Pricesmart (PSMT) Risk Analysis

If our merchandise, such as food and prepared food products for human consumption, medication, children's products, pet products and durable goods, do not meet or are perceived not to meet applicable safety standards or our Members' expectations regarding safety, we could experience lost sales, increased costs, litigation or reputational harm. The sale of these items exposes us to the risk of product liability claims, a product recall and adverse publicity. The sale of these items involves the risk of illness or injury to our Members. Such illnesses or injuries could result from tampering by unauthorized third parties, product contamination or spoilage, including the presence of foreign objects, substances, chemicals, other agents, or residues introduced during the growing, manufacturing, storage, handling and transportation phases, or faulty design. In particular, we may inadvertently redistribute food products or prepare food products that are contaminated, which may result in illness, injury or death if the contaminants are not eliminated by processing at the food service or consumer level. We package and market fresh produce products within our markets, so we may be exposed to additional risk of product liability and adverse publicity if those fresh food products are contaminated, which may result in illness, injury or death if the contaminants are not eliminated by processing at our packaging service centers. We generally seek contractual indemnification and proof of insurance from our major suppliers and carry product liability insurance for all products we sell to or package for our Members. However, if we do not have adequate insurance or contractual indemnification available, product liability claims relating to products that are contaminated or otherwise harmful could have a material adverse effect on our ability to successfully market our products and on our financial condition and results of operations. In addition, even if a product liability claim is not successful or is not fully pursued, the negative publicity surrounding a product recall or any assertion that our products caused illness or injury could have a material adverse effect on our reputation with existing and potential Members and on our business, financial condition and results of operations.

Future increases in costs, such as the cost of merchandise, wage and benefits costs, shipping rates, freight costs, fuel costs, utilities and other store occupancy costs, may reduce our profitability. We seek to adjust our product sales pricing, operate more efficiently, and increase our comparable store net sales to help offset inflation as well as currency rate changes, changes in tax rates or in the methods used to calculate or collect taxes on our sales or income and other factors that can increase costs. We might not be able to adjust prices, operate more efficiently or increase our comparable store net sales in the future to a great enough extent to offset increased costs. Although we have seen recent inflationary pressures subsiding, substantial product cost increases and commodity price increases have and could continue to impact our financial results and could lead to reduced sales, fewer units sold, and/or margin pressure. Please see Part II. "Item 7. Management's Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations" for further discussion of the effect of currency rate changes, inflation and other economic factors on our operations.

Robert E. Price, the Company's Chairman of the Board and Interim Chief Executive Officer, and affiliates of Mr. Price, including Price Philanthropies, The Price Group, LLC, The Robert & Allison Price Charitable Remainder Trust and various other trusts, collectively beneficially own approximately 14.8% of our outstanding shares of common stock. Of this amount, approximately 70.5% (i.e., 10.4% of our total outstanding shares) is held by charitable entities. As a result of their beneficial ownership, these stockholders have the ability to significantly affect the outcome of all matters submitted to our stockholders for approval, including the election of directors. In addition, this ownership could discourage the acquisition of our common stock by potential investors and could have an anti-takeover effect, possibly depressing the trading price of our common stock.

Generally accepted accounting principles and related accounting pronouncements, implementation guidelines and interpretations with regard to a wide range of matters that are relevant to our business are highly complex and involve many subjective assumptions, projections, estimates and judgments by our management. These include, but are not limited to assumptions, projections, estimates and judgements related to contingencies and litigation, income taxes, value added taxes, and long-lived assets. Changes in these rules or their interpretation or changes in underlying assumptions, projections, estimates or judgments by our management could significantly change our reported or expected financial performance. For example, because of Accounting Standards Update ASU 2016-02 – Leases (Topic 842), which the Company adopted September 1, 2019, the Company is required to recognize a "Right-of-Use" (ROU) asset and lease liability for each of the Company's long-term leases. Accounting Standard Codification (ASC) 842 requires that the ROU asset be designated as a non-monetary asset and the lease liability as a monetary liability. Therefore, when accounting for a lease that is denominated in a foreign currency, if remeasurement into the lessee's functional currency is required, the lease liability is remeasured using the current exchange rate. We have leases in several of our subsidiaries in which the lease payments are denominated in a foreign currency that is not the functional currency of that entity. Therefore, we are subject to additional volatility in foreign currency exchange rates as a result of this accounting standard update. The monetary lease liability subject to revaluation as of August 31, 2025 was $52.7 million. Due to the mix of foreign currency exchange rate fluctuations during fiscal year 2025, the impact to the consolidated statements of income of revaluing this liability was immaterial.

