Smart shopping

Types of stores

Convenience store
Convenience stores can be found in most neighbourhoods. A convenience store sells some groceries, snack food, gasoline, and a few things for the house and car. It is a quick-stop store for when you're in a hurry. You'll probably find that the convenience store's groceries are more expensive than the groceries in a large supermarket. However, the petrol may be cheaper than at the regular service station.

Grocery store
A grocery store sells groceries. Groceries include food, personal-care products (like shampoo and aspirin), cleaning supplies (like laundry detergent), and paper products (like toilet paper) for your home.

Supermarket
Like a grocery store, a supermarket sells groceries. But it may also sell many other things, like car supplies, furniture, yard-care products, hardware supplies, and toys. Many supermarkets also have a bakery, a small restaurant or delicatessen, and a pharmacy.

Drugstore
Drugstores sell personal-care products and medicines. They also sell cleaning supplies, paper products, yard-care products, and a few kinds of food. Drugstores always have a pharmacy where you can get special medicines.

Department store
Department stores have many different sections (called "departments") that sell things like clothing, furniture, appliance, dishes, and toys.

Discount stores and factory outlets
Discount stores are a mixture of drugstore and department store. They sell many different kinds of products at prices that are lower than department store prices. Factory outlet stores are owned by companies that make products. They sell their own products for less money than you pay at a regular store.

Specially shops
There are stores that sell one kind of product - like sports supplies, shoes, cooking supplies, or books. They can be fun to explore. Some specially shops have catalogues for customers to order from.

Shopping centres
These are large buildings that contain many different kinds of stores - mostly department stores and specially shops. They also have restaurants, hair salons, movie theatres, and doctor's offices.

(From "The English Way to Say 'Hello'" by M.G. Vavilova)