I know there are people who love the tiresome chore that is grocery shopping, but to be honest, I’ve never really understood why.

When I was single, grocery shopping was more interesting, especially when it involved the hallowed M&S food hall, but now that I have a whole family to feed, I find myself running round the supermarket with gritted teeth every other day, retracing my steps each time and lugging the same old dullsville groceries from shelf to check-out to car to kitchen. Occasionally I go off-liste and find some new or different things, but usually I get home and realise there’s still nothing for dinner.

As a working mum, you can imagine my joy when I heard that the UAE’s first online hypermarket had launched – and it actually delivered to our area. I decided not to get too excited, as this is Dubai, after all, and it was bound to mess up, but I secretly thanked the supermarket Gods for finally smiling on me.

And why do whole families go grocery shopping together for fun, just as I’ve got approximately 22 minutes to do the ‘big shop’?

As I read the website this weekend, I realised the supermarket Gods weren’t just smiling, they were rolling around the aisles with side-splitting laughter, eating popcorn and Häagen-Dazs.

In the Getting Started section, you’re welcomed to this new experience in retail convenience and told: ‘Your lifestyle reflects your life story. It is told through the everyday objects you surround yourself with, through the food and drink you consume.”

It gets better: “These items are major characters in your story; they are your friends.

“They bring you joy and comfort, and welcome you home at the end of the day. Each morning you farewell them, perhaps with a touch of sadness.”

Seriously, I couldn’t make this stuff up.

Géant Online, it promises, will provide all the fun, excitement and joy of ‘physical’ shopping (I’d just settle for the groceries) and, with that, I found myself registering.

The first order does take some time as you have to find the virtual version of everything you need (while there are plenty of goods available, it’s not the whole range, by any means), but next time it should be a piece of cake as the system remembers your list.

I proceeded to the queue-less checkout, picked a delivery time for the same day, paid and kept my fingers crossed. My phone rang almost immediately confirming the order, and I sat back, still feeling a little twitchy about the whole thing.

So did my groceries arrive? They did, later than they were meant to. All the frozen items were missing and I’d accidentally ordered 30 cucumbers. But, to my surprise, the customer service line was actually really helpful, and as I left the house the next day (“Bye, bye beans! Farewell my fruity friends!”), a lady rang to say they’d bring the missing items that afternoon.

Happy dance!