《经济学人》双语：亚马逊贝索斯开实体店业绩如何
《经济学人》双语：亚马逊贝索斯开实体店业绩如何？
文/Irene-自由英语之路
【本篇内容简述】
【Para1&2】引入：亚马采用一种非常普通典型的零售模式——百货商店，以提升自身的零售财富。新任首席执行官安迪说纯电子商务有其局限性。
【Para3】亚马逊实体店情况：全食超市实体店收入仅占亚马逊总销售额的4%。生鲜店和无人收银店几乎没有贡献收入。
【Para4】新的计划：建2800平米的零售空间，没有得到证实和否认。第一家将在加利福尼亚州和俄亥俄州开业。如果进展顺利，亚马逊有望全面铺开。
【Para5】数据：亚马逊平台的增长率从每年近30%降至20%以下。上一季度，销售额仅增长了16%，低于预期。
【Para6&7】对比：沃尔玛线上线下结合，提供“线上购物，线下取货”服务，大型美国杂货店的销售额翻了一番，甚至翻了三倍。亚马逊实体店业绩平平。亚马逊实体店总收入比2018年下降了6%。
【Para8&9】做实体店困难：可能出售其廉价的自有品牌服装和小玩意，与高端时尚的愿望相悖。何影响股东的回报收益，投资者对亚马逊投入零售业感到失望，更喜欢数字广告和云计算等业务。
【Para10】结尾与评论：亚马逊股价自其最新财务报告发出以来下跌了8%，投资零售成本将大幅上升，因为很多百货公司倒闭，这很讽刺。
（文末的补充材料对理解本文有帮助）
标题：
Amazon gets physical
Jeff and Andy’s
The e-commerce giant wants to build department stores
亚马逊开实体店
杰夫和安迪的想法
这家电子商务巨头想建百货公司
Amazon’s department-store plans are less surprising than they appear
亚马逊的百货商店计划并不像看上去那么令人惊讶
原文日期：2021年8月28日
Paragraph 1：
THE WORLD wants you to be typical …Don’t let it happen,” Jeff Bezos warned in April in his last annual shareholder letter as CEO of Amazon.
世界希望你变得普通……不要让它发生，”杰夫·贝佐斯在4月份作为亚马逊首席执行官的最后一封年度股东信中警告说。
Hence bewilderment that his e-empire is to adopt a retail format that is very typical indeed: the department store. Having helped drive many chains out of business, it is now eyeing the format to boost its own retail fortunes.
此后，他的电子帝国将采用一种非常普通典型的零售模式——百货商店，这让人感到困惑。在帮助许多连锁店退出业务后，它现在正着眼于这种模式，以提升自身的零售财富。
Paragraph 2:
As a company, Amazon is entering a more mature phase. Now with a new chief executive, Andy Jassy, it is being forced to recognise that pure e-commerce has limits.
作为一家公司，亚马逊正在进入一个更加成熟的阶段。现在，随着新任首席执行官安迪·贾西的上任，它被迫承认纯电子商务有其局限性。
It is also facing fresh competition from conventional retailers like Walmart and Target that are belatedly showing that they, too, can do the internet well.
它还面临着来自沃尔玛和塔吉特等传统零售商的新的竞争，事实证明这些零售商也能很好地利用互联网，虽然有点迟。
Paragraph 3:
Amazon’s high-street presence is small. Since 2015 it has opened 24 bookshops in America. Its 30 “4-star” shops, which stock items customers rate highly, function like a walk-in website.
亚马逊在商业街的影响力很小。自2015年以来，它在美国开设了24家书店。它的30家“四星级”商店的商品顾客评价很高，功能就像一个步入式网站。
Whole Foods, an upmarket grocer it bought in 2017, contributes the bulk of its physical-store revenues, which accounted for just 4% of Amazon’s total sales in the most recent quarter.
2017年收购的高端食品杂货商全食超市贡献了实体店收入的大部分，在最近一个季度，实体店收入仅占亚马逊总销售额的4%。
Its new Amazon Fresh grocery chain and Amazon Go cashierless stores barely chip in.
