WHEN I was growing up, there was chocolate, and then there was Thornton’s chocolate.

It was a cut above the ordinary Milky Way or Mars Bar, an aspirational, little-bit-posh-but-still-affordable-on-a-Saturday-job-salary piece of confectionery and the absolute go-to when you wanted special sweets for a birthday or Christmas present.

(Truth be told, I’ve always been a cheap chocolate kind of gal. Give me Galaxy over Guylian, or a Bounty bar over a Belgian truffle any day.)

But Thornton’s was different.

It was like walking into a chocolate factory, with chocolate on every wall, in every cabinet, on the counter and in the windows. The scent was glorious and always made me think -so THAT was what the chocolate river in Willy Wonka’s factory would smell like.

As teenagers, on our regular Saturday afternoon jaunt around the shops (Razzle Dazzle? Check. Dorothy Perkins? Yep.) we always felt that little bit more sophisticated and grown-up buying chocolate out of Thornton’s.

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It is sad to refer to it in the past tense, but this week, the 110-year-old company announced none of its 61 shops across the country will re-open once lockdown restrictions lift. It is another huge blow to the high street in the wake of the pandemic, and a tragedy for everyone whose jobs are affected. On a positive note, franchises will remain, so the name will not disappear completely.

It is a gloomy picture, especially coming hard on the heels of other big name closures like Debenham’s and Top Shop (another staple of our Saturday afternoon shopping sprees.)

And yet, maybe all is not lost.

In between lockdowns, when non-essential shops were able to open, I popped into a localgift shop a lovely little independent business where the owner told me business had been brisk since restrictions had eased.

“It’s as if, on the back of having to stay close to home, people no longer feel inclined to travel for miles when they can now appreciate what they have on their doorsteps. It’s given us a bit of hope.”

And hers is not the only small independent feeling the change. Just as huge chain Gregg’s announces its first loss in forever, just up the road our local baker’s is always queued out. Our amazing butcher, which switched to delivery-only during the early days of the pandemic, now runs a hybrid service – part of the week in the shop, part home delivery, and is swamped with orders.

A report by Barclaycard found that while total consumer spending fell 7.1 percent last year, spending at independent food and drink shops, including off-licences, butchers and bakeries, jumped more than four times as much (28.6%).

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Maybe our change in habits won’t last, but maybe it will.

It’s surely a cause for optimism at any rate, and a real glimmer of light for an industry - one of many - which has had its fair share of dark days during the last 12 months.

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