Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for standing by. Welcome to the TJX Company's second quarter fiscal 2027 financial results conference call. At this time, all participants are in a listen-only mode. Later, we will conduct a question-and-answer session. At that time, if you have a question, you will need to press star 1. As a reminder, this conference call is being recorded August 19, 2026. I would like to turn the conference call over to Mr. Ernie Herrman, Chief Executive Officer and President of TGX Companies. Please go ahead, sir.

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

Thank you, Ernie, and good morning. Today's call is being recorded and includes forward-looking statements about our results and plans. These statements are subject to risks and uncertainties that could cause the actual results to vary materially from these statements. including, among others, the factors identified in our filings with the SEC. Please review our press release for a cautionary statement regarding forward-looking statements as well as the full Safe Harbor statements included in the investor section of our website, TJX.com. We have also detailed the impact of foreign exchange on our consolidated results and our international divisions in today's press release and in the investor section of TJX.com along with reconciliations to non-GAAP measures we discussed. Thank you, and now I'll turn it back over to Ernie.

Good morning. Joining me and Deb on the call is John. I want to begin by thanking our talented associates for the continued dedication to TJX and their commitment to delivering great value and an exciting treasure hunt shopping experience to our shoppers every day. Now, to our second quarter results. Overall comparable sales increased 4%, which was above our plan. Our second quarter comp performance highlights the benefit of our global diversified business. While sales at our Marmex division were below our expectations, our three other divisions delivered comp sales increases of 6% to 7%, which drove results that exceeded the high end of our plan. At Marmax, we believe we could have executed our store mix better. And by that, I mean we could have been sharper on having the right goods in the right stores at the right time. We are convinced that the issues were self-inflicted and within our control, and we have made good progress working through them. We are seeing improvement at Marmax to start the third quarter and are confident that we will see greater improvement by the holiday selling season. As to second quarter profitability, I am very pleased that once again profits were well above our plan. Given this, we are raising our full year outlook for pre-tax profit margin and earnings per share. John will give some more detail about our second quarter results and guidance in a moment. As we look to the second half of the year, we are laser focused on driving the opportunities that we see for the business. Third quarter is off to a strong start, and availability of merchandise continues to be outstanding. We believe we have the right initiatives in place to drive sales and customer traffic to all of our retail banners, and I am confident we will execute on our plans. Longer term, we continue to see a long runway for growth ahead for TJX. We are excited about the continued potential we see to keep growing sales, to keep expanding our global footprint and to keep capturing additional market share around the world for many years to come.

Now I'll turn the call over to John to cover our second quarter results in more detail. Thanks, Ernie. I also want to add my gratitude to all of our global associates for their continued hard work and commitment to TJX. As I recap our second quarter results, I'm going to speak to everything on an adjusted basis which excludes the impact from the tariff refunds received as of the end of the second quarter and the related incremental compensation expense accruals. Reconciliations detailing the net impact of these items on our results can be found in today's press release and on the investors section of our website. Now show some additional details on the second quarter versus last year. As Ernie mentioned, our second quarter consolidated comp sales increased 4%, which was above our plan. Our second quarter comp was driven by a higher average basket and an increase in customer transactions. Further, our home categories outperformed our apparel categories. Adjusted pre-tax profit margin was 11.9%, up 50 basis points versus last year, and well above our plans. Adjusted gross margin was 31.4%, up 70 basis points versus last year, and driven by an increase in merchandise margin, mostly due to tariff favorability. Adjusted SG&A was 19.7%, unfavorable by 20 basis points versus last year, and driven by incremental store wage and payroll costs. Net interest income was neutral to pre-tax profit margin versus last year. Adjusted diluted earnings per share were $1.22, up 11% versus last year, and well above our plan. Second quarter adjusted pre-tax profit margin and adjusted diluted earnings per share significantly exceeded our plan primarily due to operational expense efficiencies, a higher merchandise margin, and expense leverage on better sales partially offset by contributions to TJX's charitable foundations. Now to our second quarter divisional performance. At MARMAX, comp sales increased 1% and were entirely driven by a higher average basket, partially offset by a small decrease in customer transactions. While sales were lower than we would have liked, comp sales increased across all region and income demographic bands. Adjusted segment profit was 14.2% flat versus last year. We delivered another good quarter of sales performance at our Sierra stores as we continue to grow this chain across the U.S. At our U.S. e-commerce sites, we continued to add new brands to deliver even more freshness for our online shoppers. We are excited about the initiatives we have planned for our TJ Maxx, Marshalls, and Sierra banners this fall and holiday season. Long term, we are confident in the market share opportunities we see for our largest division. HomeGoods delivered an outstanding 7% comp sales increase primarily driven by higher average basket and customer transactions were also up. We are very pleased to see strength at both our HomeGoods and HomeSense banners and across all region and income demographic bands. Adjusted segment profit margin was 12.4%. Up 240 basis points. Our HomeGoods and HomeSense banners offer customers a highly differentiated mix of home fashions from around the world at compelling values. We are the largest off-price home fashion retailer in the U.S. and believe that we are set up very well to continue to capture an even larger share of the market going forward. At TGX Canada, comp sales were excellent, increasing by 6%. The comp was primarily driven by an increase in customer transactions. Adjusted segment profit margin on a constant currency basis was 16.3%, up 30 basis points. We are the leading off-price retailer in Canada and are very pleased with our strong brand awareness and loyal shopper base. We continue to see an opportunity to further grow across Canada with our three retail banners. At TGX International, comp sales increased an outstanding 7%. This comp was also primarily driven by an increase in customer transactions. We were extremely pleased with the strong, consistent sales performance in Europe and excellent sales in Australia. Adjusted segment profit margin on a constant currency basis was 7.3%, up 210 basis points. During the quarter, we opened our second TK Maxx store in Spain, and again, customer response was extremely positive. We are excited about our growth plans for our international division and have great confidence that we can attract even more shoppers in Europe and Australia over the long term. Moving to inventory. Second quarter balance sheet inventory was up 7%, and inventory on a per-store basis was up 2%. Thank you, John.