其新的亚马逊生鲜食品连锁店和亚马逊无人收银店几乎没有贡献收入。
Paragraph 4:
So the new 30,000-square-foot (2,800-square-metre) retail spaces it is reportedly envisaging mark a departure. Amazon has neither confirmed nor denied its plans.
因此，据报道，该公司计划新建的30000平方英尺（2800平方米）的零售空间标志着一个新的开始。亚马逊既没有证实也没有否认其计划。
But leaked details on the stores’ size and locations suggest substance behind the reports. The first are to open in California and Ohio. If they go well, Amazon is expected to roll out more.
但泄露的门店规模和位置细节表明，这些报道背后有实质内容。第一家将在加利福尼亚州和俄亥俄州开业。如果进展顺利，亚马逊有望开更多店。
Paragraph 5:
Why invest in the high street just as covid-19 has lifted e-commerce?
为什么要投资高端商业，因为新冠提升电子商务业务了吗？
The growth rate of sales on Amazon’s platforms, including third parties, had slowed before the crisis, from nearly 30% a year to below 20%.
实际数据是，包括第三方在内的亚马逊平台的销售增长率在危机前有所放缓，从每年近30%降至20%以下。
The trend reasserts itself as people return to shops. In the past quarter Amazon’s own online sales grew by only 16%, short of investors’ (muted) expectations.
当人们回到商店时，这一趋势再次出现。在过去一个季度，亚马逊自己的在线销售额仅增长了16%，低于投资者（沉默的）预期。
Paragraph 6:
In future customers will want “omnichannel” retail that combines online and physical shopping, says Mark Shmulik of Bernstein, a broker.
伯恩斯坦的经纪人马克·什穆利克表示，未来客户将希望“全渠道”零售结合在线和实体购物。
As for Amazon’s move into department stores, he has one question: “What took them so long?” The firm’s motive is also defensive.
至于亚马逊进军百货公司，他有一个问题：“是什么花了他们这么长时间？”该公司的动机也是防御性的。
Walmart has made omnichannel work well during the pandemic by melding its formidable physical network with its website and offering a same-day “click-and-collect” service.
沃尔玛将其强大的实体网络与网站融为一体，并在同一天提供“线上购物，线下取货”服务（见文末补充资料），使全渠道在大流行期间运作良好。
Paragraph 7:
Getting more physical may not be easy. Amazon’s bricks-and-mortar performance has been ho-hum.
开实体店可能并不容易。亚马逊的实体店业绩表现平平。
Whereas most other big American grocers’ sales have doubled or even tripled in the pandemic, those of Whole Foods have barely budged, notes Sucharita Kodali of Forrester, a research firm.
研究公司福雷斯特的科达利指出，在流感大流行期间，大多数其他大型美国杂货店的销售额翻了一番，甚至翻了三倍，而商全食超市的销售额增长缓慢。
Amazon’s total physical-store revenues last year were 6% lower than in 2018.
亚马逊去年的实体店总收入比2018年下降了6%。
Paragraph 8:
Making Amazonmarts appeal to shoppers may be harder than Amazon anticipates.
让亚马逊实体超市吸引购物者可能比亚马逊预期的要难得多。
It reportedly wants them to sell its cheap private-label garments and gadgets, which is at odds with its aspirations for the stores to offer high-end fashion, where it has struggled online.
据报道，该公司希望他们出售其廉价的自有品牌服装和小玩意，这与该公司希望这些商店提供高端时尚的愿望相悖，该公司一直在网上苦苦挣扎。
It is unclear if the outlets will mimic existing examples of the department-store Canon, as Amazon Fresh shops resemble conventional grocers, or if Amazon plans to shake things up.
目前尚不清楚这些商店是否会模仿佳能百货公司现有的例子，因为亚马逊的生鲜食品店类似于传统的杂货店，或者亚马逊是否计划进行重组改变。
Paragraph 9:
Another question is how the move will affect returns for shareholders. Amazon should be able to rent or buy locations cheaply—bankruptcies have left many department-store properties up for grabs.
