A couple of shopping centres in the UK are going to trial the removal of mirrors in the changing rooms. (Their rather twisted logic for a mirror-free shopping experience is that 71% of women in the UK decide not to buy an outfit after they see themselves in the mirror! What? That's because the outfit […]

According toThe Money Advice Service (MAS), supermarkets are making an extra £1,000 from families each year by using BOGOF and other special offers. (76% of people regularly spend more than they mean due to the buy-one-get-one-free deals among others. On average, people said they spend £11.14 more on a weekly shop, than they had budgeted […]

Since introducing the 5p levy on plastic bags in England, 520 million of them have been pinched from shops. (When I first heard this, I thought "How?", but seemingly it's at the self service checkout.  When people are asked if they have brought their own bag 50% say, "Yes", even when they haven't. At £26,000,000 […]

Supermarket shoppers in the UK are being wished a Merry Christmas - by self-service checkouts. (Supermarket chain Tesco has introduced a festive message to customers so that when their payment has been accepted they hear a jovial “Ho ho ho! Merry Christmas!" I hope they've programmed it to ignore anyone who has bought painkillers. What […]

I'm beginning to wonder if April has discovered the only job in the world without a job title. I was running a Back to Basics session in Second Life, and we were discussing vocabulary you need in a supermarket, when April asked me what you call the person who hands out food samples.  You know […]

This will also crop up in our "generations" discussion on Skype and the forum.  When do we turn from happy, carefree youngsters to crabby old grumps?