I'd like to start by highlighting the opportunities we see that give us confidence that we can drive sales and traffic in the second half of the year. First, we are confident that consumers will continue to look for value in the current environment. We believe we have a large and deeply passionate customer base, strong brand perceptions, and an offering that resonates across many age and income brackets. We're convinced that we remain a very attractive option for shoppers who want great brands and fashions at excellent value and believe they will seek out our retail banners this fall and holiday season. Second, we're excited about the product category initiatives that we have planned. We have become a year-round gifting destination and feel particularly good about our initiatives in this area. This strategy has worked well for us, and we believe it helps us stay top of mind for consumers. All of this gives us confidence that our exciting, ever-changing merchandising mix can inspire our shoppers and encourage more frequent visits to our stores. Third, product availability continues to be off the charts across all categories and from a wide range of brands. Further, there continues to be more availability in the marketplace than we could ever buy. I am convinced that our team of more than 1,400 buyers will bring shoppers the right assortments at the right values. Lastly, we are excited about the marketing we have planned for this fall and holiday season. We will continue to follow consumer viewing habits by employing a variety of channels with a strong emphasis on digital and social media. Our campaigns will continue to reinforce our value leadership with insightful and entertaining creative content that connects with shoppers across a wide range of age and income shopper demographics. We believe that our thoughtful, integrated marketing approach will help us attract new customers and keep us top of mind with our existing shoppers. Beyond this year, I am confident that TJX has significant opportunities to capture additional market share over the long term. I'll briefly cover the key characteristics of our business that give us confidence. First is our reputation as a trusted value leader in the United States, Canada, Europe, and Australia. We believe this is a tremendous advantage and our top priority remains offering great value every day to our customers. We are a global sourcing machine. We work with the universe of approximately 21,000 vendors every year to curate an unmatched mix of good, better, best merchandise for our customers. Third, we are convinced that we have some of the strongest vendor relationships in retail. We have decades-long relationships with many of our vendors, both domestically and internationally. Further, we believe vendors love to work with us as we are in the market buying consistently throughout the year, we can introduce their brand to new consumers, and we offer them a very attractive way to grow their business. Next, we attract shoppers across a wide range of income and age demographics in the United States, Canada, Europe, and Australia. With our proprietary planning and allocation systems and expertise, We can create a differentiated treasure hunt shopping experience that appeals to a broad range of shoppers across each of our markets. Fifth, many aspects of our business are driven by flexibility, which we see as a key advantage. This includes our buying, our store formats, and our supply chain and systems. Next, we continue to see tremendous opportunities significantly grow our store base around the world. Today, We are increasing our long-term store growth potential by 500 stores through a total of 7,500 stores or over 2,200 more stores with just our existing retail banners within our current 10 countries. This now reflects the long-term potential for our TJ Maxx and Marshalls banners to expand an additional 300 stores to a combined 3,300 stores and for the Home Goods Division to expand an additional 200 stores to 2,000 stores. Further, we are planning to accelerate our store openings to 4% starting next year to take advantage of the growth opportunities we see out there. I want to assure you that we are extremely confident that there will be plenty of quality merchandise available to us to support our growth plans. Last and most importantly is our exceptional talent around the world. I truly believe that the depth of our off-price knowledge and expertise and the longevity of our talent within TJS is unmatched. Talent development has always been a priority and we remain laser focused on teaching and training the next generation of TJS leaders. Also, I am very proud of our culture and believe that it will be a tremendous advantage as we continue our growth around the world. I'm convinced that the combination of all these core strengths of our business set us apart from many other major retailers. Further, I believe these have allowed us to successfully navigate many different kinds of retail and macro environments over our nearly 50 years as a company and I am confident they will continue to benefit us.

