Shopping

It is not easy to shop in Prague, because there are people everywhere. Everything is very expensive and it is difficult to choose a good thing of good quality. Moreover, the shop assistants are not polite, but rather lazy to advise (radit) you. It is usually better to shop in small shops, because there they have better choices and lower prices. Special things, like electronics, are better to be bought in special shops.

You can buy brand goods in expensive shops. (značkové) These shops are good, because usually they have your size and the shop assistants must be polite. There is a problem with the price, however. These things are usually very expensive. If you are not rich, you cannot buy from shops like Giga sport, United Colors of Benetton, Nike, Adidas, or Russell Athletic. If you don’t like these shops with brand goods, you can go to a department store like Kotva, or to second hand shops, where you can buy everything for very cheap. In department stores the goods usually do not fit (nepadne). Second hand shops are very advantageous for young people, especially for students. If you have a lucky day, you can buy good things there in good quality which will fit (padnout) you.

Some people don’t have problems with buying clothes, because they have a lot of money or time to choose them, but shopping is not only about shopping for clothes. There are other shops like the grocer’s, baker’s, greengrocer’s, stationary stores, the butcher’s, drug stores, bookstores, chemistry stores, and other shops like small street shops full of trash and rubbish. (brak)

I like small shops with ceramics and Indian shops with scented (vonící) sticks. They are usually family shops, and the shop assistant tries to sell you something. When they have time, they talk to you about the weather, politics, family, or an old recipe (recept) on how to cook a fish. Nowadays there is a problem with books. After the leaving exam many people want go to universities, and they need a lot of books there. Books are very expensive, so they must look for these titles in second hand bookshops (antikvariát) or ask some other students to copy their books. If you are lucky, you can find someone who doesn’t need the book you are looking for and he is content (ochoten) to sell it to you. Another problem with books is with entertaining (zábavný) literature. We don’t really need it but we want it. There is the alternative to buy books in antique shops or borrow books from a library. Some people who collect books must save (šetřit) if they want to buy some book.

When you buy some food, you must be careful. Big markets want to sell everything. It is better to shop in small private shops, because its owners want to have a good reputation. If you buy food everywhere, be careful and wash all of your fruits and vegetables before you eat them.

Shopping in foreign cities is very interesting for us. After the breakdown of the Soviet Block, people from Eastern Europe loved to travel abroad and shop there. It was like a fever. In these days it is better but people still like buying things which are atypical for their country and typical for the country they visit.