Talking point: Online shopping

This week's talking point is online shopping. Before getting together with the members of your conversation group, go over the questions below so that ideas come to mind more easily the day you get together with your friends and you can work out vocabulary problems beforehand.

When did you first shop online?
What did you think of it at the time?
How has your online shopping experience changed over the years?
What products are your perfectly happy to buy online?
What products would you never buy?
Do you think online shopping is absolutely reliable?
What potential problems are there?
Have you (or anyone you know) had a really bad experience with online shopping?
How can you protect yourself from cybercrime when shopping online?
Have you ever used an online auction site like e-Bay?
To what extent is online shopping harmful for conventional retailers?
What do you think online shopping will be like in the future?
Who is the person you know that buys the most online?
Do you know anyone who would never buy anything online?

Introducing Amazon Go

Amazon Go is a new kind of store featuring the world’s most advanced shopping technology.

Self-study activity:
Watch the video and complete the blanks in the transcript with the missing words.



Four years ago, we started to (1) ... : what would shopping look like if you could walk into a store, grab what you want, and just go? What if we could weave the most advanced machine learning, computer vision, and (2) ... into the very fabric of a store so you never have to wait in line? No lines, no (3) ... , no registers.
Welcome to Amazon Go.
Use the Amazon Go app to enter, then put away your phone and start shopping. It's really that simple. Take whatever you like. Anything you pick up is automatically added to your (4) ... ... . If you change your mind about that cupcake, just put it back. Our technology will (5) ... your virtual cart automatically.
So how does it work? We used computer vision, deep learning algorithms, and sensor fusion, much like you'd find in (6) ...-... cars. We call it just walk out technology. Once you've got everything you want, you can just go. When you leave, our Just Walk Out technology adds up your virtual cart and (7) ... your Amazon account. Your (8) ... is sent straight to the app, and you can keep going.
Amazon Go.
No lines, no (9) ... . No, seriously.

Key:
1 wonder
2 AI 
3 checkouts
4 virtual cart
5 update 
6 self-driving
7 charges 
8 receipt 
9 checkout

Talking point: Shopping

This week's talking point is shopping. Before getting together with the members of your conversation group, go over the questions below so that ideas come to mind more easily the day you get together with your friends and you can work out vocabulary problems beforehand.

Look at the picture from Les Galeries Lafayette shopping mall.
Do you have places like this where you live?
Do you ever go there?
What do you think is good/bad about shopping in a place like this?

What kinds of things do you most/least like shopping for?
What was the last thing you bought?
Talk about the clothes and accessories you are wearing at the moment:
-why did you choose them?
-where did you get them?
-how long have you had them?

Have you ever lied about the price of something?
Are there any shops you normally avoid going to?
Do you ever buy designer brands?
Do you believe in retail therapy (buying things makes you happy)?
Do you ever buy second-hand clothes?
Do you ever buy clothes online?
How often do you look at fashion magazines?

To illustrate the topic, watch this video clip, where some people will be answering the following questions:

What items do you enjoy buying most?
What sorts of things do you buy on impulse?
What sorts of things do you plan to buy?
What recent product or service do you think is impressive?
If you could start a business or invent a product or service what would it be?



