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Wal-Mart De Mex V S/Adr
4/29/2026
Good morning, everyone.
I'm Salado Villaseñor, Head of Investor Relations at Wal-Mart. And I want to thank you for joining once again to our last Q&A session following our first quarter of the 2026 earnings release, which was published yesterday. We'll make every effort to answer as many questions as we can in the 45 minutes we have scheduled for the call. As always, we kindly ask you to limit yourself to one question only as accredited lawyers. Joining me today is Cristian Barrientos Pozo, our President and CEO, Tatiana Kvajal-Praiseka, our Senior Vice President of SAMS Club, and Paulo Garcia, our Chief Financial Officer. We'll now go right away to the first question.
We will now start the Q&A session. If you have a question, please press the question button in the browser. Please make sure you are not in full screen mode to see the button. The first question is from Mr. Alejandro Fuge from Itaú BBA. Please go ahead.
Thank you for the questions. I only have one quick one regarding Bodega. This quarter we saw, you know, semester sales being a little below the market, and I know you're making a lot of changes at Bodega that you have mentioned in the past, right, through SKUs and so on. I wanted to see maybe if you could elaborate a little bit more when you do think that we should start seeing this going through the P&L. with better top-line dynamics, and maybe if there was any effect that is worth mentioning for the semester sales at Bodega this quarter that you could highlight. Thank you.
Thank you, Alejandro, for the question, and for sure we're not happy with the result of Bodega in the first quarter. We began the year with a... not a good position in terms of inventory and also in availability in the format, particularly in Bodega, and was very painful at the beginning of the year because, as you know, it's part of our priority, but we didn't do a good job At the beginning of the year, let me say January and half of February, we saw a huge recovery at the end of the quarter. So that's one of the big reasons that we had in Bodega because of the size or how many stores do we have today. And the second one that... that it impacted bodega last year in the first quarter and you know one of our priority today is to be really an edsp company and to do that it requires a lot of effort and it's taking some time to do or create some exit strategy because we were competing with a Q1 with a big high-low particular in Bodega. So that is why there are the two big explanations that we are seeing or that we saw in the format. In the other hand, we are very confident that we are on track in the evolution of the One Best Way price gap as you saw in the release. We are continuing increasing our position in price gap. We are continuing increasing more than 300 basis points in price perception. We are doing, as Paul mentioned last quarter, a lot of effort in terms of mapping the store. We are seeing a lot of benefits in terms of the customer and also with the picker and shopper because they are more – clear where the merchandising are. And we're seeing in this store that we began with this test, very good results. So we're improving also the catchment areas in bodega. We're increasing the test, let me say, in terms of productivity in bodega also, trying to reduce processes. So good question. It wasn't a good quarter for Bodega, but we're confident that we are in the right track in terms of the customer value proposition that Bodega needs to offer to Mexican customers.
Super clear, Christian. Muchas gracias.
Thank you. Thank you, Alejandro.
Thank you very much for your question. Our next question is from Mr. Floyd Mendez from J.P. Morgan. Please go ahead.
Hello, guys. Thank you very much for taking my question.
Do you hear me?
Can you hear me now? Can you hear me now?
Yeah, perfect, perfect, perfect. Yep.
Thank you. Sorry about that. Just wondering on how do you define and measure the price gap perception versus competitors? If you could elaborate on what specific metrics or methodologies you use to track this and how does this improving price gap perception have translated into customer behavior and market share gains by format? Thank you.
What did you say? What did I want to say?
