The other day I was meandering around the supermarket when I witnessed a heated standoff unfolding between a mother and her teenage daughter beside a shelf of condiments.

After inadvertently earwigging as I reached for a bottle of balsamic vinegar, it transpired the showdown was over tomato ketchup.

Or rather: the daughter wanting a more expensive brand-name variety and the mum insisting that the store’s own-label was not only cheaper but tasted “the exact same”.

And in that moment, I was suddenly transported back to the late 1980s and early 1990s, when me and my mother would regularly have similar debates in Presto or Kwik Save.

Read more

On one such occasion, we reached an impasse about mayonnaise, with me insisting that the own-label offering tasted like “dog sick mixed with wallpaper paste”, as my mum steadfastly - and correctly - refused to shell out extra for “a fancy bottle”.

To........

© Herald Scotland