BEACHCOMBER 108 YEARS OLD AND SHOPPING INTOLERANT...

SUPERMARKETS and department stores worry me. For a long time now, their various loyalty cards have been taking up increasing space in my wallet and I have long wondered why they do not all agree to produce one all-purpose disloyalty card which can be used universally. Quite apart from saving much-needed space in my wallet, it would save me a great deal of time spent fishing around to find the right card.

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I am also puzzled by the choice of ranges they stock. Recently, when I was seeking 00-grade flour for my homemade pasta in a local small supermarket, I found several varieties of plain flour but not what I was looking for. “We stock it in our larger branches,” I was told, but the closest was a long walk away. When I wanted fish stock for my seafood risotto, they had many types of beef stock, chicken stock and vegetable stock but nothing piscatorial.