Whitby Uk, situated on the North Yorkshire Coast is the holiday destination for a large number of holidaymakers, tourists and day trippers. This historic seaside town famous for its maritime traditions and unique character is rising steadily in popularity over recent years.
This rise in tourism has somewhat shifted the pattern of the local shops to cater more and more with the increasing volume of visitors. Although, as one would expect there are the ‘touristy’ shops there are an ever increasing number of the more upmarket establishments which in turn means that Whitby can offer almost anything to everybody.
The East side of Whitby has the reputation of being the ‘older’ side of town because of its historical connections, and it has, overall, more shops dedicated to the sale of Whitby memorabilia, in particular, Whitby Jet. This world famous commodity is collected and carved in the local area making it the one of the oldest industries in Whitby. All kinds of Whitby jet and Whitby jet jewellery are on sale here as well as other precious stones. There are the traditional jewellers on this side together with a number of shops selling costume and ‘fun’ jewellery. As one would expect, there are a number of outlets dedicated to tourism, selling postcards, ornaments, bric a brac etc. A wide diversity of clothing retailers give the opportunity to purchase the more traditional ladies clothing, gothic and punk outfits, designer label, outdoor pursuits and trendy young fashions.
There are a number of cafes and restaurants, alongside which are book shops, a post office, gift shops selling a wide variety of novelties and sculptures and some with a fascinating choice of fossils, quartz and other semi-precious stones. A fishing tackle shop, a craft shop and model shop to cater for those with various hobbies. Wholefood and health food shops alongside sweet and rock shops make for an evenly balanced diet!! Toy shops are a particular draw for the children as too are the ice-cream sellers. There are, of course the more ordinary day to day shop varieties geared more for the local population but all make for a wide base for shopping for locals and visitors.
Whitby’s West Side shops cater also for the holiday population with an intrinsic choice of gift shops and memorabilia but these are interspersed with the necessities of town life such as banks and building societies. Clothing shops and shoe shops abound on the main two parallel streets of Flowergate and Baxtergate also giving a wide variety of clothing aimed at the young and not so young. At the top end of Flowergate is Skinner Street, a busy street with cafes, restaurants, a chemist, health food and book shop. Along here, in addition to the other streets are the charity shops, which it can be said, cater to the holiday population as visitors like to browse and ‘bag a bargain’. It is on this side of the river that the main food shopping is situated, greengrocers and butchers and not forgetting, the delicious freshly baked cakes and pies filling the air with delicious aromas. A large supermarket with easy access car park for the larger food shopping is situated near to the Railway Station and a few stores through which to browse which seem to sell most things in the non-food line are more or less on the other side of the main road.
There are probably far too many Whitby Uk shops and stores to list individually but it is safe to say that there are probably enough shopping outlets available to cater for most people’s needs and most certainly those of the holidaymaker and visitor.
