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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.
正如這個故事所表明的，零售商有動力領先于競爭對手而提前提供折扣，因為這樣做可能會為他們多搶到幾筆生意。
Some customers might enjoy this long window during which they can peruse discounted goods.
有些顧客可能喜歡這么長的窗口期，在此期間他們可以仔細查看打折商品。
But, just as on the Chicago Mercantile Exchange, there is an advantage for buyers when they are able to see all offers at once.
但是就像在芝加哥商業(yè)交易所一樣，如果買家能夠同時看到所有報價，這對他們來說是一種優(yōu)勢。
And anecdotally, at least, the prolonged approach to Black Friday quickly becomes exhausting.
而且至少從傳聞來看，黑色星期五漫長的預熱期很快就會讓人筋疲力盡。
Rather than a short frenzy, fuelled by leftover turkey sandwiches and pie, the discount season feels like a never-ending barrage of targeted advertisements and email reminders.
折扣季并不是由沒賣完的火雞三明治和餡餅而引發(fā)的短暫狂熱，而像是一場沒完沒了的定向廣告和電子郵件提醒的轟炸。
The expansion of Black Friday is not necessarily to the advantage of retailers in aggregate, either.
黑色星期五的延長也不一定對零售商總體有利。
Although there is a benefit to kickstarting a sale before your competitor does, offering discounts six weeks early doubtless means that retailers are giving up full-price purchases.
雖然在競爭對手之前搶先開始促銷有好處，但提前六周提供折扣無疑意味著零售商放棄了讓顧客全價購買。
This dynamic is even clearer with Christmas sales.
這種動態(tài)關系在圣誕節(jié)促銷中更加明顯。
When these actually started on Boxing Day, last-minute present buyers whose demand was surely inelastic (what choice do they have on Christmas Eve?) were forced to pay full price.
當圣誕節(jié)促銷實際是在節(jié)禮日才開始的時候，那些最后一刻才買禮物的人不得不支付全價，因為他們的需求肯定是沒有彈性的（他們在平安夜還有什么選擇呢？）。（注：平安夜是12月24日，圣誕節(jié)是25日，節(jié)禮日是26日，人們一般在圣誕節(jié)互送禮物，節(jié)禮日是給服務業(yè)工作者送禮物。）
Now, more often than not, they are able to snag a last-minute deal.
現(xiàn)在（當促銷時間延長時），最后一刻買家往往能夠在最后一刻買到促銷商品。
If each retailer acts out of rational self-interest, and nudges forward their sales a little each year, the collective problem becomes a little worse each season.
如果所有零售商都出于理性和自身利益行事，并且每年都把自己的促銷稍微提前一點，那么零售商的集體問題每年都會變得更糟一點。
Even if the majority of consumers and retailers might prefer that holiday sales start on Black Friday and last for a short period, the equilibrium cannot hold.
即使大多數(shù)消費者和零售商可能更希望假日促銷從黑色星期五開始，并持續(xù)較短的時間，這種均衡也無法維持。
This kind of market failure, which economists call “unravelling”, is common in “matching markets”, such as job markets for doctors and lawyers.
這種市場失靈（經(jīng)濟學家稱之為“解體”）在“匹配市場”中很常見，例如醫(yī)生和律師的就業(yè)市場。
In his book, “Who gets What—and Why?”, Alvin Roth of Stanford University, who in 2012 shared a Nobel prize for work on matching markets, described how acute the problem once was in the market for clerkships.
斯坦福大學的阿爾文·羅思在他的《誰得到了什么——以及為什么？》中描述了書記員市場的問題曾經(jīng)有多么嚴重，羅思曾在2012年因在匹配市場方面的研究而與人共同獲得諾貝爾獎。
Although judges in the most prestigious courts were more than happy to wait to see who was the most talented student at Harvard University before offering them a clerkship, there was a strong incentive for judges in slightly less prestigious courts to make earlier offers to students who were very likely to be at the top of their piles, so as to pinch the best.
雖然最負盛名的法院的法官非常樂意先等等看，誰是哈佛大學最有才華的學生，然后再為他們提供書記員職位，但對于稍次一等的法院的法官來說，他們有強烈的動機盡早向那些極有可能名列前茅的學生提供職位，以便搶到最好的學生。
This forced the most prestigious courts to respond.
這迫使最負盛名的法院必須做出回應。
As a consequence, offers crept earlier and earlier. They also “exploded”.
結果是書記員offer（錄用通知）給得越來越早，而且還“爆炸”了。
For early offers to work they had to expire.
要想讓提前給出去的offer有作用，就必須給這些offer設定有效期。（注：迫使學生盡快接offer，防止優(yōu)秀學生被其他法院搶走。）
Mr Roth recounted the tale of a student in 2005 who boarded a flight from one interview to another and received an offer from the judge he had just met via voicemail while taxiing.
羅斯講述了2005年一個學生的故事，這個學生結束一場面試后就乘飛機去趕下一場面試，在飛機起飛滑行時，他通過語音信箱收到了剛剛給他面試的法官給的offer。
By the time he landed the offer had been pulled.
等飛機落地時，給他的offer已經(jīng)被撤回了。
The flight was just 35 minutes long.
整個飛行過程只有35分鐘。
When it comes to clerkships, judges have managed to establish rules about how offers ought to be made, which has helped reduce the scale of the problem.
對于書記員職位，法官們現(xiàn)在已經(jīng)設法制定了關于如何給offer的規(guī)則，這有助于使問題不那么嚴重。
Alas, no such solution is possible for retailers—clubbing together to decide how best to sell things would understandably be frowned upon by competition regulators.
唉，零售商不可能有這樣的解決方案——如果他們聯(lián)合起來決定如何最好地賣出商品，競爭監(jiān)管機構肯定會反對這種做法，這是可以理解的。（注：這有壟斷和操控市場之嫌。）
By 2035 Black Friday might, therefore, be a summertime affair.
因此到2035年，黑色星期五可能會從夏季就開始了。
