While sitting at home last week with family visiting, I quietly sat reading my Echo whereupon my granddaughter said how ‘old fashioned’ this was.

She proceeded to show me how she could access the Echo on her mobile phone and get even more information. “How marvellous,” I thought, “but not for me”.

Later, as I commented on Starbucks closing in Dorchester; “What a shame, another closure” and so forth, my granddaughter piped up that it was “awful, another meeting place going”. I replied “Don’t worry, if your age group continue to shop online there won’t be a town to shop or meet in and you’ll have forgotten how to talk anyway.”

Then she shared the comments that were online. One struck a chord with me. It concerned the Post Office and said that if the PO had Starbucks, it would reduce the queues.

Well I am sure we are lucky to have a Post office run so well after being taken out of administration, and that if the owner could afford the rent and extra staff they would happily do so.

Personally I for one would rather wait to be served courteously and cheerfully than be sat at a computer. We should get the younger generation to appreciate the retail towns more and be content to wait to be served properly rather than get impatient when their site doesn’t download quickly enough.

Let’s keep shopping, going to the bank, doing our car tax and bills at the Post Office, rather than do the anti social home alone thing.

An advocate for retail therapy and human Interaction (Name and address supplied)