Obchod a služby
A shop is a place where we can buy things, where things are sold. Shopping is an act of choosing and buying products in order to use them.
SHOPPING FACILITIES – obchodné zariadenia
1. A shopping centre/mall
is a large building with many smaller shops in it. Shopping centres offer many additional services – there are banks, post offices, travel agencies,
sometimes a swimming pool, cafés, restaurants and cinemas and so on.
2. Department store. A department store is a large store divided into several big sections. Each section sells different types of things, for example: clothes, furniture, household appliances and so on. It has a car park and is situated in bigger cities and towns. Some of them are open non-stop. Shopping in a department store has many advantages: you can buy everything in one place. They usually offer cheaper products and they often offer sales. You can use a big shopping trolley to take your things to your car.
3. Supermarkets are usually situated in cities and towns. People mostly go to the supermarket to buy food and drinks. It is smaller than a department store and usually offers fewer goods. It has longer opening hours than small shops.
4. Small shops/ corner shops usually have shorter open hours than supermarkets, department stores and shopping centres. Small shops that usually sell food we call groceries and they are usually situated in small towns or villages. Other corner shops can sell different things: you can buy books in a bookshop, get shoes in a shoe shop etc. People working in a shop are shop assistants. They sell things and serve customers. Shop assistants in small villages and towns usually know their customers personally.
5. Markets are really popular today. Many people prefer to buy fresh fruit and vegetables or fish food at a market. Markets are popular because of their special atmosphere – they are noisy, overcrowded but people can walk from stall to stall, they can touch and taste products and talk to the salesmen. In Slovakia, products bought in markets are often more expensive than products bought in shops and supermarkets.
SERVICES - služby
When we do the shopping we usually buy products that we use or consume. Services sell
the public needs. We do not pay only for products, but for the helping activities people do for us. Services are often organized by the government or
a private company. Post office is a national organization in many countries that is responsible for collecting and delivering letters, post cards and
packages.
Banks are organizations, that provide various financial services, for example, as well as keeping or lending money, we can put our money into a bank account. Each bank also has an ATM (automated teller machine) where we can withdraw our money if we need cash.
The police are an official organization; whose job is to keep people safe. They solve crimes, car crashes, and vandalism.
Petrol stations are places at the side of the road where you can buy petrol, gas or oil.
JOBS IN SERVICES – zamestnania v službách
Au-pair is the person
who takes care of children, gardeners care about your garden, window cleaners usually clean the office buildings, electricians come when you have
problem with electricity or, when you build a house, they come to install cables. Hairdressers work in salons or they come to your home to colour or
cut your hair.
There are big companies you can pay for complex services including repairman, painters and decorators, plumbers, domestic
cleaners (called „daily helps “) and child-minders (women who look after children during the day while the parents are at work) also often
advertise their services in this way. Services are also advertised in the „classified ads “section in local newspapers etc.
Many services
can be ordered by telephone and you can find them in phone book/directory in English called the “Yellow Pages “. It displays the list of firms
according to the services they provide. You can order a cooked meal to be delivered from a Chinese restaurant or a pizza restaurant. If you want to
send someone a present, you can ask for chocolates, flowers, or a bottle of wine to be delivered. Many of these delivery services in foreign countries
use motorcycles.
Shops and offices in town centres provide services such as dry cleaning, shoe repairs, photocopying and the use of fax machines.
In launderettes you can wash and dry clothes in coin-operated machines. There are estate agencies for buying and selling houses, letting agencies for
finding rented accommodation and employment agencies for finding a job. Some employment agencies specialize in a particular kind of job, for example
hotel services.
ADVERTISEMENT-COMMERCIAL - reklama
Advertising is a public promotion of some product or service which
results in profit from customers who buy /purchase products.
Street billboards, catchy jingles on TV and radio, pictures in magazines and
newspapers, social networks and everywhere. Many celebrities are paid to promote products.
All kinds of advertisement try to catch our attention
and introduce new products and ideas. Advertisers make us believe we can realise our ambitions quickly and easily, only if we buy their product. So,
advertisers want us to spend money on their products. They want us to make us believe that their product meets our needs. But there are also
advantages. Advertising is informative, it increases demand, stimulates industry and keeps prices down.
When advertisers want to create
successful advertisement, they use methods that help to sell new products: Famous or well-known people promote certain products by saying that they
use these products. Average people in everyday situations are often shown using a certain product.
Advertising says that everybody buys a certain
product. Advertising shows a very special idea, feeling, person, or situation. It can transfer your good feelings to the product.
“Jingles”
are tunes created for commercials that stick in your head and you hum the melody over and over, hopefully hypnotizing you into buying the
products.
CHRISTMAS SHOPPING – vianočné nakupovanie
Some people always do their shopping before Christmas because
they don’t like when the shops are full of people and everybody is in a hurry. People are often nervous. It is stressful to do Christmas shopping a
week before Christmas.
CATALOGUE AND ONLINE SHOPPING – nakupovanie online a z katalógu
The advantages of buying things
from a catalogue are: You don’t have to go to the shop. You can do the shopping at home. There is a wider choice of goods. The disadvantages are:
You can’t try the things on. You can’t touch the things to see what material they are made of. It is more difficult and more expensive to return
the goods if you don’t like it because you have to pay for postage.