mind is when we build our Sprouts brand program, we're not -- we don't play sort of that national brand compare strategy. We look to find unique items that our health enthusiasts can't find other places.

當然。過去幾年，我們一直保持著相當積極的擴張步伐，每年新增數百個 SKU。我們的團隊在這方面做得非常出色。我認為需要記住的重要一點是，當我們建立 Sprouts 品牌計劃時，我們不會採取那種全國性品牌比較策略。我們致力於尋找健康愛好者在其他地方找不到的獨特商品。

And to your point, what's happening around, that's really winning. We continue to see our penetration grow. Our sales growth in Sprouts brands have been really, really good. So we will continue to fill that pipeline and over-invest in that space to capture the momentum we have in the brand.

正如你所說，現在發生的事情，才是真正的勝利。我們的市場滲透率持續成長。Sprouts旗下品牌的銷售成長真的非常非常好。因此，我們將繼續充實產品線，並加大對該領域的投資，以抓住我們品牌的發展勢頭。

And we've got some pretty exciting plans, Nick, going forward in terms of what's happening next year and some holiday products are pretty exciting as well. So the investment in Sprouts brand will continue aggressively going forward, Mark.

尼克，我們明年有一些非常令人興奮的計劃，一些節日產品也同樣令人期待。所以，馬克，我們將繼續加大對 Sprouts 品牌的投資。

Thanks so much. Good luck, guys.

非常感謝。祝你們好運。

Thanks Mark.

謝謝你，馬克。

Ed Kelly, Wells Fargo.

艾德凱利，富國銀行。

Yeah, hi, good morning, everyone. I was curious if you could talk a bit more about the fourth quarter comp expectation and what you've seen so far quarter-to-date. Obviously, the October compare is tougher. But have you seen any stabilization yet in the two-year as it pertains to October? And then what's the assumption that's based into the comp guidance as you think about the quarter itself?

大家好，早安。我想請您詳細談談第四季的業績預期以及本季至今的觀察情況。顯然，10月的數據對比難度更高。但就10月而言，您是否看到兩年期數據出現任何穩定跡象？那麼，在考慮本季業績時，您做出業績指引所依據的假設是什麼？

Hi Ed, this is Curtis. Yes. So quarter-to-date, we are just north of one up against that 13-and-change last year for October. So the two-year has started to stabilize a little bit here in the last, call it, six or eight weeks, but we've definitely seen some ups and some downs week-to-week in the one-year and the two-year, and that's what's got us a little bit cautious. So we're up against, again, as I said earlier, about 10.5% in both November and December.

嗨，艾德，我是柯蒂斯。是的。所以，截至目前，我們比去年10月的13個多月略微領先。所以，在過去的六到八周里，兩年期利率開始趨於穩定，但我們肯定看到一年期和兩年期利率每週都有一些波動，這讓我們有點謹慎。所以，正如我之前所說，我們再次面臨 11 月和 12 月約 10.5% 的降幅。

And so we're really watching closely the one-year versus the two-year and there -- and how that plays out, particularly as we go through holidays with some of the consumer pressure that we've noted already. So watching closely, and we'll see how we go. We've had two months now up against 10-plus comps. We ran about 4% in September against the 10%, and we've run about 1% here against the 13%. And so we just want to see a few more of those months against the double digits to shore that up.

因此，我們正在密切關註一年期與兩年期之間的差異，以及這種差異將如何發展，尤其是在我們經歷假期以及我們已經注意到的一些消費者壓力時。所以我們會密切關注，看看結果如何。我們已經連續兩個月與十多家競爭對手展開競爭。9 月我們的收益率約為 4%，而同期收益率為 10%；而今年我們的收益率約為 1%，而同期收益率為 13%。所以我們希望再看到幾個月的增幅保持在兩位數，以鞏固這一趨勢。

Okay. And then just a follow-up, Jack, you mentioned on the loyalty side that you were encouraged by some of the things that you have seen so far. I was wondering if you could elaborate on that. And as we think about 2026, how are you thinking about utilizing the loyalty card? What you can do to sort of push on that and the contribution that you think that it might begin to deliver?

好的。傑克，我還有一個後續問題。你剛才提到，在忠誠度方面，你對目前為止看到的一些事情感到鼓舞。我想請您詳細解釋一下。展望 2026 年，您打算如何使用會員卡？你能做些什麼來推動這件事，以及你認為它可能帶來的貢獻？

Well, we won't commit specifically to what it might deliver, Ed, but it's a great question and it's very much at the heart of. What we're encouraged by is the execution literally this week, I think where all stores have now got access. It's taken us a full nine months or so to get this rolled out across the country. We've been really encouraged by the number of customers that are signing up, and we're encouraged by the number of customers that are scanning. So we're in a better place with identifiable customers going forward to understand exactly what they're doing.

嗯，艾德，我們不會具體承諾它會帶來什麼，但這是一個很好的問題，而這正是問題的核心所在。令我們感到鼓舞的是，本週的執行情況非常理想，我認為所有門市現在都已獲得存取權限。我們花了整整九個月的時間才將這項技術推廣到全國。我們對註冊用戶的數量以及掃描用戶的數量都感到非常鼓舞。因此，有了可識別的客戶，我們就能更了解他們正在做什麼。

And as we go on our personalized journey and the customers go on their personalized journey, we're going to be able to take, I think, a real opportunity to sell the story of how we can tell or sell the story to our customers of new products that are relevant to them and be very targeted and efficient in that. The team are working hard on that. We made a little bit of progress on it, but I can anticipate -- I'll let Nick build on this. But I think there's real opportunity in 2026 to build even further growth from our loyalty program.

