The Innovation Of Grocery Stores - IELTS Reading Answers & Explanations
From IELTS Recent Actual Test 6 Academic Reading Test 2 · Part 1 · Questions 1–13
Reading Passage
You should spend about 20 minutes on Questions 1-13, which are based on Reading Passage 1 below.
The Innovation of Grocery Stores
A At the very beginning of the 20th century, the American grocery stores offered comprehensive services: the customers would ask help from the people behind the counters (called clerks) for the items they liked, and then the clerks would wrap the items up. For the purpose of saving time, customers had to ask delivery boys or go in person to send the lists of what they intended to buy to the stores in advance and then went to pay for the goods later. Generally speaking, these grocery stores sold only one brand for each item. Such early chain stores as A&P stores, although containing full services, were very time-consuming and inefficient for the purchase.
B Born in Virginia, Clarence Saunders left school at the age of 14 in 1895 to work first as a clerk in a grocery store. During his working in the store, he found that it was very inefficient for people to buy things there. Without the assistance of computers at that time, shopping was performed in a quite backward way. Having noticed that this inconvenient shopping mode could lead to tremendous consumption of time and money, Saunders, with great enthusiasm and innovation, proposed an unprecedented solution—let the consumers do self-service in the process of shopping—which might bring a thorough revolution to the whole industry.
C In 1902, Saunders moved to Memphis to put his perspective into practice, that is, to establish a grocery wholesale cooperative. In his newly designed grocery store, he divided the store into three different areas: ‘A front lobby’ served as an entrance, an exit, as well as the checkouts at the front. ‘A sales department’ was deliberately designed to allow customers to wander around the aisle and select their needed groceries. In this way, the clerks would not do the unnecessary work but arrange more delicate aisle and shelves to display the goods and enable the customers to browse through all the items. In the gallery above the sales department, supervisors can monitor the customers without disturbing them. ‘Stockroom’, where large fridges were placed to maintain fresh products, is another section of his grocery store only for the staff to enter. Also, this new shopping design and layout could accommodate more customers to go shopping simultaneously and even lead to some unimaginable phenomena: impulse buying and later supermarket.
D On September 6, 1916, Saunders performed the self-service revolution in the USA by opening the first Piggly Wiggly featured by the turnstile at the entrance store at 79 Jefferson Street in Memphis, Tennessee. Quite distinct from those in other grocery stores, customers in Piggly Wiggly chose the goods on the shelves and paid the items all by themselves. Inside the Piggly Wiggly, shoppers were not at the mercy of staff. They were free to roam the store, check out the products and get what they needed by their own hands. There, the items were clearly priced, and no one forced customers to buy the things they did not need. As a matter of fact, the biggest benefit that the Piggly Wiggly brought to customers was the money-saving effect. Self-service was optimistic for the improvement. ‘It is good for both the consumer and retailer because it cuts costs,’ noted George T. Haley, a professor at the University of New Haven and director of the Centre for International Industry Competitiveness, ‘If you look at the way in which grocery stores (previous to Piggly Wiggly and Alpha Beta) were operated, what you can find is that there are a great number of workers involved, and labour is a major expense.’ Fortunately, the chain stores such as Piggly Wiggly cut the fat.
E Piggly Wiggly and this kind of self-service stores soared at that time. In the first year, Saunders opened nine branches in Memphis. Meanwhile, Saunders immediately applied a patent for the self-service concept and began franchising Piggly Wiggly stores. Thanks to the employment of self-service and franchising, the number of Piggly Wiggly had increased to nearly 1,300 by 1923. Piggly Wiggly sold $100 million (worth $1.3 billion today) in groceries, which made it the third-biggest grocery retailer in the nation. After that, this chain store experienced company listing on the New York Stock Exchange, with the stocks doubling from late 1922 to March 1923. Saunders contributed significantly to the perfect design and layout of grocery stores. In order to keep the flow rate smooth, Saunders even invented the turnstile to replace the common entrance mode.
F Clarence Saunders died in 1953, leaving abundant legacies mainly symbolised by Piggly Wiggly, the pattern of which spread extensively and lasted permanently.
Questions
Questions 1–5 Matching Information
Reading Passage 1 has six paragraphs, A-F.
Which paragraph contains the following information?
NB You may use any letter more than once.
Questions 6–10 Sentence Completion
Complete the sentences below.
Choose NO MORE THAN TWO WORDS from the passage for each answer.
- Clarence Saunders' first job was as 6 in a grocery store.
- In Clarence Saunders' store, people should pay for goods at a 7.
- Customers would be under surveillance at the 8.
