When we first moved into our house 30 years ago, there was a Safeways supermarket in the high street.

Every night there were bargains to be had, as fresh food was marked down for quick sale. Every Christmas, the fresh turkeys sat on the shelves until Christmas Eve, when, seemingly out of the blue, a gang of eager shoppers would hover around the shop assistant as they marked those same turkeys down for a quick sale.

Within a couple of years, Safeways had gone. I wasn’t surprised.

Today, with the barrage of Christmas advertising already well under way, I spotted ‘Christmas Eve Boxes’ in the window of a pop-up Christmas shop.

How long will it be before we’re giving ‘1st of December boxes’?

And how long before we’re complaining that “Young people today can’t do deferred gratification”?