Summing up,

We are pleased with the overall performance of TJX in the second quarter. Again, our above-planned results demonstrate the power and benefits of our global diversified business. I want to reiterate that at Marmax, we have seen a sales improvement to start the third quarter and are confident we will see greater improvement by the holiday selling season. The third quarter is off to a strong start, and we believe we are strongly positioned in today's consumer environment. We are excited about the initiatives we have planned for the remainder of the year. Importantly, over the near and long term, we plan to continue to play offense in our approach to marketing, merchandising, the in-store shopping experience, global store growth, and our investment in talent. I'm convinced that TJX has set up extremely well to capitalize on the growth opportunities that we see around the world for many years to come. Now I'll turn the call back to John to cover our guidance, and then we'll open it up for questions.

Thanks again, Ernie. As I recap our guidance for the remainder of the year, I'm going to speak to everything on an adjusted basis, which excludes the benefit from tariff refunds that we received in the second quarter and expect to receive in the third quarter. Our adjusted guidance also excludes incremental compensation expense accruals Related to the tariff refunds for the second third and fourth quarter again Reconciliations can be found on the investor section of our website Starting with the third quarter. We are planning overall comp sales to be up two to three percent Consolidated sales to be in the range of fifteen point six to fifteen point eight billion dollars up three to five percent versus last year Adjusted pre-tax profit margin to be in the range of 12.3 to 12.4%, down 30 to 40 basis points versus last year's 12.7%. Adjusted gross margin to be in the range of 32.1 to 32.2%, which would be down 40 to 50 basis points versus last year's 32.6%. This would be primarily driven by higher fuel costs. Adjusted SG&A to be 20%, 10 basis points favorable versus last year's 20.1%. We're assuming net interest income of $28 million, which we expect will be neutral to our third quarter pre-tax profit margin versus last year. This assumes that we will pay off the $1 billion note maturing in September. Our third quarter guidance assumes a tax rate of 24.6%. and a weighted average share count of approximately 1.11 billion shares. As a result of these assumptions, we're expecting third quarter adjusted diluted earnings per share to be in the range of $1.30 to $1.32, up 2% to 3% versus last year's $1.28. Moving to the full year, we continue to expect overall comp sales growth of 3% to 4%. We expect full-year consolidated sales to be in the range of $63.4 to $63.8 billion, up 5% to 6% versus last year. We are increasing our full-year adjusted free tax profit margin guidance to be in the range of 12% to 12.1%, up 30 to 40 basis points versus last year's adjusted 11.7%. We now expect full-year adjusted gross margin to be in the range of 31.2 to 31.3%, up 20 to 30 basis points versus last year's adjusted 31%. We now expect full-year adjusted SG&A to be 19.5%, flat versus last year's adjusted 19.5%. We're assuming net interest income of about $131 million, which we expect to be neutral to our full-year pre-tax profit margin versus last year. Our full-year guidance also assumes a tax rate of 24.6% and weighted average share count of approximately 1.12 billion shares. As a result of these assumptions, we're increasing our full-year adjusted diluted earnings per share to be in the range of $5.15 to $5.20, up 9% to 10%, versus last year's adjusted $4.73. Lastly, our implied guidance assumes The fourth quarter assumes no further tax refunds and excludes the incremental expense accruals related to the third and fourth quarter tariff refunds. For the fourth quarter, we are expecting overall comp sales to be up 2-3%, adjusted pre-tax profit margin to be in the range of 11.9-12%, down 20-30 basis points versus last year's adjusted 12.2%. and adjusted diluted earnings per share to be in the range of $1.44 to $1.47 up 1% to 3% versus last year's $1.43. In closing, I want to reiterate that we are excited about the growth in market share opportunities we see in the near and long term. We are in an excellent position to continue to invest in the growth of TJX while simultaneously returning significant cash to our shareholders. Thank you, and now we're happy to take your questions.

Thank you. Our first question comes from Matthew Boss. Your line is open.

Great, thanks. So, two questions. Ernie, first, could you speak to the progression of theme store sales at MarMax during the second quarter and elaborate on the sales improvement that you cited in August at MarMax and drivers of the strong start to the third quarter? And then, John, Could you talk to the recent new store performance metrics that you've seen and just the opportunity you see today to raise your store target?

Sure. Okay, Matt. I think, John, you want to? I'll start with the quarter, and then I'll take over.

So across the board, we came out stronger in May, and then we saw consistent sales in June and July. Pretty much across the board.