V: Hi. I enjoy walking around the shops and I buy things like books and make-up on impulse but I always do my food shopping on-line – it’s such a fantastic service and you get everything delivered to your door. Today I’m talking to people about shopping and innovative products. What items do you enjoy buying most?
L: Oh, I enjoy buying food, and particularly food from farmers’ markets. I also like buying clothes for myself and I love buying plants for the garden.
M: Like most women I should say, like shoes, bags I think and make-up. Yeah, three top things, yeah.
S: Quite diverse really: I love food shopping. I love going to food markets, fish markets.
E: Well, actually, I’m in the perfect place for me right now, which is, er, markets: antique markets and vintage clothes.
J: I enjoy buying, I probably enjoy buying books the most, so er, oh and music as well, so anything where somebody’s given a recommendation.
C: I love to browse around bookshops and look at the latest books that are out and also CD shops.
V: What sorts of things do you buy on impulse?
P: Music, I suppose I buy that on impulse, erm, clothes.
L: Clothes, but not as much as I used to.
C: Food. I decide when I’m walking down the street one day I want to cook this this evening, I jump in a market and get the ingredients and go and do that.
M: Well, I’m not that type of person that buys things on impulse, I’m actually very controlled, self controlled.
D: Just now I was walking down the antiques market and I saw a pair of silver tongs which looked like a great bargain, so I bought those on impulse.
S: On impulse? Oh, dreadful! Handbags, that’s probably my biggest impulse buy.
V: What sorts of things do you plan to buy?
P: Train tickets, plane tickets because I have to travel a lot in my job, so I need to plan in advance so I get good value for money on the tickets.
E: Plan, I never plan, actually, in advance. No, I haven’t got the kind of money to plan.
D: Things like holidays. Anything over, like, £100 I’d say was a planned purchase.
V: What recent product or service do you think is impressive?
P: iPhone. Absolutely amazing. I mean, I bought one and it’s just, it’s really changed my life.
S: Probably my mobile phone. I’ve just changed it to a Blackberry Storm where I can get all my emails ...
M: The new camera that I saw on television, on the commercial, so you’re taking a picture and you are seeing yourself on the other side.
V: If you could start a business or invent a product or service what would it be?
P: I don’t know. I’d like to sell joy. If you could sell joy that would be good: I don’t know how you could do it.
L: My fantasy business is to have a thing called Sophia’s Bakery and to make really fantastic cakes that you can’t buy in this country.
E: I love the Arts, so anything that would, kind of, bring more creativity to people’s lives and expression, I think that would be great.

easyJet takes on food shopping with new store

Famous for no-frills budget flights, the famous orange signs can now be found above a corner shop, as easyJet looks to revolutionise food shopping.

Self-study activity:
Watch the video and answer the questions below.



1 Where was the EasyJet airline owner born?
2 What groups of people can benefit from the cheap groceries?
3 How much would the same item cost in a local shop?
4 How many children does the single mum have?
5 How big is the range of products on offer?
6 What EasyJet failures are mentioned?

There are no big brand baked beans here and the butter wouldn’t ring any bells but this is budget shopping, Stelios style. The Greek-born billionaire, now a knight of the realm, has taken the business model from his easyJet airline, moving from cheap getaways to cheap groceries too.
People who are, you know, pensioners, unwaged, on low wages moving off benefits into a low-wage job so they no longer entitled to use food banks, this is what caters for them. A small range of high-quality goods very, very competitively priced.
The range isn't extensive just the essentials, but for those whose cupboards are bare this food is affordable.
I think we’re struggling, whether you’re working, even if you're working now lots of people are on low wage and it’s very hard to feed the family, you know.
In the local shops it would £1,97. I’ve got a freedom pass. I come here, I can get eight for that.
Being a single mom on benefits with two little boys is very difficult to pounce the money and be able to get them treats and pounce food. I mean, I know a lot of the vegs is in tins, anything, but it’s still vegs.
There clearly is a market for cheap produce but how successful is this business going to be?
It just doesn't seem to relate to how the market has moved in recent years. I mean, people these days, most people, would want a rather more pleasant store environment and they certainly want fresh fruits, it’s a very important part of the mix at the moment… it's not just … package. I think they’d want a bigger range too, I mean families come in here, pick up a few products, then they gonna go on.
Whether it works in the long run is yet to be seen. For every easyJet success story there’s failures such as Easy Cinema or Easy Car, but with over one million people using food banks last year, affordable food may not be such a flash in the pan.

Listening test: Shopping

In this week's listening test we are going to pracise the heading-matching kind of task.

Listen to six people talking about shopping and what they enjoy and dislike about shopping and match the headings A-H below with the corresponding speaker. There are two headings you do not need to use.



A - This speaker doesn’t enjoy shopping with some specific company.
B - This speaker doesn’t like doing jobs in the house.
C - This speaker doesn’t like shopping on his/her own.
D - This speaker doesn't like the money-related side to shopping.
E - This speaker is crazy about shopping for just one item.
F - This speaker spends a fortune when shopping.
G - This speaker spends the least possible time shopping.
H - This speaker uses his/her nose when shopping for an item he/she likes.

photo: elllo.org

1
Something I like shopping for? I like shopping for everything. I like shopping for clothes. I like shopping for food. I like shopping for presents. Everything. Maybe the one exception would be shopping for DIY things: things like pliers and gardening tools and wallpaper. I'm not really interested in things like that but that's the exception. Other than that, everything.

2
What do I like shopping for? I like shopping for food, going to the supermarket looking at -- especially a nice good supermarket and looking at all the weird and cool and wacky food. That's pretty fun. What I don't like shopping for is everything else. I'm not really a big shopping fan. I like to buy as quickly as possible and get out as quickly as possible and that's it.