We depend on our brands, such as the PriceSmart name and logo, to attract Members and make sales of goods and services. We monitor and protect against activities that might infringe, dilute or otherwise violate our trademarks and other intellectual property, and rely on trademark and other laws of the United States and other countries in which we operate. We also rely on copyright, trade secret and other intellectual property laws, as well as nondisclosure and confidentiality agreements and other methods, to protect our trademarks, trade names, proprietary information, technologies, and processes. Moreover, the steps we take to protect our intellectual property may not adequately protect our rights or prevent third parties from infringing or misappropriating our proprietary rights, and we may be unable to broadly enforce all of our trademarks. Any unauthorized use of our trademarks or other intellectual property could harm our competitive position and have a material adverse effect on our financial condition, cash flows or results of operations. Additionally, we cannot be certain that we do not, or will not in the future, infringe on the intellectual property rights of third parties. Any intellectual property infringement claims against us could be costly, time-consuming and harmful to our reputation or could result in injunctive or other equitable relief that may require us to make changes to our business, any of which could have a material adverse effect on our financial condition, cash flows or results of operations. We may need to engage in litigation or similar activities to enforce our intellectual property rights, to protect our trade secrets, or to determine the validity and scope of proprietary rights of others. Any such litigation, whether or not resolved in our favor, could require us to expend significant resources and divert the efforts and attention of our management and other personnel from our business operations.

We receive, retain, and transmit personal information about our Members and employees, and we entrust that information to third-party business associates, including cloud service-providers that perform activities for us. In addition, we and our third-party service providers store and maintain health-related personal information, pharmacy, and medical records in connection with our health and wellness and pharmacy businesses. We also utilize third-party service providers for a variety of reasons, including, without limitation, cloud services, back-office support, and other functions and our online operations depend on the secure transmission of confidential information over public networks, including information used for cashless payments. Each year, computer hackers, cyber terrorists, and others make numerous attempts to access the information stored in companies' information systems. The use of remote work infrastructure has also increased cybersecurity risk, as remote work continues even post-COVID-19. Additionally, the rapid evolution of artificial intelligence and the integration of machine learning technologies into our internal systems may intensify our cybersecurity risks and create new risks to our business, operations, and financial condition. The use of data by our business and our business associates is regulated in all our operating countries. Privacy and information-security laws and regulations change, and compliance with them may result in increased costs due to, among other things, system changes and the development of new processes. If we or those with whom we share information fail to comply with these laws and regulations, we could face legal risk as a result of non-compliance. We or our third-party service providers may be unable to anticipate one or more of the rapidly evolving and increasingly sophisticated means by which computer hackers, cyber terrorists and others may attempt to defeat our security measures or those of our third-party service providers and breach our or our third-party service providers' information systems. Error or malfeasance by our employees or consultants, faulty password management, or other irregularities may result in the defeat of our or our third-party service providers' security measures and a breach of our or our third-party service providers` information systems (whether digital or otherwise). As a result, one or more hackers, cyber terrorists or others might obtain the personal information of Members, employees and vendors that we hold or to which our third-party service providers have access, and we or our third-party service providers may not discover any security breach and loss of information for a significant period of time after the security breach occurs. Our logging capabilities, or those of third parties, are also not always complete or sufficiently detailed, affecting our ability to fully investigate and understand the scope of security events. We, or one of our third-party service providers may also be subject to a ransomware or cyber-extortion attack, which could significantly disrupt our operations. In the enterprise context, ransomware attacks involve restricting access to computer systems or vital data until a ransom is paid. Any breach of our security measures or those of our third-party service providers and loss of our confidential information, or any failure by us to comply with applicable privacy and information security laws and regulations, could cause us to incur significant costs to protect any Members and/or employees whose personal data was compromised to restore Member and employee confidence in us and to make changes to our information systems and administrative processes to address security issues and compliance with applicable laws and regulations. In addition, such events could have a material adverse effect on our reputation with our Members, employees, vendors and stockholders, as well as our results of operations, financial condition and liquidity; could result in the release to the public of confidential information about our operations and financial condition and performance; and could result in litigation against us or the imposition of penalties or liabilities. Moreover, a security breach could require us to devote significant management resources to address the problems created by the security breach and to expend significant additional resources to further upgrade the security measures that we employ to guard such important personal information against cyberattacks and other attempts to access such information, resulting in a disruption of our operations. We regularly reassess these risks in response to the evolving cybersecurity landscape, and any significant changes are promptly communicated to executive management and our Board or Audit Committee. There are no assurances that our cybersecurity risk management program, policies, controls, or procedures will be fully implemented, complied with, or effectively protect our systems and information. We have not identified, and are not aware of, any risks from cybersecurity threats, including as a result of any prior cybersecurity incidents, which have materially affected or are reasonably likely to materially affect us, including our operations, business strategy, results of operations, or financial condition. Despite our security measures, there can be no assurance that we, or third parties with whom we interact, will not experience a cybersecurity incident in the future that materially affects us.

