Main Shopping Towns in West Cornwall
Truro has a range of normal department stores (Woolworths, M&S, Littlewoods, etc, as well as many small stores.  It caters for most needs.
Falmouth has a more maritime feel, as befits its close association with the docks.  Personally I don’t find it a good shopping centre, but many people have told me I’m wrong!  (Including others of my family).
Penzance is also a maritime town.  It has had much redevelopment over the last few years, and building work is still going on.  The area is fairly highly dependant on fishing (along with the adjacent Newlyn) and the fishing problems over the last years have left their mark on the traditional seafaring communities of the area.
Redruth, which is my closest town, has been through a time of major decay after the closing of the mines (Camborne/Redruth was the major mining area in the locality), but is now beginning to show the signs of regeneration.  Major developments are being undertaken in the surrounding areas, and I have a feeling that in the next decade the area will once again come into demand as the local economy begins to get more affluent.
Bodmin is a bit far for normal day-to-day shopping, but is an interesting town with some unusual shops.  Well worth a trip into town is viewing the military museum, the old gaol, or going for a trip on the steam railway.

SHOPS

An interesting feature about the shops in Cornwall is that many people who live near Truro go to Plymouth to get the choice in the bigger shops, while many people from Plymouth come to Truro to find the individuality!

The first item is a description of a marvellous hardware stores in Truro. The modern 'hardware supermarket' only supplies those items which are of reasonably rapid turnover, and the staff are rarely knowledgeable enough to provide information about that slightly 'way out' problem, or to provide a strange widget that will get you out of trouble. The attitudes and knowledge of most of the staff at Mallets is as I fondly imagine the 'helpful' shops of fifty years ago would have been (probably very rose-tinted spectacles, though!).

One shop that cannot be omitted is Trago’s - a general store par excellence!  It has a smallish branch in Falmouth, and an enormous branch on the A38 just west of Dobwalls.  The name comes from the old Trago Gunpowder mills, which were situated in the range of buildings now used by the store.  (There is also an even larger one at Newton Abbot , but that’s foreign, isn’t it!  8-) )  The range of products has to be seen to be believed, and the pricing is generally of excellent value, but occasionally eccentric.  The first page of its web site loads with a ‘page not found’, but hit ‘home page’ and everything seems to work OK! - http://www.trago.co.uk/index2.html

For those who have an interest in items of an alcoholic nature - particularly whiskies - one shop that should not be missed is the Stores at Constantine, just south west of Falmouth (Map Ref SW 7329). Other than in Scotland, I have never seen so many different bottles under one roof, with prices varying from a few pounds to a few hundred! The outside of the shop appears to be a typical small village country stores, but appearances can be (and are) deceptive! They have a web site describing their stock at http://www.DrinkFinder.co.uk.