为什么现在买一台新冰箱这么难

为什么现在买一台新冰箱这么难

A worker pushes a cart past refrigerators at a Home Depot in Boston in January, before the coronavirus pandemic threw a monkey wrench into the supply and demand of major appliances.

今年1月，波士顿一家家得宝的工人推着一辆手推车从冰箱旁经过，当时冠状病毒流行病影响了主要家电的供应和需求。

Shay Chandler did not plan to buy what seemed like the last full-sized refrigerator in all of San Antonio. When her old one broke a few weekends ago, she discovered she'd have to wait almost two months for a replacement.

谢伊·钱德勒并不打算购买似乎是整个圣安东尼奥市最后一台全尺寸冰箱。几个周末前她的旧的坏了，她发现她得等将近两个月才能换一台新的。

"I found out that all I could buy was a mini fridge," she said.

“我发现我只能买一个迷你冰箱，”她说。

Shortages have hit all kinds of major appliances: dishwashers, dryers, dehumidifiers, even some of the microwaves. That's because the pandemic threw a monkey wrench into both their supply and demand.

各种主要家电都出现短缺:洗碗机、烘干机、除湿机，甚至一些微波炉。这是因为流行病给他们的供给和需求都带来了麻烦。

"We sold more freezers in two days than we did all of last year," said Steve Sheinkopf, who runs Yale Appliance with stores outside Boston. "People were storing stuff, because we thought this was the end of times, we needed food."

史蒂夫·谢克普夫是耶鲁家电公司的老板，他在波士顿以外的地方也有分店。他说:“我们两天内就卖出了比去年全年还要多的冰箱。”“人们在储存东西，因为我们认为这是世界末日，我们需要食物。”

At the same time, makers and sellers faced the difficult task of planning for the future. They were calculating how many appliances they would sell later in the year (as in, now).

与此同时，制造商和销售商面临着规划未来的艰巨任务。他们在计算今年晚些时候(比如现在)会卖出多少家电。

And months ago, it was logical for companies to worry that shoppers would stop spending. Businesses closed en masse. Layoffs swept the country. A historic recessionbegan. It made sense for factories to scale back manufacturing plans and for stores to pull back orders.

几个月前，企业担心消费者会停止消费是合乎逻辑的。企业纷纷倒闭。失业席卷全国。一场历史性的衰退开始了。工厂缩减生产计划，商店撤回订单，都是有道理的。

An even bigger factor was the health crisis itself.

一个更大的因素是健康危机本身。

Many factories had to close or allow fewer people inside, slowing down production.

许多工厂不得不关闭或减少人员进入，从而减缓了生产。

Turns out, when people are stuck at home — constantly reheating leftovers and baking bread — things start breaking. Even more so, unable to splurge on trips and outings, people began obsessing over their immediate surroundings, moving to new homes and going wild with home improvement.

事实证明，当人们被困在家里——不停地加热剩菜剩饭和烤面包——东西就开始损坏。更糟糕的是，由于无法在旅行和郊游上挥霍，人们开始沉迷于周围的环境，搬到新家，疯狂地改善家居环境。

Now, experts are warning of backlogs on some appliance brands and models through the end of the year and potentially into 2021.

现在，专家警告说，一些家电品牌和型号的积压可能会持续到今年年底，甚至可能持续到2021年。

"It's kind of the perfect storm of all these factors that are creating this demand, and brands like LG are ramping up to meet it," said John Taylor, chief spokesman for LG Electronics USA. He said his company was less affected by supply disruptions than some others, but it's facing "unprecedented demand" for kitchen and laundry appliances.

美国LG电子公司首席发言人约翰•泰勒表示:“所有这些因素都在创造这种需求，就像一场完美风暴一样，LG等品牌都在努力满足这种需求。”他说，与其他公司相比，他的公司受到供应中断的影响较小，但它面临着对厨房和洗衣用具的“前所未有的需求”。