Cap perception is actually the studies that we do with a good base of the customers, and then we ask lots of questions around the customers to that, and then they talk about different areas. They talk about value, they talk about pricing, they talk about other indicators that they are doing, and within that, of course, we can extract what is that they are seeing at price perception or the value, our equation, versus the rest of the competitors. It's a relative indicator, Freud. If you think about what are the criterias that drive price perception, because that's probably the most important question people always want to understand, I think there what's important to understand, it's not just about the price gap, per se. Price gap is a very important one. If you think about Bodega, if you think about the three main criterias for price perception, pricing gap, is one and then penetration of private brands is a second one and the third one and actually is the communication so the stable communication clear communication to the customers if you think for instance about a brand like a format or banner like walmart supercenter in terms of price perception quality and freshness is one of the top criteria When you think about pricing, the pricing of the key value items, so to speak, it's another criteria. So it's different things for different vendors. At the end of the day, all encompasses the fact whatever we are doing on pricing, how we communicate with the customers around that. And when we talk, and Kristen always talks about that DLP, it's more just than pricing. It's also private brands. Of course, it's also the assortment and the quality of our assortment.
If I may build on your point, Paolo, good question, Freud. Price gap is about item by item, and price perception is about a customer survey, if we can separate both, okay? And why do we see very closely price perception? Because it connects very well with EDLP, because at the end, the perception, connect with the total basket that we're looking for being the cheapest in the market. Not necessarily item by item, but EDLP means the total basket in a long period of time that creates trust to you, you will be the lowest in a total basket. Not necessarily following high lows for the weekend. So what drives press reception as Paolo said, I will add the look and feel of the stores, the assortment that is part of the EDLP, private brands as Paolo mentioned, and also marketing campaigns that need to be well correlated with your strategy about EDLP. So those are the metrics that we are following very close because at the end, Perception is everything. You can see or you can define some price competitors against some products, competitors against some private brands, but at the end, the most important part, and it's broadly, let me say, is the perception.
Excellent. Thank you very much for this call.
Thank you very much for your question. Our next question is from Ms. Renata Cabral from Citi. Please go ahead.
Hi. Hi, everyone. Thank you so much for taking my questions. My question is also a follow-up on the Rodavius and related to a statement made on the WOMX day on the rationalization of the SKUs. I would like to know if you can give some color on what has been the rollout of this rationalization, the rationale for that, the potential improvements in terms of the cash flow, once probably we have a release of working capital related to that, but not only that, but related to what Christian has just mentioned in terms of competitiveness of the potato. Thank you.
Good question again. We began, as we mentioned in Walmart's day, with maybe there was a test of Bodega Express to reduce 30%, but after a lot of conversation in the team, we defined that maybe it's not a test in particular because we did that in the past. You know, I landed here in Mexico in 2012, and at the time, Bodega Express had some issues about the assortment, and we did that, and we moved Bodega Express from 2,500 SKUs to 1,800 to 1,900 SKUs. And maybe you can see the historical number of Bodega Express that was the one that has been the highest sales in the company. And it's because of simplicity. It's because of allowing the customer and also our associates to be more productive. And at the end, the key, in my opinion, in a small format, is to provide availability. So that's the way that we are looking for improve this format because we did that in the past. So we are in the middle of the rollout of this test, allowing the customer to find the products that they are looking for at the best price. So we're in the middle of the expansion of the test. We are very confident because we did in the past with very good results. You can see the numbers on 2013, 2014 and going on. So that's where we are in terms of the assortment reduction. And it's part of the Bodega DNA, okay? So you know that we need to operate for less to sell more because with that we can translate to the customer best prices. So this is key for us in this format to respect our customer value proposition. Thanks so much, Christian. Thanks for the call. No, thank you, Renata, for remembering us, this commitment that we did in a well-made way. Thank you very much.
Thank you very much for your question. Our next question is from Mr. Ben Thoreau from Barclays. Please, go ahead.
Hi, Ben.
We see you already.
Hi, Ben.
Can you hear us, Ben? We cannot see you.
Our next question is from Hector Maya from Scotiabank. Please, go ahead.
Hi, thank you very much for taking my question. We have been seeing for quite a while now that the contribution of new businesses to the gross margin has been consistently positive, but then gross investments have set this effect with an increasing contribution to SG&A. So I was wondering if you could share your thoughts on that dynamic, And if there is a strategy in place to reduce the impact in expenses from growth investments and also to gain a sense of how you are looking at increasing the price perception of consumers and how long could this last for the remainder of the year.
