Your local High St.

We live in a town similar I think to Grannyactivist. We have our fair share of estate agents, charity shops and cafes - many of which are now dog-friendly! But we also have lots of independent shops selling everything from food to clothes, hardware, DVD 's, books, african stuff, opticians, all alongside M&S, Co-op, Argos, LIDL etc and we have a busy market twice a week with an excellent farmer's market once a month. We've lived here 30yrs but all of our children have dispersed across the country but we don't want to move!

I live in Glastonbury, great if you need a new crystal ball but devoid of knickers and slippers. I hate the on line thing but do it all the time as there is so little choice.

We have an excellent out of town shopping place but it is entirely without soul.........

We have two shops in a small market town and it has got very difficult in the last few years to survive. There are lots of houses being built around us but very few shop in the town which is sad. With wages, business rates, pension contributions all rising and turnover staying level or slightly decreasing, there is less and less profit available. We are retirement age luckily but our son who hoped to carry on the business (which has been there for fifty years) will have to make the decision whether to sell and move on or work very hard for little return. It is a big shame as older people use the shops regularly as they are not so confident or do not like shopping online and they will struggle if the shops close. Our big supermarkets are at least ten miles away.

We are all guilty of using online as it is so easy. I have groceries delivered and frequently buy from Amazon as it is easier than driving to the nearest big town but soon that is the only choice we will have as more and more shops decide to close.

Please try to shop locally as much as you can. Apart from helping businesses like ours survive, it keeps the community alive, provides local jobs for people and is vital for older people to have contact and shop easily.

Our high street is v sad these days. The council have just spent millions building a new shopping centre further down from high street which seems only to have a coffee shop, M&S and Primark despite there being another (half empty shopping centre) at the other end of the high street. That just leaves estate agents, Solrs, banks, building societies, occasional markets in the square, Boots, smith's (which houses upstairs!) the post office and, of course, fast food outlets and cafes.
I go months without needing to go into town, usually to card factory to stock up.
A friend who used to live here for 30 years and is a shopaholic visited recently from where she now lives and was shocked.
All too late now I fear, we're all in thrall to big supermarkets with their free parking.

You are very fortunate ga

I forgot to say that we also still have a proper old fashioned department store and a haberdashery (or two)!! The only things I can't buy in the town centre are major electrical goods (we used to have two shops, but I guess they couldn't compete with the likes of Argos etc.)and CD's/DVD's - although the local bookshop stocks a few of the latter. Otherwise I buy almost everything locally.

I love my little town and I'm delighted that we still have a thriving high street - fortunately visitors also love the quirky independent shops and between tourists and locals we spend just enough to ensure the shops' survival.

Our village still has the traditional cobbled village square with the high street running down one side of it. The church is opposite the post office/shop and the pub next to the bus stop.

Idyllic? No....It's full of parked cars.

Our village used to have a shop with a post office. PO closed a few years ago. Now the shop has closed too. We still have a road and some lamp-posts.

There is a new Co-op with PO in the next village (replacing the smaller, old Co-op) a closed down little homewares store, a closed down chippy, and a closed down butcher.

Our village High Street has a small Co-op, a florist, a papershop/post office, a chemist, doctor, dentist, 2 estate agents, 2 cafes, 4 take aways, a chip shop, opticians, gift shop, 2 restaurants, 3 pubs, a nursery, a chiropodist, a gift shop, 2 beauticians, a reupholsterer, a sweet shop, library, small general store, a financial adviser and the parish offices.

Our 'high street' is dire. Filled with entertainment for children, dirty climbing balls, fag filled fountain. Pound shops and cafes. We avoid at all costs.

Use my village high street every day, although it's called Front Street.
A few cafes, restaurants, Greek, Italian and British, two butchers, a fruit shop, Spar, a large hardware shop, post office, newsagents, two estate agents, a dentist, a carpet shop, a gift shop, card shop, two hair dressers, solicitors and fortunately for me, a physiotherapist. There was even a horse vet for a year, but he gave up.

My village has a great High st. A real Post Office, a Co -Op, a Deli, a tea room, a book shop, a Florist, a wine shop, fish +chips, Library, Doctors, Dentist, dress boutique and a couple of knick knack shops. It's great there is really no need to go anywhere else.
Also in the village are two very good restaurants, 3 pubs and an antique emporium. Only lived here a few months, but I love it.

