2019年翻译资格考试中级笔译练习题：美国百货进行反击

　　美国百货进行反击

　　由于消费者要求购物更划算，购物经历更有趣和更刺激，百货公司面临着一个明确的选择：要么主动适应，要么关门大吉。

　　“我担心他们将成为零售业的博物馆。”美国调研集团主席布里特·布里莫说。“解决问题的底线是他们必须承认自己有麻烦了，并找到方法来改造自己。”

　　这可能有助于解释为什么去折扣商店的家庭数目是去百货公司的家庭数目的四倍。

　　百货公司面对的是来自专业零售商和折扣店如沃尔玛和塔吉特的激烈竞争。他们市场份额持续下跌的部分原因可能是因为“百货”这个概念诞生在一个不同的时代，在当时对一个家庭来说，去商店购物就是将采购和娱乐相结合。

　　零售专家说现在需要的是一种新的方法。这种方法成功的典型案例就是赛尔福里奇百货公司。这家英国集团把自己从一个“暮气沉沉留有上世纪七十年代遗风的百货公司”改造成了一个适合21世纪的零售体验式公司，WSL战略零售主席温迪·里布曼说。

　　其中一个主要的变化是将更大的空间出租给零售商。这有时也被称为展示商业模式：零售商设计他们自己的摊位，并鼓励创意。

　　参考译文

　　赛尔福里奇百货公司的首席执行官彼得·威廉姆斯说，赛尔福里奇百货公司模式就是要带给人们一种“新的、有趣的和不同的”的经历，而不仅仅是提供不同的产品。他说美国百货公司的问题是他们看起来都一样。

　　管理顾问阿诺德·阿伦森认为赛尔福里奇百货公司可能就是不断衰亡的美国百货公司的救命稻草典型案例：“它重新让人们感到兴奋和新奇，并通过在恰当的时间里以合适的数量开发适销对路的商品来真正吸引顾客。”

　　拥有梅西百货和布卢明代尔百货公司的联合百货似乎正在朝着正确的方向发展。四十二家店面正在运用其“重塑”策略的最新理念进行升级改造，包括优化试衣间，提供方便的价格查验设备、舒适的休息区、公用电脑亭和购物车。

　　百货公司面对的挑战是如何让一个基本上没有增长的部门发展。但是，许多产业观察家相信如果他们去主动适应，他们就能生存下去。魁北克大学市场营销学教授罗伯特·塔米利亚说：“百货公司不会就此了结。它将继续生存下去。但它不会是从前的那个它了。”

　　参考译文

　　US department stores launch counter-attack

　　As consumers demand better value and a more interesting and stimulating experience while shopping, department stores face a clear choice: adapt or die.

　　'My concern is that they will become retail museums/ says Britt Breemer, chairman of America's Research Group. The bottom line is that they have to admit they are in trouble and figure out some way to reinvent themselves.

　　This may help to explain why four times as many households visit discount stores as department stores.

　　Department stores face mounting competition from speciality retailers and discounters, such as Wal-Mart and Target. Their steady loss of market share may be partly because the concept was born in a different era, a time when, for families, a trip to the stores combined shopping with entertainment.

　　What is needed, say retail experts, is a new approach. A typical example of this approach working is seen at Selfridges. This UK group hat racast itself from a 'sleepy 1970-styte department store' Into a retailing experience fit for the 21st century, says Wendy Liebmann, President of WSL Strategic Retail.

　　One of the main changes is that more floor space is rented to vendors, in what is sometimes referred to as the showcase business model: vendors design their own so booths and are encouraged to be creative.

　　The Selfridges model, says Peter Williams, CEO of .Selfridges, is about creating an experience that is 'new, interesting and different' where it is not just the product that is different He says the problem with US department stores is that they all the same.

　　Arnold Aronson, a management consultant, believes Selfridges could be a prototype for failing US department stores: 'It has brought back excitement and novelty and is really seducing customers by developing the right merchandise, in the right quantities at the right time.'

　　Federated, which owns Macy's and Bloomingdale's, appears to be moving in the right direction. Forty-two stores are being upgraded with the latest components of its 'reinvent' strategy, including enhanced fitting rooms, convenient price check devices, comfortable lounge areas, computer kiosks and shopping carts. The challenge department stores face is how to develop in a sector that is, essentially, not growing. But if they adapt, many industry observers believe they will survive. 'The department store is not dead, it will live on,' said Robert Tamilia, Professor of Marketing at the University of Quebec. But it will not be the same animal it was before.'