English Conversation Questions

Shopping

Questions

1. Do you like shopping?
2. When’s the best time to go shopping?
3. Which is better, shopping in shops or shopping online?
4. What’s top of your shopping list?
5. What is the best thing you can buy for less than 50 dollars?
6. What is something you regret buying?
7. What is the thing you forget most often when you go shopping?
8. Do you like going shopping in other countries?

Videos

Vox
IKEA has mastered the “Gruen effect.”
Researchers estimate that 50 percent of purchases are unplanned. These purchases, especially impulse

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buys, present an opportunity for retailers who can entice consumers to deviate from their shopping lists.

One of the most effective ways to influence this is through a store’s architecture. In the 20th century, the architect Victor Gruen, who pioneered the first American shopping malls, used light and space to dramatically stage goods in storefront windows. His designs were meant to capture the attention of passersby — and convert them into customers. This conversion became known as the “Gruen effect.”

Watch the video above to learn how Ikea has mastered the Gruen effect with a carefully designed store layout that gets customers to travel further distances… and buy more.

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Category:  Business & Marketing
Keywords: Home | Shopping

Writer and designer Graham Hill asks: Can having less stuff, in less room, lead to more happiness? He makes the case for taking up less space, and lays out three rules for editing your life.

Category:  Psychology
Keywords: Happiness | Home | Shopping
It’s 2 a.m., primetime television is long since over, but you can’t sleep. So you turn on the tube. You’re flipping through the channels and the only thing you see are those weird 30-minute commercials for things you probably

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don’t need, but kind of want now. What’s behind this world of too-good-to-be-true products, zany commercials and enthusiastic salespeople? You, my friend, have just entered the world of infomercials—where professional pitchmen like Anthony Sullivan are king. Get the inside scoop on that “as seen on TV” magic.

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Category:  Business & Marketing
Keywords: Marketing | Shopping | Television
Vox
For a thrifty shopper, a “Buy one, get one” (BOGO) deal can sound like the best way to get more bang for their buck. But the appeal of BOGO is why it’s hard for consumers to see it for what it is.

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BOGO is meant to get you to spend more money, not less. The deal disguises the fact that, unless you already intended to buy two items, it really isn’t all that big a discount.

The Goods by Vox explains what we buy, why we buy it, and why it matters.

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Category:  Business & Marketing
Keywords: Deception | Prices | Shopping
Why are all the gas stations, cafes and restaurants in one crowded spot? As two competitive cousins vie for ice-cream-selling domination on one small beach, discover how game theory and the Nash Equilibrium inform

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these retail hotspots.

Lesson by Jac de Haan, animation by Luke Rowsell.

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Category:  Business & Marketing
Keywords: Business | Competition | Shopping
Zara is the main brand of the Inditex group, the world’s largest apparel retailer. Here’s how they did it. Inditex also owns brands such as Massimo Dutti, Pull and Bear, Bershka, Stradivarius, Oysho, Zara Home, and Uterqüe.

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As of 2016, the main owner of Inditex, Amancio Ortega, was the second wealthiest man in the world.

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Category:  Art
Keywords: Business | Fashion | Shopping

Vocabulary:
cove
secluded
float
shore
anchor
lighthouse
greenhouse
handsaw
hammer
power tool
nail
board (noun)
ton
land sick
biomass
canoe
paddle
real estate
prosper
fulfilled

Expressions:
subsistence living
hon

Vocabulary:
word
word
word
word
word
word
word
word
word

Expressions:
expression
expression
expression
expression

Vocabulary:
prestigious
involuntary
swindler
fraudulence
unwarranted
concern
unfounded
impostor
syndrome
faculty
pervasive
prevalent
disproportionately
underrepresented
downplay
abnormality
self-esteem
spiral
accolade
threshold
susceptible
voice (verb)
peer
dismiss
excel
ease
mentor
competence
banish
frank

Expressions:
nagging doubt
shake a feeling
put something to rest
surefire way

Vocabulary:
filmmaker
principle
handcuff
clown
distill
underdog
aspect
familiar
unfamiliar
chopsticks
keyboard
organic
grounded
clarity
stuntman
steady
gag
perfectionist
rhythm
distinct
continuity
elbow
bunch
flail around
unlike
invincible
impressive
humanize
asset
payoff
relentlessness
finale

Expressions:
kick ass
going above and beyond
get smacked in the face
sell a joke

Vocabulary:
explosion
smoke (noun)
engine
unique
pilot
route
unemotional
terror
instant
reach out (to someone)
postpone
urgency
purpose
regret
humanity
ego
reflect
eliminate
frame (verb)
artistic
talent
bawl
miracle

Expressions:
bucket list
brace for impact
mend fences
make sense
connecting dots