“The current sales strength and warmer weather in the U.S. give us confidence in our ability to work through this fairly quickly and strategically.”

In context

“ling inefficiencies as U.S. associates returned more quickly than expected from COVID-19 leave and some things that will likely be more persistent than anticipated when we gave guidance to start the year. As Doug mentioned, during the quarter, particularly in the middle of the quarter, we weren't able to fully address or pass along some of the cost increases that impacted profit more than expected. We're now managing those costs and passing them along, more effectively. The costs related to inventory and fuel prices in the U.S. will strike some into Q2, but the scheduling-related costs have been mitigated. Most of the increased inventory and related costs were related to buying over the past several quarters with a keen focus on in-stock, and now we're in a short period of rightsizing it. The current sales strength and warmer weather in the U.S. give us confidence in our ability to work through this fairly quickly and strategically. Our market position is strong and our business model was built to weather times like this when customers are making more real-time choices. We're there for them and we'll continue to provide great value while managing the business in a way that's also good for shareholders. We'll continue to reduce costs where we can and manage pricing in a way that preserves competitive price gaps while managing the bottom line and passing on costs where they appear to be less temporary in nature. Our expectations for the top and bottom-line growth algorithm remain structurally unchanged. As we navigate the current environment, we continue to make great progress in building our flywheel and executing our long-term strategy. For example, the global advertising business grew over 30% in Q1. I'm excited abo”