Eastern and western commerce are mingling again in Urumqi, once a pit-stop on the old Silk Road, at a Carrefour hypermarket next door to the most famous mosque in this heavily Muslim area of western China.
  烏魯木齊曾經是古代絲綢之路的中轉站，而隨著家樂福(Carrefour)在這個中國西部穆斯林聚居區最著名的清真寺旁開設了一家大型超市，東西方商業再次在此融合在一起。

  Shortly after Friday prayers, the store is thronging with shoppers, recent converts to the French retailer. “It is certainly a bit more expensive here,” says Kurban Wahab, picking through racks of lamb with a metal stick to check for the best cut. “But here I know what I am getting is fresh and has been checked by inspectors.” 
  周五的禱告結束后不久，這個超市里就擠滿了最近“皈依”這家法國零售商的購物者。“這里的東西的確有一點貴。”庫爾班?瓦哈卜(Kurban Wahab)一邊拿著鐵釬子在成架的羊肉中精挑細選，一邊說道：“但是，在這里，我知道我買的是新鮮的、經過檢驗的東西。”

  Safety scandals involving Chinese goods have sent a wave of panic through multinational companies that outsource production to China. But for international retailers looking to expand there, the safety concerns are an enormous opportunity as they seek to target newly affluent Chinese who are increasingly worried about the quality of the produce they consume.
  中國商品的安全丑聞在那些把生產業務外包給中國的跨國公司中掀起了一波恐慌浪潮。但是，對于那些尋求在中國擴張的國際零售商來說，對安全的關注也是一個巨大的機遇，因為它們正把目標對準剛剛富裕起來的中國人，而這些人正越來越關心自己所消費產品的質量。

  “The food scares over the past few years have been great news for branded goods and retailers,” says Zhang Bing, at the Shanghai office of consultants AT Kearney.
  科爾尼(AT Kearney)上海辦事處的張天兵表示：“過去幾年的食品恐慌，對品牌商品和零售商來說是個好消息。”

  Carrefour and Wal-Mart are both expanding aggressively in China, which they hope could become a mainstay of their businesses in the future. Carrefour has 101 hypermarkets in 37 cities, while Wal-Mart has 86 and is in the process of acquiring up to 100 stores belonging to the Trust-Mart chain.
  家樂福和沃爾瑪都正在中國大舉擴張，都希望中國業務日后能成為自己的中流砥柱。家樂福在中國37個城市擁有101家大型超市；沃爾瑪有86家，并且正在收購多至100家好又多旗下的門店。

  Yet as the retailers move inland from China's coastal areas in search of new customers, they are facing huge challenges in ensuring the quality of their products because of primitive logistics infrastructure. 
  然而，當零售商從中國沿海地區向內地挺進、以尋找新的消費者時，由于物流基礎設施比較原始，它們在保證產品質量方面面臨著巨大挑戰。

  Nowhere is this more apparent than in Urumqi, a city of 2m near the border with Kazakhstan and by far the most remote outpost of Carrefour's China operations. Executives from the French group say it takes seven days for a truck to arrive from Beijing, which is nearly 2,000 miles away. 
  在這點上，沒有什么地方比烏魯木齊更明顯了。烏魯木齊是個擁有200萬人口的城市，毗鄰哈薩克斯坦邊界，是家樂福中國業務迄今為止最為偏遠的前哨。這家法國集團的高管表示，從將近2000英里外的北京開來的卡車，要花7天時間才能到達。

  Eric Legros, chief executive of Carrefour in China, insists the group uses only food producers that have passed the group's quality tests but the precarious transport system is evident at the supply entrance to the Urumqi store, where a flatbed truck arrives with fruit held in place only by old blankets. 
  家樂福中國區首席執行官羅國偉(Eric Legros)強調，該集團只使用通過其質量檢測的食品生產商。但是，在烏魯木齊超市的卸貨入口可以看出，運輸系統顯然靠不住：一輛運載水果的貨車到達這里，車上的水果只是用舊毯子裹放在一起。

