SPECIAL NOTE REGARDING FORWARD-LOOKING STATEMENTS
This prospectus and any applicable prospectus supplement (including the information incorporated or deemed to be incorporated by reference in this prospectus and any prospectus supplement) and any free writing prospectus that we may provide to you in connection with an offering of our securities described in this prospectus may contain “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 “accelerate,” “aim,” “anticipate,” “believe,” “can,” “confident,” “continue,” “committed,” “could,” “ensure,” “estimate,” “expect,” “focused on,” “forecast,” “future,” “goal,” “going forward,” “intend,” “likely,” “long-term,” “looking ahead,” “look to,” “may,” “moving forward,” “objective,” “ongoing,” “on track,” “opportunity,” “outlook,” “over time,” “plan,” “position,” “potential,” “predict,” “project,” “prospect,” “scheduled,” “seek,” “should,” “strive,” “subject to,” “uncertain,” “will,” or “would” and similar expressions that concern our strategies, plans, initiatives, intentions, outlook or beliefs about future occurrences or results or other future matters.
For example, all statements relating to, among others, the following are forward-looking statements:
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our projections and expectations regarding expenditures, costs, cash flows, results of operations, financial condition and liquidity;
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our expectations regarding economic and competitive market conditions;
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our plans, objectives, and expectations regarding future operations, growth, investments and initiatives, including but not limited to our real estate, store growth and international expansion plans, store formats or concepts, shrink and damages reduction actions, planned approximately $100 million investment in our stores, and anticipated progress and impact of our strategic initiatives (including but not limited to our non-consumables and digital initiatives, DG Media Network, DG Well Being, DG Fresh, Fast Track, and pOpshelf) and our merchandising, margin enhancing, distribution/transportation efficiency (including but not limited to self-distribution and our private fleet) and other initiatives;
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expectations regarding sales and mix of consumable and non-consumable products, customer traffic, basket size and inventory levels;
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expectations regarding inflationary and labor pressures, fuel prices, and other supply chain challenges;
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anticipated stock repurchases and cash dividends;
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anticipated borrowings under our credit agreements and our commercial paper program;
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potential impact of legal or regulatory changes or governmental assistance or stimulus programs and our responses thereto, including without limitation the potential increase of federal, state and/or local minimum wage rates/salary levels, as well as changes to certain government assistance programs, such as SNAP benefits, unemployment benefits, and economic stimulus payments, or potential changes to the corporate tax rate; and
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expected outcome or effect of pending or threatened legal disputes, litigation or audits.
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 that 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 on future results, and we cannot anticipate all factors that could affect future results that may be important to you. 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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economic factors, including but not limited to employment levels; inflation (and our ability to adjust prices sufficiently to offset the effect of inflation); pandemics (such as the COVID-19 pandemic); higher fuel, energy, healthcare and housing costs; interest rates, consumer debt levels, and tax rates; lack of available credit; tax law changes that negatively affect credits and refunds; decreases in, or elimination of, government stimulus programs or subsidies such as unemployment and food/