美国国家公共电台 NPR What Americans Told Us About Online Shopping Says A Lot About Amazon

 

STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:

A new survey indicates just how much Amazon, the giant online retailer², has reshaped America, this nation of shoppers. Here's NPR's Alina Selyukh.

ALINA SELYUKH, BYLINE³: OK. Here's a big number - 92 percent. The new NPR/Marist poll found that, in America, of all the people who have ever bought anything on the internet, almost all of them - 92 percent - have bought something on Amazon. And here's a question that's been bugging⁴ me as a radio reporter - what does that sound like? What's the sound of Amazon's insane popularity?

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SELYUKH: One unexpected answer was in the lobby of my own apartment building, construction of a new package room specifically to tame the piles of brown cardboard boxes spilling out of the lobby closet - the sound of America physically⁵ adjusting itself to Amazon's success. But of course, the more obvious showcase of Amazon's popularity is this.

How much do you shop on Amazon specifically?

MELANIE HINCHEY: Gosh, it's definitely over, like, $100 a month, probably over 200 a month.

SELYUKH: Melanie Hinchey is a mother of two who works in tech in Milwaukee. And she is one of a hundred million people in the world who pay for the Amazon Prime membership. In the U.S., that involves shelling out $119 a year. If you add in all the extra moochers who use other people's accounts, our poll found that, in America, nearly two-thirds of all online shoppers are living inside the Amazon retail¹ universe. A quarter of Prime users buy something every week.

HINCHEY: I buy things like soy milk and body wash, things that are shelf stable that I know I'm going to use every week via Prime. And they just come once a month. I don't even have to think about buying those things.

SELYUKH: This kind of stocking up on the basics online - like toothpaste, garbage bags, cereal, canned foods - it's a powerful shift in behavior that we're just starting to see. According to our survey, most Americans have never done this. They've never bought basic household or nonperishable goods online. But the people who do, like Hinchey, tend to rely on Amazon. Convenience is habit-forming, and it's something founder⁶ and CEO Jeff Bezos knew early on. Here's what he told NPR in 1999.

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JEFF BEZOS: Our No. 1 mission is to be Earth's most customer-centric company. And we mean that across any industry and across any time.

SELYUKH: This obsession⁷ with customers has catapulted Amazon into a company worth $800 billion today. It's made Bezos the richest man in the world. Amazon now employs more than half a million workers. And we should note - the company is one of NPR's underwriters.

Amazon is now making movies and TV shows, storing government data on the cloud, selling internet-connected door locks, making the popular Alexa smart speaker. When a company gets to be this far-reaching, critics emerge from all directions. And for Amazon, the most prominent one is President Trump⁸. Bezos was asked about this by the head of a media company called Axel Springer in April. The question was, what if Trump decided⁹ that Amazon was too big and should be broken up? Here's Bezos.

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BEZOS: For me - again, this is one of those things where I focus on what we can control. And I expect, whether it's, you know, the current U.S. administration or any other government agency anywhere in the world, Amazon is now a large corporation. And I expect us to be scrutinized¹⁰.

SELYUKH: But what the scrutiny¹¹ entails¹² is unclear. Legal scholar Lina Khan has been studying the power and impact of Amazon. She says that the government and the courts apply the laws in a way that makes it difficult to check Amazon's dominance.

LINA KHAN: Antitrust laws have become very focused on consumer welfare.

SELYUKH: She's saying the laws focus on making sure that consumers have enough choices or don't get overcharged, for example. But with Amazon, Khan argues the issue is not the short-term interest of shoppers but the impact on the suppliers and the retailers¹³ and the competitors in all the areas where Amazon looms¹⁴ large. Many of them now depend on Amazon to reach their own customers.

KHAN: And it shows how if you are amassing¹⁵ market power, antitrusts won't necessarily respond to that anymore unless it's obvious that you're also hurting consumers in some way.

SELYUKH: Khan has her own critics. But that's the thing about Amazon. It reaches far and wide, but customers trust it - a lot. In our survey, a majority of online shoppers said they don't have confidence in most online retailers when it comes to protecting their privacy, but 2 out of 3 said they do trust Amazon. And that's a big reason why Americans are OK with Amazon's reign¹⁶ as the top online retailer and brown boxes keep piling up in my building and on doorsteps across the country.

