Mary Beard: 'Life still left' in high street shopping

High street retailers HMV, Jessops and Blockbuster have all been causalities of the consumer slowdown in the first two weeks of 2013.

Some say competition from discounted online retailers and changing business models is partly to blame, but Prof Mary Beard argues that online shopping is "not the panacea we all think" and buying items from real shops still has its place.

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