TJX Companies Inc (TJX) 2023 Q2 法說會逐字稿

Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for standing by. Welcome to The TJX Companies Second Quarter Fiscal 2023 Financial Results Conference Call. (Operator Instructions) As a reminder, this conference call is being recorded, August 17, 2022.

女士們，先生們，謝謝你們的支持。歡迎來到 TJX 公司 2023 財年第二季度財務業績電話會議。 （操作員說明）提醒一下，本次電話會議將於 2022 年 8 月 17 日進行錄音。

I would like to turn the conference call over to Mr. Ernie Herrman, Chief Executive Officer and President of The TJX Companies, Inc. Please go ahead, sir.

我想將電話會議轉交給 The TJX Companies, Inc 的首席執行官兼總裁 Ernie Herrman 先生。先生，請繼續。

Thanks, Sheila. Before we begin, Deb has some opening comments.

謝謝，希拉。在我們開始之前，Deb 有一些開場白。

Thank you, Ernie, and good morning. The forward-looking statements we make today about the company's results and plans are subject to risks and uncertainties that could cause the actual results and the implementation of the company's plans to vary materially. These risks are discussed in the company's SEC filings, including, without limitation, the Form 10-K filed March 30, 2022. Further, these comments and the Q&A that follows are copyrighted today by The TJX Companies, Inc. Any recording, retransmission, reproduction or other use of the same for profit or otherwise without prior consent of TJX is prohibited and a violation of United States copyright and other laws.

謝謝你，厄尼，早上好。我們今天就公司的業績和計劃做出的前瞻性陳述受到風險和不確定性的影響，可能導致實際結果和公司計劃的實施發生重大變化。這些風險在公司提交給美國證券交易委員會的文件中進行了討論，包括但不限於 2022 年 3 月 30 日提交的 10-K 表格。此外，這些評論和隨後的問答今天由 TJX Companies, Inc. 擁有版權。任何記錄、轉發、未經 TJX 事先同意，禁止以營利或其他方式複製或以其他方式使用相同內容，這違反了美國版權和其他法律。

Additionally, while we have approved the publishing of a transcript of this call by a third party, we take no responsibility for inaccuracies that may appear in that transcript. We have detailed the impact of foreign exchange on our consolidated results and our international divisions in today's press release and the Investors section of our website, tjx.com. Reconciliations of the non-GAAP measures we discuss today to GAAP measures are posted on our website, tjx.com, in the Investors section.

此外，雖然我們已批准第三方發布此通話的記錄，但我們對該記錄中可能出現的不准確不承擔任何責任。我們在今天的新聞稿和我們網站 tjx.com 的投資者部分詳細介紹了外匯對我們綜合業績和國際部門的影響。我們今天討論的非 GAAP 措施與 GAAP 措施的對賬已發佈在我們網站 tjx.com 的“投資者”部分。

Thank you. And now I'll turn it back over to Ernie.

謝謝你。現在我將把它交給厄尼。

Good morning. Joining me and Deb on the call is Scott Goldenberg. I'll start today by once again thanking each of our global associates for their hard work. I truly appreciate their commitment to bringing our customers excellent value every day.

早上好。加入我和 Deb 的電話是 Scott Goldenberg。今天，我將再次感謝我們每一位全球員工的辛勤工作。我非常感謝他們每天為我們的客戶帶來卓越價值的承諾。

Now to our results. I am very pleased with our second quarter pretax profit margin, which was above our plan and our earnings per share, which are at the high end of our plan. This is despite U.S. comp sales coming in lighter than we expected as we believe historically high inflation impacted consumer discretionary spending. We achieved the strong profitability through better-than-expected merchandise margin and disciplined expense management.

現在來看我們的結果。我對我們第二季度的稅前利潤率感到非常滿意，這超出了我們的計劃和我們的每股收益，這是我們計劃的高端。儘管美國的複合銷售低於我們的預期，因為我們認為歷史上的高通脹影響了非必需消費品支出。我們通過好於預期的商品利潤率和嚴格的費用管理實現了強勁的盈利能力。

I can't emphasize enough how this quarter is a testament to how great our business model is. Our teams executed our off-price fundamentals extremely well, and our merchants did an excellent job buying the right merchandise in the right categories. Across the company, our talented associates all played a part in delivering great value to our customers every day and helped our company drive strong profitability in the quarter.

我無法強調本季度如何證明我們的商業模式有多棒。我們的團隊非常出色地執行了我們的折扣基本面，我們的商家在購買正確類別的正確商品方面做得非常出色。在整個公司中，我們才華橫溢的員工每天都在為我們的客戶創造巨大價值方面發揮了作用，並幫助我們公司在本季度實現了強勁的盈利能力。

As we enter the second half of the year, we see the flexibility of our business and our value proposition as key advantages in the current retail landscape. While we're not immune to macro factors, over our 46-year history, the flexibility of our off-price model and our commitment to value have served us very well in different kinds of macro environments. We attract a wide range of customers, which we believe is a key advantage in today's environment. Long term, we remain very confident in our plans to capture market share and improve the profitability profile of TJX.

隨著我們進入下半年，我們將業務的靈活性和價值主張視為當前零售格局的關鍵優勢。雖然我們不能免受宏觀因素的影響，但在我們 46 年的歷史中，我們的折扣模式的靈活性和我們對價值的承諾在不同類型的宏觀環境中為我們提供了很好的服務。我們吸引了廣泛的客戶，我們認為這是當今環境下的一個關鍵優勢。從長遠來看，我們對奪取市場份額和改善 TJX 盈利能力的計劃仍然充滿信心。

I'll talk more about our opportunities for the remainder of 2022 and beyond in a moment. But before I continue, I'll turn the call over to Scott to cover our second quarter financial results in more detail.

我稍後會更多地談論我們在 2022 年剩餘時間及以後的機會。但在我繼續之前，我將把電話轉給斯科特，以更詳細地介紹我們第二季度的財務業績。

Thanks, Ernie, and good morning, everyone. I'd like to echo Ernie's comments and thank all of our global associates for their continued dedication to TJX.

謝謝，厄尼，大家早上好。我想回應 Ernie 的評論，並感謝我們所有的全球員工對 TJX 的持續奉獻。

I'll start with some additional details on the second quarter. Second quarter consolidated pretax margin of 9.2% was above our plan. We are very pleased with our strong flow-through despite our softer sales. Our pretax margin outperformance was primarily driven by merchandise margin and effective expense management, which were both better than we planned. Pretax margin was down 150 basis points versus last year's adjusted 10.7%. Merchandise margin had a significant benefit from a combination of strong mark-on and our pricing initiative, but was down due to 240 basis points of incremental freight pressure.

我將從第二季度的一些其他細節開始。第二季度綜合稅前利潤率為 9.2%，高於我們的計劃。儘管銷售疲軟，但我們對強勁的流通量感到非常滿意。我們的稅前利潤率表現出色主要是由商品利潤率和有效的費用管理推動的，這兩個方面都比我們計劃的要好。稅前利潤率較去年調整後的 10.7% 下降 150 個基點。商品利潤率從強大的加價和我們的定價計劃中獲得了顯著的收益，但由於貨運壓力增加了 240 個基點而下降。

Incremental wage costs were 80 basis points. Second quarter U.S. comp store sales decreased 5% over an outsized 21% open-only comp increase last year versus fiscal '20, which when summed together would be a 16% comp increase on a 3-year stack basis.

增量工資成本為 80 個基點。與 20 財年相比，去年第二季度美國店面銷售額下降了 5%，而去年僅開放式店面銷售額增長了 21%，加起來將是 3 年堆棧基礎上的 16% 的銷售額增長。

Moving on, we are very pleased that our comp sales in our overall apparel business at Marmaxx were slightly positive every month of the quarter. U.S. home comp sales were down low teens versus a 37% U.S. home open-only comp increase last year and were the primary driver of the U.S. softer -- of the softer U.S. sales trends we saw.

繼續前進，我們很高興我們在 Marmaxx 的整體服裝業務中的銷售額在本季度每個月都略有增長。美國房屋銷售量下降了十幾歲，而去年美國家庭開放式房屋銷售增加了 37%，並且是美國疲軟的主要驅動力——我們看到的美國銷售趨勢疲軟。

For the second quarter, U.S. average basket was up driven by a higher average ticket, and U.S. customer traffic was down. Lastly, earnings per share of $0.69 were at the high end of our plan.

第二季度，美國平均購物籃因平均票價上漲而上升，美國客流量下降。最後，每股 0.69 美元的收益處於我們計劃的高端。

Now to our divisional results. At Marmaxx, second quarter segment profit was 12.9%. Comp store sales decreased 2% versus an 18% open-only comp increase last year. Again, it was great to see their overall apparel comps slightly positive. While customer traffic was down, we saw an increase in Marmaxx's average basket driven by a higher average ticket.

現在來看看我們的分區結果。在 Marmaxx，第二季度部門利潤為 12.9%。對比店銷售額下降了 2%，而去年僅開放式零售店的銷售額增長了 18%。再次，很高興看到他們的整體服裝組合略有積極。雖然客戶流量下降，但我們看到 Marmaxx 的平均購物籃因平均票價上漲而有所增加。

At HomeGoods, second quarter segment profit of 2.7% was hurt by nearly 800 basis points of incremental freight costs. Comp store sales decreased 13% versus a 36% open-only comp increase last year when we saw outsized spending in home-related categories. HomeGoods average basket increased significantly driven by a higher average ticket, and customer traffic decreased.

在 HomeGoods，第二季度 2.7% 的利潤受到近 800 個基點的增加貨運成本的影響。去年，當我們看到與家庭相關的類別出現巨額支出時，Comp store 銷售額下降了 13%，而去年僅開放的 comp 增長了 36%。 HomeGoods 的平均購物籃在平均票價上漲的推動下顯著增加，而客流量下降。

We were very pleased with the improvement in profitability we saw at our international divisions. At TJX Canada, second quarter segment profit margin of 15.8% exceeded their pre-COVID Q2 fiscal '20 level. Overall sales increased 22% and benefited from having stores open all quarter this year. On a constant currency basis, TJX Canada sales were up 28% in the second quarter.

