Are other towns like mine !

It's the same here Bluebelle.
Eating out is one thing we're cutting back on.

Our Main Street is wall to wall pavement cafes and restaurants. I love it. The only other things are real estate agents, banks ,one clothes shop and a couple of shoe shops. Oh, and 2 op shops which are nice ones rather than the scruffy variety.

Most of us also have too much stuff .At least coffees or snacks out aren t adding more waste to landfill which may happen if we replace our belongings.

Its the same here Bluebelle how cafe's and restaurants can afford to stay open is beyond me the only bigger shops we have are B&M and *Home Bargains who both sell the same products.
For good shoes shops/clothes shops we have to travel to Liverpool or Chester .

I live alone and there are 2 really nice welcoming cafés in our town where I can sit in warmth and comfort , have a bowl of good homemade soup,and chat to others, look at my phone or whatever.
So no I don't agree there are too many places

Our High Street has a lot of charity shops..

BlueBelle

So many of our closed High street shops are now turning into cafes, coffee shops, restaurants… in this time of ‘poverty’ what’s the point can we all afford to eat out so much I could understand more charity shops or bargain basement type shops but eating establishments how many can we all afford to go to ?

Yes, I could have written that post. People seem to like the cafe culture though. Also when I speak to people they dont seem to want any more charity shops.
I love them, but other people seen to hold different views.

We are one of the biggest cities in England and that is the way we are going now. Out of town shopping has got a stranglehold now and we have lost all but one of our department stores and much of the High Street is being remodelled to become urban living space for young professionals with upmarket eateries and bars high on the agenda. We used to have a lovely little shop that sold pens and writing implements which had been there since I was a child. I was in there just before they closed down due to an unsustainable rates increase and she forecast that there would very soon be no retail left in the city. It’s going that way.

We have so many barbers and vape shops ….hideous.
Lots of shops have closed but we do have a lot of cafes and restaurants, being something of a tourist destination.

You only have to look at Corrie, eastenders etc to see that apparently people can afford to spend a lot of time having coffee or breakfast two. I utes from their home On a very regular basis

I’m unlikely to use a cafe unless I’m on holiday, if I do I will not use a Costa, Starbucks etc.
I have never understood how or why so many people spend so much money on beverages!
I live in a City with a declining high street, It’s actually depressing, Primark is the only busy shop.

I blame Mary Berry!

Every other shop seems to be a mix of cakes, coffee & bakery - but what else can survive on a high street these days.

I expect there's minimal outlay, relatively speaking, to kit-out and stock a cafe, and everyone seems to love cakes apart from me!

People buy online. The only think you can't do online is have haircut or sit in a café or restaurant. Takeaway is even more popular though.
We still have a queue at the post office but that's because the banks have closed.
There used to be several estate agents but they have closed.
The vet is busy and chiropodist. There are still 2 funeral parlours and 4 or more hairdressers.

I've lived here 42 years and there have been many changes the main one is there are hardly any people about.

Only thing*

Lots of cafes, barbers, charity shops, some independent shops, Morrisons, Iceland, M&Co, and a few empty shops (sadly increasing in number)

I picked a good little town when I moved. population 6000 and a small market town. Good community and new small shops. no vapes or gambling shops here and only two long established charity shops. Many locals are older and we do our bit by shopping locally, we realise that it is very much `use it or lose it`

I’ve been wondering the same BlueBelle. Obviously some of us must have more disposable income than others. We have a newsagents closed to be replaced by another charity shop and a bank about to become the fourth coffee shop in town. I suppose charity shops don’t pay high business rates but coffee shops? And they are open on a Sunday. We also have two farm shops with cafes.

I agree with Gramaretto we do buy online, and barbers, hairdressers,and getting a coffee is something we can go to the high street for.
I have to admit, I love going to the high streets for is a coffee.

Oh and barbers, they seem to pop up every few weeks,there must be at least 11 barbers in my town ?.. how they sustain regular clientele I have no idea…

The town I live in has mainly charity shops , hairdressers galore, bookies, lots of estate agents , and pharmacies,

Oh I forgot the supermarkets?

We've stopped going on holidays at the moment. The prices have shot up at home and abroad and we can't face airports. So we are eating out more - once a week but we go somewhere cheap such as Wetherspoons.

Takeaways, barbers, charity shops, pharmacies and supermarkets for the shops near me. Although I am not anywhere near city centre. We had an OKish cafe 10 years ago, home-made cakes etc, but the rents are too high here and they couldn't make enough money. We DO have a coffee come wine bar that has just opened, but I've been in and it's more wine bar than coffee and not a comfortable place to sit. Although I must make the effort to use it despite that, or it'll disappear.

The shops in the area next to me are all nail bars and hair dressers/beauticians, so I guess at least my area has escaped that.

When we moved, there was a plethora of shoe shops. Now the high street is all cafés, phone or phone repair shops, hair or nail places, vape shops and a £1.50 shop. We’re lucky that we still have a few big shops.

I do agree that on the face of it in this current economic climate, yet another cafe/coffee shop opening can seem strange and illogical.
However, isn’t it true that these warm, welcoming places can provide a much needed community service?

We have a few lovely independent coffee shops in our village and they are all very well supported.
There are groups of dog walkers, young mums with their babes, couples, business people from offices and they are a thriving part of the village.

They must help a lot with loneliness mustn’t they? Folk on their own sometimes gets chatting to each other, and I’m sure friendships are formed from that first exchange over a coffee.

With the winter looming I’m sure they will continue to be a welcome stop after a long country walk.