隨著我們和客戶各自展開個人化之旅，我認為我們將有機會真正向客戶講述或推銷與他們相關的新產品的故事，並且能夠非常有針對性、高效地做到這一點。團隊正在為此努力。我們在這方面取得了一些進展，但我可以預見——我會讓尼克在此基礎上繼續前進。但我認為，2026 年我們有機會透過我們的會員忠誠度計畫實現更大的成長。

Yes. Hi Ed, it's Nick. Just a little more context there. We are seeing an ability to move customer behavior through loyalty right now with increased frequency and stronger sales per customer. The team has done a great job of getting us rolled out completely nationally. And so now we can turn the team's attention fully to how do we make that work even harder for us in '26.

是的。嗨，艾德，我是尼克。這裡再補充一些背景資料。我們現在看到，透過提高客戶忠誠度，可以改變客戶行為，增加客戶購買頻率，並提高每位客戶的銷售額。團隊在全國範圍內全面推廣方面做得非常出色。所以現在我們可以把全隊的注意力集中到如何讓這項任務在 2026 年對我們更有利。

I think Jack gave good color on how we can do so. But we've got the rollout behind us, and we know what we've been able to move behavior. And I think we've got a lot of levers to pull next year to do even more to again, bottom line, serve our unique customers on things that's most important to them and distinctive to us to drive long-term value.

我認為傑克很好地闡述了我們如何做到這一點。但我們已經完成了推廣工作，並且知道我們已經成功地改變了人們的行為。我認為明年我們有很多方法可以運用，從而本質上為我們獨特的客戶提供他們最關心、對我們來說最獨特的服務，以創造長期價值。

Great, thank you.

太好了，謝謝。

Tom Palmer, JPMorgan.

湯姆‧帕爾默，摩根大通。

Thanks for the question. Look, I know you don't always give too much detail here, but I thought I'd ask on just some of the changes in customer behavior. So first, I think you made a reference smaller baskets, not fewer customer visits driving the comp slowdown. I just want to make sure I heard that right.

謝謝你的提問。我知道你在這裡通常不會透露太多細節，但我還是想問客戶行為方面的一些變化。首先，我認為你指的是購物籃容量變小，而不是顧客到訪次數減少導致同店銷售放緩。我只是想確認一下我沒聽錯。

And then second, are you seeing any notable shifts when we think regionally or in certain departments of the store? I'm just kind of wondering because it does seem to be a little bit influx in terms of customer behavior, if anything stands out on that side.

其次，從區域或商店的某些部門來看，您是否發現任何明顯的轉變？我只是有點好奇，因為客戶行為方面似乎確實出現了一些變化，想看看這方面是否有什麼突出的現象。

Hi Thomas, it's Curtis. Yes, I think similar to how we talked about it on the way up last year, it was traffic and it was brick-and-mortar traffic that really accelerated, and we saw it be pretty balanced across categories and geographies, and we're seeing it really play out similarly as we lap those numbers this year. So it's been a traffic slowdown. Traffic is still positive, as we noted in the script, but that's a piece that slowed down.

嗨，托馬斯，我是柯蒂斯。是的，我認為和我們去年討論的情況類似，是客流量，尤其是實體店客流量真正加速增長，而且我們看到各個類別和地區的客流量都相當均衡，而今年隨著我們不斷擴大規模，我們看到的情況也確實類似。所以交通出現了擁擠。正如我們在腳本中提到的，交通狀況依然良好，但這一環節有所放緩。

And then, yes, we're seeing a little bit of pressure at the end of the basket, as we called out earlier now as the consumer pressure builds a bit, similar to what we saw during the inflationary period in '22 and '23, they're really managing the end of the basket, and it's creating kind of a units-per-basket-type pressure that we've seen before. So that's been the dynamic.

是的，我們看到籃子末端出現了一些壓力，正如我們之前提到的，隨著消費者壓力逐漸增加，類似於我們在 2022 年和 2023 年通膨時期看到的情況，他們確實在控制籃子末端的商品，這造成了一種我們以前見過的每籃子商品數量類型的壓力。這就是事情的來龍去脈。

Okay. And then just on the fourth quarter, you noted the expectation, Curtis, for margin to be flat year-over-year. I just want to clarify, is that both gross margin and SG&A would be relatively flat? Or is one kind of moving in one direction and the other the other?

好的。然後，就在第四季度，你提到，柯蒂斯，預計利潤率將與去年同期持平。我想確認一下，毛利率和銷售、管理及行政費用是否都會相對持平？或者說，一種移動方式是朝一個方向移動，另一種則是朝另一個方向移動？

Yes. I think it's flat for EBIT margins is how we think about it, stable EBIT margins. It will be a little bit positive on the growth side and then a little bit of pressure at a 0% to 2% comp, it will be a little bit of pressure on SG&A.

是的。我認為息稅前利潤率保持平穩，息稅前利潤率保持穩定。成長方面會略有利好，但同時由於同業拆借利率在 0% 到 2% 之間，銷售、一般及行政費用也會面臨一些壓力。

Okay, thank you.

好的，謝謝。

Thanks, Tom.

謝謝你，湯姆。

Rupesh Parikh, Oppenheimer.

Rupesh Parikh，奧本海默。

Good afternoon. Thanks for taking my question. So given the moderation that you've seen in your business recently, does this at all impact how aggressively you invest next year? And then are there levers to pull if you do see further softening from here?

