Dear LPG readers,

I do shop online, but while the gentlemen usually have little interest, wasting at least half a day a week browsing the relatively few high street shops that are left is something I would miss if I couldn't do it.  Ladies, where would we be without a trip to the shops? 

This is why I get out there as much as I can, especially when it comes to getting my food shop.  Every Friday, an excited version of me and my long-suffering husband find ourselves at the entrance of our preferred grocery outlet, ready for the decision-making exercise that will shape what we eat for the next week.  

By the time we reach the store’s entrance, armed with the push trolley, we will have passed someone outside who is hoping to persuade us to part with a few pence (or pounds), and there are two ways of approaching that situation.  

The first step is to ensure that you are armed with a coin or two.  However, we avoid this approach because it is often the case that the pleading expression on a person’s face as you approach them will turn to one communicating that they were expecting a larger donation from you. It is often the case that we don’t have any change in our pockets to give these days anyway.  

Beggars face an added dilemma in this day and age because the average shopper typically goes to the shops with a debit or credit card, or uses a mobile phone banking app.  We don’t have any change on us, and a beggar who has a card-reading machine would be perceived as too organised to need your financial help.

There is also that age-old school of thought that most of them will only spend the money they receive on drugs or drink rather than the food that they need.  

So, to the second option…  We get something in the shop and offer it as we pass them on the way back to the car park.  We usually opt for a sandwich.  The snacks are always the first thing you see when you enter the shop or the last thing you see before checkout, and we usually get one for ourselves to share in the car before we start our journey home.  All that hard work gives one an appetite. After all, shopping is quite tiring on the feet, and the anticipated task of getting the groceries out of the car, into the kitchen, and put away when we get home can also give you an appetite.

There is an advantage to just giving money.  You can divide what little you have between them and feel that your job is done, but we err on the side of the sandwich.  

The other day, as we made our way to the food shopping entrance, we saw a couple of men who looked as if they could use a bite to eat outside the building. Since our finances are not endless, we decided that, like us, they would have to share.  We opted for prawn mayonnaise and thought that cheese and onion might be appreciated outside.   We had dealt with the situation, leaving the shop ready to offer and partake of our fast-food choices, when we noticed that the number of people in need had doubled.  

In one respect, beggars are much like children.  You can’t give one without the others (even if you were only planning to provide a half measure), and the option of re-joining the queue for another sandwich was truly off-putting.  So, we left the four people in need with the two sandwiches while we went without.  

We felt better for our extra act of kindness, but my heart was looking forward to that taste of prawn mayonnaise, although not because we were hungry.  For us, it was just something chosen on a whim, but it's interesting to think about how quickly picking up something you weren't planning to eat becomes the object of your next treat.

There has to be a moral to every story, and perhaps this one is that we so often mistake our pangs of hunger for a little of what we fancy…  

MR, Dartford