Shopping - local butcher, baker, grocer, newsagent, tobacconist, greengrocer and loads more.

In the fifties and early sixties the majority of shops were relatively small counter service shops; that meant that you could walk down a street and very likely see a butcher, baker, grocer, greengrocer, fruiterer, chemist, tobacconist, toy shop, hardware store, haberdashery, post office, newsagent, bookshop, corner shops stocking a wide variety of goods, clothes shop and often a florist too (I don’t remember seeing a candlestick maker though).  The whole pattern of shopping was quite different with people walking (or cycling) to local shops and stopping to chat with people that they knew as they went back and forth. Most shops would know their regular customers and greet them by name. Because the shopping was local, it was quite normal to see children trotting off to the shops to get something or other; I certainly remember going to the shops by myself when I was no more than 5. Bit different now. Just in case some of you readers are so young as to ask the question . . .no there was no online shopping!