Strawberries may well be one of the best impulse buys, but there are plenty of signs that retailers are using every other device to boost sales.

Associated products are not a new idea, gong back to the time when Cow & Gate worked hand in hand with the banana industry to sell jars of cream.

In this sense Marks & Spencer has turned the clock back with its £1 offer on any one litre of Cornish Clotted Cream alongside 400g of English Elsanta strawberries at half price (£1.99).

Waitrose has taken another route by offering a chance to win a cake stand by consulting its website (www.waitrose.com/cakestand), which covers its whole Essentials range of strawberries, raspberries, blackberries and blueberries.

Staying with fruit, trademarked apple varieties continue to make headway. Kanzi grown in the Netherlands is in The Co-operative at £2.60 for four, with the Kanzi brand very much in evidence.

Getting the message is very evident at Tesco, with shelf barkers proclaiming that UK pak choi and asparagus arrive at the store within 48 hours of being harvested. There are also signs appearing that offer a Quality & Freshness guarantee (see story, right), although there is no indication that it is backed by any specific standard.

Meanwhile among its new arrivals, also bearing this logo is Saver Salad Topper - a triple pack containing 38 per cent each of baby tomatoes and chopped cucumber and 24 per cent yellow peppers for £1.

M&S, in the prepared range, has a sweet stir fry on introductory offer at £1.99 for 240g. Not short on ingredients, it comprises pak choi (25 per cent); spinach (16 per cent); red onion (16 per cent), butternut (13 per cent), sweetcorn (12 per cent), runner beans (13 per cent), coriander, garlic and red chilli.

And finally, sometimes the more exotic turns up in less likely surroundings. Jersey Royal may have pride of place at present, but in a Budgens store in Sherborne I came across a speciality line of black potatoes grown in Normandy being sold loose at £4/kg. The variety is called Vitelotte.

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