Dollar General

“Many of our customers have fixed or low incomes and limited discretionary spending dollars. Any factor that could adversely affect their disposable income could decrease our customers’ confidence and spending or cause them to shift their spending to our lower margin product choices, which could result in materially decreased sales and/or profitability.”

Annual report 2026A · The company itself

“Our most profitable sales mix generally occurs in the fourth quarter primarily because of sales of Christmas-related merchandise.”

Annual report 2026A · The company itself

“Our customers continue to feel constrained in the current macroeconomic environment and to experience elevated expenses that generally comprise a large portion of their household budgets, such as rent, healthcare, energy and fuel prices, as well as cost inflation in frequently purchased household products (including food), which we expect will continue to pressure our customers’ spending overall.”

Annual report 2026A · The company itself

“We are able to maintain competitive prices due in part to our low-cost operating approach and the relatively limited assortment of products offered. Purchasing large volumes of merchandise within our focused assortment in each merchandise category allows us to keep our average product costs low, contributing to our ability to offer competitive everyday prices to our customers.”

Annual report 2026A · The company itself

“Our product offering includes most necessities, such as basic packaged and refrigerated or frozen food products, dairy products, cleaning supplies, paper products, health and beauty care items, greeting cards and other stationery items, housewares, hardware, automotive supplies and basic apparel, among others.”

Annual report 2026A · The company itself

“We offer a broad selection of merchandise, including consumable products such as food, paper and cleaning products, health and beauty products and pet supplies, and non-consumable products such as seasonal merchandise, home decor and domestics, and basic apparel. Our merchandise includes national brands from leading manufacturers, as well as our own private brand selections with prices often at substantial discounts to national brands. We offer our customers these national brand and private brand products at everyday low prices (typically $10 or less) from our convenient small-box locations.”

Annual report 2026A · The company itself

“Our Business Model ​ Our long history of profitable growth is founded on a commitment to a relatively simple business model: providing a broad base of customers with their basic everyday and household needs, supplemented with a variety of general merchandise items, at everyday low prices in conveniently located, small-box stores.”

Annual report 2026A · The company itself

“We generally locate our stores and plan our merchandise selections to best serve the needs of our core customers, the low and fixed income households often underserved by other retailers (including grocers), and we are focused on helping them make the most of their spending dollars.”

Annual report 2026A · The company itself

“Any disruption, unanticipated or unusual expense or operational failure related to this process (including, without limitation, inventory receipt and delivery delays; increases in fuel costs; increases in transportation costs, including increased import freight costs, carrier or driver wages (as a result of driver shortages or otherwise); earlier than expected receipt of seasonal inventory leading to capacity constraints which can be exacerbated by unexpected delays in acquiring additional temporary warehouse space sufficient for our inventory needs; a decrease in transportation capacity for overseas shipments or port closures; labor shortages; or work stoppages or slowdowns) could negatively impact sales and profits.”

Annual report 2026A · The company itself

“Our future growth and performance, positive customer experience and legal and regulatory compliance depends on our ability to attract, develop, retain and motivate qualified employees while operating in an industry that has historically been challenged by high rates of employee turnover. Our ability to meet our labor needs, while controlling our labor costs, is subject to many external factors, including competition for and availability of qualified personnel, unemployment levels, wage rates and salary levels (including the possibility of increased federal and further increased state and/or local minimum wage rates/salary thresholds), health and other insurance costs, changes in employment and labor laws or other workplace regulations (including those relating to employee benefit programs such as health insurance and paid leave programs), employee expectations and productivity, employee activism, employee safety issues, and our reputation and relevance within the labor market.”

Annual report 2026A · The company itself

“Certain of our operating expenses, such as wage rates and occupancy costs have continued to increase in recent years, due primarily to market forces such as labor availability, increases in minimum wage rates, inflation, property rents and interest rates. Significant or rapid increases to federal, state or local minimum wage rates or salary levels could significantly adversely affect our earnings if we are not able to otherwise offset these increased labor costs elsewhere in our business.”

