This is the time of year that retailers get excited about. Depend on your views as a consumer, it may be a time that you either love or hate!

Christmas shopping is something that many of us do, but some clearly enjoy it more than others. This year's holiday season is particularly important for retailers, given that many of them have struggled in the last year because of the economic downturn.

Shareholders and business analysts will be looking closely at the sales figures over the coming few weeks to see who is performing well and who isn't.

Expect to see big discounts in January too, as many stores will surely have stock to shift.

The latest figures from the US suggest that that country is now out of recession and yet the UK economy contracted in the last quarter.

With our largest single trading partner seeing economic improvements, this does at least suggest that there could be good news ahead for UK businesses and individuals, but when will we see growth in our economy.

Given the ongoing Royal Mail strike, annoyance with bonuses in the City and high unemployment figures, signs of a recovery can sometimes seem hard to find, yet there's no doubt that my local high street is full of shoppers.

Many people are desperately looking for some Christmas cheer in the coming weeks and months!

Do you remember the days before you had easy internet access? Looking back, it seems hard to believe some retail analysts actually doubted whether we would ever be persuaded to shop online. These days, doing just that seems to be "the norm".

Many people have looked to shop online in the belief that it's more convenient and that there are cheaper prices to be found. Various shopping tools, such as price comparison sites and discount codes, have helped us on the way to finding those lower prices. We may even look online before even considering making the trip to a local store.

Has that had an impact on the High Street too? It simply must have done. Many more traditional retailers are struggling to compete with the new wave of internet stores. The latter are able to benefit from lower overheads, making it easier for them to bring products to market cheaply.

The response from shoppers generally seems to have been positive, but there's no getting away from the fact that some shopping still needs to be done in traditional, physical stores. Yet it's been interesting to watch the rise of some companies online when there has been no heritage to speak of - no high street stores and seemingly no history within a particular industry or sector.

We're now buying more products and services online than might previously have been imagined and experts tell us that more UK consumers have converted to the convenience of internet shopping than any other nation in the world. Is such growth set to continue? At what cost?

I've noticed some significant changes in UK retailing in recent years. I'm sure that you're aware of plenty of them too, but there's no doubt that there has been a real transformation and we can sometimes take such changes for granted.

I thought it might be nice to re-visit some changes and look at the impacts. Let's begin by considering the changing face of the UK high street.

This is an area where the pace of change has actually been quite rapid. It wasn't so long ago that you're local high street may have been a real hub for the local community, but is it still the case? Many supermarkets, for instance, have looked to re-located to out-of-town, or edge-of-town locations. They've often taken a lot of shoppers with them, leaving the high street in a sorry state. But it's not just been supermarkets who have been making such moves - we all tend to think of such locations as being where we'll find DIY superstores, furniture showrooms, drive-through fast food restaurants and other establishments.

Changes in the nature of the high street also reflect the speed of growth of certain retailers too - the increase in size of the likes of Tesco, Ikea and McDonalds have all had an impact. Sometimes that impact doesn't appear so obvious in relation to the high street, but if we look closely enough then we can see that it's there.

How about shopping centres? Many have cropped up in city centre locations, providing an all-weather shopping experience, but often leaving less stores on the high street. Some would also suggest that they've had a negative impact, with many shopping centres looking similar and containing a similar array of stores. Have our choices been restricted as a result of this "progress"?

A few people have asked me why I decided to write a blog about shopping. It's a good question.

Let me begin by saying that there are actually quite a few blogs already out there that deal with shopping. Some of them are particularly good and I'd strongly recommend that you take a look at stuff like shopping place and uk discounts. They will provide you with some useful information.

The only problem with a lot of the blogs that are around is that they tend to concentrate heavily on particular products. I'm much more interested in the overall shopping experience and on how you can get the best deals online. There are a few decent blogs concentrating on such things for a US-based audience, but it's much harder to find them here in the UK.

I hope to take a look at some really important issues, including the changing face of retailing in the UK. But I don't want to ignore the fun side of shopping, so I'll be including some funny stories and some tips to help you to get better deals.

I thought it might make sense to begin by introducing myself, so here I am!

I'm based in the UK (in southern England, to be specific) and I'm interested in shopping. I take particular enjoyment in finding the best online deals.