Shopping (S03E19)

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This episode’s vocabulary

• Window shopping (noun) — the activity of looking at goods displayed in shop windows, especially without intending to buy anything.
• For the sake of it (phrase) — if you do something for the sake of it, you do it because you want to and not for any particular reason.
• Utility (noun)the state of being useful, profitable, or beneficial.
• Asset (noun) — a useful or valuable quality, skill, or person.
• Liability (noun) — a person or thing whose presence or behavior is likely to put one at a disadvantage.
• A bargain (noun) — something on sale at a lower price than its true value.
• To bargain (verb) — to try to make someone agree to give you something that is better for you, such as a better price or better working conditions.
• Supplements (noun) — a medicine that contains substances that you need to stay healthy in addition to what you get in your food.
• Voucher (noun) — a small piece of paper or an electronic receipt that entitles the holder to a discount, or that may be exchanged for goods or services.
• Low maintenance (adj.) — requiring little work to keep in good condition.
• Brick-and-mortar (adj.) — existing as a physical building, especially a shop, rather than doing business only on the internet.
• To be on a tight budget (phrase) — if you’re on a tight budget you do not have much money to spend.

We have also added these words to a “Quizlet” set for you to study and revise in your free time: bit.ly/quizlets03e19

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Questions and Answers

Maria: Rory, do you often buy things?

Rory: I suppose I do my food shopping on a weekly basis. But major purchases are like once or twice a year. I’ll save up a lot of money and I’ll buy a lot of things from Amazon when I go home.

Maria: Do you enjoy buying things?

Rory: The shopping experience? I don’t know… I’m not really one for window shopping or just buying things for the sake of it, to be honest. I like to think about what I’m going to buy. Go in, buy it and then leave. I’m quite a straightforward person like that. If you’re someone that likes to go shopping. I’m probably the worst person to do this with.

Maria: A typical man… 🤦‍♀️

Rory: Thank you 🙃

Maria: Do you enjoy buying expensive things?

Rory: If they have some kind of utility, like a new laptop or phone, but not for the sake of it. If I’m going to buy expensive thing, it’s got to be more of an asset than a liability.

Maria: Do you compare the price in different shops before you buy something?

Rory: I used to, but now I don’t have so much time when I go shopping, so what I’ll normally do is buy more expensive things online, and I think Amazon has this function where you can just automatically do price comparisons. But if not, then it’s easy enough to open up multiple tabs on your Internet browser and just compare prices this way. So, yes, I do compare the prices for different things, but not in different shops.

Maria: Do you usually search for bargains?

Rory: Not really when it comes to food shopping. I usually… I’m quite set in my ways, so I won’t normally look for any bargains. I suppose the only thing that I might look for bargains with is if I’ve got, sort of, bigger purchases, then you sort of look for the best deal that’s available. But it’s not the my normal practice when I go shopping.

Maria: When do you go to get a low price?

Rory: Well, for food, like, supermarkets always have the best deals. They have, like, “buy one, get one free” or they’ve got special discounts, for example. And that’s the best place for me, I think. I imagine there are other places you could shop online, but I don’t really like online shopping for food.

Maria: What things do you buy online?

Rory: Electronics or experiences or, like, supplements for working out and going to the gym. I’ll sometimes buy services like… well, I suppose… I wanted to go shooting once so you could purchase a voucher online to do that. I think I did the same thing for when I was learning how to fly too.

Maria: You were learning how to fly!?

Rory: I was going to. I bought… Sorry, I was arranging this before the crisis happened and everything shut down. So I still have to… well, I still have to do this. Maybe sometime this year. Not soon though.

Maria: Yeah, but fly with what? With wings? 🤔

Rory: With a glider.

Maria: Oh that’s nice 😮

Rory: It’s always something I wanted to do. Just the one time. I wanted to be able to say that I’d learned how to fly.

Maria: Rory’s going to learn how to fly!

Rory: Fingers crossed.

Maria: How lovely is that? What was the last thing you bought?

Rory: Well, apart from the food shop, I do that every Friday, I think the last major thing I bought was perfume from my mom. It was for her birthday.

Maria: But what about for yourself? What did you buy for yourself?

Rory: Nothing really… Outside of supplements and food, to be honest, I’m quite a low maintenance person. I don’t make major purchases that often. I think the most expensive thing I bought recently, apart from the supplements, was probably a bottle of wine. That was a nice bottle of wine. It was like a thousand rubles. Really! I’ve got I’ve got a taste for expensive wine 😏 *Rory being sarcastic*

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