Shops and services
Shopping is part of our everyday lives. Some people enjoy it, and will wander around shops only to have a look, with no particular goal, others hate shopping and find it very unpleasant. For shopping may also involve stress, for instance during summer or winter sales. Special offers result in stressful behaviour and overcrowded shops. The same happens at Christmas. That is why, for some people Christmas is no longer a feast of peace but a feast of eating and drinking.
In today´s world, there are new shopping opportunities. In the past, most shops were small specialised sores only. They were called corner shops.
Most people shop in huge supermarkets. More and more huge shopping centres are being built on the outskirts of towns that offer everything under one roof: stores, cafés, restaurants and sometimes even cinemas, hairdressers and others services. Naturally, they can offer what small shops cannot afford: opening hours are longer, there is enough parking space, a free childcare centre, and many more.
As time went by, shops started specializing, and you can also get valuable advice about the product, there are bookshops, newsagent´s, fishmonger´s, grocer´s, butcher´s, shoe shop, clothes shop, florist´s, greengrocer´s etc.
Today, people only visit these shops when they know what exactly they need.
In most shops there are counters with cash registers on it, supermarkets usually have got checkouts. The customers use either shopping baskets or shopping trolleys. In clothes shops there are fitting rooms. In shops there are usually rows of shelves with products. After having paid for the goods you are given a receipt that gives you a guarantee and possibility of taking the goods back and getting a refound.
You can pay in cash, by cards or cheques. Some shops offer buying on credit. Some chain shops also offer customer´s cards for loyal customers.
In order to sell as many products, experts keep coming up with something new. In addition to quality, the packaging, services, delivery date and payment mode play an important role, too. What is even more important is the image of the product, and this is provided by promotion. Exclusive goods must be presented in an exclusive way.
The advertising, in my opinion, influences everybody. That is the aim of advertisements to influence a person without noticing iz. It´s logical that when I have to choose from two products of the same price, I will always pick up the one that sounds more familiar to me. Otherwise I´m not that fashion conscious to run to a shop to get the latest craze I´ve just seen in an advertisement.
I don´t like haggling about prices as I am not used to it. You can never haggle in Czech shops but you may try in street markets. In some countries it´s almost impolite to refuse to haggle. Haggling is very frequent for instance in Turkey.
I always like making shopping list. It makes the shopping quicker and you don´t forget anything. The stores are usually so full of products and special bargains that you easily forget one or two items you wanted to buy. You also don´t spend so much money when shopping with a shopping list.
Harrods is a famous British department store, very expensive and very luxurious. They say that you can buy anything in the shop, from clothes to caviar. Marks and Spencer is a famous British chain store with clothes.
These days you can also buy some things on the Internet. But if you want some for example clothes you cannot try it if it fits good. A lot of people buy electronics on the Internet. It´s cheaper