Page 41 - 192_

Last Saturday I wrote down a list of what we needed and we
went to the supermarket. We parked the car, entered the shopping area,
took a shopping cart and wheeled it down to the butcher’s department.
There was a good choice there – bacon, sliced sausage, poultry, lamb,
beef, all laid ready in transparent packets with dates on their labels. (If
foods are perishable, they have to be dated. The expiry date indicates the
last day the store is supposed to sell the item.) We bought a small joint of
beef and chicken wings. Then I pushed along to the greengrocer’s for
some eating apples and cooking apples, a dozen oranges, beans, and a
good-sized head of cabbage. We also bought a pack each of potatoes,
tomatoes, onions and lettuce. At the bakery we took two brown loaves, a
white loaf and six rolls, some fruit-cake and half a dozen small cakes
(it’s a confectionery as well as a bakery). At the dairy department there
was a wonderful assortment of cheeses, margarine, sweetened condensed
milk, and unsalted butter. Our cart was loaded so high that it was almost
spilling over. My friend had to take a shopping basket as there were
some other items on our shopping list: cereal, rice, tea, decaffeinated
coffee, canned peaches, soap, paper towels, laundry detergent and dog
food. Though they were all in different aisles it didn’t take us long to
find them. There were long queues at the checkout counter and we joined
one. At that moment it turned out that we had completely forgotten about
orange juice. We unloaded everything on to the long counter near the
cashier. Every article had its price marked on it, and so she pushed it
along as she “clocked up” (scanned) the price on her cash register. The
register automatically totaled our bill. We had some coupons and saved
five dollars with them. We paid, and with heavy bags (packing grocery
bags are free) in each hand, swung one of the doors marked “exit” open
and went home feeling rather tired.

***

Text 5

AT THE DEPARTMENT STORE

I am a regular customer at one of the big London stores. I went
there today and enjoyed myself very much wandering from one
department to another, looking at various articles on the counters. I
thought the assistants were very helpful. There must have been hundreds
of salesmen and saleswomen and dozens of different departments

47