原文標(biāo)題：
Retailing
Everyday low profits
A warning from Walmart about the health of the American consumer
零售業(yè)
天天低價(jià)

沃爾瑪?shù)臉I(yè)績(jī)警示與美國(guó)消費(fèi)業(yè)

The retail giant forecasts weaker sales
沃爾瑪預(yù)期銷售額下降

[Paragraph 1]
“CHOICEFUL, DISCERNING, thoughtful” is how Walmart’s boss, Doug McMillon, described American consumers on February 21st, as he presented the retail behemoth’s quarterly results.
2月21日，沃爾瑪老板道格·麥克米倫在公布公司季度業(yè)績(jī)報(bào)告時(shí)，用“選擇多樣、眼光敏銳、思考深入”等詞來描述美國(guó)消費(fèi)者。

That may be so. What they aren’t, at least in aggregate, is frugal.
也許確實(shí)如此。但至少?gòu)目傮w來看，消費(fèi)者并不節(jié)儉。

Last year consumer spending shot up even as real disposable incomes declined by more than 6%.
去年，盡管實(shí)際可支配收入下降了6%以上，消費(fèi)支出卻大幅增長(zhǎng)。

America splurged on in January, shopping its way through a warm winter buoyed by 517,000 new jobs and a chunky inflation-linked bump in social-security cheques.
1月份，由于51.7萬個(gè)新增就業(yè)崗位和通貨膨脹相關(guān)的社保支票上漲這兩大原因，美國(guó)消費(fèi)者在溫暖的冬季里大肆購(gòu)物大肆消費(fèi)。

Retail sales rose by 3% month on month, and consumer sentiment reached its highest level in more than a year.
零售銷售環(huán)比增長(zhǎng)了3%，消費(fèi)者情緒達(dá)到了一年多以來的最高水平。

Those looking for evidence of a “soft landing”, where the economy avoids a recession despite tighter monetary policy, found solace in the American consumer.
那些尋找“軟著陸”證據(jù)的人在美國(guó)消費(fèi)者身上找到了慰藉?！败浿憽笔侵副M管貨幣政策趨緊，但經(jīng)濟(jì)沒有陷入衰退的情況。

[Paragraph 2]
On the surface, Walmart looks like exhibit A for the optimists. Its comparable sales in America grew by a brisk 8.3%, year on year. Look closer, though, and its results are full of warning signs.
在表面上看，沃爾瑪似乎是看漲者的最佳例證。其美國(guó)同比銷售額同比增長(zhǎng)8.3％。然而，仔細(xì)分析一下，它的業(yè)績(jī)充滿了警示信號(hào)。

A big reason for its market-share gains in groceries was cash-strapped consumers, including high-income ones, trading down from fancier supermarkets.
沃爾瑪?shù)氖称冯s貨市場(chǎng)份額增長(zhǎng)的一個(gè)重要原因是，資金緊張的消費(fèi)者（包括高收入者）從高檔超市轉(zhuǎn)向了經(jīng)濟(jì)實(shí)惠的超市。

Its higher-margin discretionary range—toys, clothes, homeware and the like—did less well, despite heavy discounting to clear inventories overstocked as a result of a post-pandemic miscalculation about demand for certain goods.
由于后疫情時(shí)期對(duì)某些商品需求的錯(cuò)誤估計(jì)而導(dǎo)致庫(kù)存擠壓，盡管對(duì)庫(kù)存進(jìn)行了大量折扣清理，但其高毛利率的自主選擇商品（如玩具、服裝、家居用品等）的業(yè)績(jī)不佳。

Worst of all, Walmart forecast sales growth of 2.5-3% for the current fiscal year, below analysts’ expectations.
最糟糕的是，沃爾瑪預(yù)測(cè)本財(cái)年的銷售增長(zhǎng)率為2.5-3%，低于分析師的預(yù)期。

[Paragraph 3]
Other retailers tell a similar story, more poignantly.
其他零售商的情況也類似且更糟。

The same day, Home Depot reported its seventh successive year-on-year drop in transaction volumes—and last quarter, for the first time, it was not offset by growth in the average size of transactions.
同一天，家得寶公司報(bào)告稱其交易量連續(xù)第7年同比下降，而上一季度，平均交易額的增長(zhǎng)量也首次未能彌補(bǔ)下降量。

The home-improvement firm’s share price fell by more than 7% on the day.
當(dāng)天，這家家居建材公司的股價(jià)就下跌了逾7%。

And shoppers’ baskets may get lighter as the housing market wobbles: according to Barclays, a bank, the more the asking price for properties fall, the less consumers spend on an average trip to Home Depot.
由于房地產(chǎn)市場(chǎng)的動(dòng)蕩，購(gòu)物者的購(gòu)物籃可能會(huì)變得更輕盈：據(jù)巴克萊銀行稱，房?jī)r(jià)越低，購(gòu)物者在家得寶的平均消費(fèi)額就越低。

[Paragraph 4]
Retailers’ margins were always likely to narrow after the covid-era blow-out.
零售商的利潤(rùn)在疫情期間大幅增長(zhǎng)，現(xiàn)在利潤(rùn)勢(shì)必會(huì)收窄。

Although the worst labour shortages have subsided, wages remain high.
盡管最嚴(yán)重的勞動(dòng)力短缺問題已經(jīng)得到緩解，但薪資仍然居高不下。

