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Imagine you’re the grocery selling that Generic Ice Cream.
假设你是卖Generic冰淇淋的超市老板。
There are a lot of reasons for slotting fees.
你有很多理由设置入场费。
There’s have so much shelf space to sell from, and food makers — like Generic —throw too many products at them.
首先，你的货架有那么大的空间，食品供应商——Generic那种——会把大量产品都堆上来。
Slotting fees help the store prioritize.
入场费能让超市按照优先次序选择供应商。
Mary Sullivan wrote early studies defending slotting fees.
Mary Sullivan就率先做过支持入场费的研究。
See this chart? It shows how many new products that manufacturers came up with in the 80s,
看到这张表了吗？这张表显示了80年代制造商推出的新产品的数量，
thanks to technological advances like scanners that made it easier to spin off products.
值得庆幸的是有了扫描仪这样进步的技术，否则要想把产品一个个比对就难了。
Retailers needed to cut through the glut.
零售商需要从大量产品中挑选出他们中意的品牌。
Some argue that slotting fees help the store prioritize.
有人认为入场费能帮助他们优先考虑某些商品。
And as this chart from the Federal Trade Commission shows,
联邦贸易委员会的这张图也显示，
slotting fees are typically higher where space is scarcer,
一般而言，空间越小，入场费越高，
like the ice cream aisle or the candy bar aisle near the checkout.
例如收银台附近的冰淇淋柜或者糖果架。
The purple ice cream here in this chart is clustered at the higher end of the slotting fee scale.
这张图里代表冰淇淋的紫色圆柱就位于入场费高水平的一端。
The FTC and other academics have found that for retailers, slotting fees don’t just cull the offerings,
包括联邦贸易委员会在内的学术界还发现，对零售商来说，入场费不仅能帮助他们确定入驻商家，
but they also help them see that a manufacturer is willing to put their money where their mouth is.
还帮助他们意识到，供货商愿意往他们嘴里送钱。
If you threw $30,000 into a slotting fee for Generic Cookies and Cream,
如果你愿意为Generic曲奇和冰淇淋砸3万美元的入场费，
it might signal to the retailer that you’re able to guess, thanks to market research and other testing, that the product will succeed.
零售商可能就会觉得，你能够，通过市场调研等测试，预料到你的产品会大卖。
The retailer might then decide it’s worth a try, which is important, since 80% of new products fail.
他们可能就会觉得值得一试，试一试也很重要，因为80%的新产品最终都会被淘汰。
The argument’s that slotting fees don’t just offset the costs of adding new products to the system,
他们的看法是，入场费不仅能抵销往产品库添加新产品的成本，
but they also show if a manufacturer thinks a product is a winner.
还能看出供应商对产品有没有信心。
It's a conundrum – the closer you look, the more supermarkets seem rigged,
这是一个难题——你越想上架，超市进行幕后操纵的程度就越高，
but at the same time, the more the rigging makes sense.
这些操纵也显得越合理。
The only thing that’s certain is that behind those freezer doors, and behind that screen, there is a war going on.
唯一可以肯定的就是，在那些冰柜的门背后，在那些屏幕背后，有一场战争正在上演。
The Food Marketing Institute, which represents grocers, told me that Rivlin’s article “seriously mischaracterized the legitimate food industry practice of slotting fees.”
美国食品营销协会——零售业的代表——告诉我，Rivlin的文章“是对食品市场合法的入场费操作的严重扭曲”。
Meanwhile, Rivlin and advocates like him want the FTC to look at slotting fees again.
与此同时，Rivlin等人希望联邦贸易委员会重新审视入场费。
Each retailer has their own strategy —
每个零售商都有自己的策略——
A Walmart spokesperson told me they don’t charge slotting fees because they believe it raises prices.
一位沃尔玛的知情人士告诉我，他们不收入场费，因为他们相信入场费会影响商品价格。
Whole Foods reportedly has a similar stance, preferring free trials of goods to cash.
全食超市也在采访中表达了类似的立场，他们也更倾向于让商家免费入驻。
Both sides have solutions:
两者都有他们自己的算盘：
sellers would rather retailers opt for more test stores to give products a chance, instead of demanding high slotting fees .
与其收取高昂的入场费，供应商宁愿零售商选择给产品在多家门店表现的机会。
And grocers, well, they say slotting fees are necessary to “recoup the labor, spacing and shelving costs entailed in marketing new product lines.”
反过来，零售商则说，他们有必要收取入场费，他们需要入场费来补偿“营销新产品产生的人工费、空间成本、货架成本” 。
They also push in-store brands to take more control —
入场费还能让已经上架的大品牌掌握更多的主动权——
think Trader Joe’s or your grocery’s branded soda —
不妨想想乔氏超市或者你附近超市的品牌苏打水——
and that makes space scarcer for manufacturers.
这样一来，可供其他供应商使用的陈列空间就会变得更为紧张。
Only a few things are certain - your grocery aisle, where you see happy cereal boxes and yummy ice cream — is oddly tense, hide behind a screen tense,
唯一可以肯定的是，你的货架，也就是现在放着赏心悦目的燕麦盒子或者美味的冰淇淋的货架，会出奇得紧凑，你的产品只能被藏在背后，
because large groceries have the ability to keep your product off the shelves with just a snap of their fingers.
因为大超市动动手指就能一直压着你的产品不让其上架。
Selling your Generic Ice Cream is a lot more complicated — and controversial — than you might have realized.
把你的Generic冰淇淋卖出去比你想象得要复杂得多，也有争议地多。
And maybe, now, buying it is too.
消费者要想买到你的冰淇淋也不例外。
Slotting fees are ultimately a form of negotiation,
说到底，入场费只是协商的一种形式，
and even if you don’t pay them, you still might be making compromises.
即便你不交，你可能还是要作出让步。
You could sell your Generic Ice Cream in Trader Joe’s,
你可以在乔氏超市里卖你的冰淇淋，
but if you do, you might have to sign a strict non-disclosure agreement,
但如果你真的这么做，你可能还要签一份保密协议，
promising not to reveal that it’s your ice cream Trader Joe’s is selling under their own brand.
保证你不把乔氏超市用他们的品牌卖你的冰淇淋这件事说出去。