And then that on, I think you're referring to talking about the strong start to the quarter and what we're seeing there. Yeah, across all of the businesses. And we mentioned one of the strengths that you see here, and obviously there's a I would tell you all of them I like the way we're trending with all of them starting off this Q3 in August. MarMax was seeing improvement from where we were trending before. And then I'm really looking for MarMax as we move ahead to see more significant improvement as we get to fourth quarter. But I think they're asking about overall strong start across the board.

And then to answer your second question, so We look at this, obviously, very frequently, our store potential. And we have been seeing for a bit of time that we had some opportunity in Marmax and HomeGoods to continue to grow our store base. So we took the opportunity this quarter. to increase Maramax by 300 stores, HomeGoods by 200 stores. And again, for Maramax, we're seeing opportunities in rural markets where we see department stores are closing. We're seeing the opportunity as the store, as we've experienced strong comp growth for so many quarters that we're seeing the ability to put stores closer together than we thought before. And then The small format store that allows us to expand in a lot of densely populated urban areas as well. And so we've been seeing the opportunities to increase our store growth potential in the annual growth from what we were saying before, a unit 3% growth to 4% growth based on The availability that we're seeing pretty much across the board. And so when we look at where we see the opportunities, we see it across every single brand that we have.

Yeah, so to John's point, Matt, we're seeing that additional 1% store growth across the board also. That's not just a one division or two division driving that. The other thing I think the teams have done a good job is getting more flexible in our approach to these smaller formats. What John's talking about is our teams, whether it's planning an allocation that ships the goods to the stores, and our real estate division, which designs and constructs the stores, finds the locations. We're getting more flexible based on population density, et cetera, in some of these locations, as John mentioned, which I think is also opening up opportunity.

Right. And then... You know, just to, you know, I know you asked this and I didn't answer it. The performance of our new stores for a long, long time, we've been exceeding our expectations on our new store openings for quite a while. And so we see no concerns there either.

That's a great caller. Best of luck. Thank you.

Our next question comes from Lorraine Hutchinson. Your line is open.

Thank you. Good morning. Good morning, Lorraine. I was hoping to get a little more insight on things. I was hoping to get a little more insight on what went wrong at Marmax, the steps you've taken to fix it, and then how quickly do you think you'll be back to a more normal 2% to 3% comp cadence at Marmax specifically?

Yeah, great question, Lorraine. Obviously, this is a This is one that we thought would be important to discuss on the call, which is why we had it in the script as well. Without giving specifics to the families of business, which you know we can never do that, if you go back, you've covered us for a while, even a number of years ago, we had execution issues. We didn't give the areas specifically because of competitive reasons. However, what we can say is we've identified, it was pretty obvious to which areas they are in where we did not have I would say the right mix, merchandise mix in T.J. Maxx and in Marshalls and it was really entirely self-inflicted and within our control to the point that I've been involved and all teams have been involved in those areas which involved the merchants, buyers, merchandise managers, GMMs, senior merchants Our planning and allocation teams were involved in identifying the execution issues. I mean, all the way from, you know, buyers and planning all the way up to me. Everyone's involved. We've identified them. and I think we're well on our way to fixing the issues. I think you know from our past that when we focus on this execution issue, we are able to fix it pretty readily. I would say when you, and you started to hint at that in your question, what type of timing gets us back to the two to three, I would say we're seeing a trend improvement already in August versus in Q2. I am most confident we'll be seeing what you're talking about by Q4, and I think a transition toward that over the next couple of months. I hate to lock myself in on an exact number right now, but we're feeling really good about it. Again, everyone is involved. We know exactly where we fell down. and I would tell you it had nothing to do with if there's any question on did this have to do with any competition out there of any sorts, it had nothing to do with that. We've measured, we've actually run out and measured where our stores are versus direct off-price competitors and our comps are actually pretty much identical to wherever direct-off price competitors are near us versus away from us, our stores are pumping identically. So, which, by the way, the good and the bad of that is it tells us it's our own execution. So, I guess, you know, in the past, I always talk to the teams. It's really always up to us generally when we've had a tough A tough business. So I go back to on a much larger scale. John and I talked about this always. When you go back to Europe a number of years ago, as you know, we did not have strong execution there. In fact, we put in an objective of sales and getting to a more profitable bottom line. That took a little longer than this will take by far. but that was something we identified execution issues there and we fixed it on a large-scale total business situation. So hopefully that answers your question but, you know, obviously a very pertinent question.

Thanks, Ernie. Our next question comes from Paul Luiz.

Hey, thanks, guys. This is a clarification. I think you said May started stronger and then June-July was similar. I'm curious if June-July were both positive and if quarter to date is positive. And then on the small decline in transactions that you referenced, Ernie, on the Monarch side, I'm curious if that was traffic driven or conversion and if there's anything that might be a little off from a price point perspective that might be impacting the conversion, maybe a little bit too high. I'm curious if you could talk about that dynamic.

