Going Shopping

It can hardly be denied that almost every person likes shopping. Nowadays there is a wide range of shops catering for different tastes and wallets beginning with huge supermarkets and ending with small convenience stores.

The importance of large self-service supermarkets in our everyday life can not be underestimated. Such big shops are usually situated on the outskirts of the cities though some can be also found not far from the city centre. These stores are usually spacious and well laid out. The goods are tidily arranged on long shelves and there is plenty of room for the customers to walk about even with a cart. In such shops one can find anything he needs from food to washing powder. But there is one thing which is to be mentioned as one of the worst disadvantages of supermarkets. It is queuing. Despite the fact that every supermarket has up to 10 cash desks long queues seem to be their eternal problem.

Markets, on the contrary, have almost no queues and are usually situated in the open-air. Though the essence of markets changed nowadays there are still people who prefer markets situated not far from their homes to huge supermarkets on the outskirts. Among the advantages of buying things at the market customers usually mention wide range of goods and high quality of foodstuffs. By the way, the possibility to bargain makes the prices there considerably lower than in ordinary shops.

Shopping centres or shopping malls are also extremely popular nowadays. A shopping centre is a collection of independent retail stores, services and a parking area. Shopping centres may also contain banks, restaurants, theatres, offices, service stations and other establishments.

Apart from markets, self-service supermarkets and shopping centres stand department stores. The department store is a great convenience for customers because is saves our time selling various items of consumer goods under one roof. In such stores customers go to the counters, choose the necessary goods and pay for them at the cash desk. In the department store a customer can find: household goods, electric appliances, crockery and glassware, textiles and other departments. Big department stores usually have information bureaus, where a customer can inquire about any goods he would like to buy.

In case a customer is interested in some particular goods and doesn’t want to loose time wandering around supermarkets he can go to a shop which specializes in some particular goods. Such as: bakery or baker's where one can find different kind of bread and pastry, butcher's selling all kinds of meat and meat products, confectioner's – stores selling sweet things, fishmonger's selling seafood.