Finding out what your customers want can be a costly business, even though there is plenty of research available.

Not long ago Tesco asked the question in store, inviting customers to indicate if they thought the supermarket was doing a good job. Now it is charging up a second battery of information with the shelf barker “What’s your favourite Tesco product? We would love to know”.

The answers arrive online via www.tesco.com/food, with the incentive to get on the keyboard being a draw for £200 of kitchen accessories.

Another question which could do with an answer with all the razzmatazz about cutting packaging costs, is the idea behind overwrapping two seedless grape punnets collectively weighing 500g. This is an idea which rival retailers have also hit upon.

Grown in Spain and Greece, the fruit in question is a white unnamed variety and Crimson seedless, priced at £1.95.

As far as colour is concerned, Aldi is highlighting fresh Spanish garlic with three bulbs in a sleeve on a reduced ticket at 49p. The variety is Rosado, which it stresses in store is naturally pink. As if to emphasise the point, the netting is the same colour.

The Indian summer, meanwhile, has given English strawberries a boost with Sainsbury’s offering another of Driscoll’s trademarked varieties under its Taste the Difference brand.

Windsor strawberries are being sold in the punnet, which costs £2 for 300g.

It is also the time of year when those limited arrivals of what are somewhat surprisingly referred to as traditional apple varieties make a brief showing encouraging the national media to crow about why more are not available.

Marks & Spencer has a rustic looking kraft paper bag of Class II Laxton Superb with five fruit making £2.29.

Another key selling point is the fact that the fruit comes from the Brogdale collection, with the message that because there are only a few trees, repeat purchases are unlikely.

And finally M&S has turned back the clock, reflecting a general retail interest in bulk packs of potatoes, an idea which in terms of my memory some 20 years ago, was not always successful.

The retailer is giving it another try however. The plain white kraft outer holds 5kg of Suffolk-grown Maris Piper at £4.99.

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