Possibly the greatest shop in Hereford, if not the

We popped into Hereford today and I was really impressed with the city. It was big, interesting and historical.

After a wander round the cathederal for toddler to charge about the place and look at lots of pictures on the windows we wandered about the town. On the way in I spotted a little ironmonger that looked really interesting and requested a visit by the end of the day.

We found a lovely veggie restaurant for lunch called Nutters and the food was great.

On the way back to the car I got to go in the ironmongers "Lock Stock and Barrel". I suppose it is not just an ironmongers as it sells pretty much everything. The shopkeeper was fantastic and originally went off to get a big key and giant lock when I asked to take his picture, though another customer appeared looking for a certain size O ring, so he had to serve.

I ended up chatting to him for a while afterwards about the state of retail and its decline and he was saying that after being in the trade for 40 years he had pretty much seen it all and if it was not for the fact that he owned the freehold on his premises he would not make any money.

He also made a very valid point that I had never thought about before. He said "You go to Currys and are confronted by a load of TV's on offer. A group of staff stand around chatting and pay you no attention so you leave as the service is so poor, however you go to Tesco who have one TV on offer and no service what so ever but buy it all the same."

A good point to illustrate how supermarkets are killing retail on the highstreet I thought, don't get me wrong though I don't like Currys at all and I do shop at supermarkets so I am hardly stopping the problem.

Lock Stock and Barrel was a proper shop with a proper shopkeeper that provided proper service.

Whilst we were there some Americans came in and were amazed by the place and remarked "There is so much great stuff in here that we could never get back on the plane with"

So if you are ever in Hereford make sure you visit this shop, without a doubt you will find something you need and if not you will at least have a proper shop experience, you may even hear an interesting story also.