一件事证明你消费降级了

#月入5万舍不得打车#、#年轻人开始去高溢价生活了#、#LV卖不动了吗#……今天，社交媒体上「消费降级」的话题引发热议。

🤔️小作业：

1. What can be inferred about the overall spending habits of Chinese consumers?

a) They prioritize quality over price.

b) They are increasingly price-sensitive.

c) They are indifferent to price changes.

d) They are loyal to well-known brands.

a) It has opened 2,000 stores in the last year.

b) It has opened 20,000 stores in the last three years.

c) It has more stores than Cotti Coffee.

d) Its growth has been slower than that of Cotti Coffee.

无注释原文：

‘Whichever Is Cheaper’: Inside China’s New Thrift Economy

From: The New York Times

To understand today’s penny-pinching Chinese consumers, behold the vicious price war playing out among the country’s coffee store giants.

Luckin Coffee, a popular Chinese chain, rose to prominence and opened 10,800 stores by successfully undercutting Starbucks’s prices. But now, Cotti Coffee, an upstart rival started by the same two people who founded Luckin, is undercutting Luckin’s prices.

Cotti has opened stores near Luckin shops, and it is charging — in some cases — 1 yuan, or 15 cents, less than its rival for the same drink. Earlier this year, Cotti began a campaign to lower latte prices to 9.9 yuan, or $1.38, prompting Luckin to match and pledge to maintain that price for two years. Cotti then cut latte prices again to 8.8 yuan.

The low-price strategy is working. In less than a year since its founding, Cotti has opened more than 5,800 stores, which sell an average of more than 400 cups of coffee a day per store, the company said.

“We don’t want to see consumers hesitating over price when they want coffee,” Li Yingbo, chief strategy officer of Cotti Coffee, said in a statement.

The jostling over coffee prices captures an emerging trend among Chinese consumers who are spending less and saving more. Last month, the hashtag “downgraded spending” was one of the trending topics on Weibo, a Chinese social media platform.

For consumers like Chen Xixi, 33, a college administrator in China’s central Hubei Province, there is reason to be cautious.

Instead of buying coffee at Starbucks, Ms. Chen said, she chooses between Luckin and Cotti based on “whichever is cheaper.” She used to use an expensive Japanese skin toner, but she switched to a Chinese brand that is 90 percent cheaper.

Starbucks said revenue at stores open more than a year in China rose 46 percent in the most recent quarter, although the average purchase amount fell 1 percent. In an August conference call with investors, Belinda Wong, the head of Starbucks in China, said it planned to remain disciplined with discounting. Luckin also had a big jump in revenue in the spring, up 88 percent from a year earlier, but the sales growth at existing stores slowed.

In a conference call with investment analysts in August, Meituan, a food delivery firm in China, warned that the growth in takeout orders was expected to wane in the third quarter, partly because of lower demand from price-sensitive consumers, according to local media reports.

During this year’s Dragon Boat Festival in June, a busy travel period, domestic tourists spent an average of $49 per person. It was 8 percent higher than last year but still 14 percent lower than in 2019, according to statistics released by China’s Ministry of Culture and Tourism.

Some Chinese businesses see an opportunity in the new frugal ways of consumers.

Pinduoduo, a discount shopping website, said revenue grew 63 percent in the first half of 2023 from a year earlier. The company’s growth rate is surpassing that of Alibaba and JD.com, China’s two-biggest e-commerce companies.

Colin Huang, founder of Pinduoduo and its American shopping site, Temu, saw his net worth increase to $31 billion in 2023 from $19 billion last year, according to the Hurun Global Rich List, China’s version of Forbes’s list of the richest people. The company’s U.S.-listed share price has increased nearly 60 percent in the last year.

Mixue Ice Cream & Tea, a Chinese tea chain known for its iced coffee and bubble tea drinks that sell for less than $1, has opened 18,300 stores in the last three years to raise its total to more than 20,000, according to Canyan Data, a Chinese food industry data provider. Mixue’s founders saw a fourfold increase in net worth last year.

