Like most people at this time of year I’ve been thinking about shopping. Not that long ago the householder would sit in their drawing room and make a list. The list would be given to the housekeeper who would divide it up, go to the individual shops which specialised in, for instance, meat, dry food, fruit etc. and make an order. The various orders would be delivered to the house and the accounts would be settled.

Fast forward a few decades and we all want to get in our cars and drive to “out of town” superstores where we can buy everything we need under one roof. Enter the need for time and patience.

You’ve got to be living on another planet not to notice how the media are throwing statistics at us over this festive season about the amount of people shopping online. “It’s the latest must do…”  From the comfort of your own home you can browse sites specialising in individual good, purchase, have them delivered and settle your account. Could we possibly be going back to the future?