The best Christmas gift in my stocking was a Palmolive shaving stick. Well, he’s easily pleased, you might say. What I really enjoyed about this gift was how thoughtful it was. It came with a brush in a stylish toilet bag along with my favourite shampoo; all packed ready for a trip.

The shaving stick replaces the can of aerosol foam that I’d never really liked. The foam was messy and not particularly smooth; it was expensive and I hated throwing away the empty tins that carry ominous warnings like DO NOT PUNCTURE OR
INCINERATE. So I discovered the pleasure of shaving the old fashioned way. What’s more, it was another useful yet inexpensive thing that I could buy locally. This humble shaving stick got me thinking about how realistic it is to shop locally.

If you judge local stores on price alone, the superstores win hands down. If you’re shopping for a large family or on a budget where every penny counts, then it may not be practical to buy that much locally. But is price everything? Where does the shaving stick come in to this?

I haven’t done any scientific comparisons of the contents of shopping trolleys, but I do wonder whether the trip to the giant out-of-town supermarket isn’t a giant con. Do we really need all this stuff? The 10 different olive oils or 100 varieties of frozen pizza? And all these aerosol thingies?
It’s amusing to see the Co-op in Highworth opens a half hour early on Sunday for ‘browsing’. 30 minutes to browse the Co-op? They must be having a laugh; you can look over the entire contents in 10 minutes! But that’s one of the reasons I love our
Co-op: it doesn’t take long to do the weekly shopping. And because there’s not as much choice as the superstores, there are fewer distracting things to blow the shopping budget on.

Let’s park the price question for a minute and think about the other factors at play here. Do we have time for shopping in big stores? What about the cost and time taken in travelling to the superstore?
It’s at least a 10 mile round trip – 500 miles a year – not to mention the time wasted in the car, cost of driving and CO2 emissions. Can the hard working, stressed out resident honestly say they enjoy it? I never have, and I reckon there are a lot like me
(including women) who think this way too.

Back to the question of price, maybe the solution is not to spend more, but rather to buy less – only what we actually need.
To help you shop for only what you need, Highworth Link has secured exclusive distribution rights for the Anorak’s Local Shopping List. You can download it from www.highworthlink.co.uk.
There’s a section to plan your weekly menu (so you only buy what you need and cut down emergency shopping), an aisle-by-aisle checklist of the Co-op (so you can make your list and whiz around quickly), a list of local stores (so you can see what’s on offer) and a place to note the few items you need on your occasional foray to the superstore. With practice, you might even spend less!

Editor

Age Concern Swindon has produced a new, free handy list of organisations running computer courses for older people in the borough.

Age Concern Swindon has information about keeping warm. Age Concern also has heaters to borrow.
Small grants are available towards the cost of celebrations, outings or one off events like theatre trips, day outings, Christmas parties etc. Some men are missing out on winter fuel payment.
If you’re a man who reached 60 on or before 23 September 2007 your household should be getting a £200 winter fuel payment – but you may need to make a claim before the end of March.