3
I don't really enjoy shopping at all but I guess if I have to go shopping, the one type of shopping I enjoy is bread shopping. I really enjoy looking for really good bread and smelling the bread in the bread shop, but usually I don't, I'm not a big fan of shopping anyway.

4
I enjoy shopping for food because I like eating and I do not enjoy shopping for cosmetic stuff like for example shampoo - girls stuff. I do not like shopping with girls because they tend to take long and look at every item at least ten seconds but I enjoy shopping for food for myself.

5
The thing I most enjoy shopping for is shoes. I could shop and shop and never get tired of them. The last time I visited Ireland. I bought five pairs of shoes in three days. I just love them.

6
I like shopping for clothing. It's a lot of fun finding new shirts or new jeans to put on, trying out new outfits that I normally wouldn't wear. The only thing I dislike about it are the prices of course, but I really have a good time going out and looking for things - that hunter-gatherer instinct in me.

KEY:
1B 2G 3H 4A 5E 6D

Talking point: Shops

This week's talking point is shops. Before getting together with the members of your conversation group, go over the questions below so that ideas flow more easily when you meet up with your friends and you can work out vocabulary problems beforehand.

• What kind of shops are there near where you live?
• Do you go to them much? If not, where do you buy things?
• What shops have opened up or closed down near you?
• Are there any markets in you town? Do you ever go to them? Do you have a favourite stall?
• What chain stores are there in your town (Zara, Mango)? Do you shop there? Are they in competition with local shops?
• Are small shops in your country finding it difficult to survive? Do you think it's important to support them?
• Talk about something you've bought in local shops which

- was personalised for you
- you bought it directly from the person who made it
- was a present for a friend or relative
- was made locally
- was eco-friendly
- you later had to take back to the shop

To illustrate the point you can watch Why do competitors open their stores next to one another?, a lesson created by Jac de Haan for TED.



Why are gas stations always built right next to other gas stations? Why is it that I can drive for a mile without finding a coffee shop and then stumble across three on the same corner? Why do grocery stores, auto repair shops and restaurants always seem to exist in groups instead of being spread evenly throughout a community? While there are several factors that might go into deciding where to place your business, clusters of similar companies can be explained by a very simple story called Hotelling's Model of Spatial Competition.
Imagine that you sell ice cream at the beach. Your beach is one mile long and you have no competition.
Where would you place your cart in order to sell the most product? In the middle. The one-half-mile walk may be too far for some people at each end of the beach, but your cart serves as many people as possible.
One day you show up at work just as your cousin Teddy is arriving at the beach with his own ice cream cart. In fact, he's selling exactly the same type of ice cream as you are. You agree that you will split the beach in half. In order to insure that customer's don't have to walk too far you set up your cart a quarter mile south of the beach center, right in the middle of your territory. Teddy sets up a quarter mile north of the center, in the middle of Teddy territory. With this agreement, everyone south of you buys ice cream from you. Everyone north of Teddy buys from him, and the 50% of beachgoers in between walk to the closest cart. No one walks more than a quarter of a mile, and both vendors sell to half of the beachgoers.
Game theorists consider this a socially optimal solution. It minimizes the maximum number of steps any visitor must take in order to reach an ice cream cart.
The next day, when you arrive at work, Teddy has set up his cart in the middle of the beach. You return to your location a quarter mile south of center and get the 25% of customers to the south of you. Teddy still gets all of the customers north in Teddy territory, but now you split the 25% of people in between the two carts.
Day three of the ice cream wars, you get to the beach early, and set up right in the center of Teddy territory, assuming you'll serve the 75% of beachgoers to your south, leaving your cousin to sell to the 25% of customers to the north. When Teddy arrives, he sets up just south of you stealing all of the southerly customers, and leaving you with a small group of people to the north. Not to be outdone, you move 10 paces south of Teddy to regain your customers. When you take a mid-day break, Teddy shuffles 10 paces south of you, and again, steals back all the customers to the far end of the beach. Throughout the course of the day, both of you continue to periodically move south towards the bulk of the ice cream buyers, until both of you eventually end up at the center of the beach, back to back, each serving 50% of the ice-cream-hungry beachgoers. At this point, you and your competitive cousin have reached what game theorists call a Nash Equilibrium, the point where neither of you can improve your position by deviating from your current strategy.
Your original strategy, where you were each a quarter mile from the middle of the beach, didn't last, because it wasn't a Nash Equilibrium. Either of you could move your cart toward the other to sell more ice cream. With both of you now in the center of the beach, you can't reposition your cart closer to your furthest customers without making your current customers worse off. However, you no longer have a socially optimal solution, since customers at either end of the beach have to walk further than necessary to get a sweet treat.
Think about all the fast food chains, clothing boutiques, or mobile phone kiosks at the mall. Customers may be better served by distributing services throughout a community, but this leaves businesses vulnerable to aggressive competition. In the real world, customers come from more than one direction, and businesses are free to compete with marketing strategies, by differentiating their product line, and with price cuts, but at the heart of their strategy, companies like to keep their competition as close as possible.

