MO 5 Shopping and Services-Project
¶1Shopping facilities –shops, hypermarkets, street markets

Define the terms “shops, shopping“(What is it? Where and how often is it done?)
Shopping is an activity that is enjoyed by many people.It is an activity of going to the shops and buying
things. Some people love it, while the other people hate it. Still, shopping is a necessity.

Who likes shopping more – men or women? What do men and women like shopping for?
Women like shopping for clothes and shoes more than man do. Men like shopping for “practical things”
such as electrical gadgets, cars or home appliances.

Compare the shopping habits in the past and at present.
In the past
People used to go shopping for a “staple
food” such as meat, milk, bread, eggs and
so on.
People used to go shopping more often-very
day and carried their shopping in shopping
bags.
People used to buy only fresh food, they
had to the shopping every day.
There were a few shopping facilities-only
small
corner
shops,without
big
supermarkets and hypermarkets.
At present
People go shopping for everything-everything can be
bought in shops.
People go shopping less often and they usually drive to
the shops-they buy more and put their shopping into the
boot of their car.
People buy tinned and frozen food and then store it in
their fridges and prepare it in their microwaves.
There are a lot of shopping facilities, especially the big
department stores, hypermarkets and shopping centres.
 What kinds of shopping facilities/shops are there at present?
At present there are the following shopping facilities:
 Corner shops(Small shops in the street corner with food and newspapers.)
 Self-service shops (Small shops with food and basic chemist goods where you serve yourself.)
 Supermarkets (They are bigger than self-service shops, sell also a wide range of goods from
chemist´s and ironmonger....)
 Hypermarkets (They are very large shops and sell goods from all specialized shops)
 Department stores (These are huge buildings equipped with lifts and escalators, where you can
buy almost everything from food to furniture)
 Street markets (They sell various things at stalls in the streets and squares, very cheap)
 Second-hand shops (These shops sell used clothes, furniture, cars)
 Explain the advantages and disadvantages of small shops and supermarkets. Which kind of shops
do you prefer? Why?
Small local (corner) shops
They sell high quality goods.
+ They provide the customers with the good
pros service.
They provide us with “fresh” goods-such as
foodstuffs, fruit and vegetables.
Hypermarkets, shopping centres
They offer wide assortment/range of products.
Theses shops sell cheap products.
There are many shops under one roof
(We can save time and money when we do the
shopping.)
They have longer opening hours. Some of them
are open non-stop.
There are many sales in different times of the year.
They offer additional services such as a post
office, cash dispenser or a hairdresser´s.
Some supermarkets have started to give free gifts to
customers who have spent lots of money in their shops.
There isn´t so wide assortment/range of the They sell low-quality products, usually made in
products. The choice of goods is quite limited. China.
_
They sell expensive products
There are problems with the hygiene and
cons
guarantee of the products.
These shops have shorter opening hours- There are many faulty goods sold there
usually from 8.00 a.m. to 5 p.m.
You can buy the things that you don’t really want
to buy-because of the plenty of goods found here.

Describe a shop (people, equipment, wares, etc.)
 When we go shopping to the supermarket, we usually take a shopping basket, or a trolley. While
shopping, we put the items into the basket, or trolley and after we have finished the shopping, we proceed to
the cash desk, where we put the goods from the basket onto a conveyor belt. After the cashier rings up all
the items, we pay for the goods. We may pay in cash, by a credit card, or meal vouchers. Paying by a
cheque is not common in our country. Finally, we put our purchase into our shopping bag or a car boot.
 People who work in a shop are shop assistants, who serve customers, sell things; managers, who are
in charge; and sometimes store detectives, who watch customers to stop them from shoplifting. Most
department stores have store detectives.
 What is the High Street? Where are they located? Where in Ružomberok can be High Street
found? What is its name? What kinds of shops are there?



It´s the main shopping street in the town. It consists of many shops and markets. This street is usually
located in the centre of the town. At present it is replaced with the shopping centres (Pollus, Aupark)
and hypermarkets.
The Mostová Street and the Podhora Street are the two main shopping streets in Ružomberok.

