Our initial approach to developing an expectation for Net sales could be characterized as bottom$-$up$,$

whereby we identified key drivers $($membership base and member purchasing behavior$)$ of Net sales.

An alternative approach would be to derive an expectation of Net sales as a function of total industry

sales and Costco$$s share of industry sales. Costco belongs to the Warehouse Clubs and Supercenters

industry, according to IBISWorld