My mum would love the whole idea of comparison online shopping. She had shopping till you drop down to a fine art. I grew up in the country and shopping where there was more than one shop was a pretty rare experience. On those rare times she shopped, we dropped. I dreaded it.

A shopping expedition to the city happened maybe two or three times a year. The day began with a three-hour journey timed to hit the shops before opening time so that a full day could be had doing what had to be done. There were different categories of shopping that had to be accomplished in the day.

At one level there was the grocery shopping; usually a mad rush at the end of the day filling the boot of the car with long-life bulk stuff for the storeroom. Much of the goods had to share the back seat with us three kids. But the other categories were the killers. To my mum, shopping meant going into one shop and looking at stuff, trying on the clothes for fit and look, checking out the brands, picking it up and touching it, but not buying there just in case the shop down the street had better stuff at a better price. So we