What specialist shops do you know? What goods can we buy there?
There are different specialist shops that sell various kinds of products.
 The greengrocer´s sell different kinds of fruit and vegetables.
 The butcher´s – we can buy various kinds of meat (pork, beef etc.) as well as many meat
products:salami, bacon, sausage etc.
 The baker´soffers us with bread, rolls, buns, cakes and many other bakery products.
 The tobacconist´s – There week can buy cigarettes, tobacco, but newspapers as well.
 The confectioner´s sells sweets, ice-cream and cakes.
 The fishmonger´s – Different kinds of fish can be bought there such as trout, salmon or tuna.
 The florist´s – sell flowers of different kinds such as roses, tulips, daffodils.
 The newsagent´s – newspapers, magazines
 The draper´s sells clothes, bed-clothes or pillows.
 The ironmonger´s / hardware shop – DIY people can buy there tools, nails, hammers or
screwdrivers.
 The dairy – Milk products and eggs are sold in this place.
 The stationary sells paper products and office supplies.
 The jeweller´s offers gold, silver and various kinds of jewellery.
 The toyshop – There are many kinds of toys sold there (such dolls, cars, teddies tec.)
 The delicatessen sells exclusive but quite expensive food from foreign countries.
 The electrical appliances – Electrical gadgets, electronics (TV and radio sets, fridges,
microwaves...) can be bought here.
 The chemist’s (Am.E. = drugstore) sells medicines, cosmetics, sunglasses and other items.
 The bookshop – There are books, postcards and other goods can be found there.
 The footwear shopIf we need to buy shoes or boots we go shopping here.
 The grocer´s – All sorts of foodstuff can be bought here.
 The boutique – There we can buy the latest fashion clothes.
 The household appliances / equipment
Describe the shopping facilities in Ružomberok (or a village where you live).

Describe your favourite shop.

Describe your shopping habits.(Do you like shopping? Why/why not? How often do you go
shopping? With whom? What do you go shopping for? etc. …)
¶2 Services-post office, banks, police, petrol station
There are many companies which do not offer any goods for sale, but they provide services for people such as a
post office,a police station or a bank.
 What kinds of shops provide their customers with the most services? Why? What services do shops
provide?
It´s usually the hypermarkets or bigger shopping centres that provides the customers with the additional
services like the post office, cash dispenser or a hairdresser´s, even the cinema.
POST
The post distributes letters, postcards, parcels and other printed material to people. When we want to send an
important document, we send a registered letter or parcel
BANK
Banks provide financial services for people. We can pay for goods in cash or by bank card. The cash
dispenser enables us to withdraw money. We can also arrange a bank loan in the bank.
POLICE
Police are in charge of keeping law and order and protecting the citizens. In Slovakia the police is divided
into two groups, the city and the state police. They discipline and punish the people that breaks the laws, e.g.
those who steal things or rob the bank.
 What do you think about the services provided by Slovak shops? Are you satisfied with them? What
would you change about them?
 Do you use the services provided by big hypermarkets when you go shopping there? If so, which
ones?
¶3 Advertisements, commercials

How do the shops attract their customers?
Shopping is a big business nowadays. Merchandisers spend lots of money on advertising, trying to persuade
customers that their product is much better than the product of their competitor.

Where can you find advertisement and commercials?
Commercials and advertisements can be found everywhere: in newspapers and magazines, on the radio
and TV, even on buses, trams and trains. The shops also distribute the leaflets to the post boxes of the
households so that the customers knew about their offers.

What strategies do big supermarkets use to sell their goods and increase their profit?
Shopping centres use special strategies and try and influence customers and increase their profit. They
provide their customers with different kinds of special offers throughout the year (2 products for the price of
one). In some parts of the year they offer sales that allow you to buy the goods cheaper than usually (there
are usually sales in clothes shops after different seasons of the year). Bigger shops also provide different
discounts on their products (10-70 % discounts).

What is your experience with the bargains or special offers in the shops?