My village High St has a chemist, a Co-Op with Post Office, hairdresser, a butcher, a greengrocer, two take aways and one estate agent. Brilliant for a medium sized village.

If it can be classed as a "high street" the one in our village has a post office, a newsagents, a greengrocer, a fishing tackle shop, a fish and chip shop and a couple of hairdressers. Apart from the fish and chip shop we rarely use any of them. There is a large Morrisons supermarket within ten minutes walk of us, and the next village has a very good butcher (a rarity these days) but very little else. We go into Chesterfield where there is a large outdoor market and a good selection of mainstream shops.

How lucky you are granny activist. My high street mirrors the one's described above, only it's probably worse. Our local council has made some very poor decisions in recent years. the result is a declining high street whilst the out of town shopping malls thrive. We have endless pound shops, betting outlets, estate agents, M&S, Waterstones, Boots and Wilkies. We used to have thriving independents and a great indoor market. Sadly, the Victorian indoor market area was re-vamped several years ago, replacing individual clothing, delie's etc with small outlets of big chains. Of course, as predicted by the public who opposed this change, people drive to the shopping malls nearby, where parking is free and the chains have much bigger outlets than in the high street. Sorry for ranting but it's so sad to see so many run down town centres locally. I wonder if we need to accept the high street as we used to enjoy it is over and move towards people living in our town centres, with some small shopping outlets.

My high street is still very traditional with greengrocers, bakers, butchers, cheese shop, sweet shops, deli, fish shop, florist, pharmacy and a couple of small supermarkets. Additionally we have a few well known 'brand name' shops, several excellently stocked charity shops, toy shop, kitchen/hardware shops, banks, a post office and a plethora of hair and beauty salons and yes, estate agencies. Throw in several pubs, cafés and restaurants and you will understand why I visit my local High Street several times a week.

Well we live in the suburbs of London so lots of High Streets to choose from with lots of diverse shops Ealing is our Borough high st but we don't often go there preferring our little local shops which include greengrocers, bakers, no charity shops, couple of betting shops, cafes and hairdressers we love our refurbished co-op.

We have a sort of market Wednesdays and Saturdays, the Saturday one is quite small. We have about 5 charity shops, 6 estate agents, 4 hairdressers, Boots, Smiths and of course Tesco, Sainsburys. We have 1 butcher and no independent greengrocer, 1 baker. Two department type stores, neither brilliant. Ifyou really want anything you need to go to our nearest city which is pretty good, plenty of varied shops. When we moved here 30 years ago there were so many independent shops selling a variety of excellent goods, a proper weekly market but that has all gradually gone. It's rather a tired little town now I am afraid.

I go into my town about twice a week but like everyone else it's gone down badly lots of poundshops Starbucks type of coffee shops or eateries, telephone shops M&S. Waterstones, WHSmith, Wilco, peacocks, a departmental store, a couple of butchers, three jewellers, a few shoe shops, Tesco, Iceland, Superdrug and Savers Rymans, and a few independent shops plus charity shops Argos has moved to a industrial centre We too have a 'market' with about 6 stalls a few times a week nothing very exciting

The only time I go to ours is to visit the bank, that's at the bottom of the town where I walk in so that means not going near the majority of places. We have lots of Estate agents, charity shops, cafes and expensive clothes and gift shops. Nothing for the ordinary working class folk, money talks here. When I first moved here you could do just about all your shopping in the town, not any longer.

It's almost impossible to park anywhere near our high street during the summer season (tourist town) so I haven't been there for five months or so.

Fortunately there is a retail park nearby with lots of parking (Argos is there, and Aldi and TK Maxx!).

M&S and Specsavers are really the only places I need to visit on the high street. The rest are cafés, charity shops and bargain discount stores.

Although I often go 'into town', I rarely go down the High Street. All the main shops are close to the car park which is the other side of the market square so apart from the hairdresser, I don't need to venture any further.

It's all charity shops and chain eateries now. There's Argos but what's the point when you can't park outside?

We have a market on a Tuesday and Saturday, well that's what they call it. Today there were three clothing stalls two household cleaning stalls a large toy stall and a couple of 'tat' ones. Certainly not worth a special journey for. It is a little busier in Summer months.

A bit we have some independent shops - the Pork Pie Shop of course - I buy bacon there, a cheese shop (horribly expensive) and some clothing boutiques - not my style. I go in for the market on Saturdays and just go in Boots, W H Smith and Wilko's usually- loads of coffee shops and pubs.