Yeah, so just to clarify, and I believe you're specifically asking about Marmax. Marmax, you know, started the quarter slightly stronger in May. June and July were consistent. All three months were positive comps.

Yep. The decline in transactions from what we can see had nothing to do with conversion and more to do in cases of where We didn't have... We had... It wasn't a like item where retails went up and the value wasn't good. We have pawn shopped aggressively. Our values are really the best around. Nobody is underselling us. And what it is, without giving specifics, it's more about what we didn't have in the mix. And so what that does is it... You don't necessarily capture that sale. And it wasn't really an execution on what we had in the mix. And that would apply to really all of those handful of areas that I spoke about earlier. And so that's when you... You know, you're just not selling the customer when she's in. I guess you could say if we had it, would we have converted on the visit a little higher? Hard to measure that. But we know, again, what the problem was there.

Yeah. So, Ernie, you think not having that was more of a traffic issue that customers knew that the product wasn't there? Yeah.

No, no, no, no, because again, our traffic's driven off of every day. A lot of our traffic is word of mouth. It's just constant traffic, right? We have a regular frequency of traffic. We don't do institutional price and item advertising. And people know that we're a treasure hunt, right? We're a treasure hunt. So they know we're going to sometimes have things or not have things. The issue is if we don't have some of these things that are kind of impulse-driven... They're in the store, and maybe they would have picked it up anyway. They don't necessarily know we're going to have it. That's where we lost some. Then we did lose some on categories that were more basic. Again, I can't give you what they are for competitive reasons, where we didn't have the appropriate mix. I don't think the customer knew we didn't have it, but they probably came in and weren't able to buy it.

I mean, our transactions, we quote her part, Our next question comes from Brooke Roach. Your line is open.

Good morning and thank you for taking our question. Ernie, a moment ago you spoke to execution issues as more of a factor of what you didn't have in the mix than what you did. Your buyers typically have very strong knowledge in knowing exactly what the customer wants and what categories and items are trending. What do you think led to this misstep on their knowledge of the pulse of the customer and what changes are you implementing in buying and allocation to be a little bit more consistent as you move into that important holiday season?

Yeah, so we have, again, I can't give you the exact, we've instituted two more systematic changes in planning. I can't tell you what they are, but planning is putting in something that will help monitor the situation so that it doesn't happen to that degree. Again, remember, we're a bit of an art form, secret sauce situation where things aren't so rigid. Merchants are making their best calls at the time. And, you know, sometimes I'd like everyone to realize, you know, Marmex has quarter after quarter of really strong business. And the last time maybe that we had something like this might have been about eight years ago. So I want to be careful on overreacting to what was definitely a lack of execution in a handful of areas. Because, you know, this is something that can happen in a business that's a bit of an art form, and you look for certainly closeouts in certain areas, and we plan a little bit ahead, and sometimes we don't put in place the right plans and the right combination of executing to those plans. So there's a lot of moving parts. You know, it's rare, but it can happen. So we put some basically systematic processes in place, some of it really involved from the planning side, ironically, which is supposed to help the buyers on this, and I think that's really going to help mitigate this going forward. As well as, by the way, as I think I mentioned earlier, we had everyone involved on these discussions about these areas, from buyers to MNs to GMNs to the president of Marmax, the head merchants in Marmax, myself, the senior executive vice president also. I mean, everyone has been involved, the heads of planning, etc., to get it institutionalized. So, good question, Brooke. But I think I think we have it all kind of circled.

Great. Thanks, Ernie.

Welcome.

Our next question comes from Alex Stratton. Your line is open.

Okay. Maybe I'll move on to another division here and then talk about home goods. Could you maybe unpack that really strong comp result by trafficker ticket as well as the categories and whether you think it's sustainable for that business to continue doing high-symmetry comps into the back half and similarly just on this division as well, it's been delivering great substantial underlying margin expansion. Can you talk about what's driving that improvement and if there's any, you know, structural constraints as you think about that business potentially becoming a mid-teens margin segment over time? Thanks a lot.