  According to AT Kearney, there are only 30,000 refrigerated trucks in the whole of China, a country with a similar area to the US and with four times the population. In the US there are 280,000 such trucks, an essential part of the system of keeping food fresh over long distances. 
  據科爾尼稱，中國跟美國面積差不多，人口是美國的4倍，但全中國只有3萬輛冷凍卡車，而美國有28萬輛。這種卡車是食品長途保鮮系統的一個重要部分。

  “The logistics costs are much higher when you have stores in cities so far inland because the infrastructure is weaker,” says Huang Guoxiong, a professor at Renmin University in Beijing. “It will take them a number of years before they can be profitable.
  “因為基礎設施比較薄弱，如果你在這么偏遠的內陸城市開店，物流成本要高得多，”中國人民大學教授黃國雄指出。“它們得用很多年時間才能贏利。”

  Retailers also have to cater for very different tastes around the country. Carrefour has three stores in Urumqi, two of which are in neighbourhoods populated mostly by Han Chinese, the country's dominant ethnic group. Their favourite items are similar to those of shoppers in Shanghai and Beijing.#p#分頁標題#e#
  零售商們還必須迎合中國人之間差異巨大的口味偏好。家樂福在烏魯木齊有3家分店，其中兩家位于漢族聚居區，他們喜歡的東西與上海和北京的消費者類似。漢族是中國的主要民族。

  However, the hypermarket beside the Erdaqiao mosque is in an area dominated by ethnic Uighurs and other Muslim minorities from western China, so the shelves carry rows of dried apricots, almonds, saffron and different varieties of raisins. Women in bright headscarves queue for bags of dried lavender. The lamb and beef is halal; fresh pork – the most popular meat in China – is nowhere to be seen.
  然而，在二道橋清真寺附近的那家超市，其所處位置是維吾爾族和中國西部其他穆斯林少數民族的聚居區，因此，貨架上擺放的是杏干、杏仁、藏紅花和各種葡萄干。戴著明亮頭巾的婦女們排隊購買成袋的干薰衣草。羊肉和牛肉屬于清真食物，而作為中國最常見的肉類，新鮮豬肉在此難覓蹤跡。

  Carrefour's aggressive expansion into such remote parts of China has been helped by the decentralised model it has adopted, which gives individual store managers flexibility to adapt to different consumer tastes. 
  家樂福在中國如此偏遠的地區大舉擴張，得益于該公司采取的分散化經營策略。這種策略讓每個分店的管理者擁有足夠的靈活性，以滿足消費者的不同口味。

  However, such autonomy has also led to some breaches of quality standards. The group received a fine last year after one store was found to be selling pork past its sell-by date, while another was sued for selling fake Louis Vuitton handbags. This month, eight officials involved in meat purchasing were detained by police over allegations of accepting bribes. “The Carrefour system allows them to be much more flexible, but the downside is that it opens up a lot more space for corruption,” says Paul French, a retail industry consultant in Shanghai.
  不過，這種自主權也導致了一些質量違規事件。去年，該公司的一家門店被查出銷售過期豬肉，因而遭到當局的罰款；還有一家門店因銷售假冒LV手袋而遭到起訴。本月，有8名負責肉類采購的管理人員被警方拘捕，原因是涉嫌收受回扣。駐上海的零售業咨詢顧問保羅.弗倫奇(Paul French)表示：“家樂福的體制讓他們具有了更大的靈活性，但不利之處是這種體制也造成了更大的腐敗空間。”

  However, even though such problems have been widely aired in local media, which like to analyse the missteps of multinationals, the French group still enjoys a reputation for good quality among its customers in Urumqi.
然而，盡管中國那些喜歡看跨國公司笑話的當地媒體對此大肆渲染，但這家法國集團在烏魯木齊的消費者之中仍然享有高質量的聲譽。

  “When you buy beef at some of the shops around here, they sometimes try to sell you horse meat or even camel and they cheat you on the scales,” says Zhang Li, a housewife. “Here at least I know exactly what I am getting.”
  一位名叫張麗的家庭主婦說道：“你在附近一些商店購買牛肉的時候，他們有時會賣給你馬肉或羊駱駝肉，并且會缺斤短兩。在這里，至少我知道我買的究竟是什么。”