Would you live in a village with no shop?

[ButIGetUpAgain]

Hi,

Just that really. Seen a house which we really like, in a really pretty village, 10 minute drive from DD's high school, with school bus, gorgeous gastro pub, but yes, no shop.

The closest would be only a couple of minutes drive away and the next well equipped village is only 5 or 6 minutes drive away, so hardly a trek. That said, I would have liked my DD to have the freedom to walk to the shops on her own. She can't where we currently live and this was something on our list. Not top of it though.

What are your thoughts? Would you? Do you?

I'm weird about this kind of thing. I either want to be right in the middle of stuff I can walk to safely (i.e. places with pavements and streetlights) or so bucolically rural I have to drive for at least 20 minutes to get anywhere. All this talk of two-minute and five-minute drives gives me the fear; my car would never get properly warmed up and it would end up breaking down. But I also know full well that in the country, you can't always 'just walk' because the roads have no pavements or lighting.

Nope. I wouldn't live in a village even if it had two shops! Give me the city any day.

I live in a village with a shop three miles away.. I love it.. jus5 need to be organised. View is worth it all.

We did. It was annoying but not the end of the world. After about a year of living here a shop has opened. We only very occasionally use it.

I’m in a hamlet not even a village and it’s absolutely fine, I pass several shops on the way home from work so swing in then.

It’s also quite useful for that moment when you’re settled on the sofa and have a sudden craving for chocolate/ice cream etc. The thought crosses my mind, I think vaguely about where my car keys/shoes are and then the moment’s gone!

We live in a small village and have a little shop - it's been failing for years due to lack of trade (everyone shops online these days) and it was sold last year to a pair of newbie villagers idiots who've sunk their entire life savings and pension funds into it and are turning it into a business hub and deli/cafe......their loaves of "Artisan" bread are nearly a fiver

We can use the local garage for emergency milk/bread but we exist with a weekly Ocado delivery. Most of the villages around here have lost their shops and post offices due to lack of use.

Are you looking for public footpaths, bridleways, greenways and rights of way, as well as just looking at the road map?

I’d be more concerned with a total inability to leave a village except by motorway.

I live just outside a village that has a shop it’s only a 2/3min drive but it wouldn’t be safe to walk. You just get used to getting things you need when you are passing or with your weekly shopping tbh.

Haha dobby, that's what it's like here!

i think if you can possibly avoid it, do
it's not fair on the children, and burdensome on you having to take them everywhere.
also I think it can inhibit their development. I had a colleague who was extremely intelligent, very well qualified, but who only got trains and would not consider buses because she had not grown up using them. I was astonished. she was well above average ability in every other area of life.
she had lived out in the country, said her mother was very nice, would drive her wherever she wanted to go.
as a working adult, graduate, she was not confident that she could identify correctly where to get off a bus, so she was stuck if her car failed/ there was a train strike.
please consider the children, they are the ones who will be stuck.

Yes, definitely. Our village has a church and village hall, nearest shop approx 7 miles away, nearest town 20 miles. I have a online delivery once a week, you get used to it quickly, very rarely need anything between deliveries but usually pass some where when I am working or have Amazon Prime. The internet has made life a lot easier, probably shop 95% online now.

Meh I live a 5 min drive from a garage and 10 min drive from a supermarket.
Basically 25 min walk away

Basically you adapt we make sure there's a bottle of milk in the freezer and other essentials in there too.

If there's a snowstorm on the way etc then we stock up.

Been here over 20 years and I wouldn't say we miss a village shop. Although when we move then it's on the would like to have list

@BertieBotts Haha.

I’d love to buy the shop, I know what people want to buy. It’s not tennis balls, dusty tins of soup and weird sliced ham. Bobby’s half moon cake.

Fresh food would be good, but no.

No chance. But I don’t drive so I’d be an idiot not to live somewhere where everything was easily accessible, either on foot or by public transport.

I agree that it’s important your daughter can get round under her own steam as she gets older.

@ButIGetUpAgain fair enough lol, in that case living that clsoe to the motorway would be a bigger issue for me

it's not fair on the children, and burdensome on you having to take them everywhere.
also I think it can inhibit their development. I had a colleague who was extremely intelligent, very well qualified, but who only got trains and would not consider buses because she had not grown up using them.

“Inhibiting development” ! Most children I know who live in rurally are well ahead of those in urban situations! My dc play out most days in our woods, climbing trees, building forts etc etc (as do most of their friends)they can pick veggies for the dinner, clean out the hen house. When they get older here they learn to drive, most of my cousins learned how to drive tractors at age 14. So could drive excellently by 17.

I grew up rurally and found it a no brainer is using any time of transport

Type not time

OK no, ours is better than that. It has veg, limited fruit (I think just apples), tinned stuff, eggs, bread, small amount of dairy, tiny amount of drinks, plus sweets and ice cream. And gossipy/friendly staff.

But we are in Germany so there is still a mostly nationalised public transport system so we get a bus every 20 mins and every 10 at rush hour. I think it's every 40-60 mins overnight and Sundays.

The lack of a shop in itself would not be an issue for me, I can't remember the last time I absolutely needed to buy something immediately (I live alone though so maybe easier to plan to have enough milk etc.).

Kids play out in woods and pick veggies in towns too!
Bertie I envy your excellent German public transport

Wouldn't bother us in the slightest.

We have a shop just around the corner of where we currently live and we've probably used it a handful of times in the years we've lived here.

The kids have never been (on their own) nor are interested in visiting a convenience shop.

We do a big shop weekly and the house is well stocked. If we do need anything then one of us will usually grab it on the way in from work.

No, because I would hate to live so rurally. IMO the countryside is nice for a visit but you wouldn't catch me living there. But we are all different thank god, only you know if you will like it.

No way, personally. I much prefer being a short drive from nice countryside than a short drive to the amenities of civilisation- and it's certainly easier that way round when it comes to teenagers organising their social lives, because they don't need ferrying round.

The other element of rural isolation which concerns me regarding teenagers is that even if they learn to drive aged 17, there is a real temptation for them to drink-drive...OK, we all like to think it wouldn't be our kids, but I'd be really worried that they might get into a car driven by somebody else who had been drinking, and end up wrapped round a tree on some dark country road bend.

I accept that forward-planning may make your grocery trip less of an issue, but there are other things to take into account if you live somewhere where driving is a necessity rather than an option.

I live in a city and have a corner shop but never shop there as it's so expensive. So I walk 25 mins to the local Tesco metro. It's not a hassle.