我們對我們在國際部門看到的盈利能力的提高感到非常高興。在 TJX Canada，第二季度 15.8% 的分部利潤率超過了 20 財年第二季度之前的水平。整體銷售額增長了 22%，並受益於今年整個季度的門店開業。按固定匯率計算，TJX Canada 第二季度的銷售額增長了 28%。

At TJX International, second quarter segment margin up 7% was significantly higher than the first quarter and also exceeded their pre-COVID Q2 fiscal '20 level. Overall sales decreased 7%. This sales decline is entirely due to the impact of foreign exchange. On a constant currency basis, TJX International sales were up 6% in the second quarter.

在 TJX International，第二季度分部利潤率增長了 7%，明顯高於第一季度，也超過了 20 財年第二季度之前的水平。整體銷售額下降了 7%。這種銷售額下降完全是由於外彙的影響。按固定匯率計算，TJX International 第二季度的銷售額增長了 6%。

As to e-commerce, it remains a very small percentage of our overall sales. We continue to add new brands and categories to our sites so shoppers can see something every -- something new every time they visit.

至於電子商務，它在我們的整體銷售額中仍然只佔很小的比例。我們繼續向我們的網站添加新的品牌和類別，以便購物者每次訪問時都能看到新的東西。

Moving to inventory. Our balance sheet inventory was up 39% versus the second quarter last year. On a per-store basis, inventory is up 35% on a constant currency basis. We are very comfortable with our balance sheet and store inventory levels. Importantly, overall store inventory turns are better than our pre-pandemic levels.

轉移到庫存。與去年第二季度相比，我們的資產負債表庫存增加了 39%。在每家商店的基礎上，按固定匯率計算，庫存增加了 35%。我們對我們的資產負債表和商店庫存水平感到非常滿意。重要的是，商店的整體庫存周轉率好於我們大流行前的水平。

I'll finish with our liquidity and shareholder distributions. During the second quarter, we generated $641 million of operating cash flow and ended the quarter with $3.5 billion in cash. In the second quarter, we returned over $1 billion to shareholders through our buyback and dividend programs.

我將結束我們的流動性和股東分配。在第二季度，我們產生了 6.41 億美元的運營現金流，並以 35 億美元的現金結束了本季度。在第二季度，我們通過回購和股息計劃向股東返還了超過 10 億美元。

Now I will turn it back to Ernie.

現在我將把它轉回給厄尼。

Thanks, Scott. I'd like to start by sharing the key traffic, sales and profitability opportunities we see for the remainder of the year.

謝謝，斯科特。我想首先分享我們在今年剩餘時間內看到的主要流量、銷售和盈利機會。

Starting with the top line. First, we are excited about our merchandising plans for the fall and holiday season. Again, this year, we will be flowing eclectic assortments to our stores and online multiple times a week. This is a strategy that has worked well for many years and sets us apart from other retailers during the busy holiday season as shoppers can see something new every time they visit us. We are confident that we can execute on our merchandising initiatives and manage our supply chain to keep our shelves fully stocked.

從頂線開始。首先，我們對秋季和假日季節的銷售計劃感到興奮。同樣，今年，我們將每週多次向我們的商店和網上供應不拘一格的商品。這一策略多年來一直運作良好，使我們在繁忙的假日季節與其他零售商區分開來，因為購物者每次訪問我們時都能看到新的東西。我們有信心可以執行我們的銷售計劃並管理我們的供應鏈以保持我們的貨架充足。

Second, availability of merchandise across good, better and best brands is exceptional. We have plenty of open-to-buy, and I have great confidence that our buying team of more than 1,200 buyers will bring the right brands, fashions and values to our consumers throughout the years.

其次，優質、更好和最佳品牌的商品供應非常出色。我們有大量可供購買的商品，我非常有信心，我們由 1,200 多名買家組成的採購團隊將多年來為我們的消費者帶來合適的品牌、時尚和價值。

Next, we are laser-focused on driving traffic and sales with our marketing initiatives. This year, we have sharpened our messaging to reinforce our value leadership position. Each of our banners are communicating that we offer shoppers more for their money, and at the same time, deliver great brands and quality. In an environment where consumer wallets are stretched, we believe it is as important as ever to amplify our value messaging across television, digital and social media platforms.

接下來，我們將專注於通過我們的營銷計劃來推動流量和銷售。今年，我們加強了我們的信息傳遞，以鞏固我們的價值領導地位。我們的每一個橫幅都在傳達我們為購物者提供更多物有所值的服務，同時提供出色的品牌和質量。在消費者錢包捉襟見肘的環境中，我們認為在電視、數字和社交媒體平台上擴大我們的價值信息傳遞與以往一樣重要。

I also want to highlight that our customer satisfaction scores remain very strong. Further, we continue to attract a significant number of millennial and Gen Z shoppers, which we believe bodes well for the future.

我還想強調，我們的客戶滿意度得分仍然很高。此外，我們繼續吸引大量千禧一代和 Z 世代購物者，我們認為這對未來來說是個好兆頭。

Moving to profitability. We are extremely pleased that we are able to increase our full year pretax margin guidance in this environment, giving us confidence of the merchandise margin opportunities we see. The buying environment is very attractive, and we believe we can continue to benefit from buying better.

轉向盈利。我們非常高興能夠在這種環境下提高全年稅前利潤率指導，讓我們對我們看到的商品利潤率機會充滿信心。購買環境非常有吸引力，我們相信我們可以繼續從更好的購買中受益。

Further, our pricing initiative is working very well. Our teams have done an outstanding job implementing this initiative over the past year, and we are very pleased that our value perception scores remain very strong. Again, we are seeing extraordinary off-price buying opportunities in the marketplace and have no issues with overall availability. We are in a terrific inventory position, and we have plenty of open-to-buy to take advantage of the current environment. This allows us to offer even more exciting merchandise and value to our shoppers, which is our top priority every day. Lastly, we remain focused on managing expenses and continue to look at ways to operate our business more efficiently.

此外，我們的定價計劃運作良好。在過去的一年裡，我們的團隊在實施這一舉措方面做得非常出色，我們很高興我們的價值感知得分仍然非常高。同樣，我們在市場上看到了非凡的低價購買機會，並且整體可用性沒有問題。我們的庫存狀況非常好，我們有大量的待購商品可以利用當前的環境。這使我們能夠為我們的購物者提供更令人興奮的商品和價值，這是我們每天的首要任務。最後，我們仍然專注於管理費用，並繼續尋找更有效地運營我們的業務的方法。

Now I'd like to remind you of the characteristics of our business that we believe strongly position us to continue our successful growth around the world over the medium and long term. First and foremost is the strong appeal of our great values, outstanding merchandise and differentiated treasure hunt shopping experience. Further, we believe the ability to touch and feel merchandise and take it home the same day is very important to consumers.

現在我想提醒您我們業務的特點，我們相信這些特點使我們能夠在中長期內繼續在全球範圍內成功增長。首先也是最重要的就是我們的超值價值、優秀的商品和差異化的尋寶購物體驗的強大吸引力。此外，我們相信能夠觸摸和感受商品並在同一天將其帶回家對消費者來說非常重要。

Second, we see an excellent opportunity to grow our global store base by at least another 1,500 stores in our current geographies. We are extremely confident that there will be more than enough real estate locations and merchandise available to support our store growth plans. Again, being one of the most flexible retailers in the world is a tremendous advantage. The flexibility of our opportunistic buying, supply chain and store format enable us to change up our floor space to expand to hot categories and trends that shoppers are looking for.

其次，我們看到了一個極好的機會，可以在我們當前的地區至少再增加 1,500 家門店，從而擴大我們的全球門店基礎。我們非常有信心，將有足夠多的房地產位置和商品來支持我們的商店增長計劃。同樣，成為世界上最靈活的零售商之一是一個巨大的優勢。我們的機會購買、供應鍊和商店形式的靈活性使我們能夠改變我們的空間，以擴展到購物者正在尋找的熱門類別和趨勢。

As to profitability beyond this year, we remain committed to returning to our pre-COVID pretax margin level of 10.6% within 3 years. We expect that across all of our divisions, our merchandise margin opportunities, the moderation of expense headwinds, particularly freight, and our focus on expense management will contribute to our improved profitability. As always, we believe driving outsized sales is our best opportunity to improve pretax margin over the long term.

至於今年以後的盈利能力，我們仍然致力於在 3 年內恢復到 COVID 之前 10.6% 的稅前利潤率水平。我們預計，在我們所有的部門中，我們的商品利潤率機會、費用逆風（尤其是運費）的緩和以及我們對費用管理的關注將有助於我們提高盈利能力。與往常一樣，我們認為推動超額銷售是我們長期提高稅前利潤率的最佳機會。

Turning to corporate responsibility. I'd like to update you on our commitment to building a more inclusive and diverse workplace. Last year, we completed our global associate inclusion and diversity survey. This was an important step, and we used the findings to help to find 3 global inclusion and diversity priorities for the company: increase the representation of diverse associates throughout all levels of our talent pipeline; equip leaders with the tools to support difference with awareness, fairness, sensitivity and transparency; and empower all associates to integrate inclusive behaviors, language and practices and how we work together and understand our role and responsibility and inclusion.

轉向企業責任。我想向您介紹我們致力於打造更具包容性和多元化的工作場所的最新情況。去年，我們完成了全球員工包容性和多元化調查。這是重要的一步，我們利用調查結果幫助公司確定了 3 個全球包容性和多元化優先事項：在我們人才管道的各個層面增加多元化員工的代表性；為領導者提供工具，以提高認識、公平、敏感和透明的差異；並授權所有員工整合包容性行為、語言和實踐以及我們如何合作，並了解我們的角色、責任和包容性。

We have a number of initiatives underway to help support these priorities. For example, we have introduced a new leadership, competency and cultural factor focused on inclusion. In addition, associate resource groups similar to those we have in the U.S. have launched and are now active in both Canada and Europe. Also, teams throughout the organization have set up committees to better incorporate inclusion/diversity into our everyday work.

我們正在採取一些舉措來幫助支持這些優先事項。例如，我們引入了專注於包容性的新領導力、能力和文化因素。此外，類似於我們在美國的聯合資源組已經啟動，現在在加拿大和歐洲都很活躍。此外，整個組織的團隊都成立了委員會，以更好地將包容性/多樣性融入我們的日常工作中。

In our communities, we continue to support a number of organizations that work with Black communities and other communities of color. In addition, we have deepened relationships with some nonprofit partners in the U.S. to expand our reach to diverse students for recruitment efforts. We appreciate that this is a work in progress, and we remain committed to our global priorities and helping associates feel welcome, valued and engaged.

