hi everyone today we're going to be
talking about everyday culture in the
u.s
last time we talked about american
convenience stores and how they're
unique this time we're going to talk
about american supermarkets a
supermarket also known as a grocery
store is a one-stop location where
people can purchase foods drinks and
basic household supplies
there are currently over 38 000
supermarkets in the united states these
range from small family-owned stores to
huge corporate superstores the first
supermarket was a locally owned shop
called piggly wiggly that was 100 years
ago these days the supermarket industry
is dominated by big brands like kroger
walmart and costco these stores are
massive the size of an average costco is
about 145
000 square feet that's about the size of
three professional soccer fields because
of the size of these stores a wider
variety of goods is available than in
average supermarkets in other countries
in 1975 there was an average of about 8
000 different items in the typical
supermarket by 2008 however that number
had increased to about 47 000 different
items supermarkets in the us include
huge sections that are hard to find in
other countries these include meats
cheeses cereals and produce many of
these sections are unaffected by any
kind of seasonal limitations and so you
can find these products year round there
are several key vocabulary words for
supermarkets in the u.s the dairy
section is where you can find yogurt
milk and cheese in the produce section
you can find fresh fruit and vegetables
meat sections are usually where you can
buy fresh cuts of beef pork and chicken
packaged lunch meats can be purchased in
the deli section
there's also a huge variety of packaged
goods find entire aisles devoted to
things like beans grains cereals and
pasta if you'd like to try to cook
something quickly you can also find a
lot of things in the frozen food section
some supermarkets also have bakeries
where you can buy pre-made breads
pastries and other items
while in some countries it's common to
find a huge selection of fish and spices
at supermarkets in the u.s it's very
common to find huge selections of cheese
and snack foods processed foods and
dairy are some of the most commonly
purchased items at supermarkets in the
u.s
despite the huge variety and
availability of out-of-season goods
prices at supermarkets in the u.s have
remained low a gallon of milk is around
three dollars 500 grams of cheddar
cheese is as little as two dollars
one kilogram of beef is less than eight
dollars and apples are less than one
dollar each
some things are more expensive at
supermarkets in the u.s a great example
of this is seafood for example in places
which are landlocked or surrounded by
land with no access to the ocean good
quality seafood is hard to find because
of this there's a limited variety of
seafood and most of it is frozen goodsol
that some supermarkets in the united
states are much larger than goods in
other countries at warehouse style super
stores you can buy items in bulk bulk
items are items you can buy a large
amount of at one time
these supermarkets usually offer two
ways to check out or pay for your items
the first way is for a cashier to take
each individual item from an automatic
conveyor belt the second way is with
self-checkout customers take their items
to a self-checkout machine scan each
item and then pay at the machine
directly at the machine customers are
required to pack their purchases into
bags at the cashier either a cashier or
an attendant will pack the customer's
goods into bags these methods are
equally popular and you can use cash or
a credit card to finish your payment so
how do supermarkets in the u.s compare
to supermarkets in your country what's
similar what's different and is there
anything else you'd like to know about
culture in the u.s please let us know in
the comments if you like this video
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two ways two ways to check out
can you see it yes okay warehouse style
or superstore style store superstore
style stores i tried to say that and i
was not good at
and is there anything else you'd like to
know about culture
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it's time to go home