Some Hints and Tips on Smart Shopping for Food

Using a Shopping List

       The first step in smart food shopping is to prepare a shopping list of the items we need to complete the meals we have planned. This shopping list should also include staple items we need such as salt, sugar, and paper towels.

       With a shopping list, we can avoid several costly mistakes. We can make certain we get everything we need and avoid extra trips to the store. A shopping list also will help us avoid impulse purchases that will run up our grocery bill. A shopping list also can help us avoid overbuying perishables so that we can eliminate wasteful spoilage.

       Choosing a Place to Shop

       An important part of smart shopping is the choice of a place to shop. Prices and quality do differ among stores.

       Price competition among supermarkets tends to keep prices from differing too much among different stores. Price differences are larger between supermarkets and small neighborhood and convenience stores. These smaller stores are open long hours, and their average sales are small. This raises their operating costs. Since the stores' total sales are small, their extra operating costs result in higher prices. Smart shoppers will try to hold their purchases from these higher-priced stores to a minimum. Many city and country dwellers do not have supermarket-type stores nearby. The extra savings from super market shopping may make some extra effort worthwhile, especially for large orders.

 

       Choosing a supermarket may be difficult. Some stores try to draw in shoppers with attractive specials. These stores usually make up for these specials by charging higher prices for other items. Other stores advertise "everyday low prices" or "discount prices". To make up for their lower average prices, these stores may not offer good specials.

       Understanding the Information on the Label

       Information included on the labels of food products is strictly controlled by law. Food shoppers will find labels to be one of their most useful and reliable sources of information. Labels provide such important facts as the ingredients and the relative amounts of each that were used, the net weight of the package contents, the name of the processor or distributor, and federal inspection information.

       Rate the importance of each of the following factors in your decision whether to buy a certain item in the grocery store:

 

taste                        price                       appearance

nutrition                 freshness                packaging

need                       budget               weight

                                                                   container size

 

(First work on your own, then discuss the result and come up with a unanimous sequence for the group).

 

Topics for discussions and essays

1. Describe a shopper you would call a) thorough, b) careless c) smart.

2. What kind of purchases would you call "a bargain" and what are the best places to look for bargains.

3. Speak/write on your experience of a shopping spree (real or imaginary one).

4. Create a shopping list for each of the following people (the amount of money to spend is shown in the brackets):

a) a teenager who walks to the store ($ 20);

b) a coach buying for a basketball team ($ 30);

c) a camper preparing for a long hiking trip ($ 60);

Projects.

I. Study the layout of the supermarkets in your town: then draw a diagram of a supermarket, marking the arrangements of the display. Say why you have put things where they are. If you were in charge of the supermarket, is there anything else you would do to attract customers and make them buy things?

II. Try to make a collection of guarantees, say for a lawn mower, electric fire, washing machine, electric kettle, electric blanket, clock – and any other guaranteed goods. Study the guarantees and decide whether they are good and worth having, or whether they are worthless or even, perhaps, deprive the shopper of his rights under Common Law.

III. Collect from as many people as possible their tips for economizing when shopping. Put them in a notebook and add any ideas of your own.

IV. Choose an article you would like to buy one day, say a tape recorder, electric iron, transistor radio, washing machine, or something similar. Find out all you can about the products available: the different prices, advantages and disadvantages of each particular model, reputation for reliability, after-purchase servicing, etc. Do this by every possible means – collect advertisements, look in shops and ask shop assistants, find magazine articles and obtain information from newspapers, reference books and the Consumers Association publications. Having collected all the information, say which model you would choose and why.

V. At the end of your advertising scrapbook, give your opinion of a good advertisement, and design one yourself for a product of your choice. 

 

Учебное издание

 

Потемкина Светлана Алексеевна

Ловгач Галина Владимировна,

Познякова Татьяна Михайловна,

 

 

SHOPPING

 

Практическое пособие

по практике устной и письменной речи

для студентов I курса специальности П.02.07.00 – «Английский язык»

 

       Подписано в печать _______ Формат 60x 84 

Бумага писчая № 1. Печать офсетная.

Усл. п.л. 2,2. Уч.-изд. л. 1,4. Тираж 100 экз.

 Заказ _______.

 

Лицензия ЛВ № 357 от 12.02.1999 г.

 

Отпечатано на ризосрафе ГГУ им. Ф. Скорины: 246699б г. Гомель, ул. Советская,104. 

 

 

  

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