Shopping and Services

Shopping and Services

Pictures

1. Guess the company or product the advertisement stand for. Would the advertisements in the pictures attract you? Would you visit and buy anything there?

2. What kinds of shopping facilities can you recognize in these pictures? Where do you go shopping more often? And what do you buy there?

3. Look at the picture and compare the ways of shopping. List pros and cons of each way of shopping. Compare the quality, choice and prices of products in these places.

4. Look at the pictures and identify the kinds of shops they represent. Express your attitude towards the shops. What else can you buy there?

5. Which of these two ways of shopping do you prefer? What are the advantages and disadvantages of each?

Discussion

1. Do you think that our society is a consumer society?

2. Characterize shopping facilities.

3. List types of shops and give examples of what can be bought there.

4. List advantages and disadvantages of certain shopping facilities

5. Who does the shopping in your family?

6. What are the shopping habits in your family?

7. What is the difference of shopping around and window-shopping?

8. Are you an impulsive shopper?

9. Which services do the companies provide?

10. Which of them do you and your family use and which you don’t use?

11. What are the ways of advertising services? Where can you find the advertisements?

12. What services does a post-office/bank/petrol station provide?

13. Explain to a foreigner how to use a public telephone/how to send a parcel/how to use a public library?

14. What do you understand under the word „advertisement“?

15. What are the ways/types of advertisement?

16. Are you easy to be influenced by and advertisement?

17. How does advertisement influence people?

18. What are the pros and cons of advertisements?

19. Talk about your shopping habits and compare them with those of somebody you are familiar with. Explain what people do when they:

– go shopping

– go window shopping

– shop around /to go to several shops before you decide what particular thing to buy/

– shoplift

– follow a shopping list

– have shopping fever

– are shopaholic or shopping addict

20. What is a shopping mall? Name some of the types of shops that can be found in a shopping mall. What activities may also take in a mall?

21. Have you ever returned any goods to a shop for any reason? What was it and why did you return it?

22. Do you agree that there is too much advertising these days? Think of magazines, TV, cinema. Does advertising influence you in /not/ choosing a product?

23. You would like to buy something new for yourself. Talk about:

– the questions you could be asked in the shop

– your way of choosing the clothes or shoes / colour, size, style, the most important thing for your decision/. Do you need somebody to go with you? If yes, explain why and who. If not, explain why some people need others to help them do shopping.

24. Do you prefer to shop on a supermarket or a department store where everything is together? Or, do you rather go to a small shop where they sell just one kind of goods? Why?

25. Do you think you get more personal service in a small shop where people know you?

26. How often do you use the following services: hairdresser’s, beautician/cosmetician, massage, post office, repair /electrician, plumber, mechanic/? Could you name some other services you use?

27. Characterize shopping and service facilities in Slovakia.

28. Which services are frequently used by your family and which are not at all?

29. What is the difference between shopping around and window shopping?

30. Compare shopping habits in the past and at present.

31. Make a list of the pros and cons of a shopping mall.

32. Do you think that expensive things represent quality?

33. Talk about the kinds and ways of buying and paying.

34. What are your favourite shops in your area and why? Which shops do you dislike and why?

35. What do you think of the quality, choice and prices of products made in Slovakia and those in China?

36. What are the ways of doing shopping?

37. Do you also do the shopping per catalogue? Why? Why not?

38. Which do you prefer: Slovak products or products of other countries? Why?

39. What strategies would you as an economist use to support buying of Slovak products?

40. Which products do we export?

41. Which products do we import?

42. Compare the shopping habits in the past and at present.

Role-plays and simulations

1. You have been brought a bill to which a service charge of 10 per cent has already been added. You are irritated that they are hoping you won’t notice and will add a further 10 per cent tip. What would you do? Explain your further steps. /Role-play/

– You would like to be a shop keeper in the future. What kind of shop would you like to run, how you would attract your customers, how would you design your shop, where would you situate your shop? /Simulation/

– You held your birthday party at a restaurant. You were very satisfied and you want to speak to a friend. Make a conversation in which you describe the party and recommend the restaurant. Use the following notes: name of restaurant, size of table, number of guests, speed of service, courteousness, quality of food and drink, music. /Role-play/

– The town council has just decided to build a new shopping centre in the middle of the town. You are strongly against it. Express your opinion and support your decision. /Simulation/

