The High Street

The High Street once a bustling vibrant place

Where locals would progress from shop to shop

Visiting almost daily a range of family businesses

Providing provisions for the days ahead

The grocers for butter, cereals and rice etc

Butchers for chops, sausages and the weekend joint

The baker for the daily unsliced loaf

And chemist for mouthwash and a pot of Eucalyptus vapour rub

The newsagent for postage stamps and monthly magazines

These shops were run by independent shopkeepers

Often long-established and family owned

Who invariably would greet their customers by name

And enquire about their families and their wellbeing

For some this was the only social contact of the day

The hardware shop would gladly rummage

For a single tap washer, a three-inch hinge or 5-amp fuse

And next door the greengrocer would announce

The newly arrived strawberries and plums

Provisions were weighed and packed in paper bags

And often kindly placed directly into the shopper’s bag

Town visits might include a call at the local bank to

Draw cash or pay in a cheque and would prompt

A friendly greeting by the counter cashier

The last port of call could be the town library

To return last week’s book and choose another

Often the helpful librarian would mention a novel

By a favoured author just returned that day

Such days are now long gone

Those family businesses abandoned

Driven out by vast profiteering supermarkets

With soulless self-checkout and seldom human contact

And provisions encased in needless lasting plastic

Likewise, we see the advent of other national chains

Whose stock, display and décor

So boringly replicated in towns across the country

Depriving customers of interest and originality

Moreover, many former shops are now empty

Their owners driven out by rising costs and competition

And the convenience of on-line shopping

These empty shops bereft of staff and stock

Are now mere shells with windows pasted with fly posters

And months of mail strewn unopened on the door mat

Those that remain are largely taken by gent’s hairdressers

Betting shops, nail bars, fast food and over-priced coffee shops

Generally unwanted, unfriendly and uninspiring

Perhaps these empty shops could be reutilised

To assist the country’s urgent housing crisis

The shopfronts bricked up with an entry door

The shop and upper floors remodelled into to living space

Such conversions would have the advantage of a central location

Near to transport links and bringing vibrancy again to town centres

So, bringing some benefit from our High Street’s demise