21. Shopping

Shopping is an activity that is necessary in our lives. Most people have to spend part of their day doing some kind of shopping for food or other essential items. We have a number of choices about where to go shopping. We can go to a big department store, a mall, a smaller local shop, or an outdoor market. Here are some of the most common specialty shops and what they sell there.

At a bakery you can buy bread, rolls, cookies, and cakes.
At the butcher´s shop you can buy meat and sausages.
At a clothing store you can buy clothes for men, women, or children.
At an electronics store you can buy TV sets and other electrical appliances.
At the florist´s you can buy flowers and plants.
At a garden shop you can buy seeds, fertilizers, and garden supplies.
At the greengrocer´s you can buy vegetables and fruit.
At a hardware store you can buy tools, nails, and other building supplies.
At a shoe store you can buy shoes and shoe polish.
At a stationery you can buy paper products and office supplies.        
At a sweet shop you can buy cakes, sweets, and ice cream.
At a toy shop you can buy dolls, teddies, games, balls, and other goods for children.    
       
Probably the most common type of shop is the supermarket. At a supermarket you can buy almost any type of food: meat, cheese, eggs, milk, butter, bread, sugar, flour, tea, coffee, fruits, vegetables, and food preserved in jars, tins and cans. There are many more products available at a supermarket, e.g. cleaning supplies such as soap, washing powder, detergents. And you can also find small household items there.
Another place where people do a lot of their shopping is the department store. A department store has different sections where you can buy almost anything: clothes for men, women, and children, household supplies, hardware, garden supplies, electronics, CD's and DVD´s, books, furniture, jewellery, perfumes, cosmetics, etc.

An average Czech family goes shopping almost every day to a local market for necessary food. Once a week they might do a larger shopping trip for the weekend. Foreigners visiting our country might buy a nice picture book about our country, a CD with classical music, china, cut glass, and dolls in national costumes.