Obchod a služby

– nákupné zariadenia /obchody, hypermarkety, trhoviská/

– služby /pošta, banka, polícia, čerpacia stanica/

– reklama a vplyv reklamy na zákazníkov

– druhy a spôsoby nákupu a platenia / katalógový predaj, splátky, týždenný nákup/

– zahraničné výrobky u nás, export slovenských výrobkov

Shopping facilities – individually owned shops, shops being a part of a chain, department stores, shopping malls, supermarkets, hypermarkets, shopping centres, shopping streets, small shops, outdoor markets

Services – newspaper delivery, baby-sitting, odd job men, delivery of meal/flowers, dry-cleaning, laundrettes, shoe repair, photocopying, estate agencies, employment agencies, petrol stations, banks, restaurants, hotels, post-office, travel agencies, libraries, optician

Doing shopping – order by mail, home-delivery service, catalogue sales, order over the phone, buy on HP, pay cash, pay in weekly or monthly instalments

Bank – open/close an account, paying/draw out money, cash a cheque, change money, take a credit/a mortgage
Estate agencies – buying, selling houses, renting accommodation
SHOPPING
Shopping is an activity that is enjoyed by many people. There are also people who hate shopping and say that it is a waste of time. But whether people like shopping or not, they have to go to a shop, more or less frequently, to buy what they need because shopping is a necessity.

When people talk about modern life, they often use the words ´consumer society´. A consumer is someone who uses a product. A consumer society is a society in which material goods are very important, and in which the consumers themselves are very important and have a lot power. People seem to have not only more money to spend but also less time to spend it. This is reflected in people’s habits and the things they buy.

In the past, people would shop more often for staple food such as fruit, vegetables, meat and bread. They would buy these in local shops in the town or village where they lived and carry the home in bags. Other things such as newspapers and magazines, cigarettes, sweet and mil could be bought even closer to home at the nearest corner shop.

Today, many families have a big freezer at home and a microwave. Ready prepared meals such as pizza pies and many other dishes which can be taken out of the freezer, heated up and ready to eat in just a few minutes, are becoming more and more popular with people who do not have time to cook. Even people who do cook for themselves often use a lot of frozen or tinned vegetables. All this means that these is a growing trend for people to go shopping less often and to fill their cars with food to last all week or in some cases most of the month.

There are two main types of shops: those that are part of a chain or a group, and those that are individually owned. Large cities also have large department stores and huge shopping malls.

The individual shops sell goods that are also available in larger stores, but often pride themselves on the quality of their goods and service. Typical examples of such shops are clothes shop, grocery, florist's, dairy, bakery, butcher's, chemist’s, confectioner's, fishmonger's, clothier's, hatter's, milliner's /women hats/, shoe shop, bookshop, stationery, hosier's, jeweller's, ironmonger, greengrocer's, glassware, toyshop, newsagent’s, gift shop, pet hop and boutique.

At the grocer's people can buy foodstuff including flour, sugar, salt, eggs, vegetable, oil, stewed fruit, various kinds of tea and coffee, bottled beer and juice, sweets, chocolate, frozen and tinned vegetables and fruit. There are also dairy products such as milk, butter, cream, cheese and yoghurt.
At the baker's various kinds of fresh bread, rolls, buns and cakes can be bought.

The butcher sells meat including pork, beef, lamb and poultry. Here we can buy smoked meat products such as bacon, ham, sausages and frankfurters. At the butcher’s people can also buy tinned and frozen meat and fish.
People, who like to go gardening and some do-it-yourself work around the house, frequently need some hardware. They can go to the ironmonger’s to buy hammer, pliers, nails and other tools and materials.

At the stationer's writing paper, envelopes, notebooks, pens, ball-point pens, pencils, crayons, glue, rubber, rulers, and compasses are kept. All the things needed by school children can be bought here.
Fresh vegetables and all kinds of fruit can be bought at the greengrocer's and fruiterer's.

The chemist’s is a specialized shop where people can buy medicines. In Britain the chemist also keeps cosmetics and toilet supplies such as make-ups, shaving-cream, razor blades, shampoo, soap and tooth-brushes.
Boutiques sell the latest fashion. Here especially the young people have a wide choice of dresses, shirts, skirts – plain and pleated, blouses – made of cotton or silk, pullovers including the fashionable polo-neck pullovers, blue jeans, but also stockings and scarves.