Yeah, thanks, Hector, for your question. So let me say a few things. There were a few questions in your question, one around the contribution of the new business, one around the SG&A, and then I think you ended with the price perception we've discussed previously, but I can touch base then on that one. So look, on the new contributions, we talked about our strategy, which is, by the way, a growth strategy. And these are new profit streams that we bring into the equation that we actually bring in order to decide in order to invest back in the customer in pricing to drive more growth. If at times we decided to drive that to the bottom line, we can do it. But as you know, from our three priorities, one of them is to drive more price growth and price expansion. So what we actually drive in terms of new profit streams, and it's good that they continue to accelerate, we invest back in pricing. In terms of the expenses, we've been talking a lot about that. It's a growth strategy. We've been talking that we would expect that our growth investments to be in the north of that leads to an SG&A growth in the high single digit. That's what we'll be planning. Of course, we do know that we need more sales in order to leverage those costs. And that's what we are completely focused based on our priorities that we've been talking about all the time. And I think on price perception, Christian talked in the second question from Fraulein. Actually, this is the second quarter in a row that we had an increase in price perception of quarter on quarter of more than 300 basis points, which reflects that what we were doing in terms of the pricing investments and expansion, what we are doing in terms of the private brand penetration, what we are doing in terms of the way we actually communicate in our stores our pricing plus assortment is starting is paying off so that's why because this is what will actually gain the trust of the customer and help us going forward to to grow more paulo if i can add one thing right so the question was also about productivity what we are doing in investing in automation and ai is to improve customer experience and simplify
operations for our associates, which translates to productivity. For instance, we talked about digital shelf labels and expanding digital shelf labels to 100% of our stores in Walmart Express by Q3. That drives productivity. That's just one example. But we are doing things like smart receiving, using technology. We are improving our availability process by mapping stores, making it simple for our associates to execute, which improves customer experience, but also drives productivity. So we are using technology to especially automation and AI, in our VCs and in our stores to drive productivity and simplify operations.
Excellent. Very clear. Thank you. Thank you very much.
Thank you, Hector, for your question.
Thank you very much for your question. Our next question is from Mr. Andrew Rubin from Morgan Stanley. Please go ahead.
Thanks very much for the question. I'd like to better understand some of the dynamics in e-commerce marketplace. We saw the decline and the message was around some large electronic sellers. So I'd like to get a better sense of the concentration of sellers within your marketplace. And as you open up for some of the Walmart cross-border sellers from the U.S., how impactful that could be both in terms of concentration and overall marketplace GMV mix. Thank you.
Yeah, thank you, Andrew. And as you mentioned clearly, we have a dependence and an infused seller today that we are changing that with the help of the U.S. We're not moving our structure, let me say, to report direct to the U.S. because we are taking a new approach in the marketplace business trying to or not trying we will become more a global company and marketplace will will be one of them so we're seeing a lot of um cross leveraging um ideas between both markets that we are seeing in place in this month of april so um we will change the dependency We are right now improving our cross-border business, and we define, let me say, some clear action that we can take on the market. and some action that we can leverage in all the companies. Let me share with you some ideas that we are improving very fast in the April month. We are reducing our onboarding seller dramatically with some issues that we saw in the platform today, and we are reducing last month. Last 15 days, we reduced seven days the onboarding seller process. And we're looking to reduce 12 more days in the coming month. So that is super important because it connects with the assortment piece. And the assortment, as always in BRIC and also in Marketplace, it's key. We are looking for having a huge assortment in Marketplace, but curated also. that allow and connect with my previous point about fuel cellar dependency. You need to have a correct assortment, big assortment, but correct. The second one that we are exploring and seeing a lot of good news, let me say, it's about the speed. We are not using very well our Walmart fulfillment services, and again, with some problems, tweets that we have in April, we are looking for incredible improvement in the warm-up services that at the end impact in the speed of delivery, reducing, let's say, this month or it was this month, almost two days on speed. Because in e-commerce, everything is about speed. So, these are some examples for you to to know where we are. We are seeing a shift in terms of sales that allow us to see that we are finding good news within the team, local team, and also with the support of Walmart US. Last week, there is a a group of 10 people who came from the U.S. with a leader worldwide of marketplace and see, allowing us or helping us to really see where we are in terms of our platform, in terms of our sell experience, and see all the journey for our seller and also for our customer. So, not a good result in the quarter, very clear, but we are confident that we are in the right direction to recover the speed that we need in terms of sales.
