During the pandemic a lot of us switched to online shopping as we were trying to limit contact with others and also, sometimes the queues for things we madness. So now that that has all died down, where does that leave us with online shopping versus in person shopping.

I have to say, pre-covid I used to love nothing more than mooching round the supermarkets on a Saturday, looking at all the new products and trying them out. As I worked in food marketing at the time, I used to go look at displays, new packaging and seeing what new idea people were coming up with. But these days, not so much – The cost of living in the UK also doesn’t help really. If I do shopping online, I don’t seem to get swayed by the promotions or displays so much. You would think I had learned, as I have worked in marketing for 30 years, but yes, I still get swayed by the BOGOFS in our supermarkets.

I had been going in person to the shops recently, but it is quite a chore when you have got so many other things to be doing. Last week I decided to do a Morrisons Online shop through Amazon. During the lockdown, this was the best option and usually great prices and not many items out of stock, managed to get everything I wanted. But the person picking the items was clearly having a bad day – 7 items picked incorrectly and dog food in a bag on top of my bread. So wasn’t the best online shopping experience I had had.

I tried Sainsbury’s this week and whilst that was better, it was sooooooo much more expensive and they picked chicken pies instead of sausage rolls for me, go figure. I think I will try Tesco next, just to try them all, I do like Asda, so they will be next – Lots of deals to be had in there.

In terms of clothes and anything else other than food shopping, I have to say that I do most of this online, especially clothes – I cannot stand clothes shopping at all. Amazon is my usual go to, although there are lots of other retailers out there offering better prices. I have given in and tried Temu, but they are hit or miss – sometimes they arrive quickly, other times they take ages. Others complain about them and how they are putting UK businesses out of business, well isn’t that just what Amazon and supermarkets did as they rose in popularity of being a one stop shop, for us busy people in the 90’s.

My next purchase is going to be an air fryer – I have a really old one, probably a first generation one which is ok, but the ones you get now are fantastic – Just seeing what I can get for my pennies.