High Street Shopping

[pelmetman]

Thought it would be interesting to see if there are many old fashioned High Streets left in the country.
Here in Lincolnshire we do a lot of our shopping in Louth which is a fantastic old town. We are lucky enough to have indendent butchers, a cheese shop, bakers and greengrocers. A great deli, health food store even an old fashioned Department Store. Looking at old pictures the buildings all look pretty much as they did probably a hundred years ago. There is what I call a proper market three times a week. What's more it doesn't matter what day of the week you go it is always packed with people coming in from all the surrounding villages. Yes there is a small Co-op and Morrisons which, unusually are within the town, no large out of town supermarkets here and so far have not affected the small independents, they seem to work hand in hand. It really makes shopping a pleasure

[citizentwiglet]

Louth is a lovely place. With a very nice pub where I spent a few hours one hot sunny day teaching some people about IT. Far better than doing it in a hot office, though 'Enterprize Backup Solution' became increasingly difficult as more beer was consumed...

Our main street is a conservation area, not that you'd notice. The supermarkets have successfully killed off the greengrocer, one of the butchers, the bakery; which have become takeaways and rather exclusive (though hilariously tacky) fashion boutiques for the well-heeled woman with a taste bypass. The next village along does have the original Tunnocks shop (of Tunnocks Tea Cake fame) which does seem to be holding its own quite well considering Greggs has opened a few doors down (in what used to be an independent video shop before Blockbuster saw them off....)...

[bonniethomas06]

I work in the centre of Bristol and find it revolting that I cannot buy vegetables from a greengrocer, or meat from a butcher, or fish from a fishmonger unless it's a wednesday and the farmers market is here.

Chippenham, where I live, has one greengrocer which is hanging on by a gnats whisker. Other than that, there is a tescum, boots, blockbuster, superdrug, new look and oh - empty space which used to be woolworths.

I could be anywhere. What a shame eh? Where are people who can't drive to the farm shop supposed to buy their meat and veg?

I did a study at Uni abut the health of people on low incomes in small towns. Predicatably, it was bad. In one town I studied, the only place you could buy vegegables if you didn't drive, was a very small Spar convenience store, which had a 1m wide, three shelf section with a few rows of shrivelled, out of season (and therefore relatively pricey) shrink wrapped specimins on it.

And while signing off the planning permisson for yet another convenience store, the government wonder why the nation is obese and disinterested in healthy eating, despite the million-pound 'Eat4Life' campaign.

Aargh!

[seasidegirl]

We've got one greengrocer in town and I tried to support them but sadly I too often had to throw stuff away. It's not their fault they just don't have the enough getting sold quickly enough to ensure its freshness. Also I wonder if the supermarkets are getting the best produce to start with and the rest going to the wholesale markets.

Did try. Pretty hard actually because my previous town had lost all it's greengrocers. I can't afford to throw food away.

Most of the high street is chain stores but can't say I'm bothered really because I'm not much of a shopper to start with. Was frugal even before we were skint. Lots of charity shops.

[Masco&Bongo]

By all accounts, we are very lucky! Our local village has a butchers, bakers, 2 greengrocers, a fishmongers, florists, independent off-licence (i.e. not Thresher), a little deli/cheese shop, pet shop and post office, as well as a $par and Co-op, opticians, pharmacy, and a stationers. The local library is still flourishing, and a dress agency has also opened recently.

It's mainly due to our location I think, we're right on the coast, a good 50mins drive from anywhere, and there would be nowhere for a giant chain such as Te$co to build, so the smaller shops have flourished...

[fran]

Evening All. I too live in a smallish village (3000 people) and we have a bakers, greengrocers, butchers, chemist, one small supermarket, a papershop, post office, doctors and dentist. Oh, and two pubs, the British Legion and two sailing clubs. We are also quite close to two major towns. Everyone supports the local businesses (most of them are related anyway!) and I hope that things stay this way for a long time. There's nothing like a trip to the shop and a good gossip

[KathyLauren]

Our "downtown" area consists of a general store, a bakery, a hardware store, a bookstore, a post office, and a couple of real estate offices. The general store has improved considerably in recent years, and now offers a reasonable selection of grocery items. It actually is practical to run down to the store for a few items for supper, wich wasn't the case when we first moved here.

The farmers' market only runs in the summer, once a week for half a day. During the summer, we are able to get most of our fresh produce locally, between the market and our own garden.