That's great. Thank you for all the color examples. Appreciate it. Thank you, Andrew.
Thank you very much for your question. Our next question is from Mr. Ulises Argote from Santander. Please go ahead.
Everyone, good morning. Thanks for the space for questions. The one that I had was more on the regional details you provided there yesterday. Obviously, those updated charts. The center and the south seem to be the ones that are decelerating the most, at least versus the trends we saw in the last quarter. So I wanted to get your thoughts on what was going on there in the specific markets. Is it competition? Is it a higher concentration of bodega? Is it the informal distribution? Any extra color of what you're seeing there on the ground would be really helpful. Thank you.
Yeah, in the south, Ulisses, I think you know that when you compare these versus the past, the south has been an area that has been growing. There was boost a lot by the government, as you know, Ulisses, and then it starts slowing down, and I think you see that slowing down across not just ourselves but across the rest of the competitors. I think that's probably what you're seeing. That's what I'll call it. In the center, so to speak, we're not seeing a huge variation, so to speak. You can say there's a little bit more competitive pressure, so to speak, there. Other than that, I don't think I will call out anything different than what we're seeing in the rest of the region. The southeast, the south is clearly one that the economy is not growing the same pace that it used to be.
Perfect. Thank you so much, Paulo. You're welcome.
Thank you very much for your question. Our next question is from Ms. Irma Gars from Goldman Sachs. Please go ahead.
Hi, Irma.
We see you. How do you miss it?
I'm not sure you can actually hear me.
Yeah, perfect.
It looks like you can hear me. I can't hear the other side, but I'll just ask my question and hopefully it goes through. Just a quick follow-up on the e-commerce strategy, just conceptually, how should we think about, sort of when you think about growth and margin trajectory, in the U.S., the e-commerce operation is already above break-even or has reached break-even and maybe a little bit above break-even, but I would assume, or am I correct to think that the growth has to come first and then over time you'll leverage the expenses, drive more efficiency in your logistics network and overall cost structures and drive then improved profitability and perhaps that can sort of fuel then further growth or help the overall margin. Just conceptually, I wanted to think through that a little bit and perhaps link to that is whether you think that there should be upfront investments as you're improving all those capabilities on your e-commerce platforms Is it a question of build it and they'll come, or do you think you have to put more money initially to affect the perception of your online property and drive more traffic to it in order to really capture that growth opportunity? Thank you.
I think conceptually, Irma, you're right in all that you have said. It makes all sense. I think the only thing that I will add up to that is that we've always been talking about there are two tails, so to speak, in e-commerce. There's your business on demand or growth, or demand how we call it, and growth if you want, which is a profitable business, and we leverage the full assets and, of course, the The scale we already have on that space, and we want to increase the reach. We discussed that at Lentz and the World Next Day. And then, of course, you do have the business of data and assortment, in particular the marketplace, which is in a different stage and therefore needs to grow. There's the scale is important, all the things that you have said it. are important. So that investment, as you grow, of course, the profitability keeps improving, which keeps, of course, creating this vicious circle of growth and a flywheel that allows you to continue to invest in, so to speak, In terms of what regards major investments on e-commerce, you know, one is capacity, but the capacity is omnichannel, as you know, mostly, Irma. And a second one, of course, with the high investments around the technology, which are the global platforms these days, are fully global platforms, that we actually pay as a take rate, and we actually reflect that in our expenses, so to speak. It's not so much the CAPEX. So I think these are the three important things to say of what you are asking, but conceptually, you're right.
Okay. And maybe if I can add on one more question. On Beneficios, I saw the number of users or sort of loyal members increased. It's sort of flattened out or stabilized here. Are you looking to still grow that or is there a specific reason behind that stabilizing that sort of the natural feeling? Thank you.
