Shepton Mallet

This was our first visit to this old market town. I found the experience rather sad. There is a very quaint High Street with a lovely jewellers, and a couple of antiques shops, with takeaways and 3 hairdressers. Everyone needs their hair cut I suppose. There were lots of empty shops. This was obviously a really thriving place once, that would have been before the Tesco and Sports Direct and huge Boots etc. What is the way forward for these places and people?