That's a very good question, Alice, across the entire home goods business. I like it. First of all, that team has been executing, as you said there when you asked the question consistently for a while now, and somewhat bucking the trend in the industry, right? I think they have been succeeding really over the last number of years at creating a level of excitement and impulse treasure hunt shopping across the Anything from, you know, domestics categories which are really second to none in value that we deliver. Anywhere from, you could go to, you know, our kitchen department with gadgets to kitchen linens to towels, sheets, giftware, gourmet food from Europe to... Seasonal decor, wall decor, everything is hitting on all cylinders. They, and we've talked about this before, they're Consumable business, items that get replenished. You probably can guess what those categories are. This team has put in place something that I think is continuing to drive additional steady traffic because people are now aware not only all the impulse that, you know, everyone for years has written about in home goods, they're getting Day in, day out consumable staple product that they need to replenish on a regular basis. These teams have done an amazing job at that. I think the store execution also in terms of ease of shopping, our store teams there have done an amazing job on the presentation within HomeGoods. It's such an easy store to shop. In what, in some cases, is difficult categories to shop. And I think our store execution there is different. And I think our home merchants across the corporation, I know you're asking about home goods, our home business across the corporation, which again is over a third of our business, over 35%, give or take now, is healthy across the board. and I think that's because home goods and a lot of the home merchants collaborate in a strong way and what that has created is an even stronger diversity of mix throughout our home business in home goods and across the rest of the divisions in TJX. So I think, yeah, I think we have way more opportunity as we move ahead. By the way, admittedly helped by, I think, the execution of competition in home around the board. In every country, and specifically in the United States, competition there is just not, I would say, up to par and does not give you the fashion utilitarian approach. Thank you very much. that is helping to move the needle within TJX. And I know you're asking about home grids. I just also have to mention Canada, Canada and Europe are also, sometimes they don't get in a lot of air time, and I'm only bringing it up because you're bringing up one of the other divisions. Those divisions, and Canada specifically, is the size of, getting close to the size of home grids, and those divisions, profit increases and sales increases, Europe as well are continuing to just all those teams are executing at a very high level and taking market share in their geographies as is HomeGoods here domestically.

John, I don't know if you have... Yeah, just to expand a little bit on what Ernie was talking about there as far as HomeGoods. You know, the biggest driver that Ernie mentioned was, again, the top-line growth. I mean, we... You know, the seven comp is certainly going to expand margin. We also had nice operational efficiencies that we saw in the division. And then, of course, the largest item, which is, you know, the merchandise margin improvement mainly driven by lower tariff costs.

Perfect. Thanks so much. Good luck.

Thank you.

Our next question comes from Michael Benetti. Your line is open.

Hey, guys. Thanks for taking our questions. Let me ask a quick one on the gross margin. I think, you know, with a strong start to the year before today, there was some potential for maybe upside to the gross margins that you guys were thinking about in the back half. I think you're more or less keeping the second half the same today for gross margin, maybe 10 basis points lower at the low end or something small like that. But can you maybe just walk us through the changes to the second half gross margin plan that met out to holding it flat? Maybe it's a boring question, but you added some freight in. I would assume maybe there's some Marmax markdowns. It seems like maybe there's potential for some new positives that we should be considering.

Yeah. So, Michael, if I'm comparing... The first half to the second half, you know, the biggest piece is going to be the fuel and the freight rates that we're seeing. So in the first half, we had favorability on our freight accruals that we had, excuse me, the freight mark to market of our hedges that we had out there. And again, we have to mark to market those at every quarter. So the back half, we're seeing, you know, higher fuel rates comparatively speaking. Freight rates also, due to what the trucking companies are seeing, they're seeing less driver availability, which is driving up price. And so that's due to either younger kids that aren't going into truck driving or a combination of that and, you know, some of the things that we've seen as far as foreign drivers, you know, leaving the country and some of the pressure that we've seen there. Certainly the first half having a five comp in the first half versus guiding to a two to three in the back half as a piece of it and then merchandise margin in a favorability in the first half that we saw so when you when you look at the institution of the the IEPA tariffs last year there were goods that were placed on The exact opposite happened this year where we had goods that had negotiated a tariff out and then the tariff was eliminated before the goods were landed. Those are the three main things that differentiate the first half from the second half. Okay. Does that answer your question?

Yeah, I guess I think so. Was there any new positives versus where we were 90 days ago, as you think about the back half? I know you're doing front half and back half.

I mean, our front half and back half, back half is, again, is very similar to what we had guided to underlying, guided to at the at the second quarter, which is why the five-penny beat, we flowed the five pennies on the full year. So, obviously, there's puts and takes, but for the most part, we're consistent.

Okay, and then if I could sneak one more in on profitability, since you made me think about this here. I was pretty pleasantly surprised to see Marmac able to hold the segment margin at the one comp. Is there, if you just let us know for our models, is there any shifts or any transitory benefits we should be mindful of in the second half?

No, no, nothing there. You know, again, we called this out in our prepared remarks. We did experience lower tariff costs, you know, in the second quarter. So I'd say that, you know, what we put out there as far as our guidance is what we, you know, believe in, and we're going to work hard to beat that guidance during the quarter.

Okay, guys, great to hear about the improvement in August. Thank you very, very much.

Thanks. Thank you.

Our next question comes from Jay Sol. Your line is open.