I think your answer again, the question is a natural ceiling, so to speak, Irma. You're talking about pretty much up to 50 million, right? We have 47 now. I think the most important now and where we are putting all the efforts and all the focus is in terms of driving the engagement with these customers, taking more of the data that we are getting, trying to find a way to connect more with the core to drive and increase the customer lifetime value of that customer with us. in terms of how it drives the traffic, how it drives the increased ticket. That's what we are focused. We are not focused now in taking from 50 or 47 to 50 or 50 to 52.
If I may build on your answer, and thank you for the question, Irma. As Paolo mentioned, we are tracking almost 70% of our transaction. That is a very good number. You know, I came from Chile. In Chile, we deployed this program 25 years ago, and we're running 70% of total transaction. So this is a good number. The secret here is what do you do with the data. And we are forcing and we are working very hard with the team. More than connect more people, we need to deploy or develop something around the data. The same is in Byte. Byte was created to provide cheaper Internet. cheaper mobile access. So with that, we will allow the customer to go to the e-commerce and invite them to the digital economy. So that's the focus that we have had, that we're working today and also leveraging the markets because we can bring some products or some programs or projects that we have in other countries. For example, We have in Chile this program that maybe you have heard about, Carito Listo, that predicts what's going on with your out-of-stock items at your home. So this is a huge program that we have there, but it came from Beneficio's program, for example. So we are exploring to bring, because we are almost in the same platform, and we are looking for do some tests maybe in SAMs because we have all the membership in SAMs, or using that, or using beneficios. But the key or the secret here, Irma, is what will you do with the data? More than how many customers, okay?
Absolutely makes sense. Thank you.
Thank you very much for your question. Our next question is from Mr. Alvaro Garcia from BTG. Please go ahead.
Good morning. Can you hear me?
Yes.
Nice. Awesome. My question is on delivery and on your goal to reach 50% delivery and on demand in under two hours. How do you expect to push that? How do you expect to reach? How are you thinking about reaching that goal? Seems pretty bold. I think this quarter you're at 14%, but I'd be interested in how you expect to get your marketing or your spend to get to that goal.
Hi, Alvaro.
Thank you for the question. Speed is really essential for our customers and members, and they have made it known. How we expect to reach there is to – is to build density of shoppers city by city. So how we think about it is we have pickers in our stores and clubs and also shoppers that help us. So as we build density of shoppers within the city, we are able to offer to our delivery service. Within that, we can also build density of orders. So it's not if multiple members place the order and we are building algorithms that allow us to say, hey, Customer A and member B place the order, and it's in the same direction. And we can actually help the shoppers pick multiple orders and deliver that order within two hours. So it is with a combination of shopper density, city density, as well as how we think of order density that will go in the same direction. So we can improve our cost to serve. and improve our speed to our members and customers.
If I may build in the point of Prathiv Alvaro, the biggest advantage maybe you, of course, you know, for Walmex is our footprint. You know, today, as I mentioned in Walmex Day, we wanted to serve 99.3% of total population with all our fleet. And with that, today, with the 14% that we actually have, We are not using all our fleet because we are not using the Bodega Express. We are not using very well the Walmart Express that is a complement of Walmart Supercenter. And today, in the world, we have the platforms that allow us to use all the stores, because all the stores are close to the customer, not only the big ones. So we are right now using more or less the big one, but the near future, let me say the near months, it's going to use small formats. We are testing, for example, in the U.S., the concept of depots, that is 1,000 square meter stores that are closer to the customers. So that allow us to reduce, let me say, 15 or 30 minutes in delivery. So we actually have in Mexico the opportunity to create more speed using all our fleet. I'm not saying that we will deliver specifically something in self-service, but in self-service there is huge amount of smaller stores. we have the capacity today to accelerate and be closer to the customer. So that is going to be the way to create more speed and think that we will reach 50%. Plus, the concept that you mentioned, that we will move a little bit from PICUS to take advantage of the cloud service that we can deploy internally or use the third party that we have today as a strategic partner with us.
