S2180108
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S2. 农民游行的历史（历史类）
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The Farmers' parade of history
A History of Farmer trading company: In 1909 Robert Laidlaw establishes mail-order company Laidlaw Leeds in
Fort Street, Auckland. Then, Branch expansion: purchase of Green and Colebrook chain store; further provincial
stores in Auckland and Waikato to follow. Opening of first furniture and boot factory. In 1920, Company now has
29 branches; Whangarei store purchased. Doors open at Hobson Street for direct selling to public. Firm establishes
London and New York buying offices. With permission from the Harbour Board, the large FARMERS electric
sign on the Wyndham Street frontage is erected.
B In 1935, if the merchandise has changed, the language of the catalogues hasn't. Robert Laidlaw, the Scottish
immigrant who established the century-old business, might have been scripting a modern-day television
commercial when he told his earliest customers: Satisfaction, or your money back." It was the first money back
guarantee ever offered in New Zealand by any firm," says Ian Hunter, business historian. "And his mission
statement was, potentially, only the second one ever found in the world." Laidlaw's stated aims were simple to
build the greatest business in New Zealand, to simplify every transaction, to eliminate all delays, to only sell goods
it would pay the customer to buy.
C This year, the company that began as a mail-order business and now employs 3500 staff across 58 stores turns
100. Its centenary will be celebrated with the release of a book and major community fundraising projects, to be
announced next week. Hunter, who is writing the centenary history, says "coming to a Farmers store once a week
was a part of the New Zealand way of life". By 1960, one in every 10 people had an account with company. It was
the place where teenage girls shopped for their first bra, where newlyweds purchased their first dinner sets, where
first pay cheques were used to pay off hire purchase furniture, where Santa paraded every Christmas.
D Gary Blumenthal's mother shopped there, and so does he. The fondest memory for the Rotorua resident? "We
were on holiday in Auckland ... I decided that up on the lookout tower on top of the Farmers building would be a
unique place to fit the ring on my new fiancée's finger." The lovebirds, who had to wait for "an annoying youth" to
leave the tower before they could enjoy their engagement kiss, celebrate their 50th wedding anniversary in June.
E Farmers, says Hunter, has always had a heart. This, from a 1993 North & South interview with a former board
chairman, Rawdon Busfield: "One day I was in the Hobson Street shop and I saw a woman with two small
children. They were clean and tidily dressed, but poor, you could tell. That week we had a special on a big bar of
chocolate for one shilling. I heard the woman say to her boy, 'no, your penny won't buy that'. He wasn't wearing
shoes. So I went up to the boy and said, 'Son, have you got your penny?' He handed it to me. It was hot he'd had
it in his hand for hours. I took the penny and gave him the chocolate."
F Farmers was once the home of genteel tearooms, children's playgrounds and an annual sale of celebration for
birthday of Hector the Parrot (the store mascot died, aged 131,in the 1970s his stuffed remains still occupy pride of
place at the company's head office). You could buy houses from Farmers. Its saddle factory supplied the armed
forces, and its upright grand overstrung pianos offered "the acme of value" according to those early catalogues
hand-drawn by Robert Laidlaw himself. Walk through a Farmers store today and get hit by bright lights and big
brands. Its Albany branch houses 16 international cosmetics companies. It buys from approximately 500 suppliers,
and about 30% of those are locally owned.
G "Eight, 10 years ago," says current chief executive Rod McDermott, "lots of brands wouldn't partner with us.
The stores were quite distressed. We were first price point focused, we weren't fashion focused." Remove the
rose-tinted nostalgia, and Farmers is, quite simply, a business, doing business in hard times. Dancing with the Stars
presenter Candy Lane launches a clothing line? "We put a trial on, and we thought it was really lovely, but the
uptake wasn't what we thought it would be. It's got to be what the customer wants," says McDermott.
H He acknowledges retailers suffer in a recession: "We're celebrating 100 years because we can and because we
should." Farmers almost didn't pull through one economic crisis. By the mid 1980s, it had stores across the country.
It had acquired the South Island's Calder Mackay chain of stores and bought out Haywrights. Then, with sales
topping $375 million, it was taken over by Chase Corporation.
I Lincoln Laidlaw, now aged 88, and the son of the company's founder, remembers the dark days following the
stockmarket crash and the collapse of Chase. "I think, once Farmers was like a big family and all of the people who
worked for it felt they were building something which would ultimately be to their benefit and to the benefit of
New Zealand… then the business was being divided up and so that kind of family situation was dispelled and it
hasn't been recovered." For a turbulent few years, the stores were controlled, first by a consortium of Australian
banks and later Deka, the Maori Development Corporation and Foodland Associated Ltd. In 2003, it went back to
"family" ownership, with the purchase by the James Pascoe Group, owned by David and Anne Norman, the latter
being the great-granddaughter of James Pascoe, whose first business interest was jewellery.
J "Sheer power of the brand," says McDermott, "pulled Farmers through and now we're becoming the brand it
used to be again." Farmers was the company that, during World War II, topped up the wages of any staff member
disadvantaged by overseas service. Robert Laidlaw a committed Christian who came to his faith at a 1902
evangelistic service in Dunedin concluded his original mission statement with the words, "all at it, always at it,
wins success". Next week, 58 Farmers stores across the country will announce the local charities they will raise
funds for in their centenary celebration everything from guide dog services to hospices to hospices to volunteer fire
brigades will benefit. Every dollar raised by the community will be matched by the company. "It's like the rebirth
of an icon," says McDermott.
Questions 14-18
The reading Passage has ten paragraphs A-J.
Which paragraph contains the following information?
Write the correct letter A-J, in boxes 14-18 on your answer sheet.
14 Generosity offered in an occasion for helping the poor
15 Innovation of offer made ahead of modern-time business by the head of company.
16 Fashion was not chosen as its strong point.
17 A romantic event on a memorial venue dedicating to Farmers.
18 Farmers was sold to a private owned company.
Questions 19-23
Complete the following summary of the paragraphs of Reading Passage
Using NO MORE THAN TWO WORDS from the Reading Passage for each answer.
Write your answers in boxes 19-23 on your answer sheet.
Farmers was first founded as a 19……… in Auckland by Mr. Laidlaw.
Farmers developed fast and bought one 20………then.
During oversea expansion, Farmers set up 21……… in major cities outside New
Zealand
Farmers held a 22……… in a sale once a year for the company's mascot animal.
Some senior employee considered Farmers as a 23……… both for themselves and
for whole country.
Questions 24-26
Use the information in the passage to match the people (listed A-C) with opinions or deeds below.
Write the appropriate letters A-C in boxes 24-26 on your sheet.
NB you may use any letter more than once
A Lincoln Laidlaw
B Rod McDermo
C Ian Hunter
24 Product became worse as wrong aspect focused.
25 An unprecedented statement made by Farmers in News Zealand.
26 Character of the company was changed.
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S2180108 & Related Question Answers
14 E 15 B 16 G 17 D
18 I 19 mail-order company 20 chain store 21 buying offices
22 celebration 23 big family 24 B 25 C
26 A