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.
  乌鲁木齐曾经是古代丝绸之路的中转站，而随着家乐福(Carrefour)在这个中国西部穆斯林聚居区最著名的清真寺旁开设了一家大型超市，东西方商业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.” 
  周五的祷告结束后不久，这个超市里就挤满了最近“皈依”这家法国零售商的购物者。“这里的东西的确有一点贵。”库尔班?瓦哈卜(Kurban Wahab)一边拿着铁钎子在成架的羊肉中精挑细选，一边说道：“但是，在这里，我知道我买的是新鲜的、经过检验的东西。”

  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.
  中国商品的安全丑闻在那些把生产业务外包给中国的跨国公司中掀起了一波恐慌浪潮。但是，对于那些寻求在中国扩张的国际零售商来说，对安全的关注也是一个巨大的机遇，因为它们正把目标对准刚刚富裕起来的中国人，而这些人正越来越关心自己所消费产品的质量。

  “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.
  科尔尼(AT Kearney)上海办事处的张天兵表示：“过去几年的食品恐慌，对品牌商品和零售商来说是个好消息。”

  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.
  家乐福和沃尔玛都正在中国大举扩张，都希望中国业务日后能成为自己的中流砥柱。家乐福在中国37个城市拥有101家大型超市；沃尔玛有86家，并且正在收购多至100家好又多旗下的门店。

  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，当零售商从中国沿海地区向内地挺进、以寻找新的消费者时，由于物流基础设施比较原始，它们在保证产品质量方面面临着巨大挑战。

  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. 
  在这点上，没有什么地方比乌鲁木齐更明显了。乌鲁木齐是个拥有200万人口的城市，毗邻哈萨克斯坦边界，是家乐福中国业务迄今为止最为偏远的前哨。这家法国集团的高管表示，从将近2000英里外的北京开来的卡车，要花7天时间才能到达。

  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. 
  家乐福中国区首席执行官罗国伟(Eric Legros)强调，该集团只使用通过其质量检测的食品生产商。但是，在乌鲁木齐超市的卸货入口可以看出，运输系统显然靠不住：一辆运载水果的货车到达这里，车上的水果只是用旧毯子裹放在一起。

  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. 
  据科尔尼称，中国跟美国面积差不多，人口是美国的4倍，但全中国只有3万辆冷冻卡车，而美国有28万辆。这种卡车是食品长途保鲜系统的一个重要部分。

  “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.
  “因为基础设施比较薄弱，如果你在这么偏远的内陆城市开店，物流成本要高得多，”中国人民大学教授黄国雄指出。“它们得用很多年时间才能赢利。”

  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#分页标题#e#
  零售商们还必须迎合中国人之间差异巨大的口味偏好。家乐福在乌鲁木齐有3家分店，其中两家位于汉族聚居区，他们喜欢的东西与上海和北京的消费者类似。汉族是中国的主要民族。

  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，在二道桥清真寺附近的那家超市，其所处位置是维吾尔族和中国西部其他穆斯林少数民族的聚居区，因此，货架上摆放的是杏干、杏仁、藏红花和各种葡萄干。戴着明亮头巾的妇女们排队购买成袋的干薰衣草。羊肉和牛肉属于清真食物，而作为中国最常见的肉类，新鲜猪肉在此难觅踪迹。

  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. 
  家乐福在中国如此偏远的地区大举扩张，得益于该公司采取的分散化经营策略。这种策略让每个分店的管理者拥有足够的灵活性，以满足消费者的不同口味。

  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.
  不过，这种自主权也导致了一些质量违规事件。去年，该公司的一家门店被查出销售过期猪肉，因而遭到当局的罚款；还有一家门店因销售假冒LV手袋而遭到起诉。本月，有8名负责肉类采购的管理人员被警方拘捕，原因是涉嫌收受回扣。驻上海的零售业咨询顾问保罗.弗伦奇(Paul French)表示：“家乐福的体制让他们具有了更大的灵活性，但不利之处是这种体制也造成了更大的腐败空间。”

  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，尽管中国那些喜欢看跨国公司笑话的当地媒体对此大肆渲染，但这家法国集团在乌鲁木齐的消费者之中仍然享有高质量的声誉。

  “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.”
  一位名叫张丽的家庭主妇说道：“你在附近一些商店购买牛肉的时候，他们有时会卖给你马肉或羊骆驼肉，并且会缺斤短两。在这里，至少我知道我买的究竟是什么。”