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Business.
商業。
Consumer goods in India.
印度的日用消費品。
Seducing shoppers in Sticksville.
吸引小城市消費者。
India's small towns are the next frontier.
下一個前沿陣地：印度的小城市。
GROWTH in India is slowing. The economy expanded at an annualised rate of 5.3% between January and March, the slowest for seven years. Shoppers are scrimping. Sales of consumer durables fell by 10-15% in the year to March 2012, executives say. Indian factories cranked out 30% fewer air conditioners and 15% fewer colour televisions, official data show.
印度的經濟增長正在放緩。在一月到三月間，經濟年均增長率為5.3%，是七年來的最低值。消費者越來越省吃儉用。管理層說，今年到三月間，耐用品的銷量下降了10%至15%。 據官方數據顯示：印度生產的空調數量下降了30%，彩電數量下降了15%。
Yet there is a bright spot: small-town shoppers are starting to splurge. Godrej, a family-owned conglomerate, saw its sales of white goods drop by over a tenth in big cities in the past fiscal year. But sales in towns of less than 100,000 people rose by 19%, and in villages by over 40%. Bajaj, another conglomerate, says small-town and rural sales have risen handily in recent years, to a quarter of its home-appliances business. Sales of motorbikes and mopeds have decelerated more gently than cars, an urban luxury.
但也要看到光明之處：小城市的消費者開始大方起來。上一個財政年度里，家族企業Gofrej集團在大城市的家用電器銷量下降了十分之一。但是人口少于十萬人的小城市里的銷量卻上升了19%，在鄉村，這一數字上漲了40%。另一家大型企業巴賈杰指出，近年來，小城鎮和農村地區的銷量不斷上升，達到了其家用電器總份額的四分之一。汽車是城市里的奢侈品，盡管摩托車、小機動車和汽車的銷量都有所下降，但不及汽車銷量下降的迅速。
"As far as I am concerned, the slowdown is not having an effect," beams C.S. Gurubaran, as he plies customers with fizzy drinks in his home-appliances shop in Chengalpattu. Two years ago Mr Gurubaran would sell a dozen washing machines a month at most in this dusty town of 64,000 people in south India. He now sells that many a week. Fridges, food processors and fans are also shifting more quickly. A bride's parents often buy a whole set of white goods as a dowry.
"在我看來，增長放緩還沒有開始產生后果，"C.S古魯巴朗笑著說，在帕圖（地名）的家用電器店里，他用汽水來招待顧客。兩年前，在這個印度南部僅有64000人口的灰蒙蒙的小城里，古魯巴朗每月最多賣十幾臺洗衣機。現在，冰箱，食品加工機和風扇的銷量增長更加迅速。新娘的父母通常都買一整套的家用電器作為嫁妝陪嫁。
Government subsidies, good monsoons, high land prices and a low reliance on credit have thus far sheltered these consumers. Chengalpattu's shoppers are mostly farmers who benefit from government-fixed floor prices for crops. Some have also made big sums by selling fields to developers. Poorer shoppers from nearby villages make money from a government scheme that guarantees 100 days of work a year.
這些消費者拿著政府的補助，得益于充沛的雨季，高額的地價，他們對于信貸的依賴程度很低，這些都使他們免于經濟增長放緩的影響。帕圖的顧客大都是農民，他們享受政府制定的糧食底價。一些人因將地賣給了開發商而賺一大筆錢。附近村子的人們要窮一些，政府一項政策規定：只要他們保證一年工作滿一百天，就能掙到錢。
Such subsidies and schemes pushed up rural incomes by 12% last year, according to Kotak Institutional Equities, a broker. Rural incomes have grown more rapidly than urban ones since 2008.
據經紀公司Kotak Institutional Equitie研究機構稱， 這些補助和計劃推動了農村地區居民收入上漲了12%，從2008年開始，農村地區的收入比城市收入增長的要快。
Indian firms sense a fortune to be made by selling rustic folk their first fridges. Shekhar Bajaj, the head of Bajaj Electricals, the wing of the conglomerate that sells home appliances, wants to start reaching rural buyers directly and cutting out costly middlemen (such as Mr Gurubaran). Last year Mr Bajaj launched a chain, Bajaj World, mostly for rural areas. It now has 11 stores, one in a town of just 20,000 people. Mr Bajaj hopes to have 70 by next spring. "We never looked at these markets…[but] a couple of years ago we started looking at this because we need to continue to grow," he says.