Annual report 2026A · The company itself

“Our long-term operating priorities are: 1) driving profitable sales growth, 2) capturing growth opportunities, 3) enhancing our position as a low-cost operator, and 4) investing in the growth and development of our teams.”

Annual report 2026A · The company itself

“Our teams are a competitive advantage, and we proactively seek ways to continue investing in their development. Our goal is to create an environment that attracts, develops, and retains talented personnel, particularly at the store manager level, as employees who are promoted from within our company generally have longer tenures and are greater contributors to improvements in our financial performance.”

Annual report 2026A · The company itself

“We depend on a variety of information technology systems, including systems owned and managed by third-party vendors, for the efficient functioning of our business, including, without limitation, transaction processing and the management of our employees, facilities, logistics, inventories, stores and customer-facing digital applications and operations.”

Annual report 2026A · The company itself

“In addition, costs and delays for any reason associated with the implementation of new or upgraded systems and technology, including our current migration of 15 Table of Contents applications to the cloud, modernization of legacy systems (including our Finance and Human Resources enterprise resource planning system and our inventory replenishment system) and our new point of sale system, or with maintenance or adequate support of existing systems also could disrupt or reduce the efficiency of our operations, fail to operate as designed, result in the potential loss or corruption of data or information or lost sales, cause business interruptions, inhibit our ability to innovate, and affect our ability to meet business and reporting requirements and adversely affect our profitability.”

Annual report 2026A · The company itself

“We believe we have substantial long-term growth potential in the U.S., and we have identified significant opportunities to add new Dollar General stores in both existing and new markets. In addition, we have opportunities to relocate, remodel or convert locations within our existing store base to better serve our customers.”

Annual report 2026A · The company itself

“BUSINESS ​ General ​ We are the largest discount retailer in the United States by number of stores, with 20,959 stores located in 48 U.S. states and Mexico as of February 27, 2026, with the greatest concentration of stores in the southern, southwestern, midwestern and eastern United States.”

Annual report 2026A · The company itself

“Our stores currently average approximately 7,500 square feet of selling space, and approximately 80% of our stores are located in towns of 20,000 or fewer people.”

Annual report 2026A · The company itself

“PROPERTIES ​ As of February 27, 2026, we operated 20,959 retail stores, including those located in 48 U.S. states as listed in the table below and 17 stores in Mexico.”

Annual report 2026A · The company itself

“Furthermore, if our competitors or third parties incorporate artificial intelligence into their businesses more quickly or more successfully than us, it could impair our ability to compete effectively and adversely affect our results of operations, or if our use of artificial intelligence is inaccurate or ineffective, our competitive position could be adversely affected.”

Annual report 2026A · The company itself

“There are also risks associated with our continued integration of artificial intelligence and machine learning within our technology systems (for example, if the types of information that applications with embedded artificial intelligence assist in producing are or are alleged to be deficient, inaccurate, or biased, our business, financial condition, and results of operations may be adversely affected).”

Annual report 2026A · The company itself

“In addition, costs and delays for any reason associated with the implementation of new or upgraded systems and technology, including our current migration of 15 Table of Contents applications to the cloud, modernization of legacy systems (including our Finance and Human Resources enterprise resource planning system and our inventory replenishment system) and our new point of sale system, or with maintenance or adequate support of existing systems also could disrupt or reduce the efficiency of our operations, fail to operate as designed, result in the potential loss or corruption of data or information or lost sales, cause business interruptions, inhibit our ability to innovate, and affect our ability to meet business and reporting requirements and adversely affect our profitability.”

Annual report 2026A · The company itself

“Delays in opening such facilities could adversely affect our financial performance by slowing store growth or the rollout/development of certain strategic initiatives, which may in turn reduce revenue growth and/or profitability, or by increasing transportation and product costs. In addition, distribution-related construction or expansion projects entail risks that could cause delays and cost overruns, such as: availability of temperature-controlled distribution centers and refrigerated transportation equipment; shortages of materials or skilled labor; work stoppages; unforeseen construction, scheduling, engineering, environmental or geological problems; weather interference; fires or other casualty losses; and unanticipated cost increases.”

