美国国家公共电台 NPR 美国黑色星期五购物创下新纪录（在线收听）

The day after Thanksgiving usually means leftovers and Black Friday deals - if you can get your hands on either of them.

感恩节后的第二天通常意味着残羹剩饭和黑色星期五交易-如果你过任何一个节日的话。

This year retailers face shortages of both supplies and workers.

今年，零售商面临着供应和工人短缺的问题。

Yet Americans are buying more than ever, and holiday shopping is expected to set a new record.

然而，美国人的购买量比以往任何时候都要多，假日购物有望创下新的纪录。

I've heard that's an annual tradition of asking you, is the Black Friday rush still a thing?

听说每年都会问你，黑色星期五狂欢还是很流行吗？

So is the Black Friday rush still a thing?

黑色星期五狂欢还在流行吗？

Uh-huh, yes. Oh, love that tradition, and I'm here for it.

嗯，是的。哦，我喜欢这个传统，我就是为它而来的。

And the answer to that is, depends on what you mean by that because traditionally it's meant, you know, people lining up in - I don't know - tents outside of Best Buy at dawn.

答案是，这取决于你的意思，因为传统上，你知道，这意味着人们在黎明时分在百思买外的帐篷里排队。

That's not happening that much. And it hasn't been for many years, not just because of the pandemic.

这种情况并不多见。而且已经很多年没有这样过了，不仅仅是因为疫情。

People shopping like crazy on Black Friday, that's definitely still a thing.

人们在黑色星期五疯狂购物，人们绝对还会这样做。

The National Retail Federation says Black Friday is still the day when the most number of people shop, even more than on Cyber Monday, setting aside sort of the amounts that are spent.

全国零售联合会表示，黑色星期五仍然是购物人数最多的一天，甚至比网络星期一还要多，这一天人们留出一些花费的金额。

But let's be real. This year, Black Friday sales have been going on for months.

但让我们现实一点吧。今年，黑色星期五的促销活动已经持续了几个月。

I talked to Katerina Grant from Maryland who says she bought her gifts on summer sales - Legos for her 7-year-old son and Barbie toys for her 4-year-old daughter.

我采访了马里兰州的卡特琳娜·格兰特，她说她的礼物是在夏季打折时买的--给7岁的儿子买乐高积木，给4岁的女儿买芭比玩具。

We bought the huge Barbie DreamHouse.

我们买下了巨大的芭比梦幻屋。

The price is more expensive now than when I got it at Costco randomly in, I think, maybe August.

我想，现在的价格比我8月份在好市多随便买到的时候要贵得多。

So I don't know. The price is more expensive or the same by, like, 20 bucks.

所以我不知道。价格要贵一些，或者价格相同，大概20美元。

So she has no regrets. And overall, this year's holiday discounts actually indeed are not expected to be as good as maybe what we've seen in years past.

所以她并不后悔。总体而言，今年的假期折扣实际上预计不会像我们过去几年看到的那样好。

They are still there. Adobe tracks online spending and says so far it's been roughly 20% off toys, 15% off clothes, 13% off computers.

他们仍然在降价。Adobe追踪在线消费情况，并表示到目前为止，玩具降价约为20%，衣服降价15%，电脑降价13%。

But you mentioned the shipping mess, the hiring issues.

不过你提到了运输困境，招聘问题。

Both of those are costing retailers a pretty penny - in the billions of dollars.

这两件事都让零售商损失了一大笔钱-数十亿美元。

So this year, they're not being super generous with, you know, blowout sales.

所以今年，他们并不是特别慷慨，你知道，井喷式的销售。

I got to admit. I'll be checking out some sneaker sales as soon as this show's over.

我得承认。这场节目一结束，我就去看看运动鞋的销售情况。

Why not? Might as well see if there's a deal there somewhere. Now...

为什么不呢? 还是去看看有没有什么交易吧。 现在…

...Inflation is the highest level since 1990.

...通货膨胀达到了1990年以来的最高水平。

So why aren't higher prices deterring holiday shoppers?

那么，为什么更高的价格没有让假日购物者望而却步呢？

This is a peculiar thing.

这是一件很奇怪的事情。

In surveys, people say they are really worried about inflation.

在调查中，人们表示他们真的很担心通货膨胀。

So-called consumer sentiment is actually at a decade low.

所谓的消费者信心实际上处于十年来的最低点。

But then people also keep buying stuff.

但是，人们仍在不停地买东西。

Spending and sentiment normally go in sync, sort of how we feel and what we do - but not this year.

消费和情绪通常是同步的，就像某种我们的感受和我们所做的事情一样-但今年不是这样。

Adobe says on Thanksgiving Day, just online, shoppers were spending $3.5 million a minute.

Adobe表示，感恩节当天，仅在网上，购物者每分钟就花费了350万美元。

Wow.

哇。

So as far as inflation worries go, maybe people are more worried about the future rather than the now.

因此，就通货膨胀担忧而言，也许人们更担心的是未来，而不是现在。

But also worth pointing out - so far, some of the biggest price jumps have been for food and gas, which are not really the kind of thing that you buy as a holiday gift.

但也值得一提的是，到目前为止，涨价幅度最大的是食品和汽油，而这并不是你真正会买来作为节日礼物的东西。

No, no one wants that in their stocking.

不，没人想在袜子里放这个。

Now, when we talk about record shopping, I mean, are we spending more simply because things are just more expensive?

现在，当我们谈论创纪录的购物时，我的意思是，我们花更多的钱仅仅是因为东西更贵了吗？

No. I mean, it's part of it.

不是的。我是说，这是其中的一部分。

But I believe that it would be a record even adjusted for inflation.

但我相信，即使经通货膨胀调整，这也将是一个创纪录的数字。

It's really hard to overstate just how much shopping people have been doing all year long.

人们一整年都在购物，怎么夸大都不为过。

And that's a key reason why we saw logjams in ports, overwhelmed warehouses, overrun trucks.

这就是为什么我们看到港口拥堵，仓库不堪重负，卡车超载的关键原因。

As early as the spring, we were buying so much that it was like holiday shopping levels of stuff.

早在春天，我们就买了很多东西，就像假日购物一样。

And that's because all that sitting at home last year plus federal aid gave people lots of extra cash.

这是因为去年坐在家里，加上联邦援助，给了人们很多额外的现金。

Here's economist Tim Quinlan from Wells Fargo.

富国银行的经济学家蒂姆·昆兰报道。

Think of the vacations that have been canceled, the weddings that have been put off, the kids that didn't go to camp.

想想那些被取消的假期，推迟的婚礼，没有去露营的孩子。

And that leads to this excess savings that's kind of found its way into mostly goods spending.

这就导致了过剩的储蓄，这些储蓄基本上进入了商品消费。

Goods spending - stuff - and that is how we're looking at holiday gift-buying of $850 billion.

商品消费—东西—这就是我们看到的8500亿美元的节日礼物购买。

That's according to the National Retail Federation.

这是根据全美零售联合会得出的结论。

That could be as much as 10% more than last year, which already was the biggest year of all.

这可能比去年高出10%，而去年已经是所有年份中规模最大的一年。

So at this point, even the Grinch couldn't stop 2021 from becoming a massive, record-breaking shopping year.

因此，在这一点上，即使是格林奇(圣诞怪杰)也无法阻止2021年成为一个巨大的、破纪录的购物年。