Okay, so I’ve just been to Sains­burys’ super­mar­ket to quickly get some­thing to eat. Whilst I was there I thought I would just get some new deodor­ant — it’s quite warm at the moment and my cur­rent one is run­ning out.

So I trundle up to the mea­ger men’s toi­letries sec­tion (not even a full aisle) and all they have are body sprays.

That’s it. Two brands at the most, but all body sprays.

So I enquire as to the where­abouts of the roll-ons (my pre­ferred method of deodor­ising) only to receive the response “I guess they’ve taken them off the shelves because it’s summer”.

Hmm … for my money I would trust a roll-on in the heat. So I wander up to the women’s sec­tion and strangely all they have on offer are roll-ons! There are a few small sprays, but not deodorants.

So, as I meander around the other aisles look­ing for the kid’s favour­ite cer­eal (nowhere to be seen) I notice that the aisles, although well stocked, actu­ally offer very little choice in the way of brands. Usu­ally the own brands and the higher priced main named brands.

I won­der if this is delib­er­ate mar­ket­ing on the part of the super­mar­ket (well, dur!) and whether this is the case across the country?

So, to my work col­leagues and friends, I apo­lo­gise for being a bit smelly at the moment … I’m purely a vic­tim of circumstance.