Text 2. Shopping in the UK

Read the text and say why Marks & Spencer store is famous all over the world.

I would like to tell you about shopping in the United Kingdom. Marks & Spencer is Britain’s favourite store. Tourists love it too. It attracts a great variety of customers from house wives to millionaires. Princess Diana, Dustin Hoffman and the British Prime-minister are just a few of its famous customers. Last year it made a profit of 529 million pounds. This is more than 10 million a week.

It all started 105 years ago when a young Polish immigrant Michael Marks had a stall in Leeds market. He didn’t have many things to sell: some cotton, a little wool, lots of buttons and a few shoelaces. Above his stall he put the famous notice: “Don’t ask how much – it’s a penny.” Ten years later he met Tom Spencer and together they started Penny stalls in many towns in the North of England.

Today there are 564 branches of Marks &Spencer all over the world: in America, Canada, Spain, France, Belgium and Hungary. The store bases its business on 3 principals: good value, good quality and good service. It also changes with the times; once it was all jumpers and knickers. Now it is food, furniture and flowers as well. Top fashion designers advice on styles of clothes. Perhaps, the most important key to its success is its happy well-trained staff. Conditions of work are excellent. There are company doctors, hairdressers, dentists‚ etc. And all the staff can have lunch for 40 pence. Surprisingly tastes in food and clothes are international. What sells well in Paris, sells just as well in Newcastle and Moscow. Their best selling clothes are: for women – jumpers and knickers (M & S is famous for its knickers); for men – shirts, dressing gowns‚ pajamas‚ socks, and suits; for children – underwear and socks. Best sellers in food include: fresh chickens, vegetables and sandwiches, “Chicken Kiev” is internationally the most popular convince food. Shopping in Britain is also famous for its Fresh food. Fresh food is a chain of food stores and very successful supermarkets which has grown tremendously in the twenty years since it was founded, and now it has branches in the High Streets of all the towns of any size in Britain. In the beginning the stores sold only foodstuffs, but in recent years they have diversified enormously and now sell clothes, books, records, electrical and domestic equipment.

The success of the business has been due to an enterprising management and to attractive layout and display in the stores. It has been discovered that impulse buying accounts for almost 35 per cent of the total turn over of the stores. The stores are organized completely for self-service and customers are encouraged to wander around the spaciously laid out stands. Special free gifts and reduced prices are used to tempt customers into the stores and they can’t stand the temptation.

Chapter 3. University. Week days

Text 1. Oleg’s student life

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