经济学人424:全食超市 成功的受害者

搜索关注在线英语听力室公众号：tingroom，领取免费英语资料大礼包。

　　全食超市

　　Victim of success

　　成功的受害者

　　A peddler of pricey organic and natural foods finds it has competition

　　贩售昂贵的天然有机食品的商贩发现了竞争对手

　　but it'll cost you

　　但是售价太高了

　　THE colourful chalkboards and baskets of fruit that greet customers at the entrances of Whole Foods Market's shops paint a rosy¹ picture. Yet shares in the American seller of organic and natural food have fallen by more than 40% since hitting a peak last October, in a period when stockmarkets have been strong.

　　在全食超市的入口处，色彩斑斓的的黑板画和篮筐里五颜六色的水果迎接着顾客，描绘出一幅乐观的景象。然而美国的天然有机食品售卖者的利润自去年10月触及峰值后，已经下降超过40%，这一时期股票市场一直很强劲。

　　It is not that the retailer² is in immediate³ crisis: its latest quarterly figures, on July 30th, showed sales and profits both up a bit. And it is not that people are going off the idea of paying more for food produced without chemical fertilisers, pesticides⁴ or additives⁵: the International Federation⁶ of Organic Agriculture Movements reckons that the industry's worldwide revenues were a record of 63 billion in 2012; and Techsci Research, a market-research firm, predicts that the American market for such foods—the world's largest—may grow by 14% by 2018.

　　这并不是说零售商的危机迫在眉睫：7月30日，最新一季度的数据显示其销售收入和利润都有所回升。这并不是说人们不想花更多的钱来购买在生产过程中不施用化肥、杀虫剂和添加剂的食品，国际有机农业运动联合会估计，世界范围内此行业2012年年收入为630亿；据一家名为Techsci Research的市场调查公司预测，到2018年，此类食品的世界第一大市场——美国市场的增长也许会达到14%。

　　全食超市.jpg

　　The problem is that at Whole Foods, shoppers have been paying way over the cost of regular produce, and its success in getting them to do so has now attracted a lot of competitors, from rival organics chains like Sprouts⁷ and Trader Joe's to mass-market retailers⁸ like Walmart and Costco. As a result, the price premium⁹ for organic produce is crashing down. On a recent shopping trip, a pound of organic apples cost 2.99 at Whole Foods but just 1.99 at Sprouts and even less at Costco.

　　问题是，在全食超市，消费者购买农产品的花费比其常规生产成本高很多，且如今全食超市的成功已经吸引来更多的竞争对手，从有机生产链竞争对手如Sprouts和Trader Joe's到大众市场零售商如沃尔玛、好事多。因此，有机农产品的溢价空间骤缩。近来在各大市场走一圈，一磅有机苹果在全食超市要2.99美元，而在Sprouts仅需1.99美元，在好事多超市价钱甚至更低。

　　The firm has been trimming costs to keep its margins¹⁰ up, but the slump¹¹ in its share price reflects investors¹²' expectation that this cannot continue, that profits will suffer and that Whole Foods' dominance of the market is coming to an end.

　　全食公司正削减成本以维持利润空间，但其股价的暴跌反映了投资者的预期：这不能继续，利润就会受到影响，以至于全食公司的市场主导地位将会被终结。

　　That the company has had to recall a number of products—in late July it and other grocers recalled plums and peaches suspected of contamination with Listeria bacteria—has made it harder to maintain an air of superiority over its competitors. Organic foods' claim to superiority is questionable¹³ anyway. Both Britain's Food Standards Agency and the Annals of Internal Medicine, a journal, concluded after reviewing the extensive studies on the issue that there is no substantial difference in the nutritiousness¹⁴ of organics and non-organics. In some respects organics may be bad for the environment, because growing them uses land less efficiently¹⁵ than non-organics.

　　全食公司不得不召回大量农产品——在7月下旬，全食公司以及其他零售商召回了怀疑受到李斯特菌污染的梅子和桃子，这使其更难维持其竞争优势。无论如何，有机食品所宣称的优势存在问题。英国食品标准局与《内科医学年鉴》杂志，在对此问题的广泛研究进行审查后得出结论：有机食品和非有机食品在营养成分上没有实质的区别。在某些方面，有机食品也许会对环境不利，因为种植有机蔬菜比种植非有机蔬菜的土地使用效率低。

　　As for “natural” foods, there is no official definition of this, inAmericaat least; so the label, which Whole Foods also applies to many products, is close to meaningless. Alan McHughen, a botanist¹⁶ at theUniversityofCalifornia,Riverside, argues that the whole industry is “99% marketing¹⁷ and public perception,” reeling people in through a fabricated concept of a time when food, and life in general, was simple and wholesome¹⁸.

　　对于“天然”食品，没有官方定义，至少在美国没有；因此全食公司在其许多产品上贴上此类标签，近乎毫无意义。加州大学河畔分校的植物学家Alan McHughen认为，整个行业就是99%的市场营销和公众看法，这些把人们卷入一个被捏造的观念中：这个时代，食物和日常生活就是简单与健康。

　　If true, the trick has worked nicely for Whole Foods. But its success has attracted so many imitators that it is losing its uniqueness. Even recent speculation¹⁹ about a takeover bid has failed to lift its shares. It may insist its food is sustainable. But it seems its prices are not.

　　如果真是如此，这招对全食公司很有帮助。但它的成功吸引来如此多的效仿者以至于它正失去其独特性。甚至最近，一个关于收购全食公司的炒作也未能提振其股价。它也许坚持认为其食品是可持续发展的。但似乎其食品的售价并非如此。

分享到：