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55 60 65 70 on 13 December, a more than 12 per cent increase from last year’s busiest day when the company handled 14.2 million shipments. Shipping stuff around the country has long been an American tradition – one that online shopping actually reinforces – so why not create an event day around that, too? Two years ago, Luke Knowles of Coupon Sherpa, came up with Free Shipping Day in which participating merchants promoted on the freeshippingday.com site guarantee delivery by Christmas Eve. More than 800 retailers have signed up so far this year with the site’s stated goal to get more than 1,000 involved. Had enough commercialisation? Then how about the contra-shopping event: Buy Nothing Day. The anti-consumption day is a 24-hour moratorium on consumer spending timed coinciding with Black Friday which is promoted by Adbusters.org. (Teresa F. Lindeman, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette ; adapted and abridged) Statements T F First four words 0 There are special calendars listing official shopping days. ✘ Maybe you don’t have 1 People have different opinions about the relevance of special shopping days. 2 Scott Silverman works for an online retail store. 3 The time around Thanksgiving has a long tradition for shopping. 4 15.8 million shoppers bought something on Cyber Monday last year. 5 Black Friday has become the busiest shopping day of the holiday season. 6 Luke Knowles hasn’t reached his target with his project yet. b) Why do you think Black Friday and Cyber Monday are such important days for many people? c) Usually Christmas is the busiest time of the year when it comes to shopping. Can you think of alternatives to the annual shopping hype? Why are/aren’t they attractive? Speaking: What people think about online shopping A recent opinion poll asked people in the United States about their online shopping habits. Discuss the results of the survey presented in the graph below. In your talk, cover the following aspects: • Which aspects of online shopping are covered in the survey? Consider dangers and chances. • Which of the sentences do you strongly agree with and why? • What are your personal experiences with online shopping? 3 0 10 % 20 % 30 % 40 % 50 % 60 % 70 % 80 % When shopping online, I want to use more payment options that protect me from fraud. I have heard of “Cyber Monday” as the start of the holiday online shopping season. I am delaying purchases due to the uncertain economy. Compared to last year, I plan to spend more online on gifts this year. I am closer to my credit limit than I was a year ago. Compared to last year, I plan to spend more on gifts this year. I plan to do most of my holiday shopping on that day. 83 Nur zu Prüfzwecken – Eigen um des Verlags öbv