《经济学人》:沃尔玛如何在关税和竞争中胜出?(Part 3)?
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原文标题：
The other “everything store”
How Walmart became a tech giant—and took over the world
Inside the stunning reinvention of the planet’s biggest company
另一家“万能商店”
沃尔玛如何成为科技巨头又独占鳌头？
揭秘这家全球最大公司的惊人重塑之路
Made in America
Walmart now confronts another disruptive force: the man behind the Resolute Desk. The retailer has been doing its best to ingratiate itself with Mr Trump since his return to the presidency. Mr McMillon was one of the few bosses who attended the presidential-inauguration ceremony in January, and has called on Mr Trump both at his Mar-a-Lago resort and the White House. In November Walmart said it was rolling back some of its diversity, equity and inclusion policies amid Mr Trump’s crusade against wokeness. It has also said it will miss its 2030 target for cutting greenhouse-gas emissions.
Mr Trump’s trade war has put Walmart in a delicate position, given its importance to American consumers. Its executives have been back and forth between the company’s headquarters in Bentonville, Arkansas, and Washington sharing real-time data with officials on prices and shopping behaviour to help inform policy. “This situation that we’re in today is very fluid,” says John Furner, head of Walmart’s business in America, diplomatically.
Tariffs may not be as much of a problem for the company as it would seem at first glance. Walmart has certainly benefited from cheap imports. Roughly a third of the products it currently sells in America are made or grown outside the country, largely in China, Mexico or Canada. Some of these Walmart has procured directly from foreign suppliers; others come from American firms that have offshored production in response to pressure from the retailer to lower prices.
Yet Walmart seems better placed to weather Mr Trump’s tariff storm than most of its competitors. It has already made progress diversifying its supply chain away from China over the past few years, observes Zhihan Ma of Bernstein, a broker. It has, for instance, been sourcing a greater share of its products from India. The retailer has been expanding its domestic supply chain, too. Take children’s car seats, most of which are made in China. In October, in anticipation of Mr Trump’s election, the company signed deals to secure much of America’s manufacturing capacity, according to Ms Ma.
Walmart’s heft also allows it to shift much of the burden of tariffs onto suppliers. Before the recent trade truce with China, which has resulted in American tariffs being lowered to 30% for 90 days, Bernstein estimated that new import duties were on course to raise the cost of products sold at Walmart by an average of 5.2%. Suppliers, it reckoned, would absorb half of that, with the average sticker price in Walmart stores rising by 2.6% to make up the balance. Sales volumes would drop by 2% in response, giving revenue a net boost of around half a percent. For most other big retailers, by contrast, Bernstein predicted a decline in sales. Walmart’s product mix helps: groceries, demand for which is less sensitive to price movements, account for three-fifths of its sales in America. That compares with one-fifth for Target, a bricks-and-mortar rival, and a sliver for Amazon.
Indeed, as Americans start to feel the pinch, Walmart’s lower prices may help it win over yet more customers. Research by JPMorgan Chase, another bank, suggests that it is typically 4-5% cheaper than Target and 8-10% cheaper than other grocers. Walmart will use that to its advantage. At a meeting with Wall Street analysts in April Mr McMillon said that the retailer plans to “play offence”. “Manager’s special” signs are already popping up around its stores, advertising discounts.
And what of Amazon? Over the past decade it has sought to become more like Walmart, purchasing Whole Foods in 2017 to expand its grocery business and experimenting with various types of physical stores. The effort has been a disappointment. A technology it pioneered to monitor customers as they pick items from shelves and charge them as they walk out has failed to entice the masses into its shops. Walmart may soon have little left to learn from the disrupter.
（恭喜读完，本篇英语词汇650/1890左右）
原文出自：2025年5月17日《TE》Business版块
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【重点句子】（3个）
Mr Trump’s trade war has put Walmart in a delicate position, given its importance to American consumers.
考虑到沃尔玛对美国消费者的重要性，特朗普关税战让这家公司陷入微妙境地。
Walmart’s heft also allows it to shift much of the burden of tariffs onto suppliers.
沃尔玛的庞大规模还使它能够将大部分关税负担转嫁给供应商。
Indeed, as Americans start to feel the pinch, Walmart’s lower prices may help it win over yet more customers.
事实上，随着美国消费者开始感受到经济压力，沃尔玛的低价策略可能会赢得更多顾客。
【重点词汇】（10个）
*inauguration/ɪˌnɔːɡjəˈreɪʃn/the act of starting a new organization or activity, or the ceremony at which a new leader is officially put in power.
n.就职典礼；开幕式；开创eg.The inauguration of the new president will be held next week.新总统的就职典礼将于下周举行。
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【重点词根】（1+4个）
ingratiate=in-进入 + grat-高兴 + -iate, 表动词 → 使[别人]进入高兴 → 讨好[别人]。
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