在我們的社區中，我們繼續支持許多與黑人社區和其他有色人種社區合作的組織。此外，我們加深了與美國一些非營利合作夥伴的關係，以擴大我們對不同學生的招聘範圍。我們感謝這是一項正在進行的工作，我們將繼續致力於我們的全球優先事項，並幫助員工感到受歡迎、受到重視和參與。

In closing, I want to emphasize my confidence in the future of TJX. We have a long track record of successfully operating through many different types of economic and retail environments. We believe value is as important as ever to consumers, and delivering great value has been our mission for over 45 years. We are very confident in the power of our off-price buying and pricing initiative while maintaining our value gap with other retailers, as always.

最後，我想強調我對 TJX 未來的信心。我們擁有在許多不同類型的經濟和零售環境中成功運營的長期記錄。我們相信價值對消費者來說和以往一樣重要，45 多年來，我們一直以提供巨大的價值為使命。我們對我們的折扣購買和定價計劃的力量非常有信心，同時一如既往地保持與其他零售商的價值差距。

We continue to invest in our stores and shopping experience, which we believe positions us strongly, and we remain committed to returning cash to shareholders. Further, we have a management team with decades of off-price expertise at TJX and a very deep bench of talent who have successfully navigated through the unprecedented COVID environment. I am convinced that we are set up well to grow our top and bottom lines over the medium and long term and am confident in our plans to grow TJX into an increasingly profitable $60 billion-plus revenue company.

我們將繼續投資於我們的商店和購物體驗，我們認為這對我們有利，我們仍然致力於向股東返還現金。此外，我們擁有一支在 TJX 擁有數十年廉價專業知識的管理團隊，以及一支非常深厚的人才隊伍，他們成功地度過了前所未有的 COVID 環境。我相信我們已經做好準備，可以在中長期內增加我們的收入和利潤，並對我們將 TJX 發展成為一家盈利能力不斷提高、收入超過 600 億美元的公司的計劃充滿信心。

Now I'll turn the call back to Scott for some additional comments, and then we'll open it up for questions. Scott?

現在，我將把電話轉回 Scott 以徵求其他意見，然後我們將開放提問。斯科特?

Thanks again, Ernie. I'll start with the full year. We now expect full year U.S. comp sales to be down 2% to 3% versus an outsized 17% U.S. open-only comp increase last year. This guidance now reflects the flow-through of our second quarter U.S. comp sales and our expectations for the second half of the year, which assumes our 3-year stacked U.S. comp continues at levels similar to recent trends.

再次感謝，厄尼。我將從全年開始。我們現在預計，美國全年的比賽銷售額將下降 2% 至 3%，而去年美國僅開放式比賽的增幅為 17%。該指引現在反映了我們第二季度美國公司銷售額的流動情況以及我們對下半年的預期，假設我們 3 年累積的美國公司繼續保持在與近期趨勢相似的水平。

For the full year, we are now planning total TJX sales in the range of $49.6 billion to $49.9 billion. The lower sales guidance includes our lower-than-planned second quarter sales and our updated sales expectation for the second half of the year. Despite the reduction in our sales plan, we are pleased to be raising our guidance for the full year adjusted pretax margin to 9.7% to 9.9%. This is 10 basis points higher than our previous guidance due to our assumption for even stronger flow-through for the back half of the year.

對於全年，我們現在計劃 TJX 的總銷售額在 496 億美元至 499 億美元之間。較低的銷售指導包括我們低於計劃的第二季度銷售和我們更新的下半年銷售預期。儘管我們的銷售計劃有所減少，但我們很高興將全年調整後稅前利潤率的指引提高至 9.7% 至 9.9%。這比我們之前的指引高出 10 個基點，因為我們假設今年下半年的流動性會更強。

Our improved profitability outlook versus our prior guidelines is due to stronger merchandise margin, better expense management and less incremental freight and wage pressure expected in the second half of the year. For modeling purposes, we are now assuming 140 basis points of incremental freight expense and 70 basis points of incremental wage costs.

與我們之前的指導方針相比，我們改善的盈利前景是由於更高的商品利潤率、更好的費用管理以及預計下半年增加的運費和工資壓力。出於建模目的，我們現在假設增加了 140 個基點的運費費用和 70 個基點的增加工資成本。

For full year adjusted earnings per share, we are now planning a range of $3.05 to $3.13, which is up 7% to 10% over last year's adjusted $2.85. This guidance now includes a $0.03 negative impact from FX that was not contemplated in our original full year plan. Excluding this impact, the high end of our earnings per share guidance would be the same as our original plan.

對於全年調整後每股收益，我們現在計劃在 3.05 美元至 3.13 美元之間，比去年調整後的 2.85 美元增長 7% 至 10%。該指導現在包括 0.03 美元的外匯負面影響，這在我們最初的全年計劃中沒有考慮到。排除這種影響，我們每股收益指引的高端將與我們最初的計劃相同。

For modeling purposes, for the full year, we are currently anticipating an adjusted tax rate of 25.5%, net interest expense of approximately $20 million and a weighted average share count of approximately 1.17 billion. We remain committed to returning cash to our shareholders through our dividend and stock repurchase programs. In fiscal '23, we continue to expect to buy back $2.25 billion to $2.5 billion of TJX stock.

出於建模目的，我們目前預計全年調整後的稅率為 25.5%，淨利息支出約為 2000 萬美元，加權平均股數約為 11.7 億股。我們仍然致力於通過我們的股息和股票回購計劃向股東返還現金。在 23 財年，我們繼續預計回購 22.5 億至 25 億美元的 TJX 股票。

Now to our third quarter guidance. For the third quarter, we're planning pretax margin in the range of 10.1% to 10.4%. This guidance assumes approximately 100 basis points of incremental freight expense and about 80 basis points of incremental wage costs. In the third quarter, we are planning U.S. comp store sales to be down 3% to 5% over an outsized 16% U.S. open-only comp store increase last year.

現在到我們的第三季度指導。第三季度，我們計劃稅前利潤率在 10.1% 至 10.4% 之間。該指導假設大約增加 100 個基點的運費費用和大約 80 個基點的增加工資成本。在第三季度，我們計劃在美國的綜合商店銷售額下降 3% 至 5%，而去年美國僅開放的綜合商店增加了 16%。

Next, we are planning third quarter TJX sales in the range of $12.1 billion to $12.3 billion. For modeling purposes, in the third quarter, we're currently anticipating a tax rate of 25.8%, net interest expense of approximately $2 million and a weighted average share count of 1.17 billion. As a result of these assumptions, we're planning third quarter EPS of $0.77 to $0.81 per share.

接下來，我們計劃第三季度 TJX 銷售額在 121 億美元至 123 億美元之間。出於建模目的，我們目前預計第三季度的稅率為 25.8%，淨利息支出約為 200 萬美元，加權平均股數為 11.7 億股。由於這些假設，我們計劃第三季度每股收益為 0.77 美元至 0.81 美元。

Our third quarter and full year guidance implies that for the fourth quarter, pretax margin will be in the range of 10.1% to 10.4%. U.S. comp stores will be in the range of flat to down 1%, and earnings per share will be in the range of $0.92 to $0.96.

我們的第三季度和全年指導意味著第四季度的稅前利潤率將在 10.1% 至 10.4% 之間。美國綜合商店將持平至下降 1%，每股收益將在 0.92 美元至 0.96 美元之間。

In closing, I want to reiterate that we are confident with our medium- and long-term growth and profitability plans. Further, we have a strong balance sheet and are in excellent financial position to navigate the current environment while simultaneously investing in the growth of our business and returning significant cash to our shareholders.

最後，我想重申，我們對我們的中長期增長和盈利計劃充滿信心。此外，我們擁有強大的資產負債表，財務狀況良好，可以駕馭當前環境，同時投資於我們的業務增長，並向股東返還大量現金。

Now we are happy to take your questions. (Operator Instructions) Thanks. And now we will open it up to questions.

現在我們很高興回答您的問題。 （操作員說明）謝謝。現在我們將對問題開放。

(Operator Instructions) Our first question will come from Lorraine Hutchinson.

（操作員說明）我們的第一個問題將來自 Lorraine Hutchinson。

Can you just talk a little bit about your view of the U.S. consumer and how that changed over the course of the quarter? Are you seeing any pushback to the price increases you've taken? And are you seeing that trade-down customer shop your store a little bit more?

您能否簡單談談您對美國消費者的看法以及這一季度的變化情況？您是否看到任何對您所採取的價格上漲的抵制？您是否看到那些以舊換新的顧客更多地購買您的商店？

Thanks, Lorraine. First of all, U.S. customer trend in the quarter, it's moved around a bit. I think what happened in this quarter is when a little bit of that fuel spike, if you remember back in the middle of the quarter, that's when we had a big ramp-up on that. In addition to really food, those are the 2 inflationary categories that really, we feel, can impact our consumer the most. But the fuel has obviously come down more recently. So I'm thinking there, we might have a bit of a lag in terms of the benefit of that having coming down, and that could work out better for us as this quarter moves on.

謝謝，洛林。首先，本季度的美國客戶趨勢發生了一些變化。我認為本季度發生的事情是當燃料出現一點點飆升時，如果你還記得在本季度的中期，那是我們在這方面進行了大幅提升的時候。除了真正的食物之外，我們認為這兩個通脹類別對我們的消費者影響最大。但燃料顯然最近下降了。所以我在想，就下降的好處而言，我們可能會有一點滯後，隨著本季度的推進，這對我們來說可能會更好。

There was no -- let me be clear on your question about pushback on the pricing. We have 0 -- not only do we do qualitative studies on it, we are actually able to measure, well, down to the SKU level, turns, how we're selling an item where the retail has been adjusted. But even entire categories, departments and the store, in fact, we're measuring our turns and all of these things relative to pre-COVID, fiscal '20, calendar '19. And in most cases, we are actually turning our inventories faster than then. And that, as you know, was a very, very good year for us and a real, actually, model of business that we're very happy with from an inventory turn and sales perspective. So we have 0 concern overall.