- Another area in his store was called '9', which was only accessible to the internal staff.
- In Clarence Saunders' shopping design, much work was done by 10.
Questions 11–13 Multiple Choice (One Answer)
Choose the correct letter, A, B, C or D.
Answers & Explanations Summary
| # | Answer | Evidence | Explanation |
|---|---|---|---|
| Q1 | C | In his newly designed grocery store, he divided the store into three different areas: ‘A front lobby’ served as an entrance, an exit, as well as the checkouts at the front. ‘A sales department’ was deliberately designed to allow customers to wander around the aisle and select their needed groceries. In this way, the clerks would not do the unnecessary work but arrange more delicate aisle and shelves to display the goods and enable the customers to browse through all the items. In the gallery above the sales department, supervisors can monitor the customers without disturbing them. ‘Stockroom’, where large fridges were placed to maintain fresh products, is another section of his grocery store only for the staff to enter | Excerpt/Passage Explanation: The passage says that in Clarence Saunders' new grocery store, he made three separate parts. One part, called 'A front lobby', was for coming in, going out, and paying. Another part, 'A sales department', was made so customers could walk around, look at the food, and pick what they wanted. There was also a 'Stockroom', which was just for the workers, and it had big fridges to keep food fresh. This shows how his store was planned and organized. Answer Explanation: The answer is C. This means paragraph C in the text tells us how Clarence Saunders' store was set up and designed. Reason For Correctness: The correct answer is C because this paragraph provides specific details about the different parts and arrangement of Clarence Saunders' new grocery store. It explains how he 'divided the store into three different areas' and describes each section: 'A front lobby', 'A sales department', and 'Stockroom'. This information directly describes the 'layout' of his store. |
| Q2 | D | If you look at the way in which grocery stores (previous to Piggly Wiggly and Alpha Beta) were operated, what you can find is that there are a great number of workers involved, and labour is a major expense.’ Fortunately, the chain stores such as Piggly Wiggly cut the fat | Excerpt/Passage Explanation: The passage explains that old grocery stores needed many workers, which cost a lot of money. But new stores, like the chain store Piggly Wiggly, found a way to save money by reducing these worker costs. Answer Explanation: The answer is paragraph D. Reason For Correctness: The correct answer is D because this paragraph explains how new types of stores, called 'chain stores' like Piggly Wiggly, helped to lower the amount of money spent on workers. It says that many workers were needed in old stores, which cost a lot. But the new chain stores, through self-service, managed to 'cut the fat,' meaning they reduced these costs, especially related to 'labour' (workers). |
| Q3 | C | In 1902, Saunders moved to Memphis to put his perspective into practice, that is, to establish a grocery wholesale cooperative. In his newly designed grocery store, he divided the store into three different areas: ‘A front lobby’ served as an entrance, an exit, as well as the checkouts at the front. ‘A sales department’ was deliberately designed to allow customers to wander around the aisle and select their needed groceries. In this way, the clerks would not do the unnecessary work but arrange more delicate aisle and shelves to display the goods and enable the customers to browse through all the items. In the gallery above the sales department, supervisors can monitor the customers without disturbing them. ‘Stockroom’, where large fridges were placed to maintain fresh products, is another section of his grocery store only for the staff to enter | Excerpt/Passage Explanation: The passage says that Saunders went to Memphis to make his idea happen. It explains that he created a new kind of grocery store. He made three special parts in the store: a 'front lobby' for people to enter, leave, and pay; a 'sales department' where customers could walk around and pick their own food; and a 'stockroom' just for workers. This shows exactly how his self-service idea was started and carried out. Answer Explanation: The answer is Paragraph C. This paragraph tells us how Clarence Saunders built his new type of grocery store. Reason For Correctness: The correct answer is C because this paragraph explains how Clarence Saunders started to make his idea of self-service shopping a real thing. It talks about him moving to Memphis to 'put his perspective into practice' and then describes how he organized the store into different parts like a 'front lobby,' a 'sales department' for customers to choose goods, and a 'stockroom' for staff. This shows how he set up his revolutionary new store. |
