My colleague Stephen Lewis has spent much of this week looking into shopping in York city centre. That got me thinking about when we shop, why we shop and where we shop.

One recurring complaint from shop owners and shop managers is that festivals and big events may draw people into York in huge numbers, but they don't shop. Of course they don't. If I go to, say a marathon or a cycling event, I go to watch the event. At some stage, I will head for a cafe or restaurant for something to eat and if it's more than a reasonable distance from my home, I will book some accommodation, as I did when I went to the Commonwealth Games last year in Glasgow.

What I won't do is head for Brown's or Fenwicks or Marks and Spencers to do some shopping, which by its nature generates packages and bags to carry. The last thing I want to do as I cheer someone on or watch a play is to have to juggle shopping bags, plus trying to keep an eye on them in case a thief should grab them from where I have put them by my feet to free my hands for clapping. In any case, I'm likely to have a Fenwicks or a Marks and Spencers in my home town.

For city shops, the payoff from city centre events comes later when those who work in or own the hotels, cafes, bars etc, spend the money the visitors pumped into the local economy.

In contrast, whenever I go to Cambridge, which I have done regularly for three years, I factor in plenty of time to go shopping because it has some very good specialist shops.

York city centre has changed over the last decade. There are now far more eating and drinking places than there used to be, and they are busy, often much busier than the shops alongside them. The growing number of students living in the city and every new event or promotion of the city as a tourist centre boosts their income.

At the same time, our shopping habits have changed as the online market grows year by year. Many people now tend to use physical shops for window shopping to see what's around but actually buy through a website. Are we seeing a long-term permanent change of city centres from being primarily shopping centres to centres primarily for entertainment and refreshment?

Specialist shops will resist the exodus to the website longest because their goods can rarely can be bought elsewhere, as will shops with stocks that need to be handled and tried before purchase, such as clothes. Also, if a city gets a reputation for a certain type of shopping as York does for Christmas shopping, that brings in shoppers. Watch the shoppers' coaches flood in at the end of November.

So to survive, physical shops can specialise, offer the chance to try out goods, such as the make-up counters, or act as dropoff centres for people who buy online but don't want to hang around at home for half a day for a delivery.

Otherwise, the way forward for the city centre is to cater for those seeking entertainment and food and drink. You can't get a freshly cooked gourmet meal through the internet, nor the ambiance of a decent pub, and a coffee delivered via the web will be stone cold and probably spilt long before it gets to your door.

Put a coffee bar in a shop and customers may buy en route to a coffee.

If York city centre is individualistic and welcoming, it will prosper. But if it tries to recreate the glory days of consumerism of before the internet, it will wither.