节目资讯
刊物:空中英语教室
日期:2013-10-23
难易度:High
关键字:retailer, modernize, painless, activate, bridge the gap, chute
Today we're talking about New Ways to Shop for Clothes and how technology will
be changing your shopping experience in the future.
Well, today we've been talking about retailers and how they're trying to change
that in-store experience.
Do you feel frustrated by aggressive salespeople or waiting in long lines?
Hointer is a company that may have a solution for your shopping needs.
We will continue learning more about this online software company that happens
to sell designer jeans.
New Ways to Shop for Clothes.
Shoppers walk into a Hointer store and select one of the many pairs of jeans
hanging down from bars.
Then they point their smartphones at the tag and activate the Hointer app,
after which they select the size and press "try on." The app then directs them
to a specific dressing room.
German-made robots retrieve the desired jeans and deliver them through a chute
to the dressing room in about 30 seconds.
Immediately after unwanted pairs of jeans are dropped through another chute, the
"outbox," they disappear from the list in the app.
(Music).
Well, this is certainly a unique shopping experience.
Let's go back to the beginning of this section.
We're learning about Hointer and what you can do there.
Shoppers walk into a Hointer store and select one of the many pairs of jeans
hanging down from bars.
What kind of bars?
Well, of course if you walk into a clothing store, clothes will usually be
hanging from hangers from bars.
That's right.
But this is very different from a normal store.
Instead of having the clothes all together, you can't really see them; they're
spread out very clearly each with their own space.
Now when you walk in and you see these jeans hanging, then the next step.
Then they point their smartphones at the tag and activate the Hointer app, after
which they select the size and press "try on".
All right.
So you're not just taking your wallet shopping with you, you're also taking your
smartphone.
And you point your smartphone at the tag because there's a QR Code.
Many things have QR Codes these days.
And you can download the QR Code app or the QR Reader onto your smartphone.
And you can point it at the tag to activate the Hointer app.
Let's look at our key word there: activate.
When you activate something, well, it means you make it become active so that
you can start using it.
That's right.
So if you activate it, then you start it.
It can begin.
And here you want to activate the app so that the app will start working, and
you can begin this process of trying on these jeans.
I'm not sure how you're supposed to try on jeans with your phone, Gabe.
Well, I think we're going to continue learning about this.
But... but first, I want to say you can use the word "activate" in other ways.
For instance, if you get a new debit card or credit card, often your bank will
tell you you need to get in online, sign up online or call so that you can
activate your card, so you can begin using it.
But Carolyn, yes, let's continue learning about how all of this works.
We continue here.
The app then directs them to a specific dressing room.
OK. So still, you don't have your clothes in your hand.
You're just being told to go to a certain dressing room.
That's right.
And we find out what is waiting for you in the dressing room.
German-made robots retrieve the desired jeans and deliver them through a chute
to the dressing room in about 30 seconds.
So maybe the time it takes you to walk from the jeans you were looking at, and
you clicked your little phone so that it read the QR Code, pressed try on.
By the time you get to the dressing room, your jeans are waiting for you.
That's right.
Now those Germans, they think of everything.
There are these German-made robots that retrieve your desired clothes.
They get these clothes, the clothes that you want, and they're waiting for you.
They send them through a chute.
This is an interesting word I don't use every day.
But it's kind of a passageway of some kind, a chute.
Actually, there's a game that I used to play when I was a kid called Chutes and
Ladders.
Did you ever play that game, Carolyn?
I didn't really play it very often.
But I find it interesting that they use a chute for these jeans because some
houses in the U.S. have laundry chutes.
You put your dirty clothes in the laundry chute.
And they come out next to the washer and dryer instead of having to carry your
laundry from one room to another.
My grandfather's house had laundry chutes in different places in the house.
It's very convenient.
Well, we're talking about the chutes that send the clothes to your dressing room
in about 30 seconds, very fast.
And we read here:
Immediately after unwanted pairs of jeans are dropped through another chute,
"the outbox..." OK.
The unwanted or the undesired clothes are tossed into the "outbox." They
disappear from the list in the app.
Well, that sounds very cool.
So it sounds like all of the jeans in this store have a special chip in them as
part of this system,
so that your phone, when you activate the Hointer app, it knows which jeans you
are trying on.
And then when you decide that you don't want them, you don't actually tell
anyone.
You just put them in the outbox or another chute.
And then they are no longer on your list on your phone.
Well, it sounds like Hointer is really trying to bridge the gap.
People love using their smartphones, and they love shopping online.
Here you can take your smartphone and also go to the store to shop.
Well, it's time for us to learn something with Michelle in the Language Lab.
And then we'll be right back.
(Chinese).
And now, back to our lesson.
Well, today we've talked a lot about Hointer, a software company that also
happens to sell designer jeans.
And we learned a lot about the process of what happens when you go to shop at
Hointer.
It sounds very convenient.
Carolyn, does this sound interesting to you?
Would you like to shop in this way?
Well, I think that this is a very interesting way to shop.
Now first, I would need to uh, get a smartphone.
But, after I do that, I think that this would be a very interesting experience.
And I would like to at least try it.
It sounds like something that I would like to try as well.
Yes, you do need to modernize your lifestyle and get a smartphone so that you
can shop at Hointer.
Well, thank you for joining us today.
And of course, we have more to learn about New Ways to Shop for Clothes next
time right here at Studio Classroom.