Practical English Vocabulary: Shopping in a mall

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Hi, my name is Rebecca, and in today's lesson, you'll learn how to find your way around a

shopping mall more easily by understanding some of the common vocabulary used in this

very popular place, okay?

So first of all, let me start by clarifying a basic concept.

We have two words to describe places that have stores.

One is a mall, M-A-L-L, and it's pronounced mall, shopping mall.

So what's a shopping mall?

A shopping mall is a place which is closed, and it has lots of stores inside.

So no matter what the weather is like outside, hot or cold, you can shop indoors in comfort.

That's the idea of a shopping mall.

Some shopping malls are very large and have many different floors and hundreds of stores,

and other malls are small, okay?

But that's a mall, an enclosed space.

The other one is a plaza, a shopping plaza.

In North America, when we say shopping plaza, we mean a group of stores that are outdoors,

It's a set of stores that are grouped together outside, and that's a shopping plaza.

Usually it's much smaller.

It might be located on the corner of a street or something like that, okay?

So that's a basic distinction.

But now let's see what happens when you go inside the mall, okay?

So this is a store directory.

You will usually see at the entrance or at different entrances of a mall, a large store

directory and also a map.

Obviously we didn't have space for the map here, but what I want to teach you today is

the vocabulary and a lot of the words that are used to describe the many stores that

are located inside the mall, okay?

So let's have a look at our list.

The first one is appliances.

So what are appliances?

What are stores that sell appliances?

Appliances are basically domestic devices.

That means machines or devices that we use in the home, such as washers and dryers and

also refrigerators, could be smaller appliances like toasters and blenders.

These are all considered appliances, large and small, okay?

The next word might not be familiar to you because it's not used that often in regular

English, but it is a formal word to describe clothes.

The word is apparel.

Apparel means clothing, okay?

So you might not see the word clothes, you might see the word apparel.

It's a little more formal word.

So under apparel, you will see many different categories.

You might see men's apparel, women's apparel, children's apparel, baby's apparel.

These are sometimes referred to as infants, very young children are called infants.

So you might see apparel with all of these subdivisions.

You might also see the words men's and women's wear.

Men's and women's wear or children's wear also refers to apparel, which also refers

to clothes, all right?

So whether you see the word apparel or women's apparel or women's wear, it all means clothes,

So that's something to keep in mind.

Then there are sometimes some specialty stores within the clothing division.

For example, you might see a lingerie store, okay?

Lingerie is a word which means that that store sells women's underclothes and nighties and

so on, all right?

That's lingerie.

All right, let's go on.

You may also find a department store.

A department store is usually a large store which has many different departments, doesn't

sell only one kind of item, but many different kinds of items, okay?

Then if you're hungry, you'll want to go to this place.

This is the food court.

Now does it mean that they have court cases here?

Does it have anything to do with law?

No, it doesn't.

A food court just means a place where there are many different, usually fast food kind

of restaurants, okay?

And it might be in a roundish area or a square area with lots of space, open space for people

to sit and eat.

So a food court has many fast food outlets where you can go to grab a quick bite to eat

if you're in a rush.

Now under the food division, there might be other areas, there might also be restaurants

in the mall which are usually a little bit more expensive, a little bit more formal where

you can go and have a sit-down meal.

And you may also find under the food category, coffee shops and cafes, all right?

Next you might see furniture shops, again they might be specialized furniture shops

Also gifts, different kinds of gift shops, card shops, bookshops, et cetera.

You might see a category called hair care, that means things to look after your hair.

It might include hairdressers, hair salons, beauty salons, and also spas.

You would be able to find them under hair care.

Then we have health stores.

These can include places that have natural foods or nutrition houses.

It could include pharmacies and drugstores as well.

Then we have a category called hobbies.

So hobbies are things that we like to do in our spare time, in our free time.

So you might find craft shops here and shops which sell games and things like that.

These are called hobby shops.

Next we have a category called household.

So household means anything to do with the house, basically.

So it could mean items that you have in your kitchen or items that you have all over your

house to decorate your house, to make it more attractive.

But usually it refers to more kitchen type of items, all right?

Leather goods, here we'll find shops that sell purses and bags and briefcases and so

Things made of leather, usually.

Last, on this side, we see office supplies where you can buy all kinds of stationery.

Stationery means paper and pens and pencils and so on.

And these are office supplies, okay?

Sometimes they also sell some electronics and computers and so on.

On this side we see optical, which has everything to do with your eyes, eyeglasses, sunglasses.

Maybe get your eyes checked.

That would be under the optical category, all right?

Recreation, you might find there things like movie theaters or music shops.

They might be found under the recreation category, all right?

Next we have a sort of an all-inclusive category called mall services.

Now those are services offered by the shopping mall to help their customers.

You might find a lost and found section.

Also security, you can contact security there.

You may find a personnel department there or human resources department if you're trying

to get a job, for example.

Or the washrooms, they can direct you to the washrooms.

It also has an information section there, all right?

Another type of category of stores, which we see very often, and usually these are nowadays

the most crowded stores of all, these are the technology and electronics stores, where

they sell computers and cell phones.

Usually at least in Toronto where we are, these stores are packed, and I'm sure it's

all over the world.

And last, different kind of toys, which are for children, toy stores, okay?

So these are simply categories, and usually under these you'll see the names of lots and

lots of stores.

Of course, some of them fall into different categories, but at least if you're looking

for something, you'll know where to look.

So let me ask you a few questions and see if you can find the right category to locate

certain items, okay?

So let's say you want to buy a microwave.

Where would you look?

You would look in the appliances section, okay?

If you would like to collect a new dress, where would you look?

You would look in women's wear or women's apparel, correct?

If you wanted to present a man with a tie for his birthday, where would you look?

You would look at men's apparel or men's wear, right?

If you wanted to get a haircut, where would you go?

You would go look here, under hair care, and look for a beauty salon or hairdresser or

A barber is just a hairdresser who specializes in cutting men's hair, okay?

If you wanted to grab a quick cup of coffee, where would you go?

Where would you look?

You would look probably under the food section, might be in the food court, and under food

you may see a category for coffee shops or cafes.

If you lost your wallet, where would you go?

Where would you go to find that?

You would go to the mall services and go to the section where the lost and found exists,

Suppose you wanted to buy a new briefcase for a friend of yours, where would you look

Well, a few places, you could go to a department store, you might find it there.

You could certainly go to the leather goods store, they may have briefcases there, and

sometimes we also find briefcases in office supply stores, right?

Let's say you wanted to buy a dishwasher, a new dishwasher, where would that be?

What kind of store would you have to look for?

The store that sells appliances, again.

Lastly, if you'd like to apply for a job, let's say at the mall, to pay for all these

things that you've been buying, where would you go for that?

Well, you would need to go to the personnel department or the human resources section

of the mall, alright?

If you'd like to do a quiz on this subject, you can go to our website, www.engvid.com.

Thanks for watching.