This competition has forced Heytea, a Chinese beverage chain known for expensive milk teas, to slash its prices by up to one-third last year and lower all its prices to below 30 yuan, or $4.20. Last year it also declared that it “would never raise prices” no matter what its rivals did.

- ◆ -

注：完整题目见本文开头；中文文本为纽约时报官方译文，仅供参考

含注释全文：

‘Whichever Is Cheaper’: Inside China’s New Thrift Economy

From: The New York Times

To understand today’s penny-pinching Chinese consumers, behold the vicious price war playing out among the country’s coffee store giants.

想知道如今的中国消费者是如何精打细算的，不妨看看该国咖啡店巨头之间愈演愈烈的价格战。

penny-pinching /ˈpen.iˌpɪn.tʃɪŋ/ 表示“吝啬的，小气的”，英文解释为“unwilling to spend money”举个🌰：I became tired of his penny-pinching friends. 我厌倦了他那些吝啬鬼朋友。

behold /bɪˈhəʊld/ 表示“看见；注视”，英文解释为“to see or look at someone or something”举个🌰：The new bridge is an incredible sight to behold. 这座新桥令人叹为观止。

vicious /ˈvɪʃ.əs/ 1）同义词是“malicious”，表示“狠毒的，恶毒的，恶意的”，英文解释为：very unkind in a way that is intended to hurt someone’s feelings or make their character seem bad.

📍vicious circle表示“恶性循环”，英文解释为：a continuing unpleasant situation, created when one problem causes another problem that then makes the first problem worse.

2）表示“严重的；剧烈的”，英文解释为“used to describe an object, condition, or remark that causes great physical or emotional pain”如：a large collection of vicious medieval torture instruments 收藏的大量中世纪的酷刑刑具。

Luckin Coffee, a popular Chinese chain, rose to prominence and opened 10,800 stores by successfully undercutting Starbucks’s prices. But now, Cotti Coffee, an upstart rival started by the same two people who founded Luckin, is undercutting Luckin’s prices.

瑞幸咖啡是一家人气颇高的中国连锁品牌，以价格优势打败星巴克而声名鹊起，目前它已开设了10800家门店。但现在，瑞幸的两位创始人新创立的品牌库迪咖啡正在与瑞幸展开降价竞争。

表示“重要；突出；卓越；出名”，英文解释为“the state of being important, well known or noticeable”如：a young actor who has recently risen to prominence 最近崭露头角的一名年轻演员。

undercut /ˌʌn.dəˈkʌt/ 1）表示“要价低于（竞争对手）”，英文解释为“to charge less than a competitor”举个🌰：Big supermarkets can undercut all rivals, especially small family-owned shops. 大型超市售价可以低于所有竞争对手，尤其是那些商业街上的小店铺。

2）表示“削弱；损害；使失败”，英文解释为“to damage something or to make it fail”举个🌰：He suspected it was an attempt to undercut his authority. 他怀疑这是企图削弱他的权力。

upstart /ˈʌp.stɑːt/ 1）表示“新出现的竞争者”，英文解释为“a new competitor”举个🌰：Larger drug companies are buying up many of the upstart companies. 大型药企正在收购新兴竞争公司。

2）表示“（尤指年轻的）突然发迹的人，暴发户;新贵”，英文解释为“a person, especially a young one, who has suddenly got power or an important position and takes advantage of this in an unpleasant way”

rival /ˈraɪ.vəl/ 作名词，表示“竞争对手；敌手”，英文解释为“a person, group, etc. competing with others for the same thing or in the same area”；

作动词，表示“可与…相媲美，比得上”，英文解释为“to be as good, clever, beautiful, etc. as someone or something else”举个🌰：No computer can rival a human brain for/in complexity. 没有任何计算机比得上人脑复杂。

Cotti has opened stores near Luckin shops, and it is charging — in some cases — 1 yuan, or 15 cents, less than its rival for the same drink. Earlier this year, Cotti began a campaign to lower latte prices to 9.9 yuan, or $1.38, prompting Luckin to match and pledge to maintain that price for two years. Cotti then cut latte prices again to 8.8 yuan.

