There's no doubt Christmas is coming. Produce departments may not have reached their full potential, apart from some goodwill messages which have been hanging in the walkways or plastered on the fitments for several weeks, but the signs are there.

In many cases floor space has already become congested with island sites of alcohol, stacked with everything from champagne to beer.

But not to be outdone I noted that Sainsbury's has a special pantomime Kids Go Free offer on its prepacked Spanish Navelinas £1.99. In excited expectation I bought one, but found I still needed three more tokens to apply.

An alternative is to try for a trip to New York, a competition on the new Mr Men Caribbean banana pack. At this rate fruit could merely become the means to the end ñ but as long as the punters are buying it...

Looking further forward Bramley Week does not take place until February, but Tesco has come up with the bright idea of putting a recipe on the outside of its prepack (£1.79) which gives an added incentive to buy. This is certainly not a new idea, but often suggestions are hidden deep inside the bag with the fruit, which in my view is less of an incentive to the shopper.

In the same store I came across yet another example of how prepared products are taking off. The dividing line is becoming more and more blurred, some retailers regard fruit salad as delicatessen, and prepared salads as a sort of ready meal.

Latest to take the imagination is Tesco food kits, at £1.69. The Mexican one is a specially-moulded tray that contains tomatoes, shelled sweetcorn, Chinese kale, and chopped garlic, four types of red and green chilli, shallot, and green peppercorns.

It's also worth remarking on how the capsicum market is continuing to fragment. First there were the traffic light packs, and then those extra long varieties, quite different in shape to the traditional bells.

To return to the festive theme, once upon a time, size was everything, but now small is beautiful. At Somerfield there is an attractive red and yellow baby sweet Dutch pack on offer for 99p.

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