| Q4 | A | At the very beginning of the 20th century, the American grocery stores offered comprehensive services: the customers would ask help from the people behind the counters (called clerks) for the items they liked, and then the clerks would wrap the items up. For the purpose of saving time, customers had to ask delivery boys or go in person to send the lists of what they intended to buy to the stores in advance and then went to pay for the goods later. Generally speaking, these grocery stores sold only one brand for each item. Such early chain stores as A&P stores, although containing full services, were very time-consuming and inefficient for the purchase | Excerpt/Passage Explanation: The passage explains that at the start of the 1900s, grocery stores had many services. Customers would tell clerks what they wanted, and the clerks would get and pack the items. To save time, customers often sent their shopping lists to the store before they arrived, and paid later. This way of shopping took a lot of time and was not very effective. Answer Explanation: The answer is paragraph A. This part of the text tells us how people shopped in grocery stores a long time ago, before new ideas changed things. Reason For Correctness: The correct answer is paragraph A because this paragraph describes the traditional way people shopped in grocery stores 'At the very beginning of the 20th century'. It details how customers needed help from clerks, had to send shopping lists ahead of time, and how the process was 'time-consuming and inefficient' before Clarence Saunders' innovations. This information directly answers the question about past shopping methods. |
| Q5 | E | Piggly Wiggly and this kind of self-service stores soared at that time. In the first year, Saunders opened nine branches in Memphis. Meanwhile, Saunders immediately applied a patent for the self-service concept and began franchising Piggly Wiggly stores. Thanks to the employment of self-service and franchising, the number of Piggly Wiggly had increased to nearly 1,300 by 1923. Piggly Wiggly sold $100 million (worth $1.3 billion today) in groceries, which made it the third-biggest grocery retailer in the nation. After that, this chain store experienced company listing on the New York Stock Exchange, with the stocks doubling from late 1922 to March 1923 | Excerpt/Passage Explanation: The passage says that Piggly Wiggly stores became very popular and grew a lot. Clarence Saunders opened many stores, and by 1923, there were almost 1,300 of them. The stores sold a lot of groceries, making $100 million, which was a very large amount of money. This made Piggly Wiggly the third largest grocery seller in the country. Also, the company's shares on the stock market became twice as valuable, showing its financial success. Answer Explanation: The answer is E. This means that paragraph E in the text tells us how well Clarence Saunders's stores did with money. Reason For Correctness: The correct answer is E because this paragraph shares many details about the financial achievements and growth of Clarence Saunders's self-service stores. It mentions how the stores 'soared,' meaning they grew very quickly and successfully. The paragraph also provides specific numbers: 'the number of Piggly Wiggly had increased to nearly 1,300 by 1923' and 'Piggly Wiggly sold $100 million...which made it the third-biggest grocery retailer in the nation.' This clearly shows their economic success. It even talks about its success on the stock market. |
| Q6 | a clerk / clerk | Born in Virginia, Clarence Saunders left school at the age of 14 in 1895 to work first as a clerk in a grocery store | Excerpt/Passage Explanation: The passage states that Clarence Saunders, who was born in Virginia, finished school when he was 14 years old in 1895 and began his first job as a store assistant in a grocery store. Answer Explanation: The answer, 'a clerk,' means that Clarence Saunders' first job was working as a helper in a store. Reason For Correctness: The correct answer is 'a clerk' because the passage states that after leaving school, Clarence Saunders started his professional life working in a grocery store in this specific role. The passage clearly mentions his 'first job' and identifies it as 'a clerk', which means a person who helps customers and handles sales. |
| Q7 | front lobby | In his newly designed grocery store, he divided the store into three different areas: ‘A front lobby’ served as an entrance, an exit, as well as the checkouts at the front | Excerpt/Passage Explanation: The passage explains that in Clarence Saunders' new store, the 'front lobby' was a special place. It was where people walked in, walked out, and also where they paid for their groceries at the payment counters, which are called 'checkouts'. Answer Explanation: The answer 'front lobby' means the area at the entrance of the store where people pay for their items. Reason For Correctness: The correct answer is 'front lobby' because the passage describes Clarence Saunders' store design and clearly states that the 'front lobby' was one of the three main areas, and it "served as... the checkouts at the front". The word 'checkouts' means the place where customers pay for the goods they want to buy. |
| Q8 | gallery | In the gallery above the sales department, supervisors can monitor the customers without disturbing them | Excerpt/Passage Explanation: The passage says that in a specific place called the 'gallery', which was above the sales area, there were 'supervisors' (people who watch over things). These supervisors could 'monitor' (watch) the customers without 'disturbing' (bothering) them. This means customers were watched in the gallery. Answer Explanation: The answer is 'gallery', which is a special raised area in Clarence Saunders' store where people could watch customers. Reason For Correctness: The correct answer is 'gallery' because the passage explains that in this area, people called 'supervisors' could 'monitor' the customers. 'Monitor' means to watch or keep an eye on, which is the same as being 'under surveillance'. This allowed them to see what customers were doing without bothering them. |
