Shopping is good for your health. It’s official! We all know shopping is torturing men, who painfully stand behind their girlfriends or wives until they are done with their shopping, and affecting the bank balance.【小题1】

The next time you go to a mall, and just observe the ladies there, you will see all of them in the best of their moods. Studies confirm it as a form of cure. Come on, let’s face it. When we go shopping, we feel good about ourselves and the place.【小题2】 And it literally is a way to release stress for most women. Shopping releases hormones which are responsible for lifting your moods and therefore good for your mental health.

Cancel all your gym activities, your diet plans and all those trips to the gym. Scientists have found that women spend an average of 4 hours on shopping during a week. 【小题3】 Although most women do not realize or look at it as a formal form of exercise, it is definitely an effective form of exercise and it requires less motivation.

Some studies have led to the conclusion that shopping is one of the best ways to fight depression. A woman tends to be so absorbed in shopping that she can shop for hours without eating or getting tired. That is exactly the reason why girls usually spend hours shopping after a terrible break-up.【小题4】 Therefore, shopping helps overcome depression. Moreover, it is good to reward yourself occasionally with all those things you fancy.【小题5】

New fences, fresh floor coverings and plenty of paint; home improvement has become the national amusements to kill time during the pandemic (疫情) as the nation has spent more time at home and rediscovered a passion for DIY after a decade of decline. The close down of pubs,restaurants and sporting fields, financial pressures and the need to adapt houses and flats to deal with changed circumstances, started a trend in DIY this year, particularly among 18 to 34-year-olds.

After years of falling sales, store close down and cost-cutting, B&Q -the DIY chain is hoping the tide may finally have changed its tough situation. Kingfisher, the parent company of B&Q, is investing in digital marketing, home delivery and new products to attract the imagination of the young generation.

Thierry Gamier, chief executive (总裁) of Kingfisher, has plenty of data to prove how consumers warmed to DIY again in 2020. It began in the spring with painting fences and decorating walls or cars. Sales of pressure washers increased by 80% at B&Q. People then moved on to gardening, setting up home offices and entertaining outdoors.

It has been the same story in some other countries. Demand for fencing, decorating wooden cabins in continental Europe and the us has put such a stress on wood supply chains that sawmill (锯木厂) and producers are working hard to tackle the problem. Paint supplier to B&Q are concentrating on the most popular shades, reducing the product range so they can keep up with the demand for high volumes.

But the big focus is on digital. As demand for home shopping rocketed during the pandemic, B&Q began using its stores to help pick and pack home deliveries. The group now handles 1.5 million orders a week. Online now accounts for 17% of sales -up from 8% before the pandemic and Gamier hopes to expand further.