The past few weekends I have pram-pushed from Honor Oak, occasionally munching a croissant from Hills & Parkes, up to the Horniman, where I've done all my fruit and veg shopping for the week (much more preferable to Sainsbury fruit & veg) and bought a chicken for Sunday roast (note to the Butchery - please start selling chickens on your stall - I'd love to buy them if competitively priced with the existing stall!). Then to FH Sainsbury for fish (market fish still too expensive for me unfortunately) and essentials. I've then done my usual browse through the great charity shops, occasionally had a coffee in The Teapot and headed back to Honor Oak, where I've then popped into The Honor Oak Supermarket for my weekly stock of wine (much cheaper than HOP Sainsbury).
A couple of months ago I used to do a weekly shop at Sydenham Sainsbury on a Saturday morning, so purely from my experience Forest Hill is benefiting from the recent changes and I'm enjoying the diversity!
I realise I haven't mentioned Dartmouth Road in all this, but I do buy gifts in Bunka, cards and small gifts in their card shop and use the pools and library. I haven't tried the Montage but I intend to; I'm a bit strict on the sweets front, but if it's a lucky day for my daughter then it's always Sugar Mountain. I haven't been in Aga's Deli so I couldn't say if they can compete on price with equivalent farmers market fare, but then I didn't use it before the market either - to be honest it just *looks* like it might be expensive, and cost is paramount to me. Maybe they should have flyers at their farmers market stall with a bit of info about what they sell and some prices/deals?
In summary - I'm using Forest Hill more now than ever, and I'm sure others from further afield will also start making a difference very soon.