Good morning, everyone. I'm Salvador Villaseñor, Head of Investor Relations at Walmex, and I want to thank you for joining once again to our live Q&A session following our first quarter 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 a courtesy to others. Joining me today is Cristian Barrientos Pozo, our President and CEO, Prathibha Rajashekhar , our Senior Vice President of Sam's Club, and Paulo Garcia, our Chief Financial Officer. We'll now go right away to the first question, please.
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 Fuchs from Itaú BBA. Please go ahead.
Hola Cristian, Paulo. [Non-English content] for the space for questions. I only have very one quick one regarding Bodega. This quarter we saw, you know, semester sales being a little bit below the market. I know you're making a lot of changes at Bodega that you have mentioned in the past, right, through SKUs and so on. 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 on the semester itself at Bodega this quarter that you could highlight. Thank you.
Thank you Alejandro, for the question. For sure, we're not happy with the result of Bodega in the first quarter. We began the year with not a good position in terms of inventory and also in availability in this format, particularly in Bodega. It was very painful at the beginning of the year because it, 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. That's one of the big reasons that we had in Bodega because of the size or how many stores do we have today.
The second one that impact Bodega is last year in the first quarter, and you know, one of our priority today is to be really an EDLP company. To do that, it require a lot of efforts, 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, particularly in Bodega. That is why there are the two big explanation 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 EE or 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 point 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. We are seeing in this store that we began with this test, very good results. We're improving also the catchment areas in Bodega. We're increasing or increasing the test, let me say, in terms of productivity in Bodega also, trying to reduce processes so g ood 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 need to offer to Mexican customer.
Super clear Cristian. [Non-English content]
Thank you. Thank you Alejandro.
Thank you very much for your question. Our next question is from Mr. Froylan Mendez from JPMorgan. Please go ahead.
Hello guys. Thank you very much for taking my question.
[Non-English content]
Do you hear me? Can you hear me now?
Todavía no.
Um.
[Non-English content] , Froy.
Can you hear me now?
Yeah, perfect.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Perfect. Excellent. 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 has translated into customer behavior and market share gains by format. Thank you.
Want to say or that I want to say?
Gap perception is actually with the studies that we do with a good base of the customers, we ask lots of questions around the customers to that. They talked about different areas. They talk about value, they talked about pricing, and they talk about other indicators that they are doing. 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, Froy. 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 criteria for price perception, pricing gap is one, and then penetration of private brands is the second one, and then the third one and actually is the communication. The stable communication, clear communication to the customers. If you think, for instance, about a brand like 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. It's different things for different banners. At the end of the day, all encompasses the fact whatever we are doing on pricing, how we communicate with the customers around that. When we talk, and Cristian always talks about that EDLP, 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 Paulo, a good question Froy. Price gap is about item by item, and price perception is about customer service, if we can separate both. Okay? Why do we see very closely price perception? Because it connect very well with EDLP, because at the end, the perception, connect with the total basket that we're looking for be the cheapest in the market, not necessarily item by item, but EDLP means the total basket in a long period of time that create trust to you will be the lowest in a total basket, not necessarily following a high load for the weekend.
What drive price perception as Paulo said, I will add the look and feel of the stores, the assortment that is part of the EDLP, private brands, as Paulo mentioned, and also marketing campaigns that need to be well correlated with your strategy about EDLP. 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, competitor against some private brands, at the end, the most important part, and it's broadly, let me say, is the perception.
Excellent. Thank you very much for this color.
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 question. My question is also a follow-up on the Bodegas and related to a statement made on the Walmex 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 Cristian has just mentioned in terms of competitiveness of the Bodegas. Thank you.
Renata, good question again. We began as we mentioned in Walmex Day, with a 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. Maybe you can see the historical number of Bodega Express that was the one that has been the highest sales in the company.
It's because of the simplicity, it's because of allow the customer or, and also our associate to be more productive. At the end, the key for my opinion in a small format is to provide availability. That's the way that we are looking for improve this format because we did that in the past. 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. 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. That's where we are in terms of the assortment reduction.
It's part of the Bodega DNA, okay? You know that we need to operate for less to sell more because with that we can translate to the customer best prices. This is key for us in this format to respect our customer value proposition.
