【ShoppersonBlackFriday，thetraditionalstartoftheholidayshoppingseasoninAmericaarenotoriouslyaggressive．Someevenstartqueuingoutsidestoresbeforedawntobethefirsttolaytheirhandsonheavilydiscountedgoods．Lastyeardest】
Shoppers on Black Friday，the traditional start of the holiday shopping season in America are notoriously aggressive．Some even start queuing outside stores before dawn to be the first to lay their hands on heavily discounted goods．Last year destructive bargain-hunters in the suburbs of New York City trampled a Walmart employee to death．Despite the madness at many stores，however，the global economic recession appears to have accelerated the pace at which shoppers are abandoning physical stores in favor of retailers（零售商） on the cyberspace such as Amazon and eBay．
E-commerce holds particular appeal in poor times as it enables people to compare prices across retailers quickly and easily．Buyers can sometimes avoid local sales taxes online，and shipping is often free．No wonder，then，that online shopping continues to grow even as the offline sort declines．The shift in spending to the Internet is good news for companies like P&G that lack retail shops of their own．But it is a big concern for physical retailers，whose prices are often higher than those of e-retailers，since they must bear the extra expense of running stores．The most obvious response to thetrend for traditional retailers is to redouble their own efforts in the virtual space．
The concept of"multi-channel"shopping，where people can purchase the same items from the same retailer in several different ways online，via their mobile phones and in shops--is gaining ground，and retailers are trying to motivate users of one channel to try another．Growing online traffic may actually increase sales in stores too．Retailers are also trying to make online shopping seem fun and exciting to act against the low economy．One common tactic is to set up"pop--up"stores，which appear for a short time before disappearing again，to develop a sense of novelty and urgency．
33．What does the underlined word"trend"most probably refer to？___
A．The change of purchasing model of
