Supermarkets and petrol stations just don't mix

FISH and chips, Lennon and McCartney, Wallace and Gromit - some things are just meant to go together.But who thought blending supermarkets with filling stations was a good idea?

As pairings go putting the petrol pumps in the same place as pies and pineapples is a spectacularly stupid one, and it's driving motorists mad.

Every time you pull into one of these places - and given how common they are, it's not going to be long before you do - you're pulled into a plethora of parked cars belonging to people more interested in picking up the latest copy of Heat magazine than purchasing ten litres of unleaded. Shoppers who spend ten minutes apiece distracted by pictures of Cheryl Cole, completely oblivious to the way their car is parked in such a way as to block off as many pumps as possible. The same people, I reckon, who religiously watch Live From Studio Five.

Giving the easily distracted access to the Sugababes whenever they stop to fill up is only going to encourage them to spend an absolute eternity umming and ahhing while everyone else sits in their cars, unable to get to the pumps in the first place.

If you haven't given up entirely and eventually get to the pump you spent twenty minutes queuing for, you're confronted with the same struggle all over again when you head inside to pay.

You've only put a tenner's worth into the tank and rightly believe stumping up should be a quick and painless process, but the single cashier is tied up selling the shopper in front of you, who's forgotten their credit card. It's infuriating.What the people behind blending shops with filling stations need to do is introduce tills just for those who buy things at petrol stations; petrol, diesel, cigarettes and Curly Wurly bars.

It'd free us from waiting for those too stupid at shop at normal supermarkets.The car in front is a Toyota. But because the petrol station is now a supermarket, it's been there for ages.