British Council - Language Assistant - Essential UK - 2005

Consumer Power

Task 1 Look at your labels

Have a look at the labels on your clothes, bags, pencil cases etc. Find out where they were
made and fill in the table with the origin of five items.

Item Origin

• Have the items travelled a long way to get to your country?

• Now write a few sentences and then tell the rest of the group.
For example: “My T-shirt was made in Turkey and my trainers were made in China”.

Task 2 Consumer criteria.

Imagine you’re going to buy some of the following items. What do you consider before you
decide which one to buy?

9 Price?
9 How it looks?
9 The quality?
9 The brand? Anything else?

A pair of A pair of jeans A bar of

trainers chocolate
Most
important
factor.
2nd most
important
factor.
3rd most
important
factor.

• Do you and your classmates agree on the important criteria?

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cultural relations.
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 British Council - Language Assistant - Essential UK - 2005
Task 3 Consumer Power – Reading task
You are going to read part of a text entitled:
Consumer power: Feel good about your shopping experience by going ethical.

• Before reading the text, guess what it is going to be about.

• Share your ideas with the whole group and think of any vocabulary that may appear in the
text.
• Now read your part carefully and check any new vocabulary. Then tell your group about
your paragraph.

Student A
Fairly traded MP3s
Coffee, bananas and chocolate are the most popular and commonly known fair-trade goods in the UK,
but other items - such as pet food, toothpaste and even MP3 players – are now being assessed by
consumers for the impact their manufacture has on the environment and the ethnicity of the companies
that produce them. The growing trend in ethical shopping is putting pressure on retailers to provide a
wider range of ethical goods.

Student B
How can you be sure you are buying ethical products?
A new website – ethiscore.org – has been set up to give concerned consumers information about
products and about the companies behind the brand names. It names and shames brands that do not
‘embrace the ideals of the fair-trade movement’ whilst rewarding those who do with a place at the top of
their ethical league table. Rob Harrison, editor of Ethical Consumer magazine, which runs the website
says it ‘can act as an easy ethical shopping list, while making sure we keep companies with poor ethical
records on their toes’.

Student C
Other ways to do your bit
Not only can the goods you buy be beneficial, but the way you pay for goods can contribute to ethical
practices. Many charities now offer credit cards that benefit their cause as they receive funds for every
card issued and a percentage of the money spent using the card. Some Internet Service Providers also
give money to good causes if you sign up with them. Although there is still a long way to go before ethical
consumption dominates the way we shop, it is a trend that looks set to continue. You too could shop with
a guilt-free conscience.

Task 4 Consumer Quandary cards

You have a favourite brand of trainers that you You love chocolate and have a favourite chocolate
love. You have asked your parents for a pair of bar that you eat quite often. You just looked on the
these trainers for your birthday present. Last night internet and saw an article about the company that
you saw a documentary on the television that makes your favourite chocolate bar. It declared that
showed where this brand of trainers are made and they pay very little to the workers who produce the
you saw that they are made in huge factories by cocoa in South America. In some cases the
children who have to work 14 hours per day and producers can’t survive and their families are
are treated badly. What do you do? Do you still suffering. What do you do? Do you decide the
want a pair of these trainers for your birthday? article isn’t true and try to forget you saw it? Do you
write a letter to the company? Do you stop buying
the chocolate bar?

© British Council, The United Kingdom's international organisation for educational opportunities and
cultural relations.
http://www.britishcouncil.org/languageassistant/
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 British Council - Language Assistant - Essential UK - 2005
Write another quandary here:
Every week you go to a hamburger restaurant with
your friends. One of your friends has now decided
not to go because he thinks the way the
hamburgers are produced is unethical. He say that
they cut down trees from the rainforest to make
space to keep cows, the workers have lots of
accidents as they have to work very long hours and
the pay is ridiculously low. He asks you to stop
going there. What do you do? Do you join your
friend and boycott the hamburger restaurant? Do
you still go but eat something else? Do you turn
vegetarian?

Task 5 The time bank

• Can you imagine a world without money?

• How did people manage in the past without money?
• Do you think money has become too important in our society?
• What is more important to you, time or money?
• What do you know about time banks?

What could you offer to a time What would you like to take from
bank? a time bank?

9 9
9 9
9 9
9 9
9 9

Now speak to your classmates and see if you could exchange your time.

© British Council, The United Kingdom's international organisation for educational opportunities and
cultural relations.
http://www.britishcouncil.org/languageassistant/
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 British Council - Language Assistant - Essential UK - 2005

Task 6 Clean Clothes Campaign

Imagine a pair of trainers costs €100. How much of that money do you think the person who
made the shoes gets?

Have a look at the information below and look at the figures. Try and guess how much of the
cost of a pair of brand name trainers goes to each part of the process. Then check with your
teacher.

Costs Amount
• Material – o €18
• Production costs - o €17
• Labour cost of the worker (paying the o €13
person who makes the shoe) – o €12
• Profit subcontractor – o €11
• Transport and tax – o €8.50
• Labour cost of the retailer (paying the o €8
person who sells the shoe) – o €5
• Publicity for the retailer – o €3
• Rent of the retailer – o €2.50
• Profit for the brand name – o €1.50
• Research – o €0.50
• Publicity for the brand name –
• VAT -

Now discuss these questions with your group:

• Are you surprised by any of this information?
• Do you think the situation will change in the future? If so, how?

© British Council, The United Kingdom's international organisation for educational opportunities and
cultural relations.
http://www.britishcouncil.org/languageassistant/
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