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Why Black Friday sales grow more annoying every year
为什么黑色星期五促销变得一年比一年讨厌
When is Black Friday? The obvious answer is a literal one. It is the day after Thanksgiving, an American holiday when families gather to gorge on turkey and pumpkin pie, which this year falls on November 29th.
黑色星期五是什么时候？显而易见的答案是字面上的那个黑色星期五。也就是感恩节后的一天，感恩节是家人团聚、大吃火鸡和南瓜派的美国节日，今年的感恩节是11月29日。
Yet Black Friday is not simply a date, it is also an idea. The day traditionally marked the beginning of the festive shopping season, when people would start to stock up on Christmas presents. Today, it is the time of year during which everything goes on sale.
但黑色星期五不仅仅是一个日期，也是一个概念。在过去，这一天标志着节日购物季的开始，人们会开始储备圣诞礼物。在如今，这一天是一年中所有东西都在打折促销的日子。
And pinpointing when this begins is a much more difficult endeavour. In a bid to find an answer your columnist searched her inbox for the earliest Black Friday discount offered by a retailer. The missive came in early October.
要准确指出黑色星期五始于何时是一项困难得多的任务。为了找到答案，笔者在她的收件箱中搜索了零售商提供的最早的黑色星期五折扣邮件。这封邮件在10月初就发来了。
To understand this baffling development, consider the underlying economics. American retail is a fiercely competitive market--but that is different from being a "perfectly" competitive market.
要理解黑色星期五的这种令人困惑的发展，需要考虑底层经济逻辑。美国零售业是一个竞争激烈的市场，但与"完全"竞争的市场不同。
Léon Walras, a brilliant 19th-century French economist, defined such a market as existing when large numbers of buyers and sellers meet, with perfect information, in order to exchange homogeneous products.
莱昂·瓦尔拉斯是一位杰出的19世纪法国经济学家，他将完全竞争市场定义为大量的买家和卖家在信息充分的情况下会面，以交换同质产品。
The markets for toaster ovens or slippers do not quite operate in the same manner. For a start, goods are differentiated by design and quality. Information is far from perfect, hence the popularity of recommendation services such as The Strategist and Wirecutter, which test and rank products.
但烤面包机或拖鞋的市场运作方式与这种市场不完全相同。首先，商品是通过设计和质量来区分的。信息也远非充分，因此像"策略家"和"铁丝剪"这样的商品推荐服务就很受欢迎，这两个网站会测评产品并进行排名。
Retailers compete on price, of course, but, critically, they also compete on timing.
零售商当然会在价格上竞争，但关键是他们也会在时间上竞争。
Imagine a customer who is looking to purchase a blender. Bob is torn between the "top pick" on Wirecutter--the Vitamix 5200, a pricey $450 model--and a cheaper runner-up option, the Cleanblend Blender, which is sold for around $170.
想象一下，有一位顾客正在计划购买一台搅拌机。鲍勃在纠结是买铁丝剪网站推荐的"首选"（售价450美元的高端机型维他密斯5200），还是买更便宜的亚军选项：售价约170美元的Cleanblend搅拌机。
He prefers the Vitamix, and is willing to pay perhaps $200 more for it. Then, in late October, he receives an email from a small retailer offering the Cleanblend for just $120. He knows the Vitamix will go on sale soon, but does not know how big the discount will be, and perhaps the other retailer will have sold out of Cleanblends by then.
他更喜欢维他密斯，并且愿意为它多付大约200美元。然后在10月下旬，他收到了一封来自一家小型零售商的电子邮件，Cleanblend售价仅为120美元。他知道维他密斯搅拌机很快就会打折，但不知道折扣会有多大，而且也许到那时另一家零售商的Cleanblend就已经卖完了。
He decides to make a purchase. Two weeks later, while whizzing up a morning smoothie in his Cleanblend, he sees the Vitamix has been discounted to just $300, and feels a pang of regret. As this tale indicates, retailers have an incentive to offer discounts early, ahead of rivals, since doing so just might snag them an extra few sales.
他决定购买Cleanblend。两周后，当他在早晨用Cleanblend打奶昔时，看到维他密斯已经打折到仅300美元，于是一阵懊悔袭上心头。正如这个故事所表明的，零售商有动力领先于竞争对手而提前提供折扣，因为这样做可能会为他们多抢到几笔生意。
Some customers might enjoy this long window during which they can peruse discounted goods. But there is an advantage for buyers when they are able to see all offers at once.
有些顾客可能喜欢这么长的窗口期，在此期间他们可以仔细研究打折商品。但是如果买家能够同时看到所有报价，这对他们来说是一种优势。
And anecdotally, at least, the prolonged approach to Black Friday quickly becomes exhausting. Rather than a short frenzy, the discount season feels like a never-ending barrage of targeted advertisements and email reminders.
而且至少根据听说到的情况来看，黑色星期五漫长的预热期很快就会让人筋疲力尽。折扣季并不是短暂的狂热，而像是一场没完没了的定向广告和电子邮件提醒的轰炸。
