美国有线新闻 CNN 美国实体零售商在2019假日购物季的表现差强人意

Business news. Some American retail¹ companies are just now reporting what their sales were like for the 2019 holiday shopping season and at least for brick and mortar² retailers³ — companies with physical stores, it wasn't great.

来看商业新闻。一些美国零售企业刚刚公布了2019年假日购物季的销售情况，至少对实体零售商，即拥有实体店的企业来说，情况不太好。

Wal-Mart is the biggest retail company in America. It says in the few weeks before Christmas there was quote "softness" in sales of toys, video games and clothing. It did see growth at its stores and websites that had been open for at least a year but the increase wasn't as big as investors⁴ expected.

沃尔玛是美国最大的零售企业。该公司表示，圣诞节前几周，玩具、电子游戏和服装的销售出现“疲软”。开业至少一年的门店和网站的业绩确实有所增长，但增幅并未达到投资者的预期。

Part of the reason for this, Thanksgiving fell later in November than usual. There were six fewer days between that holiday and Christmas. That gave Americans less time to spend money and Wal-Mart's not alone. Target, Kohls, Bed Bath & Beyond, they all struggled last season. We told you yesterday how Macy's plans to close 125 stores in the three years ahead. There were exceptions though. Costco did well. TJMax had good sales and Amazon what one business writer described as a blow-out holiday stretch.

部分原因在于，11月的感恩节比往常要晚。从感恩节到圣诞节的天数少了六天。这使美国人花钱的时间减少，沃尔玛的情况并不是个例。塔吉特、科尔斯、Bed Bath & Beyond等公司在上个购物季都经历了困难。昨天，我们报道了梅西百货决定在未来三年关闭125家门店的计划。不过也有例外。开市客的表现就不错。TJMax的销售业绩也很好，而亚马逊则被一名商业作家描述为爆裂式的假日延伸。

Despite it's disappointing Christmas sales, Wal-Mart said its largest business, groceries is doing well and the company expects a strong year ahead. It's been able to survive and thrive in the age of Amazon and it's made a number of changes to do it. Online grocery pick-up and delivery is part of that. There are also changes taking place in Wal-Mart stores themselves but it's hard to say what the overall impact of robots will be.

尽管圣诞节的销售额令人失望，但沃尔玛表示，其最大的业务食品杂货的表现不错，该公司预计未来一年将表现强劲。沃尔玛有能力在亚马逊时代存活并发展壮大，并为此做了很多改变。比如提供线上食品杂货的提货和送货服务。沃尔玛的实体门店也发生了一些变化，但现在很难确定机器人会带来怎样的整体影响。

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 mortar   

n.灰浆，灰泥；迫击炮；v.把…用灰浆涂接合

参考例句：

• The mason flushed the joint with mortar.泥工用灰浆把接缝处嵌平。
• The sound of mortar fire seemed to be closing in.迫击炮的吼声似乎正在逼近。

3 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。

4 investors   

n.投资者，出资者( investor的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• a con man who bilked investors out of millions of dollars 诈取投资者几百万元的骗子
• a cash bonanza for investors 投资者的赚钱机会