Reading test: The death of the US shopping mall

In this week's reading comprehension activity we are going to read a BBC article by Jonathan Glancey about the decline of shopping malls in US, The death of the US shopping mall. It will help us practise the multiple choice kind of task.

Drop by the BBC website by clicking on this link and read the article The death of the US shopping mall. Say which option a, b or c best completes the sentence or answers the question 1-7. 0 is an example.

Example:

0 Many shopping malls look

a) frightening because they don’t have enough light.

b) like Romero’s film set.

c) sinister after Romero’s film.

1 Which sentence is true, according to the text?

a) Ghost malls are thriving all over the US.

b) Shopping malls are victims of changing shopping patterns.

c) The economic recession is the reason for the decline of the mall.

2 The first US malls

a) had a kitsch design.

b) were intended to be in city centres.

c) were thought to be the heart of new communities.

3 Gruen’s Southdale Center in Edina

a) started a new concept of the shopping centre.

b) was built in a momentous year in  American history.

c) was surrounded by homes, schools, lakes and parks.

4 The Cloverleaf Mall in Chesterfield

a) closed down because it lost its appeal for customers.

b) was closed down for purely economic reasons.

c) was the first one to close down in almost one and half centuries.

5 Many Americans

a) are in favour of knocking down the malls.

b) are worried about abandoned shopping malls.

c) have a hedonistic approach to life.

6 Which sentence is true according to the text?

a) St Peter’s in Rome is bigger than the King of Prussia Mall.

b) The cost of living in the US is higher than in Bangladesh.

c) The location of large malls is unpredictable.

7 Ghost malls

a) are the result of social and economic trends.

b) have been used to set books and films.

c) will be visited by tourists one day.

Source: BBC and architecturalafterlife.com

Key:

1B 2C 3A 4A 5B 6C 7A

Madrid Teacher: Kill Switch

In this week's Madrid Teacher video, four teachers discuss the quality of electric appliances and how these devices seem to last less and less as technology gets more and more sophisticated, which is a bit suspicious.

As usual, we will be using the teachers' conversation as a springboard to study some features of spoken English.

First of all, watch the video through to gain some understanding of what the dialogue is about.
Now watch the video more carefully, and pay attention to these examples of spoken English:

• Fillers to gain thinking time: well, erm; er; like;  you know
• Showing agreement: yeah; Exactly; Absolutely;  Indeed
• Use of actually to introduce a bit of  unusual information
• Use of I mean to rephrase information you've just said and make yourself clear
• Use of hedging so as not to sound so dogmatic: I think; I don't think; you seem to; it seems to; I guess
• Use of so as a connector

Now it's over to you. Do you really think that these days electrical appliances and electronic devices are made not to last? Can you think of examples to support your view? If possible, get together with a friend an exchange ideas on this topic. Don't forget to use some of the features of spoken English we have seen in the video.
 
Have you heard the urban legend about the Sony Kill Switch?

No.

No, I’ve never heard about that.

No? It’s, well, erm, it’s like I said it’s an urban legend, and people say that Sony have built a device into their electronic goods, er, which stops, erm, the electronic device from working usually the day after the warranty expires. Ha, ha, ha.

Well, that’s a little bit suspicious, isn’t it?

I dare say it’s not to the day the warranty expires but, for example, imagine if you buy a laptop and it’s got a two- year guarantee. Usually you would expect a computer or whatever to last you for maybe five years but it seems to be an automatic thing where as soon as it’s two years up – kaput.

Yeah.

I’ve had that happen to me actually. It’s always a week after it expires.

Exactly.

Check the paper work “Oh my Gosh, last week”.

