I LOVED the story of the woman who gave her husband a fake shopping list to get back at him for being lazy.

On the list she had written: ‘Three per cent milk, seedless strawberries, fat-free hummus, wheat thins (the ones in the blue box), unsour cream, diet diet coke (you might have to ask because it’s new), mellow cheese, organic Pop Tarts’.

Once he was on his way, she turned off her phone, so he could not ring her.

The post went viral with thousands of women commenting on how their husbands would respond. One said: ‘My husband calls me no matter what I send him for, every time. Part of what makes this funny!’

Another commented: ‘My husband would order it all off Amazon.’

I know exactly how my husband would have dealt with such a list. After failing to find the first couple of items, he would call it a day.

Men and women shop completely differently. If I can’t find an item in the supermarket I will search for it for as long as it takes to find it. He will look for maybe two minutes, then give up.

When he shops, it is a short and sweet affair. I recall a survey revealing that men are much better shoppers than women. ‘Men spend less time in shops, adopting an SAS-style ‘in and out, no messing about’ approach - and nearly always get what they are after,’ its conclusion said.

But if blokes can’t find an item, forget it. In the same way that men can’t find things in cupboards - “It’s THERE, you just had to move that tin of beans” - they will not spend time looking.

It doesn’t help that shops are now vast in size. When I was a child sour local supermarkets was no bigger than a tennis court.

Like my mother before me, I always do our main shop. I go alone. On the occasions I go with my husband it takes twice as long, as he suddenly, without warning, veers off to buy what he wants. I always know where to find him because, like most man, he only shops for what he needs. He would love it if every shop sold only coffee, cheese, bread, beer, shaving foam and shower gel.

We women, on the other hand, like to browse and contemplate. We are open-minded to products we have not tried before and impulse buys.

Shopping holds an inexplicable allure for the vast majority of women. It really is retail ‘therapy’. Men can take it or leave it, and most of them - including my husband - would rather leave it. You would never see a man wearing a ‘born to shop’ T-shirt.

When men are sent out with shopping lists - something that would only happen in my home if I were on life support - they always forget at least one thing, and its usually the most important.

When my husband’s uncle was sent shopping by his wife, she numbered the items she needed, 1, 2, 3 and so on. He came back with one box of cornflakes, two carrots, three bottles of wine and so on. I kid you not.

A man trailing after a woman, looking like a cowed animal, his spirit broken, is a common sight in out-of-town shopping centres.

Men don’t like shopping because of the time it takes and the decisions to be made. “That’s fine - can we go now?” is the sort of response I commonly get from my husband as we route march around the supermarket. More often than not, he will wait in the car and then grumble about how long I’ve taken.

I’ve resisted for a long time, but after reading that story I think the time has come to send him out with an imaginatively crafted shopping list.