英語美文閱讀:沃爾瑪發跡訣竅

How did a peddler of cheap shirts and fishing rods become the mightiest corporation in America?The short version of Wal-Mart’s rise to glory goes something like this：In 1979 it racked up a billion dollars in 1993 it did that much business in a we ek;by 2001 it could do it in a day.

It’s a stunning tale -- one that propelled Wal-Mart from rural Arkansas，where it was founded in 1962，to the top of the Fortune 500 this Walton，Wal-Mart’s founder，pushed sales growth relentlessly while squeezing costs with sophisticated information exhorted employees to sell better with the“ten-foot rule”(greet customers if they are that close) was，in other words，an early evangelist for the first commandment of today’s economy：Service -Mart，in fact，is the first service company to rise to the top of the Fortune Fortune first published its list of the largest companies in America in 1995，Wal-Mart didn’t even year General Motors was America’s biggest company，and in every year that followed，either GM or another mighty industrial，Exxon，was NO.1.

Wal-Mart’s achievement caps a bigger economic shift -- from producing goods to providing facturing’s share of oyment peaked in 1953，at 35% has been declining steadily the decade that will end in 2010，the Bureau of Labor Statistics figures that goods-producing industries will create 1.3 million new jobs，compared to 20 million for service look at it another way，today there are about four times as many people working in service jobs as in other kinds of even within manufacturing，services are an increasingly large share of operations.

As America got richer consumption got more more income to throw around，people started spending more on services -- movies and travel，mortgages to buy houses，insurance to protect those houses，the occasional decadent weekend at a luxury hotel.

Economists call this a shift in the demand pattern;Fortune calls it the main reason that 64 of this year’s top 100 are service the next few years，only three of the ten fastest-growing occupations(software engineers，nurses，and computer support)pay middle-class rest could be called，well，Wal-Mart kinds of jobs -- cashiers，retail assistants，food service，and so short，the service economy is delivering more good jobs than ever before.

[參考譯文]一個出售廉價襯衣和釣魚竿的商店是如何成為美國實力最強的公司的?沃爾瑪百貨公司的發跡史可以濃縮為以下三個階段：1979年它全年的銷售額為10億美元;到1993年，一週就能達到這個數額;在2001年僅需一天之功。

這是一個驚人的故事——這個1962年始創於阿肯色州鄉村地區的沃爾瑪百貨公司在今年一躍登上了《財富》500強的榜首。公司創始人薩姆·沃爾頓一面千方百計提高銷售額，一面以先進的資訊科技降低成本。他以嚴格的“10英尺規則”(向在這距離之內的顧客致意)鼓勵員工提高銷售質量。換句話說，他是當今經濟戒律——服務規則——的'第一位傳道者。事實上，沃爾瑪百貨公司是第一個躍居《財富》500強榜首的服務業公司。1955年，當《財富》雜誌第一次公佈美國最大公司的排名時，沃爾瑪甚至尚未問世。那一年，通用汽車公司是美國最大的公司，此後不是通用汽車公司就是另一個大公司——埃克森公司獨佔鰲頭。

沃爾瑪的成就還標誌著一個更重要的經濟轉變——從生產商品向提供服務的轉變。1953年美國製造業的就業人數佔總就業人數的比例達到最高點——35%，從此就開始逐年下降。根據勞工統計局的數字，到2010 年底的未來10年間，製造業將創造130萬個就業機會，而服務業創造的就業機會將高達2000萬個。換一個角度看，今天在服務業中工作的人數大約是其他行業的4倍。即使在製造業中，服務在業務經營中所佔的比例也越來越大。

隨著美國人的富裕程度日益提高，消費也變得越來越複雜，人們開始把更多的錢花在服務方面——看電影、旅遊、抵押買房、為房屋保險、偶爾到豪華飯店度個奢侈週末。經濟學家稱這種現象為需求變化;《財富》雜誌則認為這是本年度評出的100家最大公司中有64個是服務業公司的主要原因。在未來幾年，10種發展最快的職業中只有3種(軟體工程、護士和電腦支援)能夠提供中等收入，其餘的都可稱作沃爾瑪式的職業——收銀員、售貨員、食品服務，以及諸如此類的職業。總之，同過去相比，服務業正在提供更多相當不錯的就業機會。