📘 Part 3: Shopping

This episode's vocabulary

Сonvenient (adj.) - suitable for your purposes and needs and causing the least difficulty.

To draw the line (idiom) - to never do something because you think it is wrong.

To have ready access - you can use it whenever you need to express that someone or something has the ability to easily access or obtain something.

Personalization (noun) - the act of making something suitable for the needs of a particular person.

Tailored (adj.) - used to describe a piece of clothing that is shaped to fit a person's body closely.

To spoil (verb) - when food spoils or is spoiled, it is no longer good enough to eat.

Stagnant (adj.) - not growing or developing.

To level off (phrasal verb) - if a changing number or amount levels off or levels out, it stops increasing or decreasing at such a fast speed.

To stall (verb) - to stop making progress.

To intervene (verb) - to intentionally become involved in a difficult situation in order to improve it or prevent it from getting worse.

To tackle (verb) - to try to deal with something or someone.

Inadvertently (adverb) - in a way that is not intentional.

To enact (verb) - to put something into action, especially to make something law.

To accrue (verb) - to increase in number or amount over a period of time.

Questions and Answers

M: Why do many people like shopping online?

R: Well, that's easy. It's so convenient these days you can get everything in one click. I even think they have services called one-click shopping, so you can just order things as you go, and it all gets delivered in a broadly acceptable time frame. It also opens up a load of options for people, as opposed to the limited selection you might get just shopping at local stores.

M: Should advertisements be strictly regulated?

R: Well, I suppose that depends on what for and by who. Clearly, some products are inappropriate for certain audiences. For example, cigarettes shouldn't be advertised to children, but I don't know if we can apply that to all products. Where would you draw the line?

M: What makes large shopping malls popular?

R: Well, you have everything under one roof, don't you? And that's got to be convenient for people, since they can just drive or walk to one place and get everything they want in one go.

M: What are the benefits and drawbacks of consumerism for a country's economy?

R: Oh, God... I think whole books have been written about that. It's great that people have ready access to the things that they want and need, and it seems to drive at least some personalization of products and services, which is nice, because you can get something that's tailored to you, but by contrast, you, well, because you have all these competing companies, lots of waste gets generated, since you can't buy everything, and some items will spoil before they find an owner.

M: Can consumption drive economic growth?

R: Well, I'm not sure what else can, to be honest with you. Well, even if there's some sort of centrally planned economy, there will be some kind of demand that requires the use of resources. Maybe in a stagnant economy, or one where consumption has leveled off, growth will stall, but that's the exception.

M: How will people's shopping habits change in the future?

R: Well, that depends on lots of things. If there are more people, there might be fewer resources. So you might expect to see people buying fewer things. Similarly, if governments intervene to tackle the climate crisis, then they might inadvertently reduce consumer spending through the laws they enact because they've restricted access to products or different resources that are used to make these things. What are the differences between how young people shop and how older people shop?

M: Well, generally speaking, older people tend to have access to more money, so they would probably buy more, or at least more expensive things, whereas younger people, again, very broadly, well, again, very broadly speaking, have less money accrued because they've been alive for shorter periods of time. So I suppose they would be buying less or they would be buying cheaper products.

M: Thank you, Rory, for your answers!

R: No worries.