沒有——讓我澄清一下你關於推遲定價的問題。我們有 0 - 我們不僅對其進行定性研究，我們實際上能夠測量，嗯，下至 SKU 級別，轉折，我們如何銷售已調整零售的商品。但事實上，即使是整個類別、部門和商店，我們也在衡量我們的輪班情況以及與 COVID 之前、20 財年、19 年日曆相關的所有這些事情。在大多數情況下，我們實際上比那時更快地周轉庫存。正如你所知，那對我們來說是非常非常好的一年，從庫存周轉和銷售的角度來看，這是一個真正的，實際上，我們非常滿意的商業模式。因此，我們總體上的擔憂為 0。

We've had a couple of items here or there, where we found it, and we react quickly if it hasn't worked. But I would say we're in the -- our batting record is in the probably 95% zone. So a great question, by the way, because, of course, we monitor that every week. So that has been a nonissue.

我們在這里或那裡有幾個項目，我們在哪裡找到它，如果它不起作用，我們會迅速做出反應。但我會說我們處於 - 我們的擊球記錄可能處於 95% 的區域。順便說一下，這是一個很好的問題，因為當然，我們每週都會對此進行監控。所以這不是問題。

Again, we felt, Lorraine, it was prudent to -- when we went to this more conservative sales for the back half, I would tell you, we did that knowing that we want to be conservative. It's been a little volatile. It's moved around a bit. We tend to look at the 3-year stack, how do our sales compare to FY '20. And that's kind of where we looked at the recent trend at the end of the second quarter, and that's where we just kind of applied that going forward.

再一次，我們覺得，洛林，謹慎的做法是——當我們為後半部分進行更保守的銷售時，我會告訴你，我們這樣做是因為我們知道我們想要保守。它有點不穩定。它移動了一點。我們傾向於查看 3 年的堆棧，我們的銷售額與 20 財年相比如何。這就是我們在第二季度末觀察最近趨勢的地方，這就是我們在未來應用的地方。

Our intention is always, as you know, to beat that. The management team in every division is on a mode to beat that. I have to tell you that I think -- and it's too far out for us to change the numbers right now. We have -- Q4 is where we feel like there's a lot of opportunity for us. And I would say if you look at -- and I know you're aware of this, we kind of ran out of some steam there in some categories and businesses last year. And I'm sure I'll get into more on other questions during the call, but we have a, I feel like, a great opportunity to drive some more incremental sales in Q4 specifically. Thanks for the question.

如您所知，我們的意圖始終是擊敗它。每個部門的管理團隊都在以一種模式擊敗它。我必須告訴你，我認為——我們現在改變數字還太遙遠。我們有 - 第四季度是我們覺得我們有很多機會的地方。我會說，如果你看一下 - 我知道你已經意識到這一點，去年我們在某些類別和業務中有點失去了動力。而且我相信我會在電話會議期間更多地討論其他問題，但我覺得我們有一個很好的機會，可以在第四季度推動更多的銷售增長。謝謝你的問題。

Our next question will come from Matthew Boss.

我們的下一個問題將來自 Matthew Boss。

So it's kind of a perfect setup for my question, Ernie. So on the overall product availability, are there any inventory constraints by category that you still see remaining or on the very attractive buying environment and maybe some of the category opportunity you left on the table last year that you have cited? Do you see this translating now to an optimal fall and holiday assortment across apparel and home? And maybe just last, could you elaborate on the excitement you cited in the release for some of the back half initiatives to drive traffic?

所以對於我的問題來說，這是一個完美的設置，Ernie。因此，在整體產品可用性方面，您是否仍然看到按類別劃分的任何庫存限制，或者在非常有吸引力的購買環境中，或者您提到的去年留在桌面上的一些類別機會？您現在是否認為這會轉化為服裝和家居的最佳秋季和假日分類？也許就在最後，您能否詳細說明一下您在新聞稿中提到的一些後半部增加流量的舉措的興奮？

Sure. No, great question, Matt, and it does piggyback on what we started to talk about with Lorraine. Well, constraints, I would tell you there were no -- the only constraints that would apply in this discussion is the constraints and us having to hold back all the merchants from buying too much too soon. So we have -- this is self-inflicted constraints we're putting on because the teams right now, and I know my senior team right now, one of their prime responsibilities has been to -- this really gets at the meat of what's been going on, has been to get at -- holding the merchants back from buying too much too soon, as you know, we mentioned in the release.

當然。不，很好的問題，馬特，它確實承載了我們開始與洛林談論的內容。好吧，約束，我會告訴你沒有——在這個討論中唯一適用的約束是約束，我們不得不阻止所有商家過早購買太多。所以我們有——這是我們自己施加的限制，因為現在的團隊，而且我現在知道我的高級團隊，他們的主要職責之一是——這真的很重要繼續，一直在阻止商家過早購買太多，正如你所知，我們在發布中提到。

And I think even ahead of this, many of you were aware of the amount of goods in the market. I hesitate to use the word unprecedented, but it is at a different level, I would say, than we've seen. And it's across our good, better and best zones. And so I'm going to give you an example that speaks to a place where we've been challenged but I would tell you gives us a level of optimism, as you would say, to getting to that optimal mix and an excitement level for the back half.

而且我認為即使在此之前，你們中的許多人都知道市場上的商品數量。我對使用“前所未有”這個詞猶豫不決，但我想說，它與我們所見過的不同。它跨越了我們的好、更好和最好的區域。所以我要給你舉一個例子，說明我們一直受到挑戰的地方，但我會告訴你，正如你所說，我們對達到最佳組合和興奮水平給予了一定程度的樂觀。後半部分。

So we've been struggling in our home area, as other retailers have, and you can see with the HomeGoods sales. However, they have done, as has Marmaxx specifically, both have gone in and kept their inventories very clean and taken aggressive markdowns to ensure that we go into the back half with no liabilities and mix so that we can deliver as much fresh excitement based on what's working and chase the hotter trends and vendors.

因此，與其他零售商一樣，我們一直在本土地區苦苦掙扎，您可以從 HomeGoods 的銷售中看到。然而，他們已經做到了，特別是 Marmaxx，他們都進入並保持他們的庫存非常乾淨，並採取積極的降價措施，以確保我們進入後半部分沒有負債和混合，以便我們可以提供盡可能多的新鮮興奮基於什麼是有效的，並追逐更熱門的趨勢和供應商。

So HomeGoods specifically, again, where we've been a little softer on the 3-year stack than we would have liked, is in a terrific inventory position now. They put in a lot of work to get there. But what they've done is created significant open-to-buy to the point of -- and normally, we don't give numbers like I'm about to give you, but I would tell you at this point in time that we are going to buy 4 million units in HomeGoods over the next few weeks, all to be what we call ladder plant and shipped into September for selling in September.

因此，特別是 HomeGoods，我們在 3 年的堆棧上比我們希望的要軟一些，現在處於極好的庫存位置。他們付出了很多努力才能到達那裡。但是他們所做的是創造了顯著的開放購買點 - 通常，我們不會像我將要給你的那樣給出數字，但我會在這個時候告訴你，我們在接下來的幾週內，將在 HomeGoods 購買 400 萬台，所有這些都是我們所說的階梯工廠，並運到 9 月份，以便在 9 月份出售。

And because of the market situation with the availability there, we're able to go after the categories that are happening, the healthy ones in home, and buy them even better. So we've been buying goods really better than ever in HomeGoods recently. And I think, a, it's going to help us drive sales because we are going to be so fresh. We're going to be taking some of the best goods. We're going to be able to pick and choose out of the market because there's so much availability. And that's, again, 4 million units that will be bought in the next couple of weeks and shipped to the stores and to sell -- buy, ship and sell in the next month of September.

而且由於那裡的市場狀況，我們能夠追踪正在發生的類別，即家庭中的健康類別，並更好地購買它們。所以我們最近在 HomeGoods 上購買的商品比以往任何時候都好。而且我認為，a，它將幫助我們推動銷售，因為我們將變得如此新鮮。我們將採取一些最好的商品。我們將能夠從市場中挑选和選擇，因為有這麼多的可用性。這又是 400 萬台，將在接下來的幾週內購買並運送到商店並出售——在 9 月的下個月購買、運送和出售。

So Marmaxx, larger scale, great inventory position. I think what's happening in the brands, and this might preempt some of the other questions. But for the excitement for fourth quarter to get to the optimal mix, when we get to fourth quarter, brands means so much for gift giving. And so what I'm very happy about what I'm starting to see on the on order, again, significant open-to-buy, significant availability across better and best and good out there as I think we're going to have a mix that has even more brands and some new vendors that we didn't even have last year in some of our hottest categories.

所以Marmaxx，規模更大，庫存位置很好。我認為品牌中正在發生的事情，這可能會搶占其他一些問題。但是對於第四季度達到最佳組合的興奮，當我們到達第四季度時，品牌對於送禮來說意義重大。所以我很高興我開始在訂單上看到的東西，再一次，顯著的開放購買，顯著的可用性，更好，最好和很好，因為我認為我們將有一個在我們最熱門的一些類別中，我們去年甚至沒有更多的品牌和一些新的供應商。

I actually get an update on key vendor buys every week. And the last 2 weeks have yielded some vendors. It's meaningful quantities that I know we did not have last year. So it's all tough to measure and put into the sales forecast right now. It just gets me excited that I think we have some upside there. So sorry for the long-winded answer, but you're touching on some of the most exciting part of the model and the part of the secret sauce that really, I think, is going to set us apart from everyone else. So thanks.

實際上，我每週都會收到有關主要供應商購買的最新信息。過去 2 週產生了一些供應商。這是有意義的數量，我知道我們去年沒有。所以現在很難衡量和投入銷售預測。這讓我很興奮，我認為我們在那裡有一些好處。很抱歉這個冗長的回答，但你正在觸及模型中一些最令人興奮的部分和秘密醬汁的部分，我認為這真的會讓我們與其他人區分開來。那謝謝啦。

Our next question will come from Kimberly Greenberger.

我們的下一個問題將來自 Kimberly Greenberger。

Ernie and Scott, you guys have been talking about getting back to this sort of 10%-plus pretax margin in the back half. And I mean in a year when so many retailers are struggling with margin visibility, you guys look to be sort of solidly on track to hit those targets. I wanted to know if you could sort of step back and talk about margin, not specific targets necessarily for 2023 or 2024, but just what are the puts and takes as we head into next year and the following? What are the puts and takes on margin? And do you see opportunity to sort of claw back even more of the margin here over the next couple of years that we saw under some pressure through COVID?

