【华尔街日报111012】沃尔玛的中国困惑

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【中文标题】沃尔玛的中国困惑 战略失误困扰零售商

【原文标题】Wal-Mart's Chinese Puzzle： Arrests Are New Hurdle for Retailer Beset by Strategic Missteps; Which Mushrooms?

【登载媒体】华尔街日报网络版

【来源地址】http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970203633104576624250559835360.html#articleTabs%3Darticle

【译    者】我思我走

【翻译方式】人工

【声    明】欢迎转载，请务必注明译者和出处 bbs.m4.cn。
【译    文】
Authorities in southwestern China detained Wal-Mart Stores Inc. employees in a probe of alleged fraud, highlighting legal --and political—obstacles the retailer faces as it struggles to make money in the world's most populous country.
Officials in Chongqing said Tuesday they are holding an undisclosed number of workers and have closed 13 of Wal-Mart's stores, pending an investigation of whether the company sold ordinary pork as a more expensive organic variety.
中国西南部的监管者以所谓的欺诈为由扣押了沃尔玛超市的员工，这是零售商人口最稠密的国家中国挣钱，所面临的突出的法律和政治问题。
重庆的官员在周三声称他们抓了一批员工，但不透露具体人数，并且关闭了13家沃尔玛门店，正在调查该公司是否把普通猪肉当成昂贵的有机猪肉来销售。
China's Crackdown on Wal-Mart 中国打击沃尔玛超市


