They were wooden.

I always thought Emma could see him as he was crossing the road, delivering some meat to a customer( for he is bracketed together with with old lady walking home with her purchases).......but she might have seen him through the window or open door of his shop. Here is a typical shop-front of a smart but provincial shop from Birmingham: though the photograph was taken in the late 19th century, the shop front dates from circa 1810.

I should think that Fords, at least, is a rather smart shop : they can still be found in small market towns and indeed in villages in England if they have escaped the planners of the 1960s.

For example, Stamford in Lincolnshire has quite a few original 18th century shop-fronts. York in the north and far away from London still has many shop fronts dating from this era,particularly in the area around the Minster.

The village of my mother-in-laws family-Moreton in Lincolnshire, still has only one shop, but it possess a small bow window,and has done since it was installed in the early 19th century(thankfully it is now listed and cannot be altered).

I wouldn't equate provincial automatically with unstylish for that would be untrue of early 19th century England.

You may have missed it but the bakers shop in Highbury is specifically mentioned as having a bow-window .......;-)

and when her eyes fell only on the butcher with his tray, a tidy old woman travelling homewards from shop with her full basket, two curs quarrelling over a dirty bone, and a string of dawdling children round the baker's little bow-window eyeing the gingerbread, she knew she had no reason to complain, and was amused enough