A matter of some importance

To what extent should one trust online reviews? By way of comparison, would you go up to a complete stranger in the street and ask them for their opinion about a certain product? And then trust the response? Throw in the possibility that your random stranger actually works for the product’s manufacturer or their chief competitor and the expectation of hearing a totally non-detached opinion diminishes. I only ask because I just happened to come across one bad review of Garners Original Pickled Onions. Having been brought up on Mrs Triffitt’s* genuinely original pickled onions, I can only say that Garners negative reviewer must have been brought up on something from a taste-free moulded plastics processing factory.

*Mrs Triffitt ran a grocery shop in Norton (East Riding) before the age of supermarkets.