The people fighting price rises by trying to buy nothing
By Natalie Sherman & Michelle Fleury
Business reporters, New York

消费者群体试图通过什么都不买来对抗价格上涨
作者：Natalie Sherman 和 Michelle Fleury
纽约商业记者
2022年2月8日



“什么也不要买”群组的图标：下方文字为：给予、共享、共建

Prices in the US soared 7% last year - the biggest annual increase in nearly four decades. Now US consumers - whose spending powers the world's largest economy - are starting to signal they have had enough.

美国的物价去年总体飙升了 7%，是近 40 年来最大的年度涨幅。现在美国消费者——他们是全世界消费能力最强大的经济体——开始表明他们已经受够了。

"I find now, that I'm constantly tracking the cost of certain items," Sevan Tavoukdjian says. "It's changed which items I buy."

“我现在发现，我一直在跟踪许多东西的价格，”塞万·塔沃克吉安说。“它改变了我购买消费品的方式。”
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The 34-year-old actor moved into his own apartment in New York City last month and when he saw how much it would cost to furnish it, he was shocked at the prices being charged.

这位 34 岁的演员上个月刚刚搬进了自己在纽约市的公寓，当他看到装修需要花多少钱时，对需要支付的价格感到了震惊。

So, he scrapped plans to buy furniture and instead sent a message to his neighbourhood “Buy Nothing” Facebook group, where people offer unwanted items for free.

因此，他放弃了购买家具的计划，转而向他所在社区的“不要买任何东西”脸书群组发送了一条信息，在那里人们免费交换各种不需要的物品。

“I thought, 'I’m going to go broke just buying the basic necessities'," he says. “I would have loved to buy a new couch, but the prices are like, ‘Well – No’.”

“我当时想，光是购置最基本的必需品我就要破产了，”他说，“我本来很想买一张新沙发，但一看到价格就像在说，‘好吧——还是算了吧’。”

The thrifty savers attempting a No Spend January
Surging food prices push UK inflation to 30-year high
US prices rise at fastest rate in nearly 40 years

关联链接的内容为：
节俭的储蓄者试图一月不花钱
食品价格飙升将英国通胀推至 30 年高位
美国物价以近40年来最快速度上涨

The average American family had to spend roughly $3,500 (£2,600) more last year than in 2020 for the same goods and services due to inflation, according to researchers at the University of Pennsylvania Wharton School.

据宾夕法尼亚大学沃顿商学院的研究人员称，由于通货膨胀，去年美国家庭平均不得不比 2020年多花费大约 3,500 美元（约合2,600 英镑）购买相同的商品和服务。

Housing costs were up 4.2%, grocery bills jumped 6.3% and clothing prices were 5.8% higher. Living and dining furniture - like Mr Tavoukdjian was seeking - saw one of the biggest spikes, rising more than 17%.

住房成本上涨了4.2%，杂货费用上涨了6.3%，服装价格上涨了5.8%。生活和餐厅家具——就像Sevan先生所需要寻求的那样——出现了最大的涨幅之一，涨幅超过了17%。

But salaries have not kept up with the increases, pushing people to forego purchases, substitute cheaper alternatives, or - like Sevan - hunt for something free.

但是工资并没有跟上增长的速度，这迫使人们放弃购买，寻求更便宜的替代品，或者像塞万一样寻找免费的东西。

The situation has driven a surge in activity on neighbourhood exchanges such as the Buy Nothing Project, the group Mr Tavoukdjian turned to when he wanted to furnish his apartment, building on growth since the start of the pandemic.

这种情况推动了社区成员交易的活动激增，例如“不要买任何东西”这样的脸书群组，塞万先生在他想装修自己的公寓时求助于该组织，该组织建立在自疫情大流行开始后。

Membership in the group has more than doubled over the past two years to more than 5.3 million globally. It recently added an app to cope with demand.

该组织的成员在过去两年中增加了一倍多，全球成员超过了530万人。它最近新制作了一个手机应用程序来应对（剧增的）需求。

At Freecycle, a similar site where participants typically offer up some 20,000 items each day, the number of posts each day has increased by about 15% in recent months, driven by the financial concerns, founder, Deron Beal says.

群组创始人 Deron Beal 说，在 Freecycle，一个与其类似的网站上，参与者通常每天提供大约 20,000 件商品，近几个月来，由于财务问题，每天的帖子数量增加了约 15%。

"People, understandably, they're buying petrol or going to the store and seeing high prices...seek to pinch their pennies a little bit and Freecycle... is a good alternative," he says.