厄尼和斯科特，你們一直在談論在後半區恢復這種 10% 以上的稅前利潤率。我的意思是，在這麼多零售商都在為利潤率可見度而苦苦掙扎的一年裡，你們看起來已經在穩步實現這些目標了。我想知道你是否可以退後一步談談利潤率，而不是 2023 年或 2024 年的具體目標，但在我們進入明年及以後的時候，看跌期權和看跌期權是什麼？什麼是看跌期權和保證金？在接下來的幾年裡，我們在 COVID 帶來的一些壓力下看到了更多的利潤空間，你是否看到了在這裡收回更多利潤的機會？

Yes. Kimberly, I'll let Scott jump in on some of the big pieces of this, but what -- I'd like to highlight one thing I mentioned in the script is -- well, first of all, I'm thrilled with we -- and we called this out back really at the beginning of the year that we thought we could approach -- getting approached at 10%. We're getting there as we're talking, I think, at 9.7% to 9.9% this year. But even over the 3 years, Scott, I think we'll talk to this, is we're feeling good about getting back to that pre-COVID 10.6% for TJX, which is right, I think, what you're getting at. And he's going to give you some of the puts and takes.

是的。金伯利，我會讓斯科特參與其中的一些重要部分，但是——我想強調我在劇本中提到的一件事是——嗯，首先，我很高興我們——我們在今年年初真的把這一點說出來，我們認為我們可以接近——接近 10%。我們正在談論，我認為，今年的增長率為 9.7% 至 9.9%。但即使在 3 年內，Scott，我想我們會討論這個問題，我們是否對 TJX 恢復到 COVID 之前的 10.6% 感覺良好，我認為這是正確的，你得到了什麼.他會給你一些看跌期權。

But let me give you another piece on that, that I think is really -- one thing is a moderation, obviously, of some of the other expenses around us, freight, for example. We realized where wage is going. That's been something we haven't talked on this call about, but we kind of have a good feel for where that's going.

但是，讓我再給你一點，我認為這確實是——很明顯，有一件事是我們周圍的其他一些費用的節制，例如運費。我們意識到工資的去向。這是我們在這次電話會議上沒有談到的事情，但我們對它的發展方向有很好的感覺。

The big game changer right now in this environment, in addition to what Scott's going to talk about, is our merchandise margin, not that I'm leaving him a lot to talk about, is the merchandise margin opportunities we see really from 2 things. We've been talking more in the last 2 calls about retailing, Kimberly, right, retailing selectively better and the way we're changing retail. But the buying better is one of the things right now we're seeing is we're able to really because of the availability out there, lower our costs on light goods.

在這種環境下，目前最大的遊戲規則改變者，除了 Scott 將要談論的，是我們的商品利潤率，而不是我要讓他多談的，是我們真正從兩件事中看到的商品利潤率機會。在過去的兩次電話會議中，我們一直在談論更多關於零售的話題，金佰利，對，更好的選擇性零售以及我們改變零售的方式。但是更好的購買是我們現在看到的事情之一，因為我們能夠真正地因為那裡的可用性，降低我們在輕質商品上的成本。

And so we're kind of -- over the next couple of years, what I'm envisioning is we're going to win on both sides of it, on the retail and on the cost of the goods because our buyers are doing a terrific job in the market. And again, the market right now across all the different categories and vendors is really yielding some amazing opportunity. And this will not be short term based on what's happening in the industry as far as store closures and market shift and online shifting patterns where we think we get market share, but we get margin opportunity on that.

所以我們有點——在接下來的幾年裡，我的設想是我們將在零售和商品成本兩方面都取得勝利，因為我們的買家正在做在市場上的出色工作。再一次，現在所有不同類別和供應商的市場確實產生了一些驚人的機會。這不會是短期的，基於行業正在發生的事情，就商店關閉和市場轉移以及我們認為我們獲得市場份額的在線轉移模式而言，但我們在這方面獲得了利潤機會。

Scott, I don't know if you...

斯科特，我不知道你是否...

I needed to put some -- my mouth got a little dry the last few minutes. But the -- a few things. The -- first, I'd say that we're starting, as Ernie said -- I mean when we started the year, we thought we were going to be similar to last year in that 9.5%, 9.6% range. So the fact that we have dropped effectively ex FX almost $2 billion in sales from our original guidance and our margins are going up, I think just speaks, as Ernie, I think, said several different times to the model and our ability to -- in a sluggish environment where we've never said we're immune from sales, we've been able to take advantage of those other aspects of the business on the gross margin and the -- and expense management that we do when we flex down.

我需要放一些——最後幾分鐘我的嘴有點幹。但是 - 一些事情。 - 首先，我想說我們正在開始，正如 Ernie 所說的那樣 - 我的意思是當我們年初時，我們認為我們將在 9.5%、9.6% 的範圍內與去年相似。因此，事實上我們已經從最初的指導中有效地減少了近 20 億美元的外匯銷售額，而且我們的利潤率正在上升，我認為這只是說，正如我認為 Ernie 多次對模型和我們的能力所說的那樣——在一個我們從未說過我們可以免受銷售影響的低迷環境中，我們已經能夠利用業務的其他方面的毛利率以及我們在收縮時所做的費用管理.

Again, Ernie, I think, touched on it, but we've managed our markdowns quite well, maybe a little more due to some of the home sales. But the markdowns have been in -- slightly higher but in line with what we would have expected. And our -- as we move through -- as the freight starts to moderate, a lot of this has to do with the freight. We did say if the environment was such that the freight would moderate, we would be able to improve our margin. That certainly is what's happening in the back half.

再一次，我認為厄尼談到了它，但我們已經很好地管理了我們的降價促銷，也許是因為一些房屋銷售。但是降價幅度一直在 - 略高，但符合我們的預期。我們的 - 隨著我們的前進 - 隨著運費開始放緩，這在很大程度上與運費有關。我們確實說過，如果環境條件允許運費放緩，我們將能夠提高我們的利潤率。這肯定是後半區正在發生的事情。

And we still would expect our freight rates to be better next year. Some of that has to do a lot with what our teams are doing, the logistics folks and others in terms of a lot of the mitigation strategies, getting longer-term contract rates, more -- using much more contract rates on the spot market than the spot market for ocean freight. We are taking advantage of where we're moving our goods into what ports. And I think a lot -- and a lot of other strategies and we think some of the demurrage costs and other things we believe are going to be going down next year. So some of that's reflected in our back half, and some of that we think will continue into next year.

我們仍然預計明年我們的運費會更好。其中一些與我們的團隊正在做的事情、物流人員和其他人在許多緩解策略方面有很大關係，獲得更長期的合同費率等等——在現貨市場上使用的合同費率比使用更多的合同費率海運現貨市場。我們正在利用我們將貨物運送到哪些港口的地方。我想了很多——還有很多其他策略，我們認為一些滯期費和我們認為明年會下降的其他事情。所以其中一些反映在我們的後半部分，而我們認為其中一些將持續到明年。

By starting at a higher base next year, I mean we would hope that -- we're in a sluggish environment worldwide from an economic point of view, home -- in home, obviously. Although we've changed the mix, that apparel is up 5% more than what it used to be. It's still more than what it was in home than compared to what it was in '20. And I think we're maintaining these margins as we go into next year and get back to the level of comps we would see pre-COVID. I think that with some slight increases in retail, not -- that to the level we'd see this year, we should be able to, as we've spoken over the last several quarters, increase our profitability, assuming, as Ernie said, there's no major changes to the headwinds.

明年從更高的基數開始，我的意思是我們希望 - 從經濟角度來看，我們在全球範圍內處於低迷的環境中，顯然是在國內。儘管我們改變了組合，但該服裝比以前增加了 5%。與 20 世紀相比，它仍然比在家裡的要多。而且我認為我們在進入明年時會保持這些利潤率，並回到我們在 COVID 之前看到的補償水平。我認為，隨著零售業的小幅增長，而不是達到我們今年看到的水平，我們應該能夠，正如我們在過去幾個季度中所說的那樣，增加我們的盈利能力，假設，正如厄尼所說，逆風沒有重大變化。

So -- also, this hasn't been a -- other retailers have talked to it. The flow of both the merchandise into our distribution centers worldwide has certainly not been optimal from an expense efficiency point of view and like -- what we call our output per hour. So I think those are things that next year, we would hope to get better once we flow a little better and I think get back to having less lead times in buying. So we're buying closer to need. So I think, again, it's all setting us up well for a continued improvement on a more normalized sales increase.

所以 - 而且，這還不是 - 其他零售商已經與之交談過。從費用效率的角度來看，這兩種商品流入我們全球配送中心的流量肯定不是最佳的——我們稱之為每小時產量。所以我認為這些是明年的事情，一旦我們的流程稍微好一點，我們希望會變得更好，我認為回到購買的交貨時間更短。因此，我們正在購買更接近需求的產品。因此，我再次認為，這一切都為我們在更正常化的銷售增長方面的持續改善做好了準備。

Our next question comes from Paul Lejuez.

我們的下一個問題來自 Paul Lejuez。

Curious if you can talk a little bit about what you saw just throughout the quarter on a monthly basis, maybe changes in traffic patterns and the detail you might be able to provide by concept. And Ernie, usually, you say something about the quarter-to-date period. So curious if you're seeing comp trends in line with that third quarter comp guidance. Earlier, I think you made a comment about maybe there being a lag effect on the gas price reduction. Does that mean that you have not seen any sort of a pickup as gas prices have come down? Anything you could say on 3Q quarter-to-date?

好奇您是否可以每月談論一下您在整個季度中看到的內容，也許是流量模式的變化以及您可以通過概念提供的細節。 Ernie，通常，你會說一些關於季度至今的時間。很好奇您是否看到符合第三季度補償指南的補償趨勢。早些時候，我認為您曾評論說天然氣價格下降可能存在滯後效應。這是否意味著隨著汽油價格的下降，您沒有看到任何形式的回升？您對 3Q 季度至今有什麼想說的嗎？

Yes. I'll let Scott jump in, but I'll talk about the quarter-to-date. Basically, the guidance we gave is based on how we're trending. So that's -- we're right in line with what we just gave for guidance. To your point, could -- I'm hoping we get a little benefit as that fuel factor wears off a little.