库迪将门店开在瑞幸门店附近，出售比瑞幸价格更低的同款饮料——有时就少了一块钱。今年早些时候，库迪推出了将拿铁价格降至9.9元一杯的促销活动，迫使瑞幸跟进降价并承诺两年内不涨价。随后，库迪将拿铁价格近一步降到8.8元一杯。

latte /ˈlæteɪ/ 表示“热牛奶咖啡；拿铁咖啡”，英文解释为“a hot drink made from espresso (= strong coffee) and warm milk”

作名词，1）表示“（计算机屏幕上的）提示符（显示计算机已经准备好接受指令）”，英文解释为“a sign on a computer screen that shows that the computer is ready to receive your instructions”

2）表示“（给演员的）提词，提白”，英文解释为“words that are spoken to an actor who has forgotten what he or she is going to say during the performance of a play”

3）作动词，表示“促使；导致；激起”，英文解释为“to make sb decide to do sth; to cause sth to happen”举个🌰：His speech prompted an angry outburst from a man in the crowd. 他的讲话激起了人群中一男子的愤怒。

📺美剧《斯巴达克斯：血与沙》（Spartacus: Blood and Sand）中的台词提到：One cannot but wonder what would prompt such an act 不知他们为何遭此不幸。

4）作动词，表示“（尤指）给（演员）提词”，英文解释为“to help someone, especially an actor, to remember what they were going to say or do”举个🌰：I forgot my line and had to be prompted. 我忘词了，只好让人提词。

1）作动词，表示“承诺，保证（做某事）；保证给予（某物）”，英文解释为“When someone pledges to do something, they promise in a serious way to do it. When they pledge something, they promise to give it.”举个🌰：He pledges support and offers to help in any way that he can. 他承诺给予支持并提供力所能及的帮助。

2）表示“抵押”，英文解释为“If you pledge something such as a valuable possession or a sum of money, you leave it with someone as a guarantee that you will repay money that you have borrowed.”举个🌰：He asked her to pledge the house as security for a loan. 他要她抵押房子作为贷款担保。

3）作名词，表示“誓言；诺言；保证”，英文解释为“When someone makes a pledge, they make a serious promise that they will do something.”举个🌰：The meeting ended with a pledge to step up cooperation between the states of the region. 会议以加快该地区州之间合作的承诺结束。

The low-price strategy is working. In less than a year since its founding, Cotti has opened more than 5,800 stores, which sell an average of more than 400 cups of coffee a day per store, the company said.

低价营销的效果很好。库迪表示，在创立不到一年的时间里，该公司已经开设了5800多家门店，每家店平均每天卖出400多杯咖啡。

“We don’t want to see consumers hesitating over price when they want coffee,” Li Yingbo, chief strategy officer of Cotti Coffee, said in a statement.

“我们不希望看到消费者想喝咖啡的时候，因为价格而思前想后，”库迪咖啡首席策略官李颖波曾经这样表示。

表示“犹豫，踌躇”，英文解释为“to pause before you do or say something, often because you are uncertain or nervous about it”举个🌰："Do you love me?" he asked. She hesitated and then said, "I'm not sure." “你爱我吗？”他问道。她犹豫了一下，然后说：“我不确定。”

The jostling over coffee prices captures an emerging trend among Chinese consumers who are spending less and saving more. Last month, the hashtag “downgraded spending” was one of the trending topics on Weibo, a Chinese social media platform.