午安.謝謝您回答我的問題。鑑於您最近在業務方面看到的放緩趨勢，這是否會對您明年的投資力度產生任何影響？如果市場進一步走軟，是否有因應措施？

Yes. I think we're going to continue to invest in the business. I think we will always make smart choices about how we allocate resources against the highest kind of priority and highest value type projects. And so we've had a good level of investment for the last two years. And I think that's created some levers for us.

是的。我認為我們會繼續投資這項業務。我認為我們總是會做出明智的選擇，將資源分配給優先順序最高、價值最高的項目。因此，過去兩年我們獲得了相當可觀的投資。我認為這為我們創造了一些籌碼。

Certainly, we've talked about inventory management, category management and the things that we've been working on helping drive some of those gross margin gains. We think there's still some room to go there. And we're working hard on our cost capability on our indirect cost side, and we spent a lot of time on that this year. So we're preparing ourselves to be able to manage through, and we feel like we're in a good position as we head towards 2026.

當然，我們已經討論過庫存管理、品類管理以及我​​們一直在努力推動毛利率成長的各項措施。我們認為這方面還有進步空間。我們正在努力提高間接成本的成本控制能力，今年我們在這方面投入了大量時間。因此，我們正在做好準備以應對挑戰，我們感覺在邁向 2026 年的道路上，我們處於一個良好的位置。

And we're full steam ahead on building stores. We're excited about that. As we talked about, the new stores are opening well. We're really encouraged by that within the context of the macro environment that we're in the middle of. We're full steam ahead in terms of self-distribution. So we'll continue to invest in that, which will bring forward some benefits in terms of in-stocks and benefits in terms of margins.

我們正全力推進門市建設。我們對此感到興奮。正如我們之前討論的，新店開業情況良好。在我們目前所處的宏觀環境下，這確實令人鼓舞。我們在自主分銷方面正全力推進。因此我們將繼續投資於此，這將在庫存和利潤率方面帶來一些好處。

We're full steam ahead in terms of investing in innovation pipeline and making new products come through in our business. And as Nick said a minute ago, we're full steam ahead on our loyalty and personalization journey. So we're very confident in the investments that we're making going forward. And once we get past some of these lapping challenges, I think we're in really good shape.

我們正全力投入創新研發，力求將新產品推向市場。正如尼克剛才所說，我們正在全力推動客戶忠誠度和個人化服務之旅。因此，我們對未來的投資非常有信心。一旦我們克服了這些圈速上的挑戰，我認為我們就處於非常有利的位置。

And then maybe just one quick follow-up. On the capital allocation front, it sounds like you're going to continue buy back shares. But has your approach at all changes given a more certain environment, but at the same time, your stock is much lower. So just curious if there's any differences in how you approach share buybacks at these levels?

然後或許只需要一個簡短的後續問題。在資本配置方面，聽起來你們打算繼續回購股票。但是，在環境更確定的情況下，你的方法是否改變了？與此同時，你的股票卻大幅下跌。所以，我只是好奇，在目前的股價水準下，你們在進行股票回購時，處理方式是否有任何不同之處？

Yes. I think we'll be more aggressive depending on where the shares settle out here when we're done. Certainly, we've talked about buying opportunistically over the course of the year, and we bought pretty aggressively early in the year when the stock price was a little lower through the year.

是的。我認為我們會根據最終股價的穩定趨勢採取更積極的策略。當然，我們今年一直在討論伺機買入，而且年初股價較低的時候，我們也進行了相當積極的買入。

And I think we'll be thinking about it the same way as we exit our quiet period here, our close period here in the third quarter. So we're excited about the $1 billion authorization, and we'll see where things land come Friday, but we'll go get after it.

我認為，當我們結束目前的靜默期，也就是第三季的休息期時，我們也會以同樣的方式思考這個問題。所以我們對這10億美元的授權感到興奮，週五我們會看看最終結果如何，但我們會全力以赴。

Great. Thank you, best of luck.

偉大的。謝謝，祝你好運。

Thanks, Rupesh.

謝謝你，魯佩什。

John Heinbockel, Guggenheim.

約翰海因博克爾，古根漢美術館。

So guys, two operational things. What's your -- has your thought changed now that you've rolled out loyalty, how much data you're going to need, how much history, right, to really market very effectively to your base? And then secondly, how do you guys size the opportunity in in-stock, right? Because what we keep hearing, right, is that natural and organic fill rates are not anywhere near where they need to be. How can you fix that? How long will that take to address? And how big is that opportunity in in-stock?

各位，有兩件事需要注意。既然你們已經推出了會員忠誠度計劃，你們的想法是否有所改變？你們需要多少數據，多少歷史數據，才能真正有效地向你們的客戶群行銷？其次，你們如何評估現貨市場的機會？因為我們一直聽到的是，天然和有機產品的填充率遠未達到應有的水平。如何解決這個問題？這個問題需要多久才能解決？現貨市場的機會有多大？

Yes. Hi John, it's Nick. Let me tackle first the loyalty question around data and history. So listen, part of your point, the more data we get, the better we can be at personalizing and driving behavior. There's no doubt about it, right? And this is -- we mentioned loyalty is a long-term play for us to drive long-term comp, and we're going to continue to be able to create much better depth of how we personalize and more insights, the more data we get.

是的。嗨，約翰，我是尼克。首先讓我從數據和歷史的角度來探討忠誠度問題。所以聽著，你的觀點之一是，我們獲得的數據越多，我們就越能更好地進行個人化設定和引導行為。這點毋庸置疑，對吧？我們之前提到過，忠誠度是我們推動長期業績成長的長期策略，隨著我們獲得的數據越來越多，我們將能夠更好地深入了解個人化服務，並獲得更多洞察。

So you're right on there, and I'm looking forward to that over the next number of years. But I will also say we're -- as we mentioned, we're able to use the data we have to drive customer behavior and plan on doing so in '26. I think as you know, our customers are not quite as frequent as your typical maybe grocery -- conventional grocer shopper.

