Shopping is an activity people love or hate. Nowadays, people can do shopping in huge shopping centres or in small specialised shops.
A shopping mall is a large indoor shopping centre with different types of shops, cinemas, wellness centres, bowling centres. They also have cafés, snack bars, restaurants, where people can relax after doing shopping or meet their friends and have a cup of coffee, tea, wine. They are open late in the evening and on weekends, too. You can buy there everything you want: food, clothes, shoes, toys, sporting goods, cosmetics, jewellery, books, furniture… All under one roof☺ There is usually enough parking space and a free childcare centre.
Many Slovaks do their shopping in hypermarkets, such as Carrefour, Tesco, Hypernova, Billa…. but there are still some small specialised shops which save your time, energy and Money, too. Corner shops sell different foodstuffs like tea, coffee, bottled beer, juice, sweets,vegetables, fruit, etc. And dairy products like milk, butter, creame, cheese, yoghurt… They also sell newspapers and magazines.
Various kinds of fresh bread,rolls, buns and cakes can be bought at the baker’s. Butcher’s sell fresh canned or frozen meat and meat products as salami, ham, sausages. Fresh vegetables and all kinds of fruit can be bought at the greengrocer’s. Many people prefer shopping at the market or outdoor market. There is wide choice of potatoes, cabbage, beans, carrots, tomatoes, apples, pears, oranges, bananas, grapes, plums… The chemist’s is a specialised shop where people can buy medicines but also cosmetics. Boutiques sell different dresses, shirts, skirts,blouses, trousers, pullovers, jeans and so on. Shoes, belts and bags, socks are sold in shoe shop.
In everyday life, people also need different kinds of services, for example: hairdressers, tailors, dressmaker beauty salons, nail studios, fitness centres, optician’s, photographer’s, shoe repair shops, watchmaker’s, car-mechanics, garden designers, plumbers, lawyers, real estate agents, doctors, postal service, banks (financial service)…
If we need to borrow money, the bank can give us a loan. If the bank lends us money for building a house or buying a flat the money is called a mortgage. When people talk about modern life, they often use the words “consumer society“. A consumer is someone who uses a product. A consumer society is a society in which material goods are very imporatnat and consumers are also very important and have a lot of power. Nowdays, people have more money to spend but also less time to spend it.
Phrases: I am flat broke. Som úplne švorc. I had to pay for that out of my own pocket. Musel som to zaplatiť z vlastného vrecka. Don´t buy a pig in a poke. Nekupuj zajaca vo vreci.