Annual report 2026A · The company itself

“In 2025, we opened a total of 589 new stores, including 8 stores in Mexico, remodeled 2,000 stores through Project Renovate and 2,254 stores through Project Elevate, relocated 47 stores and closed 290 stores. In 2026, we plan to open approximately 450 new stores (as well as approximately 10 stores in Mexico), remodel approximately 2,000 stores through Project Renovate, remodel approximately 2,250 stores through Project Elevate, and relocate approximately 20 stores, for a total of 4,730 real estate projects.”

Annual report 2026A · The company itself

“We currently do not offer traditional online shopping to a significant degree and have seen a greater willingness of our customers to adopt online shopping generally.”

Annual report 2026A · The company itself

“Such initiatives include providing our customers with a variety of shopping access points and even greater value and convenience by leveraging and developing digital tools and technology, such as our Dollar General app, which contains a variety of tools to enhance the shopping experience. We remain focused on enhancing both the in-store and digital shopping experience, while driving operational efficiency. The delivery component of our digital initiatives is becoming a meaningful contributor to our comparable store sales performance.”

Annual report 2026A · The company itself

“We have also identified international expansion, with an initial focus on Mexico, as an opportunity for growth. We opened our first Mi Súper Dollar General stores in Mexico in 2023, in which we have further expanded in each subsequent year, and believe there is additional growth potential in Mexico in the years ahead.”

Annual report 2026A · The company itself

“Our first stores in Mexico opened in 2023.”

Annual report 2026A · The company itself

“Consumables is our largest merchandise category and includes paper and cleaning products (such as paper towels, bath tissue, paper dinnerware, trash and storage bags, disinfectants, and laundry); packaged food (such as cereals, pasta, canned soups, canned meats, fruits and vegetables, condiments, spices, sugar and flour); perishables (such as milk, eggs, bread, refrigerated and frozen food, beer, wine and produce); snacks (such as candy, cookies, crackers, salty snacks and carbonated beverages); health and beauty (such as over-the-counter medicines and personal care products including soap, body wash, shampoo, cosmetics, dental hygiene and foot care products); pet (such as pet supplies and pet food); and tobacco products.”

Annual report 2026A · The company itself

“Such initiatives include providing our customers with a variety of shopping access points and even greater value and convenience by leveraging and developing digital tools and technology, such as our Dollar General app, which contains a variety of tools to enhance the shopping experience. We remain focused on enhancing both the in-store and digital shopping experience, while driving operational efficiency. The delivery component of our digital initiatives is becoming a meaningful contributor to our comparable store sales performance.”

Annual report 2026A · The company itself

“Consumables is our largest merchandise category and includes paper and cleaning products (such as paper towels, bath tissue, paper dinnerware, trash and storage bags, disinfectants, and laundry); packaged food (such as cereals, pasta, canned soups, canned meats, fruits and vegetables, condiments, spices, sugar and flour); perishables (such as milk, eggs, bread, refrigerated and frozen food, beer, wine and produce); snacks (such as candy, cookies, crackers, salty snacks and carbonated beverages); health and beauty (such as over-the-counter medicines and personal care products including soap, body wash, shampoo, cosmetics, dental hygiene and foot care products); pet (such as pet supplies and pet food); and tobacco products.”

Annual report 2026A · The company itself

“Our ability to deliver highly competitive prices in convenient locations and our easy “in and out” shopping format create a compelling shopping experience that we believe distinguishes us from other discount retailers as well as convenience, drug, grocery, online and mass merchant retailers.”

