The frenzied price cutting in supermarkets has always made me suspicious, and at the moment with a price war going on, you can't move for special offers and £1 bargains and signs saying was £94.50, now only 30p.

As well as the bogofs, the three for twos, the clearance lines and the unique special offers, there are now the basics ranges, all called fancy names so you don't think you are getting something cheap and nasty, which you sometimes are.

But these much trumpeted now only £1 basics may be a bit of a cheat: the same goods in a different package may well have been sold at the same price months previously, and some of them may actually have cost less.

Even more suspect are the wine offers. Hardly any bottle seems to be sold without a discount, although you can bet that you've never seen them on sale at full price. Now the law on sale prices is that the goods must have been on sale at full price for a set period.

My theory is that supermarkets chains each have a phantom store where all their lines are displayed at their full non-discounted prices. The public never gets into this phantom store because it is just a device to comply with the law on sale prices.

The main object of all supermarket strategy is to make shoppers think they are getting a bargain, when they are in fact paying a price which enables the stores to make huge profits. We are being encouraged to become discount junkies, and we fall for it every time.