Thanks so much Cristian. Thanks for the call.
No, thank you Renata, for remember us, this commitment that we did in Walmex. Thank you very much.
Thank you very much for your question. Our next question is from Mr. Benjamin Theurer from Barclays. Please go ahead.
Hi Ben, we see you already.
Yeah.
Can you...
Hi Ben.
Can you hear us Ben? We cannot see you.
You're on air, Ben.
Our next question is from Héctor 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, growth investments offset this effect with an increase in contribution to SG&A. 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 in for the remainder of the year?
Yeah thanks. Thanks Héctor for your question. Let me say a few things. There were a few questions in your, in your question. One around the contribution of the new business, one around the SG&A, and then, and I think you ended with the price perception. We've discussed previously, but I can touch base then on that one. Look, on the new contributions, we talked about our strategy, which is, by the way, a growth strategy. 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 and when at times we decide to drive that to the bottom line, we can do it, as you know, from our three priorities, one of them is to drive more price growth and price expansion. 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 about 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've been 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. I think on price perception, Cristian talked in the, in the second question from Froylan. 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.
That's why, because this is what will actually gain the trust of the customer and help us going forward to grow more.
Paulo, if I can add one thing.
Yes.
Right. The question was also about productivity.
Yeah.
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 talk 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. 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. We are using technology, especially automation and AI, in our DCs and in our stores to drive productivity and simplify operations.
Excellent. Very clear. Thank you. Thank you very much.
Thank you Héctor for your question.
Thank you very much for your question. Our next question is from Mr. Andrew Ruben from Morgan Stanley. Please go ahead.
Hi. Thanks very much for the question. I'd like to better understand some of the dynamics in e-commerce marketplace. We saw the decline, the message was around some large electronic sellers. 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.
Thank you Andrew. As you mentioned, clearly we have a dependence on the few seller today that we are changing that with the help of the U.S. We're now moving our structure, let me say, to report direct to the U.S. because we are taking a new approach in the marketplace business. We will become more a global company, marketplace will be one of them. We're seeing a lot of cross-leveraging ideas between both markets that we are seeing in place in this month of April. We will change the dependency. We are right now improving our cross-border business.
We define some clear action that we can take on the market and some action that we can leverage it in all the company. We are improving some ideas very fast in the April month. We are reducing our onboarding seller dramatically with some issues that we saw in the platform today. We are reducing last 15 days, we reduced seven days the onboarding seller process. We're looking to reduce 12 more days in the coming month. That, that is super important because connects with the assortment piece. The assortment, as always, in brick and also in marketplace, it's key. We are looking for have a huge assortment in marketplace, but curated also.
That allow and connect with my previous point about few seller 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 with, again, with some tweaks that we have in April, we are looking for incredible improvement in the Walmart Fulfillment Services that at the end, impact in the speed of delivery, reducing, let me say, this month almost two days on speed. Because in e-commerce, everything is about speed. This is some examples for you 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 group of 10 people who came from the U.S. with a leader worldwide of marketplace and allowing us or helping us to really see where we are in terms of our platform, in terms of our seller experience and see all the, all the journey for our seller and also for our customer. Not good result in the quarter, very clear, but we're 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 and examples.
Welcome.
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, thanks for the space for questions. The one that I had was more on the per 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. 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, just any extra color of what you're seeing there on the ground would be really helpful. Thank you.
In the south Ulises, I think you know that when you compare this versus the past, the south has been an area that has been growing, that was boosted a lot by the government, as you know, Ulises. Since 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 or 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 Miss Irma Sgarz from Goldman Sachs. Please go ahead.
Hi Irma. We see you. How are you miss?
I'm not sure you can actually hear me.
Yes. Now. Yeah, perfect.
It looks like you can hear me. I can't hear the other side, but I'll just ask my question, 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 breakeven or has reached breakeven and maybe a little bit above breakeven. 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, like sort of I wanted to think through that a little bit. Perhaps linked 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? Do you think you have to put more money initially around the to back up the perception of your, 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 a lot of sense. I think the only thing that I will add up to that is that we've always been talking about there are two types, so to speak, in e-commerce. There's the year business on demand or growth or demand, how we call it, and grocery, if you want, which is a profitable business and will leverage the full assets and of course the scale we already have on that space and we want to increase the reach. We discussed that at the plans and in Walmex Day.
