==== 2024-09-27 ====
Notes from https://www.fool.com/earnings/call-transcripts/2024/09/26/costco-wholesale-cost-q4-2024-earnings-call-transc/ - Costco Wholesale (COST) Q4 2024 Earnings Call Transcript
  * Costco
    * 333,000 employees worldwide
    * warehouse managers
    * fiscal year 2024
      * 30 new warehouse openings - 1 relocation and 29 net new
      * warehouses in 47 states in U.S.
    * guidance for fiscal year 2025
      * 29 new warehouse openings - 3 relocation and 26 net new
    * Q4 results
      * net income is up 9% YoY
      * 76.2 million paid household members
      * 136.8 million cardholders
      * 35.4 million paid executive memberships
      * average age of members is going down
      * tax rate in Q4 2024 was 24.4% compared to 27.1% in Q4 2023
      * capital expenditure for the total year is $4.71 billion
      * Kirkland Signature Boneless Chicken Tender lines
      * paneer cheese, Punjabi cookies, and Fried Tofu Kimbap
      * KS Organic Golden Maple Syrup and KS Aerosol Whipped Cream
      * reduced prices for KS Standard Foil, KS Macadamia nuts, KS Spanish Olive Oil, KS Baguette 2 pack
      * new Japan-produced Kirkland Signature Paper Towels
      * good flow of products through Panama and Baltimore
      * The Red Sea is a remaining pain point
      * Costco Next, Costco's curated marketplace
      * July wage increase
    * card readers at the front door give our operators real-time traffic counts throughout the day. So, we're able to adjust front-end lines that we need to open and close lines based on the fluctuations of business. We can monitor our fresh foods a little better because we know what the traffic counts look like and so forth.
    * membership card scanners were rolled out to about 350 U.S. warehouses
    * head operator, Russ Miller
    * it really is about the cadence of them opening
    * We wouldn't normally comment on cadence for the year ahead either.
    * our cadence of our earnings growth across '25 is likely to be less linear than you would probably typically expect
    * This is X on for Y
    * traditionally increased the membership fee every five years
    * hot dog pricing at \$1.50 and the rotisserie chicken at \$4.99
    * members and consumers, in general, are maybe shifting a little bit of spend from food away from home to food at home
    * we're our own biggest competitor
    * average wage is just north of $30 an hour in US