In January Walmart announced pay rises that will raise its average hourly wage above $17.50. UBS, a bank, estimates that such moves will cost the company around $1bn a year.
沃爾瑪在1月份宣布加薪，將其平均每小時(shí)工資提高到17.50美元以上。瑞銀集團(tuán)估計(jì)，這一舉措將每年給公司帶來約10億美元的額外成本。

Home Depot said it would spend an extra $1bn on higher hourly wages for workers.
家得寶表示將額外投入10億美元用于提高員工的小時(shí)工資。

[Paragraph 5]
A bigger worry is the potential drop-off in demand.
更大的擔(dān)憂是消費(fèi)需求可能會(huì)下降。

The tailwind from strong household balance-sheets, fortified by covid-induced saving and government handouts, will not blow for ever.
疫情期間的儲(chǔ)蓄加上政府資金的支持，家庭資產(chǎn)負(fù)債表很漂亮，但這種順風(fēng)外力不會(huì)一直存在。

According to Goldman Sachs, another bank, households have spent a third of their excess savings and will have spent another third by the end of 2023.
據(jù)高盛預(yù)測(cè)，家庭已經(jīng)使用了1/3的過剩儲(chǔ)蓄，到2023年底，他們將花費(fèi)另外1/3的過剩儲(chǔ)蓄。

Firms that, like Home Depot and Walmart, flaunted their pricing power last year are now more careful, lest pricier wares scare shoppers away.
家得寶和沃爾瑪?shù)冗@樣的公司在去年吹噓過它們的定價(jià)權(quán)，但現(xiàn)在變得更加謹(jǐn)慎，以免商品價(jià)格過高嚇跑顧客。

Last week Kraft Heinz, a food giant, said it was mostly done raising prices this year.
上周，食品巨頭卡夫亨氏表示，它今年的大部分商品提價(jià)已經(jīng)完成。

Even well-heeled buyers, who drove retailers’ sales growth in 2022, are feeling the heat, as Walmart’s success with them shows.
即使是富有的購(gòu)買者，他們?cè)?022年推動(dòng)了零售商的銷售增長(zhǎng)，現(xiàn)在他們也感到壓力。沃爾瑪?shù)牧裂蹟?shù)據(jù)說明了這一點(diǎn)。

It is all too easy to imagine Mr McMillon’s discerning shoppers turning into dispirited ones.
不難想象，麥克米倫所形容的“眼光敏銳的消費(fèi)者”會(huì)變成“心灰意冷的購(gòu)物者”。

（恭喜讀完，本篇英語詞匯量552左右）
原文出自：2023年2月25日《The Economist》Business版塊。

精讀筆記來源于：自由英語之路

本文翻譯整理: Irene本文編輯校對(duì): Irene
僅供個(gè)人英語學(xué)習(xí)交流使用。

【補(bǔ)充資料】（來自于網(wǎng)絡(luò)）
可比銷售額（comparable sales）是指對(duì)比同一銷售點(diǎn)在相同時(shí)間段內(nèi)的銷售額，以評(píng)估銷售績(jī)效的指標(biāo)。它通常用于零售業(yè)和餐飲業(yè)等行業(yè)，以了解一家企業(yè)或品牌在某一時(shí)間段內(nèi)的業(yè)績(jī)表現(xiàn)。在零售業(yè)中，可比銷售額也可以用于計(jì)算每個(gè)店鋪的銷售增長(zhǎng)率，以及比較同一時(shí)期內(nèi)的銷售收入和毛利率等指標(biāo)。

家得寶（Home Depot）是一家總部位于美國(guó)的家居建材零售公司，成立于1978年，是全球最大的家居建材零售商之一,美國(guó)第二大零售商。員工數(shù)量超過40萬人。公司銷售的產(chǎn)品包括建筑材料、電器、裝修用品、家具、燈具、廚房用品、園藝用品等。除了線下門店，家得寶還提供在線銷售和送貨服務(wù)。

過剩儲(chǔ)蓄（Excess savings）是指?jìng)€(gè)人或家庭儲(chǔ)蓄水平高于其正常支出水平的情況。這通常是由于收入增加、減少支出或限制消費(fèi)行為等因素造成的。例如在疫情期間，由于疫情引起的封鎖和限制，許多人的支出水平受到了影響，例如旅游、娛樂、餐飲等方面的消費(fèi)大幅減少。在此期間，許多人的儲(chǔ)蓄率大幅提高，因此出現(xiàn)了大量的"過剩儲(chǔ)蓄"。

【重點(diǎn)句子】（3?個(gè)）
A big reason for its market-share gains in groceries was cash-strapped consumers, including high-income ones, trading down from fancier supermarkets.
沃爾瑪?shù)氖称冯s貨市場(chǎng)份額增長(zhǎng)的一個(gè)重要原因是，資金緊張的消費(fèi)者（包括高收入者）從高檔超市轉(zhuǎn)向了經(jīng)濟(jì)實(shí)惠的超市。

Although the worst labour shortages have subsided, wages remain high.
盡管最嚴(yán)重的勞動(dòng)力短缺問題已經(jīng)得到緩解，但薪資仍然居高不下。

A bigger worry is the potential drop-off in demand.
更大的擔(dān)憂是消費(fèi)需求可能會(huì)下降。