Holiday shopping

Black Friday isn’t what it used to be

黑色星期五已經(jīng)不是過去的樣子了

The fading importance of America’s favourite shopping spree

美國人最喜愛的購物狂歡的重要性正在下降

Nov 28th 2020 | NEW YORK

OXFORD-DICTIONARY?lexicologists recently declared “blursday” a word of the year. Pandemic-induced date confusion extends beyond self-isolating households. Best Buy, a large American electronics retailer, recently declared that “Black Friday isn’t just one day this year—it’s months long.”

牛津詞典的詞典學(xué)家最近宣布“blursday”為年度詞匯。流行病引發(fā)的日期混亂不僅僅局限于自我隔離的家庭。美國大型電子產(chǎn)品零售商百思買(Best Buy)最近宣布，“今年的黑色星期五不僅僅是一天，而是幾個(gè)月之久。”

詞匯

?Lexicologist/詞匯學(xué)家

The start of the pre-Christmas shopping season, which this year falls on November 27th, has long been a bonanza for American retailers. The term itself is often credited to Philadelphia’s policemen, who used it to describe the pandemonium caused by suburban shoppers and tourists thronging the city ahead of the annual Army-Navy American-football game on the Saturday after Thanksgiving. By the 1980s shops recognised the branding opportunity—and began marking the occasion with deep discounts and “doorbuster” deals to pull people from their turkey-laden tables to shopping aisles.

對美國零售商來說，圣誕節(jié)前的購物季(今年是11月27日)一直是一件喜事。這個(gè)詞本身通常被認(rèn)為是費(fèi)城警察的發(fā)明，他們用這個(gè)詞來形容感恩節(jié)后周六一年一度的陸軍-海軍美式橄欖球比賽開始前，郊區(qū)購物者和游客蜂擁而至造成的混亂。到了20世紀(jì)80年代，商店意識(shí)到了這一品牌機(jī)會(huì)，并開始用大折扣和“大甩賣(開門大搶購）”來紀(jì)念這一時(shí)刻，把人們從擺滿火雞的桌子上拉到購物通道。

詞匯

Bonanza/帶來好運(yùn)之事；幸運(yùn)

pandemonium /一片混亂；鬧哄哄的場所

suburban /郊區(qū)的，城郊的

?thronging /蜂擁而至；群集

?

These days retailers make one-fifth of their holiday revenue, defined as sales in November and December, in the five days from Thanksgiving to Cyber Monday, invented in 2005 by the National Retail Federation (NRF), a trade group,?in recognition of an online sales bump?on the first working day after the holiday weekend. Black Friday typically attracts more than twice the foot traffic of other annual shopping sprees in America.

在這段時(shí)間內(nèi)零售商們獲得的收入占他們節(jié)假日收入的1/5,促銷設(shè)定在11月和12月,從感恩節(jié)到網(wǎng)絡(luò)星期一持續(xù)五天,這是由全美零售商聯(lián)合會(huì)(NRF)這個(gè)貿(mào)易集團(tuán)于2005年所發(fā)現(xiàn)的。他們意識(shí)到了在假期周末后第一個(gè)工作日，網(wǎng)絡(luò)銷售上的一個(gè)起伏。黑色星期五吸引的客流量通常是美國其他年度購物狂歡節(jié)的兩倍以上。

詞匯

?Cyber Monday/網(wǎng)絡(luò)星期一(感恩節(jié)假期之后的第一個(gè)上班日的網(wǎng)購促銷活動(dòng))

Spree/狂歡；無節(jié)制的狂熱行為

This year, though, covid-19 has made many shoppers reluctant to elbow their way to cut-price wedding gowns or TV?sets. So large retailers have, like Best Buy, stretched Black Friday from a frenzied 24 hours to several weeks. Walmart, Target and other big-box retailers announced discounts on holiday items as early as October 11th. In lieu of mall Santas and mistletoe, they offered refurbished online interfaces, generous return policies and expanded options for kerbside pickup. Amid the pandemic-induced collapse of travel and other “experiential” spending, some of the unspent dosh is going on stuff instead, notes Jill Standish of Accenture, a consultancy. NRF?expects this year’s holiday retail sales to grow by as much as 5% compared with 2019, as friends and families use gifts to show long-distance appreciation.

