宜家，正在走出危机

　　The boss of IKEA on dealing with the fallout of the covid crisis

　　宜家老板正在努力控制疫情危机所造成的影响

　　Ikea is known all over the world as the biggest furniture retailer, the most successful Swedish brand—and the cause of family quarrels over the assembly of BILLY bookshelves or HEMNES wardrobes. It has so far never made a name for itself as a place of worship.

　　宜家是全球最大的家具零售商、瑞典最成功的品牌，同时也是引发家庭矛盾的一大原因(在组装比利书架或海明斯衣柜的过程中产生分歧)。迄今为止，宜家还从未因被作为礼拜场所而闻名。

　　But on May 24th the car park of an IKEA shop in Wetzlar, a city in Germany, welcomed hundreds of Muslims for a Sunday prayer to mark the end of Ramadan, against the backdrop of the blue-and-yellow storefront. It was a nice gesture in times of social distancing.

　　但在5月24日，在德国维兹拉尔市的一家宜家商场的停车场，数百名伊斯兰教徒以蓝黄相间的宜家商场外墙为背景举行了一场周日祈祷活动，以庆祝斋月的结束。在如今这个倡导保持社交距离的时代，这确实是个好办法。

　　Like all non-food retailers, IKEA needed a lift. Around 80% of its 433 shops in 50 countries had to shut and many are still closed. Its shops in Germany only reopened their doors in early May, after two months of pandemic lockdown.

　　与所有非食品类零售商一样，宜家需要提振业绩。在全球50个国家的433家宜家商场中，有近80%的门店被迫歇业，其中许多门店目前仍未恢复营业。在经历两个月的封锁后，德国的宜家商场于5月初刚刚恢复营业。

　　Another important pick-me-up is that shoppers have returned in force, starting in China. Having entered lockdown before the rest of the world, Chinese consumers also emerged from it earlier—and plenty of them immediately hit IKEA shops.

　　另一个令人振奋的消息始于中国，大批购物者正在回归。中国相比其他国家更早采取“封城”措施，也更早解除封锁，而一经解封，许多人便立刻涌入了宜家商场。

　　Many bought big and expensive items, says Jesper Brodin, chief executive of Ingka Group, the parent company that holds and operates most IKEA shops (as well as running Ingka Centres, which manages the group’s shopping malls, and a fund called Ingka Investments).

　　英格卡集团(宜家商场的母公司，拥有并经营着大多数的宜家门店，同时还经营着英格卡购物中心以及英格卡投资基金会)的首席执行官说道，许多人前来宜家购买价格高昂的大件商品。

　　To Mr Brodin’s surprise, reopenings in Europe have involved “an effort in crowd control”. In Germany, Austria and Switzerland customers thronged to IKEA once its shops were allowed to open. They were undeterred by long queues: all three countries have strict limits on the number of people permitted in a shop at the same time.

　　令布罗丁感到惊讶的是，当欧洲的宜家商场重新开业时，他们甚至需要“限制顾客人数”。在德国、奥地利以及瑞士，一家宜家商场一旦获准重新开业，顾客便会蜂拥而至。人们不惧于门店外排着的长队：这三个国家都对同一时间进入商店的人数有着严格的限制。

　　In Germany and Austria, for example, one customer is allowed per 20 square metres (215 square feet) of floor space. People, it seems, are as desperate as ever for home improvements and kitchen utensils—more so, perhaps, after a period of confinement in which home-cooking revealed domestic inadequacies.

　　例如，在德国和奥地利，每20平方米(约合215平方英尺)建筑面积仅允许一名顾客。人们似乎一如既往地想要改善家庭生活用品及厨房用具，厨房用具甚至更为迫切，因为在家呆了这么久，家庭烹饪所需用具的缺乏更是暴露无遗。

　　IKEA’s online-shopping figures tell the same story. Internet sales were growing fast before the pandemic, by 43% last year compared with 2018, to 10-11% of total sales. In the past couple of months they jumped to 60% of all sales on peak days of the lockdown across the group.

　　宜家的线上购物数据也反映了同样的情况。在疫情发生前，宜家的线上销售额便在迅速增长，去年的线上销售额相比2018年增长了43%，占去年总销售额的10-11%。在过去的几个月里，线上销售额占总销售额的比例已经跃升至60%。

　　In America, where the furniture giant is planning to start reopening its 50 shops in June, IKEA started to bring back its furloughed workers to look after online orders and provide customer service.

　　在美国，这家家具巨头正计划于6月重新开张50家门店，同时，宜家也在召回员工，以处理线上订单并提供客户服务。

　　注：双语全文源自经济学人

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