Great. Thank you, Pratibha. Thank you, Christian.
No, thank you for the question.
Okay. Let's see if we can answer all the questions.
Thank you very much for your question. Our next question is from Mr. Antonio Hernandez from Actinver. Please go ahead.
Hi, good morning. Thanks for taking the question. It was before we had some technical issues. Just a quick one regarding general merchandise. General, can you hear me?
It's really bad.
We cannot hear what you say. Yes. Okay, okay. I'll type it. We are the general merchandise.
I'll type it. What? Yeah, sorry. We got to hear you, Will.
It is for the mic.
Our next question is from Mr. Joe Thomas from HSBC. Please, go ahead.
Jeremy, it's Jeremy or Joe.
We're going to hear you as well.
Is that any better? Yeah. Yes. Sorry about that, technical problems, new systems. A quick question, please, and thank you for taking the question. A quick one on the two parts of the business that still look a little bit flat, Walmart Express and Central America. I realise that the issues in Central America have been around Costa Rica, but I'm just wondering what specifically you're seeing in those areas and what the plans are for a turnaround. Thank you.
Thank you Joe and we are as you saw the numbers we are having for a long time a very success business in Costa Rica and today the quick answer for you could be that we implemented at the end of last year a new perishable distribution center that is completely new in terms of system for Costa Rica and we saw um impact in availability in all the fresh areas and fresh is super important as you can imagine in costa rica because because the footprint that we have and also because of the quality that we offer every day in all our formats so we saw an impact there that you can imagine the perishable is so important for the traffic that create a halo effect that is impacting today in our performance in the country. Let me say it's a very clear diagnostic. It's a very clear assessment because it's the only one country that we have had some problems in the last quarter. If we can compare with the five countries, we have four very well-performing, and Costa Rica, that is big for us, It's not in the right place, but we are taking deep actions to recovering. We are seeing some recovery in availability in the month of April, so we are working very hard to turn around. It's a, let me say, one effect because of the PDC that we opened last year. Thank you for the question.
Thank you. And Walmart Express?
At Walmart Express, we are in the middle of a Let me say transition because we changed the brand years ago. We did some changes in the last three years, but today we are setting back the customer value proposition in Walmart Express. We're working in the correct assortment to be part of Walmart Supercenter. Our view in Walmart Express to be a complement to Walmart Supercenter. We are working on parity prices between Walmart and Walmart Express. So that allow us to use Walmart Express as a huge benefit for us because Walmart Express will need to play and will play a better job in the Omni strategy because Walmart Express is closer to the customer. So that is why we need to create this complement from Walmart Supercenter and that is why we're working on and see some results in the coming months.
Thank you very much.
Thank you very much for your question. Our next question is from Mr. Bob Ford from Bank of America. Please go ahead.
Hey, good morning everyone and special thanks to Rodrigo. Christian, I think you opened up 17 buys in the quarter, and I was wondering if you could discuss the cadence for new openings over the course of this year, the availability of suitable locations, particularly for buy, where you're competing with, you know, Auxilio, Césped, Barra, and others. And do you feel you have relative advantages in real estate, or are you disadvantaged in some way, and why?
Well... The question at the beginning, I didn't hear you very well.
The phasing, was it Bob, the phasing how we open stores across the year, right?
Yeah, how should we think about the cadence of openings, right? And then the suitability and the difficulty in finding those, particularly given how competitive the market is for those smaller box locations. And then do you feel you're advantaged? Is there a scale or competitive advantage that you think you have in real estate, or do you feel disadvantaged for some reason? And I was curious as to why.