[crowsashes]

im lucky that i have a greengrocer who supplies local ( liskeard) meat and eggs aswell as milk and the usual veggies.

ive never had a problem with veg from there. although it is basic stuff, spuds carrots usual salad stuff etc. so i grow the extras i want, radishes peas etc

i just cant seem to grow lettuces cos of the major slug problem i have

theres a butcher not far away ( opposite direction near another tiny shopping bit)

all i can say is great bacon :-) and lovely looking rack of lamb last time i went in ( dont eat much meat) also had the joy of meeting my areas torie candidate there

in the city centre, the market is a good place to get veggies and meat and its open everyday, we get the odd city/european market and food festivals with interesting deli stuff but thats not as often as i like! but it cost £3.20 to get into town and most times i cant afford it.

we have the big T store within walking distance 2 co-ops a bit closer, morris' farm foods and a marks' which isnt so bad tbh!!

[marshlander]

Hear, hear for Louth! - a 'real' old fashioned town!:cheers: And don't forget the farmers markets- fantastic fresh produce. Keep louth Special are fighting to keep it that way http://www.keeplouthspecial.org.uk/index.php and keep threatened large supermarket developements at bay.

Bad news; we now have a subw&y but we still have goods coffee shops and cafes (my fave is the one up pawnshop passage - not that I can afford to treat myself very often))

Good news: another handmade bread shop opening soon (next to boyes)

[StripyPixieSocks]

Yep, here in Cornwall there's a few in the smaller communities, not exactly high street as most people think but we've got a health food / greengrocers shop, deli, bakery, organic butchers, yarn / wool / material shop, Post Office, Pharmacy, and a co-op.

I absolutely love shopping there as almost all the products are very local, fresh and organic, it's also really social, you can't go in a shop here and not chat!

Of course part of our 'high street' consists of the multitude of honesty boxes which provide a multitude of items like flowers, vegetables and occasionally honey.

There's even a couple of cafes along with the usual but real old style open fire type pubs around and about. There's one cafe in the deli and another which is a cookery book / cafe which is a wonderful idea!

I was quite disillusioned with the everyday high streets before I moved here because you could almost pick one place up and place it in another and you wouldn't know the difference.

HURRAH for the real high Streets left in this country

[Millymollymandy]

One very smart and hideously expensive designer clothes shop - God knows where they get to wear that gear around here where we are surrounded by sheep and hills!

What is it with these shops - we have one in our little village here and although some of their clothes are quite nice even when they are on sale they are about €60 for a pair of jeans or €35 for a vest top! Again, I have no idea who in these poor(ish) rural parts could afford their clothes.

[JulieSherris]

We're halfway between 2 villages, so if I go one way, there's.....

1 - A garage with the hardware store, woodyard, garden centre at the back
2 - 3 pubs
3 - a hairdressers
4 - the church.....

The other way we have...
3 furniture shops,
a Supavalu & a Londis
a post office & hardware store
a kebab shop
a chinese takeaway
a butchers
a gift shop/toy shop/car parts shop with a petrol pump outside
and.... the designer clothes shop!!
oooo... there's also a vet, a chemist, & a library, & about 5 pubs, so I guess it's a bustling centre!

[Millymollymandy]

But no veg! Sounds like here but then the French are not really into veg except for tinned/bottled haricot vert. And we don't even have the takeaways....

[JulieSherris]

Ahh...there's no actual veg shop, MMM - the small village had one last year, but closed because of 'lack of interest'

Supavalu actually has a good veg range & yes, there's the usual pre-packed, or strangely out of season stuff, but that's all sat alongside the fresh, local veggies (lots of swedes around at the moment!)
One of the nice things is that even the packaged goods have the county/village of production, so in Glenamaddy, you buy mushrooms from the Glenamaddy mushroom company.

We have a national 'Love Irish Food' campaign at the moment which is being sponsored by the TV companies & any & all foods produced in Ireland carry the campaign sticker. It's nice to know that the campaign is being supported heavily - keeping irish folks employed to feed irish people & keeping the finances within the country.

Actually... I remember commenting to hubby that it's been ages since we've seen New Zealand Lamb......
nothing against New Zealand, but it's rather nice buying a few chops & reading the ticket on the counter that tells you what farm today's Lamb/Pork/Beef has come from

[Green Aura]

Lucky you - even in sheep central we find NZ lamb and it's usually cheaper than the local stuff.

The biggest problem round here is the Highland foods accreditation, which means most of the produce gets shipped off to all points South and command high prices.

As for High Street shops - we have no High St Just one road that has a Spar and another general store. Both are lovely, but very expensive. I recently bought a "few bits" and 2 bags of coal = £93

It's cheaper to drive the 200mile round trip to Inverness.

I recently discovered the delights of Dingwall though. Town centre supermarket (which I object slightly less to ), a nice High St, not filled with the usual cr4p. And a great growers market every Saturday. Still about 80 miles each way though!