Then of course you do have the business of direct and assortment, in particular the marketplace which is in a different stage and therefore needs to grow. The scale is important. All the things that you've said are important. There's that investment as you grow, you of course the profitability keeps improving which keeps of course creating this vicious circle of growth and then a flywheel that allows you continue to invest in so to speak. In terms of what regards major investments on e-commerce, you know, one is capacity. The capacity is omnichannel as you know mostly, Irma.
A second one of course, with our 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. I think these are the three important things to say of what you ask Irma, but conceptually you're right.
Okay. Maybe if I can add on one more question. On Beneficios, I saw the number of users or, yeah, sort of, loyal members, sort of flattened out or stabilized here. Are you looking to still grow that or is there a specific reason behind that stabilizing? Is that sort of the natural ceiling? Thank you.
I think you answered again the question. Is it natural ceiling, so to speak, Irma, that you're talking about pretty much up to 50 million, right? We are 47 now. I think the most important now and where we are putting all the efforts and all the focus is in 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 then 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, thank you for the question, Irma. As Paulo 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, we're running 70% of total transaction. This is a good number. The secret here is what do you do with the data. We are forcing and we are working very hard with the team more than connect more people. We need to deploy or de-develop something around the data. The same is in Bait. Bait was created to provide cheaper internet, cheaper mobile access. With that, we will allow the customer to go to the e-commerce and invite them to the digital economy.
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 you maybe you have heard about Carrito Listo that predict what's going on with your out-of-stock items at your home. This is a huge program that we have there, but it came from Beneficios program, for example. We are exploring to bring because we are almost in the same platform and we are looking for do some tests maybe in Sam's because we have all the membership in Sam's or using that or using Beneficios.
The key or the secret here, Irma, is what, what will you do with the data? More than how many customer. Okay?
Absolutely, m akes 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's on delivery and on your goal to reach 50% delivery on-demand in under two hours. How do you expect to push that? 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 gear marketing or core spend to get to that goal.
To Prathibha.
Hi Alvaro. Thank you for the question. Speed is very essential for our customers and members, and they have made it known. How we expect to reach there is to build density of shoppers city by city, right? How we think about it is we have pickers in our stores and clubs and also shoppers that help us. As we build density of shoppers within the city, we are able to offer two-hour delivery service. Within that, we can also build density of orders. It's not if multiple members place the order and we are building algorithms that allow us to, like, say, "Hey, customer A and member B placed 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.
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.
Maybe I'll build in the point of Prathibha , 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. With that, today, with the 14% that we actually have, we're not using all our fleet because we are not using the Bodega Aurrerá Express. We're not using very well the Walmart Express. That is a complement of Walmart Supercenter. Today, in the world, we have the platforms that allow us to use all the stores because all the store are closer to the customer, not only the big ones.
We are right now using more or less the big one, but the future, 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 concepts of depots that is 1,000 square meter stores that are closer to the customer. That allow us to reduce, let me say, 15 or 30 minutes in delivery. 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, that is huge amount of smaller stores. We have the capacity today to accelerate and be closer to the customer. That is going to be the way to create more speed and think that we will reach 50%.
Plus the concept that Prathibha mentioned, that we will move a little bit from pickers to take advantage of the crowd source that we can deploy internally or use the third party that we have today, as a strategic partner with us.
Great. Thank you Prathibha . Thank you Cristian.
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 my questions. Sorry if it was us before. Had some technical issues. Just a quick one regarding general merchandise.
Yes.
General, can you hear me?
It's really bad here. I don't know.
We cannot hear what you say. Yes.
Okay. Okay. I'll type it. Regarding general merchandise. I'll type it.
What?
Thanks.
Yeah. Sorry. We can't hear you well.
It is for the mic.
Our next question is from Mr. Joe Thomas from HSBC. Please go ahead.
[Non-English content] Joe.
We cannot hear you.
We can't hear you as well.
Is that any better?
