Y: 各位听众好。我是杨晨，欢迎您到美语咖啡屋。在今天的节目中...。 哎，我们的另外一位节目主持人,Jody, 还没来哪。Oh, Jody... 别担心，别担心， 她来了...。

( Door closing. Bags rustling.)

J: Yang Chen, I'm so sorry I'm late. Has the program started yet?

Y: 当然已经开始啦。

J: Oh, I'm so sorry everyone. Hello everyone! Welcome to American Cafe. My apologies.

Y: 你怎么今天迟到了?

J: Just go ahead without me. I'm going to get my bags...

(Sound of rustling bags.)

Y: Jody 你干吗呢? 能不能集中点精神？ ... 啊?! 你竟然去逛街去了？

J: Shopping? No, no, no. I was not shopping.

Y: 那这些购物袋是怎么回事儿呢？

J: What bags? Oh, these bags? Right, You see, Yang Chen, I was doing research.

Y: 作研究, 做什么研究啊？

J: Research on ... buying and selling.

Y: 啊哈，作市场调查。那还不是和逛街差不多。

J: Okay, I may have done a little shopping. But I just wanted to get in the mood. Because I thought shopping is such a popular pastime for Americans, we could do a show on shopping. What do you think?

Y: 我知道美国人，特别是女士们周末喜欢逛街。我也很喜欢啊。你下次再作市场调查可要叫我和你一快去啊。

J: Oh, absolutely! Actually for today's show I thought we could talk about a special type of store that I've always wanted to know more about, a consignment store!

Y: Consignment store? 哎, 咱俩那天在Dupont Circle路过的那家店就是一家consignment store,对不对？

J: The one and the same! It's called Secondi Consignment Store. And when I went back, I spoke with Molly, an employee there, who helped me understand exactly how a consignment store operates.

Y: 我们来听听Molly怎么解释consignment store是什么意思。

Molly: A consignment store is a store where people own the items that the store sells for them on their behalf. The original owner of the items is only paid once the items are sold on the store.

Y: 这种商店在中文里应该叫寄售商店。

J: Let's listen to Molly again as she talks more about how a consignment store operates.

Molly: The consigner comes in. One of the managers goes through the items and tells the consigner "Yes, we can sell it" or "No, we can't." "Here's what we think we can sell it for" pricewise. And then the consigner gets 50 percent of that price.

Y: Molly 刚才提到的"consigner"... right?

J: Consigner. Correct.

Y: ... 就是委托他们出售商品的客户。一般来说，客户拿东西到她们商店来，有一位专门负责收购的经理决定哪些她们能卖出去，哪些她们不愿意卖。然后和客户商订价钱，商店会得到售价的50%。

J: Wow, Yang Chen, you summed that up really well. A consigner is the person who brings the clothes in that they want the store, the consignment store, to sell for them. So a consignment is just like being a distributor. You know, a slang word for distributor is "middle man." And you say "middle man" even if it's a woman.

Y: 呣, 在中文里呢, "middle man"应该就是"中间人" 或者"经纪人"的意思。

J: Oh, hey, Yang Chen, also at Secondi they have a great system that keeps the inventory fresh.

Y: 这家商店，就是Secondi这家商店，那么他们怎么避免货品的积压呢？我们再让Molly解释一下。

Molly: After the first month the clothing goes down 20 %, and after the second month it goes down 40%, and after the third month if it's still here, the contract that we have with the consigner is just that we can donate it automatically for them.

Y: 噢，原来她们的货物第一月没卖出去就降价20%，两个月卖不出去就降40%，三个月还卖不出去就要捐出去了。听 Molly 怎么一说，如果我们每天去这家商店，那每天都能看到她们的货架上有新的东西。

J: Oh, they have some really great items there. Some were way out of my price range. Too expensive!

Y: 我知道，你说的 "well out of my price range"就是对我来说价钱太贵了，买不起。

J: But look at my new jeans! $28 and they still had the tag on them!

Y: 才28美元？太值了！好了，各位听众，您今天了解了美国的consignment store，不知道您有什么感想呢？我觉得，我真是一种很不错的消费方法，以低于零售商店的价格买到名牌衣服。这简直就是每个女士的梦想。哎，Jody， 咱们现在就去吧！