但今年，新冠讓許多購物者不愿購買降價(jià)的婚紗或電視機(jī)。所以像百思買這樣的大型零售商已經(jīng)把黑色星期五從瘋狂的24小時(shí)延長到了幾個(gè)星期。沃爾瑪、塔吉特和其他大型零售商早在10月11日就宣布了節(jié)日商品的折扣。取代了商場里的圣誕老人和圣誕幸運(yùn)枝，他們提供了煥然一新的在線界面，大方的退貨條例，并擴(kuò)大了路邊接送的特權(quán)。埃森哲咨詢公司的Jill Standish指出，由于流行病導(dǎo)致旅游和其他“體驗(yàn)”消費(fèi)的減少，一些未消費(fèi)的錢被花在了其他事項(xiàng)上。NRF預(yù)計(jì)，今年的節(jié)日零售額將比2019年增長5%，因?yàn)榕笥押图胰藭?huì)用禮物來表示遠(yuǎn)距離的慰問。

詞匯

?frenzied / 瘋狂的；狂亂的

?Lieu/代替；場所

Santas /圣誕老人

Mistletoe/圣誕幸運(yùn)枝

Refurbish/翻新，刷新

Dosh/錢

?Kerbside/馬路邊；街邊

Even if NRF’s forecast proves accurate, however, this year’s haul is unlikely to arrest the stagnation of the holiday shopping season. Its share of annual retail sales faded below 19% throughout most of the past decade, from 20.2% in 1992 (see chart). Online shopping offers perpetually low prices, making one-off discounts somewhat less exciting.

然而，即使NRF的預(yù)測被證明是準(zhǔn)確的，今年的（促銷活動(dòng)帶來的）帶動(dòng)力也不太可能阻止假日購物季的停滯。在過去十年的大部分時(shí)間里，它在年零售額中所占的份額從1992年的20.2%下降到19%以下(見圖表)。網(wǎng)上購物總是提供較低的價(jià)格，使得一次性的折扣不那么令人興奮。

詞匯

haul /（用力）拖，拉；費(fèi)力前進(jìn)

arrest /阻止

Stagnation/停滯；滯止

In this light, Black Friday’s in-store stampedes no longer look that appealing. The day’s internet sales have been rising (though Cyber Monday has digitally outshone it since at least 2016). Last year a third of the day’s $23bn trade happened online. Now the share could be closer to a half.

在這種情況下，黑色星期五的商店里發(fā)生的踩踏事件就不再那么顯眼了。這一天的網(wǎng)絡(luò)銷售額一直在上升(盡管“網(wǎng)絡(luò)星期一”的數(shù)字銷售額至少從2016年起就超過了它)。去年，當(dāng)日230億美元的交易額中，有三分之一發(fā)生在網(wǎng)上?，F(xiàn)在這一比例可能接近一半。

詞匯

Stampede/驚跑；人群的蜂擁

?

In any case, the idea of squeezing all your bargain-hunting into a day is falling out of fashion. Since 2019 Amazon Prime Day, the e-empire’s signature shopping event, has lasted 48 hours. And this year Singles’ Day, a Chinese extravaganza which normally falls on November 11th, lasted a full 11 days. ■

無論如何，把所有的便宜貨都擠在一天之內(nèi)的想法已經(jīng)過時(shí)了。自2019年以來，電子帝國的標(biāo)志性購物活動(dòng)——亞馬遜會(huì)員日 ，（今年）已經(jīng)持續(xù)了48個(gè)小時(shí)。而今年的光棍節(jié)，一個(gè)通常在11月11日舉行的中國盛會(huì)，持續(xù)了整整11天。

詞匯

?Extravaganza/鋪張華麗的表演