Great. Thank you. Ernie, I want to ask you about the 7500 long-term store target. Can you just tell us about Sierra and also Homestead and maybe a little bit about Europe as well, how those fit into the plan? I think you very specifically called out within your existing countries. Why not sort of talk about maybe new potential countries that, you know, some of you might be going to over time? Thank you.

Very good, Jay. Yeah, well, first of all, let me talk to the last thing first, which is we typically, well, I would say we're always looking at new countries for potential as we did with, and it's not always the same structural deal, right? But as you know, we went into Mexico and our JV and then our investment in Brands for Less and Spain, which John talked to is doing really well. And I think, by the way, part of our new store upping is we're pretty bullish on new Spain openings down the road, realizing that the customer base is reacting even stronger than we anticipated there. That's not part of our, no, not even part of our numbers.

Potential opportunity in the future.

Yep, yep. The other ones you're asking about is Sierra is, you know, disproportionate, that adds disproportionately into the growth, right? It's a higher growth rate than the 4% by far. And so is HomeSense. So those are both well above 4%. because they're both doing well and we are always looking at new market potential just so you know because we have shown as witnessed by Australia also any new market we've gone into if we've brought the TJX secret sauce and TJX tenured associates to lead it we have done very well. So you know again I can't say enough about What we're showing internationally, I'm glad you're asking about this, what we're showing internationally is the ability, I think we're better than ever at showing that we can grow our model wherever there's a market internationally. So as much as I can't tell you what the next country is, you can be assured that we're looking.

Thank you so much.

Thank you.

Our next question comes from Marnie Shapiro. Your line is open. Hey guys.

Hi Marnie. I'm curious, can we talk a little bit about some of the other categories at Marmax? I know you don't want to get into too many details. You talked about missing things that weren't there. Are those fashion things that weren't there or is it, you know, you mentioned impulse items. How is beauty doing? Things like that that to me feel like more impulse. And I think you talked about at HomeGoods across the board things are doing well and things like I remember being on the store tour and talking about how people were buying their dinner at HomeGoods to make that night. So are consumables still doing well? Can you just talk a little bit about the kind of non-apparel categories and non-traditional home gatherings?

Okay, so, but Marnie, I cannot, obviously, I can't give you in Marmax the ones, I can't tell you whether it was fashion, it's a bit of a mix, and I can't get too specific on which family or categories there we fell down, only because of the competitive environment we're in, and giving that information externally. I can tell you it wasn't any one-dimensional, it was a combination of different things in Marmax. and then at the same time as witnessed by the fact in Marmax that we ran a 1 and not a minus 3 is we had a lot of categories that were performing well. So, you know, we had a handful of areas that when they get hit it pulls you down from what could be a 2 or 3 down to a 1 is what happens because in Marmax, as you know, and clearly the street thinks this, the differences between a 1 and a 3 is just a very... That's kind of what we're talking about here, not a, you know, a minus three to a plus four. So it can be a pretty, you can have, excuse me, a handful and it throws you off where you're just missing the two comp by a little bit. And in home goods, across the board, I probably shouldn't just emphasize the replenishment, as you call them, categories. because it's really it's not just the consumables it's across the board a lot of the decorative and even some of the higher ticket areas are doing really really well and I'm talking you know from lighting to wall categories to without giving anything away I think they're just executing almost every mix at a very high level and I again I think What the merchants are doing in home goods and planning and the stores and executing distribution, they have all cylinders, clicking, marketing, is they're giving the customer an experience. It's difficult to find that experience in any other retailer. It's a different type of treasure hunt, and some of the goods, as you know, are very unique that only home goods has. in a different type of manner where as you go to apparel across the board, you know, apparel that we would have in whether it's a TJ Maxx or Marshalls or Sierra, you know, that apparel fortunately is in other places where better value on it. I think in home goods you have some just unique product categories that creates a whole other reason to shop them. So, and that's the innovation that I think, I don't think anybody else in the home industry, and I'm not just talking the United States, I'm talking Europe, Canada. As you know, in Canada, we overindex. That's our largest, one of our largest market share geographies in the corporation. And now that you've had closures with the Bay, etc., we just continue to, the Canadian merchants are doing an amazing job in HomeSense and in Winners and in Marshalls in Canada. And I think we don't talk about Canada a lot, but they just continue to gain major market share there as well. Similar to what HomeGoods is doing here, Canada is doing there.

I have one follow-up on HomeGoods. Your Back to College set was unbelievable. I mean, stop me in my tracks, unbelievable. And I'm just curious if you saw a pickup in traffic and in trends at HomeGoods when that set

Yes, they've been very pleased. I don't have the specifics in front of me, but I know the team has talked about their back to campus, is what they call it. The set and the results have been very healthy. Yep. And I think to your point, the timing was perfect, and it looked, I think, better than ever. I'm glad you noticed it.

