Name: 不是報時用的！為什麼英國超市有鐘樓？ (Why do UK supermarkets have clock towers?)
Uploaded: 2025-02-08T21:01:10.000Z
Duration: 3 min 56 s

程度副詞

So many supermarkets in the UK have one of these, but have you ever actually looked at one of them?

在英國，很多超市都有這樣的設備，但你真正看過嗎？

情態副詞

Like, have you noticed that most of them don't actually show the real time?

比如，你有沒有注意到，他們大多數其實並不會顯示實際的時間？

A clock tower on a supermarket, if you think about it, it doesn't make any sense.

如果你仔細想想，超市上的鐘樓是沒有任何意義的。

I mean, this isn't a town square, it's a car park.

我是說，這裡不是城市廣場，而是停車場。

And it's clearly not serving any functional purpose because it's not even set right.

而且它顯然沒有起到任何功能性作用，因為它甚至都沒有設置好。

So why do so many supermarkets built in the 80s and 90s have one of these?

那麼，為什麼許多建於八零、九零年代的超市都有這樣的設備呢？

And is it just a coincidence that that's also the time the supermarkets basically took over our country?

超市基本上也是在那個時候接管了我們的國家，這僅僅是巧合嗎？

If I ask you to imagine what a supermarket should look like, you'll find it pretty easy, because you've seen hundreds of them.

如果我讓你想象一下超市應該是什麼樣子，你會發現這很容易，因為你已經見過數百家超市了。

But when they were designing Britain's first edge-of-town supermarket in Nottinghamshire, it was a blank slate.

但是，當他們在諾丁漢郡設計英國第一家城邊超市時，這裡還是一片空白。

And although people didn't know what a supermarket should look like, they decided pretty quickly that it shouldn't look like this.

儘管人們不知道超市應該是什麼樣子，但他們很快就認定超市不應該是這個樣子。

These early supermarkets were based on designs from America.

這些早期的超市是根據美國的設計建造的。

And for a while, the novelty of the store that sells everything was enough to make people look past the ugly exterior.

有一段時間，這傢什麼都賣的商店所帶來的新奇感足以讓人們看清它醜陋的外表。

They claim that everything here is cheaper.

他們聲稱這裡的一切都更便宜。

And how frightened are people of these small shopkeepers?

I don't see anybody in town going down to the hypermarket in the middle of the week for a cauliflower or a couple of corned potatoes, you see.

我沒看到鎮上有誰會在一週中去大賣場買一棵花椰菜或幾個醃洋芋，你明白嗎？

Unfortunately, that's exactly what was starting to happen.

不幸的是，這正是開始發生的事情。

Once the stores were built, people seemed to flock to them.

商店建成後，人們似乎蜂擁而至。

But as the 1970s rolled around, it was getting harder and harder to get them built in the first place.

但隨著1970 年代的到來，要想在第一時間建造這些建築變得越來越困難。

The architecture critic Lance Wright said that the retailers had chosen the image of the concentration camp.

建築評論家蘭斯-賴特說，零售商選擇了集中營的形象。

And local councils were starting to become uncooperative as well.

Clearly, a new design was going to be needed.

Over in Essex, a new town was being built.

在埃塞克斯郡，一座新城正在興建。

And the council wanted to put a supermarket right next to the town square.

議會想在市政廣場旁邊建一個超市。

But they had a very strict design guide, which required all buildings to have specific Essex characteristics.

但他們有非常嚴格的設計指南，要求所有建築都必須具有埃塞克斯的特定特徵。

And so ASDA came up with an idea. 15 miles away, in a town called Coggeshall, there is a 14th century barn and a Victorian clock tower.

於是，ASDA 想出了一個主意。在 15 英里外一個叫 Coggeshall 的小鎮上，有一座 14 世紀的穀倉和一座維多利亞時代的鐘樓。

I haven't found solid proof that this is where they got the idea, but these two buildings are suspiciously similar to their final design.

我沒有找到確鑿證據證明這就是他們的創意來源，但這兩座建築與他們的最終設計疑似相似。

This was the first supermarket that looked like this.

It's next to a town square, so it fits in perfectly.

它毗鄰城市廣場，所以非常適合。

It still wasn't working when I went there, but still, ASDA was onto something here.

我去的時候時鐘還是沒在動，不過，ASDA 在這方面還是做得不錯的。

Turns out if you want to design a supermarket that fits into a local area, you've got to go out, do your research, find some local references, build something that really fits.

事實證明，如果你想設計一家適合當地的超市，你就必須走出去，做調查，找一些當地的參考資料，建造一些真正適合當地的超市。

A design that was tailor-made for one community became a template that was pasted across the nation.

為一個社區量身定做的設計成了一個模板，在全國各地粘貼。

The original reason for the clock tower was forgotten, and the design became known as the Essex barn style.

人們忘記了建造鐘樓的初衷，這種設計後來被稱為埃塞克斯穀倉風格。

By 1979, ASDA was using the South Wood and Ferro store to try and cast off the image of the ugly supermarket.

到 1979 年，ASDA 利用南伍德和費羅商店試圖擺脫醜陋超市的形象。

If you're of the opinion that a superstore means an eyesore, we hope the evidence from South Wood and Ferro's will make you think twice.

如果你認為超級市場有礙觀瞻，我們希望來自 South Wood 和 Ferro's 的證據能讓你三思。

By the mid-90s, supermarkets had taken over retail.

到了 1990 年代中期，超市接管了零售業。

This design had served its purpose, so it was done away with, in favour of designs that are easier and cheaper to mass-produce.

這種設計已經達到了它的目的，所以被淘汰，取而代之的是更易於大規模生產、成本更低的設計。

More recent supermarkets occasionally have clock towers, but that's just because it's kind of an expected thing now.

最近的超市偶爾也會有鐘樓，但那只是因為現在人們對鐘樓已經習以為常了。

Supermarkets sometimes have clock towers.

And sometimes, if you're really lucky, they might even show the correct time.

有時，如果你真的很幸運，它們甚至會顯示正確的時間。