Are other towns like mine !

I suppose we are quite lucky as we are close to a large park, have good travel services and on top of that in our 'village' we have many coffee shops, takeaways, and barbers/hairdressers that seem to change hands or spring up regularly. We also have two large fruit and veg shops that also sell a variety of European foods. I complain that our 'village' is changing but it certainly meets the community's needs.

Surely buying anything - whether it be a cup of coffee or a fur coat - as long as it is not overpriced or in some way harmful to the environment - should be regarded a a good thing and a help
to our struggling ecomomy. Keeping businesses going and providing employment is surely a worthy use for any cash you have to spare.

Out of town retail parks are even turning into coffee shop/takeaway lands. Nearest to me which isn't big and was created a good 20 years ago has recently had a pub, 2 coffee shops and 3 of the popular burger/chicken sit in or takeaways. One supermarket has a restaurant. The smell from all the food outlets wafting over the whole area is awful. In the town there is nothing but more coffee shops, nail bars (always full anytime I pass by) beauticians, and phone shops. Some still have funds for luxuries!

Another cafe closed today in my town.

Same here. Every time a shop shuts down, it gets turned into a coffee shop. The town is full of people walking round with plastic coffee cups, pathetic. The other mysteries are the number of Turkish barbers and nail bars - all cash only, you will note - how do they stay open? There is only ever one customer in the barbers, I swear it's the same guy in there every time I walk by......

Sadly, yes. Most of our original shops have now become hairdressers/barbers, nail bars, charity shops, cafes or pawn shops.
Gone are the days of a thriving market three days week with a small fruit and veg market on all other days than Sundays. There's no pie & pea and winkle stall now either.
Years ago I could guarantee to be able to find any fabric I needed on our market and there were several haberdashery stalls too......all gone now and I have had to resort to buying online.

Our small market town was thriving with many independent shops a few years ago. There was even a family run department store, selling high end goods, with a wonderful restaurant. In spite of the almost wholesale decimation of high streets in the last few years, we still retain a good few independent shops and a twice weekly market, but the store has gone, and we now have many more coffee shops and restaurants. I just don't know how people can afford to eat out so much - two coffees and a muffin costs around thirteen pounds in our local artisan bakery.

Our high street is full of charity shops and pound shops. In recent times we've lost M&S, Debenhams and BHS some of which remain empty. The nearest small out of town shopping area which was high end with craft shops, independents and gift shops has been bulldozed to make way for a big Tesco and various national chains, a coffee shop and 2 chain restaurants. A lot of the things I used to buy there are now difficult to obtain without shopping online! It's very sad! At my time of life I don't need 'stuff' but it is frustrating when I need small craft items and have to either order online or travel to a suitable shop at significant cost. Last time I travelled into a city I used my bus pass for the first time. I went on a wander and bought the grand total of 6 pretty buttons!

I had to spend some time waiting for my husband at our local hospital/gp recently and had a coffee in the cafe there. It was a lovely warm atmosphere with some obvious locals calling in just to chat. I would go again just for the coffee (reasonable price) and friendly atmosphere.

What about the buses that never come Bluebelle? They’re so unreliable now because they don’t have enough drivers. Or where we used to live, there was no public transport at all.

The places I might have bought bedding such as JL, Debenhams, Fraser’s and BHS have all gone. I do actually prefer to buy such things as bedding and clothing in person because I like to feel the fabric first and make sure it’s comfortable but needs must sometimes and you have to buy online. It’s a vicious circle now, really. If we don’t use it we’ll lose it, but if it’s not available in the first place there’s not much option to do anything except buy online.

Yes, lots of craft bakeries here and cafes with excellent coffee and very tempting cakes. Retail therapy has mostly gone online and I expect people are cutting back on that. So a little bit of a break for a nice coffee and cake at £7 after a walk is lovely and the new retail therapy of a kind.
I'd much rather support these home grown businesses than the national and international chains , also they keep those spaces from being taken over by pound shops. It's nice to think that I am supporting a small family business.

Market town, a mix of the old and new. Some lovely cobbled ancient parts but new additions which includes an Everyman Cinema complete with bar and upstairs outside terrace, a new John Lewis Home and Waitrose, large Sainsburys, free parking in both supermarkets for 2 hours if you spend a tenner, otherwise parking is expensive. A large Lidl on the edge of town. Clothes shops include M&S, Next, Crew, H&M, White Stuff, Fat Face, Jigsaw, Hobbs, Mint Velvet and for menopausal women as described up thread Sea Salt Big Waterstones with coffee shop. Loads of independent coffee shops as well as Costa, Cafe Nero, Starbucks and Pret Restaurants, Cote, Giggling Squid, Wagga Mama, Pizza Express, Bills. It's all pretty busy at week ends, particularly if there is a market on in the main square. Thankfully, there doesn't seem to be too many boarded up places without there being a fairly rapid turn around as to being taken over by some new venture. I have my fingers crossed, we're fairly new to this town and spent quite a few years scouting Surrey, Sussex and Hampshire with a view to moving out of London. Where we now are came out tops in so many categories and people are very friendly here. How it fares in the tough times ahead remains to be seen, whilst I no longer spend the hours I did once prowling the high street, I'd hate to do everything on line and enjoy a coffee in one of the independents and a meal out in our town from time to time.

