Businesses grow and they don't change enough and they decline over time. Retailers do that on a bit of a faster cycle.

I bet you that over time, because we come up with new ideas to grow sales, we end up with about the same number of people making more money.

Private brand's important. We invest in quality. We try to treat them like they really are brands, and not just some private label. But, you know, we wouldn't wanna see them continue to grow in percent of total too much. We would like for the brands to offer value to customers and have them grow.

You just stay the course, and do what it is that you do, and grow while you're doing it. Eventually it will either come full circle, or at least you'll go to bed at night happy.

Businesses that grow by development and improvement do not die. But when a business ceases to be creative, when it believes it has reached perfection and needs to do nothing but produce no improvement, no development, it is done.

Today, we still have more than 300,000 U.S. associates who were with us since 2015 and are now leading teams, running stores and clubs, and continuing to grow their careers. Their stories are a reminder that when people are given opportunity, they make the most of it - and a culture of opportunity creates a cycle where happy associates lead to happy customers and members, and vice versa.