Holiday shopping

Black Friday isn’t what it used to be

黑色星期五已经不是过去的样子了

The fading importance of America’s favourite shopping spree

美国人最喜爱的购物狂欢的重要性正在下降

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.”

牛津词典的词典学家最近宣布“blursday”为年度词汇。流行病引发的日期混乱不仅仅局限于自我隔离的家庭。美国大型电子产品零售商百思买(Best Buy)最近宣布，“今年的黑色星期五不仅仅是一天，而是几个月之久。”

词汇

 Lexicologist/词汇学家

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.

对美国零售商来说，圣诞节前的购物季(今年是11月27日)一直是一件喜事。这个词本身通常被认为是费城警察的发明，他们用这个词来形容感恩节后周六一年一度的陆军-海军美式橄榄球比赛开始前，郊区购物者和游客蜂拥而至造成的混乱。到了20世纪80年代，商店意识到了这一品牌机会，并开始用大折扣和“大甩卖(开门大抢购）”来纪念这一时刻，把人们从摆满火鸡的桌子上拉到购物通道。

词汇

Bonanza/带来好运之事；幸运

pandemonium /一片混乱；闹哄哄的场所

suburban /郊区的，城郊的

 thronging /蜂拥而至；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.

在这段时间内零售商们获得的收入占他们节假日收入的1/5,促销设定在11月和12月,从感恩节到网络星期一持续五天,这是由全美零售商联合会(NRF)这个贸易集团于2005年所发现的。他们意识到了在假期周末后第一个工作日，网络销售上的一个起伏。黑色星期五吸引的客流量通常是美国其他年度购物狂欢节的两倍以上。

词汇

 Cyber Monday/网络星期一(感恩节假期之后的第一个上班日的网购促销活动)

Spree/狂欢；无节制的狂热行为

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，新冠让许多购物者不愿购买降价的婚纱或电视机。所以像百思买这样的大型零售商已经把黑色星期五从疯狂的24小时延长到了几个星期。沃尔玛、塔吉特和其他大型零售商早在10月11日就宣布了节日商品的折扣。取代了商场里的圣诞老人和圣诞幸运枝，他们提供了焕然一新的在线界面，大方的退货条例，并扩大了路边接送的特权。埃森哲咨询公司的Jill Standish指出，由于流行病导致旅游和其他“体验”消费的减少，一些未消费的钱被花在了其他事项上。NRF预计，今年的节日零售额将比2019年增长5%，因为朋友和家人会用礼物来表示远距离的慰问。

词汇

 frenzied / 疯狂的；狂乱的

 Lieu/代替；场所

Santas /圣诞老人

Mistletoe/圣诞幸运枝

Refurbish/翻新，刷新

Dosh/钱

 Kerbside/马路边；街边

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的预测被证明是准确的，今年的（促销活动带来的）带动力也不太可能阻止假日购物季的停滞。在过去十年的大部分时间里，它在年零售额中所占的份额从1992年的20.2%下降到19%以下(见图表)。网上购物总是提供较低的价格，使得一次性的折扣不那么令人兴奋。

词汇

haul /（用力）拖，拉；费力前进

arrest /阻止

Stagnation/停滞；滞止

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.

在这种情况下，黑色星期五的商店里发生的踩踏事件就不再那么显眼了。这一天的网络销售额一直在上升(尽管“网络星期一”的数字销售额至少从2016年起就超过了它)。去年，当日230亿美元的交易额中，有三分之一发生在网上。现在这一比例可能接近一半。

词汇

Stampede/惊跑；人群的蜂拥

 

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. ■

无论如何，把所有的便宜货都挤在一天之内的想法已经过时了。自2019年以来，电子帝国的标志性购物活动——亚马逊会员日 ，（今年）已经持续了48个小时。而今年的光棍节，一个通常在11月11日举行的中国盛会，持续了整整11天。

词汇

 Extravaganza/铺张华丽的表演