Do you want fries with that?

The selling of extras - we've all been there and, in many cases, we've been happy to hand over our money. Some extras make good sense - let's face it, a Big Mac without fries is like a night without stars. The reason we don't get wound up by being asked is that we expect it, but more and more, we are getting offered (and by offered I mean sold) things that we didn't come in for. Allow me to elaborate.

My wife went into the Post Office last week to sort out her car tax. It's not a complicated procedure - hand over documents, hand over money, receive tax disc, cheery smile, exit. The whole thing should take about three minutes, not allowing for the one hour queue that preceded it, accompanied by that lovely woman exclaiming "cashier number one please". There is only one cashier - sure you've got six counters there, but they're usually always closed - AAARRRRRGGGHHHHH!

So, back to the car tax. We've given over the documents and money and so all we need now is the disc and we can go right? WRONG! "Mrs Rose," begins our postal operative, "can I ask who your home contents insurance is with?" Are you thinking what I'm thinking? "NO! NO YOU BLOODY CANNOT ASK ME WHO MY HOME CONTENTS INSURANCE IS WITH. I CAME IN FOR A TAX DISC, I'VE BEEN STOOD IN THAT QUEUE FOR A WHOLE HOUR AND ALL I WANT TO DO IS GET THE HELL OUT. GIVE ME MY DISC AND I MEAN NOW!!!!!!!!"

Being the much calmer member of my family, my wife just offered them a reserved "No thank you" and went on about her day.

And I bet there are those amongst you who are sick to the back teeth of being offered mortgage reviews, financial reviews and personal banking services every time you go in just to pay a cheque. I know my bank offers mortgages, ALL banks do mortgages, but I already got mine sorted. Don't offer me an appointment with a personal banking manager - I've been with your bank for twenty years and I have never once taken you up on the offer, and given that I have not taken a sharp blow to my skull in the last week, I am not about to start seeing him now.

Is there anything that you can't buy from Tesco these days? Food, clothes, a telephone service, broadband, home insurance, a pension, a mortgage. Any day now Madonna won't have to nip over to Africa to pick up a baby - they'll be on aisle 16 next to the pet food.

With more and more companies offering more and more services, the market has become over crowded. I want to do my banking at a bank - not at a supermarket. I want to get my insurance from a reputable insurance company - not the post office. What we are losing sight of are specialists, because despite all of these wonderful services being offered by everyone, most people still prefer to deal with an expert.

Here at Merchandise Mania, we've often struggled to explain to people that when it comes to branding, we really can do anything that they want. The trap we fall into is being thought of as a Jack of all trades, and yet a master of none, and this simply is not the case.

So how do we overcome this obvious obstacle? It's actually very simple. Even though we have access to over a million products worldwide, we choose to align ourselves with specialists. There are hundreds of people that we can go to for, say, a USB memory stick, but we choose to stick with the people that we know and, more importantly, trust. We do "audition" new factories on a regular basis - if someone is offering a cheaper product of the same quality, we'd be foolish not to look into it so that we can pass the savings on to you. However, if we get some random email from a factory offering to do a little bit of everything, we just don't even bother reading it.

Now of course we're going to offer you extras - the nice pen to go with the pad, the lanyard to go with the USB stick, and so on, but it's only because experience tells us that many people want to have their hands held - to be shown what else is available and to make an informed decision. Of course, if you don't feel you need them, that's absolutely fine - we don't believe in pressure here and we really hate to be thought of as "sales people" with the negative feelings that seem to be associated with the term. We are advisors, and we'd like to think that you trust our advice - it's free, so please do help yourself.

For this week's competition you will need a cheque (cash will also work), a bank account and a stop watch. Go in to pay in some money into your account and see how quickly you can get out. Send in your times and the best one will win a 1Gb USB memory stick.

Now we're into October we're really starting to think about Christmas. If you did do something for Christmas last year then tell us about it now. If the decision has not been made as to whether you are to do something this year then that is something that you need to look at sooner rather than later. We've got a great array of gift ideas ready and waiting for you, and we promise we won't try and sell you any home contents insurance, telephone services or African babies.