And you can’t get back to them ‘cause they’ll say, “I’m sorry”.

Yeah, oops.

You’re a week late.

I think appliances don’t last as long as they used to and you seem to have to, I mean, you know, I’m not the richest person in the world and sometimes I go for the cheaper option and it never pays off because they don’t, they don’t last.

Buy cheap, buy twice.

Buy cheap, buy twice. Exactly. Yeah.

Yeah. I’ve noticed this actually, erm, not only with electronic goods although obviously they have the warranty, but it seems to be with everything, with clothes, with shoes, erm, with everything, with fridges, which are electronic but…

Things just don’t last anymore.

No, I don’t think they’re built to last.

The thing is that technology is changing so quickly, I guess, in a way, they’re pushing us to get the new model of the computer or get the new model of the mobile phone…

Absolutely.

By making our things break early.

Perhaps, perhaps but it could also be a decline in quality as well so they’re just trying to get that fast production…

Yeah.

Not really concerned about the duration of the products. It could be that.

Yeah, because like in the past a company made its name on the fact that the, the, the object or the electronic device or the appliance would last like a long time…

Yeah, it was really a selling point.

Exactly.

But now it’s just consumer society of, you know, like come on renew, renew, renew and, you know, get rid of your old things and even if they’re still working, you know, so, it’s just the type of society we live in now.

Seems to be.

Indeed.

Madrid Teacher series: There is and there are

Our Madrid Teacher series this week is intended for Básico 1 and Básico 2 students and deals with questions with the verbs there is and there are.

Before you watch the video, list as many types of shops in English you can think of.

Now watch the video and check which of the shops you thought of are mentioned.

Watch the video for a second time and note down all the questions with there is or there are the girl is asked.

Now answer the same questions about yourself.



Is there a swimming pool near your house?
Yes there is.
And where is it?
It's just around the corner from my house.
Okay. Is there a supermarket near your house?
Yes, there is.
And where's the supermarket?
The supermarket is down the road from my house.
And do you go shopping there?
Yes, I do.
Is there a library near your house?
Not very near to my house, no.
Where is it?
It's in the next suburb.
Ok. And do you ever go there?
Yes, sometimes.
Ok. Is there a train station near your house?
No, there isn't.
Is there a post office near your house?
Yes, there is.
And where is it?
It’s in the shopping centre near my house.
Ok. And is there a bank near your house?
Yes there is.
And where is the bank?
The bank is across the road from my house.
Okay, good. Where do you go for your food… where do you go shopping for your food?
I go shopping at the supermarket.
Ok. Are there any butcher’s or greengrocer’s or shops like that near your house?
Yes, there is a butcher, a butcher shop just around the corner from my house.
And do you ever go there?
Sometimes, but I prefer to buy meat at the supermarket.
Ok. Is there a cinema near where you live?
No, there isn’t.
So where do you go when you want to watch a film?
Usually I go and I hire a film from the video shop near my house.
Oh, ok. And where’s the video shop?
It’s also in the shopping centre near my house.
Everything's in the shopping center.
Yes.

Managing food shopping can help cash-strapped families

Many families have found their budgets under pressure as the climate of economic crisis goes on and on. In the UK food prices have risen 12% in real terms over the past five years and last year the average household weekly spend on food was £54.80.

So how can households lacking money save on essential groceries at the supermarket?

In this short BBC clip, from the Inside Out series, we meet Tina Jefferies, a single mother of seven children from Telford, who has mastered the art of shopping for less by careful management of what she spends on family meals. She challenges Claire Bache from Birmingham, another single mother of seven, to reduce her weekly food expenditure and produce a very cheap meal.

Self-study activity:
Watch the four-minute video clip and say whether the statements below are true or false.

The activity is suitable for intermediate students.



1 Claire spends more than 200 pound on food every week.
2 Tina challanges Claire to get a meal for the whole family for 5 pound.
3 Tina and Claire walk to the second supermarket.
4 Tina advises viewers to cook the food before freezing it.
5 There is no problem in filling cupboards with food you don't need.
6 Supermarket staff are helpful in telling you what you can find in their store.
7 Claire thinks she will manage to cook her meal with that money because she has some ingredients at home.
8 The new products in the freezer should be put on top.

