Every effort should be made

Above: article by Marcus Leroux in today's Times about the way in which High Street shops have been affected in the economic downturn. Marcus Leroux is retail correspondent at The Times http://journalisted.com/marcus-leroux . He has a twitter account http://twitter.com/marcusleroux .



Above: every effort should be made to preserve small family-owned retail units. Not only do they employ more people, they keep money within local communities and they have longer staying power - often over several generations. They also contribute significantly to community cohesion and regeneration.

I would like to see the government give incentives to family owned start-ups - perhaps even zero taxes and rates for the first five years or so.



Above: whenever I see the tagline "family owned" I am inclined to give a company my support, even if the prices are slightly higher. One of the reasons Germany has done fairly well economically is that a large proportion of their manufacturing sector is made up of family-owned companies and so are less susceptible to the arguments of accountants. Also less likely to be asset stripped (in the disgraceful way Kraft has despoiled Cadbury).

Experience of winterreise

The current experience of winterreise in the United Kingdom emphasises how vulnerable we have become due to the fanatical centralisation of our retail infrastructure. Fifty years ago most goods and services were within walking distance. Literally every village had a butcher, baker and candlestickmaker, with family-owned farms supplying local family-owned shops.

Now you have to drive at least five miles (or ten if you live in the country) to an out-of-town mall and buy food from the southern hemisphere and goods made in the Far East. The impact on local patterns of employment has been a disaster. And in extreme conditions the mind-bogglingly complex and expensive distribution system breaks down.

Few villages now have a local shop. The last of the post offices are disappearing (thanks to Peter Mandelson). And (going off at a tangent) the government is still trying to frighten the country into accepting GM food - if any attempt is made round here to grow GM crops I will be joining the protestors in direct action.

Is it unrealistically romantic to hope shops can be relocated within communities? Or must we accept that people want (indeed need) to buy Kiwi fruits in January and thus must have the just-in-time St Vitus dance of modern retail distribution. You decide.

Here are a few village shops that are bucking the trend:



Above: the ideal of locally produced food locally sold. No airmiles, no doubts about provenence, no suspicians about animal welfare (you can see for yourself how the animals are kept). And as the overheads are low the prices are are extremely reasonable for the quality.



Above: cabinet maker. Handmade furniture that will last several lifetimes (and keep its value). No need for plastic doors and windows churned out by fly-by-night companies and sold by even more dubious companies.



Above: village blacksmith's forge. I suppose it is over-romantic to expect a return to the horse (although it would be nice to have some parts of the county out of bounds to the internal combustion engine, and to have LGVs restricted to certain routes and certain times). I would guess this blacksmith is working for love rather than money.



Above: incredibly the library system once extended to village communities. Long gone now. Even town libraries are under threat.



Above: interestingly, people (particularly children) still visualise villages as containing shops. Not sure that "community shops" are the answer. Family-owned enterprises have staying power.

The Culture of winterreise:

Music https://secure.wesleyclassics.com.au/library/images/MR301119.JPG

Painting http://klotho.files.wordpress.com/2009/07/caspar_david_friedrich.jpg

Literature http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/images/1590171659/ref=dp_image_0?ie=UTF8&n=266239&s=books

One of the finest lettuces you can buy

During the summer one of the finest lettuces you can buy is Little Gem.

This one was bought in Tescos.

I always buy produce from Shropshire farms whenever I can. Years ago I researched the company for a pitch (which we lost). I was so impressed with the company that the memory has stayed with me ever since.

The main farm is based in the Cambridgeshire fens. There is only one road which goes to the site (although I think there are tracks which can give access in an emergency if the road is blocked). You turn off the main road and drive for miles through bleak flat fields until an ENORMOUS complex of buildings appears before you.

Hundreds of people are employed here, mostly eastern Europeans who live in hostels on the site, so that it resembles a kibbutz. Locals are also employed but one said to me: “People round here don’t like working at G’s because it’s too easy. You come in here because there is always work, and the people are nice. But the wages are low and you never really get anywhere, so you can spend years here and have nothing at the end.”

The company is markedly paternalistic. As well as accommodation, there is a subsidized canteen, and a company shop that sells very low-price fresh vegetables. Like most family-owned companies there is a sense that everyone is “part of the family”.

