Supermarkets are stampeding on-line, frantic to "establish a presence". And so they have, but beware of empty promises and PR puffery. While many sites look glossier, Iceland is the only one that delivers to the Oxfordshire area.

The web site is simple. Just tap in www.iceland.co.uk, fill in the registration form and you're off, scrolling through categories that include much more than frozen food. The minimum order is £40, and there are no hidden charges for the delivery, which is usually within 24 hours. A certain giddiness set in as I cyber-shopped. These goods, I realised, would be brought to my house. No trolley dodgems in overcrowded aisles, no disgruntled queueing, and most importantly, no bicycling precariously with six carrier bags. This changes everything. Suddenly I could buy heavy, clumsy items, like canned goods, and not grow faint thinking of the journey home.

Sir John Sainsbury once pointed out that family shopping can amount to 70lb per week, which made car access essential for shoppers. This argument bolstered the campaign for superstores, those sprawling warehouses built on town outskirts. Now American invader Wal-Mart seems poised to up the ante, merging existing retail parks into stores four times the size of the average Tesco's. They shouldn't bother. I have a hunch this on-line shopping lark might just catch on.

Wendy White, shopping centre manager of Templars Square, sums up the ease of ecommerce: "If you have to fight heavy traffic, lug parcels though the rain, wait for the bus... wouldn't you rather sit at home and click a mouse?"

Indeed. I may never enter another supermarket again. Staple items - like flour, milk, soup, juice, canned tomatoes, even refuse sacks - will be brought to my door. I shall loll in bed eating tiramisu (also ordered on-line), occasionally venturing out to buy fresh fruit and vegetables, and the occasional gourmet item. This will support small, local businesses, which are under threat from the conglomerates. Michele Nunn, an IT consultant at High Tech-High Touch in Over Norton, sees electronic supermarkets in another light: "Buying groceries on-line is my dream. It will stop impulse buying and help my budget. It will also let me spend more quality time shopping for things I like to shop for, rather than things I need."

Not that it's all roses, however. Buying blind can be a wee bit frustrating, especially if the store is unfamiliar. At times I craved more product information, but the brevity of the Iceland site is what makes it so quick.

On-line shopping forces you into a different, very brisk and business-like, mode. Know what you want - just like when grandmother used to order from the shops. We've come full circle really, only with a technological interface this time round. As Michele points out, this permits less distraction, less whim. A running tab appears at the bottom of the screen - a delightful function for someone who routinely overspends. Amendments are simple; far easier than backtracking through the aisles to replace an unwanted item.

Iceland has included a generous range of delivery times as well. Select a two-hour block, from early morning until 8pm, and your food magically appears.

Sure, the whole process lacked soul, but I don't routinely find a warm sense of community at supermarkets full of Teletubby custards. Rather I get really grumpy and start hating my fellow shoppers, peering into their baskets and drawing unkind conclusions about their lives. It's a whole set of emotions I'm happy to miss.

In this delirium, I had to be reminded that on-line shopping is still a growing, somewhat unregulated, arena. Eleven people from consumer organisations worldwide shopped over the Internet at the end of last year. They bought more than 150 products from 17 different countries to see how reliable Internet shopping was. One in ten items never arrived.

But companies like Iceland are a safe bet, and all my groceries arrived as requested. Life never was so good.

I'm not alone in this enthusiasm. Tesco's is adding Internet shopping to 100 stores, after its initial success with 30 shops, where it already accounts for seven per cent of turnover.

This makes the chain Britain's most successful online shopping outlet.

Now they just need to launch the service in Oxfordshire.

Story date: Wednesday 10 November

Converted for the new archive on 30 June 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.