Charity shops, mobile phone shops, cafes, hairdressers and nail bars. Regrettably this list gives us no incentive to browse and support the small number of shops that are of interest to us, although we do try to make the effort.

Changed times but if you live on your own as I do there is a world of difference between a cup of coffee at home, however nice, and a friendly café where you may and often do, meet someone to chat to
It's another case of horses for courses.
All our cafés are independents.

Not for me * Suedonin* no car so I walk or use my bus pass no faff at all
You’re right you wouldn’t have been able to find the bedding in your town because online shopping amongst other things has killed the shops including haberdashery and the big departmentals that sold beds and bedding we use to have two or three, now none

Shopping on line is ok BUT you can’t try it on and it’s a big old faff if it doesn’t fit and an expensive faff too sending it

It’s just as much a faff going into town, parking, finding out the shops don’t stock your item/size/colour and then having to go home again empty-handed.

Last week I needed to order specialist bedding items for my elderly mum. I found exactly what she needed online, whereas I am 99% certain I would not have been able to find them in my local town and going elsewhere would involve most of a day. As it was, I ordered online and they arrived by 10:30am next day.

I’m near a university City - lots of students - mostly well off ones too and with the finest Cathedral in Europe, plus river bank walks, there are quite a few visitors in the better weather. There’s still branches of 5 big banks and lots of building societies open and an indoor market.
Too many cafes/restaurants to count, plus several multi *’d Hotels and Premier Inns, etc.
However, most shops have been vacated to go to out of Town retail parks, so there’s very little for locals to peruse.

I'd rather have independent cafés, bars, restaurants, arts centres and small specialist shops and other places where people gather than the old high street, owned by pension funds and populated by all the usual blue-chip standard corporate chains.

My nearest really small town, not much bigger than a village has 3 nail bars!

Here it's the same, seems like a cemetery when I go to the town centre. Chemists (of course), and take aways. All the rest are to let or for same. Very depressing. The big stores are in the outskirts. Without a car it must be awful, getting on and off buses.

Calendargirl Would never enter my head to go for a coffee in one of the numerous coffee shops, I just go home and have one there.

Quite. No coffee out - we drink coffee at home.

Our riverside town is abuzz with cafes, restaurants and clothes shops I can’t afford. Some rather nice charity shops that I frequent.

However all the banks bar one have gone. Waitrose that was always full has left and Lidl will open soon, plus 2 Sainbury’s. We have a boutique cinema in the process of being built. I suspect that will be pricey too.

Yesterday we were in the next small town to us and Theresa May and her hubby were window shopping. There was a man lurking behind them and I realised it was her bodyguard ?

I have bought my first pair of shoes online.
I had to send the first one back but eventually the correct size arrived.
Not doing that again.

Shopping on line is ok BUT you can’t try it on and it’s a big old faff if it doesn’t fit and an expensive faff too sending it back
we literally have Mand S Bon March new look and peacocks for clothes none of which are much to write home about
but I cant see it changing any time soon
We used to have dozens of shoe shops I think there’s only one now Our defunct Woolworths is a big charity shop people also moan about the cost of parking here our Palmers , body shop, mothercare, QD Argos BHS and our record shops, a big tescos and another very big local departmental store have all gone as well as many small ones even a couple of charity shops jphave gone Sad times

I live in a small market town. Would never enter my head to go for a coffee in one of the numerous coffee shops, I just go home and have one there.

As others have said, charity shops, hairdressers, nail bars, barbers.

We are lucky to have two independent butchers, a market twice a week, (and it really winds me up, we have a ‘Market Place’, but incomers call it the ‘Market Square’. Aagh!

A very expensive green grocers, much as I would like to support it, the prices are too dear.

A very good family bakers, also not cheap, but I like their bread at over £2.50 a loaf, so I buy it.

A boutique that does well, but mainly Italian ‘one size fits all’, so not really my bag, plus I rarely buy new clothes. Plus a good shoe shop.

A new bed/furniture store about to open, hope it does well.

Other shops of course, I certainly buy my food locally and try not to shop online if possible.