Small shops have been driven to the wall. Britain is no longer a 'nation of shop keepers'.
Similar trends are at work across most countries.
Today fewer than one third of the independent grocers that existed 30 years ago are still trading and many town centre bakers, butchers, hardware stores and many others are having to shut up shop. As town centres and corner shops decay, some sections of society are hit worse than others, not least the elderly and those without a car. Meanwhile, on the edge of towns, vast tracts of green belt and open countryside are swallowed up to be replaced by acres of featureless retail warehouses and sprawling car parks. Strawberries in the middle of winter, all the way from Zimbabwe, raspberries from Chile and green beans from Kenya, not to mention exotics such as papaws, rambutans and physalis, are just some of the goods to tempt the superstore shopper-if they can afford them. Gone are the days of buying locally produced, seasonal foods.