What is happening to our high street?

Oh good!

I felt weak enough to have a slice of lemon tart when out to lunch. You are not alone, Ariadne.

Felt weak this afternoon....

Since we moved here, I am learning to use the high streets, and am enjoying it as I have time. But I still have a Sainsburys deliver every so often for boring stuff. Love the local tea shops, but only eat cake if feeling really weak.

The closure of these stores has made no difference at all to my life as I didn't use them anyway. I think the technology shops shot themselves in the foot when they stopped employing people with intelligence. An expression our family has used for many years is 'he/she was even too stupid to work in Dixons' If you can't rely on the information they give you then you might just as well buy on the Internet.

We don't have any of these really big shops in our town and it is the better for it. When shops close down they seem to be replaced again quite soon so I think we will still have a high st but that it will be a bit different in the big towns and cities.

Yes, we have great tea shops with home made cakes too and use them even though I can have free coffee in Waitrose.

If you go to Cornwall the shops are so lovely and old fashioned

I love browsing round shops like Waterstones and HMV and buying cd's and books. As I mentioned elsewhere they were talking on R6 about HMV and whether people will continue to buy cd's. I hate the thought of reading books on Kindles and downloading music...I like the cd cases and looking through a pile of cd's and deciding what to play. Life is getting less and less tactile, although I suppose it's better for the environment.

The funny thing is that most people love old school shops and so I think they will come back.....

Both HMV and Jessops were technology based companies. Jessops were killed off by mobile phones with cameras and digital cameras. HMV by mp3s and other digital ways of downloading music directly onto your computer without an imtermediary like a record, CD or DVD.

I confess I have never enjoyed shopping and as I live in a rural area going shopping in a town with a reasonable range of shops is time consuming BUT there are somethings I do not buy online. I do not clothes shop online. I have tried it but more often than not the goods get returned because they do not fit, are unflattering or the quality is poor. You have to try shoes on before you buy them, sizes and shapes vary so much.

Similarly I shop for food. I rarely buy convenience food or ready meals, food items that have the absolute uniformity of any copy of a best selling book and frequently are no more appetising than the book would be if I ate it so I like to see and feel what am buying, make the most of last minute decisions on what fruit and veg I buy and make the most of the 'reduced for quick sale' labels on fresh food. I also buy almost all my meat and fish from local suppliers, likewise bread and some vegetables.

I think the future for the High Street is in the return of independently owned shops offering the goods that are slightly different from those supplied by large chains. There is a recently opened tea shop in my local town, very Cath Kidstone in design in an old timber-framed house, tea served in the kind of floral teacups and saucers that even charity shops have difficulty selling and home made cakes. I would sooner buy a cup of coffee there (and do) than go to the dreary impersonal coffee chain nearby, where coffee is served in gallon pails at twice the price in thick white mugs with everything uniform and prewrapped

I do love my local High Street, but only for pottering about for special things. I could not do without online grocery and everything- else- shopping, for its sheer efficiency. Boredom eradicated!

But I do think High Streets have to decide what they are going to do, and what type of shopping they are going to provide. I don't think they can be recreated. And I do love a lunch in somewhere like Carluccios in an upmarket shopping mall. Times change, and we have to. Cuncta fluunt.

I shopped in a local overgrown village/small market town just before Christmas and what a pleasure it was! Personal friendly service, the offer to carry my shopping from the off licence to my car, a hug from Dee in the Deli and a cup of tea in a proper tearoom. I hang my head in shame as the user of internet shopping 75% of the time, but will try to go to "real" shops more this year - not necessarily more expensive as you get what you ask for and an infintely pleasanter experience!