Look out for phrasal verbs in bold that describe shopping 
When you think of London, one of the first things (for women anyway) is Oxford Street and shopping. So for them at least, shopping vocabulary is particularly useful when visiting this shopper’s paradise! Did you know that Europe’s biggest shopping centre is in London? Up until a few weeks ago, it was a place called Westfield in Shepherd’s Bush, West London, which opened 3 years ago and has over 250 stores. Now it’s still Westfield, but this is a brand new one in Stratford, East London and it has over 300 shops and 70 restaurants for you to look around. It has been built to capture the huge crowds that will be visiting the nearby Olympics in 2012. It has been extremely successful since its opening. With so much variety, you can shop around all day and blow your money on whatever you want. For people who love trying on and shopping for trendy clothes, there are upmarket retailers and the usual chains, such as John Lewis and Topshop, with even a Primark. However, because the centre is so new I’m not sure you would be able to pick up a bargain just yet. You would probably have to wait a while until the sales for stores to mark down their prices, but I’m sure people will still splash out. There’s also a wide variety of restaurants for you to fork out on, from affordable fish and chips to costly fine dining. Some eateries are proving popular though with customers queuing up for a while at lunchtimes. Additionally, it’s not just shoppers who benefit from Westfield. Even though the Olympic Stadium is being built nearby, the area still needed to be regenerated. So this has brought in a lot of revenue, as well as creating over 10,000 jobs for Londoners, a big number of them going to local residents. So if you love shopping and find it difficult to pick out the best place, or you’re just tired of Oxford Street visit this place. However, you have to be careful because you really can get carried away and shell out too much than you intend to!
Shopping Phrasal Verbs:
- Look around
- shop without plan
- Shop around
- compare prices
- Blow (object) on
- to spend money foolishly
- Try on
- test the look of clothes by wearing them first
- Pick up
- to buy
- Mark down
- reduce (in price)
- Splash out
- to buy something even though it costs a lot of money
- Fork out
- to spend a lot of money on something
- Queue up
- to wait in a line behind people
- Bring in
- to generate (money)
- Pick out
- to choose / select
- Shell out
- to spend a lot of money on something
Adjectives
- Trendy
- cool, fashionable
- Affordable
- when most people can buy something
- Costly
- expensive
- Upmarket
- to describe something for rich people
