Hard Lessons (Thanks, Amazon) Breathe New Life Into Retail Stores
亞馬遜給的教訓 促零售商重獲新生
By Michael Corkery

Malls are being hollowed out. Shops are closing by the thousands. Retailers are going bankrupt.
購物中心愈來愈空蕩，數以千計的商店關門大吉，零售商接連倒閉。

But it may be too early to declare the death of retail. Americans have started shopping more – in stores.
但是要宣告零售業已死，恐怕還嫌太早，美國民眾已開始買得更多－在店裡。

Old-school retailers are experiencing some of their best sales growth in years.
傳統派零售商正經歷多年來少見的業績成長。

The strong revenues start with a roaring economy and an optimistic consumer. Americans, whose wallets are filled with more cash from the tax cuts, have been spending more.
強勁的營收首先由興盛的經濟和樂觀的消費者帶動，因為減稅而皮夾裝滿更多現金的美國民眾，持續花得更多。

The boom also reflects a broad reordering of the $3.5 trillion industry, with fewer retailers capturing more of the gains. Stores that have learned how to match the ease and instant gratification of e-commerce shopping are flourishing, while those that have failed to evolve are in bankruptcy or on the brink.
這波景氣也反映出這個3.5兆美元產業的廣泛重整，較少的零售商控制更多的收入。學會如何與電子商務購物的輕鬆與立即滿足匹敵的商店正欣欣向榮，那些無法與時俱進者則不是破產就是在破產邊緣。

“The retailers that get it recognize that Amazon has forever changed consumer behavior,” said Barbara Kahn, a marketing professor and former director of the retailing center at the Wharton School. “I shouldn’t have to work to shop.”
「那些學到了教訓的零售商體認到，亞馬遜已永久改變消費者的行為。」華頓商學院行銷學教授、零售學中心前主任芭芭拉．卡恩說。「我不應該費力去購物。」

Many successful stores are now a cross between a fast-food drive-through and a hotel concierge.
許多成功的商店現在是速食店得來速和飯店服務台的混合體。

Target’s shoppers can order sunscreen or a Tokidoki Unicorno T-shirt on their phone, pull up to the parking lot and have the items brought to their car.
目標百貨的顧客可以打電話訂購防曬乳和Tokidoki的獨角獸系列T恤，開車到店外停車場，讓店家把商品送到車上。

Nordstrom lets customers in some stores make returns by dropping their items into a box and walking out.
諾斯壯百貨讓某些店面的顧客退貨時只要把商品放在盒子內就可以離開。

Walmart is employing 25,000 “personal shoppers” to select and package groceries for curbside pickup.
沃爾瑪雇用2萬5000名「個人購物員」，挑選及打包日用品，讓顧客在路邊就能取貨。

In recent weeks, all three retailers reported stronger-than-expected sales growth for the quarter. Traffic to Target’s stores and online sites grew at its fastest pace since the company began keeping a record a decade ago.
最近數周，這三家零售商都公布了比預期更強勁的季銷售成長。造訪目標百貨門市及網站的客流量，出現了該公司十年前開始紀錄以來最快速的成長。

Doomsayers have predicted that online shopping, led by Amazon, would one day conquer all of retail. As store closings set a record last year, no class of retailer was spared.
末日論者曾經預測，亞馬遜所引領的網路購物，終有一日將征服整個零售界。去年歇業店鋪之多創下紀錄時，沒有任何零售類別能夠倖免。

But the pace of closings has slowed, as the most unprofitable stores have been culled and the weakest companies have collapsed. At this time in 2017, nearly 5,700 stores had shut across the United States, according to Coresight Research, a retail analysis and advisory firm. So far this year, about 4,480 have closed.
然而歇業速度已經放緩，最不賺錢的店鋪已被淘汰，最弱的公司也都垮了。根據零售分析及顧問公司核心觀點研究的統計，2017年的此際，全美有近5700家店鋪關門，今年迄今約為4480家。

Hiring is up, with an average of roughly 50,000 retail jobs being added each month since February, according to the National Retail Federation.
聘雇人數也增加，據全國零售協會的統計，自今年2月以來，每月平均約有5萬個新增工作機會。

原文參照：
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/09/03/business/retail-walmart-amazon-economy.html

2018-09-23 聯合報．D4．紐約時報賞析 莊蕙嘉

說文解字看新聞 莊蕙嘉

本文介紹美國零售業實體店鋪吸收網購商城經驗，讓銷售起死回生。第四段提到，活躍的經濟（a roaring economy）是帶動零售的原因之一。動詞roar有「吼叫、轟隆作響」之意，roaring為形容詞，則延伸為「活躍、興盛」之意。

第五段「stores ...... are flourishing」，flourishing的用法和roaring相近，意指改善銷售方式的零售業者，業績蒸蒸日上。

倒數第五段的curbside pickup可能對國內讀者而言比較陌生，curb是人行道的路緣石，這個片語指的是顧客在店外路邊停車後不用下車，由業者將商品送到顧客車上的服務，開車族買檳榔也可以算是curbside pickup

48 Years Later, Orson Welles’ Last Film Makes Its Debut
奧森．威爾斯執導遺作 48年後首映
By Brooks Barnes

Orson Welles was on the line. “What are you doing Thursday?” he asked.
奧森．威爾斯在電話上。「你星期四有事嗎？」他問道。

