Having taken over the work and customers of butchers, bakers and banks, supermarkets are now persuading us buy their electrical goods from them as well.

Bread, baked beans, soap powder, fridge, television and a new iron. That could be your supermarket shopping list this weekend. The enormous hypermarkets have always done it, of course, but now electrical goods are creeping into most supermarkets in one way or another.

True, the range on the shelves is not what you'd get at one of the major electrical stores. The advice and service is not what you'd get at one of the few remaining independent electrical retailers. And the supply can be a bit erratic - these are just what we spotted last week. Next week, the stock my be a bit different.

But it's so easy just to pick a television off the shelves at the same time as the supper to eat in front of it. And supermarkets have always been quick to cash in on our laziness.

ASDA

Electricals is a definite department - not as big as the George clothing range - but a few shelves dedicated to electrical goods. Stacked on the shelves, not always displayed to their best, but perfectly easy to see, we found quite a wide range of goods, including:

Schneider toaster £9.97

Schneider Deep Fat Fryer £21.97

Breville Jug Kettle £18.87

Pacific 700w microwave £39.86

Sanyo Nicam hi-fi £99.87

Alba 28" TV £199.87

Philips 28" TV £399.97

Bush 28" TV £249.87

Philips DVD £149.87

Scheider14" TV £89.87

Daewoo combi 14" TV and VCR £139.97

Alba micro hi fi £59.87

CO-OP

THE Co-op, of course, has big stores which sell just about everything, but even in a straightforward supermarket, such as Richmond, they manage to squash in a wide range of electrical goods, even including large white goods such as washing machines and fridge freezers which the others don't. We found:

Candy Aquarius washing machine £199.99

Servis washer £189.99

Goblin Aztec cylinder cleaner £29.99

Creda freezer £119.99

Philips 28" TV £349.99

Bush 28" TV £199.99

Hinari breadmaker £39.99

Hinari microwave £37.99

Dyson Cyclone £149.99

Alba karaoke tower £29.99

MORRISONS

JUST a small selection on a shelf end, mainly Kenwood and mainly kitchen goods as a continuation of their pots and pans range. We found:

Kenwood steam iron: £17.99

Kenwood cordless kettle £17.99

Tower cordless kettle £10.99

Kenwood two-speed juicer £26.99

Kenwood three-tier steamer £29.99

SAFEWAY

SAFEWAY in Darlington now have a corner of their store dedicated to electricals - about the size of a decent sized shop. But that doesn't stop things spilling over to their other aisles. So next to the loo rolls you'll find a table top fridge. And propped up by the freezers is a teak effect dressing table. Such studied artlessness. But the electrical department carries a very good range, displayed well, lots of details, so you can compare and contrast fairly easily. We found:

Naiko table top fridge £74.99

Canon colour printer £44.99

Hitachi 28'' Nicam TV £269

Toshiba 28" TV £449

Samsung 14" combi TV/video £149

Alba 14" TV £74.99

Toshiba DVD £129.99

Philips VCR £79.99

Sharp micro hi-fi £79.99

Sony Playstation £159.99

SAINSBURYS

ELECTRICALS in the Middlesbrough are either a bit of an afterthought or a cunning marketing ploy to make them seem so. They stock mainly smaller goods which suddenly appear in strange places - toasters and kettles between marked down Christmas presents and dog baskets, DVD players next to the loo rolls, televisions and food mixers next to the dishwasher powder. Fine for spur-of-the-moment shoppers ("Oh yes, I'll have a another packet of Finish and a combi TV while I'm here.") but not inspiring people to make a special journey. We found:

Frigidaire two-slice toaster £9.99

Morphy Richards stainless steel jug kettle £29.99

Frigidaire hand mixer £9.99

Philips DVD player £99.99

De Longhi ice cream maker £29.99

Philips 14" combi TV/video £139.99

Morphy Richards foodprocessor £34.99

Haden coffee maker £14.99

TESCO

NOW Tesco is a strange one. If you shop on Tesco on-line, you have an amazing choice of top name electrical goods. Prices are checked against Currys, Comet and Index. There is excellent information on each product and free delivery. All very good.

But if you're shopping in person in store you are limited to a few shelves. Also, puzzlingly, the brands and products don't seem to bear much resemblance to those on the website. And as it's not always possible to compare identical models, we can't be sure, but prices in-store sometimes seemed lower than those on-line. In-store we found:

Bush 28" nicam stereo TV £199.99

Bush 21" TV £129.99

Bush 14" combi TV/video £139.99

Philips VCR £59.99

Philips Azure 4000 iron £19.99

Tefal Superglide iron £27.99

Hinari Kettle £6.99

Bush chrome toaster £24.95

Britax filter kettle £34.45

De Longhi four-slice chrome toaster £48.99

Goodman Breadmaker £49.99