With the spread of technology, companies are exploring the ways household chores can be made more bearable. Amazon is appealing to grocery-hating mothers everywhere with Amazon Dash – the kitchen assistant intended to do for the shopping list what Kindle did for the e-book.

Grocery shopping is up there with laundry and vacuuming as one of the most unenjoyable and time-consuming weekly chores. French supermarket chain Carrefour hopes that digitising the shopping list will make the weekly food shop easier. But how?

With Britons doing more online shopping than any other nation, high street retailers are finding new ways to lure people through their doors. London's EAT17 is a one-stop shop, offering kitchen towels, gourmet sausages, a quick burger or fancy evening meal, all under one roof.

People love to grumble about supermarket self-service machines. In fact 93% of UK shoppers claim to find them frustrating. But while consumers rant and rave when surveyed, statistics show that more people are using self-service than ever before. So do we really hate serving ourselves?