With regard to clothing and the occasional visit to a large town for a treat, it is just not possible any more. In most of the main shops, such as M and S , Debenhams, and even J Lewis, the clothing is impractical, does not fit, not cut in a suitable manner, poor quality and made in some country where labour costs are very low. The result of this is that I have had to turn to home dress making, which would be enjoyable, if I did not have children and grandchildren to look after, meals to prepare, two houses to keep clean, and a fairly large garden to sort.
It is not surprising that these shops are not doing well when one sees what is contained therein. I walked around Debenhams just before Christmas last year, and it was pretty awful, for the reasons outlined above.
M and S started to go down hill about 20 years ago for all the usual reasons. Poor quality and made in "God knows where'.