Mark the following sentences true (T) or false (F).
1. Dustin Hoffman shops at Marks an Spencer.
2. Last year, the store lost £ 10 million a week.
3. M&S began 105 years ago.
4. At first, everything in the store cost one penny.
5. There were 564 Penny Stalls all over the world.
6. People in Paris want the same clothes as people in Newcastle.
7. Marks and Spencer sells a lot of children's socks.
8. People don't like eating Chicken Kiev.
9. M&S believes in good prices, quality, and service.
10. Conditions for the workers are not good.
Task 2.
Read the text below and discuss it in pairs.
SHOP TILL YOU DROP. A NEW DISEASE OF OUR TIME.
Celebrities aren’t the only ones who use the odd spending spree to cheer themselves up – most of us have indulged in a bit of retail therapy at one time or another. But are your shopping habits damaging your health?
UK research suggests that “shopaholism” is in fact a very real psychological condition that can have severe consequences. But can shopping become an “addiction” – and if so, how many of us are hooked?
“Shopping bulimia”.
Today, experts estimate that 2-8 per cent of the UK population suffer from some form of compulsive shopping behaviour, while nearly one in five people have trouble keeping their shopping habits under control.
Researchers at Brunel University in Middlesex recently identified “shopping bulimia”, and say that obsessive shoppers share the characteristics of people suffering from binge-eating and alcoholism: low self-esteem, depression, a greater tendency to fantasise, and higher levels of anxiety and obsessive behaviour.
“People buy things to make themselves feel better, but that buzz is only short-term,” says Jim Goudie, a consumer psychology specialist at Northumbria University. “As soon as the guilt sets in, the anxiety comes back and the behaviour starts all over again. Shopping is so accessible these days, and it’s geared towards being a pleasurable experience – it’s easy to become addicted to that.”
Tamara King, who conducted the research at Brunel, highlights the phenomenon of “de-shopping”, whereby something is purchased with the intention of returning it once it has fulfilled its purpose. “De-shoppers want to consume the symbolic meaning of the product – when they’re buying, they feel like they’re losing, but when they return things they’re winning again,” says Tamara.
|
|
|
Borrowing out of control
Reasons for excessive shopping vary from wanting to keep up with friends or fashion to simply cheering oneself up. But dysfunctional shopping behaviour can easily get out of control. “Compulsive consumers are unable to control their behaviour through rational considerations, such as not having enough money,” says Tamara. And with the easy availability of credit and store cards, it isn’t long before addicted shoppers run into serious debt.
Indeed, consumer debt is a fast-growing problem in the UK: the Citizens’ Advice Bureaux service last year revealed that cases of problem debt amounted to a staggering 1.2 billion a year, an increase of 39 per cent in only four years. Debt-counselling agencies have voiced increasing concern over advertising and marketing strategies that encourage people to spend and borrow more than they can afford.
Vicious circle
As debts spiral out of control, self-esteem plummets and addicted shoppers usually continue spending to try and feel better – for some, it can seem impossible to see a way out.
Dr Adrienne Baker, psychotherapy lecturer at Regent’s College in London and author of the book “Serious Shopping: Psychotherapy and Consumerism”, first began researching shopping addiction after an acquaintance committed suicide and was later found to have been an obsessive shopper.
“Her family found rails in her flat of beautiful, unworn clothes. It was as if the self she was trying to pamper was the self that she eventually destroyed.”
So when does a bit of a blow-out begin to signify addiction? “Lots of people indulge in shopaholic behaviour occasionally but at the end of the day they can take it or leave it. Shopaholics can’t do that,” says Jim Goudie.
Dr Baker agrees. “When shopping becomes a total preoccupation with needing to buy things, it’s a sign that something else is probably wrong,” she says. “Shopaholism is an insatiable need, not actually for the things themselves, but for what they represent.” The illusion of happiness with women accounting for an overwhelming 90 per cent of compulsive shoppers, theories on the causes of dysfunctional shopping behaviour vary. “Research has indicated strong links between compulsive shopping and an inadequate maternal relationship,” says Dr Baker. “Often a mother may have been depressed herself or emotionally absent in some way, or passes on low self-esteem to her daughter. Shopping creates a sort of illusion of happiness – at the heart of the illusion is a very fragile sense of self.” Jim Goudie believes that phenomena like compulsive shopping are often the result of domestic problems. “Compulsive shoppers tend to have a history of psychological problems, and a background of family discord is undoubtedly a factor in that,” says Jim. “When there is disharmony at home, young women tend to internalise it in behaviour such as obsessive buying.”
|
|
|
A cure for shopping?
Doctors in the US have diagnosed shopaholism as a medical condition, and are taking the step of prescribing antidepressants to obsessive shoppers. Studies at Stanford Medical School in California found marked improvements in compulsive-shopping behaviour as a result of using the drug. But not everyone is convinced that this is the answer. “There has still been no long-term follow-up on the effectiveness of antidepressants and, in fact, strong evidence to show that placebos work equally well,” says Dr Baker. “Treating the symptoms is fine, but what we really need to do is investigate the cause.”
Task 3.
Дата добавления: 2018-08-06; просмотров: 541; Мы поможем в написании вашей работы! |
Мы поможем в написании ваших работ!