Cllr Rupert Bevan writes:

One of the greatest effects of the Covid legacy has been a marked change in people's shopping habits. More and more people are ordering goods online and this works for most but not all.

The sort of complaints most often heard are substitute products for those ordered, waiting in for deliveries that never come, being sent goods not ordered and advertised pricing versus actual.

An example of the state of things as they exist at present was my attempt to order a book for a friend from a leading internet company. Unbeknown to me I should have 'unticked' all previous purchases before pressing 'send.' The result was that not only did my friend receive the book but a vacuum cleaner as well! Annoyingly it proved impossible to contact either the supplier or the carrier so I'm currently in a sort of limbo and unsure what to do next.

Did I mention the box of chocolates saga? I won said box in a raffle but when I brought them home, I discovered that they were totally molten although well in date. I wrote a polite letter to the manufacturers enclosing photos and received a reply containing an apology, a voucher worth less than half the value of the original chocolates and an explanation that bore no relation to the problem about which I had written. This suggested to me that I had received a standard letter and that if mine had been read at all it was totally ignored. Not worth the effort for a company already making millions.

Much more preferable is to shop in Radstock and pass the time with other members of the human race. The local shopkeepers need our support, particularly this winter and I shall certainly be in the queue.