你說得完全正確，我期待在未來幾年看到這種情況。但我還要說，正如我們所提到的，我們能夠利用我們擁有的數據來驅動客戶行為，並計劃在 2026 年這樣做。我想您也知道，我們的顧客不像一般的雜貨店顧客那樣經常光顧。

So there's a little bit of time and just hey, getting that frequency in that basket doesn't happen as quickly when you have a super high frequency customer. But we've got enough data and tools, and we're going to continue to build it now that we're rolled out nationally to increase the level of engagement with the customer, and I think continue to drive a lot of value for them. So that's on the loyalty side. Do you want to talk about?

所以，需要一些時間，而且，對於高頻客戶來說，要達到相同的購買頻率並不會那麼快。但是我們已經擁有足夠的數據和工具，現在我們已經在全國範圍內推廣，我們將繼續完善它，以提高與客戶的互動水平，我認為我們將繼續為他們創造很多價值。這是關於忠誠度方面的情況。你想聊聊什麼？

And with regard to the supply chain and the in-stock, we've talked a lot about what we've done in meat this year. That's going to make a significant difference in terms of in-stocks in meat, and we believe that will help drive some sales in that space. Natural and organic is a very long tail, John, as you know. And that does create a challenge in terms of being as in-stock as people with less SKU count in the middle of their kind of assortment.

至於供應鏈和庫存方面，我們已經談到了今年我們在肉類方面所做的工作。這將對肉類庫存產生重大影響，我們相信這將有助於推動該領域的銷售。約翰，你知道，天然和有機產品是一個很長的市場週期。這就給庫存充足帶來了挑戰，因為庫存數量較少的商家很難像他們一樣保持充足的庫存。

We will be looking at expanding some other areas potentially on self-distribution, which we've talked about in the past. We would like to be better as Sprouts brand in terms of how we can get more in-stock on that. We think there are certain categories that we need to double down on. Having said that, we are working very hard with our partners to get better forecasting and better anticipation of how demand could be -- we could anticipate demand even better.

我們將考慮拓展一些其他領域，例如我們過去討論過的自分銷。我們希望 Sprouts 品牌能夠做得更好，例如增加該品牌產品的庫存。我們認為在某些領域需要加大投入。話雖如此，我們正與合作夥伴努力工作，以獲得更好的預測和對需求的更準確預判——我們甚至可以更好地預測需求。

But there's certainly an upside in sales, in in-stock numbers. We haven't put a clear number to that. We have in the meat category. But in other categories, we haven't put a really clear number to it. But instinctively, there's some upside for us in that if we can get better over the years -- months and years ahead.

但銷售額和庫存數量肯定有所上升。我們還沒有給出明確的數字。我們在肉類類別。但在其他類別中，我們還沒有給出明確的數字。但從直覺上講，如果我們能在未來幾年——幾個月甚至幾年——不斷進步，這對我們來說是有利的。

All right. And maybe a follow-up, for Curtis. I know historically, right, or at least recently, right, the breakeven comp has been closer to 4%. How much do you think you can reduce that? Because you don't want to do damage to the business, right? Say, okay, we'll live with some deleverage for a while. How do you think about that trade-off?

好的。或許還需要後續報道，給柯蒂斯。我知道從歷史角度來看，或至少最近一段時間來看，損益平衡點接近 4%。你認為你能減少多少？因為你不想對公司造成傷害，對吧？好吧，我們可以暫時接受一定的去槓桿化局面。你如何看待這種權衡？

Yes. I think it's a good call out. I think we do think about it, in the shorter term, we feel like we can manage around it with some of the levers that we've created with the investments we've made. Certainly, longer term, it's hard at zero to two for a long period of time. We don't expect to be there for a long period of time. And so we believe it will be a bit of a short-term phenomenon as we go up against the numbers from last year.

是的。我覺得這是一個很好的提醒。我認為我們確實考慮過這個問題，短期內，我們覺得可以透過我們透過投資所創造的一些手段來應對。當然，從長遠來看，長時間維持零到兩歲的水平是很困難的。我們預計不會在那裡停留很長時間。因此，我們認為這只是一種短期現象，因為我們需要與去年的數據進行比較。

Again, we're working on our cost capability and how we get -- as we scale and we get more efficient and we get a little bit more automated through process and things like that. There should be some opportunities for us to better manage costs. And so that's how we'll be thinking about it, and we'll be exercising those levers here in the very near term while we get the comp momentum going again with the building blocks for '26.

再次強調，我們正在努力提高成本控制能力，以及隨著規模擴大、效率提高、流程自動化程度提高等等，我們如何能更好地控製成本。我們應該有一些機會來更好地控製成本。所以，我們會這樣考慮，在不久的將來，我們會運用這些手段，同時為 2026 年的比賽打好基礎，重新推動競爭勢頭。

Thank you.

謝謝。

Robbie Ohmes, Bank of America.

羅比‧奧姆斯，美國銀行。

Hey, thanks for taking my question. You guys gave thoughts on fourth quarter gross margin being up a little. When you guys come up against the tough comparisons in the first half of '26, any thoughts you can give us on gross margin puts and takes as you go through that?

