Richard Galanti: Absolutely. And yes, there is a way to tell. We’re looking at it. Again, without going into a lot of detail, a couple of years ago, we brought in a new person in charge from IT in terms of all digital. He’s built a team. They’re working closely with merchants and operators, but mostly with merchants in terms of doing these types of things. And we’ve seen, again, lots of improvements with our app, with our desktop. It’s getting less clunky by the day and more ability to do some items to drive sales and some promotions like that.
John Heinbockel: Okay. Thank you.
Operator: Our next question comes from the line of Chris Horvers with JP Morgan. Your line is open.
Chris Horvers: Good evening and we’ll miss you, Richard, and welcome aboard, Gary. So, on the MFI, can — did you mention how much the FX impacted total MFI growth year-over-year? And more broadly, it seems like it’s becoming more competitive to acquire customers in the club channel. Couponing amongst your peers has really accelerated over the past year. Is that what you’ve observed? And do you think it’s still escalating? And how are you responding?
Richard Galanti: I got to tell you, we in the last 12 months, we opened like 3% new locations. We had a 7%-plus increase in new members. So we’re not finding — we do a few promotional things, but I would say we have not increased the types of things we do at all. And you’re right. At other places, there’s not a day that goes by you can’t get a deep discount, much deeper than we’ve even ever done on an ongoing basis. And so, no, we’re not doing anything different. We’re — I mean, are we pleasantly surprised by the rate of new signups? Yes. It’s nice to hear and have. And I think the fact that things like social media has helped us with the value proposition. And so, no, we’re not doing a lot of things in that regard.
Chris Horvers: And just from a technical question, what are your peers talks about tenure renewal rate? The 93% that you quote, does that include like the year-one renewal or anyone that comes to the door on one of those digital coupons?
Richard Galanti: Yes. It does. And we’ve been doing the same way forever.
Chris Horvers: Got it. Thank you very much and best of luck.
Richard Galanti: Thank you.
Operator: Next question comes from the line Robby Holmes with Bank of America. Your line is open.
Robert Holmes: Oh, hey, Richard. My congrats as well. You will be missed very much. Listen, just a quick question. I love the credit card rewards program. It’s amazing. It’s like the best thing that’s ever happened to me. The Citi Card you guys do. Is there any issue or change with the late fees or anything going on that could change the rewards program or anything there?
Richard Galanti: Well, that’s the new recent headline of that’s happening and we’ll have to wait and see. Look, at the end of the day, it may change the economics. There are other levers that we’ve talked to them in the past, our issuing bank about what we could do, but nothing is done at this point.
Robert Holmes: Got it. Thanks again and congrats on your retirement.
Richard Galanti: Thank you.
Operator: Next question comes from the line of Laura Champine with Loop Capital. Your line is open.
Laura Champine: Thanks for taking my question and wish you a long and happy retirement, Richard. It is — I’m going to go out on a nitpick on the renewal rate. If renewal rate is flat overall, but 10 bps better US and Canada, that seems to imply it’s not as good in international markets. Is that just some of the sampling that went on in China or what do you think might be driving that?
Richard Galanti: Well, that’s exactly what it is. When — first of all, if you think — if you just take the total number of members divided by total number warehouses, I think we’re about close to 70,000 households per location. When we open a unit in, not only China, but other countries in Asia, we’ll have anywhere from 80,000 to 150,000 members that sign up, many of whom we are looking to lose and a year later don’t renew. We will start in some new countries with — once the first batch renew for the first time, you might have a renewal rate in the 50%s or at best low-60%s. And then it just — over the next four or five years, it continues to grow to something that’s higher than that that’s higher than that. That’s more extreme than we saw 30 years ago in the US and Canada.
But nonetheless, that’s exactly what you see. So, when you’re just opening the one unit in Shenzhen or whenever we open [Technical Difficulty] a year and a half ago in China, that’s going to affect the international renewal rate. When we look at all other countries, when we look at the 13, the 11 other operations outside of US and Canada, their renewal rate generally ticks up a little bit every year, like the US and Canada. And US and Canada, by the way, has been helped also with increased penetration of executive members. We have that in several countries, but not all countries. The smallest countries, we don’t have it in a number of units. And also with auto renewal, which has helped us in the last several years. And that’s I don’t believe everywhere.
Laura Champine: Got it. That’s helpful. Once those clubs mature, the clubs in China, other clubs, new clubs in Asian markets, etc., do they tend to — can you serve a higher number of households there? Meaning, would you expect them to be sustainably above that 70,000 or so households that you have in an average club?
