GRE阅读练习：英国混杂购物取代传统购物

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As supermarkets flounder, small food and drink retailers are booming

大型超市困境中挣扎之际，正是小型饮食零售店繁荣之时

Chi-chi cheese

琦琦奶酪

INVESTORS in Tesco, Britain's largest supermarket chain, could be forgiven for weeping into their Christmas pud this month. On December 9th the retailer issued its fourth profit warning in five months, cutting its full-year trading forecast by almost a third. Shares plunged (again), topping off a dreadful year for the former darling of the City. Tesco's only solace is that it is only doing marginally worse now than its direct competitors, such as Sainsbury's and Morrison's.

英国最 大的连锁超市特易购投资商若在圣诞节掩面痛哭，也是情有可原。易购零售商于12月9号发布了5个月以来的第4次盈利警告，其预测的全年交易额减少了近三分之一。该公司股票(再次)猛跌，结束了这个昔日城市宠儿不如意的一年。唯 一的慰藉就是它现在只是比直接竞争对手(桑斯博里与莫里森公司)稍微差了点儿。

There is no need for solace at the Keelham Farm Shop, on the outskirts of Bradford, however. Here it is mulled wine and treats all round, as Victoria Robertshaw, the co-owner, celebrates another fine year and big plans for the future. Founded in the early 1970s, Keelham was one of the country's first modern farm shops, selling meat, vegetables and much else, but only from the family farm or from other local producers. Its growth has been spectacular.

而位于布拉德福德郊区的凯勒姆农家店根本不需要安慰。这里到处是热红酒和美食，店主维多利亚·罗伯肖庆祝又一年的好时光与未来的宏伟计划。凯勒姆建于20世纪70年代初期，是全国首批出现的一家现代农家店，主要经营肉类、蔬菜以及其他诸多产品，但只从个体农场或其他当地生产商进货。生意红火，发展迅速。

In 2006, Keelham had a turnover of ￡2m, already large for a farm shop. Today that figure is over ￡11m, and achieved in one of the less prosperous parts of the country. Such is the demand that Ms Robertshaw is investing ￡4m next year in opening a much larger Keelham's in Skipton, a nearby town. Her new outlet will also boast a cooking school and a café. Much of what it will sell, such as sausages, will be made on site.

2006年，凯勒姆营业额为200万欧元，这对于农家店而言已经算是超额。如今的营业额超过1100万欧元，并且是在全国发展水平一般的地区做到的。这是大势所趋，罗伯肖女士将于明年投资400万欧元，在临边的斯基普顿镇开一家更大规模的分店”。毫不夸张地说，新开的专卖店也会促进烹饪学校和咖啡馆的成立。像火腿肠之类的产品，很多会在网上销售。

The expansion of Keelham's reflects the robust health of the country's boutique food-and-drink business. There are about 4,000 such businesses today, and more are opening all the time. The National Farmers' Retail and Markets Association, which represents about 300 farm shops, says that many members have reported a 5-10% increase in turnover this year.

凯勒姆不断发展壮大，反映了国家小型餐饮业的生机与活力。现在这样的店约有4000家，而且与日俱增。约有300个农家店入会的国家农民零售与市场协会表示，很多成员今年的营业额增长了5%到10%。

Some analysts expected the burgeoning sector of small food-and-drink companies to be decimated by the financial crash of 2008. Surely tasty treats from the local deli would be the first casualties as household budgets were slashed. In fact, the reverse has happened. The sector has not only survived, but prospered, partly due to the change in shopping habits provoked by that same recession.

一些分析家曾预测，小型餐饮业这一新兴行业会在2008年金融危机中受到重创。毋庸置疑，随着家庭预算开支的大幅度减少，地方熟食店的美食会第 一个受到冲击。而事实正好相反。该行业不仅存活了下来，而且是一片欣欣向荣，这还是归功于经济的不景气，是它改变了人们的购物习惯。

After 2008 many consumers started shopping at cheaper supermarkets, such as Aldi and Lidl. Customers also started buying in bulk online. However, in contrast to previous downturns, says Hugh Padfield, a director of the Bath Soft Cheese Company, this time people continue to buy basic products at the cheapest price, and spend the money they save on products that are better quality, like his own renowned Bath Blue cheese.

2008年之后，很多消费者开始在卖便宜商品的超市购物，比如德国阿尔迪和利德尔。顾客也开始在网上大量购物。然而，巴斯软奶酪公司董事休·帕德菲尔德表示，与之前经济下滑相比，这次人们还是买最便宜的必需品，然后把省下来的钱用来买质量好一点的东西，比如他公司人人皆知的巴斯蓝奶酪。

This sort of “promiscuous shopping”, as the analysts call it, is replacing the traditional once-a-week trip to an out-of-town Tesco or Sainsbury's. Those retailers are therefore being squeezed by Aldi and Lidl undercutting them and the farm shops taking business away at the top end, albeit still on a modest scale. Small producers like Mr. Padfield are doing very nicely; he has tripled his turnover in just five years, to ￡750,000, and will struggle to meet all his orders for Christmas. Ms Robertshaw says her prices are not more expensive than those of the supermarkets, putting her produce within range of most shoppers.

分析师将这种购物方式称为“混杂购物”，它开始逐渐取代传统的购物方式—每周去城外的易购或者桑斯博里购物一次。阿尔迪和利德尔廉价经营，农家店良性竞争，但还是抢走了高收入人群，但易购或桑斯博里的零售商因此受到了排挤。像帕德菲尔德先生这样的小生产商，生意很好;仅在5年内，营业额就翻了两番，达到75万欧元，而且还会在圣诞节完成所有订单。罗伯肖女士表示，自己商品的价格并不比超市的贵多少，大多数顾客都买得起。

Another essential ingredient in the success of the small producers is the increasing demand for locally sourced food. After various scandals in Britain's food production, from “mad-cow disease” to the discovery of horse meat in some products, consumers are much more concerned to know where their food comes from, and how it was produced.

小型生产商成功的另一个基本因素是来源于本地的食物需求不断增大。英国食物生产上演了各种各样的丑闻，从“疯牛病”到某些产品中发现马肉，消费者越来越关注对食物来源、食物加工的知情度。

Farm shops and delis thus stress the local content of their food in a way that supermarkets, with their central distributions systems, usually cannot. “Provenance is really important now,” says Asad Khan, who has recently set up a luxury ice-cream business in London, called Snowflake. The fact that his gelati are all made of the best quality British milk and are prepared in the store is a large part of Snowflake's appeal. Mr Khan has seen his turnover more than double in two years of business. He even sells pricey tubs of ice-cream that customers would previously have bought only from a supermarket.

鉴于此，农家店和熟食店特别注重食物的本地性，而超市在城市中心分配系统下通常难以做到这一点。阿萨德?卡恩说：“原产地现在真的很重要。”他最近在伦敦开了一家豪华冰激凌店，名字叫雪花。雪花的魅力在于：意大利胶凝冰糕都是用英国的上乘牛奶制作，而且是店内现做。卡恩先生开店两年，营业额已经翻了两倍多。他甚至还卖高价格的桶装冰激凌，在这之前，顾客只能在超市买得到。

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