Shopping to me is an experience, one to be savoured with not just shops- but restaurants, cinema and any other little quirks you can get from a large shopping centre.

Whilst shopping can easily be disregarded as a complete faff, and ‘why not do it online?’, there really is something to be said from going out to the shops every once in a while and actually using all your senses to get to know products before you buy.

There are a few items of clothing I feel it’s vital to try on first before buying, namely shoes. If you buy long boots online, you might find a good fit on the foot, but whether they’ll be able to zip up properly is another matter entirely, and an issue that’s far more difficult to address online.

Even things you could easily buy online such as wallets, you really can’t beat being able to pick it up and get a feel for the weight, the texture and the sizes of compartments.

I like to go for long periods without shopping at all, with the intention of making it more of an event when I do go shopping. Often there’s an something fun going on at my local shopping centre which can be good fun to watch with a coffee as a break from wandering around shops with aching feet. It could be a dancing or singing contest, or live cooking.

I have always loved to spend a morning shopping, then buy some sandwiches and sweets and watch a film at the cinema, knowing that there’s a whole afternoon left to patrol the shops to find more cool stuff. Rounding that off with a meal at a restaurant is just the perfect day, and something that’s really hard to beat. Most of my birthdays have consisted of days like this.

It’s a brilliant feeling when you come home and go through all your purchases; it’s an excitement that links back to opening presents as a child, almost – and perhaps that’s part of the reason so many of us enjoy shopping so much. I like to go through each bag and recall that there’s so much more new stuff that I have yet to admire – the stronger and happier that feeling, the more successful I feeling the shopping trip was.

Of course, the convenience of buying online is also a great thing, but I think we’d be missing out if we forgot the pleasures of a real trip to the shops.

Rainbow’s End is a retailer online and in real shops, of gifts and clothing such as Yaya clothing