2014年经济学人 黑色星期五 漫长的周末

Black Friday

The long weekend

A new, earlier discount frenzy¹ grips Christmas shoppers

THE rhythms of Christmas used to be so simple. Buy presents in December, eat and drink too much, return unwanted gifts, then hunt bargains in the January sales. Such habits may now be altered by the arrival on British shores of Black Friday, an American retail² phenomenon.

Black Friday is the day after Thanksgiving. This year it falls on November 28th. As Thanksgiving day revolves³ around the eating, so Black Friday revolves around the shopping. It has become the biggest day of the year for American retailers⁴ as they discount thousands of products, kick-starting the Christmas shopping season. According to one story the name thus refers to shops doing such booming trade that they go from the red into the black. It might equally be named because of the casualty rate. Shoppers get hurt in the stampede for bargains. Some have even died.

Since they do not celebrate Thanksgiving, Brits had never taken to Black Friday, until last year. Then, some British retailers joined American-owned companies like Amazon to introduce big savings⁵. This year many more have embraced it. Visa Europe predicts that shoppers will spend 6,000 per second on the day. John Lewis, a big London department store, is opening for its longest day ever, from 8am to 10pm.

With such demand, why stop at one day? Most retailers are now stretching it into the following week, at least until Cyber Monday. That's the day after the Black Friday weekend when shoppers are supposed to go crazy online, although John Lewis reckons they won't be able to wait that long. Last year, its mobile traffic in the peak hour 7-8am was fourteen times higher on Black Friday than anything it had seen before.

For retailers, it all gets people into the buying mood for Christmas early. The only worry, argues Joshua Bamfield of the Centre for Retail Research, is that shoppers might be loth to fork out at regular prices when the discounts end.

1 frenzy   

n.疯狂，狂热，极度的激动

参考例句：

• He was able to work the young students up into a frenzy.他能激起青年学生的狂热。
• They were singing in a frenzy of joy.他们欣喜若狂地高声歌唱。

2 retail   

v./n.零售；adv.以零售价格

参考例句：

• In this shop they retail tobacco and sweets.这家铺子零售香烟和糖果。
• These shoes retail at 10 yuan a pair.这些鞋子零卖10元一双。

3 revolves   

v.（使）旋转( revolve的第三人称单数 )；细想

参考例句：

• The earth revolves both round the sun and on its own axis. 地球既公转又自转。 来自《现代汉英综合大词典》
• Thus a wheel revolves on its axle. 于是，轮子在轴上旋转。 来自《简明英汉词典》

4 retailers   

零售商，零售店( retailer的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• High street retailers reported a marked increase in sales before Christmas. 商业街的零售商报告说圣诞节前销售量显著提高。
• Retailers have a statutory duty to provide goods suitable for their purpose. 零售商有为他们提供符合要求的货品的法定义务。

5 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。