咖啡价格战反映了中国消费者中的一股新趋势，他们正在减少支出、增加储蓄。上个月，“消费降级”成为中国社交媒体平台微博上的热搜话题。

jostling /ˈdʒɒs.lɪŋ/ 1）表示“角力，较量”，英文解释为“the act of competing with other people in order to get what you want”如：the current jostling for position 目前争夺职位的较量；

2）表示“挤；推；撞”，英文解释为“the action of knocking or pushing roughly against someone in order to move past them or get more space when you are in a crowd of people”举个🌰：There was a lot of jostling among photographers for the perfect spot. 摄影师推推攘攘只为争抢一个理想的摄影位。

trend作动词，表示“（某一时刻在社交媒体或网站上）被提及最多的词语（主题或名字）”，英文解释为“to be one of the words, subjects, or names that is being mentioned most often on a social media website or a news website at a particular time”举个🌰：Within minutes of the incident her name was trending on Weibo. 事件发生几分钟后她的名字就在微博上传开了。

trend本身也可以直接作名词，原意有“趋势；趋向；倾向；动态；动向；热点”，英文解释为“a general direction in which a situation is changing or developing”。

📍trending hashtags或者说a trending topic，可以指微博上的“#热门话题#”；类似的，Youtube首页上的Trending对应的中文就处理为“时下流行”。

表示“在社交媒体上发文时用来描述主题的#号”，英文解释为“used on social media for describing the general subject of a Tweet or other post (= message)”.

For consumers like Chen Xixi, 33, a college administrator in China’s central Hubei Province, there is reason to be cautious.

对于像33岁的陈曦曦（音）这样的消费者来说，保持谨慎是有理由的。陈曦曦是中部省份湖北一所大学的行政管理人员。

Instead of buying coffee at Starbucks, Ms. Chen said, she chooses between Luckin and Cotti based on “whichever is cheaper.” She used to use an expensive Japanese skin toner, but she switched to a Chinese brand that is 90 percent cheaper.

陈曦曦说她不再购买星巴克的咖啡，而是根据“谁便宜我就喝谁”的原则在瑞幸和库迪之间做出选择。她以前总使用昂贵的日本爽肤水，但现在改用价格便宜了90%的中国品牌。

toner /ˈtəʊ.nər/ 表示“紧肤水”，英文解释为“a substance that you put on your face after you have cleaned it to make the skin feel firm”

Starbucks said revenue at stores open more than a year in China rose 46 percent in the most recent quarter, although the average purchase amount fell 1 percent. In an August conference call with investors, Belinda Wong, the head of Starbucks in China, said it planned to remain disciplined with discounting. Luckin also had a big jump in revenue in the spring, up 88 percent from a year earlier, but the sales growth at existing stores slowed.

星巴克表示，开业一年以上的中国门店在最近一个季度的营收增长了46%，但平均客单价下降了1%。星巴克中国区负责人王静瑛在8月的投资者会议上表示，该公司将对折扣保持战略定力。瑞幸在今年春季的营收也迎来大幅上升，比去年同期增长了88%，但现有门店的销售增幅出现放缓。

In a conference call with investment analysts in August, Meituan, a food delivery firm in China, warned that the growth in takeout orders was expected to wane in the third quarter, partly because of lower demand from price-sensitive consumers, according to local media reports.

据国内媒体报道，外卖公司美团在8月与投资分析师举行的电话会议上发出预警，预计三季度的外卖订单的增长将放缓，部分原因是价格敏感型消费者的需求下降。

wane /weɪn/ 作动词，表示“衰减；减弱”，英文解释为“to become weaker in strength or influence”举个🌰：By the late 70s the band's popularity was beginning to wane. 上世纪70年代末，这支乐队的人气开始下滑。

作名词，on the wane 表示“（权力、人气等）衰落，减弱”，英文解释为“becoming less strong, powerful, popular, etc.”举个🌰：There are signs that support for the company is on the wane. 有迹象表明该公司的支持率正日益下降。

During this year’s Dragon Boat Festival in June, a busy travel period, domestic tourists spent an average of $49 per person. It was 8 percent higher than last year but still 14 percent lower than in 2019, according to statistics released by China’s Ministry of Culture and Tourism.

根据中国文化和旅游部发布的数据，在6月的端午节出游旺季，国内游客人均消费约352元，比去年增长8%，但相较2019年仍低了14%。

Some Chinese businesses see an opportunity in the new frugal ways of consumers.

