Editing General store (section)

===United Kingdom===
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[[File:Best One British Corner Shop.jpg|thumb|A [[Best-One]] corner shop in the [[United Kingdom]], 2008]]
Village shops are becoming less common in the densely populated parts of the country, although they remain common in remote [[rural]] areas.

Their rarity in England is due to several factors, such as the rise in car ownership, competition from large chain [[supermarket]]s, the rising cost of village properties, and the increasing trend of the wealthy to own [[holiday homes]] in picturesque villages, consequently these houses which used to be occupied full-time by potential customers are often vacant for long periods.

Of those villages in England who still have shops, these days they are often a combination of services under one roof to increase the likelihood of profit and survival. Extra services may include a [[post office]], private business services such as [[tearoom]]s, [[British cafe|cafe]]s, and [[bed and breakfast]] accommodation; or state services such as [[public library|libraries]] and [[General Practitioner]] (GP) or Dental clinics; and charity partners such as [[Women's Institute]] (WI) coffee mornings held on the day most elderly villagers might collect their weekly pensions.

Community shops have become popular in some villages, often jointly owned and run by many villagers as a [[co-operative]]. The Village Retail Services Association promotes the role and function of the village shop in the UK.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.virsa.org/ViRSA|title=Virsa.org|website=www.virsa.org}}</ref> Many modern village shops choose to stock items which draw in customers from neighboring areas who are seeking [[local food|locally sourced]], [[Organic food|organic]] and specialist produce such as local cuts of meat, local cheeses, wines etc.

Corner shops are usually so-called because they are located on the corner plot or street end of a row of [[terraced house|terraced housing]], often [[Victorian era|Victorian]] or [[Edwardian era|Edwardian]] factory workers' houses. The doorway into the shop was usually on the corner of the plot to maximize shop floor space within, this also offered two display windows onto two opposing streets. Many have now altered the original shop front layout in favor of a mini-supermarket style. Although it is common that corner shops found in the [[UK]] were former grocers' shops, other specialist retailers also occupied such plots and have suffered the same fate of being largely replaced by supermarkets and hypermarkets, such retailers as [[greengrocer]]s, [[baker]]s, [[butcher]]s and [[fishmonger]]s.

====In popular culture====
Many British television and radio series, especially [[soap operas]], feature corner shops or village shops as cornerstones for community gatherings and happenings. A prominent example is the village shop in [[Ambridge (The Archers)|Ambridge]], the fictional village in the [[BBC Radio 4]] series, ''[[The Archers]]'', (1950–present). The [[ITV1]] soap opera ''[[Coronation Street]]'' (1960–present) has featured a corner shop since the first episode; originally owned by [[List_of_Coronation_Street_characters_(1960)#Florrie_Lindley|Florrie Lindley]], it was later acquired by [[Alf Roberts]] the grocer, and after his death in the late-1990s was bought by [[Dev Alahan]], reflecting this common change in British culture to Asian shopkeepers. The dying days and changing culture of the traditional British grocer were explored to great effect in the [[BBC]] TV comedy series ''[[Open All Hours]]'' (1976–1985), set in the real suburb of [[Balby]] in [[Doncaster]]; the shop front used for the street scenes in the series does actually exist in the area and is now a hairdressing salon. The [[BBC Scotland]] comedy series ''[[Still Game]]'' has a corner shop as a recurring location where characters can meet and gossip; the actor who plays its owner, Navid Harrid ([[Sanjeev Kohli]]), plays a similar role as Bangaram in the Radio 4 comedy series ''[[Fags, Mags and Bags]]'' which is set entirely in Ramesh's shop.

The band [[Cornershop (band)|Cornershop]] in part base their image on the perception that many convenience shops are now owned by British Asian people. In terms of British popular culture, these media representations give some idea of the importance attached to local shops in the national psyche and as a mainstay of community life.