Transcript
[00:00:00] Hello guys. And welcome back to another episode of the English input and output podcast. With this podcast, you can easily practice listening to natural English every day. Please check my website. If you want to read the transcript for this episode.
[00:00:29] Hey, hello connor here. Today, I want to talk about convenience stores in the UK. What's do you know about British convenience stores? Have you ever been to one before?
[00:00:42] Well, in the UK, we don't actually say convenience store. We just say shop or supermarket. Convenience store is more common in American English.
[00:00:54] Or we might just say the name of the shop. In the UK, there are four big chain shops, the names of these shops are Tesco, ASDA, Sainsbury's and Morrisons.
[00:01:07] So for example, British people might say, I'm going to the shops now to buy some milk, or could you get me something from Morrison's? Could you get me something from Tesco?
[00:01:20] Speaking of Tesco, it's probably the most popular supermarket in the UK. Everything is quite cheap and the quality of the food is pretty good. Plus you could find a Tesco anywhere you go.
[00:01:35] When students or workers go to Tesco during their lunch break, they often buy something called a meal deal. Basically a meal deal is a promotion where you can buy one main dish, one side dish, and a drink for three British pounds.
[00:01:52] For my Japanese audience, that's about 450 Japanese yen.
[00:01:59] For the main dish. You can choose a sandwich or salad. In my opinion, whichever shop you go to, all the sandwiches are kind of dry and not that delicious, but if I had to choose, I guess I would choose chicken and avocado, maybe that's my favorite sandwich. It depends on the season though.
[00:02:23] During winter, all British shops have a Christmas themed sandwich. This is a Turkey, stuffing and cranberry sauce sandwich. I think it's the best sandwich you can buy.
[00:02:36] Anyway, as for the side dish, there are a few options. You can choose fruit, potato chips, chocolates, or a small salad.
[00:02:47] I usually choose fruits such as a banana or apple, but potato chips are a popular choice too.
[00:02:56] Oh. And by the way, we don't say potato chips in British English. We call them crisps.
[00:03:04] And when it comes to drinks, you can choose water, fruit, juice, soda, or a smoothie I think the smoothie is the best option since it's usually quite expensive. So you could save a lot of money if you buy it on the meal deal.
[00:03:21] However you can't buy any bottled tea or coffee in British shops unfortunately. It's something I miss a lot about Japanese convenience stores.
[00:03:31] But yeah, the sandwiches, salads, snacks, and drinks are always near the entrance of British shops. This is so that students and workers can buy a meal deal quickly. Actually, you can buy a meal deal at any shop or supermarket, not just Tesco.
[00:03:49] Other than that, you can buy a lot of other things such as meat, fish, vegetables, fruits, or essential items like toilet paper on tooth paste you can even buy clothes in bigger supermarkets, though they aren't very fashionable in my opinion.
[00:04:09] And nowadays you don't even need to talk to anyone when you go shopping because every shop has a self service checkouts, but if you need a bag, you still might need to ask the shop staff to help you in this situation. You can just say, excuse me, could I have a bag?
[00:04:29] As well as the big four chains, Tesco, ASDA, Sainsbury's and Morrisons, there are some other shops in the UK.
[00:04:39] There are two shops called Aldi and Lidl. Both shops are actually chain supermarkets from Germany, I think, but they are very popular all over the UK and their groceries are extremely cheap.
[00:04:53] On the other hand, there are some shops which are very expensive. For example, Waitrose or Marks and Spencer. Waitrose is okay in my opinion, but it's nothing special.
[00:05:07] However, Marks and Spencer has the best food out of any UK shop or supermarket. It's expensive, but the food is so, so good and their clothes are also good quality and quite fashionable. So if you have a lot of money, it's a great place to go shopping.
[00:05:27] I wish I could shop there more often.
[00:05:31] And how about you? What is your favorite convenience store in your country? What is your favorite item to buy? And do you have any similar promotions like the meal deal? Please let me know by sending me a voice message, I'm looking forward to hearing your answers.
[00:05:50] As always, thanks for listening again guys and I'll be posting some more episodes this week.
[00:05:56] See you soon and have a good one.
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