“人们，可以理解的是，当他们正在购买汽油或去商店看到高价时......试图节省他们的每一个便士，而Freecycle网站......是一个很好的选择，”他说。

Even families with higher incomes, who might ordinarily be insulated from the pressures, are reconsidering their ordinary spending, says Tania Brown, a financial planner based in Georgia, with more than 20 years' experience.

拥有 20 多年经验的佐治亚州理财规划师 Tania Brown 表示，即使是通常不受物价压力影响的高收入家庭，也正在重新考虑他们的日常开支。

“There is an across-the-board sense of worry about inflation: ‘How long is this going to last, how this is going to impact their daily life',” she says. “I am definitely hearing differences and changes.”

“人们普遍担心通货膨胀：'这将持续多久，这将如何影响他们的日常生活'，”她说。“我肯定已经听到了这些差异和变化。”

Financial planner Tania Brown says even clients with higher incomes are noticing price pressures
The squeeze contributed to a pullback in consumer spending in December - a deceleration that is likely to continue, says Kathy Bostjancic, chief US financial economist at Oxford Economics.

牛津经济研究院首席美国金融经济学家 Kathy Bostjancic 表示，支出紧缩导致了去年12月份的消费者支出回落——这种减速仍可能会持续下去。

Her firm expects consumer spending growth of around 3.5% this year – still strong, but a marked slowdown from last year’s massive 8% gain, not including inflation.

她的公司预计今年消费者支出将增长 3.5% 左右——仍然强劲，但与去年 8% 的大幅增长相比明显放缓，而且其中不包括通货膨胀。

“Consumers, both out of price 'sticker shock', and also frustration that the… choices they have available are so lean, have decided to make alternative choices – whether that’s not to buy at all, or find a second-hand couch,” she says.

“消费者，既出于物价的‘贴纸冲击’，也对他们现有的选择如此贫乏感到沮丧，他们决定做出其他选择——无论是根本不在采购，还是寻找二手沙发，”她说。

Given the mix of factors driving inflation - supply chain hold-ups, labour shortages, government stimulus and more - it's hard to say when households will get some relief from falling prices, if demand wanes, says economist Zheli He, who worked on the University of Pennsylvania research.

在该宾夕法尼亚大学工作的经济学家何哲力表示，鉴于推动通胀的因素——供应链停滞、劳动力短缺、政府刺激措施等等——很难说即便需求减弱，家庭何时能从价格下跌中得到一些缓解。

Purchases of some hard-to-substitute items, such as petrol, have kept rising despite dramatic price gains, she says.

她说，尽管价格大幅上涨，但汽油等一些难以替代的商品的购买量一直在上升。

"People just have to spend on them [hard-to-swap items] so, the higher prices will just drive up their cost of living," she says.

她说：“人们必需要在它们（难以通过交换获得的商品）上花钱，因此，更高的价格只会继续推高他们的生活成本。”

Mr Tavoukdjian, who has been grappling with cuts to his hours teaching as an adjunct literature professor, says he's been amazed by what people are offering in his local Buy Nothing group: everything from never-been-used pillows and plates, to hand-me-down children's toys and clothes - and sometimes more off-beat items such as breast milk.

Tavoukdjian 先生一直在努力削减他作为兼职文学教授的教学时间，他说他对当地的 Buy Nothing 群组中的人们提供的东西感到惊讶：从从未使用过的枕头和盘子到旧儿童玩具和衣服 - 有时还有更另类的物品，例如母乳。

His own plea for help was amply answered. Within days, he had transformed his bare-bones New York City studio into a home, adding five chairs, two small tables, two lamps, a sofa, rug, microwave, toaster, several sets of dishes, paintings and half a dozen throw pillows.

他自己的求助请求得到了充分的回应。几天之内，他把他在纽约市的简陋工作室变成了一个家，增加了五把椅子、两张小桌子、两盏灯、一张沙发、地毯、微波炉、烤面包机、几套盘子、装饰画和六个抱枕.

But the shock of the prices from his initial search has lingered.

但他最初搜索时昂贵价格对他造成的冲击一直挥之不去。

When his vacuum cleaner broke recently, he didn't pull out his wallet for a new one. He headed to Buy Nothing for help.

最近他的吸尘器坏了，他没有掏出钱包去买个新的。他也前往“什么都不要买”群组寻求帮助（维修）。

“They’ve made a massive difference,” he says. “It’s amazing what’s out there.”

“他们使我做出了巨大的改变，”他说。“这些东西真是太棒了。”