2007-11-03, Walmart: Muscling Manufacturers 沃尔玛困局
时间：2018-12-30 作者：英语课 分类：国家地理2007年
英语课
I wanted to see how this bold new world of retail 1 power it changed the game for established brand-name manufacturers, so I headed to Wooster, Ohio, a small college town, and a long-time home to one of the American's best known brands - Rubbermaid, maker 2 of plastic pails, garbage cans and all kinds of containers.
"We were one of the best-known brand names in America, because we were in virtually every home one way or another. "
Very very impressive display here.
Well, these are ...
Stanley Gault was CEO of Rubbermaid for the 1980s and early 90s. Gault bet Rubbermaid's future on supplying big box discount chains like Wal-mart.
The tea leaves said "You'd better be a part of this growing, of these growing new segments", they provided a tremendous opportunity for a growth and for volume sales, and they can take a new product and make it a success overnight.
One of Gault's rising lieutenants 3 was Wolfgang Schmitt, who would later become CEO.
Well, there is a dramatic shift over, over a relatively 4 short period of time, as we went from thousands of customers that we were selling to. To where 5 or 7 of our customers represented two thirds of our volume.
These big box retailers 5?
The big box mass merchants. You have to have a very tight relationship with them, and you have to be important to them.
No customer was more important to Gault than Wal-mart.
When I came to Rubbermaid, er, they didn't sell Wal-mart, they were selling K-mart, but they wouldn't sell Walt-mart. Well, within a short period of time, Walt-mart, really, within a year they were our largest customer.
Tired of dragging your garbage to the end of the drive, then roll it, with a roughneck wheeled refuse container from Rubbermaid. Heavy-duty construction…
The Wal-mart account helped fuel Rubbermaid's rapid growth. Sales and profits soared.
Rubbermaid, ideas that last.
Its products were so highly regarded for quality that Rubbermaid was voted the nation's most admired company in 1994.
It is really your peer group, the other manufacturers out there in the world saying, this is the company that is really doing it, they are doing all the things right, and they are doing the things that make them very admired, our brand-name, our quality, our product development.
But behind the headlines, Rubbermaid was struggling to maintain its ambitious growth targets, then suddenly it found itself in a showdown with its biggest customer.
The price of resin 6 skyrocketed and resin is a huge component 7 of any plastic product that you make. And when we went out with a price increase across the industry, to all retailers, saying, our raw material costs have increased significantly, we have to get a price increase for our products. Wal-mart would not take that price increase. They flat-out refused to take the price increase.
Other mass retailers agreed to a price hike and Rubbermaid CEO flew to Arkansas to ask Bill Fields, head of Wal-mart's stores, to reconsider.
They were very public in those days as you might recall, as were a lot of retailers about saying one of the advantages we as big box-retailer dealers 8 have is we can put the hammer to the manufacturers and we can give American consumers lower prices.
So did Fields put the hammer to you?
Oh, in his own way, certainly.
I thought it was a vindictive 9 kind of meeting that said, "Yes, you may be Rubbermaid, and you are a big Rubbermaid, and you/ got the great name and all that, but you are not gonna tell us what to do, and we are not gonna take your price increase and we really don't care what it does to you.
So what does it mean to you? Do you lose shelf-space, do you lose volume to Wal-mart, at that point?
Sure, you know, when push comes to shelf, their way of disciplining the supplier, is to show that you know volume can be given or it can be taken.
And they dropped a number of our products for a couple of years, just drop those products, that impacts the company tremendously. To me it was one of the first signs of the decline of Rubbermaid.
"We were one of the best-known brand names in America, because we were in virtually every home one way or another. "
Very very impressive display here.
Well, these are ...
Stanley Gault was CEO of Rubbermaid for the 1980s and early 90s. Gault bet Rubbermaid's future on supplying big box discount chains like Wal-mart.
The tea leaves said "You'd better be a part of this growing, of these growing new segments", they provided a tremendous opportunity for a growth and for volume sales, and they can take a new product and make it a success overnight.
One of Gault's rising lieutenants 3 was Wolfgang Schmitt, who would later become CEO.
Well, there is a dramatic shift over, over a relatively 4 short period of time, as we went from thousands of customers that we were selling to. To where 5 or 7 of our customers represented two thirds of our volume.
These big box retailers 5?
The big box mass merchants. You have to have a very tight relationship with them, and you have to be important to them.
No customer was more important to Gault than Wal-mart.