印度的企業已經隱隱地嗅到了商機，他們將冰箱賣給鄉下人從中獲利。巴賈爾家用電器是巴賈爾集團最為重要的下屬公司之一。其總經理卡爾?巴賈爾籌劃通過直營的方式將電器賣到農村顧客的手上，撇除要抽取大量費用的中間商（例如古魯巴朗先生）。巴賈爾先生建立了一條名為"巴賈爾世界"的銷售鏈瞄準農村地區。 現在，它共有11家門店，其中有一家開在了僅有20000人口的小城，巴賈爾先生希望明年春天開到70家門店。他表示"此前，我們從沒有注意過這些市場，（但是）幾年前，為了保持繼續的增長，我們開始尋找新市場"
Godrej is pushing even deeper into the hinterland, trying to reach villages with as few as 5,000 people. It is also designing washing machines with manual motors and tiny fridges for homes with unreliable electricity.
戈德爾正努力將生意擴展到那些只有5000人小村子的窮鄉僻壤去。同時，它還為那些居住在電力不穩定地區的家庭設計了手動驅動的洗衣機以及微型電冰箱。
Foreign firms such as Samsung and Panasonic are following suit. Mahesh Krishnan, who heads Samsung's home-appliances division in India, hopes to increase the firm's presence in rural shops by a fifth in time for November's Diwali festival, a big shopping season. Foreign firms typically have skimpier distribution networks than their local rivals, but their products are more popular where they are available. A foreign brand is often a status symbol.
諸如三星、松下等外國企業也緊隨其后。三星印度地區家用電器負責人麥海士?克里斯南希望在11月大型購物節-排燈節之前，將其在農村地區的份額提升五分之一。外國企業的分銷渠道確實不如印度本土企業的多，但他們的產品在出售地區卻更加受歡迎。外國品牌通常是身份的標志。
As India gets richer, rural folk are becoming more entwined with the national economy. Ramesh Iyer, the managing director of Mahindra & Mahindra Financial Services, a rural lender, now has 2m customers, twice as many as he had in 2008. "As they move up the chain, the demand for credit will only get higher," he says. "They are getting aspirational."
印度變得越來越富，鄉下人和國家經濟的聯系越來越緊密。農村借貸機構馬辛德拉 & 馬辛德拉金融服務的總經理拉梅什?伊艾現在有200萬名客戶，這一數量是他在2008年的客戶數量的兩倍，"當他們在產業鏈上向上移動的時候，信貸的需求就隨之增加"他說道，"他們現在雄心勃勃"
Chengalpattu's shopkeepers are upbeat. A motorcycle vendor says families are buying one bike per adult, rather than one for everyone to share, as they did a few years ago. Mr Gurubaran has started stocking 3D televisions that cost 95,000 rupees ($1,700) a pop. Viewers will doubtless see even more new products to crave.
帕圖的店家都很興奮。一位經營摩托車的店主說現在每家都是成年人人手一輛車，而不是像十幾年前一樣，每家只有一輛，大家合伙騎。古魯巴朗也開始進了3D電視的貨，每臺要95000盧比，（1700美元）。毫無疑問，看電視的人將看到更多想買的東西。
However, rural shoppers cannot always be relied on to splurge. Their wealth often depends on handouts rather than increased productivity. A poor monsoon curbs spending for a whole year—light rains in June are causing jitters, though the forecast for the whole year is still good. Life in small-town India may be better, for now, but it is precarious.
然而，不能總是指望鄉下人會大手筆買東西。他們的收成是看老天的眼色，而不是依賴增長的生產力。一個糟糕的雨季會讓一家人一年的生活都很拮據--盡管整年的預報總體上是好的，但六月里，零星的雨點就會使人們精神緊張。現在，印度的小城市的生活可能已經大有改善，但仍過的是提心吊膽，憂心忡忡的日子。
