on line shopping

I buy most things in a shop - when it comes to clothes the feel of the fabric is just as important to me as the colour and style etc. Shops such as JL have an online site too and often some household items are as cheap or cheaper there and delivery men will fit an appliance and take the old one away- often online only places will just dump a heavy item in the hallway and run off!
I also prefer to pick my own fresh veg, meat and fish although I have used a supermarket delivery when it has been necessary (when in U.K.) I do use a local butcher and in fact his meat is always better and often cheaper than the supermarket.
As we now live in France I often buy Christmas presents from Marks as they will deliver on the date you give them Amazon is a fall back when necessary - Next deliver in U.K. too which has been great for children’s things - the quality is usually good too.

I enjoy shopping but do find it both time consuming and expensive to get to a shopping centre which has deteriorated in the type of retailers based there now. I do shop online though would prefer not to. There are a few businesses in the village and I do shop there to try and support them and hopefully keep them going.

It's really interesting reading all these comments. Following on from my earlier post the whole retail trade has changed dramatically since the onset of the internet yes but I'm also not convinced it's just that. Out of town shopping centres have also been to blame.

When we moved to this small market town 32 years ago we had 5 banks, post office, a small boutique, Woolworths, mens outfitters, a large shop selling bedding, curtains & all manner of haberdashery, 3 butchers, a shoe shop, a hardware store, electrical shop as well as the normal bakers and green grocers and just one supermarket the Co-Op. We had a local market 3 times a week which was always very busy. No one needed to go out of town for anything although I did used to take my mum to the nearest big town as our weekly treat for a look round the bigger stores and lunch out. Then 28 years ago they built Meadowhall and that started the decline. Over the intervening years the older shopkeepers retired and their premises either turned into kebab shops, cafes, places selling tat or even worse just became derelict. They started to build more supermarkets (we now have a choice of 5) People stopped going to the market so that closed, the banks shut leaving us with just one and people became more mobile so started to go out of town. Big retail parks sprang up all over so that shopping became a weekend trip out and thus the whole cycle started. The internet is just progression and as someone said it does mean small online businesses can also compete. You can set up a website and sell stuff you don't even need to stock now and buy anything from anywhere without leaving your chair which is a godsend to those housebound or with no transport.

Thankfully some councils are realising regeneration is needed and beginning to modernise town centres but whether this will be enough to entice residents back into them to shop remains to be seen.

Going to Windsor shopping costs six pounds for parking for a minimal time, a fiver for Diesel, a tenner for two cups of tea and one sandwich (I avoid lunch as it is too expensive for us both to eat) and I run the risk of not being able to find what I want.

I do still shop occasionally but since the OH was made redundant I have to ration my trips. I will walk a mile to my local small high street and use the local handyman store and the small Tesco and Sainsbury’s - though they are a third more expensive than a delivery from the Tesco superstore. I buy books for 25 p each from charity shops and use the free library. I guess the OP could say I am robbing bookshops by not paying ten pounds per book. But needs must. When We had two jobs the OH and I shopped without thinking.

Then we were money rich, time poor. Now we are time rich, money straightened and have to cut our cloth according to our means. We have had to adapt to changing circumstances and sympathise with others who have had to do the same.

When we not When we!