Are you using actual shops more this year?

[Bayroot1]

I find I am. I think it's mainly because of delivery cock ups and being able to see things before buying. I can see if something will fit someone, what the quality is like etc.

I've noticed the local shops seem to be busy on all days. I work in the community so can be out and about any given day.

Are you using shops more rather than the big A? I use them too.

No - due to disability, I do the vast majority of my shopping online. I would be lost without the internet.

Yes. I was a firm delivery only shopper for years, but then did it all in person on mat leave last year and it was brilliant.

Did the same this year, took a day off with DH and got through it all in one day. All done.

It's helpful for those tricky people who I can't think of anything for, but then spot something in a shop which they'll love.

I am for certain things- I don’t use Amazon and I find the postage costs really add up, it seems to be a minimum of £4 now. Do that ten times and it’s just ridiculous. Clothes however I have to get online, so many stores have shut near me and the ones still going (m&s) never have a variety of sizes anymore.

I’ve been trying to use actual
shops as much as possible for a while now. I really don’t want to lose them.

No. Leaving my house right now is dangerous. I have an airborne cinnamon allergy. The shops are filled with the stuff, both real and fake. Sometimes I try to pop into a store just to buy a few groceries and my lips and tongue are swelling in minutes and I don’t always manage to do something as simple as buy milk before I have to leave.

thank goodness for the proliferation of delivery services.

I did virtually all of mine online. The deals are just so much better. I did try to do some shopping in person but most of the things I looked at, a quick Google search showed it cheaper online. Not even by small amounts either.

I've tried too but a lot of shops I like have closed down or never seem to have stock actually in store.
I have however bought from some shops directly online (either home delivery or click n collect) rather than using Amazon etc.

No. Shops around me are dirty. Especially changing rooms.

People who use them are leaving them in an awful state with clothes threaded on etc and shops clearly don’t have enough money to pay for someone to hoover the dust bunnies and clean the mirrors in the changing rooms (or they do but no one takes pride in their job anymore).

(Gosh, I sound old with ocd.)

Online only for me.
I can order anything I want from anywhere in the country.

I am trying but struggling to find things I want to buy.

E.g. really decent chocolates. Even went to Waitrose. Nothing special... So resorting to the Internet....

Want Nespresso capsules. Our nearest store has closed so that's another Internet order...

No, all online. Partly because I'm likely ND and I just find the crowds, noise and just stuff completely overwhelming (it doesn't help that we're in a Christmas market city and so there is even less walkway with all the huts up).

Also because I like to spend a while comparing prices, waiting for discounts etc which is tricky to do if shopping in person. And just the general time-consuming nature of going to a shop, finding the item, queuing up for ages... Repeat X30.

So far everything has been online. Off to a Christmas market over the weekend so may end up buying presents there. Although last Christmas market I went to, I came home with nice stuff for me and nothing for anyone else! 😂

No.
As hypercritical of me as it is to bemoan the death of the high st while doing online shopping - i won't ever go back to trudging round the shops hoping for the best wrt price and stock levels.

My older kids - 90s born - are nostalgic for it (they remember going out with me when they were little) and make sure they do at least one xmas shopping outing. But for me the abiding memory of it is struggling through crowds in the sleet with heavy bags and a head ache with Noddy Holder screeching his head off more loudly in every shop 😳

Online all the way here!

About 50% independent shops by value. The remaining half are on line retailers (also due to my disability) though I am trying to stick with the more ethical ones.

Most of the items I required I've had to do online for my pets as pets at home and other shops are dismal for my pets needs for everything so use local online business for them and human gifts have mostly been online and got a few things in shops.

Nope.

All online. Hate shopping.

I'm trying to buy most of my stuff from local shops or, if it has to be online, directly from the brands themselves. I really don't want the high street to decline any further and I can generally get most things I need locally.

No way. Too annoying with finding time, parking etc. Online can be done quickly in lost bits of time (picking kids up etc). Online Black Friday deals were amazing this year.

Nope

No. I can be far more targeted and exact when shopping online. Find shops themselves very stressful and aggravating.

I get stuff delivered to the shop so it's online but can easily take it back.

Nope, doing most of our shopping online again, as we have for the past few years. Only doing the bare necessities of actually going into shops because it's such a pain these days, with disinterested/grumpy staff, nightmare and expensive to park, shops with barely any stock who tell you to order online, etc. I don't plan to go into our town centre at all for those reasons. Just to the out of town retail park and supermarkets (free and easy parking and no stupid one way systems and traffic calming and bus gates!). Councils and chain stores have killed town centres stone dead.

I do a mix of both , always have

That's awful really feel for you. How long have you had that?

No. It's too time-consuming, there's so much less choice and anyway I live in a fairly rural area that's over an hour's drive to a decent-sized city. I also just don't enjoy shopping.