Text 5: supermarkets

A supermarket is a self-service store offering a wide variety of food and household merchandise, organized into departments. It is larger in size and has a wider selection than a traditional grocery store, also selling items typically found in a convenience store, but is smaller and more limited in the range of merchandise than a hypermarket.

The supermarket typically comprises meat, fresh produce, dairy, and baked goods departments, along with canned and packaged goods as well as for various non-food items such as household cleaners, pharmacy products and pet supplies. Most supermarkets also sell a variety of other household products that are consumed regularly, such as alcohol (where permitted), medicine, and clothes, and some stores sell a much wider range of non-food products.

The traditional supermarket occupies a large amount of space, usually on a single level. It is usually situated near a residential area in order to be convenient to consumers. Its basic appeal is the availability of a broad selection of goods under a single roof, at relatively low prices. Other advantages include ease of parking and frequently the convenience of shopping hours that extend far into the evening or even 24 hours a day. Supermarkets usually allocate large budgets to advertising, typically through newspapers.

Supermarkets usually offer products at low prices. Customers usually shop by placing their selected merchandise into shopping carts (trolleys) or baskets (self-service) and pay for the merchandise at the check-out. At present, many supermarket chains are attempting to further reduce labor costs by shifting to self-service check-out machines, where a single employee can oversee a group of four or five machines at once, assisting multiple customers at a time.

A larger full-service supermarket combined with a department store is sometimes known as a hypermarket. Other services offered at some supermarkets may include those of banks, cafés, childcare centres, photo processing, video rentals, pharmacies and/or petrol stations.

Vocabulary:

household merchandise	бытовые товары
convenience store	магазин товаров повседневного спроса
non-food items	непищевые товары
canned products	консервированные продукты
household cleaners	бытовые чистящие средства
pharmacy products	медицинские препараты
pet supplies	предметы для ухода за животными
residential area	жилой сектор
to allocate budget	выделять финансовые средства
shopping carts (trolleys)	тележка для покупок
check-out	касса
to reduce labor costs	сократить расходы на оплату труда
self-service check-out machines	кассы самообслуживания
childcare centre	детский центр развлечений
photo processing	фотопечать
video rentals	видео прокат
petrol stations	автозаправочная станция

Comprehension Questions:

1. What can you buy at the supermarket?

2. Do you find it convenient to do shopping at a supermarket?

3. What are the basic advantages of the supermarket?

4. What are the most popular supermarkets in your residential area?

Дата добавления: 2014-12-27