2015年经济学人 超市大采购 该死的通道

Grocery shopping

Aisle¹ be damned

For the best bargains, avoid shopping around for your groceries

THRIFTY² shoppers do not have to look far to find a bargain.

Offers abound³ in the cut-throat world of British supermarkets.

Received wisdom suggests that people trying to save money on their groceries should shop around to get the best prices.

But research presented on April 9th at the Royal Economic Society suggests that those who do so end up paying more.

Kun Tian, a researcher at Cardiff Business School, and Ji Yan of Durham University,

the paper's authors, argue that people who buy all their groceries at just one of the big supermarkets

(Tesco, Sainsbury's, Asda and Morrisons) pay less than those who purchase equivalent goods at a mixture of the four of them.

Data from Kantar Worldpanel, a market-research firm, show similar trends.

Unlike Mr Tian's study, these cover total purchases rather than comparing equivalent baskets of goods.

They show that people who bought groceries in just one store during the 12 weeks to September 2013 spent 631.

Those who went to ten different places, by contrast, forked out 1,249.

Many of those high-spending shoppers probably had money to burn.

But bargain-hunters who visit lots of shops are exposed to more products,

and thus more likely to buy things they had not planned to, argues Phil Dorsett, an analyst⁴ at Kantar.

Mr Tian reckons that promiscuous⁵ shoppers suffer from missing out on savings⁶ offered to more loyal customers,

especially those earned after spending a lot in a particular store.

Shoppers who frequent an abundance of different outlets⁷ also tend to be older, says Mr Tian.

They are less likely than people with young families to take advantage of deals that require them to buy goods in bulk.

Those who buy their groceries in fewer emporia—and so spend less—are also more likely to do their shopping online.

And on the internet they are more likely to buy products from supermarkets' cheaper own-label ranges, says Edward Garner⁸, also of Kantar.

Supermarkets do not always stock such ranges in their small convenience outlets;

people shopping in a hurry may as well be encouraged to buy more expensive varieties.

In big stores, low-cost lines may be stashed⁹ well above or below a harried¹⁰ shopper's line of sight.

Search a supermarket's online store, however, and they pop up just as appetisingly as more expensive brands.

That provides much less scope for shelf deception¹¹.

1 aisle   

n.（教堂、教室、戏院等里的）过道，通道

参考例句：

• The aisle was crammed with people.过道上挤满了人。
• The girl ushered me along the aisle to my seat.引座小姐带领我沿着通道到我的座位上去。

2 thrifty   

adj.节俭的；兴旺的；健壮的

参考例句：

• Except for smoking and drinking,he is a thrifty man.除了抽烟、喝酒，他是个生活节俭的人。
• She was a thrifty woman and managed to put aside some money every month.她是个很会持家的妇女，每月都设法存些钱。

3 abound   

vi.大量存在；(in，with)充满，富于

参考例句：

• Oranges abound here all the year round.这里一年到头都有很多橙子。
• But problems abound in the management of State-owned companies.但是在国有企业的管理中仍然存在不少问题。

4 analyst   

n.分析家，化验员；心理分析学家

参考例句：

• What can you contribute to the position of a market analyst?你有什么技能可有助于市场分析员的职务？
• The analyst is required to interpolate values between standards.分析人员需要在这些标准中插入一些值。

5 promiscuous   

adj.杂乱的，随便的

参考例句：

• They were taking a promiscuous stroll when it began to rain.他们正在那漫无目的地散步，突然下起雨来。
• Alec know that she was promiscuous and superficial.亚历克知道她是乱七八糟和浅薄的。

6 savings   

n.存款，储蓄

参考例句：

• I can't afford the vacation,for it would eat up my savings.我度不起假，那样会把我的积蓄用光的。
• By this time he had used up all his savings.到这时，他的存款已全部用完。

7 outlets   

n.出口( outlet的名词复数 )；经销店；插座；廉价经销店

参考例句：

• The dumping of foreign cotton blocked outlets for locally grown cotton. 外国棉花的倾销阻滞了当地生产的棉花的销路。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• They must find outlets for their products. 他们必须为自己的产品寻找出路。 来自《现代汉英综合大词典》

8 garner   

v.收藏；取得

参考例句：

• He has garnered extensive support for his proposals.他的提议得到了广泛的支持。
• Squirrels garner nuts for the winter.松鼠为过冬储存松果。

9 stashed   

v.贮藏( stash的过去式和过去分词 )；隐藏；藏匿；藏起

参考例句：

• She has a fortune stashed away in various bank accounts. 她有一大笔钱存在几个不同的银行账户下。
• She has a fortune stashed away in various bank accounts. 她在不同的银行账户上秘密储存了一大笔钱。 来自《简明英汉词典》

10 harried   

v.使苦恼( harry的过去式和过去分词 )；不断烦扰；一再袭击；侵扰

参考例句：

• She has been harried by the press all week. 整个星期她都受到新闻界的不断烦扰。
• The soldiers harried the enemy out of the country. 士兵们不断作骚扰性的攻击直至把敌人赶出国境为止。 来自《简明英汉词典》

11 deception   

n.欺骗，欺诈；骗局，诡计

参考例句：

• He admitted conspiring to obtain property by deception.他承认曾与人合谋骗取财产。
• He was jailed for two years for fraud and deception.他因为诈骗和欺诈入狱服刑两年。