Most British stores are open on Tuesday to Saturday and closed on Sunday. Many shops offer customers spare shopping bags for charge. Most self-service stores provide baskets to customers to use, after you pay the bills, you are supposed to put everything you buy into your own shopping bags. If you leave without returning the baskets or paying the money, you will be regarded as thief and the store owner may even call the police. If you are intended to buy something expensive, you can take a look at the shopping magazines offered by shopping mall which gives you comprehensive comparison on different manufacturers, prices and quality. When you shop in the big supermarkets, you do not have to worry about any fraud on either quality or price, after you pay the money, you will receive a receipt on which there are detailed content which includes the name of the store, the names of the manager and cashier on duty that day, categories, amount, price, paying way, chages of your products, the address of the retailer, and phone number, so that you can soon contact the retailer to find solutions once you find any problem on your shopping.
Most stores in the UK are closed on Sunday, and open for a whole day on Monday to Saturday. Many towns and countries may close the shops for a half day from 1pm in a week, and will open them till later time on the other night.
According to research from New vouchers UK that are some shopping habits different from other countries in the UK. There is no bargaining in the shops, and customers should pay for the products as the label says. The well-known British habit of lining up is especially useful when you are doing shopping. You may see more than one line, and the people waiting are taking turns to shop for what they want.
In the self-service stores and street markets, you should remember to bring your own shopping bags, since many shops charge you of the shopping bags that they offer. However, you should always put the products in the wire baskets that provided by the shop at first, and you can put them to your own bags when you finish your paying. If you forget this point and leave without paying the money for the products in your bags, you may be charged of “shoplifting”, and this may lead you to be charged by police as a theif. Unfortunately, in some areas of UK, “shoplifting” is a common way of stealing, so that there are many electronic testing equiment in some stores, and a tough policy is applied in the prosecution.
If you are planning to buy rather expensive household stuff, you can look up to a magazine called “Which” in the public library, because this magazine makes comparisons on prices and quality of different manufacturers.
In the recent years, the UK has gradually formulated many regulationsn in order to protect the rights of consumers. For example, if you can show the receipt, the store have to exchange the flawed product. Because of this, it’s extremely important for you to keep the receipt and warranty in good condition, especially the ones for large items.
The United Kingdom was said by Napoleon I over 150 years ago as a country of store owners. Nowadays, there are various kinds of shops in the UK, which is certainly a great advantage. These shops range from well-known worldwide shopping malls to low-cost street markets.
In the most areas, some stores which used to be called as “street shops” serve local residents. The business hours of these shops are usually longer than the stores on the streets, and the convenience is the compensation of its higher prices. What;s more, there are a lot of low-cost shops which offer such as electronics in which you may discover that the prices are incredibly lower than the prices in the retailers on the main streents.
Generally speaking, supermarkets and street markets offers especially fresh fruites and excellent vegetable. In many places, there are varied categories of imported food which can remind you of your hometowns. Additionally, all kinds of fast food are also available and they are cooked and instant eatable, so that these can be great to those who are always in a hurry.
VAT, as known as Value Added Tax, is a kinds of purchase tax collected by the government, and it’s added to many products and most service items as the 15% of the price of the products. Otherwise specified, most labeled prices are tax-included, however it’s still wise of you to check the price when you purchase large product. Foreign visitors may not have to pay the VAT when buying large items.
You can pay for the products by cash, cheques of the bank accounts of the British credit cards with bank assure card, or with pounds traveler’s checks either of these will work. If shops show the mark of some credit card, this kind of credit card is acceptable in this store.