另一个问题是，此举将如何影响股东的回报收益。亚马逊应该能够以低廉的价格租赁或购买办公场所，因为破产使许多百货商店的财产可以容易到手。
Yet investors may be disappointed that Amazon will devote ever more resources to retail. Many prefer its faster-growing, vastly more profitable and techier businesses: digital ads and cloud computing.
然而，投资者可能会对亚马逊将更多资源投入零售业感到失望。许多人更喜欢其增长更快、利润更高、技术更高的业务：数字广告和云计算。
“Why tackle a dying industry?” asks Ms Kodali, suggesting that Amazon could have another crack at making smartphones.
科达利女士问道：“为什么要参与一个垂死的夕阳行业？”她暗示亚马逊可能会在智能手机制造方面再有一次尝试。
Paragraph 10:
Amazon’s share price is down by 8% since its latest results. As well as posting slower online sales for the second quarter it forecast slowing total sales in the next.
亚马逊的股价自其最新财务报告发出以来下跌了8%。除了公布第二季度网络销售放缓外，该公司还预测未来一个季度的总销售将放缓。
It also warned that costs will rise sharply in the future as it ramps up investing. Physical retail would claim some of the dosh.
该公司还警告称，随着投资力度的加大，未来成本将大幅上升。实体零售将要花掉一部分资金。
The irony would not be lost on Sears and other defunct department stores.
因为西尔斯和其他百货公司纷纷倒闭，这对亚马逊的讽刺就不会消失。
（恭喜读完本篇，英语阅读量698左右）
本文出自《The Economist》Business版块，仅供个人学习交流使用。
【补充资料】
文章中的Click-and-Collect， Sears是什么？（来源于网络）
Click-and-Collect：A shopping facility whereby a customer can buy or order goods from a store"s website and collect them from a local branch。作为一种辅助商品购买的方式，它使得消费者能够从网站上购买产品后，到实体店进行取货。就是线上购买和实体店取货。
Sears：西尔斯·罗巴克公司的简称，西尔斯公司曾经是美国也是世界最大的私人零售企业。它的创始人理查德·西尔斯在1884年就开始尝试邮购商品，专门从事邮购业务，出售手表、表链、表针、珠宝以及钻石等小件商品。为顺应市场形势的变化，西尔斯公司不断调整自己的营销策略，从而以惊人的速度发展起来。1900年成为美国零售业销售额排行榜的第一名。1925年开始进入百货商店的经营，陆续开设了300多家百货商店，1931年其零售业务营业额首次超过邮购的营业额。西尔斯公司于2005年3月24日与凯马特公司合并，组成美国第三大零售业集团。美国当地时间2018年10月15日，西尔斯正式向美国破产法院申请破产保护。
【重点词汇】（9个）
chip in
凑钱；捐助；插嘴
roll out
铺开；推出（新产品，服务等）；实行（新制度）
ho-hum /h hm]/
adj.无聊的; 平淡无奇的
budge/bd/
v.微微移动
at odds with
与…争执，意见不一致；与…不和；差异
shake things up
改变
up for grabs
公开投标；大家有份；容易到手
ramp up
产能提升；斜升
dosh/d/
n. 钱
【重点句子】（3个）
It is now eyeing the format to boost its own retail fortunes.
亚马逊现在正着眼于这种模式，以提升自身的零售财富。
Walmart has made omnichannel work well during the pandemic by melding its formidable physical network with its website and offering a same-day “click-and-collect” service.
沃尔玛将其强大的物理网络与网站融为一体，并在同一天提供“线上购物，线下取货”服务，使全渠道在大流行期间运作良好。
Getting more physical may not be easy. Amazon’s bricks-and-mortar performance has been ho-hum.
开实体店可能并不容易。亚马逊的实体店业绩表现平平。
【词源故事】（1个）（来源于Tong）
ramp来自古法语 ramper,爬，上升，登山，词源同 ring,curve.比喻用法，原用于形容动物蹲立在后脚跟上蓄势待发奔跑的姿势。
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