Some of the boutiques also offer leather goods such as leather jackets, shoes, bags and leather belts.
Whenever the customers enter they are attended by shop assistants who are ready to help them: What can I do for you? Can I help you? What will you have? Is anyone serving you? What can I show you? Are you being served? These are the most questions heard in shops since morning till late evening.

Nowadays more and more customers prefer shopping in large department stores with self service, where everything can be found under one roof, to shopping in small specialized shops. But with so many people using the supermarkets and hypermarkets, the smaller shops are finding it very difficult to compete. These shops cannot afford to stock such a wide range of products as the supermarkets and neither can they afford to sell things as cheaply as the supermarkets.

However, they do have advantages of their own. For example, old people living aloe without cars do not need to buy so much food as young families, and it is not vary easy for them to ravel to a supermarket, it is much easier for them to use small local shop.

Children who want sweets, or anyone who wants a magazine or has forgotten to buy something on their shopping trip to the supermarket, find their local shops very useful, especially corner shop which are often open much longer hours than ordinary shops.
Many people prefer shopping at the market with number of stalls selling flowers, fresh fruit and vegetable.

Many people like to go shopping to department stores. The department stores are large buildings usually several storeys high. They have many departments which offer their customers all kinds of foodstuff, clothes, shoes, toys, sporting goods, leather goods, cleaning supplies and cosmetics, china and glass, hardware goods, household appliances, books, stationary and furniture, all under one roof.

Nearly all the big department stores have cafés, snack bars or restaurants where people can relax when they are tired of shopping. The big department stores started in America and the idea was brought to England by Gordon Selfridges some 80 years ago. Selfridges’s is still one of the biggest stores in London. It is situated in the Oxford Street in the centre of the West End.

The largest type of shops is called a hypermarket. It is usually situated outside a town, where there is a large car park. Many hypermarkets have cash dispensers, petrol pumps and a café. Because hypermarkets are so big, you can find there everything under one roof and moreover, they are able to lower the prices quite a lot, making them cheaper than smaller shops.

In fact many supermarket and hypermarkets have their own brands of the most common food products which are cheaper still. Then there is the handiness of not having to carry heavy bags of shopping along crowded streets but simply being able to unload them from the trolley into the boot of the car a few metres away.
Shopping malls often offer additional services, like a post office, banks offering loans and insurance and tourist agencies. They also have restaurants and cafés when you can relax after finishing up your shopping. Some even have large cinemas, and some people only go to the mall to see films.

Useful vocabulary:

to go shopping, shopping list, shop/store, department store, self service, supermarket, market place, purchase, buy, sell, big spender, thrifty, consumer, customer, for sale, not for sale, buy on H.P.

system, pay cash, pay by cheque, buy on credit, cheap, expensive, reasonable prices, pay at the desk, bill, shoplifter, shelf, price-tag /cenovka/, label /štítok/, of foreign origin/home made, container, sell out at reduced prices, 6 pence off, prices go up/down, a real bargain, trolley, basket, check-out counter, queue up/stand in line, cash-desk, cashier, charge /účtovať/, overcharge /naúčtovať veľa/, shoplifter, item, guarantee, discount, in stock, out of stock, fitting room,

Useful phrases:

They have a good selection of the latest models. It's sold out. It's of much better quality.

Have you any cheaper ones? They will have new supplies in 2 days. What size do you take? I need a pair two sizes larger. I've bought that shirt very cheap. These products sell well. I've got to do some shopping. At what time do you close/open? I'll attend you in a moment. Do you keep cosmetics? How much does it cost? What is the price of...? It is a real bargain. I can't afford it. It is out of stock. Bicycles are in a short supply. Wrap it up, please.
Pay the bill at the cash desk. Can I try it on? Where is the fitting room? When will you get it?
I'll wait until you get new stock. Are you being served? It is not fashionable.

HIRE PURCHASE

The cheapest and the simplest way to buy something is to walk into a shop and pay cash, but if you want to buy some big expensive item, like a hi-fi set or a colour television, you might not have enough money to pay cash. In this case you can arrange to purchase the good on HP. Of course buying things this way is a little more complicated and expensive than paying cash.

You will have to fill in a form giving details of your salary and place of work and stating how long you have lived at your present address. Then you will have to pay deposit.