Annual report 2026A · The company itself

“Consumables is our largest merchandise category and includes paper and cleaning products (such as paper towels, bath tissue, paper dinnerware, trash and storage bags, disinfectants, and laundry); packaged food (such as cereals, pasta, canned soups, canned meats, fruits and vegetables, condiments, spices, sugar and flour); perishables (such as milk, eggs, bread, refrigerated and frozen food, beer, wine and produce); snacks (such as candy, cookies, crackers, salty snacks and carbonated beverages); health and beauty (such as over-the-counter medicines and personal care products including soap, body wash, shampoo, cosmetics, dental hygiene and foot care products); pet (such as pet supplies and pet food); and tobacco products.”

Annual report 2026A · The company itself

“Any factor that could adversely affect their disposable income could decrease our customers’ confidence and spending or cause them to shift their spending to our lower margin product choices, which could result in materially decreased sales and/or profitability.”

Annual report 2026A · The company itself

“While accelerating levels of inflation in the United States have moderated since 2023, inflation remains elevated in certain areas, including food. If food inflation (and in particular, “food at home,” which moderately accelerated in 2025) rapidly accelerates again, we may not be able to adjust prices sufficiently to offset the effect without negatively impacting customer demand or our overall gross margin.”

Annual report 2026A · The company itself

“Despite inflation moderation and some recent declines in interest rates, both inflation and interest rates remain at elevated levels, which significantly increases our new store opening costs and occupancy costs, pressuring new store returns and influencing our new store growth plans.”

Annual report 2026A · The company itself

“Our customers continue to feel constrained in the current macroeconomic environment and to experience elevated expenses that generally comprise a large portion of their household budgets, such as rent, healthcare, energy and fuel prices, as well as cost inflation in frequently purchased household products (including food), which we expect will continue to pressure our customers’ spending overall.”

Annual report 2026A · The company itself

“We believe ongoing inflationary pressures could continue to affect our vendors and customers and our operating results. Both inflation and higher interest rates have significantly increased new store opening costs and occupancy costs in recent years and, while new store returns remain strong, these increased costs have negatively impacted our projected new store returns and influenced our new store growth plans.”

Annual report 2026A · The company itself

“Despite inflation moderation and some recent declines in interest rates, both inflation and interest rates remain at elevated levels, which significantly increases our new store opening costs and occupancy costs, pressuring new store returns and influencing our new store growth plans.”

Annual report 2026A · The company itself

“Changes in the credit and capital markets, including market disruptions, limited liquidity and interest rate increases, may increase the cost of financing or restrict our access to these potential sources of future liquidity.”

Annual report 2026A · The company itself

“We believe ongoing inflationary pressures could continue to affect our vendors and customers and our operating results. Both inflation and higher interest rates have significantly increased new store opening costs and occupancy costs in recent years and, while new store returns remain strong, these increased costs have negatively impacted our projected new store returns and influenced our new store growth plans.”

Annual report 2026A · The company itself

“Our debt securities currently are rated investment grade, and a downgrade of this rating likely would negatively impact our access to the debt capital markets and increase our cost of borrowing. As a result, disruptions in the debt markets or any downgrade of our credit ratings could adversely affect our business operations and financial condition and our ability to return cash to our shareholders.”

Annual report 2026A · The company itself

“Many of our entry-level store employees are paid at rates in line with the applicable state minimum wage, and consequently, in certain situations, increases to such wage rates have increased our labor costs. If federal, state and/or local minimum wage rates/salary levels were to further increase significantly and/or rapidly, compliance with such increases could adversely affect our earnings.”

Annual report 2026A · The company itself

“In addition, to the extent a significant portion of our employee base unionizes, or attempts to unionize, our labor and other costs could increase, and if the federal government adopts or imposes regulatory or other changes to existing law that could facilitate union organizing or otherwise restrict employer actions, it could have an adverse effect on our business. Our ability to pass along labor and other related costs to our customers is constrained by our everyday low-price model, and we may not be able to offset such increased costs elsewhere in our business.”

Annual report 2026A · The company itself

“Furthermore, significant and/or rapid increases to federal and further increases to state and/or local minimum wage rates/salary levels could adversely affect our operating results if we are not able to otherwise offset these increased labor costs elsewhere in our business or if changes to our business 21 Table of Contents operations are required.”

