For us there are 2 small rows of shops where I live. 2 villages have basically grown to the point of merging but neither has conceded and both have managed to maintain their tiny shop population through stubbornness and community support. We even still have a library. One of the local shops is a Premiere store but the lady who runs it stocks it with really useful items, so whilst there is no almond milk, there is soya milk and the end of rows are not stacked with sweets but vary between nails and screws, mini sewing kits and health food, packets of nuts and flapjacks to shelves stocked with small quantities of lots of different things. She also runs a local MyHermes pickup point from it and going by the volume of parcels going in and out of the store it is a huge success. Next door is a deli/bakers who sell most of their stuff by midday with a target audience of the white van man. Try getting a loaf of bread after midday though and your choice will be very limited. They close at 2pm having opened around 7am. Further down the row is a dry cleaners run by a man from the Oman. His opening times are best described as 'when here around' and definitely not the 10-6 that it states on the door. The general rule being that if the door is open or the light is on, he's open. But when I day the door is open, I mean unlocked. When have been passed at midday and he's closed (annoying when I have cycled there) and similarly I have been passed at midnight and he has still been open!
The other village centre has both a Premiere and a Spar within a stones throw off each other, but the Spar note houses the village post office luckily. Then there is a greengrocer, a chippy, a dentist and a hair dressers, plus the village chemist and a proper butchers fit those interested. Parking despite there being dedicated parking is always a nightmare because it is so well used. Both the Spar and the Premiere are just standard shops to avoid really, but the local shops are great. Somewhere between all of that there is a proper barbers as well. They are about a miles walk away. East enough before my back went, now well more than I can manage.
Somehow the community manager to support 2 primary schools and 5 churches as well as a dedicated high end wine store which now stands by itself but must be doing well because it took over the old shop that the post office moved out of.
