Shopping for the home has changed dramatically over the last ten years. Once upon a time you could buy your meat from the butcher, your vegetables from the greengrocer, your fish from the fishmonger. But not any more.

Supermarkets appeared a long time ago and put many of the small shopkeepers out of business. Often, most supermarkets are a drive or a bus journey away (unless you fancy the idea of walking home with your heavy bags of food).

Of course, this is both good and bad. The reason supermarkets were able to beat the small shops in the first place is because they are cheap. You can get products from all around the world, and everything from your daily loaf of bread to a microwave, all under the same roof. Plus it doesn’t matter how far away they are because you can even shop with them online.
 

Supermarkets 

The market is cornered by the ‘big four’ which account for 75% of the UK’s £100 billion grocery market, with one supermarket accounting for a huge 30%. But with such domination from these big chain-stores, it means less convenience for the shopper, since local shops find it hard to survive.  

 
However, the quality of food in these stores is now being questioned. Many products are imported or carried long distances before they make it to your plate. The industry calls this ‘food miles’. And 95% of fruit and half of the vegetables we use in the UK are imported. But food that has travelled less will have more nutritional content and have more taste too!

There is also the issue that live animals are transported long distances, and the impact of transporting them on the environment. Now people are more aware of these things they are calling for a return to more quality and local produce.

Farmers' Markets

Because of this, there has been a rise in market-stall owners selling locally grown vegetables and locally reared meats, as well as increased numbers of farmers’ markets where the farmers sell their own produce.

There are over 500 of these in the UK, where the products have been ‘grown, reared, caught, brewed, pickled, baked, smoked or processed by the stallholder’. And these are regulated so that you can be sure you are getting the best quality, most local, food.

Healthier food is a growing sector in the UK food market. Britain is now spending £1.9 billion a year on ‘organic’ food (meaning it is produced naturally, without chemicals).

As well as going to farmers’ markets there are thousands of local markets around the UK where you can get good quality fresh meat, fruit and vegetables, and all sorts of other things for the house.

Town Markets

Most towns still have a market on specific days of the week, and you can often find some great products, often at a better price than you will find them in other shops. You can find out where these are by visiting your council’s website and searching for ‘markets’, or by just asking someone who lives near you!

However, you will probably have to go to supermarkets to buy some things. There are various different ones you can go to, depending on what you want to buy and how much you have to spend. And some are open 24-hours a day and it’s the convenience of having so many products under one roof as well as this flexibility as well as low prices that mean supermarkets have become so dominant in the UK.

Shopping online

If finding the best local supermarket and then getting there and back yourself seems like too much hard work, you can now just spend half an hour online and have your shopping delivered to your door almost any where in the UK. Most of them will charge you between £3.75 and £5 to have the food delivered.

All of these sites offer user-friendly shopping where you can simply pick what you want, add it to your online ‘trolley’ and then pay using your credit or debit card. If you are short of time, or just want to avoid the queues, this is definitely the right option for you. But, the standing joke is that sometimes the items you want are not available and the supermarket will send you a replacement item, which is not always what you want or need...

Corner shops

Since the arrival of supermarkets, most of the individual shops like butchers and greengrocers have closed their doors. So most of you will find that the only local shops to where you live are ‘convenience’ stores.

You can’t usually get much fresh produce here, but you can usually get the sort of things you need on a daily basis, like bread, eggs and milk, and of course, newspapers.

Obviously, you will pay more here for the ‘convenience’ of having the products on your doorstep. But these shops can become part of your every day life, where you can chat to the shopkeeper, and get the latest gossip from your neighbours!

Shopping for the house

If you need to buy kitchen utensils, tools, cleaning products, a new kitchen, or anything else for the home that isn’t edible, you need to make a visit to your nearest hardware, department, or DIY store. There is a huge range to chose from and these will be located in towns and cities, on retail parks out of town and most also offer online shopping with delivery to your door.

In Britain we are obsessed with our  DIY (Do It Yourself – meaning that you do your own painting or make your own patio, for example). There are DIY stores on retail estates all over the UK which are like supermarkets but for doing jobs on the home. They have everything under one roof from showers to shelves. So if you want to do a job in the home yourself, these are the places to go. Visit our DIY page for more information.

Furniture stores

You can get furniture for the home at shops mentioned above in shopping for the house. But there are also plenty of other furniture stores that offer all you could ever want to fulfil your shopping for the home desires! an order and arrange delivery in minutes.

By Matt Taylor

To be listed here click

USEFUL WORDS

Someone who serves customers in a shop = sales assistant
The main shopping street in a town = high street
The place where you can buy paint, screws, etc. = DIY store
Where you would go to buy medicines = pharmacy / chemist’s
The bag you get in a supermarket to hold your shopping = carrier bag
A shop that sells fruit and vegetables = greengrocer’s
The place where you can exchange foreign currency = bureau de change
A large shop on several floors selling a wide variety of goods = department store
A small shop selling newspapers, sweets, etc. = newsagent’s
The place where you pay for things in a supermarket = check-out / till

Describing Quantities / Containers

a carton of milk / orange juice
a can of Coke / beer
a bar of soap / chocolate
a tub of yoghurt / margarine
a box of chocolates / tissues
a tube of toothpaste / glue
a bottle of shampoo / moisturiser
a tin of beans / paint
a packet of biscuits / cigarettes
a bunch of flowers / grapes
a bottle of mineral water / bubble bath / wine
a jar of jam / pickle / marmalade

GRAMMAR SPOT

Who, What, When, Where, How, Why (ever); no matter

These words can act as a subject or object in their own clauses:

Whatever you bought, I’m sure it was fine.
Whoever paid for that is very generous.

A clause with whoever etc. can also act as a subject or object of the verb in another clause:

Whoever buys this medicine will get better more quickly

I’ll buy whatever I want.

These words can also emphasise questions:

Whatever is going on?
Why ever have you bought that?

Other expressions can also be used with questions for added emphasis:

What on earth have you bought?
What the hell does he think he’s doing?
How in the world can I do that?