It’s shopping day for Claire, and Tina has arrived to talk about what she found.
Hi, I’m Tina.
Hi.
I’ve come to see if I can help you.
Ok, come on in.
What exactly was your weekly budget again?
About 150 to 200 pound a week.
Right. And on your menus do you have a set menu plan with a fixed price per head?
Oh, it’s fixed menu plan but not the price.
There is only one way to test Claire’s resolve, by setting her a challenge to shop for tonight’s dinner, Tina-style.
I would like to set you a challenge. I would like to take you to a supermarket. I’m going to give you a five-pound note and I want to see if you can get a meal for the whole family for a fiver. Do you think you can do it?
That’d be hard!
Well, hopefully with some of my tips you’ll get there.
Ok, guys, come on!
The ladies head straight to the reduced section to see what’s available in this store.
We’ve got some ham here. These aren’t necessarily of the best tip time of the day for the reductions.
There’s not many there, so they probably would’ve been  gone by then
It looks like their pickings are a bit slim in this supermarket, but that doesn’t faze Tina, who simply heads to another store.
It doesn’t seem as if we’re gonna get anything here tonight. How far is our next supermarket?
It’s about two miles from here.
Ok, let’s hope in the car and go and see what we can get.
So it’s off to the next supermarket. It may be more legwork than Claire is used to, but with only five pounds in a family of seven to feed she needs the best deals.
Right, let’s go and see what we can find.
So while they are busy shopping for reductions, we’ll recap Tina’s top tips to reducing your grocery bills.
When living on a budget your freezer is your best friend. If you can buy reduced items, especially your meat, poultry, fish, any of those, you can freeze them on the day and they will remain fresh. If you’ve got something and you’re not sure whether it can be frozen, cook it, make it into a meal, and then freeze it, because if you’ve got a full freezer, you’ll never be without a meal.
When looking at your dried goods and tinned foods, the best time to get them is when they are on special offers or multi-buys. Stock up, fill your shelves. They are a great additive to any meal, and they’ll certainly fill up those teenagers, they won’t go hungry.
If you’re all new to this and you’re starting up looking for the reduced stuff, the easiest way to do it in any supermarket is to go and ask. Don’t be embarrassed. They will take you to where it is or they will tell you where it is.
Tina and Claire have reemerged from the shop, but have they managed to find a meal for their five pounds budget?
I’ve got two packs of veal mince  and I’ve also got a packet of potatoes all of which should’ve been five pound and I’ve also saved a further pound at the till. I’m gonna make a moussaka with aubergine and layered potatoes and a mince all in one because I’ve got 50% of ingredients at home I can, I can do it for that price basically.
She needs then now sort her freezer out, get everything in order and start using old stock first, and then replenish it with good quality, good value reductions.

Key:
1F 2T 3F 4F (only food you're not sure it can be frozen) 5T 6T 7T 8F

Soviet goods and luxury brands in Moscow shopping mall

Moscow's shopping mall GUM - or State Universal Store - has reflected many of the changes in Russia's politics and history.

Self-study activity:
Watch this short BBC video clip by clicking on the picture below or on this link and answer the questions about it.

The activity is suitable for intermediate students.

1 When did the mall open?
2 What happened in the 1930s?
3 And in 1953?
4 What do many Russians feel nostalgic about?
5 What is GUM celebrating this year?
6 How many visitors does the store receive each year?

To check your answers you can read the transcript below.

This luxury shopping mall in the heart of Moscow echoes with the sound of Russia’s history and political upheavals. The vast corridors of GUM or the State Universal Store were originally opened in 1893. The steel and glass building was the testament of Czarist Russia’s architectural prowess and it was one of the largest shopping centers in Europe.
But Stalin closed the store in the 30s and used the building as offices and accommodation for bureaucrats. It was not until after his death in 1953 that the Soviet government decided to revive the store. GUM regained its cache and some queues of Muscovites eager to buy high and important goods started to stretch on for hours at times.
Even though the store was privatized in the early 90’s after the fall of Communism, many people in Russia still felt nostalgic about old Soviet products with their simple packaging. It is something that catering retailer Gastronom Number One kept in mind as it opened a Soviet-style food store in the shopping mall.
They are keeping the Soviet traditions, for example, here you can buy …, a traditional Soviet beverage, but also have new products from other countries, cheese, charcuterie, ham.
Now big name luxury brands wrestle to attention alongside the more retro stores. And as it celebrates its 120th birthday, GUM remains a consumer mecca for tourists and ordinary Russians alike, with around 15 million visitors flocking through the doors each year.

Leonid Louneev BBC news.

