DOES this ring a bell? Go to supermarket. Take essential but dull items off shelf and put in trolley. Go to check out. Take items out of trolley and put onto conveyor. Put items back into bags. Put bags back into trolley. Take trolley across car park before taking bags back out of trolley and now into boot of car. Drive home. Now take bags back out of boot of car and into house. Unpack items and put back on shelf.

This is the sound of the weekly shop where we would buy the important but essentially dull items. Loo paper, fairy liquid, bin bags, washing powder. The boring stuff. The stuff you don’t usually need to shop around for it, or check whether its fresh. Well shopping habits appear to be changing.

Hopefully the days of the massive boot filling, bag bursting shopping trips are on their way out benefiting independent traders as well. Let me explain.

The Friday shop has got so busy, so much of a shlep (my wife’s word for an inconvenience) that many of us are avoiding it all together. You can do it online and have it delivered to your door. Delivered right into your kitchen if you want.

So why, you may ask, am I advocating online shopping with Malton’s independents shops sitting here.

The death of the massive weekly shop now leaves people with time to spend buying the things that they really enjoy buying. Fresh items. Delicious items. Real food and drink. Meat, fish, veg, fruit, bread, shellfish, steak, chops, crab, salmon. The stuff that should be a pleasure to shop for. Best of all, if you’re really interested in food, you try new things, something you’re unlikely to do online.

These are the items that are not bought best online. They’re the sort of thing you want to examine for freshness, quality and smell. I want to get eye to eye with a fresh mackerel or squeeze a cheese to make sure it is ripe. I want to make sure my pears are just right or have a laugh with Mr Overton about the merits of chitterlings while he persuades me to buy a fillet steak instead.

By saving time getting the boring stuff online, you can now park for two hours free in Malton and shop for the fun stuff. Within seconds walk of Malton’s Market Place there is a game dealer, butcher, two grocers, two delis, a fishmonger and a number of other specialist food shops.

The independents will always struggle to out compete the big four supermarkets on the dull items like kitchen paper but there is definitely a more and more important place for the butcher, grocer, deli, fishmonger and baker.

In the new dawn of consumerism, price matching and the internet, the grocer and butcher have a place within it.

So go and get to know the traders in your town. Get to know Damian and Mark from Malton fisheries, or the irrepressible Mr Overton in Overton’s Butcher. You won’t be disappointed, real people, real Yorkshire welcome and really good fresh produce.