是的。我會讓斯科特加入，但我會談談本季度至今。基本上，我們給出的指導是基於我們的趨勢。所以這就是 - 我們與我們剛剛提供的指導一致。就你的觀點而言，我希望我們能得到一點好處，因為燃料因素會稍微減弱。

And the other dynamic that we're not sure of that was in the quarter, we haven't talked about it, is we had some weather noise, I guess, a little during the quarter where the weather was -- for apparel was a little -- it was just extremely hot in certain areas of the country. So I don't know if that hit us by a little. So this is where we say we wanted to be prudent on our go-forward comp estimates and stay conservative. My goal and the team's goal is to beat those. And I think we -- I just think we have upside.

我們不確定的另一個動態是在這個季度，我們還沒有討論過，我猜我們有一些天氣噪音，我猜，在有天氣的那個季度有一點——因為服裝是很少——只是在該國某些地區非常熱。所以我不知道這對我們有沒有影響。所以這就是我們說我們希望對我們的前進補償估計保持謹慎並保持保守的地方。我的目標和球隊的目標是擊敗那些。我認為我們 - 我只是認為我們有上升空間。

If you look at some of those other issues as well as we -- going into this quarter so far, I would tell you our flow was a little less than probably we would have liked, and that is getting into the stores as we speak. And I think that could give us a little bump up at the end of August going into September because we did run a little lighter than we would have liked at the end of July. So that hit Q2 and it's really hit us a little. Having said that, again, we're trending right now where we're giving you the guidance. So hopefully, that gives a little color there.

如果你和我們一樣看待其他一些問題——到目前為止，進入本季度，我會告訴你，我們的流量可能比我們希望的要少一些，正如我們所說的那樣，這正在進入商店。而且我認為這可能會讓我們在 8 月底到 9 月有所提升，因為我們確實比 7 月底希望的要輕一些。所以第二季度，它真的給我們帶來了一點打擊。話雖如此，我們現在正在為您提供指導的趨勢。所以希望，這會給那裡一點顏色。

Yes. Just to add to what Ernie said, I think we've been -- we've done the sales, I'll call it, forecasting or what we put in our guidance exactly the same way at the end of -- from we started the year to the first quarter to now in that we've taken whether -- whatever we think the appropriate period, but it's generally been 4 to 6 weeks of the most recent trend and use that for the rest of the year regardless of trying to -- as Ernie said, we think we might be able to do better in the fourth quarter, but we've just held that trend because that's what we're seeing.

是的。只是為了補充厄尼所說的，我認為我們已經 - 我們已經完成了銷售，我會稱之為預測或我們在指導結束時以完全相同的方式 - 從我們開始從第一季度到現在的一年，因為我們已經採取了是否 - 無論我們認為合適的時期，但通常是最近趨勢的 4 到 6 週，並在今年剩餘時間使用該趨勢，無論是否嘗試——正如厄尼所說，我們認為第四季度我們可能會做得更好，但我們只是保持了這一趨勢，因為這就是我們所看到的。

Because last year was such a volatile year on the upside, those comps, as we've said many times, we're on a -- we're 21% in the second quarter, 16% in the third quarter, moderating in the fourth quarter of last year but still higher than in typical year. So we just felt that was the more prudent way from a sales perspective.

因為去年是向上波動如此大的一年，這些比較，正如我們多次說過的那樣，我們處於 - 我們在第二季度為 21%，在第三季度為 16%，在去年第四季度，但仍高於典型年份。所以我們只是覺得從銷售的角度來看這是更謹慎的方式。

Within the sales and in the adjustment, it's more HomeGoods adjustment than Marmaxx adjustment as our home sales have -- the HomeGoods sales dropped a bit more than the Marmaxx sales from the prior trend, and that's reflected in our go-forward trends.

在銷售和調整中，與我們的房屋銷售相比，HomeGoods 的調整比 Marmaxx 的調整更多——HomeGoods 的銷售額比之前趨勢的 Marmaxx 銷售額下降了一點，這反映在我們的前進趨勢中。

Other than that, addressing maybe the first question that was asked on the call, where Ernie alluded to, whether it's inflation or gas prices. In the first quarter, for the first time in 5, 6, 7 years, we saw that our lower -- where our stores are in lower-income areas were dropped below the higher-income areas. That is still true through the second quarter, although the change from the first quarter to the second was equal.

除此之外，解決可能是電話會議上提出的第一個問題，厄尼提到的地方，是通貨膨脹還是汽油價格。在第一季度，5、6、7 年來第一次，我們看到我們在低收入地區的商店低於高收入地區。在第二季度仍然如此，儘管從第一季度到第二季度的變化是相同的。

But the higher demographic stores are still doing better than the lower. And again, that's a pretty much of a big change versus the last 5- to 7-year trend. Everything -- I think it just seemed to, at least for our spend, stay similar type of impact across the different demographic levels. And again, not much change also from a geographic perspective within the United States as well, pretty equal the change from the first quarter to the second.

但人口較高的商店仍然比較低的商店做得更好。再一次，與過去 5 到 7 年的趨勢相比，這是一個很大的變化。一切——我認為至少對於我們的支出而言，它似乎在不同的人口統計水平上保持了類似的影響。同樣，從美國的地理角度來看，變化也不大，與第一季度到第二季度的變化相當。

Ernie, what drove that slower flow relative to what you would have liked at the end of the quarter there?

厄尼，相對於你在季度末所希望的情況，是什麼推動了這種緩慢的流動？

Well, when we -- so what we do is we look at the way sales are trending. And so when we were having that little bump down in July, we slowed the shipping a little bit. And that's what we do -- it's a big ship. And so we probably ended up with a little bit less shipping than we would have liked. However, we reacted a week or 2 later, and we know it will be in good shape at the end here.

好吧，當我們 - 所以我們所做的是我們查看銷售趨勢的方式。因此，當我們在 7 月份遇到那個小挫折時，我們稍微放慢了運輸速度。這就是我們所做的——這是一艘大船。因此，我們最終的出貨量可能比我們希望的要少一些。但是，我們在一兩週後做出了反應，我們知道它最終會處於良好狀態。

We have an advantage, Paul, in the way we stage goods in our warehouse, right, because we've always talked about it. We can use it to manage. So if we see -- this happens quite a bit. By the way, if we see sales slowing, we're able to slow our shipping out of our DCs. But sometimes you get caught off guard, and this was one of those where we shipped to the sales, but then the sales started nudging up a little. And we realized, oh, we probably could have shipped a little bit more. And so it's just -- that's our own execution.

保羅，我們有一個優勢，就是我們在倉庫中放置貨物的方式，對，因為我們一直在談論它。我們可以用它來管理。因此，如果我們看到 - 這種情況經常發生。順便說一句，如果我們看到銷售放緩，我們可以減緩從配送中心發貨的速度。但有時你會措手不及，這是我們向銷售部門發貨的產品之一，但隨後銷售量開始略有上升。我們意識到，哦，我們可能可以多發貨一點。所以這只是 - 這是我們自己的執行。

Yes, I would tell you there was -- nothing impacted that other than us. But the teams are great and they reacted quickly. And so we ended up with a couple of weeks of blip, where we're probably giving up a little business, but then we'll be back on track really in about 2 weeks from now. So yes, good question. It's -- that is part of the -- if it was easy, anyone would do it, right? But it's a big ship when you have that many stores. And I give the teams a lot of credit because they caught it -- they catch it quickly.

是的，我會告訴你，除了我們之外，沒有什麼影響。但是球隊很棒，他們反應很快。因此，我們以短暫的幾週結束，我們可能會放棄一些小生意，但從現在起大約兩週後，我們將真正回到正軌。所以，是的，好問題。它是——這是其中的一部分——如果這很容易，任何人都會這樣做，對吧？但是當你有這麼多商店時，它就是一艘大船。我給了球隊很多榮譽，因為他們抓住了它——他們很快就抓住了它。

And by the way, I'm giving you the time, we don't talk about the times when 9 out of 10 times, if we slow the shipping or increase the shipping based on the trend, it happens to be the right amount, which isn't always easy. This just happened to be one of the times where we're a little on the wrong side of it.

順便說一句，我給你時間，我們不談論10次中有9次的時間，如果我們根據趨勢減慢運輸或增加運輸，恰好是合適的數量，這並不總是那麼容易。這恰好是我們有點錯誤的時候之一。

Our next question comes from Jay Sole.

我們的下一個問題來自 Jay Sole。

Just curious about what's baked into the guidance in terms of what you see from competition from your -- from the other off-price retailers, meaning whether it's a Nordstrom Rack or Burlington or Ross. Like given that -- obviously, inventory availability seems really strong for your company, but maybe it's not so great out there for everybody at large. Do you expect them to get more competitive? And what impact do you think that would have on the business?

只是好奇您從其他低價零售商的競爭中看到的指導中包含了什麼，這意味著它是 Nordstrom Rack、Burlington 還是 Ross。考慮到這一點 - 顯然，您的公司的庫存可用性似乎真的很強大，但對於所有人來說，這可能並不是那麼好。你希望他們變得更有競爭力嗎？您認為這會對業務產生什麼影響？

Yes. Jay, the -- so we're pretty simple with the teams here. And again, our buyers are excellent and our planning and allocation team. And we -- the good news is we kind of keep them focused, and I tell them not to worry too much about what the competitors are doing because let's face it, we're in a bit of a fortunate position. This isn't anything we're doing, but we're so big. And we have a lot of strong relationships with certain -- some of the strongest relationships with certain vendors. And some of the vendors don't overlap as much with those competitors you're talking about, and some do.