Okay, let me try to answer your question. My view is we have, let me say, a multi-format portfolio strategy to growth. We're only growing with Bodega Express. We are working more about the square meter that will increase every year because we need to have a clear strategy, or we have a strategy for SAMS, for Walmart Supercenter, for Bodega, all the business, and, of course, for Walmart Express. Okay. So I think we have an opportunity because of the team that we have today looking for different sizes all over the country, and particularly in Valle, I think we have a strong business there. Valle has performed very well in the last, let me say, 15 years, and we are now looking for continuing to evolve in the business With more efficiency, you saw in the World Max Day, our idea to reduce or improve the assortment that we are offering to the customer. So I think it's not a disadvantage. For sure, we are competing with a very good two or three big players, let me say, 3B, FEMSA with OXO, also NETO. They're very good competitors. They're open stores. We do also open great stores because at the end, this is super important to have a sustainable growth, not only open stores. So that is why we have a lot of discipline in the way that we approve products. different stores. We are evolving the speed that we use to have to open a Bolero Express. We are adapting more the business to the location that we are looking for. So we are evolving, let me say, the the speed that we need to accelerate the business.
I don't know, Paulo, if you... Maybe just add one thing, Bob, because your question is right and absolutely spot on. And I think one thing to say when we look at a quarter one, it tends to be impacted by the fact that at the end of the year, and it's a market thing and we are not different in that we tend always to open a lot of stores. We actually want to change that. We make an internal decision that we want that not only just concentrates a lot of the Open City year-end, this is the year that we want to start that, so that we don't have this huge volatility across the years. We feel that we have the muscle. to open. Other people out there also open the stores as well in real estate. But, of course, we comply everything by the book and we'll continue to do so. But we feel that we have the muscle to us to write store openings as we promised and we committed it one next day. But thanks for the question. Good one. Thank you. Very helpful. Appreciate it. Thank you, Bob. I think we have time for one last question.
Thank you very much for your question. Our next question is from Mr. Ben Thoreau from Barclays.
Please go ahead.
Our next question is from Federico Galassi from Real Hidden Group. Please go ahead.
Thank you so much for taking my question. A small, maybe a follow-up on the previous question is related to, we saw Sam's Club continue to grow sector sales well above Andada, and in this quarter in particular, Bodega, you mentioned, was lower. Do you see any change in the consumer behavior? Do you believe that is more related with the competition? Thinking in what has happened and we have these issues in the months of February. Is something more related with, again, with the change in the consumption in Mexico? If you see any view of that. Thinking in the next of a year, in the rest of the year.
I will start with consumption and then over to Pratibha to talk about SAMS and the performance in the quarter. Fede, I don't, by the way, thanks for your question. I don't think there is anything in particular that drives the different behavior or performance of our formats, Fede. Of course, there's a little bit of down trading, that's what we're seeing, split of the shopping, but that is not what's driving necessarily the performance on our formats. But even in a second, we'll talk about what drives the growth in SAMs. Christian already alluded to some of the issues that we've had with Bodega. If you ask us around what we see from the market going forward, we do expect, and I think everyone is expecting that, a ramp up of the consumptions throughout the year. There's lots of hopes, as you will know, Fede, around the period now, May, June, July, because we have the hot sale, we have the World Cup, and there's an expectation that things will go throughout, improving throughout the year. Of course, we also will have to see what happens after the World Cup in terms of free consumption, whether there is any hangover or not from that. But that's the expectation that we see at the moment. Fede, and I'll hand over now to Pratibha to talk about SAMS.
Fede, thank you for your question. What we are seeing with SAMS Club is we are growing our membership double digit. Our renewals are increasing year over year, quarter over quarter. And one of the things that we are seeing is our traffic is also improving because of the membership growth. As members are coming to Sam's Club, they are discovering the quality of our member smart brand, which is our private label, and our penetration in private label is improving. We are also investing in prices, and I shared this at the Wal-Mart Day, that we are going to invest in 500 items in 60 stores. We have continued to roll that out, and we are seeing good traction, double-digit growth in units and member penetration because of the price investment. All of these are adding to the growth of the SAMHSA revenue that we are seeing. Perfect.
Thank you so much.
Thank you very much for your question. That was the last question. I will now hand over to Mr. Salvador Villaseñor for final comments.
Thank you for joining and thank you for your questions. Looking forward to talking to you in the next one.
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