In the first week in December I read yet again that P&H’s delivery issues to Costcutter stores were improving. The same week Hitendra Patel rang from his Costcutter in Harold Hill, Essex, to tell me the opposite. “This week out of 134 outers ordered, I got 107. You order soup, you get hot dogs. So I have to source through Booker, Dhamecha and Bestway.

“I got 18 multipacks of Walkers (x 12) dated December 27. I’ve got three weeks to sell them.”

He complains, too, that he has to count the boxes with the driver. He lost £250 from the first five or six deliveries because he didn’t and wasn’t credited for any missing.

Despite this, Hitendra says that after 20 years with Costcutter, he isn’t going anywhere else. He’s just tired of it, what with all the running around.