嘿，謝謝你回答我的問題。你們都對第四季毛利率略有上升發表了看法。當你們在 2026 年上半年面臨嚴峻的業績對比時，你們對毛利率的走勢有什麼看法？

I think, Robbie, it's a little bit early to be talking about '26, and I want to go through our planning process and work through that. I'll just say that we talk about stable margins. And when I think about the full year for '26, I don't see a reason why we won't be talking about that when we get there. We've got a -- we've invested in levers to help manage around some of the pressures we're facing right now.

羅比，我覺得現在談論 2026 年還為時過早，我想先完成我們的規劃流程，好好研究一下。我只想說，我們討論的是穩定的利潤率。當我想到 2026 年全年時，我看不出我們到了那時為什麼不會討論這件事。我們已經投入資源，採取措施來應對我們目前面臨的一些壓力。

And then we'll continue to invest in some things. And so there'll always be a bit of a put and take as it relates to the EBIT margin. We like the idea of stable, but we're not going to get too specific yet on first half, second half, those types of things.

然後我們會繼續在一些領域進行投資。因此，在息稅前利潤率方面，總是會有一些權衡取捨。我們喜歡「穩定」這個概念，但對於上半年、下半年之類的具體細節，我們暫時還不會下定論。

Got you. That's helpful. And then just another follow-up on the kind of pressure on the consumer you're seeing. How narrow is it? Is it a -- is it just the, say, 25- to 35-year-old demographic that you guys are seeing some of the pressures? And maybe related to that, separate from the loyalty program, is there anything on the marketing side that you might need to change to get momentum going again?

抓到你了。那很有幫助。然後，我想再跟進一下您目前看到的消費者所面臨的壓力。它有多窄？你們是不是只在 25 歲到 35 歲這個年齡的人群中感受到一些壓力？或許與此相關的是，除了會員忠誠度計劃之外，在行銷方面，您是否需要做出一些改變來重新激發市場動能？

Yes, I mean I think the pressure on the consumer, I'll speak to that, and then I'll turn it over to Nick on the second question. But from a consumer pressure perspective, I mean, I think that's building everywhere is what you see in the macro, a little bit more in the kind of lower and middle income is what you read about and what you hear. I think those are the things where we just see that be a little bit outsized in those spaces.

是的，我的意思是，我認為消費者面臨的壓力，我會談談這一點，然後我會把第二個問題交給尼克回答。但從消費者壓力的角度來看，我認為這種壓力正在各個方面不斷增強，這是你在宏觀層面上看到的，而在中低收入群體中則更為明顯，這是你讀到和聽到的。我認為在這些空間裡，我們看到的就是那些尺寸略顯過大的東西。

So again, I talked about middle-income trade areas, younger demographics. It's just a little more pronounced in those, but I think the pressure is there for everybody and everyone is trying to figure out how they manage through that in a dynamic environment.

所以，我再次談到了中等收入貿易區和年輕的人口結構。只是在這些情況下，這種壓力更加明顯一些，但我認為每個人都面臨著壓力，每個人都在努力弄清楚如何在動態的環境中應對這種壓力。

Yes. Robbie, it's Nick. And then to the second part of your question there on the marketing side. I think we have a great story to tell, but we're always testing, learning how well we're telling it. I think to your point, I think we can always tighten up our value proposition. Right now, it's a good chance to continue to just refine what makes us unique. It's about innovation, freshness, quality and health.

是的。羅比，我是尼克。然後回答你問題的第二部分，也就是行銷方面的問題。我認為我們有一個很棒的故事要講，但我們一直在測試、學習如何更好地講述這個故事。我同意你的觀點，我認為我們總是能進一步完善我們的價值主張。現在正是繼續完善我們獨特優勢的好機會。它關乎創新、新鮮、品質和健康。

And I think if we hit those at the great prices and fair prices that we have, I think we'll be in a good place. So we're always testing, but I don't think there's any significant changes or pivots other than what we always do, which is look at how well we're telling our story and then where we're spending the money by channel and location to maximize it.

我認為，如果我們能以目前的優惠價格和合理價格來銷售這些產品，我們就能取得不錯的成績。所以我們一直在進行測試，但我認為除了我們一直以來所做的——看看我們講述故事的效果如何，以及我們按渠道和地點把錢花在哪里以最大化其效果——之外，沒有任何重大變化或轉變。

Got it. Thanks so much.

知道了。非常感謝。

Thanks, Robbie.

謝謝你，羅比。

Scott Mushkin, R5 Capital.

Scott Mushkin，R5 Capital。

Hey guys, thanks for taking my questions. So I guess I wanted to get back to the competitive environment a little bit. Our research, both research and consulting work, we've done a lot of work down in Texas, in particular, market for you guys that says the produce area has become hypercompetitive.

各位好，感謝你們回答我的問題。所以我想我是想稍微回歸一下競爭環境。我們的研究，包括研究和諮詢工作，我們在德州做了很多工作，特別是針對你們的市場，這表明農產品領域已經變得競爭異常激烈。

And I guess I was wondering, where do you think you guys are priced if we're going to look specifically at the fresh basket? And who do you think you're actually competing with? In other words, if the traditional market goes hypercompetitive, is that something you actually need to react to?

我想問的是，如果我們專門來看新鮮食材籃的話，你們覺得你們的價格是多少？那你覺得你真正的競爭對手是誰？換句話說，如果傳統市場競爭異常激烈，這真的是你需要處理的事情嗎？

We watch our -- we talk regularly, Scott, we watch produce pricing more attentively than anything else. And Texas has become a more aggressive market with H-E-B's expansion into Dallas. We're having a great time opening new store. I'm delighted with our Dallas performance alongside H-E-B. We're doing really well in terms of how those new stores are opening, and we're having success in San Antonio and Austin as well.

