This morning we went for a trip to Wolverhampton to pic up the weekly veg.
The fruit and veg market is not what it used to be when I was a kid, but then again nothing is these days.
We visited the indoor market where we found The Spice Centre to stock up on all the ingredients you need for a curry.
We then made our way outside to get some Vegetables from Bradleys, They have been trading in the market for over fifty years.
However they are very concerned that when the redevelopment of the indoor market happens there will be very little left of the outdoor fruit and veg market.
This problem is not exclusive to Wolverhampton, Markets have been disappearing all over the country , no doubt they are forced out of business when a huge supermarket springs up right next to them as happened here last year when Sainsbury's opened a new 60 million pound store.
Towns like Wolverhampton are suffering up and down the country and the problem is a hard one to solve.
The supermarkets have large amounts of cash to invest in deprived areas which can be very tempting for local councils.You have the likes of Tesco etc offering incentives like paying for new pedestrian crossings etc, to help their planning applications go through a little quicker. Small independent retailers and market stall holders can't compete with that.
We need to find a balance to our retail economy and this is one of the biggest challenges facing the national government and local planning departments.
Mary Portas had good intentions when she launched her campaign to rejuvenate the High Street a couple of years ago.
A trip to Wolverhampton would tell you there's much more work to be done.
The fruit and veg market is not what it used to be when I was a kid, but then again nothing is these days.
We visited the indoor market where we found The Spice Centre to stock up on all the ingredients you need for a curry.
We then made our way outside to get some Vegetables from Bradleys, They have been trading in the market for over fifty years.
However they are very concerned that when the redevelopment of the indoor market happens there will be very little left of the outdoor fruit and veg market.
This problem is not exclusive to Wolverhampton, Markets have been disappearing all over the country , no doubt they are forced out of business when a huge supermarket springs up right next to them as happened here last year when Sainsbury's opened a new 60 million pound store.
Towns like Wolverhampton are suffering up and down the country and the problem is a hard one to solve.
The supermarkets have large amounts of cash to invest in deprived areas which can be very tempting for local councils.You have the likes of Tesco etc offering incentives like paying for new pedestrian crossings etc, to help their planning applications go through a little quicker. Small independent retailers and market stall holders can't compete with that.
We need to find a balance to our retail economy and this is one of the biggest challenges facing the national government and local planning departments.
Mary Portas had good intentions when she launched her campaign to rejuvenate the High Street a couple of years ago.
A trip to Wolverhampton would tell you there's much more work to be done.
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