一些中国企业在新的降级消费潮中看到了机遇。

frugal /ˈfruː.ɡəl/ 表示“节俭的；朴素的；（食物）简单的，廉价的”，英文解释为“careful when using money or food, or (of a meal) cheap or small in amount”如：a frugal lifestyle 节俭的生活方式。

Pinduoduo, a discount shopping website, said revenue grew 63 percent in the first half of 2023 from a year earlier. The company’s growth rate is surpassing that of Alibaba and JD.com, China’s two-biggest e-commerce companies.

折扣购物网站拼多多称，该公司2023年上半年营收同比增长了63%，其增长率正在超越阿里巴巴和京东这两家中国最大的电商企业。

surpass表示“优于；超过”，英文解释为“If one person or thing surpasses another, the first is better than, or has more of a particular quality than, the second.”举个🌰：He was determined to surpass the achievements of his older brothers. 他决心超过他的几位哥哥的成就。

Colin Huang, founder of Pinduoduo and its American shopping site, Temu, saw his net worth increase to $31 billion in 2023 from $19 billion last year, according to the Hurun Global Rich List, China’s version of Forbes’s list of the richest people. The company’s U.S.-listed share price has increased nearly 60 percent in the last year.

在胡润全球富豪榜上，拼多多及其美版购物网站Temu的创始人黄峥的净资产从去年的1450亿增至2023年的2100亿元。该公司的美股股价在去年上涨了60%。

list作动词，表示“使（公司）上市；（公司）上市”（If a company is listed, or if it lists, on a stock exchange, it obtains an official quotation for its shares so that people can buy and sell them.）举个🌰：Last month, thirty new companies were listed. 上个月有30家公司上市。

📍relist 重新上市。

📍listing作名词，除了表示“（表册上的）位置，项目”，也有“上市”的含义，英文解释为“a position or an item on a list”举个🌰：The company is seeking a stock exchange listing (= for trading shares). 这家公司正在争取上市。

Mixue Ice Cream & Tea, a Chinese tea chain known for its iced coffee and bubble tea drinks that sell for less than $1, has opened 18,300 stores in the last three years to raise its total to more than 20,000, according to Canyan Data, a Chinese food industry data provider. Mixue’s founders saw a fourfold increase in net worth last year.

中国食品行业数据统计商Canyan Data的数据显示，以售价低于一美元的冰咖啡和珍珠奶茶为招牌产品的中国茶饮连锁品牌蜜雪冰城在过去三年开设了18300家门店，门店总数超过了2万家。蜜雪冰城创始人的净资产在去年增长了四倍。

fourfold /ˈfɔː.fəʊld/ 表示“四倍的”，英文解释为“four times as big or as much”如：a fourfold increase 四倍的增加，或者表示“由四部分组成的”，英文解释为“having four parts”如：a fourfold division 分成四份。

This competition has forced Heytea, a Chinese beverage chain known for expensive milk teas, to slash its prices by up to one-third last year and lower all its prices to below 30 yuan, or $4.20. Last year it also declared that it “would never raise prices” no matter what its rivals did.

价格战迫使喜茶在去年降价三成，所有饮料价格都不再超过30元。喜茶是以昂贵奶茶闻名的中国饮料连锁品牌。喜茶去年还宣布，无论竞争对手做什么，他们都承诺在年内“绝不涨价”。

表示“饮料”，英文解释为“Beverages are drinks.”如：alcoholic beverages 含酒精的饮料。

作名词，表示“斜线号，斜杠”，英文解释为“the symbol / used in writing to separate letters, numbers, or words”举个🌰：You often write a slash between alternatives, for example, "and/or". 通常在选择项之间会加斜线号，比如“和/或”。

作动词，1）表示“（用刀、剑等）猛削，劈，砍”，英文解释为“to cut or try to cut something violently with a knife, sword etc”举个🌰：Someone had slashed the tires. 有人把轮胎割破了。

2）表示“大幅削减，大幅减少（金钱、工作等）”，英文解释为“to very much reduce something, such as money or jobs”举个🌰：Prices have been slashed by 60 percent! 价格直降60%！

- 词汇盘点 -

- 词汇助记 By ChatGPT -