It was 1970, and the “Citizen Kane” director had called Peter Bogdanovich to ask him to appear in his latest film, “The Other Side of the Wind.” Yes, he knew that Bogdanovich was stretched thin. Just drop by the set on Thursday, Welles insisted. The whole movie was only going to take a few weeks to shoot – tops.
那是1970年，這位電影《大國民》的導演致電彼得博格丹諾維奇，邀請他參與他最新電影《風的另一邊》的演出。是的，他知道彼得博格丹諾維奇分身乏術。只要周四順道來一趟拍片現場就好，威爾斯堅持地說。整部電影只花幾周就能完成─頂多。

Forty-eight years later, “The Other Side of the Wind” has finally arrived. It was shown for the first time in North America on Saturday at the Telluride Film Festival, where two new documentaries about the herculean efforts to finish the film were also screened. “It’s sad because Orson’s not here to see it,” Bogdanovich, 79, said from the stage of the Palm Theater here. “Or maybe he is.”
48年後，《風的另一邊》終於上映。它周六（9月1日）在特柳賴德電影節中北美首映，與完成這部電影嘔心瀝血努力過程相關的兩個新紀錄片，也同時放映。79歲的彼得博格丹諾維奇在此間棕櫚劇院舞台上說：「很遺憾，因為奧森本人無法到場觀賞。」「或許他就在這裡。」

Cinema buffs had almost given up on “The Other Side of the Wind,” which Welles left unfinished upon his death in 1985. It is known as one of the most famous movies never released, held up by warring rights holders and never-ending financial troubles, including a failed funding effort by a relative of the shah of Iran.
影迷原本對《風的另一邊》幾乎已經死了心，它是威爾斯1985年辭世前的未竟之作。這部電影是公認的從未上映的最著名電影之一，因為擁有權利的各方擺不平，以及永無止境的財務問錢而停擺，包括伊朗國王一名親戚的投資努力最終付諸流水。

No lesser a force than Frank Marshall, one of the most powerful producers in Hollywood, had been leading the salvage effort. Marshall, 71, made his name by making the impossible possible – shutting down the Las Vegas Strip to shoot “Jason Bourne,” staying calm the time Steven Spielberg asked him to find 10,000 additional snakes for a scene in “Raiders of the Lost Ark,” figuring out how Clint Eastwood could crash a jetliner for “Sully.” If he couldn’t pull the film over the finish line, who could?
法蘭克．馬歇爾是好萊塢最強有力的製片人之一，這個夠力的人物一直帶頭拯救這部電影。71歲的馬歇爾以化不可能為可能著稱，他曾讓拉斯維加斯大道關閉，以利《神鬼認證：傑森包恩》拍攝；史蒂芬史匹柏要他為《法櫃奇兵》一個場景再額外找來1萬條蛇時，他面不改色；他還想方設法，讓克林伊斯威特在《薩利機長：哈德遜奇蹟》中，墜毀一架噴射客機。如果他不能讓這部電影抵達終點線，誰能？

Once the film’s producers finally secured firm funding – Netflix stepped up last year – they had to sort through more than 100 hours of footage (long stored in a Paris warehouse) to craft a film that Welles conceptualized as a type of collage, with some parts in color and others in black and white, and scenes shot in various formats (35 mm, 16 mm, Super 8.)
當這部電影的製片人終於取得穩定資金後，去年Netflix決定加碼投資，這時這些製片人也必須動手梳理上百小時的畫面（長期以來儲存在巴黎倉庫中），將它製作成一部電影，威爾斯已將它概念化成一種拼貼藝術，部分彩色，部分黑白，以及以不同的底片規格（35毫米、16毫米，超級8）拍攝。

“No sone really knew if we had enough material to put together a movie that actually made any sense,” Marshall said Saturday.
馬歇爾周六（9月1日）說：「沒有人確實知道我們是否有足夠素材，可以製作成真正合情合理的一部電影。」

The masses will soon get to decide for themselves. “The Other Side of the Wind” will arrive on Netflix and in a handful of theaters on Nov. 2. So far, critics at Telluride and the Venice Film Festival, where the film had its premiere on Friday, have responded with unanimously positive reviews. The early reaction from festivalgoers has been mixed, with some befuddled and bored and others enraptured – about typical for Welles, who specialized in polarizing cinema.
觀眾很快就會有自己的答案。《風的另一邊》將於11月2日在Netflix上線以及在幾家戲院登場。至今，特柳賴德電影節和威尼斯影展的影評人一致給予好評。《風的另一邊》8月31日在威尼斯影展首映。出席這些活動者的初步反應是毀譽參半，有人覺得困惑、無趣，有人則著迷不已。這對擅長兩極化電影的威爾斯來說，是典型的反應。

“The Other Side of the Wind” reconstructs a debauched party (using footage supposedly shot by guests) held at the home of Jake Hannaford, a nonconformist film director, just before he dies.
《風的另一邊》重建了一個放蕩的派對（使用應該是客人拍攝的畫面），派對在獨樹一幟電影導演傑克．漢納福德的家中舉行，就在他死前不久。

原文參照：
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/09/02/movies/orson-welles-last-film-debut-other-side-of-the-wind.html

2018-09-23 聯合報．D4．紐約時報賞析 王麗娟