COMPREHENSION CHECK

Answer the following questions.

1) Why is it possible to compare a trip to the supermarket with an exercise in psychological warfare?

2) What is “swarm intelligence”?

3) How do supermarkets encourage shoppers to buy things they didn’t realize they wanted?

4) How can supermarkets play on the herd instinct?

5) Is it possible to increase sales using smart-cart technology?

6) What are the advantages of the “swarm-moves” model?

7) Is this model used widely nowadays?

8) What shops are interested in the model?

9) How do some shops in Japan and a company in the USA increase their sales?

10) Is the usage of the herd instinct psychology potent on the Internet?

Read the text again and make four true sentences.

VOCABULARY CHECK

1. Complete the sentences below with the correct form of these verbs:

to swarm, to exploit, to force, to enhance, to relay

1) His arguments … them to admit he was right.

2) Considerable research is devoted to … the taste and aesthetic appeal of today’s food.

3) The broadcasts were … by satellite.

4) The world economic system … the developing countries in favour of the developed ones.

5) As the fire spread, people came … out of the building.

Match the world with their definitions.

a store, an item, goods, a cart, a tag, a bar code, a discount, sales, a retailer, a shopkeeper, a customer

1) things that are produced in order to be sold;

2) a small piece of paper, plastic attached to something to show what it costs;

3) a single thing, especially one thing in a list, group, or set of things;

4) a reduction in the usual price of something;

5) a group of thin and thick lines printed on products you buy in a shop, and which a computer can read;

6) a place where goods are sold to the public;

7) a large wire basket on wheels that you use in a supermarket;

8) the total number of products that are sold during a particular period of time;

9) someone who owns or is in charge of a small shop;

10) someone who buys goods or services from a shop, company, etc;

11) a person or business that sells goods to customers in a shop.

Scan the text again and find the synonyms to the following words.

a store (Am E) – … (Br E)

a cart (Am E) – … (Br E)

a customer – …

DISCUSSION

1. You have read the text “Swarming the shelves” and now you know some tricks of shopkeepers that make people buy their products. Do you know any others ways to attract customers’ attention to particular goods? Have you ever been “forced” to buy a thing you didn’t realize you wanted?

2. Is Dr Usmani’s smart-card technology worth using in the supermarkets to your mind? Why/Why not?

3. Do you often buy things that are popular among other customers? Does it give you the satisfaction of knowing that you bought the “right” product – the one everyone else bought?

UNIT 2

Date: 2016-01-14; view: 925