| Q9 | stockroom | ‘Stockroom’, where large fridges were placed to maintain fresh products, is another section of his grocery store only for the staff to enter | Excerpt/Passage Explanation: The passage explains that one part of the grocery store was called the 'Stockroom'. This area, which had big fridges for fresh food, was a special section where only the people who worked at the store could go in. Answer Explanation: The answer is 'stockroom'. This means that another part of Clarence Saunders' store was named the stockroom, and only store workers could go inside it. Reason For Correctness: The correct answer is 'stockroom' because the passage states that this specific area in Clarence Saunders' grocery store was 'only for the staff to enter'. This clearly means it was only accessible to the internal staff, as mentioned in the question. |
| Q10 | customers / shoppers | customers in Piggly Wiggly chose the goods on the shelves and paid the items all by themselves. Inside the Piggly Wiggly, shoppers were not at the mercy of staff. They were free to roam the store, check out the products and get what they needed by their own hands | Excerpt/Passage Explanation: The passage says that in Clarence Saunders' store, called Piggly Wiggly, the people buying things, referred to as 'customers' or 'shoppers,' picked items from shelves and paid for them all by themselves. They did not need help from store workers and could freely look around and get what they wanted with their own hands. This shows that the customers were doing the work. Answer Explanation: The answer is 'customers.' This means that in the new store layout designed by Clarence Saunders, the people who came to buy things did a lot of the work themselves. Reason For Correctness: The correct answer is 'customers' because the passage explains that Clarence Saunders created a new way of shopping called 'self-service.' This meant that the customers, or shoppers, picked out their own items from the shelves and paid for them without a clerk's help. This change made the customers do more of the shopping work, which saved money for the store. |
| Q11 | C | Having noticed that this inconvenient shopping mode could lead to tremendous consumption of time and money, Saunders, with great enthusiasm and innovation, proposed an unprecedented solution—let the consumers do self-service in the process of shopping—which might bring a thorough revolution to the whole industry | Excerpt/Passage Explanation: The passage says that Clarence Saunders saw that the old way of shopping was not easy and made people spend too much 'time and money'. Because of this, he thought of a new idea: letting customers choose items by themselves. This new way of shopping would change the whole grocery business. Answer Explanation: The answer means that Clarence Saunders wanted to make shopping easier and better for customers. Reason For Correctness: The correct answer is C because the passage explains that Clarence Saunders saw how difficult and slow it was for people to buy groceries. He noticed that the old way of shopping wasted a lot of people's 'time and money' because it was 'inconvenient'. So, he wanted to 'propel the improvement' or make things better by letting customers serve themselves, which would make their lives easier and more convenient. |
| Q12 | B | On September 6, 1916, Saunders performed the self-service revolution in the USA by opening the first Piggly Wiggly featured by the turnstile at the entrance store at 79 Jefferson Street in Memphis, Tennessee. Quite distinct from those in other grocery stores, customers in Piggly Wiggly chose the goods on the shelves and paid the items all by themselves | Excerpt/Passage Explanation: The passage explains that Piggly Wiggly started a big change, letting customers serve themselves. Unlike other stores, people shopping at Piggly Wiggly picked their own food from the shelves and paid for it themselves. Answer Explanation: The answer means that the most important new thing about the Piggly Wiggly store was that shoppers picked out and paid for their own groceries, instead of having a store worker do it for them. Reason For Correctness: The correct answer is B because the passage clearly states that Piggly Wiggly brought a 'self-service revolution' to grocery shopping. Before this, store employees would get items for customers. The passage explains that in Piggly Wiggly, customers could 'choose the goods on the shelves and paid the items all by themselves', making self-service its main feature. |
| Q13 | C | Clarence Saunders died in 1953, leaving abundant legacies mainly symbolised by Piggly Wiggly, the pattern of which spread extensively and lasted permanently | Excerpt/Passage Explanation: The passage explains that when Clarence Saunders passed away, his important contributions (his legacies) were mostly represented by Piggly Wiggly stores. It also says that the way these stores worked spread widely and continued to be important for a very long time, meaning his connection to Piggly Wiggly is permanent. Answer Explanation: The answer means that people often think of Clarence Saunders when they hear about Piggly Wiggly stores, and vice versa. Reason For Correctness: The correct answer is supported by the last paragraph of the passage. It states that Clarence Saunders's main achievements and things he left behind (his 'legacies') are 'mainly symbolised by Piggly Wiggly'. This means Piggly Wiggly is the most important thing he is remembered for. The passage also mentions that the 'pattern' of these stores 'lasted permanently', which tells us this connection is still true today. |