我們會密切關注——我們經常討論，斯科特，我們比其他任何事情都更關注農產品價格。隨著 H-E-B 進軍達拉斯市場，德州的市場競爭變得更加激烈。新店開幕讓我們非常開心。我對我們與 H-E-B 在達拉斯的合作表現非常滿意。新店開幕情況非常好，我們在聖安東尼奧和奧斯汀也取得了成功。

We watch the Texas market closely. It is more competitive on produce than other parts of the country. We've got a fairly significant price gap on most grocery competitors around the country. Texas is more competitive, and we're watching that closely.

我們密切關注德克薩斯州市場。該地區農產品競爭比國內其他地區更為激烈。我們在價格上比全國大多數競爭對手都更有優勢。德州的競爭更加激烈，我們正在密切關注。

When you look at the rest of the country, produce remains a competitive advantage for us going forward, and we focus on that a lot as it's such a direct comparison. But we're feeling pretty good about our produce pricing going forward. There's a lot of volatility in it, as you know, and people are -- I don't see it getting any more aggressive from a margin point of view outside of Texas going forward.

從全國其他地區來看，農產品仍然是我們未來的競爭優勢，我們非常重視這一點，因為這是一個非常直接的比較。但我們對未來的農產品定價前景相當樂觀。正如你所知，其中波動性很大，而且人們——從保證金的角度來看，我認為除了德克薩斯州以外，未來不會出現更激進的情況。

Okay. And then, Jack, when you think about your competitive set, again, some of our research suggests that Amazon proper has gotten very aggressive again on pricing of everyday essentials. If you think about Whole Foods, do you think of them as a direct competitor? I guess you would, but I mean, how sensitive are you to things that they are doing, competitive?

好的。傑克，再想想你的競爭對手，我們的一些研究表明，亞馬遜在日常必需品的定價方面又變得非常激進了。提到全食超市，你會把它視為直接競爭對手嗎？我想你會的，但我的意思是，你對他們的競爭行為有多敏感？

We watch it very close. Yes, sorry, I'll let you finish the question, Scott.

我們會密切注意。好的，抱歉，史考特，我讓你把問題問完。

No, that was it.

不，就是這樣。

Okay. Well, we do watch those guys very closely and very intently because they do sell a lot of things that we sell. But we've got very clear data over what they overlap with those guys, and we're not seeing any significant change in the stores that are facing those guys than in the stores across the rest of the country. And you kind of touched on what I think Amazon (inaudible) Whole Foods are doing, which is chasing after maybe the 365, maybe the more entry point prices.

好的。嗯，我們確實非常密切地關注著這些人，因為他們銷售的很多東西和我們銷售的東西很相似。但我們掌握了非常清晰的數據，表明它們與那些競爭對手的重疊部分，而且我們發現，與全國其他地區的商店相比，與那些競爭對手對面的商店並沒有任何顯著變化。你剛才也提到了我認為亞馬遜（聽不清楚）和全食超市正在做的事情，那就是追逐365，或許是更入門的價格。

So it's drifting away into trying to get the full basket from people. We're very much a complementary retailer and are in the space that if we keep differentiating ourselves, we're feeling pretty confident that that's the right place for us to be. And we keep watching it very closely. And we're not getting overexcited about what's happening in any of our competitors at the moment.

所以它逐漸演變成試圖從人們身上榨取全部利益。我們是一家互補型零售商，我們所在的領域，如果我們能夠不斷脫穎而出，我們非常有信心，這對我們來說是正確的選擇。我們會密切關注事態發展。我們目前對任何競爭對手的動向並不感到特別興奮。

Alright, perfect, Jack, thanks very much for taking the questions.

好的，太好了，傑克，非常感謝你回答這些問題。

Thanks, Scott.

謝謝你，斯科特。

Scott Marks, Jefferies.

斯科特馬克斯，傑富瑞集團。

Hey, good afternoon, thanks guys for taking questions. First thing I wanted to ask about is last quarter, you had called out a cannibalization factor with new stores impacting existing markets. Given that new stores are performing well for your commentary, wondering if you can just update that and update us on how you're thinking about that dynamic.

嘿，下午好，謝謝各位回答問題。首先我想問的是，上個季度您曾指出新店開幕會對現有市場造成蠶食效應。鑑於新店表現良好，我想請您更新一下這方面的信息，並告訴我們您是如何看待這種變化的。

Hey, Scott, this is Curtis. Yes, I think it's still in the same general range. I think we talked about 125-ish basis points, 125 to 150, and that's kind of what we've seen. Certainly, as we ramp up the number of new stores, that will continue to grow a bit, but that's about the range we've seen. And we've had some strong openings, particularly in some dense areas that have had some larger cannibalizations, but it's in line with our expectations and not a huge change from quarter-to-quarter.

嘿，斯科特，我是柯蒂斯。是的，我認為它仍然在大致相同的範圍內。我想我們討論的是 125 個基點左右，125 到 150 個基點，而我們看到的情況也差不多是這樣。當然，隨著我們增加新店數量，這個數字還會繼續增加一些，但這就是我們目前看到的範圍。我們取得了一些強勁的開局，尤其是在一些競爭激烈的密集地區，但這與我們的預期相符，而且季度之間的變化並不大。

Okay. Appreciate that. And then next question from me. Maybe you're a little bit less exposed to that, but just wondering SNAP spend, how exposed is your business to that? And have you seen any impacts given some of the policy changes and obviously, the government shutdown having a potential to impact that?

