According to Kantar 12.6% of UK grocery sales were carried out online in March 2022 compared with 8% three years earlier. Clearly this is a trend that is set to continue, but putting the fag of selecting your weekly shop into the hands of someone earning the minimum wage is not without its dangers. How do you know that what you are going to get is what you ordered and that the fruit and vegetables you receive are the best available and not old stock that the store is desperate to get rid of?

Almost half of supermarket deliveries in the last twenty-three months, a Which? Survey reveals, have included a substitute item. Some are just plain bizarre, dog chews instead of chicken breasts, toilet rolls instead of bread rolls, a bag of onions instead of a loaf of bread, shoe polish instead of fruit, an Easter egg instead of hot dog rolls, while others are just dangerous. One shopper with food intolerances reported having their gluten-free product of choice substituted for one containing wheat while vegans and vegetarians reported receiving meat and dairy products instead of their free-from choice.

If you are going to play the lottery of online shopping product substitution, which supermarket is the best and which is the one to avoid? The survey marked the major supermarkets on their choice of substitution items. Waitrose fared best, receiving four stars. Aldi, Amazon Fresh, Sainsbury’s and Tesco scored three stars, while Asda, Iceland and Morrisons scored just two.

Call me old fashioned, but I will continue to do my weekly shop in person. You cannot beat seeing what you are getting before you buy.