When I came to Rubbermaid, er, they didn't sell Wal-mart, they were selling K-mart, but they wouldn't sell Walt-mart. Well, within a short period of time, Walt-mart, really, within a year they were our largest customer.
Tired of dragging your garbage to the end of the drive, then roll it, with a roughneck wheeled refuse container from Rubbermaid. Heavy-duty construction…
The Wal-mart account helped fuel Rubbermaid's rapid growth. Sales and profits soared.
Rubbermaid, ideas that last.
Its products were so highly regarded for quality that Rubbermaid was voted the nation's most admired company in 1994.
It is really your peer group, the other manufacturers out there in the world saying, this is the company that is really doing it, they are doing all the things right, and they are doing the things that make them very admired, our brand-name, our quality, our product development.
But behind the headlines, Rubbermaid was struggling to maintain its ambitious growth targets, then suddenly it found itself in a showdown with its biggest customer.
The price of resin 6 skyrocketed and resin is a huge component 7 of any plastic product that you make. And when we went out with a price increase across the industry, to all retailers, saying, our raw material costs have increased significantly, we have to get a price increase for our products. Wal-mart would not take that price increase. They flat-out refused to take the price increase.
Other mass retailers agreed to a price hike and Rubbermaid CEO flew to Arkansas to ask Bill Fields, head of Wal-mart's stores, to reconsider.
They were very public in those days as you might recall, as were a lot of retailers about saying one of the advantages we as big box-retailer dealers 8 have is we can put the hammer to the manufacturers and we can give American consumers lower prices.
So did Fields put the hammer to you?
Oh, in his own way, certainly.
I thought it was a vindictive 9 kind of meeting that said, "Yes, you may be Rubbermaid, and you are a big Rubbermaid, and you/ got the great name and all that, but you are not gonna tell us what to do, and we are not gonna take your price increase and we really don't care what it does to you.
So what does it mean to you? Do you lose shelf-space, do you lose volume to Wal-mart, at that point?
Sure, you know, when push comes to shelf, their way of disciplining the supplier, is to show that you know volume can be given or it can be taken.
And they dropped a number of our products for a couple of years, just drop those products, that impacts the company tremendously. To me it was one of the first signs of the decline of Rubbermaid.
v./n.零售；adv.以零售价格
- In this shop they retail tobacco and sweets.这家铺子零售香烟和糖果。
- These shoes retail at 10 yuan a pair.这些鞋子零卖10元一双。
n.制造者，制造商
- He is a trouble maker，You must be distant with him.他是个捣蛋鬼，你不要跟他在一起。
- A cabinet maker must be a master craftsman.家具木工必须是技艺高超的手艺人。
n.陆军中尉( lieutenant的名词复数 )；副职官员；空军；仅低于…官阶的官员
- In the army, lieutenants are subordinate to captains. 在陆军中，中尉是上尉的下级。 来自《现代汉英综合大词典》
- Lieutenants now cap at 1.5 from 1. Recon at 1. 中尉现在由1人口增加的1.5人口。侦查小组成员为1人口。 来自互联网
adv.比较...地，相对地
- The rabbit is a relatively recent introduction in Australia.兔子是相对较新引入澳大利亚的物种。
- The operation was relatively painless.手术相对来说不痛。
零售商，零售店( retailer的名词复数 )
- High street retailers reported a marked increase in sales before Christmas. 商业街的零售商报告说圣诞节前销售量显著提高。
- Retailers have a statutory duty to provide goods suitable for their purpose. 零售商有为他们提供符合要求的货品的法定义务。
n.树脂，松香，树脂制品；vt.涂树脂
- This allyl type resin is a highly transparent, colourless material.这种烯丙基型的树脂是一种高度透明的、无色材料。
- This is referred to as a thixotropic property of the resin.这种特性叫做树脂的触变性。
n.组成部分，成分，元件；adj.组成的，合成的
- Each component is carefully checked before assembly.每个零件在装配前都经过仔细检查。
- Blade and handle are the component parts of a knife.刀身和刀柄是一把刀的组成部分。
n.商人( dealer的名词复数 )；贩毒者；毒品贩子；发牌者
- There was fast bidding between private collectors and dealers. 私人收藏家和交易商急速竞相喊价。
- The police were corrupt and were operating in collusion with the drug dealers. 警察腐败，与那伙毒品贩子内外勾结。
adj.有报仇心的，怀恨的，惩罚的
- I have no vindictive feelings about it.我对此没有恶意。
- The vindictive little girl tore up her sister's papers.那个充满报复心的小女孩撕破了她姐姐的作业。