Living In USA

Overview
It might be said that shopping, rather than baseball, is the real national sport of the United States. As Paco Underhill observed, "We use shopping as therapy, reward, bribery, pastime, an excuse to get out of the house, as a way to troll for potential loved ones, as entertainment, as a form of education or even worship, as a way to kill time." [1] In the small town of Freeport, Maine, just up the road from our publisher, there are 158 stores. One of them, the flagship store of the venerable catalogue company L.L. Bean, is open 365 days a year — 24 hours a day! Should you find yourself in need of a fishing pole and complete line of tackle at 3:00 a.m. on Christmas morning, the people at L.L. Bean can help. In another small town, Bloomington, Minnesota, there is a shopping mall so large that it boasts 525 stores and claims 42 million visitors a year. Apparently that's more than the Statue of Liberty, the Empire State Building, or the Washington Monument, because the Mall of America, as it is called, asserts that it is the most visited attraction in the United States. More than 1,500 couples have been married in the Mall of America since it opened in 1992.

One newcomer to the United States, when asked his first impression, replied, "So many things to buy." And there are! You will find yourself being urged from every page of every newspaper and magazine, on the Internet, and on every TV and radio station to buy all manner of goods, which, in fact, you will be quite happy without. This constant barrage of advertising, with its emphasis on owning this or that in order to be happy, healthy, or more attractive, has given the United States the reputation of being very materialistic. It is true; this is an affluent and, therefore, materialistic nation. It is interesting to note, however, that as soon as any country grows more affluent, it tends to grow increasingly materialistic. Traffic jams develop in country after country as more people are able to buy cars; sales-people work hard in most of the world to sell televisions, watches, furniture, food, clothes, computers, or washing machines.

People everywhere seem to be alike in this respect. As soon as there is any extra money, we seek to raise and keep on raising our standard of living. You may not be surprised by this, but look at the bigger picture: What do people do with their new prosperity? Does it enrich their relationships with other people? How creative are they? How hard do they work? How do they spend their money?

Because so much in the United States is mass-produced, and much of it imported from countries with cheap labor, there is a large quantity of relatively inexpensive goods available to everyone. You will find a tremendous range in price, based on quality, style, area of the country, and other factors. Comparative shopping is a good idea before you buy any major item. From all of the choices available, how are you, the new arrival, going to know what to buy and how to get your money's worth? In the first place, don't hurry. Take time to look over the various kinds of stores and examine the quality of their merchandise; read the ads carefully so that you can compare prices; touch, explore, and examine before you buy, and talk to your new colleagues at work or school and ask them for recommendations. In addition, some helpful guidelines are provided below