Annual report 2026A · The company itself

“We routinely incur significant costs in complying with numerous and frequently changing laws and regulations. The complexity of this regulatory environment and related compliance costs continue to increase due to additional legal and regulatory requirements, our expanding operations, and increased regulatory scrutiny and enforcement efforts. New or revised laws, regulations, orders, policies and related interpretations and enforcement practices, particularly those dealing with the sale of products, including without limitation, product and food safety, marketing, labeling or pricing; information security and privacy; labor and employment; employee wages, salary levels and benefits; health and safety; real property; public accommodations; imports and customs; transportation; intellectual property; taxes; bribery and anti-corruption; climate change; and environmental compliance, may significantly increase our expenses or require extensive system and operating changes that could materially increase our cost of doing business.”

Annual report 2026A · The company itself

“In addition, the United States’ foreign trade policies, duties, tariffs and other impositions on imported goods, trade sanctions imposed on certain countries (particularly China) and entities, import limitations on certain types of goods or goods containing certain materials and other factors relating to foreign trade, including but not limited to port labor agreements, are beyond our control. In 2025, the U.S. administration imposed additional tariffs across many of our global trading partners, including China, the European Union, Canada, India, and various countries located in Southeast Asia.”

Annual report 2026A · The company itself

“Tariff rates on both direct imports and domestic purchases did not materially impact our financial results in 2025. The tariff environment remains dynamic, and the specific tariffs applicable to goods imported by us and our suppliers into the U.S. may continue to evolve. Currently announced tariff rates, as well as any rate increases or expansions of tariff coverage affecting the products that we sell, could have a significant impact on our business and on our customers’ budgets.”

Annual report 2026A · The company itself

“We directly imported approximately 4% of our purchases at cost in 2025.”

Annual report 2026A · The company itself

“While we have implemented procedures and technology intended to protect such information and require appropriate controls of our vendors, external attackers could compromise such controls and result in unauthorized disclosure of such information, as attacks are becoming increasingly sophisticated, may include attacks on our third-party business partners, and do not always or immediately produce detectable indicators of compromise. Moreover, inadvertent or malicious internal personnel actions could result in a defeat of security measures and a compromise of our or our third-party vendors’ information systems.”

Annual report 2026A · The company itself

“Such systems are subject to damage or interruption from power surges and outages, facility damage, physical theft, computer and telecommunications failures, inadequate or ineffective redundancy, malicious code (including malware, ransomware, or similar), successful attacks (e.g., account compromise; phishing; denial of service; and application, network or system vulnerability exploitation), software upgrade failures or code defects, natural disasters and human error. Due to the political tensions involving China, the conflict between Russia and Ukraine and the conflict in the Middle East, there is an increased likelihood that escalation of tensions could result in cyberattacks that could either directly or indirectly impact our operations.”

Annual report 2026A · The company itself

“Factors that could reduce, and in many cases have reduced, our customers’ disposable income include but are not limited to high unemployment or underemployment levels or decline in real wages; inflation; pandemics; higher fuel and energy costs (including those related to the conflict in the Middle East); healthcare, housing and product costs; higher interest rates, consumer debt levels, and tax rates; lack of available credit; tax law changes that negatively affect credits and refunds; and decreases in, or elimination of, government assistance programs or subsidies such as unemployment and food/nutrition assistance programs (for example, changes to the work requirement minimum standards for qualification enacted in 2025, and beginning in January 2026, certain states’ exclusion of historically covered product categories), student loan repayment forgiveness, health insurance subsidies, and economic stimulus payments.”

Annual report 2026A · The company itself

“Any disruption, unanticipated or unusual expense or operational failure related to this process (including, without limitation, inventory receipt and delivery delays; increases in fuel costs; increases in transportation costs, including increased import freight costs, carrier or driver wages (as a result of driver shortages or otherwise); earlier than expected receipt of seasonal inventory leading to capacity constraints which can be exacerbated by unexpected delays in acquiring additional temporary warehouse space sufficient for our inventory needs; a decrease in transportation capacity for overseas shipments or port closures; labor shortages; or work stoppages or slowdowns) could negatively impact sales and profits.”

