第2887期: The supermarket man

I'm talking to somebody who works for the biggest supermarket in the UK. Hi Alan. Hello there.

我正在和一位在英国最大连锁超市工作的人交谈。嗨，艾伦。你好。

So, who do you work for? I work for Tesco, which is a British company. It's got supermarkets and stores all over the world. We've got something like 4,000 stores and we are the biggest by market share in the UK.

那么，你是为哪家公司工作的呢？我在乐购（Tesco）工作，这是一家英国公司，在世界各地都有超市和门店。我们大约有4000家门店，在英国的市场占有率是最高的。

Fantastic. What is your job title? So my job title is Technical Director of the Clothing Division, which is branded F&F. What do you do exactly? So my job really is to help the buyers who choose the products for our customers to get the right quality and to buy from the right factories all over the world.

太棒了。你的职位是什么？我的职位是服装事业部的技术总监，我们的服装品牌叫 F&F。那你具体是做什么的呢？我的工作主要是协助采购人员，为顾客选择合适质量的产品，并从全球合适的工厂进行采购。

And those buyers are responsible for selecting the products for the UK, Republic of Ireland, Czech Republic, Slovakia, Poland and Hungary. And so do these buyers obviously then, they go abroad? They do go abroad. They go to the markets themselves to understand what's the difference between somebody in Hungary and somebody in Republic of Ireland.

这些采购人员负责为英国、爱尔兰共和国、捷克、斯洛伐克、波兰和匈牙利选择产品。那么他们显然会出国吗？是的，他们会出国，亲自去当地市场，了解匈牙利消费者和爱尔兰消费者之间有什么不同。

So they don't sell the same clothing in those supermarkets? Roughly the same, but there are differences. For example, in Central Europe, school children do not wear school uniforms, whereas in the UK they do. So we have to make sure that we're buying the products appropriate for the country.

所以在这些超市里卖的衣服并不完全一样吗？大体相同，但还是有差异。比如在中欧地区，学生不穿校服，而在英国学生是要穿校服的。因此，我们必须确保采购的产品适合当地国家的需求。

Where do you fit in then? So the buyers know what the customer wants and what me and my team try to help the buyers do is select the right factory in the right country to make the right product. So for example, shirts can be made in China, in Bangladesh, in India and in Turkey. Some of those countries I just mentioned have duty free arrangements for the European Union, some don't.

那你的角色是什么呢？采购人员了解顾客想要什么，而我和我的团队要做的，就是帮助他们在合适的国家选择合适的工厂，来生产合适的产品。比如说，衬衫可以在中国、孟加拉国、印度或土耳其生产。我刚提到的这些国家中，有些与欧盟有免关税安排，有些则没有。

So to be cost effective, we want to make that shirt in the right country. And also there are regional differences. So for example, India, I think everybody realises are very famous for things like Madras cheques.

因此，为了控制成本，我们希望在合适的国家生产这些衬衫。同时，不同地区也有各自的优势。比如说，大家都知道印度以马德拉斯格子布这类面料而闻名。

So we would buy Madras cheques from India for shirts, whereas formal shirts, a white shirt, for cost effective reasons, we would go to Bangladesh. You talk about India having a certain reputation for a particular kind of shirt. It also has a rather negative reputation in terms of the factories producing those shirts.

所以我们会从印度采购马德拉斯格子布，用来制作衬衫；而正式衬衫，比如白衬衫，出于成本考虑，我们则会选择在孟加拉国生产。你刚才提到印度在某些衬衫方面享有声誉，但在生产这些衬衫的工厂方面，它也有一些负面的名声。

How do you go about making sure that you're buying appropriately? So we've got a team of over a hundred what we call production technologists who have approximately 10 factories per person to look after. We make sure before we start dealing with them, they are fully audited and we do two audits. We do a technical audit to make sure a particular factory can make a particular product.

那你们是如何确保采购过程是合适、负责任的呢？我们有一个一百多人组成的团队，叫做生产技术人员，每个人大约负责10家工厂。在开始合作之前，我们会确保这些工厂经过全面审计，而且会进行两类审计：一类是技术审计，确保某一家工厂具备生产某种产品的能力。

And we also do an ethical audit to make sure the factory is safe, legal, doesn't have any child labour issues. So before we even start, we do two audits and then my team go around the world. They go to these factories regularly to make sure they're making to the quality standards we require.

我们还会进行道德审计，确保工厂安全、合法，不存在童工问题。所以在合作开始之前，我们就已经完成了这两项审计。随后，我的团队会走遍全球，定期前往这些工厂，确保他们的生产符合我们要求的质量标准。

Some people might be surprised then, Alan, that you do those two audits. Well I think the thing about being the biggest retailer in the UK is that there is a responsibility that comes with that size. We need to actually lead the way in making sure that we don't deal in any unethical way or in any factories that are going to put anybody in harm's way.

艾伦，有些人可能会对你们进行这两项审计感到惊讶。嗯，我认为，作为英国最大的零售商，这样的规模本身就意味着一种责任。我们确实需要走在前面，确保我们的经营不涉及任何不道德行为，也不会与任何可能危害他人安全的工厂合作。

And that's the point I think we have to try and get across to our consumers. Not that we're preaching, just that we have to actually be... Set an example. Set an example.

这正是我认为我们需要向消费者传达的一点。并不是在说教，而是我们必须真正做到——树立榜样。是的，树立榜样。