Skillful Shopping

By: Elham Salimi

As youngsters, sure you all like shopping, both for yourselves and for your family. During summer holidays, you have more free time and so can make shopping a useful way of spending your time. Here, we are offering you a few tips for a successful, fun shopping:

• Do some research before you shop. Check out products online because you need information before you buy something.
• Help your parents to write the shopping list or make a list of what you are going to buy before you go shopping, and stick to it. This can help you avoid impulse buys.
• Observe turns: Certainly a shop or a supermarket has other customers too. So, we need to wait for our turn to come. Impatience is of no good while shopping, because, among other things, it can annoy the others.
• Avoid taking things out of the centers: Be sure to ask the salesperson for help in picking items to avoid unpleasant situations such as the displeasure of the shopkeeper.
• Observe the rules of each shop: Some shopping centers have particular rules which you may find written down. For example, some shopkeepers do not allow the customers to open the door of the refrigerator for taking out, say, an ice-cream. So, it is important to be careful about such rules, too.
• Ask your parents exactly what they want you to buy if you are going to shop for them, because if for example, they want you to buy milk for them, you need to know whether they want high-fat milk or low-fat milk. This list can be extended to include many such questions, because nowadays, there are different kinds of many products available in shops and supermarkets and if you do not ask such questions before going for shopping, you may end up feeling unhappy because of not having bought what your parents wanted. Try to buy healthy, wholesome foodstuffs, for otherwise you will have to either throw them away, or return them to the shopkeeper who may this time behave to you in an annoying way.
• You should also remember that you may find what you want in other shops, so do not just return home, telling mommy that you could not buy what she wanted. Sometimes one might have to go to several shops in order to get what one wants.
  • Don’t be afraid to say no. This helps you not to bear pressure from salespeople or special offers.

• Get some information about how advertising can influence shopping decisions.

• Set a spending limit. At the shops, buy less so you stick to the limit, or shop around so that you get what you need with the money you have to spend.
• choose the best fruit and vegetables

• Be careful and not in a hurry when paying for the items you buy. Miscalculations may happen, but through care and concentration, you may be able to prevent many embarrassing situations. If you are good at mathematics, you can probably help the shopkeeper in deciding the amounts to be paid. Anyway, being in a hurry is of no good when shopping, as with many other things.
  • If you’re not sure, read the label and pause before buying. Is this the product that you want? If it’s an expensive purchase, you might also like to ask the salesperson to show you how the product works, or check what’s inside the box.
  • Keep the receipt. Be sure that it is OK to take something back if it’s faulty or parts are missing – but you need the receipt to do this.
  • Remember that you are more likely to enjoy shopping if you can plan to do it when you are not tired, hungry or overexcited and when the shops aren’t too busy.