The first supermarket in the worldwas biult in 1912 in the US. It took a short period of time for this kind of stores to become popular in Europe and in the USA. In Poland the supermarkets started to appear 15 years ago. Before 1989, in most shops there was almost nothing to buy. Or, if there was, people had to stand in long queues for many hours. Nowadays, there are thousands of different stores, in which you can buy everything you want.
For people in contemporary world, shopping became a very important issue. There are people, who like it as well those, who hate it. During the last decase, we have been watching the appearance of hundereds of new shopping centres and stores. Most of them are nicely designed and welcome the costumers with nice music, moreover- they are open for the whole week.
Visitin supermarkets has some disadvantages and advantages. When you enter one, you have to follow certain paths to get to the cash point. You are made to walk among the shelves and look at most popular products. It is suppose dto remind you, what you need to buy. You have a special trolley so you don't have to carry heavy packages in hands.
For many costumers, this kind of shopping is very convenient, because in supermarkets there is a wide variety of different products avalable. For example, you can smell many different kinds of shampoons, before you decide, which one you want to buy. The shop-assistants are usually very kind to costumers. You don't have to make quick decisions. You have as much time to decide on what you want, as you need. In supermarkets, you may buy practically all kinds of products. In each such store, there are special departments, which offer clothes, books, food, different kinds of equippment etc. But not only the good quality of products and the variety of them makes costumers attracted to supermarkets. There are special lights, which makes the products look better and fresh, it is generally clean all over the store and there is nice music there, which makes you relaxed. It all makes you feel better and you are more apt to buy more and more.
To the supermarkets people usually go by car, which thay can park in front of the store. After they finish doing their shopping, they put the products to the car boot and drive away. Nowadays, shopping doesn't require phisical strenght and is not as tiring as before. The good advantage of supermarkets is that there is self-service in them. Moreover, you can not only do the shopping there, but also visit a cafe or a restaurant. In most supermarkets, there are also places for children, where they can play, while their parents do the shopping.
In these stores, you don't have to have cash with you. Paying by credid cards or by cheques is very popular. If you realize, that you bought a bad or out-of-date product, you only have to show the recipt and you will get a new one. Very often there are different sales and promotions of some products. You may always buy something for 'half price' or get some products 'gratis'.
However, the wide variety of products in supermarkets and the amount of people there may be annoying for some people. Most of us buy many unnecessary things. We simply consider them attractive and don't wonder, if we need them, when we put them into our trolley. The products are packed in attractive and colourful cartoons and they attract our attention. In reality, although we can buy many things in one place, shopping in supermarket takes much time and it is not as profitable, as it seems to be.
Large stores became also a threat for small corner shops. People cease to buy in small shops and many of them go bankrupt because of that. The people owning small shops are terrified and they hate supermarkets.
Summing up, I consider supermarkets rather good. In my opinion, shopping there is really nice and beneficial. There is no need to support smaller shops and the number of shopping-centres should rise. They are not only good to do the shopping, but to entertain and relax as well.