This might be 10% or 20% of the full price.
However, if you find saving money a problem, the fact that you have to pay your instalments every month can be vary helpful, and remember, the bigger your deposit and the more money you can afford each month, the quicker you will pay off your debt and the less your purchase will finally cost you.

WHAT AND WHERE CAN YOU BUY?

grocery – flour, sugar, oil, salt, sweets, vinegar, mustard, spices /black pepper, paprika, caraway, bay leaves/,pasta, juice, tin /meet, fruit, fish, vegetable/, wine, beer, rice
utensils – can /tee, coffee, milk/, jug, funnel, lemon press, spoon, broom, bowl, knife, scale, spatula, cake tin, corkscrew, tin opener, wastebasket, baking tray, kettle, scouring pad, glass, plate,
appliances – dishwasher, radio, stove, camera, hi-fi set, fridge, coffee maker, food processor, freezer, microwave, vacuum cleaner, kettle
jewellery – brooch, watch /wrist, table, wall/, stone, necklace, bracelet, ear-ring, pearl, ring, tag, wedding-ring
bookshop – poems, book of travels, work, encyclopaedia, book /picture, children, school/, dictionary, novel, short story, detective story,
confection and textile goods – blouse, cap, hat /baseball cap, sun hat, top hat, bonnet, bowler hat, sombrero/, collar, cuff-links, crochet, needle, knitting needle, coat, jacket, shirt, thread, trousers, tights, raincoat, hose, sheet, scarf, dress, pin, towel, cardigan, zip, gown, shawl, hook and eye
drugstore – comb, cream, curlers, curling iron, soap, shower gel, razor, make-up, powder, lipstick, spiral, blade, tooth paste, after shave,
florist’s – violet, narcissus, daffodil, tulip, rose, sunflower, lily, pink, forget-me-not, aster
butcher's – ham, steak, salami, bacon, turkey, mutton, pork, beef, veal, chicken, duck, goose, hen, smoked products
fruit – strawberries, grapes, oranges, grapefruit, lemon, bananas, peaches, pears, plums, cherries, apricots, apples
vegetables – garlic, onions, potato, cucumbers, pumpkin, beans, peas, radish, carrots, parsnips, cabbage, cauliflower, lettuce, spinach, pepper, broccoli, tomatoes
shoe shop – high boots, soccer shoes, sandals, slippers, moccasin, clog, flip-flop, stiletto, court shoe, pumps, trainer, hiking shoes
bakery – bread, rolls, buns, biscuits, cakes, pie, cracknel, doughnut
dairy – whipping cream, cheese, butter, yoghurt, Sauer cream, ice cream, eggs, curd,
stationary shop – ink, writing pad, note-book, pencil, pen, glue, rubber, ruler, postcard, compasses, envelope, paper /writing, present, colour, wrapping/,

B.

Services

Post office

to queue at counter N3, parcel counter, letter box, a postman, to hand the letter in, to send a letter /registered letter, express letter/, by airmail, to buy a tamp, to stick the stamp on the envelope, to put the letter into the envelope, to fill in the certificate of posting, parcel, to pack the parcel in wrapping paper, to tie with a string, to fill in a postal order, to hand it at the parcel counter, recipient, telephone, to make a call from a public telephone box, have money ready, lift the receiver, listen for the dial tome, put the money /the telephone card in the slot, dial the code and number, a foreign call, the line is engaged, switch-board operator, extension, bad connection, direct line, mobile phone,

Bank

open/close an account, pay in/draw out money, cash a cheque, change money, take a credit

Useful vocabulary

Service sector /sieť služieb/, to maintain essential services /poskytovať základné služby/, to be employed in service industries, customer service, nursery service /opatrovateľská služba/, emergency service /pohotovostná služba/, information service, counselling service /poradenská služba/, intelligence service /spravodajská služba/, secret service, service station /autosevis/, to take a car for a service, t have a car serviced, petrol station, taxi service, travel agency, estate agency, dust car, dustman, the cleaner’s, the dry cleaner’s /chemická čistiareň/, laundry /práčovňa/, laundrette /samoobslužná práčovňa/, hairdresser’s, barber’s, beauty parlour, pedicure, manicure, newspaper delivery, baby sitting, odd men jobs, delivery of meal, deliver of flowers, shoe repair, photocopying