Large shops commoner in heart of age-old coastal inlet (7)
I believe the answer is:
emporia
'large shops' is the definition.
(I've seen this before)
'commoner in heart of age-old coastal inlet' is the wordplay.
'commoner in heart of age old' becomes 'empo' (I am not sure about this - if you are sure you should give a lot more credence to this answer).
'coastal inlet' becomes 'ria' (I've seen this in another clue).
'empo'+'ria'='EMPORIA'
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for emporia that I've seen before include "large-scale marketing operations" , "Large retail shops" , "Large stores" , "I'm a rope (anag)" , "Trading centres" .)