Stratford's shops mainly deal with tourists. It has the usual set of shops that practically every town has, WH Smiths, V.Shop (our price), Woolworths, M&S etc, but still has hundreds of little souvenir shops. Stratford is slowly developing into more of a working town, catering for the locals, as well as the tourists, with new shops being opened (for example HMV recently opened a new branch). There are plans to turn a 70's open shopping center into a two story indoor center, that will allow more shops into the town, and also tidy up one of the less attractive areas of the town. It is easy to find your way round the shops, because all the shopping roads join onto each other. If you aren't near many shops, you have gone the wrong way.
Stratford is getting better for everyday shopping, and you can now generally find everything you are looking for.