I DON’T like shopping at the best of times, but when retailers use annoying tactics to entice a sale I become so exasperated I want to lock up my wallet.

The most irritating is the practice of arriving at a price and knocking a penny off to make customers think they’re getting a bargain.

What’s all that about? Does 99p sound so much cheaper than £1? Will a penny reduction really make a difference when someone’s making purchase decision? I don’t think so.

Such tactics are a nonsense – and an insult to the intelligence of customers.

That’s why I like shopping at Poundland. No messing about there. A pound is a pound –refreshingly simple. If the chain resorted to tactics employed by other shops, it would have to be called Ninetyninepenceland.

Other things that irritate me about retailers is the way some staff immediately pounce as soon as as walk through the door.

“Can I help you, sir?”

“No thanks. I’m only looking.”

I actually want to say: “For goodness sake, leave me alone. Shopping is bad enough as it is without you pestering me!”

Supermarket employees don’t bother you in that way, but these retailers do annoy in another way by moving their stock around. Why do they do this? Is it some sort of game? You get used to a shopping experience; know where the coffee is, the baked beans and the household goods – then one day you go in and it’s like a different store. You wander round, taking twice as long as normal to find things while the store staff are probably hiding behind the bog rolls laughing their mischievous heads off!

I’m thinking of forming a new campaign – the Campaign Opposed to Retail Naughtiness or CORN.

I did think of People Opposed to Retail Naughtiness but didn’t want anyone to get the wrong idea about the kind of shopping I do.