## Step 2 - Reading

A shopping convert

You are going to read a blog about the pros of shopping in real stores.

- Make a group of three or four.
- In your group, discuss the following questions in English:
  - What currency (munteenheid) is used in Great-Britain?
  - What symbol (teken) do the British use for their currency?
  - What does 'p' in, for example, '20p' stand for?
  - When something costs 10 euros in the Netherlands, how much is it in the British currency at the moment?
  - You may use the internet to look for answers.
- Read the text.

A shopping convert Are you one of those people that buys everything online? I am. Well, I was. Especially when it came to shoes and clothing. I would order shoes – sneakers, flip-flops, sandals, whatever – in three different sizes. After all, you never know, do you? Do the shoes fit? Do they look good on you? What size will you need, exactly? But the result was, I was always left with at least two pairs to return, and more often than not I was left with no shoes at all that I really liked. Which made it a lot of trouble to send it all back, fill in the forms, go to my local supermarket to drop off my return purchases... Once I even left it so long that I forgot to send them back at all! That was an expensive mistake. £80 down the drain. Ouch. Also, I was starting to feel a bit guilty about all the white vans that stopped in front of my house. Plus the ones I didn’t even see, the ones that took my rejects back to the seller’s. Not very environmentally friendly, is it? So I decided to make a change. I took the bus to the nearest city centre instead (which was cheaper than I thought) and actually went to physical shoe stores. And you know what? It was great fun! I’d arranged to meet a few friends there and we spent the afternoon shoe shopping, having a drink and most of all, having fun. I didn’t actually find shoes in my size, but the store offered to order the boots I wanted for me and send them to my house. I didn’t even have to pay the £3.50 delivery charge! That seemed like a good compromise to me, because it would take only one van bringing me one pair of shoes, and I was reasonably sure that they would fit. The £3.50 I’d saved I used for my bus fare, which came to £3.30 both ways, so I even had 20p left! OK, my friends and I bought cans of soda, so I actually spent about 80p more than I would have if I’d ordered online, but who’s counting? It was worth it, because I discovered how much fun it can be to just get together with friends and do some shopping together. I’m never going back to online shopping! Well... except maybe in the winter.