2020年经济学人 疫情之下，英国娱乐的回归(2)（在线收听）

The layout of its shops is being tweaked to discourage people from lingering at high-traffic spots. “The government can give regulations. I think you go beyond... The thing that we’re looking at is reassurance,” says John Bason of Associated British Foods, which owns Primark. The hand sanitiser, for instance, is not merely plonked onto tables but installed in solidlooking fixtures.

商店的布局正在调整，以防止人们在繁忙的地方逗留。英联食品和Primark的老板表示：“政府可以制定规章制度。我认为你超越了……我们看到的是保证。”例如，洗手液不仅被塞进桌子上，而且被安装在看起来很结实的固定装置上。

Perhaps the unlikeliest leisure business preparing to reopen is the cinema. Pubs can space tables farther apart and shops can allow in fewer customers. But going to the cinema means spending hours in a small, enclosed space, breathing the same air as others. That does not phase Tim Richards, who runs Vue, a chain of cinemas. Attendance has been dwindling for years, which could turn out to be an advantage: “I think what’s important to recognise is that our occupancy rate tends to be around 20%, so for us to manage our customers coming in is relatively easy to do.”

可能准备复工的商业中最不愉快的是电影院了。酒吧可以把桌子隔得更远，商店可以准入更少的顾客。但是去电影院意味着在一个狭小封闭的空间里度过几个小时，和别人呼吸一样的空气。这并不是蒂姆·理查兹正在面临的阶段，他经营着Vue，一家连锁影院。多年来上座率一直在下降，这可能是一个优势：“我认为重要的是要认识到，我们的上座率往往在20%左右，所以对我们来说，管理我们的客户进入相对容易。”

Mr Richards’s plan is to stagger screening times in a cinema’s different auditoria, with no two films starting at the same time, so as to stop people hanging around together buying popcorn. Ticketing systems will ensure that any booking—whether for a couple or a family of five—is surrounded by empty seats. Vue will open cinemas gradually, once it is allowed to, with the formal reopening on July 17th planned for the release of Christopher Nolan’s “Tenet”, a film in which a secret agent must save the world. At the very least, he might help save the cinema.

理查兹先生的计划是错开电影院里不同的影厅的放映时间，同一时间不会放映两部电影，以阻止人们聚在一起买爆米花。售票系统会确保一切预定——无论是一对夫妇还是一家五口——会被空座位包围。一旦被允许，Vue将逐步开放影院，并计划于7月17日正式重新上映克里斯托弗·诺兰的《特尼特》，一部特工拯救世界的电影。至少，他可以帮助拯救电影院。