好的。謝謝。接下來，我要問一個問題。或許你受到的影響較小，但我只是好奇，就 SNAP 支出而言，你的企業受到的影響有多大？鑑於一些政策變化，以及政府停擺可能產生的影響，您是否看到任何影響？

Yes. So certainly, again, not going to be helpful from a consumer perspective. Our SNAP is about -- it's somewhere between 2% and 3% is historically where it's been. So it's a limited impact to us. I think we're just starting to see the effects of that, both from either a shutdown perspective or SNAP. I think that's happening kind of in real time in the last several weeks. So I don't think it's a huge impact to our business, but it's certainly not helping.

是的。所以，從消費者的角度來看，這絕對不會有任何幫助。我們的 SNAP 計劃覆蓋率大約在 2% 到 3% 之間，這在歷史上一直如此。所以對我們的影響有限。我認為我們現在才剛開始看到這些影響，無論是從政府停擺的角度來看，還是從食品券（SNAP）的角度來看。我認為這種情況在過去幾週正在實時發生。所以我認為這對我們的業務影響不大，但肯定沒有幫助。

Appreciate it. I'll pass it on. Thanks so much.

謝謝。我會轉達的。非常感謝。

Benjamin Wood, BMO Capital.

班傑明·伍德，BMO資本。

I think this might be for Kelly Bania from BMO. I'm not sure how that happened. I wanted to talk about the promotional strategy. It seems like to us that the messaging is more aggressive with respect to price and promotion lately as opposed to the shift over the last few years, which has been to lean more on product attributes and seasonal highlights.

我覺得這可能是給BMO的凱莉·巴尼亞的。我不太清楚是怎麼發生的。我想談談推廣策略。在我們看來，最近的行銷訊息在價格和促銷方面更加激進，這與過去幾年更加重視產品特性和季節性亮點的做法截然不同。

Is that accurate? Is there any change in response to the comp trajectory from a promotional strategy? And is there any -- can you talk about how your consumers are responding to promotions today? Is there any difference in how that has been progressing through the quarter or into the quarter-to-date period in October?

準確嗎？促銷策略是否會根據競爭對手的趨勢做出相對調整？您能否談談您的消費者目前對促銷活動的反應？從本季到 10 月份，情況是否有任何不同？

Hi Kelly, thanks for the question. It's Nick. Overall, we're not changing our pricing or promotional philosophy in any consequential way. As I mentioned, for us, the customers continue to tell us they define value through quality, innovation, freshness and health, and that's what we continue to lean in on.

嗨，凱莉，謝謝你的提問。是尼克。整體而言，我們的定價或促銷理念不會發生任何實質改變。正如我之前提到的，顧客們一直告訴我們，他們透過品質、創新、新鮮和健康來定義價值，而這正是我們繼續努力的方向。

We have a handful of key events that we do every quarter or so, things like our organic sale or vitamin sale. We do a BOGO event. And within those, we certainly try to promote the things that we know are most important to the customer, and we will play around at times with price points or messaging to try to learn what's happening with the customer. But overall, we're not having any significant changes in our strategy.

我們大約每季都會舉辦一些重要的活動，例如有機食品促銷或維生素促銷。我們舉辦買一送一活動。在這些方面，我們當然會努力推廣我們知道對客戶來說最重要的東西，我們有時也會嘗試調整價格點或宣傳訊息，以了解客戶的想法。但總體而言，我們的策略不會發生任何重大變化。

And I think I want to also make clear we're not changing how we manage to our margins or our overall value proposition to the customer. So I think you're going to see us be pretty consistent. And as the onset of our personalization capability. I think that gives us another lever to target our price promotional spend to drive better return and take care of our best customers.

我想澄清一點，我們不會改變我們的利潤管理方式，也不會改變我們為客戶提供的整體價值主張。所以我認為你會看到我們保持相當穩定的表現。而這標誌著我們個性化能力的開端。我認為這為我們提供了另一個槓桿，可以更有針對性地控制價格促銷支出，從而獲得更好的回報，並更好地服務我們最尊貴的客戶。

And I guess maybe just a follow-up on that. If this consumer softness were to continue, would you reconsider your level of promotional activity at all, particularly for this customer that seems to be most sensitive to whatever is going on right now?

我想或許可以就此做個後續說明。如果消費者的這種疲軟情緒持續下去，您是否會重新考慮您的促銷活動力度，特別是針對這位似乎對當前情況最為敏感的客戶？

Yes. With what we're seeing right now, no, we wouldn't. I mean, like I said, we are always looking at -- Jack mentioned earlier, we're always monitoring our pricing on produce and our key items and the competition and making adjustments as we think we need to based on the dynamics of the local market items.

是的。就目前的情況來看，不，我們不會。我的意思是，就像我剛才說的，我們一直在關注——傑克之前提到過——我們一直在監控農產品和主要商品的定價以及競爭對手的情況，並根據當地市場商品的動態，在我們認為需要的時候做出調整。

But from a broad strategic standpoint, no, we don't see that. And we just don't see the same impact doing that, that maybe others do because of who our customer is. And again, what we want to win in the marketplace is winning with the areas I just mentioned.

但從宏觀策略角度來看，不，我們並不這麼認為。但我們並沒有看到這樣做會產生和其他人可能看到的影響一樣的影響，因為我們的客戶群比較特殊。再次強調，我們想要在市場上取得成功，就是在剛才我提到的這些領域取得成功。

Chuck Cerankosky, Northcoast Research.

