Exit Carrefour
家乐福，十字路口
Carrefour's presence in Thailand is similarly modest.
家乐福在泰国的表现并不算出色
Whereas Britain's Tesco has become the country 's biggest grocery chain, Carrefour lies in a distant fourth place.
在英国的特易购成为泰国最大的连锁店的同时，家乐福的排名却只有第四。
Across the border in Malaysia it trails well behind Tesco and two other foreign retailers.
在马来西亚全境，家乐福都要远远落后于特易购和其他两家外国零售商。
And so, with a Gallic shrug, Carrefour is closing up shop in much of South-East Asia. Its 44 stores in Thailand, 23 in Malaysia and two in Singapore are for sale.
对于这种现状，家乐福摆出一副“责不在我，我也没辙”的姿态，陆续关闭东南亚大部分的门店。它准备出售44 家泰国店，23 家马来西亚店以及2家新加坡店。
Potential buyers are said to include Tesco and Casino, a French firm that already has a Thai joint venture, Big C. Analysts reckon that Carrefour's stores could fetch up to $1 billion.
据说潜在买家有特易购和卡西诺，后者是一家拥有泰国合资企业Big C 的法国公司。分析师估算，家乐福的竞购价可以达到10亿美元。
Carrefour was one of the first foreign grocers to open shops in South-East Asia in the 1990s. But the later-arriving Tesco proved cannier in figuring out what consumers wanted.
家乐福是上世纪90 年代最早在东南亚开设分店的外国零售商之一，但是后来者特易购似乎更了解客户的需求。
When the firm found out that Thai shoppers traveled for miles by bus to its “big-box” stores, it opened smaller stores in rural towns.
当特易购发现泰国消费者需要乘坐几英里的公交车才能到它的大型卖场后，就开始在乡间小镇里开设小型门店。
Carrefour focused on Bangkok's higher spenders and stuck to its hypermarket format.
而家乐福则定位于曼谷的高端消费群体，坚持“大型卖场”路线。
Toby Desforges, founder of Engage, a marketing consultancy, calls this the “take it or leave pressure from activist shareholders to reverse the firm's global expansion and focus on Europe.
市场分析机构Engage 的创始人之一将家乐福的这种做法释为“要么接受，要么摒弃”。最终，泰国消费者选择了将它摒弃。家乐福的股东们一直在给首席执行官罗盛施加压力，要求他停止家乐福在全球的扩张计划，而专注于欧洲市场。
Mr. Olofsson has said he prefers to leave markets where Carrefour is not one of the top two retailers or has little hope of becoming one.
罗盛说，家乐福在有些地区不是市场的领头羊，也没希望成为领头羊，他倾向于放弃这些市场。
For all that, Carrefour's retreat from South-East Asia may be ill-timed. Compared with Europe, the region 's economy is buoyant.
不管怎么样，家乐福选择从东南亚退出的时机不对。和欧洲比，这里的经济生机蓬勃。
Thailand's modern retail sector is growing rapidly despite the country's political turmoil. The same is true of Malaysia.
虽然历经政治动荡，泰国的现代零售业仍在快速发展。马来西亚也是如此。
As incomes rise, more shoppers will opt to drive to large, air-conditioned stores. Some might even develop a taste for French cheese.
当收入增加时，更多购物者愿意驱车前往宽敞大气、空调开放的超市。有些人甚至还会迷上法国奶酪呢。
