If you live in a country village then your opinion will most
likely be influenced by your peer group, your neighbours, your community
council. It's a simple message. Independent shops are good, multinational
supermarkets are evil. They're systematically killing off our livelihood, our
neighbourhood and our countryside-ihood, clogging up and damaging our roads
with their massive container trucks and forcing us to eat their homogeneous,
flavourless foodstuffs.
If you live in an inner city, working full time and grabbing
as much overtime as you can get but still struggling to pay the bills, your
view will be just as clear. Superstores are cheap and convenient. Quirky little
shops providing "the personal touch" between 10am and 3pm might be
nice for the lucky few who can afford a friendly chat along with their artisan
bakes and skinny lattes but in these days when most of us are strapped for cash
and time, that's a utopian dream, a luxury that most of us cannot afford. And
what does "artisan" mean anyhow? Isn't it the same as
"handmade"? Weren't all our great-grandparents artisans?
Some see the likes of Tesco driving the little shop owner
out of business with their stack-em-high, price-em-low attitudes. Others see a
classic economics case study for the laws of supply and demand, democracy in action with the
people voting via their wallets.
As with so many things in life there are two sides to every
story, neither of which is wholly right or wrong. Some people will never set
foot inside a chain coffee shop on principle while other people can't see why
anyone would ever pay more than four pounds for a plucked chicken. They both
have what seems, to them at least, excellent views but to me they seem to be
missing the point a little.
Isn't this entire argument just a symptom of a greater
question, one that's basically political? I don't have any answers, it's for
each of us to make our own choices here - a choice that sees beyond the black
and white and delves into the various shades of grey behind the knee-jerk
reactions.
But wouldn't it be nice if there was a place that was
convenient to get to, where a group of food producers could gather together and
sell directly to us, the consumers? A place with plenty of free parking that
opens when most people aren't at work? And if such a place existed then,
without the enforced profit margins of middle-men to contend with the sellers
could afford to sell their wares at relatively cheap prices yet still make a
living profit? Surely we'd all agree that this would be A Good Thing?
I'll be visiting such a place this weekend. It ticks all
those boxes, as trendy economists say. I'll be going to my local farmers'
market on Sunday. The food is top quality and I'll spend less than at any shop,
large or small. As they say, every little helps.
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