It was stunning. Took my breath away. Congrats to that team. Thank you, Ernie.

No, congrats. Thank you. And by the way, Marnie, they'll appreciate that comment on that.

Thanks, guys.

Thank you, Marnie.

Our next question comes from Ike Borochow. Your line is open.

Hey, Ernie. I guess I was going to ask, I guess my first question, how you doing? On the freight side, I think you mentioned this to Michael already, but Has the freight expectation in the back half changed versus three months ago, or is this kind of what you thought it would be? And then the follow-up to that is not so much August and back to school, but for the fourth quarter, there's more and more red flags around Super El Nino weather impacts to the quarter. You guys have kind of done really well in those past couple times we've had these Super El Ninos going back to the model. Just curious if it's starting to affect the way that you're Planning Product, PlanningMerchandiseMix. Just kind of curious how you're starting to think about the holiday, even though I know it's early.

Thanks. Yep. I'll let John... I'll start with a great question.

Yeah, I mean, it is in line with what we were expecting. I mean, obviously, at the beginning of the year, the first quarter, when we marked to market the fuel hedges, we knew that that was taking a lot of benefit that... So that when we got to the next three quarters, it was going to be a negative impact. So yeah, it was all expected.

Yeah, and on the weather thing, what we do is we try not to get too specific on the weather, but the liquidity, and I think you said this before, we tended to... No pun intended, weather the storm on these things pretty well, right? Because we keep our liquidity and our shipping out of our warehouses is something we control a little better than traditional retailers. Our goods don't have to necessarily go straight to the lanes and go to the stores if we think there's going to be an unusual weather pattern in a certain region. This is a benefit of our model where we stage goods in our warehouses versus goods that most brick-and-mortar retailers come into the warehouse and have to go out. We have racks where we can manipulate, and our planning organization is really good at reacting to any wild swings in weather or natural disasters or any of those red flags. I think that's what you're talking about. So, yeah, I think for now they just stay aware, and as we get closer in, we can maneuver. Again, we are set up to maneuver better than most brick and mortar.

Got it. Thanks, guys.

Thank you.

The final question of the day comes from Anisha Sherman. Your line is open.

Okay. Thank you so much. Hi, Ernie and John. So you've seen positive ticket growth, you know, all through most of last year and year to date this year. You have a stronger mix of better items, premium brands than you had a few years ago. Do you see more runway on this growth in ticket and AUR, especially in the current consumer environment? And then a quick follow-up, Ernie, on your comment on marketing, playing offense on marketing. You've been really active on digital and social media marketing now for the last couple of years. Is there anything meaningfully different in terms of your type of marketing or your budget of percent of sales that's changing this year? Thank you.

Okay, Amisha. Yeah, well, on the first, on your first question there, which was... AUR and ticket. Yes, we've seen increases. I would tell you in this environment to what you said, I think we're going to moderate there. And I think we might be up a few is the way it's been kind of tracking, but I don't see a long-term trend there heading that way. It's probably going to moderate a little bit, and that's our best guess. The only reason, then I would tell you, I think we've talked about this before, it's bottom-up. and our organization so we don't dictate ticket from top down. And so if certain exciting categories or vendor deals come down and some of the better vendors, that can throw us for a little surprise in a good way where we have some crazy deals from better vendors that can have our ticket go up short-term. and then you have category mixes and that's what I think we've talked about in the past is the mix of certain categories within the whole store is what sometimes has made our mix go up. It's not like-for-like items or categories where the retailers change. It's the mix within the store has changed to more higher average retail categories. So I think our escalation ticket will probably moderate And that's just an educated guess over the next six months.

And then your question on advertising spend. So we plan very consistently year over year. And then in the year, if we're having a strong year, oftentimes we'll commit a little more dollars to the advertising to push that message, continue to feed the buyer.

Anisha, so you have an idea about which this current is. In the first half of the year, we had 1.1 billion video views across Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, Pinterest, YouTube, which shows you that wouldn't have looked that way in the last couple of years. By the way, we had over 300 million in home goods, so 1.4 billion video views across those venues of Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest, and YouTube. And that's just in the first half, which is where our customers are. And the neat thing about it is... We see the TJ Experiancy video completion rates on TikTok and YouTube that are significantly above the industry benchmarks, which that's really demonstrating that our content is really highly engaging to the customer. So they're staying on watching the content through most of the video, which is not always the case with a lot of competition out there. They'll show it as a view, but they don't necessarily watch the entire thing like our customers are watching.

That's really good, Caller. Thank you.

Welcome. Thanks for the question. And I think that was our last question. Thank you all for joining us today. We look forward to updating you again on our third quarter earnings call in November. Thank you, everybody.

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