Item 7A. Quantitative and Qualitative Disclosures About Market Risk (amounts in millions)

Our exposure to financial market risk results from fluctuations in interest rates and foreign currency exchange rates. We do not engage in speculative or leveraged transactions or hold or issue financial instruments for trading purposes.

Interest Rate Risk

Our exposure to market risk for changes in interest rates relates primarily to our investment holdings that are diversified among various instruments considered to be cash equivalents as defined in Note 1 to the consolidated financial statements included in Item 8 of this Report, as well as short-term investments in government and agency securities, and asset and mortgage-backed securities with effective maturities of generally three months to five years at the date of purchase. The primary objective of our investment activities is to preserve principal and secondarily to generate yields. The majority of our short-term investments are in fixed interest rate securities. These securities are subject to changes in fair value due to interest rate fluctuations.

Our policy limits investments in the U.S. to direct U.S. government and government agency obligations, repurchase agreements collateralized by U.S. government and government agency obligations, and U.S. government and government agency money market funds. Our wholly-owned captive insurance subsidiary invests in U.S. government and government agency obligations, corporate notes and bonds, and asset and mortgage-backed securities with a minimum overall portfolio average credit rating of AA+. Our Canadian and Other International subsidiaries’ investments are primarily in money market funds, bankers’ acceptances, and bank certificates of deposit, generally denominated in local currencies.

A 100 basis-point change in interest rates as of the end of 2016 would have an incremental change in fair market value of $22. For those investments that are classified as available-for-sale, the unrealized gains or losses related to fluctuations in market volatility and interest rates are reflected within stockholders’ equity in accumulated other comprehensive income.

The nature and amount of our long-term debt may vary as a result of business requirements, market conditions, and other factors. As of the end of 2016, the majority of our long-term debt is fixed rate Senior Notes, carried at $4,390. Fluctuations in interest rates may affect the fair value of the fixed-rate debt. See Note 4 to the consolidated financial statements included in Item 8 of this Report for more information on our long-term debt.

Item 7A—Quantitative and Qualitative Disclosures About Market Risk (amounts in millions)(Continued)

Foreign Currency-Exchange Risk

Our foreign subsidiaries conduct certain transactions in their non-functional currencies, which exposes us to fluctuations in exchange rates. We manage these fluctuations, in part, through the use of forward foreign-exchange contracts, seeking to economically hedge the impact of these fluctuations on known future expenditures denominated in a non-functional foreign-currency. The contracts are intended primarily to economically hedge exposure to U.S. dollar merchandise inventory expenditures made by our international subsidiaries whose functional currency is other than the U.S. dollar. Currently, these contracts do not qualify for derivative hedge accounting. We seek to mitigate risk with the use of these contracts and do not intend to engage in speculative transactions. These contracts do not contain any credit-risk-related contingent features.

We seek to manage counterparty risk associated with these contracts by limiting transactions to counterparties with which we have established banking relationships. There can be no assurance that this practice is effective. These contracts are limited to less than one year. See Note 1 and Note 3 to the consolidated financial statements included in Item 8 of this Report for additional information on the fair value of unsettled forward foreign-exchange contracts at the end of 2016 and 2015. A hypothetical 10% strengthening of the functional currency compared to the non-functional currency exchange rates at August 28, 2016 would have decreased the fair value of the contracts by $56 and resulted in an unrealized loss in the consolidated statements of income for the same amount.

Commodity Price Risk

We are exposed to fluctuations in prices for energy that we consume, particularly electricity and natural gas, which we seek to partially mitigate through fixed-price contracts for certain of our warehouses and other facilities, predominately in the U.S. and Canada. We also enter into variable-priced contracts for some purchases of electricity and natural gas, in addition to fuel for our gas stations, on an index basis. These contracts meet the characteristics of derivative instruments, but generally qualify for the “normal purchases or normal sales” exception under authoritative guidance and require no mark-to-market adjustment.