Speakout starter: Shopping

In another installment of our Speakout series, the video podcasts of the textbook from Pearson Longman, passers-by answer questions about their shopping habits:

Do you like shopping?
What’s the last thing you bought?
What’s your favourite type of shop?
Do you ever make shopping mistakes?



You can read the transcript here.

Shopping again

How do you feel about shopping?
Where do you usually shop?
Have you bought anything recently?

These are the questions people on the street are asked in this new installment of Speakout pre-intermediate, Longman.

Watch the video and note down the answers the speakers give.



Now it's over to you. If possible, get together with an English-speaking friend of your same level and answer the questions above about yourself.

You can read the transcript here.

Speakout Upper-intermediate: Shopping (ideas)

Here is another videocast from Speakout upper-intermediate, Longman.

Watch this video clip, where some people will be answering the following questions:

What items do you enjoy buying most?
What sorts of things do you buy on impulse?
What sorts of things do you plan to buy?
What recent product or service do you think is impressive?
If you could start a business or invent a product or service what would it be?



Now it's over to you. Answer the same questions about your shopping habits and preferences. Try and use some of the expressions and vocuabulary the people on the video used.

You can read the transcript here.

A day in the life of a Sainsbury Store

Jeffrey Hill published A day in the life of a Sainsbury Store on The English Blog a few weeks ago.

As he says, Sainsbury's, which is one of the 'big three' supermarkets in the UK, is depicted in a rather idealized way, and we can observe what goes on behind the scenes in a typical Sainsbury's supermarket during the course of a day.

Self-study activity:
Watch the video clip and answer the questions below.



1 When does work start?
2 Is it possible to order food from home?
3 When does the store begin to get busy?
4 In what field does Sainsbury occupy the 7th position?
5 Can you buy pre-cooked food?
6 How do Sainbury's butchers and fishmongers learn their job?
7 Do all the Sainbury stores have a chemist?
8 When are the empty shelves filled again?

You can read the transcript here.

Key:
1 before dawn 2 yes 3 mid-morning 4 selling clothes 5 yes 6 in-house training 7 No, just most of them 8 In the late afternoon

Ikea's Manland

Self-study activity:
Watch this video about Ikea's latest idea in their stores and answer the questions below.



1 Is shopping one of the most testing things a couple can do?
2 What does Ikea's niffty idea consist of?
3 How long is a man's retail attention span?
4 Who do girlfriends and wives do while their partners hang out in Manland?
5 How many men pretend to enjoy the shopping experience?
6 What are women given when they leave their partners in Manland?
7 How long can the men stay in Manland?
8 Where did Ikea get the idea about Manland?
9 What happens if men stay in Manland longer than allowed?
10 Who benefits more from Manland, wives or husbands?

You can read a The Star online article about Ikea's idea here.

Discussion:
After watching the video you can discuss these questions with an English-speaking friend or relative:

Do you like the idea?
Do you think other big department stores should follow Ikea's example?
Is the distinction between men and women conveyed by the video stereotypical?
Do you identify with it?

Key:
1 Yes, according to the report 2 Manland is an area in Ikea's stores (in Australia) for men to stay and entertain themselves with games like the Xbox and watching the footy (TV) while their partners are doing the shopping 3 very short 4 they go shopping 5 some 6 a buzzer which warns them about their partners staying in Manland 7 We don't really know. They say that the buzzer goes off after half an hour 8 Ikea first created Smalland, a kind of creche where parents can leave their children while doing the shopping  9 the authorities are called 10 wives

Colete Paris -Tour of the Store

Self-study activity:
Go over this short clip of Colete, the Parisean store, and say whether the statements below are true or false.



1 All the visitors to Colette buy something.
2 The idea for Colette was a family thing.
3 At Colette you can find everything.
4 Only famous brands are on show at Collete.
5 Each item is expensive.
6 Collete is the temple of fashion.

You can read the transcript of the video here.

Key:

1 F (want to buy something)  2 T 3 T 4 F 5 F (has a big value) 6 F (much more than that. They help people understand style).

Shopping Glogster

Daniela Tomatis, from The Machine Goes on, has released a new glogster (interactive poster), about shopping this time.

Here you can practise vocabulary and listening with has to do with shopping.

The vocabulary part is suitable, in my opinion, for Básico 1 and Básico 2 students, whereas the listening component is aimed at Básico 2 (the 'Listen to the conversation' part) and Intermediate 1 and Intermediate 2 the videos.