Dear LPG,

I am in my late 80s now, and you don’t have to ask about the difficulty that I have shopping because of the continuous back pain and knee pain that has caught up with me.  I am now aware that I don’t walk with the upright posture that I use to have, not so long ago.

It is also to be said that I have always been a lady in the minority, because retail therapy never really excited me or inspired me to get down to the sales.  I have to admit that even when I was a fully employed member of Lewisham society, and commuting to and from the West End of London day in and day out, I was never tempted to spend my lunch hours with my friends looking at the latest styles of dresses, shoes, make up and other accessories.  The prospect of buying new furniture and gadgets did not do it for me either.  The shopping I did do always seemed to be a chore for me.

Now, however, getting out to do the grocery shopping is something I do regularly because it has finally become a diversion and a really good way to exercise.  I quite enjoy taking a walk around the isles of my local Tesco store with the aid of the shopping trolley to support me in so many ways.

It substitutes for a walking frame, provides a place for me to put my handbag, supports it when I am trying to open the zip so that I can find my money at the checkout and allows me to arrange my shopping so that I can see what I have yet to buy, but there are some down sides to them too.  I suppose that we ladies have to find something to complain about. 

It appears to me that most of the trolleys work really well when you are in the shop, but then they suddenly become a challenge when you are trying to get them back to the car-park.  Just keeping it going straight ends up being a bit of a battle when it is at its fullest. 

Now, nearly years after their introduction, I still occasionally have the added problem that the new pound coins don’t fit them. I now realise why we were offered all those key rings with the old £1.00 coin tokens attached.  They were the number one give-away shopping perk about five years ago and they would be offered at local events too.  Many of us, me included, took them home and put them at the back of a drawer then, but I have mine on my key-ring and ready to go nowadays. 

There is one other thing that I need to address, and that is that whenever I take a trolley around any supermarket, I always seem to leave with lots more merchandise than I intended to buy in spite of my trusty shopping list.

Is it just me?

UB, Bellingham

LPG can report that this is an age old problem; well at least as old as the invention of the things.  Here is some more information

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