Our international operations account for nearly all of our total revenues. Our financial performance is subject to risks inherent in operating and expanding our international membership warehouse club business, which include: - changes in, and inconsistent enforcement of, laws and regulations, including those related to tariffs and taxes;- the imposition of foreign and domestic governmental controls, including expropriation risks;- natural disasters;- trade restrictions, including import-export quotas and general restrictions on importation;- difficulty and costs associated with international sales and the administration of an international merchandising business;- crime and security concerns that can adversely affect the economies of the countries in which we operate and which require us to incur additional costs to provide additional security at our warehouse clubs;- political instability, such as civil unrest in Panama during the third quarter of fiscal year 2025 and in Colombia in 2022 and 2021 as well as anti-government protests in Panama and Guatemala in 2023;- product registration, permitting and regulatory compliance;- volatility in foreign currency exchange rates;- limitations on our ability to convert foreign currencies;- general economic and business conditions;- pandemics; and - interruption of our supply chain. These risks may result in disruption to our sales, banking transactions, operations and merchandise shipments, any of which could have a material adverse effect on our business and results of operations. Fluctuations in exchange rates for foreign currencies have and could continue to reduce the U.S. dollar value of sales, earnings and cash flows we receive from our non-U.S. markets, increase our supply costs (as measured in U.S. dollars) in those markets, negatively impact our competitiveness in those markets or otherwise adversely impact our business results or financial condition. From time to time, we have experienced a lack of availability of U.S. dollars in certain markets (U.S. dollar illiquidity). This impedes our ability to convert local currencies obtained through merchandise sales into U.S. dollars to settle the U.S. dollar liabilities associated with our imported products or otherwise fund our operations. This illiquidity also increases our foreign exchange exposure to any devaluation of the local currency relative to the U.S. dollar. For more information about foreign currency exchange rate risks and risks associated with the lack of U.S. dollar availability, see "Financial and Accounting Risks – We are subject to volatility in foreign currency exchange rates and limits on our ability to convert foreign currencies into U.S. dollars." Political and other factors in each of our markets may have significant effects on our business. For example, protestors set up roadblocks in Panama during October and November 2023 as a reaction to an agreement between the Panamanian government and a mining company, disrupting traffic to our clubs throughout most of the market. In the third quarter of fiscal year 2025, Panama once again experienced widespread protests and social unrest against the government. Roadblocks in Guatemala in October 2023 related to election protests also limited access to certain of our warehouse clubs. Civil unrest in Colombia in response to tax reform and austerity measures paralyzed significant portions of the country's infrastructure during the third quarter of fiscal year 2021.

