2017考研英语拓展阅读：沃尔玛实体零售业进入冰川期

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2017考研英语拓展阅读：沃尔玛实体零售业进入冰川期

　　Sprawl-Busters across America are celebrating this week.

　　本周应该是美国各个连锁商店的节日。

　　Wal-Mart announced at its October 6th Investor’s meeting that it “plans to slow new-store openings,” shifting its capital investments towards e-commerce technology. In its superstore segment, Wal-Mart will drop from 69 new big box stores in FY 16, to 60 in FY 17, and only 35 by FY 18.

　　沃尔玛在本月6日的投资者会议上宣布，计划“暂缓新店开张步伐”，将资本投资转向电子商务技术。在其大型超市部门，沃尔玛决定将2016财年新开69家卖场的计划，缩减到2017财年的60家，到2018财年可能只剩35家了。

　　In his comments, Wal-Mart CEO Doug McMillon flatly stated: “We are a company that must become more of an e-commerce and technology company. There’s no doubt that e-commerce is going to become a much more important part of our business.”

　　沃尔玛首席执行官董明伦斩钉截铁地说：“我们公司必须进一步重视电子商务与技术了。毫无疑问，电子商务将成为我们业务中越来越重要的一部分。”

　　Without once mentioning his desperate fixation on catching rival Amazon, McMillon promised customers a “fast and easy” shopping experience “when, where and how they want.”

　　这次他没有提与对手亚马逊的病态竞争。董明伦承诺给消费者“便捷”的购物体验，“不管他们何时何地提出什么样的需求”。

　　Wal-Mart’s super-saturation of the retail landscape with big box stores, sometimes as close as two miles apart, is well into its Ice Age. The huge Dinostores, once seen as the dominant species of retailing, are now viewed as ill-adapted to the climate change overtaking the marketplace, most notably the global warm-up of online shopping. Wal-Mart became over-reliant on these vast retail caverns, hard to navigate and time-consuming to shop. Now they are trying to catch up to the Amazon model of fulfillment warehouses strategically placed around the globe.

　　沃尔玛推行的大卖场零售规划已经过饱和了，有时候两家店的距离只隔了两英里。零售业已经进入冰川时代了。大型卖场曾经被视为零售业的主力军，但是现在随着在线购物强势崛起，市场风云变幻，大型卖场已经表现出了适应不良。沃尔玛太依赖这些对消费者来说极为耗时的零售卖场，而难以自拔。现在他们试着赶上亚马逊在全球实现战略仓储的模式。

　　Wal-Mart’s Retail Ice Age is a result of its own misreading of the market. As I wrote in this space nine months ago: “Wal-Mart headquarters announced January 15th that the company will close a total of 269 stores world-wide, of which 154 are locations in the U.S. This store implosion represents the end of the line for Wal-Mart’s smallest format, the so-called Wal-Mart Express. But it also reveals the giant retailer’s over-saturation of American markets.”

　　沃尔玛的零售冰川期是其对市场错误解读的结果。正如我九个月以前所写的一样：“沃尔玛总部1月15日宣布，将在全球范围内关闭269家门店，其中154家在美国。这次关店潮代表着沃尔玛所谓‘沃尔玛便利店’格局的终结。但它也揭示了这个零售业巨头在美国市场的过饱和。”

　　Last January, McMillon, tried to put a shine on these closures by reminding the media that “we’ll open well more than 300 stores around the world next year. So we are committed to growing, but we are being disciplined about it.” Translation: Wal-Mart will only be opening 50 to 60 Supercenters in America this coming year—-which pales to its halcyon sprawl years in the 1980s when it cut-ribbons at a 250 to 350 store clip per year. Even as late as 2007, Wal-Mart’s Annual Report said the retailer’s “planned expenditures will include the construction of...265 to 270 new supercenters.”

　　去年一月，董明伦试着为关店潮证明，提醒媒体“我们明年将在全世界范围内新开超过300家门店。虽然我们如此热衷于扩张，但我们也是一步一步来的。”换句话说就是：沃尔玛在接下来的一年里只会在美国新开50-60家大型卖场——比起每年新开250-350家门店的20世纪80年代，实在是逊色得多。甚至在2007年年末，沃尔玛的年报还显示“计划中的支出包括建设265-270家新门店”。

　　No doubt Wall Street will reward Wal-Mart for finally showing some “discipline” in its bricks and mortar store growth—but in its own Q&A format interview with McMillon, the company disclosed a very telling metric:

　　毫无疑问，华尔街将会因沃尔玛实体店的“有序扩张”而给他们奖赏。——但在采访董明伦的时候，却抛出了强有力的数字：

　　“More than 95% of the stores closing in the U.S. are within 10 miles on average of another Walmart.”

　　“美国超过95%被关闭的商店，都在距离另一家沃尔玛门店平均10英里以内的地方。”

　　In other words, Wal-Mart reached the point of store saturation years ago, and is only acting on that now. No retail trade area needs a Wal-Mart every ten miles. The stores that were chalked for closure last January were, frankly, redundant.

　　换句话说，沃尔玛门店数年以前就已经达到过饱和状态了，只不过现在才显示出来。没有商圈每10英里就需要一家沃尔玛。老实说，去年1月关闭的那些门店，确实有些多余。

　　Wal-Mart has been cannibalizing its own stores for years by over-saturating market penetration. In 2007, John Menzer, Wal-Mart’s Chief Administrative Officer, told shareholders: “We also have been focused this year on reducing cannibalization of existing stores via our more strategic selection of U.S. real estate projects... As we continue to add new stores in the United States, we do so with an understanding that additional stores may take sales away from existing units.” That was nearly 9 years ago.

　　因为过饱和的市场渗透，数年来沃尔玛一直在裁撤自家门店。2007年，沃尔玛首席行政官约翰·门泽尔对股东们说：“通过我们对美国房地产项目的战略选择，我们今年也在专注于尽量不裁撤门店……我们将继续在美国开设新门店，我们这么做，是因为我们认为多出来的门店会分走现有门店的销售额。”一晃已经九年过去了。

　　What does this mean for local communities? The prospect of only 35 new superstore by 2018 lifts a great burden off the backs of local communities that have been fighting Goliath with slingshot coalitions since the early 1990s. I have catalogued a list of 450 communities that have blocked superstore sprawl at least once.

　　这对当地社会来说意味着什么呢?在2018年只开35家新店给当地带来的负担，无异于用小弹弓去打大怪兽，而这种负担从20世纪90年代就开始了。我列了一个表格，有450个社团至少抵制过一次超级卖场的扩张。

　　Slashing new store production by 50% means that roughly 900 acres of land will be spared a blanket of asphalt and concrete, the environmental damages from huge developments will be reduced, and hundreds of local businesses will remain open for business. As McMillon admitted, shifting the business model away from superstores means “running our business with more sustainable practices.”

　　砍掉一半的新店，意味着将近900公顷土地将不会被沥青和混凝土所占据，大型建设对环境的有害影响也会降低，成百的当地公司也会虚位以待。正如董明伦所承认的，改变“大卖场”的商业模式，意味着“让我们的业务更加可持续化”。

　　The Dinostores are dying. Wal-Mart knows it. Shoppers know it. Perhaps by FY 19 Wal-Mart will be announcing no new superstore units at all, and the widespread closure of its outdated concrete mausoleums.

　　实体店气数将尽，而沃尔玛也知道这一点，消费者更知道这一点。也许，在2019财年，沃尔玛一家新店都不会开了，关店潮也会进一步蔓延，过时的门店成了一座座水泥坟墓。

　　That will be a glorious day, indeed.

　　实际上，会有光辉的一天的。

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