Dear LPG, 

Do you remember when the adverts on television or in the newspapers were more direct.  At some point during the sales pitch of nearly everyone, the price of whatever was being advertised would be a feature.  

Often now money is not even mentioned.  Even as a 1970’s housewife, the prices fluctuated a little and there was many a time when I felt really cheated because I had bought something and then passed another shop where I could have paid a penny or two less for it; and in those days I would have been upset when paying over the odds for something as simple as a tin of baked beans.

My computer printer has finally given up and I have spent the past week or so trying to work out which model to replace it with, but there are so many of them to choose from and they are all slightly different.  I have only ever used it to print the odd letter and so I was not looking for the latest state of the art model but, for me, it is good to have one when you really need it.

I decided that the best thing to do was to go down to the only local high street shop that I can think of where you can still see the real version of such a thing, but I was shocked at how much they seem to have risen in price since I last needed to buy one.  I have always thought that the other advantage of going to the shop is that there will be someone who can tell you a bit more about the differences between the different models and offer a little demonstration but, these days the things are still beautifully displayed, but you are lucky if you can find an assistant to tell you anything and that is all you get.

Having looked at the prices wide-eyed, I left the shop and went back to the internet where the thing that I really found annoying was that there are many less expensive ones to be found electronically and you ‘can click and collect’.  This means going back to the very same shop to pick the item up unless you are willing to spend a whole day waiting for it to be delivered.

When it comes to a tin of baked beans, whether you buy it online or in a shop, you know what is in the tin, but so many things that we need to buy are so much more complicated these days and I have to say that I feel conned that it is so hard to get any real help, while the shops seem to be capitalising by only displaying the more expensive items.

It appears to me that, no matter what you are buying, shopping is a real gamble these days…  

SA, Catford