Do you feel guilty when local shops close.

I do not feel remotely guilty. I prefer to buy clothes in shops, Buying clothes online is too much hassle. Online you get no feel for weight or type of fabric, whether it is cut right, or the quality. The clothes arrive they are uselesss and then you have all the hassle of returning them.

However, anything I cannot buy in my local shops I buy online. I have just bought a zip of a specific kind in a specific colour and of a specific length online. I tried my local sewing shop and no UK supplier had the right length. I went online and bought it from a US site.

The same with the allergen free face creams I use. There was a local supplier, but they reformulated their products and the new formulation gave me an itchy rash. No local chemist or beauty shop could provide what I needed so I started to buy the product online.

How local local is depends on where you live. We have a local village co-op which does a roaring trade with white van men, korry drivers and a lot of local residents, but it is very expensive. £1.69 for a tin of tomatoes so I shop in small local towns, a choice of three, all 5 miles away. All give 2 hours free parking. I go in once a week and get evrything. I get my hair done, visit the beautician, use the wonderful sewing shop. I also use local farm shops.

As I said I feel no guilt at all about local shops closing, I use them.

AND, while we are in the subject, my DH is disabled getting a parking space is very difficult and another huge barrier

Our village high street is well used but not by the residrnts of the big new developments on the edges of the village. Too far to walk and the car park now houses 11 houses.

Our Council have issued residents with a card that doubles up as a library card but can also be used to access a free half hours parking in the high street on meters and in local car parks. I do try and support the high street it has lots of individual independent shops, plus a Marks Food hall, and of late a helluva lot of coffee shops, mostly independent ones, I try those ones out, but also Starbucks, Costa and Cafe Nero, which I avoid. I remember when I was a new mum living here there wasn't one, just restaurants. Of the charity shops, one in particular is brilliant, it has turned one outlet into a dedicated book shop, it has another shop for everything else, I always make a point of taking any books I am off loading there, it's set out so well and it's very popular. I go to the high street about once or twice a week. On my doorstep slightly nearer is a very large town where we have everything including a John Lewis so I suppose I go there more often, it's quite sprawling, I avoid it on Saturdays when it tends to be heaving the smaller high steet tends to serve the local community and has a more intimate friendly feel to it than the large town that draws in people from lots of outlying areas.

Why would you need free parking for local shops?

If it wasn't for free parking I wouldn't go anywhere near our local high street. I live six miles from town and there are plenty of supermarkets I can go to but if I need to visit the hairdresser or dentist I'm encouraged to do a bit of high street shopping as well.

My nearest corner shop is four miles away and it’s 20 miles to a decent sized supermarket - I’m not walking to those! We don’t have public transport, either.

My little town has quite a turnover of shops though I do try and frequent them as much as possible. However, several of them are shops that sell gifts and there’s a limit to how many gifts one needs. There’s a tiny Coop but it sells a surprisingly wide range of day to day goods.

Today I splashed out and bought a new bed in our nearest city. I’ve been muttering about replacing ours for a year or more but hadn’t made any decisions as going to the usual suspects such as JLP hadn’t been very useful. Today I went into an independent furniture shop and my goodness, what a difference! The young chap I spoke to knew his subject inside out and backwards; he explained the differences between the types of mattress and answered every single question I had for him. He didn’t press me to go for the most expensive options either and so I ended up buying there and then, because I felt I had enough information to make a decision.

To entice me into our local high street, it would need to have reasonably priced parking, instead of the extortionate prices they have currently. A couple of clothing shops. Decent shoe shop. A craft shop for knitting wool, embroidery stuff etc. Coffee shop that isn't Starbucks or Neros. Replacing the twice weekly market would be nice too.

We had all of these, and more. But our local council keep hiking up the business rates for shops and no one can afford it, so now we have little, apart from charity shops.

Our small town sells most things, independent greengrocer, butcher, baker, DIY, furniture, clothes, plus a Boots, Boyes, small supermarkets and weekly market, no need to shop elsewhere. But whenever a shop closes it is filled by a hairdresser or tanning room , nail bar, or charity shop.

The main thing that stops people coming to our town is lack of parking. Big car park is free so is full by 8.30am . People who commute to the city, or people who work In town all day, so there are never spaces for shoppers. Nowhere to park to go to the doctors either.
We lack a shoe shop and good clothes shop.

Why would you need free parking for local shops? Surely, you'd walk there? I make a point of using the local ones quite a lot - people really should, otherwise, they'll soon disappear.

Our local town is quite bleak now and I am guilty of not shopping there. I should do/have done but there us so much more choice in our local city (mainly John Lewis and Debenhams- for mow) and out of town shopping centres. I do use the long river company too. I try to use the on line shops of 'real shops' particularly book shops.

I agree with all the above comments as our 'town' is fast becoming a ghetto.There are empty shops everywhere - the only half decent shops are charity shops!
I went into a DVD/CD shop asking for a DVD/CD cleaner disc. I too was told to try on-line! OK I wasn't trying to buy a big ticket item but surely a shop selling DVD/CDs should automatically sell cleaner discs?
A lot of our shops have closed completely, others have moved out to 'retail parks' which are totally inaccessible to those of us without transport.
In response to the OP - yes I do feel guilty but what choice do I have!

I just dont know what would make me sit in a traffic jam to get into the city, search for parking, troop all over looking for whatever it is, when the alternative is pressing a button.

True in my town there are three different parts which of have groups of about twenty shops, two of which are not on the main road.

Parking, attractive venues, better design, better shops. No I don't feel guilty I think that our council do everything possible to deter shoppers. From roadworks that take years to ridiculous parking charges. The most convenient car park charge is £11 if you go over 2 hours, £5 if you keep under. Seriously.

It's sad when shops close, but I'm not prepared to spend my time off travelling miles and going in countless shops to get what I need.

I recently needed Hoover bags, but couldn't get them for love nor money in any shops here.

Twice recently we’ve had to interrupt sales staff chatting to ask them to serve us when we are standing at the till. I understand they must be nervous about their jobs etc. but it doesn’t look good if they aren’t keeping an eye out for customers.

Lack of mid sized clothing on the racks. There seem to be lots of size 8 and size 22 but no mid sizes.

My New Year resolution was to cancel Amazon Prime, and I did without regret-

What does High Street mean?

1). interesting items including clothes and shoes that have some individuality, rather than just being the same shown in every store

2). a pleasant, clean environment with decent cafe's and small independent shops selling a range of stuff

3). forgive me for this one because I do understand the reasons why we have a massive increase in homelessness, drug/alcohol abuse but- I wish our high streets weren't so full of evidence of this. I love dogs and I feel uncomfortable about the number of "very quiet" dogs comatose under a blanket.

4). free parking

GagaJo, yes I know what you mean regarding items out of stock. The young assistant last week told me, after I asked when new stock would arrived, to buy on line. I did return three days later and was able to buy it.

2 Products I am interested in.

3 Things in stock when I am physically in the shop.