Yeah. Yes.
Sorry about that. Technical problems with 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. Realize 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. We are, as you saw the numbers, we are having, for a long time, a very successful business in Costa Rica. 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. We saw impact in availability in all the fresh areas. Fresh is super important, as you can imagine, in Costa Rica because the footprint that we have, and also because of the quality that we offer every day in all our formats.
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. It's, 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. Walmart Express?
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. That allow us to use Walmart Express as a huge benefits 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.
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. Cristian, I think you opened up 17 Bodega Aurrerás 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 Bodega Aurrerá, where you're competing with, you know, OXXO , Bebada and others. 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 more of the phasing how we open stores across the year, right? The locations, right?
Yeah, the cadence. Yeah. How should we think about the cadence of openings, right?
Yeah.
The suitability and the difficulty in finding those, particularly given how competitive the market is for those smaller box locations. 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? 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 not only growing with Bodega or 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 Sam's, for Walmart Supercenter, for Bodega, all the business, and of course, for Walmart Express. I think, we have an opportunity because of the team that we have today looking for different sizes all over the country. Particularly in Bait, I think we have a strong business there. Bait has performing very well in the last, let me say, 15 years.
We are now looking for a continue evolving the business with more efficiency. You saw in the Walmex Day our idea to reduce or improve the assortment that we are offering to the customer. I think it's not a disadvantage. For sure, we are competing with a very good two or three big player, let me say, 3B, FEMSA with OXXO, also Neto. They are very good competitors. They are opening stores. We do also open great stores because at the end, this is super important to have a sustainable growth, not only open stores. That is why we have a lot of discipline in the way that we approve different stores. We are evolving the speed that we used to have to open a Bodega or Express.
We are adapting, more the business to the location that we are looking for. We are evolving, let me say.
The speed that we need to accelerate the business. I don't know, Paulo.
Yeah. Maybe just add one thing, Bob, 'cause your question is right and absolutely spot on. I think one thing to say when we look at the 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 than that, you 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 concentrate a lot of the openings at the year-end, this is the year that we want to start that because so that we don't have this huge volatility across the periods. We feel that we have the muscle to open. Other people out there also open stores as well in the U.S. state.
Of course we comply everything by the book, and we'll continue to do so. We feel that we have the muscle to accelerate store openings as we promised and we committed at Walmex Day. Bob. Thanks for the question. Good one.
Thank you. Very helpful. Appreciate it.
Thank you Bob.
I think we have time for 1 last question.
Thank you very much for your question. Our next question is from Mr. Ben Theurer from Barclays. Please go ahead.
I think it's Federico. Hmm? I think it's Fede, right?
no. Ben.
Our next question is from Federico Galassi from Rohatyn Group . Please go ahead.
Thank you so much for taking my question. A small, maybe a follow-up of the previous question is related to we saw Sam's Club continue to grow same store sales well above where, and that, 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 the, again, with the change in the consumption in Mexico? How if you see any view of that. Thinking in the next of the year, on the rest of the year.
I will start with consumption and hand over to Prathibha to talk about Sam's and the performance in the quarter. Fede, Well, by the way thanks for your question. I don't think there is anything in particular that drives the different behavior of, or performance of our formats, Fede. There's a little bit of down trading that we're seeing, split of the shopping, that is not what's driving necessarily the performance on our formats. Prathibha in a second will talk about what drives the growth in Sam's. Cristian 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, May, June, July, because there's the Hot Sale, we have the World Cup, and there's an expectation that the things will go throughout improving throughout the year. Of course, we'll also will have to see what happens after the World Cup in terms of the consumption, whether there is any hangover or not from that. That's the expectation that we see at the moment, Fede. I will hand over now to Prathibha to talk about Sam's.
Fede, thank you for your question. What we're seeing with Sam's Club is we are growing our membership double-digit. Our renewals are increasing year-over-year, quarter-over-quarter. 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's Mark 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 Walmex 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, like, the growth of the Sam's revenue that you're seeing.
Perfect. Thank you so much.
You're welcome.
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 very much for joining, and thank you for your questions. Looking forward to talking to you in next quarter.
Walmex would like to thank you for participating in today's video conference.