SEGMENT INFORMATION

Grainger's two reportable segments are the U.S. and Canada. These reportable segments reflect the results of the Company's businesses in those geographies, except for Zoro Tools, Inc. (Zoro) in the U.S. and other small businesses. Other businesses include the Company's single channel businesses (Zoro and MonotaRO in Japan) and small operations in the U.S., Europe, Asia and Latin America. These businesses individually do not meet the criteria of a reportable segment.

Following is a summary of segment results (in thousands of dollars):



	Three Months Ended March 31, 2018
	United States			Canada			Other businesses			Total
Total net sales	$	2,107,686		$	181,764		$	588,092		$	2,877,542
Intersegment net sales	(110,181		)	(18		)	(942		)	(111,141		)
Net sales to external customers	$	1,997,505		$	181,746		$	587,150		$	2,766,401
Segment operating earnings	$	356,504		$	(20,157	)	$	36,422		$	372,769



	Three Months Ended March 31, 2017
	United States			Canada			Other businesses			Total
Total net sales	$	1,953,444		$	186,141		$	497,407		$	2,636,992
Intersegment net sales	(95,073		)	(12		)	(778		)	(95,863		)
Net sales to external customers	$	1,858,371		$	186,129		$	496,629		$	2,541,129
Segment operating earnings	$	309,642		$	(16,729	)	$	31,507		$	324,420



	United States		Canada		Other businesses		Total
Segment assets:
As of March 31, 2018	$	2,383,796	$	239,683	$	661,352	$	3,284,831
As of December 31, 2017	$	2,309,734	$	278,633	$	605,452	$	3,193,819

Following are reconciliations of segment information with the consolidated totals per the financial statements (in thousands of dollars):



	Three Months Ended March 31,
	2018			2017
Operating earnings:
Total operating earnings for reportable segments	$	372,769		$	324,420
Unallocated expenses and eliminations	(37,939		)	(31,919		)
Total consolidated operating earnings	$	334,830		$	292,501

	As of
Assets:	March 31, 2018			December 31, 2017
Assets for reportable segments	3,284,831			$	3,193,819
Other current and non-current assets	2,494,329			2,428,074
Unallocated assets	123,651			182,361
Total consolidated assets	$	5,902,811		$	5,804,254

Unallocated expenses and assets primarily relate to intercompany eliminations and the Company's headquarters support services, which are not part of any reportable segment. Unallocated expenses are primarily comprised of employee compensation costs, depreciation and other administrative costs and unallocated assets are primarily comprised of non-operating cash and cash equivalents, property, buildings and equipment, net, and certain prepaid expenses.

Assets for reportable segments include net accounts receivable and first-in, first-out inventory which are reported to the Company's Chief Operating Decision Maker. Other current and non-current assets include all other assets of the reportable segments.