Annual report 2026A · The company itself

“Due to the political tensions involving China, the conflict between Russia and Ukraine and the conflict in the Middle East, there is an increased likelihood that escalation of tensions could result in cyberattacks that could directly or indirectly impact our operations.”

Annual report 2026A · The company itself

“Such systems are subject to damage or interruption from power surges and outages, facility damage, physical theft, computer and telecommunications failures, inadequate or ineffective redundancy, malicious code (including malware, ransomware, or similar), successful attacks (e.g., account compromise; phishing; denial of service; and application, network or system vulnerability exploitation), software upgrade failures or code defects, natural disasters and human error. Due to the political tensions involving China, the conflict between Russia and Ukraine and the conflict in the Middle East, there is an increased likelihood that escalation of tensions could result in cyberattacks that could either directly or indirectly impact our operations.”

Annual report 2026A · The company itself

“Distribution and Transportation ​ Our stores are currently supported by distribution centers located strategically throughout our geographic footprint. In addition to our traditional distribution centers, we operate multiple temperature-controlled distribution facilities in support of our self-distribution of frozen and refrigerated goods, such as dairy, deli and frozen products.”

Annual report 2026A · The company itself

“We rely on our distribution and transportation network to provide goods to our stores timely and cost-effectively. Using various transportation modes, including ocean, rail, and truck, we and our vendors move goods from vendor locations to our distribution centers and our stores, and we also lease additional temporary warehouse space as necessary to support our distribution needs.”

Annual report 2026A · The company itself

“Business, Strategic and Competitive Risks Economic factors may reduce our customers’ confidence and spending, impair our ability to execute our strategies and initiatives, and increase our costs and expenses, which could result in materially decreased sales and/or profitability.”

Annual report 2026A · The company itself

“Any disruption, unanticipated or unusual expense or operational failure related to this process (including, without limitation, inventory receipt and delivery delays; increases in fuel costs; increases in transportation costs, including increased import freight costs, carrier or driver wages (as a result of driver shortages or otherwise); earlier than expected receipt of seasonal inventory leading to capacity constraints which can be exacerbated by unexpected delays in acquiring additional temporary warehouse space sufficient for our inventory needs; a decrease in transportation capacity for overseas shipments or port closures; labor shortages; or work stoppages or slowdowns) could negatively impact sales and profits.”

Annual report 2026A · The company itself

“Moreover, the adoption of new environmental laws and regulations in connection with climate change and the transition to a low carbon economy, including any federal or state laws enacted to regulate greenhouse gas emissions or require public disclosures related thereto, could significantly increase our operating or merchandise costs or reduce the demand for our products. These laws and regulations may include, but are not limited to, requirements relating to hazardous waste materials, recycling and recycled/recyclable product content, single-use plastics, extended producer responsibility, use of refrigerants, carbon pricing or carbon taxes, product energy efficiency standards and product labeling.”

Annual report 2026A · The company itself

“If carbon pricing requirements or carbon taxes are adopted, there is a significant risk that the cost of merchandise from our suppliers will increase and adversely affect our business and results of operations.”

Annual report 2026A · The company itself

“Our ability to timely and profitably open, relocate and remodel stores and expand into additional market areas is a key component of our planned future growth and may depend in part on: the availability of suitable store locations and capital funding; the absence of entitlement process, permitting or occupancy delays, including zoning restrictions and moratoria on small box discount retail development such as those passed by certain local governments in areas where we operate or seek to operate; supply chain volatility resulting in delivery delays, and in some cases, lack of availability of store equipment, building materials, and store merchandise for resale; the ability to negotiate acceptable lease and development terms (for example, interest rates, real estate development requirements and cost of building materials and labor), to cost-effectively hire and train qualified new personnel, especially store managers, and to identify and accurately assess sufficient customer demand; and general economic conditions.”

