Shopping

Shopping is the examining goods or services from retailers with intent to purchase them. Shopping is the activity of selection and/or purchase. In some contexts it is considered a leisure activity.

Shopping in ancient societies. Shopping can be traced back to many civilizations in history. In ancient Rome, there was Trajan’s market with taverns that served as retailing units. Shopping lists are known to be used by the Romans.

The shopper. To many, shopping is considered a recreational activity in which one visits a variety of stores in the search of a suitable product to purchase. «Window shopping» is an activity that shoppers engage in by browsing shops with no intent to purchase, possibly just to pass the time between other activities, or to plan a later purchase.To some, shopping is a task of inconvenience. Shoppers sometimes go through great lengths to wait in long lines to buy popular products as typically observed with holiday shoppers.

More recently compulsive shopping has been recognized as an addiction, also referred as shopping addiction, «shopaholism» or formally oniomania. These shoppers have an impulsive uncontrollable urge to go shopping. The term «retail therapy» is used in a less serious context.

Shopping venues. A larger commercial zone can be found in many city downtowns. Shopping centers are collection of stores that is a grouping of several businesses. Typical examples include shopping malls, town squares, flea markets, and bazaars.

Stores. Shops are divided into multiple categories of stores which sell a selected set of goods or services. Some shops sell second-hand goods. Often the public can also sell goods to such shops. In other cases, especially in the case of a nonprofit shop, the public donates goods to the shop to be sold through thrift stores in the USA, charity shops in the UK. In give-away shops goods can be taken for free. In antique shops, the public can find goods that are older and harder to find.

Many shops are part of a shopping chain that carry the same trademark (company name) and logo using the same branding, the same presentation, and sell the same products but in different locations. The shops may be owned by one company, or there may be a franchising company that has franchising agreements with the shop owners.

Various types of retail stores that specialize in selling goods related to a theme include bookstores, candy shops, liquor stores, gift shops, hardware stores, lobby stores, pet stores, pharmacies, supermarkets.

Other stores such as big-box stores, hypermarkets, convenience stores, department stores, general stores, dollar stores sell a wider variety of products not horizontally related to each other.

Home shopping. With modern technology such as television and telephone and the Internet, users could be described as home shopping through online retail stores. Electronic commerce and business-to-consumer electronic commerce systems in combination of home mail delivery systems make this possible. Typically a consumer can make purchases through online shopping, shopping channels, mail order, etc. Online shopping has completely redefined the way people make their buying decisions; they have access to a lot of information about a particular product which can be looked at and evaluated, at any given time. Online shopping allows the buyer to save the time which would have been spent travelling to the store or mall.

Shopping time. Regulation. Some business has shopping hours but some are opened round-the-clock. Some nations regulate the operation of businesses for religious reasons and do not allow shopping on particular days or dates.

Shopping seasons. Shopping seasons are periods where a burst of spending occurs – typically near holidays in the United States, where Christmas shopping is the biggest shopping spending season. Some religions regard such spending seasons against their religion and dismiss the practice.