是的。傑，那個——所以我們在這裡的團隊很簡單。再一次，我們的買家和我們的規劃和分配團隊都很優秀。我們——好消息是我們讓他們保持專注，我告訴他們不要太擔心競爭對手在做什麼，因為讓我們面對現實吧，我們處於一個幸運的位置。這不是我們正在做的任何事情，但我們是如此之大。我們與某些供應商建立了很多牢固的關係——其中一些是與某些供應商的最牢固的關係。有些供應商與您所說的那些競爭對手沒有太多重疊，有些則重疊。

From what we've seen and what we hear, there's plenty of goods, honestly, to go to everybody in the off-price world right now. And they typically is, by the way. But right now, we don't foresee that as being any issue. I don't know how they -- that's up to them as far as how they're running their open-to-buys and what they're doing as far as how far they want to buy out or whatever. We right now -- if anything, our strategy on the buying of goods is to get more liquid, and it has been for the last month, and to buy less further out than we typically have because of -- but we're not worried about other competitors buying the goods. We think there's going to be more goods, an unusual amount of more goods across all the branded areas, which, by the way, going back to what I mentioned before, I think for Q4, gift giving, I think we're going to have some of the best branded content we've had in a while, again, regardless of what competitors are doing in terms of how much they are buying or not.

從我們所見所聞，老實說，現在有很多商品可以賣給低價世界的每個人。順便說一句，它們通常是。但現在，我們認為這不會成為任何問題。我不知道他們是怎麼做的——這取決於他們如何進行開放購買，以及他們在做什麼，以及他們想買多遠或其他什麼。我們現在——如果有的話，我們購買商品的策略是獲得更多的流動性，上個月一直如此，並且購買的比我們通常的要少，因為——但我們並不擔心關於其他競爭對手購買商品。我們認為將會有更多的商品，在所有品牌領域都會有更多的商品，順便說一句，這可以追溯到我之前提到的，我認為第四季度，送禮，我想我們會再次擁有我們一段時間以來擁有的一些最好的品牌內容，無論競爭對手在購買多少方面都做了什麼。

But good -- now let me say, good question. We do talk about, our merchants talk about in a category with a vendor, hey, based on this amount of goods, do we think that could go to one of the other competitors? Is this important for us to have or -- they weigh all of that out when they're making buys. And again, that's why I give them all the credit on handling it all really, really well in this environment.

但是很好——現在讓我說，好問題。我們確實在談論，我們的商家在與供應商討論一個類別，嘿，基於這個數量的商品，我們認為這可以去其他競爭對手之一嗎？這對我們來說是否重要，或者 - 他們在購買時會權衡所有這些。再說一次，這就是為什麼我把所有的功勞都歸功於他們在這種環境中處理得非常非常好。

We -- I have to say, we like an environment like this where there's a lot of -- strangely enough, a lot of volatility around that generally bodes both for us because in the end, I usually think there's a market share opportunity for us to keep getting additional brick-and-mortar market share from other brick-and-mortar out there because the model is so flexible and it will allow us to chase the hotter category trends more nimbly than most retailers. But thanks for your question.

我們 - 我不得不說，我們喜歡這樣的環境，其中有很多 - 奇怪的是，周圍的很多波動通常對我們都有預兆，因為最後，我通常認為我們有市場份額機會繼續從其他實體店獲得額外的實體店市場份額，因為該模型非常靈活，它將使我們能夠比大多數零售商更靈活地追逐更熱門的類別趨勢。但是謝謝你的問題。

Our next question comes from Brooke Roach.

我們的下一個問題來自布魯克羅奇。

Ernie, you've made some comments about the strong buying environment and the opportunity that, that better buying can drive some of the margin improvement that is underpinning the improvement of 10.6% pretax margins. Can you discuss your view on the longevity of this benefit and perhaps the opportunity for this buying environment to persist even when we've heard about some order book cuts into the second half of this year and also a more promotional retail environment overall?

Ernie，您對強勁的購買環境和機會發表了一些評論，即更好的購買可以推動一些利潤率的提高，這支撐了 10.6% 的稅前利潤率的提高。您能否談談您對這種好處的持久性的看法，以及即使我們聽說今年下半年一些訂單減少以及整體更具促銷性的零售環境，這種購買環境是否有機會持續存在？

Sure, Brooke. Yes, these are -- just these topics are things we talk about internally quite frequently. First of all, we think we have multiple years of longevity to this strategy. From what we're seeing, there's even probably more opportunity in the retailing of the buying of goods as we continue as well as, by the way, not just merchant-driven. Some of the costs that Scott mentioned could be a couple -- a few year trend because they -- some of those freight costs went up so dramatically so fast. It could be kind of a bit of a slow correction, and we don't think it's going to happen fast.

當然，布魯克。是的，這些是——只是這些話題是我們內部經常談論的話題。首先，我們認為這一戰略已經存在多年。從我們所看到的情況來看，隨著我們繼續以及順便說一句，不僅僅是商家驅動，零售商品購買的機會可能更多。斯科特提到的一些成本可能是一對夫婦——幾年的趨勢，因為它們——其中一些運費上漲得如此之快。這可能是一種緩慢的修正，我們認為它不會很快發生。

So between buying goods, retailing the way we're retailing, the fact that we mean more to the market than ever before and to key vendors and as well as -- well, and you're talking about, by the way, the promotional environment. So we haven't seen the promotional environment, if anything, because of what's happened with inflation, again, we look at the promotional environment is less promotional. And a lot of these costs are baked in even going forward. I foresee the promotional environment not getting any worse for a few years. I think we're good for a couple of years there.

因此，在購買商品、以我們的零售方式進行零售、我們對市場和主要供應商的意義比以往任何時候都更重要的事實以及——好吧，順便說一句，你說的是促銷環境。所以我們還沒有看到促銷環境，如果有的話，因為通貨膨脹發生了什麼，再次，我們看促銷環境不那麼促銷。而且很多這些成本甚至會在未來發生。我預計促銷環境在幾年內不會變得更糟。我認為我們在那裡待了幾年。

And as I said back in the script, our mission still is our out-the-door retail that we provide to the consumer has to maintain that gap between the out-the-door retailer that they have and what we sell it for are out-the-door retail, which is always our ticketed price. I do if you -- you're on to a whole -- we could spend a whole phone call on this. But if you look at the promotions happen, there's still, as you know, a lot of retailers that are still doing the very high/low game of a sale all the time. And it's -- I always look at that where consumers today are looking for authenticity. They're looking for an exciting treasure hunt -- an entertaining shopping experience in stores. And we continue -- along with that value equation, we continue to provide those 2 things.

正如我在劇本中所說，我們的使命仍然是我們向消費者提供的戶外零售必須保持他們擁有的戶外零售商與我們出售它的目的之間的差距-上門零售，這始終是我們的票價。我願意，如果你 - 你是一個整體 - 我們可以花一個完整的電話來解決這個問題。但是，如果您查看促銷活動，您知道，仍然有很多零售商一直在進行非常高/低的銷售遊戲。而且它 - 我總是關注當今消費者尋找真實性的地方。他們正在尋找令人興奮的尋寶活動——在商店中進行有趣的購物體驗。我們繼續 - 隨著價值等式，我們繼續提供這兩件事。

In fact, one thing we haven't talked about today is we're very bullish on keeping our store experience right in line with the strong merchandise values and excitement that we're giving. So we're going back to our remodeling program aggressively. We have new prototype in our Marshalls business specifically that we're excited about that we're starting to roll out because we want our -- we believe there's a market share gain, not just on -- number one, by our merchandise value, yes; but number two, by the shopping experience. So that's a long-term play as well, just so you know. But I know you were talking about the buying and the retailing. No reason to think this won't go on for a number of years. And thanks. It was a good question, Brooke.

事實上，我們今天還沒有談到的一件事是，我們非常看好保持我們的商店體驗與我們所提供的強大商品價值和興奮保持一致。因此，我們將積極地回到我們的改造計劃。我們的 Marshalls 業務有新的原型，特別是我們很高興我們開始推出，因為我們希望我們的 - 我們相信市場份額增加，而不僅僅是 - 第一，通過我們的商品價值，是的;但第二，購物體驗。所以這也是一個長期的遊戲，你知道的。但我知道你在談論購買和零售。沒有理由認為這種情況不會持續多年。謝謝。這是個好問題，布魯克。

Our next question comes from Omar Saad.

我們的下一個問題來自 Omar Saad。

Ernie, I was hoping maybe you could elaborate a little bit the comment you made earlier about the availability of brands and the excitement you have around, especially with the fourth quarter, around brands. Are you talking about designer brands? Is this kind of across categories? Is it more specific to apparel or some of the fashion areas?

厄尼，我希望你能詳細說明一下你之前關於品牌的可用性和你周圍的興奮的評論，特別是在第四季度，圍繞品牌。你說的是設計師品牌嗎？這種跨類嗎？是更具體到服裝還是某些時尚領域？

And maybe also talk about -- for T.J. Maxx, obviously, TJX Companies is obviously known for its flexibility at scale. Maybe talk about broadly your ability to reassort away-from-home categories if they're going to be soft for a while as you deal with -- consumers deal with inflation and you cycle those big gains from last year and towards some of those more reopening-type categories. Does the organization as a whole have the ability to kind of shift its merchandising assortment?

也許還可以談論——對於 T.J. Maxx，顯然，TJX 公司以其在規模上的靈活性而聞名。也許可以廣泛地談論一下你重新安排離家類別的能力，如果它們在你處理時會疲軟一段時間——消費者處理通貨膨脹，你將去年的那些巨大收益循環到其中一些更多重新開放類型的類別。整個組織是否有能力改變其商品分類？

No. Two -- Omar, 2 big things that we're approaching. I'll start with the reassort from home. We've been doing that consistently in Marmaxx and in the international divisions and in total TJX, where we have moved funding out-of-home goods. And into Marmaxx and within Europe and in Canada, we do the same thing, where we take open-to-buy. And sometimes, by the way, we move actual merchants out of those areas to the areas that are the more trending areas that we forecast over the next 12 to 18 months. So we have been doing that consistently since we were watching the home trend, and it's really one of the strengths of the business model because we can do it so quickly.

第二——奧馬爾，我們正在接近的兩件大事。我將從家裡的重新組合開始。我們一直在 Marmaxx 和國際部門以及整個 TJX 中一直這樣做，我們已經將資金轉移到了戶外用品。在 Marmaxx、歐洲和加拿大，我們做同樣的事情，我們開放購買。有時，順便說一句，我們會將實際商家從這些地區轉移到我們預測未來 12 到 18 個月內更熱門的地區。因此，自從我們觀察家居趨勢以來，我們一直在這樣做，這確實是商業模式的優勢之一，因為我們可以如此迅速地做到這一點。

Again, we buy so much of the inventory so close in relative to traditional retailers. We don't get stuck with this big liability of home product like many retailers would. And you tend to read about some of the other retailers that are more bought in advance, how they run into really a profit hit because they're stuck with the liability. We are not to that degree. We took our markdowns, as I said earlier, and we were able to move more over.

