Supermarket prices:I've often wondered why the state doesn't require that the major supermarkets allow access to their internal pricing systems and then facilitate private efforts to create sites that let you compare your weekly shopping before leaving the house.

We require pubs, restaurants and suchlike to display their prices outside the premises so we can know before we enter. I proposed the same in late 2003 in the lead-up to local elections back when Mary Harney was telling people to “shop around”, but the idea was “a seed that could find no purchase”, as Holly Hunter might say. For most families, driving from one shopping centre to another just be able to compare prices on a Saturday is not a option. We have Kelkoo and the like to compare electrical goods and beyond, but nothing for groceries.

– Dan Sullivan

Shopping in the UK

Just returned from London and I had the best ever shopping experience. I was offered payment facility in euro in all major stores without asking. That is confusing for me as I have asked to be billed in sterling this side and they say no every time.

I will not shop here again until the UK companies sort their rates. It is astonishing how polite the shop assistants are in the stores over there. – Maura Morris