What's killing malls?

難詞掃障

1. brick-and-mortar adj. 實體的

2. retailer n. 零售商

3. apocalypse n. 災難

4. overstate v. 夸大

5. warehouse n. 倉庫；大商店

6. disruptive adj. 毀滅性的；破壞性的

原文復現

It has been a tough decade forbrick-andmortarretailers, and matters seem only to be getting worse.

Despite a strong consumer economy, physical retailers closed more than 9,000 stores in 2019.Already this year,retailershave announced more than 1,200 intended closings, including 125 Macy's stores.

Some people call what has happened to the shopping landscape “the retail apocalypse”.It is easy to blame it on the rise of e-commerce, which has thrived while physical stores struggle.And there is no denying that Amazon and other online retailers have changed consumer behavior entirely or that big retailers like Walmart and Target have tried to beef up their own online presence.

But this can beoverstated.

To begin with, while e-commerce is growing sharply, it may not be nearly as big as you think.Online sales have grown tremendously in the last 20 years, rising from $5 billion per quarter to almost $155 billion per quarter. But Internet shopping still represents only 11 percent of the entire retail sales.

Furthermore, there are two major economic forces collectively that have had an even bigger impact on brick-and-mortar retail than the Internet has.

Big box stores: In the United States and elsewhere, we have changed where we shop—away from smaller stores like those in malls and toward stand-alone big box stores. Four years ago, the economists Chad Syverson and Ali Hortacsu at the University of Chicago analyzed the recent history of retail and found that the rise ofwarehousesupercenters was bigger than the rise of online commerce.

Here is the example that they gave. Over the 14 years through 2013, Amazon added $38 billion in sales while Costco added $50 billion and the Sam's Club division of Walmart added $32 billion.

Amazon had the higher growth rate, but the bigger problem for most brick-and-mortar stores was other larger brick-and-mortar stores. This continued in 2019.

①Services instead of things: With every passing decade, Americans have spent proportionately less of income on things and more on services. ②Stores, malls, and even the mightiest online merchants emain the great sellers of things. ③Since 1960, Americans went from spending 5 percent of our income on health to almost 18 percent, government statistics show. ④Americans spend more on education, entertainment, business services and all sorts of other products that aren't sold in traditional retail stores.

That trend has continued for a long time. In 1920, Americans spent more than half their income on food （38 percent） and clothing （17 percent） and almost all of that was through traditional retail stores. Today, food eaten outside the home and in it accounts for 10 percent of spending and clothing just 2.4 percent.

Economists debate theories of why we have shifted to services and away from goods but no one questions that it has happened.It means that over time, retailers selling things will have to run harder and harder just to stay in place.

In short, the broad forces hitting retail are more a lesson in economics than in the power ofdisruptivetechnology. It's a lesson all retailers will have to learn someday—even the mighty Amazon.

Part 1 整體感知

本文是一篇議論文,通過描述超級商場的興起以及人們對服務的需求,論證了雖然電子商務的興起對線下實體零售商造成了一定的沖擊,但其他因素對實體店的影響實際更大。篇章結構梳理：

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典型段落段內結構分析：

Para. 10

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Part 2 語言學習

Ⅰ. 文本填空

1. Already this year, retailers ________（announce） more than 1,200 intended closings, including 125 Macy's stores.

2. It is easy to blame it on the rise of e-commerce, ________has thrived while physical stores struggle.

3. And there is no denying ________Amazon and other online retailers have changed consumer behavior entirely.

4. Furthermore, there are two major economic forces collectively that have had an even________（big） impact on brick-and-mortar retail than the Internet has.

5. With every passing decade, Americans have spent proportionately less of income things and more on services.

6. ________short, the broad forces hitting retail are more a lesson in economics than in the power of disruptive technology.

Ⅱ. 難句分析

1. It is easy to blame it on the rise of e-commerce, which has thrived while physical stores struggle.

主句是It is easy to blame it on the rise of e-commerce，后面是which引導的定語從句，修飾前面的e-commerce，解釋說明電子商務使得實體店舉步維艱。 此外，blame...on是固定搭配，意思是“把……歸咎于……；physical stores則是指實體店。

2. Economists debate theories of why we have shifted to services and away from goods but no one questions that it has happened.

句子主干是Economists debate theories, but no one questions that it has happened， theories of后面接的是修飾theories的一個賓語從句。

Part 3 視角拓展

超級商場

在美國，像Costco、Target、Best Buy等超級商場都較為普遍。 Costco是美國第二大零售商、全球第七大零售商以及美國第一大連鎖會員制倉儲式量販店， 也是美國《財富》 雜志2019年評選的2019年世界500強排行榜的第35名。除了特色的倉儲式的銷售方式之外，Costco成立以來致力于以可能的最低價格提供高品質的商品。 與同行業競爭者相比，Costco精心挑選更少品類且較實用的熱門銷售商品與排行榜靠前的名牌貨， 針對此類商品大量進貨來壓低成本，因此零售價可以壓低。 同時Costco也向會員收取小額的年費，這也是主要的利潤來源,高質量的服務和價格上的回饋成功迎合了小型企業與一般家庭大量采購的喜好。