Chuck Cerankosky，北海岸研究公司。

Good evening, everyone. To what degree, if any, would Sprouts slow down new store openings to deal with an increased level of shopper caution?

各位晚上好。如果消費者購物謹慎程度增加，Sprouts 會在多大程度上（如果有的話）放緩新店開業速度？

Yes. I think, Chuck, I think we're really positive with the way the new stores are responding as we've called out a couple of times throughout. We're seeing really strong openings. We're seeing really good comps out of the second, third, fourth year vintages, and that's continued. We're continuing to get markers here on '24 vintages as they get into the comp base here in Q4 and into next year.

是的。查克，我認為我們對新店的反應非常樂觀，正如我們之前多次提到的。我們看到開盤情況非常強勁。我們看到第二年、第三年、第四年的葡萄酒品質都非常出色，而且這種趨勢還在持續。隨著 2024 年份葡萄酒在第四季和明年進入競爭基準期，我們將繼續獲得相關指標。

But the results have been positive there. The customer is telling us they're looking for Sprouts and a Sprouts-like solution, and we're excited to get into as many communities as we can. Over the long term, we'll see how the pipeline plays out and those types of things. But right now, we're pretty bullish on the white space and pretty bullish on the performance we've seen.

但那裡的結果是正面的。客戶告訴我們，他們正在尋找 Sprouts 和類似 Sprouts 的解決方案，我們很高興能夠進入盡可能多的社區。長遠來看，我們會觀察這條管道的運作情況以及這類事情的發展。但就目前而言，我們對空白市場和我們所看到的業績都非常看好。

We've got a clear purpose to help people live -- we've got a very clear purpose to help people live and eat better. And the opportunity that we've got to do that by taking our brand across the country into places where they don't exist is a key part of what we want to achieve going forward.

我們有一個明確的目標，就是幫助人們生活得更好——我們有一個非常明確的目標，就是幫助人們生活得更好，吃得更好。而我們有機會將我們的品牌帶到全國各地，進入那些我們品牌尚未涉足的地方，這是我們未來想要實現的關鍵目標之一。

And we're absolutely delighted by the way new stores are opening and the teams that are making this happen are doing a terrific job, and we're continuing to grow on it. And we have absolutely no intention of backing off from that. At the moment, really excited about our new stores, and it really fulfills the purpose of what everyone here is working to try and do, and we're excited about it going forward.

我們對新店的開幕方式感到非常高興，為此付出努力的團隊也做得非常出色，我們正在此基礎上不斷發展壯大。我們絕對沒有退縮的打算。目前，我們對我們的新店感到非常興奮，它真正實現了我們所有人努力的目標，我們對未來的發展充滿期待。

Good. Thank you. Do you sense any need to maybe promote a little differently or more aggressively with some of the new stores as they debut?

好的。謝謝。您是否覺得有必要在一些新店開業時採取不同的推廣方式或更積極的推廣策略？

Well, I think -- I think the new stores are opening really well because I think we're getting better and better understanding where to build new stores, the models that we're building about where exactly the health enthusiast customers are, are working well. And the marketing team have done a really nice job in different locations, communicating the values and what we have and grow the business within each market.

嗯，我認為——我認為新店開業情況非常好，因為我認為我們越來越了解在哪裡開設新店，我們正在建立的關於健康愛好者顧客確切所在位置的模式也運作良好。行銷團隊在各地都做得非常出色，有效地傳達了我們的價值觀和產品，並促進了各個市場的業務成長。

We're a pretty unique business, 24 states, relatively small business, and we're going to get to a lot more states over the next year or two as we -- as Curtis talked about in the Midwest and the Northeast corridor. So we're going to have to think about having a different marketing approach by market, but not in terms of promotional approach. We're not going to be doing big aggressive things to drive people into the store.

我們是一家非常獨特的企業，業務遍及 24 個州，規模相對較小，而且在接下來的一兩年裡，我們將進入更多州，正如柯蒂斯在中西部和東北走廊地區所說的那樣。因此，我們需要考慮根據市場採取不同的行銷方式，但促銷方式則不必改變。我們不會採取激進的措施來吸引顧客進店。

Chuck, I'd just add one of the things that's been really positive in the way that we've marketed those new stores is more about getting -- it's getting into the local community and getting more local earlier in the process to really build some excitement around the store and some enthusiasm in the local community.

查克，我還要補充一點，我們在推廣這些新店方面取得的積極成果之一，就是更早地融入當地社區，在過程中更多地關注本地情況，從而真正為新店營造一些興奮感，並在當地社區激發一些熱情。

And so again, it's just about telling our story. It's about engaging with the community, and we've seen a lot of positive traction when we've showed up in some new places.

所以，歸根結底，這只是在講述我們的故事。關鍵在於與社區互動，當我們出現在一些新地方時，我們已經看到了許多正面的迴響。

Great, thank you.

太好了，謝謝。

I see no further questions in the queue at this time. I would now like to turn the call back over to Jack for closing remarks.

目前我看到隊列中沒有其他問題了。現在我想把電話交還給傑克，請他做總結發言。

Well, thanks, everybody, for taking the time and showing so much -- asking such great questions and showing so much attention to our company, and we look forward to continuing the dialogue with you going forward. Thanks again. Take care.

非常感謝大家抽出時間，並給予我們如此多的關注——提出了許多很好的問題，並對我們公司表現出了極大的興趣，我們期待著今後繼續與大家進行對話。再次感謝。小心。

This concludes today's conference call. Thank you for participating, and you may now disconnect.

今天的電話會議到此結束。感謝您的參與，您現在可以斷開連接了。