“But the trends we see in general merchandise sales make us feel more optimistic about those categories in the back half of the year.”

In context

“more recently with July 4th and the start of Back to School, where sales are ahead of plan so far. We see them buying more private brand items, and they're buying more grocery staples and in-home meal options consistent with eating at home. Our customers and members are resilient. They're looking for value, and they trust us to be there for them. We see people across income cohorts come to us more frequently looking to save money on everyday needs. That gives us an opportunity to drive conversion in more discretionary categories. We're encouraged by how general merchandise performed during the second quarter versus our expectations. We still expect food, consumables and health and wellness, primarily due to the popularity of some GLP-1 drugs to grow as a percent to total in the back half. But the trends we see in general merchandise sales make us feel more optimistic about those categories in the back half of the year. Our stores and clubs give us a competitive advantage and power our omnichannel model. Our curbside pickup business continues to grow as people look for ways to save time, and store-fulfilled delivery is now growing faster than pickup across all three segments. Delivery speed and accuracy are obviously important, and we lack how we're leveraging our physical assets. In the U.S., we have more than 4,000 stores and nearly 600 Sam's Clubs making same-day deliveries, and in nearly 2,000 stores and clubs internationally. We're increasingly measuring those deliveries in hours rather than days. In China, where we deliver from all our stores, nearly 80% of digital orders are delivered in under one hour. I like how we're constantly improving delivery speed. It's important to our customers and to ou”