FORWARD-LOOKING STATEMENTS
This prospectus supplement contains or incorporates by reference forward-looking statements within the meaning of the federal securities laws, including the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act. You can identify these statements because they are not limited to historical fact or they use words such as “outlook,” “may,” “will,” “should,” “could,” “would,” “believe,” “anticipate,” “plan,” “expect,” “estimate,” “forecast,” “confident,” “opportunities,” “goal,” “prospect,” “positioned,” “intend,” “committed,” “continue,” “future,” “guidance,” “years ahead,” “looking ahead,” “going forward,” “focused on,” “will likely result,” “can,” “project,” “accelerate,” “schedule,” “on track,” “seek,” “ensure,” “potential,” “objective,” “focused on,” “predict,” “aim,” “strive,” “improve,” “ongoing,” “long-term,” “uncertain,” “look to,” “likely to,” “scheduled to,” or “subject to” and similar expressions that concern our strategy, plans, intentions, initiatives, outlook or beliefs about future occurrences or results. For example, forward-looking statements include all statements relating to, among others, our estimated and projected expenditures, cash flows, results of operations, financial condition and liquidity; our expectations regarding economic and competitive market conditions and customer behavior; our plans and objectives for, and expectations regarding, future operations, growth and initiatives, including but not limited to the number of planned store openings, remodels and relocations, store formats or concepts, progress of our strategic (including our non-consumables and digital initiatives, DG Fresh, Fast Track, and pOpshelf), merchandising, margin enhancing, and distribution/transportation efficiency (including self-distribution and our private fleet) initiatives, in-stock position, and international expansion plans; trends in sales of consumable and non-consumable products, customer traffic and average transaction amount; level of future costs and expenses; expectations regarding inflationary and labor pressures, fuel prices, other supply chain challenges, and commodity and product costs; potential future stock repurchases and cash dividends; anticipated borrowings under our unsecured revolving credit agreement and our commercial paper program; impact of interest rates on our interest expense; potential impact of the COVID-19 pandemic; potential impact of legal or regulatory changes or governmental assistance or stimulus programs and our responses thereto, including the potential increase of federal, state and/or local minimum wage rates/salary levels, as well as changes to SNAP benefits and unemployment benefits; or expected outcome or effect of pending or threatened legal disputes, litigation or audits.
All forward-looking statements are subject to risks, uncertainties and other factors (including, without limitation, those described herein under “Risk Factors”) that may change at any time and may cause our actual results to differ materially from those which we expected. We derive many of these statements from our operating budgets and forecasts, which are based on many detailed assumptions that we believe are reasonable. However, it is very difficult to predict the effect of known factors, and we cannot anticipate all factors that could affect future results that may be important to an investor. Important factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from the expectations expressed in or implied by such forward-looking statements, include, but are not limited to:
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risks related to the COVID-19 pandemic and associated governmental responses, including but not limited to, the effects on our supply chain, distribution network and capacity, store and distribution center growth, store and distribution center closures, transportation and distribution costs, SG&A expenses, share repurchase activity, and cybersecurity risk profile, as well as the effects on domestic and foreign economies, the global supply chain, labor availability and customers’ spending patterns;
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economic factors, including but not limited to employment levels; inflation; pandemics; higher fuel, energy, healthcare and housing costs, interest rates, consumer debt levels, and tax rates; tax law changes that negatively affect credits and refunds; lack of available credit; decreases in, or elimination of, government stimulus programs or subsidies such as unemployment and food/nutrition assistance programs; commodity rates; transportation, lease and insurance costs; wage rates (including the heightened possibility of increased federal, state and/or local minimum wage rates); foreign exchange rate fluctuations; measures or events that create barriers to or increase the costs of international trade (including increased import duties or tariffs); and changes in laws and regulations and their effect on, as applicable, customer spending and disposable income, our ability to execute our strategies and initiatives, our cost of goods sold, our SG&A expenses (including real estate costs), and our sales and profitability;
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failure to achieve or sustain our strategies and initiatives, including those relating to merchandising, real estate and new store development, international expansion, store formats and concepts, digital,