OF

all the loyalty cards lurking in my wallet, the one I like the most is Boots Advantage – four pence worth of points for every £1 spent. Sad though this may sound, nothing quite excites me more of a lunchtime than to discover that the bath salts I have put in my Boots shopping basket ahead of a long evening soak will cost me nothing more than the accumulated points on my Advantage card. But from May, I am going to have to spend more to collect sufficient points to buy Doctor Teal’s Pure Epsom Salt Soaking Solution (incidentally, marvellously infused with the scent of lavender). This is because every £1 of spending will then only get me three pence worth of points. The only consolation is that points earned before the May deadline maintain their value (quite right too). Also, because of my age, I will still get eight pence worth for every £1 spent on Boots’ branded products and ‘selected exclusives’. Doctor Teal’s. I ain’t for changing.