If the shoe fits . . . but you don’t buy it, you could soon be tarred with the same brush as shoplifters by shoe store owners.
如果鞋子合脚，你却不买，鞋店老板可能把你当作冒充顾客进店行窃的扒手对待——这种事情在不久以后可能成为现实。
Worried retailers are increasingly frustrated by people they dub “fit-lifters” who use stores to find the best-fitting shoes before buying them online at a lower price.
现在有一些人把商店当做试鞋间、选好款式后上网以更便宜的价格购买。忧心忡忡的零售商们对这种事情感到越来越头疼。他们称这种人为“试穿贼”(fit-lifter)。
Bricks-and-mortar shops have higher salary and rental costs than internet rivals and store owners say some online buyers are freeriding on their resources. “You’ve come in and stolen that service basically,” said Richard Napier of Idaho Mountain Trading, an outdoor sports store in Idaho Falls, who calls fit-lifting unethical.
与电商相比，实体商店的人员和租金成本更高。实体店的老板们称，一些网购顾客正在白蹭他们的资源。爱达荷瀑布市(Idaho Falls)一家户外运动品商店——爱达荷登山用品商店(Idaho Mountain Trading)的理查德•内皮尔(Richard Napier)称，在实体店试穿、然后在网上购买的行为是不道德的。他说：“你来店里、然后偷走了那项服务，基本就是这么回事。
“It’s not that the salesperson didn’t have somebody else to serve who would have bought something. So not only have you stolen the wages. I have a loss of revenue that he would have collected from another customer.”
“销售人员并不是没有别的顾客要招呼——那些真正想买点东西的顾客。因此，你偷走的不仅是商店支付给销售人员的工资，还有本来可能从其他顾客那里获得的销售收入。”
It is common for online shoppers to research products in stores in other retail sectors such as bookselling – a practice named “showrooming” – and smartphones make it possible to buy online even while still in a store. But the trend is particularly contentious in footwear because staff spend so much time fetching boxes and advising customers on comfort.
在图书等其他零售领域，网购者在商店里“研究产品”是很常见的行为。这种行为被称为“参观陈列室”，并且只要有智能手机，“参观者”在实体店里面的时候就可以在线购买某样产品。但这种趋势在鞋类零售业中引起了特别大的争议，因为鞋类商店的员工花了那么多时间为顾客取鞋，提供有关鞋子舒适度的建议。
Tensions have been heightened by the price advantage that ecommerce gains from the fact that many online shoppers do not have to pay state and local sales tax, which add between 5 and 10 per cent.
许多网购者无需向州和地方缴纳销售税（通常占售价的5%至10%），这赋予电商一项价格优势，加剧了实体店的不满。
Following years of lobbying by bricks-and-mortar stores, the US Senate is expected today to pass a bill that would help end tax-free online shopping. But it still faces opposition in the House of Representatives.
经过实体商店多年的游说，美国参议院预计将在今日通过一项法案，将有助于终结网上购物免税的局面。但该法案在众议院仍面临阻力。
Gary Weiner, owner of Saxon Shoes in Virginia and a board member of the National Shoe Retailers Association in the US, said shoe-sellers were “very concerned” about fit-lifting.
弗吉尼亚州Saxon Shoes老板、美国国家鞋类零售商协会(National Shoe Retailers Association)理事加里•韦纳(Gary Weiner)表示，鞋类商店“非常担心”在实体店试穿、然后在网上购买的行为。
“We also hear ‘My mother sent me in to get my size fitted so she can buy them online’. Those exact words,” he said. “We’re a polite people. So we give them the time of day.”
韦纳说：“我们还听过‘我妈让我来试鞋码，这样她可以在网上买’这种话。一字不差。我们是有教养的人。所以我们仍然招待他们。”
Asked if he had considered refusing, he said: “We think about it every single time. Do we say it? No. You can’t say it out loud.”
在被问及是否考虑过拒绝提供服务，韦纳说：“我们每次都考虑拒绝。但我们说出来了吗？没有。这种话没法说出口。”
Zappos, an online shoe-seller owned by Amazon, encourages shoppers to order two or more different sizes, which they can return for free, in an effort to overcome customer reluctance to buy without trying.
亚马逊(Amazon)旗下在线鞋类商城Zappos鼓励购买者同时预订两种或两种以上鞋码，并提供免费退货服务，以打消顾客没有试穿不敢购买的心理。