Shoe Shopping - and Back To School Shoe Shopping in particular - is probably the least favourite activity in our family, somewhere up there with Putting Your Dirty Washing In The Linen Basket and Making Your Bed. Apart from the novelty of stepping on that machine that measures your feet (why oh why don't they have one for grown-ups - my feet are definitely bigger than they used to be), the agony of waiting for the assistant to try to find something that is a) liked and b) suitable is not, as far as we're concerned, a pleasurable experience.

Step forward (see what I did there) then Clarks, who have come up with the brilliant idea of allowing you to choose your kids' shoes online, then pick them up in your local branch to make sure they fit. So all you need to do is get their feet measured, and then you can head on home and choose your offspring's footwear without any hint of a Shop Tantrum, and simply present them to your kids in-store as a fait accompli. Genius.

Right now (until 31 August), KidStart members get 3.5% back on kids' shoes, which will be delivered to a local store, (and a whopping 6% back on adult shoes!). I think we'll skip all the way there.