Shopping

Buying consumer durables:

You can buy a durable consumer product on hire purchase if it costs more than you can afford. This means
you pay a deposit in advance and then you pay the balance off in monthly installments. In this way you can
buy hi-fi towers, TV sets, furniture etc.

Where to do the shopping:

- shops:
- stationer’s - photographer’s - perfumery’s
- gift shop - chemist’s - electrical store
- wine shop - china shop - haberdashery’s
- sport shop - shoe shop - toy shop, butcher’s
- Chinese boutiques - men’s wear - sweet shop
- florist’s - ladies’ wear - confectioner’s
- jeweler’s - boutiques - optician’s
- furniture shop - lace shop
- market place:
- it’s in the open air (you can get soaked to skin)
- fresh products (no chemicals)
- wide range of fresh food, fruits, vegetables, spices
- home-grown products
- free range eggs, hen, duck
- poultry, domestic animals aren’t fed on artificial feeds
- you can bargain to get them for lower prices
- small shops:
- there aren’t so many kind of foods
- the prices are high
- the shop assistants are more friendly, helpful and polite
- the customer and the assistant doesn’t keep the distance, they know each other
- supermarket:
- brightly-lit, well-laid out, the products are tidily arranged
- the products are usually packed or bottled, they are semi-prepared, ready-to-cook, ready-to-serve
- long opening hours
- free parking places
- indifferent and unfriendly staff
- you may come across products of low quality
- fruit and vegetable counters: you can buy fruit( apple, pear, peach, apricot, grapes, plum, orange,
banana, melon, fig etc.) and vegetables ( pepper, tomato, potato, cucumber, onion, garlic, carrot etc.)
there.
- dairy counter: butter, marge, cheese, cottage cheese, milk, sour cream, cream, yoghurts
- bakery counter: brown and white bread with different seeds, rolls, croissant, doughnuts, scones
- wine counter: dry and sweet wine, champagne, alcoholic drinks are sold there.
- meat counter: pork, beef, minced meat, fish, cold cuts, salami, smoked sausages, poultry: chicken,
goose, duck, turkey
- confectionery shelves: all kinds of sweets, chocolate bars, cakes biscuits, candies, stuffed sweets
- dry groceries shelves: flour, cereals, tea, spices, sugar, vegetable, sunflower oil, rice
- Besides these you can buy delicatessen and toiletries.
Shopping habits:
- people do the shopping as a hobby and they don’t necessarily buy the things they need
- they tend to buy brand names so that they can show off with what they possess
- people of lower classes usually go for sales or Chinese boutiques where they can buy cheap but tin-pot
products.
- people rather go to the big supermarkets or the multinational hypermarkets than the small shops, because
they can buy cheaper and more sorts of things.

Role of advertisements:
- they are on the net, in the newspapers, TV, brochures, leaflets, posters, bills, and even in the mobile phone.
- they make us buy all sorts of things that we don’t really need, manipulate
- they are sometimes of poor quality, and after discovering it, you may not give it back
- they make us believe that their products are the best
- they have become part of our life
- the most commercials are gimmicks, the aren’t real
- commercials are made for people who can easily be influenced.
- you need to get more information about he product before buying it
- you should also read the tiny letters because they contain the most important pieces of information

Consumer society:
- buy brand names
- buy goods in bulk because they are cheaper this way
- buy products just because they are much cheaper but you don’t really need it
- buy only Hungarian products, so that the uniquely Hungarian wares won’t disappear