Sorry HOPcat but I think this misses some points here. We plan our grocery shop quite carefully. As most of the regular bulky items are not available in the parade, we end up driving to FH Sainsburys and shopping within a single hour window of opportunity on a Saturday - not a pleasant experience. That is apart from meat and fish which I generally source locally (Peter James) but this is still not on the parade.

We still find ourselves wanting an impulse purchase and as we both work this is generally in the evening. On these occasions, it is probably Jay's Budgens that gets the business as their stock is excellent and we know they will be open. Once again, the parade misses out.

The Off Licence used to take cards but have not done so now for some time. It is quite a surcharge to have to draw cash out from their machine just for a few beers. This rankles with me somewhat and I am completely with Southlonder on this one.

The new Sainsburys will come with a cash machine, a free one presumably. I know that these factors will collectively drive a lot of our spending back onto the parade - which is surely good news.

As it turns out, the only local business I don't see benefiting from this is Budgens. This is a shame as I really like that shop and the friendly staff who run it.