My supermarket Valentines

Pssssst. I think someone must have tipped the supermarkets off that I'm avoiding them. And they seem to have launched a campaign to win me back. As some lucky people get surprises in the mail to mark Valentine's Day today, I've been receiving some seductive mail of my own.

I've had three letters in the post from the supermarkets this week - two from my old friend Tesco wooing me with some deals and one from a market research company asking me to take part in a survery in return for a chance to win some Asda vouchers.

The Tesco correspondence in particular is very alluring - they really are pulling out all the stops. There's the offer of what appears to be an excellent credit card deal with no interest on purchases for 18 months. I've cross-checked this at comparethemeercat and it does seem to be one of the better deals out there.

And regular readers will recall that I was (and I guess still am) an honourary Clubcard holder, so the second letter tells me that I have £4 of vouchers to spend and some other offers.

The thing is though, the £4 vouchers actually don't seem to be that great a deal when I consider how much I spent to accumulate them. I religiously used my clubcard last year so it amounts to weekly fuel stops and regular shops. Apparently you get one point for every £1 you spend, so you need to spend £150 to get £1.50 back. Doesn't really seem like that much in the grand scheme of things.

And then we have Asda's attempt at seduction - or at least a come-on from a market research company. Apparently if I fill it in then I get a chance to win a year's free shopping at the supermarket.

Clearly all this post has ended up in the recycling bin, where it may be turned into my new favourite Ecoleaf recycled toilet tissue - now there's a happy thought!

I guess when you're a company as big as Tesco or Asda you can afford some pretty heavyweight marketing, and you can use your power to offer some pretty good credit deals.

But sorry boys, the seduction hasn't worked on me. I'm sticking with my local shopping regime.