Shopping
The glamour and romance of London’s vanished department stores
There are two journeys I’ll need to make after reading Tessa Boase’s heartbreakingly poignant book about London’s lost department stores.…
Why charity begins in shops
When everything re-opened after the first lockdown, I didn’t immediately head to a restaurant, bar or hairdresser. I went to…
I removed my mask and all hell broke loose
The girl in the posh soap shop put her right arm out, palm flat in my face, and shouted: ‘Stand…
What are online shoppers most likely to snap up?
Price of protest Greenpeace was fined £80,000 for defying a court order and occupying an oil rig in the North…
The weird and wacky world of Goop
The other day, as I walked with my partner through Notting Hill, we came across a shop which deserves to…
A seven-year winter or a pleasant 2019? Your guess is as good as mine
A friend reminds me that she sold her house last summer because I warned her 18 months ago that Brexit…
Save us from Tiger, the posh Poundland of tat
There is a Tiger on the loose. It is stalking our high streets. It is prowling our train stations. It…
Ikea’s real genius is making furniture disposable
By all accounts, Ikea founder Ingvar Kamprad was my kind of guy: may he rest in peace (on an Askvoll…
Warning: rationality could be bad for your health
Almost every popular commercial product owes its success to two different qualities. First, it does the job it is ostensibly…
The 5 per cent of people who decide everything (and how to be one of them)
What happens when 95 per cent of people like something, but 5 per cent of people prefer something else? You might think…
After the Black Friday flop, shops can get back to what they do best
The high street flopperoo that was ‘Black Friday’ may have something to do with terrorism fears, or even the downturn…
Tips from Just William on making a Christmas list
William Brown had the right idea about Christmas lists. Under the heading ‘Things I Want for Christmas’, he requests: a…
How hard should we fight Black Friday?
Should we make peace with this imported festival of consumerism?
We let programmers run our lives. So how’s their moral code?
A few years ago, in the week before Christmas when supermarket sales are at their highest, staff at one branch…
The birth of the plastic bag (blame Sweden)
Old bags The government announced details of a compulsory 5p charge for single-use plastic bags in shops. Plastic bags have…
The trick that makes self-checkouts almost tolerable
I spent the last few days in Deal and Folkestone with Professor Richard Thaler at Nudgestock, Ogilvy’s seaside festival of…
Won’t someone please unleash the challenger banks?
In my Yorkshire town of Helmsley the NatWest branch, originally an outpost of Beckett & Co of Leeds, has closed…
My wood-burning stove is expensive, trendy – and miserable
My trendy wood-burning stove is leaving me cold, wheezy, red-eyed and exhausted
The RMT’s Mick Cash and Tesco’s Dave Lewis win my prizes for media manipulation
Mixed results for the Brits at the Golden Globes, but I’m pleased to announce that my Golden Monkey Wrench for…
Nicky Haslam’s diary: Marie-Anna Berta Felicie Johanna Ghislaine Theodora Huberta Georgina Helene Genoveva and other big names
I was once bundled into a police car in Palm Springs to explain why I didn’t have snow-tyres on my…
Why I detest clothes with words on
Clothes with slogans on them are a sure sign of a bore
Pippa Middleton on wine, fishing and Kim Kardashian
A few days ago I went truffle hunting in Piedmont. It’s been a bumper year for white truffles in northern…
S&M&B&Q: Why aren’t there sex-and-shopping novels for men?
I never got beyond page 20 in Fifty Shades of Grey. No one got shot in the first chapter, and…
Dear Mary: How can I stop my future son-in-law saying ‘must of’
Q. My future son-in-law has been successfully house-trained in the use of upper-middle-class English over the years that he has…
Why everywhere should be more like Essex
Apart from the Wye Valley, where I grew up, there are only two places in Britain I’d consider living: Kent…
