2. Shopping.

Words and expressions

1. dozens of

2. all sort of goods

3. for cash

4. convenient

5. department store

6. different departments

7. expensive (cheap)

8. to run out of

9. to call at

10. provision shops

11. a lot of counters

12. a self-service shop

13. ready-weighed and ready-packed

14. to have a sweet tooth

Kinds of shops: supermarket (grocery, bakery, butchery, confectionery, dairy, greengrocery, fishmonger’s).

Department store. (clothing, shoe, toy, furniture, music, jeweller’s, perfumery, stationery, gift, china, hardware, haberdashery).

Drug store (chemist’s), bookshop, sports fashion, florist’s, newsagent’s, tobacconist’s.

In our city there are dozens of shops where one can buy all sort of goods for cash and on hire purchase. Of course, specialized shops (draper’s, hosiery’s, man’s outfitters, jeweller’s, stationer’s, etc.) have a wider choice of goods but it is more convenient to do shopping at a department store which sells various goods such as shirts and cameras, pots and pans, refrigerators and hats, underwear and furs, vacuum cleaners, tape-recorders and many other things under one roof.

In the department store there are hundreds of salesmen and saleswomen and dozens of different departments: haberdashery, hosiery, stationery, ready-made clothes for men and women, foot-wear, textiles, millinery, electric appliances, household goods, knitted goods, leather goods, sport goods, perfumery, toys, gift and souvenir and others.

The other day my husband, my son and I went to the Central Department Store. We had to buy a lot of things and we went from one department to another, from umbrellas to gloves, from suits to shoes, from socks and stockings to hats and bags up and down the department store.

First of all we went to the ready-made clothes department to buy a summer frock for me. I chose a nice cotton dress not too expensive and went to the dressing-booth to try it on. It was a close fitting sleeveless dress with a square neck. The dress was a good fit and I bought it. Then we went to the footwear department to buy a pair of shoes to match my new dress. I tried on some pairs but they were either a size too big or pinched in the toe. At last I bought a pair of nice low-heeled leather shoes. I also bought a bottle of perfume, a lipstick and nail varnish.

Then we went to the ready-made clothes department for men as my husband wanted to buy a single-breasted light suit. He tried on many suits but they were a bad fit: one of them was too tight in the waist and the trousers were too long and baggy, another was too loose and so on. Then we went to the shirt department and bought him two shirts. He also bought a scarf, cuff links, and a pair of socks and then our son persuaded us to buy him a new toy.

We had run out of some food products and on our way home we called at the provision shops. First we went to the baker’s and bought a loaf of white and brown bread, two rolls, a bun and half a kilo of rusks. Then we went to the butcher’s. There was a wide choice of lean and fat meat there such as beef, pork, mutton, veal, minced meat and poultry (goose, chicken, duck and turkey). We bought a kilo and a half of beef, a kilo of pork not too fat, a chicken and we all went to the dairy. There was bottled and loose milk, cream, sour cream, butter, cheese and eggs there. We bought half a pound of butter, a bottle of cream, two bottles of milk and went to the fishmonger’s. There were a lot of people there as there were different kinds of fresh, frozen, salted, smoked, dried and tinned fish: carp, cod, perch, pike, herring, sprats, caviar. We bought a herring, two carps and a pike to stuff. Next we called at the grocer’s. There were a lot of counters there and different food products: flour, tea, sugar, salt, jam, cereals, spice, tinned and frozen food. The grocer’s was a self-service shop. The customers went to the counters, chose the goods and paid at the cash desk. The goods were ready-weighed and ready-packed. We bought two kilos of flour, a kilo of sugar, half a kilo of macaroni. We also dropped in at the greengrocer’s and bought a good-sized head of cabbage, oranges, cucumbers, carrots, onions, apples and potatoes.

Our son has a sweet tooth so we went to the confectionery and bought candies, a chocolate bar and a tart.

Loaded with packages and awfully tired we went home.