H☆Mさんの おぼえた日記 - 2018年4月15日(日)

[Return of a Boomerang Employee](4,5) -Lesson 1 / Biz Communication-

Nissen: When I was hired, I was told I'd be traveling quite a lot to work on new store openings and customer events. I was excited by the challenge. But the reality was sadly different. I was involved with far more store closings than openings, thanks to the unhealthy situation in the retail sector.

Salmans: I see. Are things really that bad?

Nissen: Indeed they are. American retail chains are closing stores at a record pace due to decades of overbuilding and the rapidly growing popularity of online shopping. Many of them are filing for bankruptcy protection too.

Salmans: A deep recession might explain this kind of trouble for large retailers. But our GDP has been growing for several straight years, gas prices are down, unemployment is low, and wages are rising faster than any time since the 1990s. So, what's really happening in the retail world?

Grace: First of all, although rising wages are great for workers and the overall economy, they can be difficult for low-margin companies like retail stores. Recently, new minimum-wage laws and a tight labor market have pushed up wages.

Nissen: Another factor in retailers' decline is that consumers, especially the millennial generation, are changing their buying habits.

Nissen: They're spending more on "experiences" such as traveling and dining out.

Pearson: Before the Great Recession, people bought a lot of stuff, like homes, furniture, cars and clothes. But things have changed. Clothing stores, in particular, have declined as consumers have shifted their spending away from clothes. Did you know that a pair of men's dress pants costs less today than they did a decade ago?

Grace: This is not the end of retailing as we know it, though. People are not going to stop going to stores. There will always be a place for stores.

Ueda: What will the store of the future look like, then?

Nissen: You'll walk into a store and be greeted by name, by a computer with facial recognition that directs you to the items you need. You'll peruse a small area because the store stocks only sample items. You'll wave your phone in front of the things you want to buy, then walk out. In the back, robots will retrieve your items from a warehouse and deliver them to your home via driverless car or drone.

Pearson: A driverless car or drone, amazing. Who would have thought that was possible back when I was a kid? But yesterday's science fiction can be today's reality. Remember those wristwatch phones superheroes talked into? They're here.


★[Many of them are filing for bankruptcy protection too.]
　小売店チェーンの多くは、連邦破産法の適用を申請してもいますよ。

★[You'll peruse a small area because the store stocks only sample items.]
　店にはサンプル商品しか置かれていないので、お客は狭い範囲をじっくり見定めます。


[words and phrases]
-[unemployment] 失業者数/失業率
-[minimum-wage law] 最低賃金法
-[decline] 衰退/没落/減少
-[millennial generation] ﾐﾚﾆｱﾙ世代(1980年代-90年代生まれの世代)
-[file for bankruptcy protection] 連邦破産法の適用を申請する
　=[file for Chapter 11] (自発的破産申請による会社更生を規定する)連邦改正破産法第11章の適用を申請する(⇒日本の会社更生法に相当)

-[a good loser] 負けっぷりのいい人/諦めが早い人
-[a gracious loser] 丁寧な/親切な/やさしい/慈悲深い/恵み深い/優雅な/上品な]
-[a bad loser] 負け惜しみが強い/負けてブツブツ言う人

-[dine out] 外食する、⇒[dine/eat in] (家/料理店の)中で食べる
-[greet by name] 名前を呼びながら挨拶する

-[facial recognition] 顔認証
-[voice recognition] 音声認識
-[finger print recognition] 指紋認証
-[optical character recognition] 光学文字認識

-[retrieve] 取り出す/回収する
-[warehouse] 倉庫/商品保管所
-[via driverless car or drone] 無人自動車やドローンを用いて
-[be a place for-] ～の余地はある
-[who would have thought-?] …だと誰が思っただろう。

★[contronym] １語で正反対の意味を持つ語(⇒どちらの意味で使われているのかは文脈contextによって判断するしかない)
　⇒[peruse] 丹念に調べる/熟読する/精読する、ざっと読む
　⇒[scan] 詳しく調べる/じっと見る、走り読みする