I HAVE huge sympathy for High Street stores striving to make a living, and for staff being laid off from the likes of M&S, but I find the shopping experience nowadays is just an unpleasant chore.

I fully appreciate we need to stop using plastic bags and I happily carry empty reusable bags with me. However, when you get to the check-out in M&S with anything from a £2 greetings card to an outfit costing £200, it is not pleasant to have it pushed across the counter without even the offer of wrapping it perhaps in some tissue paper – the only thing in offer, at a price "for charity", is a plastic bag. Similarly in card shops – you buy half a dozen birthday cards and have them left on the counter for you to pick up; no small paper bag to hold them together.

And my biggest gripe of all – the wonderful House of Bruar where you spend £200 on quality cashmere only to have it shoved towards you when you have paid for it, no service, no offer of wrapping, but wait... here is your credit card receipt and we will gently fold it for you and place it very carefully into a wee paper envelope specially printed with House of Bruar. But we don’t give a damn for your new cardie. Grrrr.

Linda FitzGerald,

Dalerb, Craignavie Road, Killin.