同樣，我們購買瞭如此多的庫存，相對於傳統零售商而言如此接近。我們不會像許多零售商那樣被家庭產品的這種巨大責任所困擾。而且您傾向於閱讀有關提前購買的其他一些零售商的信息，它們如何因承擔責任而遭受真正的利潤打擊。我們還沒有到那種程度。正如我之前所說，我們採取了降價政策，我們能夠移動更多。

On your first part, Omar, which is interesting, the brands are across, yes, not just -- actually not just designer and not just apparel. So we're getting some brands. I can't give you what they are, but this applies to accessories, hardlines. If you walk in our store even in some of the hardlines, either the gondolas where home is or in our queue line area, you're going to see some new vendors there, but you're also going to see that we've gone after some of those categories more aggressively than before because we're getting new vendors at different levels of goods.

在你的第一部分，奧馬爾，這很有趣，品牌是跨界的，是的，不僅僅是——實際上不僅僅是設計師，而不僅僅是服裝。所以我們得到了一些品牌。我不能告訴你它們是什麼，但這適用於配飾，強硬派。如果你走進我們的商店，即使是在一些強硬路線上，無論是家所在的貢多拉還是我們的排隊區，你會在那裡看到一些新的供應商，但你也會看到我們已經走了在其中一些類別之後比以前更積極，因為我們正在獲得不同級別商品的新供應商。

So when we talk about good, better, best, sometimes it can be assumed I'm talking about on the best end is designer apparel. And it isn't always that way. It's actually, I guess, you would call it better or designer hardlines of merchandise that we have so -- which, by the way, is as we go to Christmas on gift giving, which I think you mentioned, some of those hardline better vendors, which are special, are great gifts. And it's not just the apparel because as you know, you probably personally or friends -- today, we don't -- consumers don't just give apparel gifts. It's also other hardline gifts. Some of it in the tech area. We have that tech area out there in the queue line. And that's often given -- those are great gifts, especially when we're able to buy some better brands in that. And so that's all the type that we're really excited about. And I think it's going to help us with that Q4 opportunity.

所以當我們談論好、更好、最好的時候，有時可以假設我在談論最好的一面是設計師服裝。並不總是這樣。實際上，我想，你會稱它為更好的或設計師強硬派的商品——順便說一下，當我們去聖誕節送禮物時，我想你提到了一些強硬派更好的供應商，這是特別的，是很棒的禮物。不僅僅是服裝，因為如您所知，您可能是個人或朋友——今天，我們沒有——消費者不只是送服裝禮物。這也是其他強硬的禮物。其中一些在技術領域。我們在排隊的隊伍中有那個技術區。這通常是贈送的——這些都是很棒的禮物，尤其是當我們能夠在其中購買一些更好的品牌時。這就是我們真正興奮的所有類型。而且我認為這將幫助我們獲得第四季度的機會。

The final question of the day comes from John Kernan.

今天的最後一個問題來自約翰·克南。

Congrats on a nice quarter. Ernie, not to belabor the point, but just can you talk to the mark-on opportunity? You've talked about it in prior calls. It seems like you're getting more conviction in the opportunity and the deals you're getting from vendors. And then maybe just elaborate on what this means for merch margin and gross margin as we go forward.

祝賀一個不錯的季度。厄尼，不是要強調這一點，但你能談談加分機會嗎？你在之前的電話中談到過它。看起來你對機會和你從供應商那裡得到的交易越來越有信心。然後也許只是詳細說明這對我們前進的商品利潤率和毛利率意味著什麼。

Sure, John. Well, we spent more time -- Scott and I both really on the prior 2 calls, we were -- because I guess it was more new news, I was talking about the retailing of the goods in terms of how that would create some mark-on and ability to offset costs, start with that whole strategy. Again, that's a -- we're a byproduct of the fact that all the retailers around us, for the most part, have had to raise retails on certain categories or some, as you know, have done it more in a widespread raising of retail across the board. We didn't do that. We did it very selective and surgically.

當然，約翰。好吧，我們花了更多的時間——斯科特和我都在前兩個電話上，我們是——因為我想這是更多的新消息，我在談論商品的零售，這將如何創造一些標記-on 和抵消成本的能力，從整個戰略開始。再說一次，這是一個副產品，我們周圍的所有零售商，在大多數情況下，不得不提高某些類別的零售額，或者如你所知，在廣泛提高全線零售。我們沒有那樣做。我們非常有選擇性地進行了手術。

But what's happened is, for different reasons in this environment, our teams, and we see this every week, are also getting mark-on improvement from the costs. And that is the reason we're talking about that more. And I think it's almost as though the 2 prongs has evened off because we were talking before about the retail was giving us. You can see from these results that we're delivering and the outlook for the back half of the year that we're very bullish on our merchandise margin, and it's really because of both.

但實際情況是，在這種環境下，出於不同的原因，我們的團隊，我們每週都會看到這一點，也從成本中獲得了顯著改善。這就是我們談論更多的原因。而且我認為這幾乎就像兩個插腳已經平衡了，因為我們之前談論過零售給我們帶來的好處。您可以從這些結果中看到，我們正在交付以及下半年的前景，我們非常看好我們的商品利潤率，這確實是因為兩者。

Yes. Just to echo what Ernie just said, given our, call it, whatever, the better retailing strategy, all of our improvement versus our last guidance, not -- at least from a margin -- merchandise margin perspective, is all in the buy. So our average retail is up whatever we had planned it to be up, but it's all better buying in the -- across all of our divisions. And it's fairly significant improvement in our mark-on in the back half of the year. So it's better buying. Costs are going up, but the retailers are going up a bit more -- cost.

是的。只是為了呼應厄尼剛才所說的話，考慮到我們稱之為更好的零售策略，我們與我們上次指導相比的所有改進，而不是 - 至少從利潤率 - 商品利潤率的角度來看，都在買入。因此，我們的平均零售額會隨著我們計劃的增長而增長，但最好在我們所有的部門購買。在今年下半年，我們的評分有了相當大的改善。所以還是買比較好。成本在上升，但零售商的成本上升得更多。

More than the cost, right.

不僅僅是成本，對。

Yes. That's the other way. And part of that -- no one asked, part of why the inventory is up is you have the freight and cost impact that's buried in the overall inventory. But the costs are going up, but the retailers are going up more than the cost. But we had that baked into our both original and last guidance.

是的。那是另一種方式。其中一部分——沒有人問，庫存增加的部分原因是你有隱藏在整體庫存中的運費和成本影響。但是成本在上漲，但零售商的漲幅超過了成本。但我們已將其納入我們最初和最後的指導。

John -- and the other thing, John, that goes hand-in-hand with this because that wouldn't -- that would all just be okay if we thought, oh, we're doing that, but our -- but we're hurting sales. The opposite is happening because proportionally, our values, you could -- on many of these things are even better value today than they were because retails have gone up even more than what were going up and -- which is why our -- I think it was in the either the first question or close to that, where I was talking about, our turns are actually faster than they were in FY '20, which is an indication that when the customers in the store, the values are actually hitting them as stronger than they've been for a few years. So it's really nice to see.

約翰 - 另一件事，約翰，與此密切相關，因為那不會 - 如果我們認為，哦，我們正在這樣做，但我們的 - 但我們'正在損害銷售。相反的情況正在發生，因為按比例來說，我們的價值觀，你可以 - 在許多這些事情上，今天的價值甚至比現在更好，因為零售業的增長甚至超過了上升的幅度，而且 - 這就是為什麼我們 - 我認為在我所說的第一個問題或接近那個問題中，我們的轉彎實際上比 20 財年更快，這表明當商店裡的顧客時，價值觀實際上正在打擊他們比他們幾年來的強大。所以真的很高興看到。

You need both, right? You can't just have the buy and then retail move if you're not selling the goods at the right and the customer is not seeing the fact that you're still providing. And I'm telling you, in many cases, we're providing because of what's happening around us, more out-the-door value relative to the competition than ever before.

你兩個都需要，對吧？如果您沒有在正確的位置銷售商品並且客戶沒有看到您仍在提供的事實，那麼您就不能只是購買然後零售。而且我告訴你，在很多情況下，我們提供的是因為我們周圍發生的事情，相對於競爭對手來說，比以往任何時候都更多的戶外價值。

And with a slight -- with the moderation in freight with a better buying, the back half of the year, our merchandise margin, including all the freight pressure, is actually going to be up versus it was down in the first half of the year.

稍微——隨著運費的放緩和更好的購買，今年下半年，我們的商品利潤率，包括所有的運費壓力，實際上會上升，而上半年則下降.

It's kind of -- I hate to belabor the point, but it's really what we just experienced in Q2 and the way we're guiding, yes. But more conservative sales but healthy profit directionally is -- really, it is a testament and a great example of textbook utilization of this business model. And you couldn't do that if you didn't have the right teams. And again, we have such great associates here that are executing on this, whether from merchandiser or planning or marketing or in our distribution area, logistics, it's all working. And it -- this is just a great, I think, evidence of how we're able to flex and take advantage of the market.

有點——我不想詳細說明這一點，但這確實是我們在第二季度剛剛經歷的以及我們指導的方式，是的。但更保守的銷售和健康的利潤定向是——真的，這是一個證明，也是教科書利用這種商業模式的一個很好的例子。如果你沒有合適的團隊，你就無法做到這一點。再說一次，我們這裡有如此出色的同事正在執行此任務，無論是來自採購員、規劃或營銷，還是在我們的分銷區域、物流，這一切都在發揮作用。而且它 - 我認為這只是我們如何能夠靈活利用市場的一個很好的證據。

That was our last question. So thank you all for joining us today, and we will be updating you again on our third quarter earnings call in November, and we look forward to it. Thank you, everybody.

那是我們的最後一個問題。因此，感謝大家今天加入我們，我們將在 11 月的第三季度財報電話會議上再次向您更新，我們期待著它。謝謝大家。

Ladies and gentlemen, that concludes your conference call for today. You may all disconnect. Thank you for participating.

女士們，先生們，今天的電話會議到此結束。你們都可以斷開連接。感謝您的參與。