Our operations are subject to volatile weather conditions and natural disasters, such as earthquakes, hurricanes and volcanic activity, which occur periodically in the regions in which our warehouse clubs and other facilities are located. Natural disasters could result in physical damage to, or the complete loss of, one or more of our properties, the closure of one or more clubs or distribution centers, limitations on store or club operating hours, the lack of an adequate work force in a market, the inability of customers and employees to reach our clubs, extended power outages and spoilage of our fresh and frozen food products, the unavailability of our digital platforms to our customers, disruption in the supply of products or increases in the costs of procuring products. For example, in early fiscal year 2018, operations at our USVI warehouse club were adversely affected by Hurricanes Irma and Maria. The warehouse club was closed for nine days, and after re-opening, the warehouse club operated with limited hours for 16 days due to a government-imposed curfew. Damaged and destroyed roads restricted traffic flow, adversely affecting customer access for some time after the hurricane. Future losses from business interruption may not be adequately compensated by insurance and could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition, and results of operations. Furthermore, the long-term impacts of climate change, whether involving physical risks (such as extreme weather conditions, drought, or rising sea levels) or transition risks (such as regulatory or technology changes) are expected to be widespread and unpredictable. Physical risks include extreme storms that damage or destroy our buildings and inventory or interrupt our business operations and supply chain and temperature changes that increase the heating and cooling costs at clubs and distribution and fulfillment centers. We also may experience changes in energy and commodity prices driven by climate change as well as new regulatory requirements resulting in higher compliance and operational costs, including compliance with newly adopted legislation in California that will require certain companies that do business in California, including PriceSmart, to report annually on their direct Scope 1 and 2 emissions and Scope 3 value chain emissions, and to prepare a report disclosing their climate-related financial risk, as well as measures to reduce and adapt to that risk.

As of August 31, 2025, we had a total of 56 warehouse clubs operating in 12 foreign countries and one U.S. territory, 44 of which operate under currencies other than the U.S. dollar. For fiscal year 2025, approximately 80.1% of our net merchandise sales were in foreign currencies. We may enter into additional foreign countries in the future or open additional locations in existing countries, which may increase the percentage of net merchandise sales denominated in foreign currencies. Our consolidated financial statements are denominated in U.S. dollars, and to prepare those financial statements we must translate the amounts of the assets, liabilities, net sales, other revenues, and expenses of our operations outside of the U.S. from foreign currencies into U.S. dollars using exchange rates for the current period. As a result of such translations, fluctuations in currency exchange rates from period-to-period may result in our consolidated financial statements reflecting significant adverse period-over-period changes in our financial performance or reflecting a period-over-period improvement in our financial performance that is not as robust as it would be without such fluctuations in the currency exchange rates. In addition, devaluing foreign local currencies compared to the U.S. dollar could negatively impact the purchasing power of our Members for imported merchandise in those countries. Merchandise imported into our markets is generally purchased by the Company in U.S. dollars and priced and sold in the local currency of that country. If the local currency devalues against the U.S. dollar, we may elect to increase prices in the local currency to maintain our target margins, making the products more expensive for our Members. We may also decide to reduce or modify the flow of merchandise into those markets. Depending on the severity of the devaluation and corresponding price increase (as experienced in Colombia in fiscal year 2023), the demand for, sales of, and profitability of those products could be negatively impacted. For example, the Colombian peso exchange rate with the U.S. dollar devalued approximately 15% on average throughout fiscal year 2023 compared to fiscal year 2022, reducing the U.S. dollar value of our sales and negatively affecting overall demand for our merchandise in Colombia during that year. In order to mitigate the significant price increase to our Members that would be required to maintain our target margins, we absorbed some of the increase in the costs of goods resulting from the devaluation and took pricing actions on certain product categories, which reduced our Total gross margin during that period until the exchange rate normalized and we were able to return to a more normalized profit margin. However, if the Colombia peso were to weaken again and we were to again absorb the costs of the devaluation or take pricing actions to lower the cost to our Members to mitigate a decrease in demand, consolidated Total gross margins could be negatively impacted. From time to time, we have experienced a lack of availability of U.S. dollars in certain markets (U.S. dollar illiquidity). This impedes our ability to convert local currencies obtained through merchandise sales into U.S. dollars to settle the U.S. dollar liabilities associated with our imported products or otherwise fund our operations. This illiquidity also increases our foreign exchange exposure to any devaluation of the local currency relative to the U.S. dollar. Additionally, we may incur significant premium costs to convert our local currencies into available tradable currencies and U.S. dollars. For instance, since fiscal year 2017, we have experienced this situation in Trinidad and have been unable to source a sufficient level of tradable currencies. We are working with our banks in Trinidad and government officials to convert all of our Trinidad dollars into tradable currencies. Our balance as of August 31, 2025 of Trinidad dollar denominated cash and cash equivalents and short and long-term investments measured in U.S. dollars was $59.7 million, a decrease of $40.8 million from the peak of $100.5 million as of November 30, 2020. However, as the Trinidad central bank strictly manages the exchange rate of the Trinidad dollar with the U.S. dollar and affects the level of U.S. dollar liquidity in the market through its interventions, we are subject to continued challenges in converting our Trinidad dollars to U.S. dollars, as well as being exposed to the risk of a potential devaluation of the currency. While we are currently able to source substantially all the U.S. dollars that we need in Honduras, we faced similar U.S. dollar liquidity challenges in Honduras during fiscal year 2023 through much of fiscal year 2025 and the Central bank still has strict controls there on the availability of U.S. dollars. Volatility and uncertainty regarding the currencies and economic conditions in the countries where we operate could have a material impact on our operations in future periods.

