@user1466167893
The high street versus online is a really good question? I have very limited time (working two jobs at mo to pay the bills). Last week, I found myself hanging at a retail park whilst waiting for my DD. I went in armed with this thread to pick up things for Xmas. Either not stocked in that branch, not in or not available in sizes I needed. I just don't have time for repeat visits. So all of that is online. HOWEVER, I do support my local village shops, do spend in little local gift shops and am supporting the butcher, the grocer and the bakery. If bigger shops want to stay in the high street they have to sort out their stock and availability.
This is my conundrum, too. Where I live all eligible adults get a high street spend card worth £100 to spend in 'bricks and mortar' businesses. The whole point is that it gives the local economy a boost due to all the restrictions over the last 2 years. There's rules with the card (can't be used online, has to be used by November 30th, no cashback can be given on the card, etc)...
Which is all great. Thankful for the card (even though we'll still be paying the money back for the scheme with tax, nothing is 'free'), but high street shopping is absolutely dire.
My capital city is dead. So many shops closed down. Very few places I actually would want to go. And I wanted to use my and my partner's card to make a dent in the kids Christmas toys, but... there is so little choice. We have one 'big' toy shop in the country left, then Argos and a little independent one. That's it. We don't have a John Lewis, either. So as much as I don't want to seem completely ungrateful, it is a bit annoying that I'll have to spend multiple days trying to track down what I need, paying more for it (not having access to discount codes, etc), and ultimately accepting that half of what I want isn't there.
My partner works full time, I work part time but I have two kids under 2, so tramping around the shops with them in tow isn't exactly appealing.
We support local when we can but for things like toys, online is the way to go. It's easier, it's cheaper and it takes up half an hour of my time in the evening as opposed to hours of my day stuck in traffic/paying extra for fuel and parking/having to lug the shopping back to the car and so on.
I'll just have to spend a lot more time planning before I head out. Checking stock is available in a local store for every item if I can, seeing if any discounts work in store and writing them down, etc. It might seem excessive but this is an expensive time of the year for everyone and we have to do what we can to get the most out of it.