Authorities Shut Wal-Mart Stores in Southwestern China.The action was just the latest setback in what has been a rough, 15-year push by Wal-Mart into China. The Bentonville, Ark., company is spending billions of dollars to erect an empire in the country and now has nearly 350 stores in 121 Chinese cities.
China experts said the company is being buffeted by political pressures as officials jockey for power ahead of a 2012 leadership transition and when food sales are under a microscope as China grapples with runaway inflation. Pork, a staple of the Chinese diet, has been under particular scrutiny because its price has surged, jumping 52% in August from a year earlier.
管理者关闭了西南地区的中国沃尔玛超市,这是沃尔玛艰苦打入中国市场的十五年慢慢长路的最新挫折。这家阿肯色州的本尔维顿公司花费数十亿美元在中国打造一个商业帝国，现在已经在121个城市开了350家分店。
中国专家说沃尔玛公司的遭遇是中国官员在2012年政治换届之前的权力角逐的一招棋，把食品问题放到显微镜下以转移打击通货膨胀不力的视线。猪肉，是中国餐桌上的主要食品，它之所被特别关注，因为其价格从去年八月一路飙升了52%。
Political analysts said Chongqing officials are showing off their political muscle in attempt to gain higher standing in a once-a-decade-leadership transition next year. The region's top Communist party chief, Bo Xilai, is poised for a promotion to the Politburo Standing Committee, China's highest decision-making body. Crackdowns on corruption and food safety, experts said, are likely to bolster Mr. Bo's image as a consumer watchdog.
政治分析家认为重庆官员在展示自己的政治肌肉，试图在中国十年一次的最高领导人换届中站到更高的位置。这一地区的最高党委书记薄熙来，对进入中国政治局常委会——中国最高决策机构而泰然自若。严厉打击腐败和紧抓食品安全，都是帮助薄熙来塑造一个坚定的消费者权益保护者形象。Wal-Mart said it acknowledged the pork labeling problem last month and offered compensation to consumers who believed they had been wronged. The company and Chinese officials declined to say how many people were under detention, a process that is commonly used in China for criminal investigations and legal proceedings against local companies. Wal-Mart declined to detail the employees' positions.
沃尔玛声称他们在上个月发现猪肉标签问题后，马上向认为自己受骗的消费者支付了赔偿金。沃尔玛公司和中国官员都拒绝说出究竟有多少人因此事被拘留，即通常用于对中国的本地公司进行刑事调查和法律诉讼的过程。沃尔玛拒绝透露被铺员工的职务详情。
With $7.5 billion in revenue in China last year, Wal-Mart is now the second-largest big-box retailer in the country, after the French-Taiwanese partnership Sun Art Retail Group Ltd.
But the U.S. company is running into problems, in part because its low-price business model isn't catching on with Chinese consumers. Wal-Mart recently reported a quarterly loss for China, which it didn't quantify, and said customer visits declined 8% from a year earlier.
去年沃尔玛以75亿美元的销售额排在中国大型零售商的第二位，紧随法国台湾合资的孙艺零售集团有限公司的后面。
但是这家美国公司陷入麻烦之中，部分原因是由于其低价商业模式不能抓住中国消费者的心。沃尔玛最近的报告显示，其遭受难以精确计量的约四分之一的损失，客流量相比一年前下降了8%。
The company also is contending with the unionization of its Chinese work force by groups closely tied to the government. In addition, Wal-Mart faces regulatory obstacles to opening stores in areas where foreign businesses are relatively new and nationalist sentiments are strong, as in Chongqing.
这家公司同样需要和与中国政府关系紧密的工会组织斗智斗勇。另外，沃尔玛想在外国资本新进地区和国家主义者感情泛滥地区，如重庆开分店，就会面临制度性障碍。
"There's no doubt that Chongqing's actions against Wal-Mart are very calculated and symbolize that upcoming leaders will not fear action against even the world's largest companies," said Cheng Li, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution, a Washington think tank.
“毫无疑问，重庆反对沃尔玛的动作是经过认真算计和赋予特殊涵义，它表明即将上任的领导层不会害怕与世界最大的公司为敌”。华盛顿的智库布鲁克林研究所自身研究员陈立如是说。
Wal-Mart said it takes the long view, citing plans to open stores in fast-growing, midsize cites. By 2025, when demographers predict more than 200 such Chinese cities will have populations exceeding one million, Wal-Mart said it will generate higher sales on lower costs.
沃尔玛说这需要长期的战略眼光，提出在快速增长的中等城市增开新店。到2025年，人口学家预计，超过200个中国城市人口将超过一百万，沃尔玛将通过低成本赚取高利润。
"We open stores with the idea of what customers will look like in 30 years' time," said Scott Price, the head of Wal-Mart's Asia operation.
“我们将根据顾客在30年内可能的想法来制订我们增开新店的策略。”斯科特·普林思，沃尔玛亚洲区总裁表示。
Hopes for growth in the U.S., where same-store sales have been declining for more than two years, are dim. As such Wal-Mart will rely on foreign markets, which drove a fourth of its $419 billion in revenue last year. Gaining ground in China, which now represents less than 2% of Wal-Mart's total sales, is critical.
Wal-Mart has prospered in other countries by buying big national retailers and expanding under their familiar names—75% of its stores outside the U.S. don't bear the company's brand. In China, there was no leading retailer for Wal-Mart to buy, so its only option was a one-new-store-at-a-time slog.
寄希望于美国市场的增长的愿望，已经被同规模的超市销售额超过两年的持续下降而打碎了。因此，沃尔玛将其业务增长的希望放在海外市场，去年带动了4190亿美元的收入排在第四位。而沃尔玛在中国的营业额只占其总营业额的2%，这是极其荒谬的。
沃尔玛在其他国家取得良好业绩是依靠收购大型的全国连锁的零售商或者通过类似名字来来快速扩张，在美国市场以外的75%家商店，没有采用公司的名称。在中国，并没有已经成为市场老大的零售商等着沃尔玛去收购，所以，它唯一的选择就是按部就班一家分店一家分店开张，艰苦地跋涉。
Wal-Mart, which named new chief financial, operating and marketing officers in China this summer after forcing out several other executives, has acknowledged making strategic mistakes. It failed to realize early on that Chinese consumers aren't monolithic, eating different mushrooms by region, for example, and requiring highly localized assortments.
"It's no surprise that we came in the beginning with an Americanized concept," said Wal-Mart China Chief Executive Ed Chan. Now, "We tailor to the city, to the culture, and we learn from our competition."
沃尔玛中国，在今年夏天辞退几个战略失误的高官后，任命了一批新的财务总监、管理和市场总监。他们并没有认识到中国消费者不是铁板一块，而是每一地区有每个地区的生活习惯，他们需要高度本地化。
“在一开始执行一个美国化的概念并不奇怪，现在我们要深入城市、深入其中的文化，并向我们的对手学习。”沃尔玛中国的首席执行官陈耀昌如是说。
Wal-Mart was also slow to see the potential of its Sam's Club members-only stores as a tool to reach upwardly mobile Chinese, the most lucrative slice of the market. The company only had three of the stores in China before starting an expansion this year.
"If we had it to do over again I think we would have gone faster" with Sam's Club, Wal-Mart international head Doug McMillon said at a conference in China this spring.
沃尔玛将山姆会员店视为争取中国最有利润的细分市场，向上流动的手段，但却很难看到这一模式发挥了作用。公司在今年采取扩张之前，在中国只开了三家这样的商店。
“如果我们重新开展一遍业务，我想我们在山姆会员店业务会更有进展”，沃尔玛国际业务总裁董明伦在今春的中国公司会议上如是说。
And Wal-Mart misjudged the complexity of the sole big-store acquisition it made, the roughly $1 billion purchase of Trust Mart, a Taiwanese chain that operated more than 100 big-box stores in mainland China but which Wal-Mart has struggled to incorporate. Executives cited declines at the Trust Mart stores as the reason customer visits have dropped in China.
而且，沃尔玛误判了其唯一一例收购大型零售商店的复杂性。它花了10亿美元收购好又多，一家在中国大陆开了100家 超市的台湾连锁企业，沃尔玛试图与其合资。高官认为沃尔玛客流量的下降罪魁祸首是好又多超市的客流量下降。
Some Chinese consumers have another explanation.
"I don't have time to compare prices," says Huang Yanjuan, a 38-year-old middle-school teacher in Beijing, explaining why she favors RT Mart stores, a big-box competitor that is outselling Wal-Mart despite having fewer stores.
一些中国消费者有不同的解释。
“我并没有那么多时间去比较价格”，黄燕娟，北京的一位38岁的中学教师这样解释她为什么喜欢大润发超市。尽管大润发超市分店数量少，但其销售额超过沃尔玛，是沃尔玛的头号竞争者。
Some critics questioned whether Wal-Mart can achieve the economies of scale it needs to get good deals from suppliers and execute its discount model.
"If Wal-Mart just plays the low-price card in China, they lose," said Gary Gereffi, director of Duke University's Center on Globalization, Governance & Competitiveness.
一些评论家怀疑供应链管理和低成本战略是否能让沃尔玛达成获取足够市场份额的经济规模。
“如果沃尔玛只会采用低价策略，他们会失败。”杜克大学全球化治理与竞争中心的主任盖瑞?吉瑞夫这样分析到。

倾杯乐

沃尔玛挺好滴，我喜欢去

三水君

中国西南部的监管者以所谓的欺诈为由扣押了沃尔玛超市的员工

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啧啧，这个字眼用的好，对该媒体有赏！