考研英語閱讀:家樂福,十字路口

Exit Carrefour

家樂福，十字路口

Carrefour’s presence in Thailand is similarly modest.

家樂福在泰國的表現(xiàn)并不算出色

Whereas Britain’s Tesco has become the country ’s biggest grocery chain, Carrefour lies in a distant fourth place.

在英國的特易購成為泰國最大的連鎖店的同時(shí)，家樂福的排名卻只有第四。

Across the border in Malaysia it trails well behind Tesco and two other foreign retailers.

在馬來西亞全境，家樂福都要遠(yuǎn)遠(yuǎn)落后于特易購和其他兩家外國零售商。

And so, with a Gallic shrug, Carrefour is closing up shop in much of South-East Asia. Its 44 stores in Thailand, 23 in Malaysia and two in Singapore are for sale.

對于這種現(xiàn)狀，家樂福擺出一副“責(zé)不在我，我也沒轍”的姿態(tài)，陸續(xù)關(guān)閉東南亞大部分的門店。它準(zhǔn)備出售44 家泰國店，23 家馬來西亞店以及2家新加坡店。

Potential buyers are said to include Tesco and Casino, a French firm that already has a Thai joint venture, Big C. Analysts reckon that Carrefour’s stores could fetch up to $1 billion.

據(jù)說潛在買家有特易購和卡西諾，后者是一家擁有泰國合資企業(yè)Big C 的法國公司。分析師估算，家樂福的競購價(jià)可以達(dá)到10億美元。

Carrefour was one of the first foreign grocers to open shops in South-East Asia in the 1990s. But the later-arriving Tesco proved cannier in figuring out what consumers wanted.

家樂福是上世紀(jì)90 年代最早在東南亞開設(shè)分店的外國零售商之一，但是后來者特易購似乎更了解客戶的需求。

When the firm found out that Thai shoppers traveled for miles by bus to its “big-box” stores, it opened smaller stores in rural towns.

當(dāng)特易購發(fā)現(xiàn)泰國消費(fèi)者需要乘坐幾英里的公交車才能到它的大型賣場后，就開始在鄉(xiāng)間小鎮(zhèn)里開設(shè)小型門店。

Carrefour focused on Bangkok’s higher spenders and stuck to its hypermarket format.

而家樂福則定位于曼谷的高端消費(fèi)群體，堅(jiān)持“大型賣場”路線。

Toby Desforges, founder of Engage, a marketing consultancy, calls this the “take it or leave pressure from activist shareholders to reverse the firm’s global expansion and focus on Europe.

市場分析機(jī)構(gòu)Engage 的創(chuàng)始人之一將家樂福的這種做法釋為“要么接受，要么摒棄”。最終，泰國消費(fèi)者選擇了將它摒棄。家樂福的股東們一直在給首席執(zhí)行官羅盛施加壓力，要求他停止家樂福在全球的擴(kuò)張計(jì)劃，而專注于歐洲市場。

Mr. Olofsson has said he prefers to leave markets where Carrefour is not one of the top two retailers or has little hope of becoming one.

羅盛說，家樂福在有些地區(qū)不是市場的領(lǐng)頭羊，也沒希望成為領(lǐng)頭羊，他傾向于放棄這些市場。

For all that, Carrefour’s retreat from South-East Asia may be ill-timed. Compared with Europe, the region ’s economy is buoyant.

不管怎么樣，家樂福選擇從東南亞退出的時(shí)機(jī)不對。和歐洲比，這里的經(jīng)濟(jì)生機(jī)蓬勃。

Thailand’s modern retail sector is growing rapidly despite the country’s political turmoil. The same is true of Malaysia.

雖然歷經(jīng)政治動(dòng)蕩，泰國的現(xiàn)代零售業(yè)仍在快速發(fā)展。馬來西亞也是如此。

As incomes rise, more shoppers will opt to drive to large, air-conditioned stores. Some might even develop a taste for French cheese.

當(dāng)收入增加時(shí)，更多購物者愿意驅(qū)車前往寬敞大氣、空調(diào)開放的超市。有些人甚至還會(huì)迷上法國奶酪呢。

 

 

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