"You mentioned that inflation is the friend of the wow model,...

"You mentioned that inflation is the friend of the wow model, how do you interpret their LIFO adjustments?"


In an inflationary environment (the typical case) LIFO is the conservative way to value inventory, it understates profit.
But this has a small effect on WOW because of their high Inventory Turnover (ie annual sales $45 billion, Inventory $3 billion).
Provided that WOW can keep their CODB increases below the rate of food inflation, their gross profit increases because their %markup remains the same.

Inflation hurts businesses which employ a lot of assets (which require replacement at current prices) relative to their sales. Not the case with WOW.