Optimum Shops and Services in an Ideal Town

We live in a market town of 8500 increasing to 10000. We have really good independent shops, as well as Co- op, Sainsbury’s Local, Lidl and Aldi.
We lack a wet fish shop, a jewellers/ repairers, cobblers and a bookshop. The health centre does not have enough doctors.
There are too many hairdressers and nail bars( will they survive?), even a vape shop and tattoo parlour. Far too many take away outlets, some of dubious quality.
Soon there is to be a new primary school and leisure centre with a large hall, but what we lack most is car parking and a bank.

Our small town is almost perfect in this respect, with the variety of independent shops, a great market, excellent specialised charity shops (books and vinyls, music , etc). Quite a few chains too, but we never go to the Chain cafés or Restaurant and prefer to patronise the smaller, and so much better, independent one with fresh home-made produce.

And one of my favourites, an old-fashioned, crammed to the top hardware store- with a very old-fashioned owner who knows everything possible in the business.

I am truly sad that when he goes, it probably will never be replaced. I'd much rather pay a little more, rather than to to Wilkinson's or Sainsbury's etc.

And I do worry that our town will slowly die, as more and more turn to Amazon and on-line shopping. A town can't survive on charity shops and zillions of cafés.

It all depends on what matters to you. For me, the ideal town will have a good book shop with a very large secondhand section to fossick in and trays outside with lots of random titles at 50p or £1.

I forgot to mention the "market". Considering we are in an agricultural area, the actual fresh fruit and veg on offer at the market on a Tuesday morning is lousy - a few limp lettuces and a couple of vans with cheese and eggs. The supermarkets offer local produce, though,

The situation is similar here in Germany.

My town has just under 21000 inhabitants but due to its unusual layout does not have a high street. There are about a dozen restaurants, 4 or 5 pharmacies and two bookshops (university town). Otherwise the retail traders are all moving out of the centre of the town. Several butchers and bakers have closed, the independent ones because the owners have retired. I don't think there's even a dry cleaners any more, and I certainly don't know of any launderettes.

We're even short of doctors and the council have been campaigning for young doctors to set up shop in the region.

A wet fishmongers would be an anomaly anywhere around here. We are 1000 km equally from the North Sea coast, the Atlantic and the Mediterranean, so I wouldn't buy fresh fish anyway.

However, all the large supermarkets on the outskirts have a "Mister Minit" who will repair shoes, cut keys etc, so we're OK on that score.

My town in large, but the butcher, fishmonger and greengrocer only comes to the market once a week or you get it at the supermarket. I miss a cobbler, but I suppose in these times they throw them away rather than get them mended. My favourite boots are needing heeled and there's nowhere to take them to.

Our nearest town is reasonably large. NO independent butcher or fishmonger or even an independent greengrocer.
All these things have to be bought from a supermarket if you can't make it into town on "market day".

We live in a small town of about 2500 residents. I think we do well for shops. We have something many people would like, a wet fish shop. They also sell fresh fruit and veg and homemade pies and cakes.
We have a Co-op and a Sainsburys, Boots chemist, a bank and a building society, post office and insurance broker. Ladies clothes shop and a shoe shop, optician and library.
We also have charity shop/bookshop newsagent and a cottage hospital with a small injuries walk in department.
I think we do pretty well for the size of the town. If we need anything more there are large towns with department stores and big supermarkets 17 and 20 miles away.