經濟學人 2018-01-04 Purchasing powder （12-09）

單詞：

funnel V.

it is directed through a narrow space.

proliferate V

increase in number very quickly

peddle V兜售

Someone who peddles things goes from place to place trying to sell them.

It used to worry about entrusting so important a market to squads of anonymous intermediaries

dictate?擺布

If someone dictates to someone else, they tell them what they should do or can do.

haul V.

?which is heavy or difficult to move, you move it using a lot of effort.

外媒這么介紹微信：

The spread of social-networking apps such as WeChat? China’s most popular, brought the business online

代購在歐美和澳大利亞買的東西是不同的：

But whereas daigou in America and Europe procure mainly luxury goods for their customers—

a function of high Chinese tariffs—in Australia they buy mainly vitamins, food and beauty products.

menace

you mean that person or thing is likely to cause serious harm.

There are perhaps 50,000 daigou, stalking the aisles of Australian shops and periodically stripping them? bare?

contaminated V.

contaminated by dirt, chemicals, or radiation, they make it dirty or harmful.

riddle? V. ?

If something is riddled with undesirable qualities or features, it is full of them

charge a fortune

?A firm called the a2 Milk Company? doubled? itsprofit in the year to June thanks to soaring Chinese demand.

infant formula? 嬰兒配方奶粉

fall over themselves ? 自食其力

Businesses fall over themselves to win the favour of the most influential daigou, offering discounts and Chinese marketing materials

entruste? V. 委托：

you make them responsible for looking after it or dealing with it.

句子：

?It used? to worry about entrusting so important a market to squads of anonymous intermediaries

澳大利亞對代購印象不好，不僅造成正常物品的短缺，他們的代購行為也不用交稅

Daigou had earned a bad press in? Australia for creating shortages of certain? goods and for failing to pay tax on their commissions 。

最后一段充分說明代購的影響力！居然用了 heads rolled !!collapsed !!plunged !!

So Bellamy’s decided to funnel its wares to Chinese retailers and e-tailers, who in turn offered big discounts to customers, undercutting the daigou. This approach backfired completely, as daigou abandoned Bellamy’s products. Sales plunged. The firm’s share price collapsed; heads rolled. Bellamy’s recently cut back sales to other distributors, restoring daigou to prime position once again