Annual report 2026A · The company itself

“Finally, significant unseasonable or unusual weather patterns or extreme weather can impact customer shopping behaviors.”

Annual report 2026A · The company itself

“Factors that could reduce, and in many cases have reduced, our customers’ disposable income include but are not limited to high unemployment or underemployment levels or decline in real wages; inflation; pandemics; higher fuel and energy costs (including those related to the conflict in the Middle East); healthcare, housing and product costs; higher interest rates, consumer debt levels, and tax rates; lack of available credit; tax law changes that negatively affect credits and refunds; and decreases in, or elimination of, government assistance programs or subsidies such as unemployment and food/nutrition assistance programs (for example, changes to the work requirement minimum standards for qualification enacted in 2025, and beginning in January 2026, certain states’ exclusion of historically covered product categories), student loan repayment forgiveness, health insurance subsidies, and economic stimulus payments.”

Annual report 2026A · The company itself

“Our debt securities currently are rated investment grade, and a downgrade of this rating likely would negatively impact our access to the debt capital markets and increase our cost of borrowing. As a result, disruptions in the debt markets or any downgrade of our credit ratings could adversely affect our business operations and financial condition and our ability to return cash to our shareholders.”

Annual report 2026A · The company itself

“Failure to comply or accusation of failure to comply, even if unfounded, with ethical, social, product, labor, data privacy, consumer protection, safety, political, environmental and other applicable standards could jeopardize our reputation and potentially lead to various adverse employee, consumer, vendor, shareholder, or non-governmental organization (NGO) actions, workforce unrest or walkouts, boycotts, litigation and governmental actions, inquiries, or investigations and/or require a costly response.”

Annual report 2026A · The company itself

“Moreover, the adoption of new environmental laws and regulations in connection with climate change and the transition to a low carbon economy, including any federal or state laws enacted to regulate greenhouse gas emissions or require public disclosures related thereto, could significantly increase our operating or merchandise costs or reduce the demand for our products. These laws and regulations may include, but are not limited to, requirements relating to hazardous waste materials, recycling and recycled/recyclable product content, single-use plastics, extended producer responsibility, use of refrigerants, carbon pricing or carbon taxes, product energy efficiency standards and product labeling.”

Annual report 2026A · The company itself

“In addition, we self-insure a significant portion of expected losses under our workers’ compensation, auto liability, general liability (including claims made against certain of our landlords), property loss, and group health insurance programs. Significant changes in actuarial assumptions and management estimates underlying our recorded liabilities for these losses, including any expected increases in medical and indemnity costs, could result in materially different expenses than expected under these programs, which could materially and adversely affect our results of operations and financial condition.”

Annual report 2026A · The company itself

“Our cash flows from operations, profitability and financial condition may be negatively affected if we are not successful in managing our inventory balances.”

Annual report 2026A · The company itself

“Certain of our competitors have greater financial, distribution, marketing and other resources, and may be able to secure better arrangements with suppliers, than we.”

Annual report 2026A · The company itself

“Certain of our operating expenses, such as wage rates and occupancy costs have continued to increase in recent years, due primarily to market forces such as labor availability, increases in minimum wage rates, inflation, property rents and interest rates.”

Annual report 2026A · The company itself

“While we are working to diversify our sources of imported goods to include Southeast Asia, India, South America and Mexico, a substantial amount of our imported merchandise comes from China, and thus, a change in the Chinese leadership, the effects of pandemic outbreaks, economic and market conditions, internal economic stimulus actions, or currency or other policies, as well as trade and other relations between China and the United States and increases in costs of labor, could negatively impact our merchandise costs.”

Annual report 2026A · The company itself

“PROPERTIES ​ As of February 27, 2026, we operated 20,959 retail stores, including those located in 48 U.S. states as listed in the table below and 17 stores in Mexico.”

Annual report 2026A · The company itself