Alina Selyukh, NPR News.

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1 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。

2 retailer   

n.零售商(人)

参考例句：

• What are the retailer requirements?零售商会有哪些要求呢？
• The retailer has assembled a team in Shanghai to examine the question.这家零售商在上海组建了一支团队研究这个问题。

3 byline   

n.署名；v.署名

参考例句：

• His byline was absent as well.他的署名也不见了。
• We wish to thank the author of this article which carries no byline.我们要感谢这篇文章的那位没有署名的作者。

4 bugging   

[法] 窃听

参考例句：

• Okay, then let's get the show on the road and I'll stop bugging you. 好，那么让我们开始动起来，我将不再惹你生气。 来自辞典例句
• Go fly a kite and stop bugging me. 走开，别烦我。 来自英汉 - 翻译样例 - 口语

5 physically   

adj.物质上，体格上，身体上，按自然规律

参考例句：

• He was out of sorts physically,as well as disordered mentally.他浑身不舒服，心绪也很乱。
• Every time I think about it I feel physically sick.一想起那件事我就感到极恶心。

6 Founder   

n.创始者，缔造者

参考例句：

• He was extolled as the founder of their Florentine school.他被称颂为佛罗伦萨画派的鼻祖。
• According to the old tradition,Romulus was the founder of Rome.按照古老的传说，罗穆卢斯是古罗马的建国者。

7 obsession   

n.困扰，无法摆脱的思想(或情感)

参考例句：

• I was suffering from obsession that my career would be ended.那时的我陷入了我的事业有可能就此终止的困扰当中。
• She would try to forget her obsession with Christopher.她会努力忘记对克里斯托弗的迷恋。

8 trump   

n.王牌，法宝；v.打出王牌，吹喇叭

参考例句：

• He was never able to trump up the courage to have a showdown.他始终鼓不起勇气摊牌。
• The coach saved his star player for a trump card.教练保留他的明星选手，作为他的王牌。

9 decided   

adj.决定了的，坚决的；明显的，明确的

参考例句：

• This gave them a decided advantage over their opponents.这使他们比对手具有明显的优势。
• There is a decided difference between British and Chinese way of greeting.英国人和中国人打招呼的方式有很明显的区别。

10 scrutinized   

v.仔细检查，详审( scrutinize的过去式和过去分词 )

参考例句：

• The jeweler scrutinized the diamond for flaws. 宝石商人仔细察看钻石有无瑕庇 来自《现代英汉综合大词典》
• Together we scrutinized the twelve lemon cakes from the delicatessen shop. 我们一起把甜食店里买来的十二块柠檬蛋糕细细打量了一番。 来自英汉文学 - 盖茨比

11 scrutiny   

n.详细检查，仔细观察

参考例句：

• His work looks all right,but it will not bear scrutiny.他的工作似乎很好，但是经不起仔细检查。
• Few wives in their forties can weather such a scrutiny.很少年过四十的妻子经得起这么仔细的观察。

12 entails   

使…成为必要( entail的第三人称单数 )； 需要； 限定继承； 使必需

参考例句：

• The job entails a lot of hard work. 这工作需要十分艰苦的努力。
• This job entails a lot of hard work. 这项工作需要十分努力。

13 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。

14 looms   

n.织布机( loom的名词复数 )v.隐约出现，阴森地逼近( loom的第三人称单数 )；隐约出现，阴森地逼近

参考例句：

• All were busily engaged,men at their ploughs,women at their looms. 大家都很忙，男的耕田，女的织布。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• The factory has twenty-five looms. 那家工厂有25台织布机。 来自《简明英汉词典》

15 amassing   

v.积累，积聚( amass的现在分词 )

参考例句：

• The study of taxonomy must necessarily involve the amassing of an encyclopaedic knowledge of plants. 分类学研究一定要积累广博的植物知识。 来自辞典例句
• Build your trophy room while amassing awards and accolades. 建立您的奖杯积累奖项和荣誉。 来自互联网

16 reign   

n.统治时期，统治，支配，盛行；v.占优势

参考例句：

• The reign of Queen Elizabeth lapped over into the seventeenth century.伊丽莎白王朝延至17世纪。
• The reign of Zhu Yuanzhang lasted about 31 years.朱元璋统治了大约三十一年。