I was chatting with friends when the conversation turned to shopping. Jackie was moaning about the fact that she had to go to Asda for the week's food shopping and didn't have a clue what she was going to buy.
"I hate having to decide what I'm going to cook for everyone, every night of the week. I know I should make a list, but then I sit at home staring at a blank piece of paper wondering what to write. Instead I always go to the shop expecting to be inspired but just get more confused than ever."
Jackie's point is a good one. My friends and I decided men probably don't have the same problem because they'll happily choose things they really like - meat pies, oven chips, bacons, sausages and pork pies etc - without thinking about whether they constitute a balanced diet. Women agonise about these things - particularly if they're cooking for children.
The conversation moved on to why we find it so hard to decide what to buy. The issue, we decided, is too much choice.
Of course, I'm not expecting supermarkets to scrap most of their products, but I do think the current layouts make life more difficult. It is also why I tend to shop online - mainly picking from the items on my "favourites" list - it limits the number of decisions I have to make.
Jackie and me would like stores to have a real stab at meal occasion merchandising. And we don't mean simply sticking a couple of sachets of sauce mix next to the fresh chicken.
We want two or three meal solutions - and we do mean total solutions, complete with bread, sauce, vegetables and meat - in one place. And we don't expect this to be simply Indian or Italian - we want traditional suggestions too.
"Why don't you buy the ready-to-cook ranges," we hear you cry. That's simple - they're more often than not only aimed at two people - so are ridiculously expensive for a whole family.
It's about time all the larger outlets had at least one fixture, containing regularly rotated meal suggestions aimed at families.
Online stores could also make recipe suggestions for every night of the week rather than simply offering meal suggestions that you once again have to trawl through before making a purchasing decision.
Has the number of customer complaints about the price of goods increased recently?
