Shopping
- There are people who love shopping, but
some people absolutely hate it and think it´s extremely boring.
People often need to go to shops every day, because they need fresh food or toiletries, e.g. bread, milk, meat, vegetables, toilet paper or shampoo. We usually buy these products in different types of small shops, like the baker´s where we buy bread, rolls, buns and cakes; the butcher´s where we get pork, beef, fish and poultry; and the greengrocer´s where we buy fruits and vegetables. If you need to buy medicine, you can get them at the chemist´s in Britain and a drugstore or a pharmacy in the USA. When we need to buy other items such as shoes, books, clothes, records or a couch we go to a shoe shop, bookshop, clothes shop or boutique, and furniture shop. - We buy flowers at the florist´s, jewellery at the jeweller´s and high quality food. If you a DIY (do it yourself) person and like doing repairs at home or like working in the garden you go to an ironmonger´s or a hardware store to get nails, a hammer, a spade, or whatever else you may need. There are lots of people who can´t imagine their day without reading the newspaper, so they go to a newsagent´s to pick up their morning paper, weekly magazine or just chewing gum.
- More and more people nowadays prefer
shopping in large department stores or at shopping centres/ malls. A
department store is a very large shop divided into several big sections.
Each of them sells one type of thing, such as clothes, furniture or
household appliances. Department stores are found both in city centres and
the suburbs of towns, usually with a large car park next to them. Shopping
in these places has a lot of advantages:
1. Customers can get almost everything under one roof and save time because they don´t have to run from one small shop to another.
2. They can buy large amounts of goods. More they can use a shopping trolley, and then easily get everything they bought back to their car to put into the boot. Prices are usually lower in department stores, too, and there are also special sales and bargains at different times of the year. - Disadvantages:
On the other hand, shopping in department stores or shopping centres has some disadvantages.
First of all, you buy goods you didn´t want or need to buy, so you spend more money.
Secondly, you spend a lot of time shopping, because the centres are very large and often overcrowded, when you do the shopping at weekends.
Moreover there are fewer shop assistant so it´s difficult to find one when you need some advice. - Shopping centres often offer additional services, like a post office, banks offering loans and insurance and tourist agencies. They also have restaurant and cafés where you ca relax after finishing up your shopping. Some even have large cinemas, and some people only go to the mall to see films.
- Many people prefer to buy their fruits and vegetables, and even other things, at an outside market, where people buy and sell all types of things. Markets are especially popular with people at weekends. They are noisy and often overcrowded, but people can walk from stall to stall, touching and tasting products.
- Shopping is a big business nowadays. Commercials and advertisements are everywhere, in newspapers and magazines, on TV, even on buses, trams and trains. Shopping centres use special strategies, like double packaging, rearranging goods, special offers and bargains. They try to influence customers and increase their profit.