中国消费者不再"贪便宜"

There are two kinds of "made in China": made in China for export, and made in China to be palmed off on hapless consumers at home.

“中国制造”分两种：一种是用来出口的“中国制造”产品，还有一种是甩给不幸的国内消费者的“中国制造”产品。

For years the gap in quality has been wide. Chinese consumers received the worst that "made in China" had to offer; all the good stuff ended up at Walmart.

多年来，中国出口和内销产品的质量差距一直很大。中国消费者得到是最差的“中国制造”产品；所有质量上乘的产品最终都摆到了国外沃尔玛(Walmart)的货架上。

But now Chinese consumers are what it's all about. Beijing wants an economy driven by domestic consumption, so pleasing buyers at home has taken on a priority. About time. As the balance of consumer power shifts back to the motherland, Chinese consumers have responded by turning into some of the world's most demanding shoppers.

但如今，中国消费者成了关键所在。中国政府希望用内需来拉动经济，因此取悦国内消费者已成为头等任务。早该如此。随着消费力量的重心开始向国内转移，中国消费者的回应是：让自己变成全球需求最旺盛的消费者群体之一。

Everyone from grocers to handbag makers, mall developers to paint mixers, say Chinese consumers are ready and able to pay for world-class goods. Domestic and western retailers can no longer get away with giving them second best.

从杂货商到手袋生产商，从购物中心开发商到涂料搅拌商，所有人都表示，中国消费者有意愿且有能力购买世界一流商品。国内和西方零售商再也不能妄想向中国消费者提供二等货而不受惩罚了。

China even seems to be losing its appetite for fakes. Counterfeit luxury goods, a hit with the girls in the Shanghai typing pool, are losing out to the real thing. Chinese shoppers still like an extra dose of bling on everything, but as salaries and sophistication rise, they prefer their glitz genuine rather than fake.

中国甚至似乎在失去对假货的兴趣。假冒奢侈品曾颇受上海白领女孩的欢迎，但现在正逐渐被正品取代。中国消费者仍希望拥有尽可能多的奢侈品，但随着薪资的增加和修养的提高，他们更希望自己拥有的是真货，而不是假货。

Escada, the women's designer clothing group, has conducted a survey that found a steep drop in Chinese consumer willingness to buy fakes, from 31 per cent in 2008 to 12 per cent by 2010.

设计师女装集团Escada进行的一项调查发现，中国消费者购买假货的意愿大幅下降，从2008年的31%降至2010年的12%。

Fakes were fine when all the Chinese wanted was a logo to flash around. But the country's middle class is learning that there is more to life than showing off.

当中国人想要的是不过一个可以到处炫耀的标识的时候，假货就能大行其道。但中国的中产阶级正逐渐认识到，除了炫耀之外，生活中还有更重要的东西。

No one should expect China's counterfeit markets to disappear. But Max Magni, head of McKinsey's Chinese consumer goods practice in Shanghai, says the market for luxury fakes is growing much more slowly than the real thing, and Chinese consumers are getting harder to please.

没有人会指望中国的假货市场消失。但麦肯锡(McKinsey)驻上海的中国消费品咨询业务主管马思默(Max Magni)表示，奢侈品假货市场的增长速度远远慢于真货市场，中国消费者正变得越来越难取悦。

This plays out in all sorts of markets. Until two or three years ago, Chinese people shopping for a television looked for clarity of sound and picture, and other basic attributes, he says. But now, the average Chinese consumer will not stop there. They will insist on pressing every button on the remote to make sure it does what they want it to do, and testing the screen to make sure it is non-glare.

这体现在各个市场。他表示，两三年前，中国人购买电视时看重的是声音和画面的清晰度以及其他基本功能。但如今，普通消费者不会满足于此。他们会坚持按下遥控器上的每一个键，以确保符合他们的要求，他们还会测试一下屏幕，以确保屏幕是否防眩。

"A lot of people in Europe wouldn't even care about that," says Mr Magni. He sees that attitude not just in rich cities like Shanghai but in many that most of us have never heard of.

马思默表示：“在欧洲，很多人甚至都不会关心这些。”他表示，这种情况不仅出现在上海等富有城市，在我们多数人从未听说过的很多城市也是如此。

When they are not testing TV remotes, middle-class Chinese are squinting at the labels of the foods they feed their children. Quality has become an obsession since the tainted milk crisis of 2008, which sickened hundreds of thousands of infants.

在不测试电视遥控器的时候，中国的中产阶级就会盯着给孩子吃的食品的标签。自从2008年导致数十万婴儿中毒的毒奶粉事件之后，食品质量已成为困扰中国人的一个问题。

Not surprisingly, consumers were annoyed when Walmart was recently accused of labelling common-or-garden pork as organic. They expect that kind of thing from domestic companies but not from foreign multinationals.

毫不令人意外的是，当沃尔玛最近被曝光用普通猪肉冒充绿色猪肉后，消费者会感到愤怒。他们本以为这种事只会出现在国内企业身上，没有想到外国跨国企业也会这样做。

Now that China is getting into the habit of exercising the basic human right to buy non-toxic foods, it is a short step to demanding shoes that do not fall apart in the first week and home appliances that last at least until the next house renovation.

既然中国正在养成行使基本人权购买无毒食品的习惯，那么要求鞋子不会在购买一周内开胶、家用电器至少能坚持到下一次房屋装修，都只是一小步。

Tesco, the UK retailer, says the Chinese middle class is "becoming increasingly sophisticated in the quality of products they purchase", including buying more foreign and high-end brands, not just safer food.

英国零售商特易购(Tesco)表示，中国中产阶级“在产品质量的问题上正变得越来越老练”，包括购买更多国外和高端品牌，而不仅仅是更安全的食品。

Everyone is jumping on the safety bandwagon. Malls and real estate developers are trying to brand themselves as safe by asking impartial international quality inspection companies to verify that their lifts will not plunge or their walls fall down on shoppers.

所有人都加入了安全这个大潮。购物中心和房地产开发商正努力给自己打上安全的钢印，它们邀请中立的国际质检公司来证明它们的电梯不会坠落，或它们的墙不会倒塌砸到消费者。

"From fruit to paint, Chinese are willing to pay for something with a safety seal," says Shaun Rein, author of The End of Cheap China.

《即将消失的廉价中国货》(The End of Cheap China)一书作者雷小山(Shaun Rein)表示：“从水果到涂料，中国人都愿意为有安全标签的商品买单。”

That may sound like good news for multinational brands, because they — rightly or wrongly — are perceived as having the edge on quality.

对于跨国品牌而言，这听上去或许是一个好消息，因为它们——不管这么想是对还是错——向来被视为质量更好一些。

But there is no room for complacency. Chinese consumers are no longer willing to spend blindly on anything foreign for the sake of it.

但它们没有理由自满。中国消费者不再愿意因为这点而盲目地购买外国商品。

The Chinese shopper has come of age, not just in the world's premier shopping destinations but in the malls and high streets back home. "Made in China" will never be the same again.

中国消费者已成熟起来，这不仅仅体现在全球最热门的购物目的地，在中国国内的购物中心和商业区也是如此。“中国制造”再也不会是以前的模样。

Patti Waldmeir is the FT's Shanghai Bureau Chief

本文作者是英国《金融时报》驻上海首席记者

译者:梁艳裳