Our town's High Street doesn't have any normal shops anymore - it's all vape shops, turkish barbers, charity shops, bookies and a huge Wetherspoons. I couldn't buy any clothes there if I wanted to (except second hand charity stuff), nor any electrical goods, nor household goods, nor homeware goods nor any fresh foods. The nearest we've got to a "proper" shop is a B&M Bargains!!
We used to have a M&S, Woolworths, Dorothy Perkins, Richards, Hepworths, Greenwoods, Burtons, and several small independents for clothes, an electronic/electrical goods shop, a couple of hardware stores, various fruit & veg, butchers, newsagents, fishmongers, etc., and a few medium sized supermarkets.
The rot started when we got a huge out of town Asda back in the early 90s, closely followed by a huge out of town Morrisons, closely followed by a huge out of town Tesco. The town centre shops slowly closed down and as footfall dropped due to the closures, particularly M&S which caused a knock on effect of more closing due to M&S shoppers going elsewhere. A sparse few remained, but they were hit when internet shopping took off.
I actually enjoy going to big city centres once or twice a year where they still have shops. Just been to Newcastle and spent the day browsing M&S, Fenwicks, Next, John Lewis, etc., but still sad to see lots of vacant units, even in such a vibrant city centre.