In the United States and within the international markets where we operate, there are multiple laws and regulations that relate to our business and operations. These laws and regulations are subject to change, and any failure by us to effectively manage our operations and reporting obligations as required by the various laws and regulations can result in our incurring significant legal costs and fines as well as disruptions to our business and operations. Such failure could also result in investors' loss of confidence in us, which could have a material adverse effect on our stock price. In foreign countries in which we have operations, a risk exists that our employees, contractors or agents could, in contravention of our policies, engage in business practices prohibited by U.S. laws and regulations applicable to us, such as the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act and the laws and regulations of other countries. We maintain policies prohibiting such business practices and have in place global anti-corruption compliance programs designed to ensure compliance with these laws and regulations. Nevertheless, we remain subject to the risk that one or more of our employees, contractors or agents, including those based in or from countries where practices that violate such U.S. laws and regulations or the laws and regulations of other countries may be customary, will engage in business practices that are prohibited by our policies or circumvent our compliance programs and, by doing so, violate such laws and regulations. Any violations of anti-corruption laws, even if prohibited by our internal policies, could adversely affect our reputation, business, or financial performance.

We are subject to income taxes in the U.S. and many foreign jurisdictions. Significant judgment is required in determining our consolidated provision for income taxes. In the course of our business, there are many transactions and calculations where the ultimate tax determination is uncertain. We may recognize additional tax expense and be subject to additional tax liabilities due to changes in tax laws, regulations, and administrative practices and principles, including changes to the global tax framework, in various jurisdictions and any changes we make to our intercompany transaction structure. In recent years, multiple domestic and international tax proposals were proposed to impose greater tax burdens on large multinational enterprises. For example, the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development continues to advance proposals or guidance in international taxation, including the establishment of a global minimum tax. We compute our income tax based on enacted tax rates in the countries in which we operate. As the tax rates vary among countries, a change in earnings attributable to the various jurisdictions in which we operate could result in an unfavorable change in our overall taxes. Changes in tax laws, increases in the enacted tax rates, adverse outcomes in connection with tax audits in any jurisdiction, or any change in the pronouncements relating to accounting for income taxes could have a material adverse effect on our financial condition and results of operations. In one of the countries where we operate, the government made changes several years ago in the method of computing minimum tax payments, under which the government sought to require retailers to pay taxes based on a percentage of sales if the resulting tax were greater than the tax payable based on a percentage of income (Alternative Minimum Tax or "AMT"). As a result, the Company has made and may continue to make income tax payments substantially in excess of those it would expect to pay based on taxable income, and the rules that allow the Company to obtain refunds or to offset payments that are substantially in excess of taxes payable based on taxable income are unclear or complex. For example, in fiscal year 2023, we recorded a $7.2 million charge to settle the minimum tax payment dispute in one country. Of this amount, $1.0 million is a reserve we recorded against an income tax receivable for one of the tax years for which we sought a refund and the remaining $6.2 million for the unpaid years of the dispute in which we made tax payments using the original computation based on taxable income. As part of the settlement, we will pay the minimum tax on a go-forward basis.