I have a sort of memory that G’s first developed the Little Gem lettuce (although I can’t be certain of this). Quality standards are very high, and very rarely are there any complaints about the products. Once, however, a customer found a mummified mouse in a Little Gem lettuce. An enquiry investigated how this could have happened. The mouse crawled into the lettuce while it was growing in the field, and then suddenly died (I suppose even mice have heart attacks). The lettuce continued to grow, and dense layers of leaves closed around the mouse, so that it was completely encapsulated.

More: http://www.shropshires.com/gsmarketing/customers.asp
You’ll have to cut and paste this url: www.mintel.webbler.co.uk/download.php?id=215 -

Only eat food when it’s in season

Above: usually I call once a week at one of the many farmshops near where I live (the pies are made at the local pub).

I am struggling to keep to my resolution to only eat food when it’s in season. Broadly I have three guidelines for the weekly shop: 1) unlimited amounts of fruit and vegetables when in season and bought locally; 2) sparing amounts of exotic fruit (oranges, peaches, the occasional lemon) bought from European countries with the vague and well-meaning hope that they have been transported by train; 3) very small amounts of exotic fruit that cannot be grown in Europe (bananas, coconuts, passion fruit) - organic and fair trade wherever possible. I have stopped eating apples out of season.

Tinned produce from across the world, frozen New Zealand lamb, New Zealand butter are all in my “exempt from restriction” category.

It is a struggle to keep to these guidelines.

I would like to shop only at farmshops and family-owned stores, but this is not always possible. Sooner or later, because of time constraints, I find myself doing a big shop in one of the supermarkets. That is when the horror and madness and cruelty (in the case of meat products) of the international food trade begins to hit you.



Above: these raspberries are in season, and Tescos makes a virtue of telling us so. But courgettes are also in season, yet Tescos is importing them from half-way across the world. Artichokes are also in season, but Tescos doesn’t stock them (except tinned).



Above: although it is difficult to shop locally and in season, it is also very rewarding. I especially enjoy learning about where the food I am eating comes from, and how it has got to me. For instance, the Daily Telegraph magazine had this fabulous article, written by Dan Lepard, about Buckinghamshire cherries - but Tescos has decided we have to make do with tasteless Italian cherries, or bottled cherries from Poland.

Not sure who Dan Lepard is, but he is a very fine writer. A Google search indicates he is represented by talent agency pfd. pfd has just been bought by Andrew Neil.

PS I know I decided a couple of years ago NEVER to shop in Tescos again, but I have now fallen out with Asda and have decided to give Tescos one last chance…

More on Dan Lepard: http://www.pfd.co.uk/clients/lepardd/b-aut.html

Become more than just a “consumer”

Yesterday (Sunday) I watched the Politics Show on BBC1. Nothing unusual in this, as I usually watch the programme in the hour before Sunday lunch (which is, in rotation, either roast chicken, roast beef, roast pork or roast lamb). What was unusual is that I can remember most of what was said - normally the Sunday bottle of wine (invariably either Sancerre or Gigondas, with an additional Sauternes on bank holidays) reduces everything to a comfortable haze that drifts into a post-pudding sleep.

Anyway, as I have given up alcohol for a few weeks I paid attention to the Politics Show.

One of the features was about the way High Streets are becoming “cloned”, with chain stores pushing out family-owned stores and supermarkets sucking up every available customer. Someone suggested the excellent idea of taxing supermarkets to repair the damage they have done to High Streets (why is the government so afraid of tackling Tesco and Asda?). A journalist from The Times (Satnam Sanghera) put forward a pathetic counter-argument that small shops rip people off and provide a poor service (this has not been my experience - it makes you wonder where Satnam Sanghera has been doing his shopping).

You might think you are trapped into using the big four supermarkets and that it’s not practical to use smaller shops. But if you just do a little of your weekly shop in a family-owned store you will soon see why these shops can become addictive. You will meet new people, see new things, and become more than just a “consumer”.

Here are some of my favourite family-owned shops:



This is, without any question of doubt, the best fish and chip shop in the world (and I have done very extensive research into this subject). It’s on a corner of the cobbled market square. There is always a long queue at night stretching out the door and back along the side lane.



Ron Short, Gents Hairdresser. He has put in his window the things that interest him as a person (the Royal Air Force and Tottenham Hotspur FC, along with a few hairdressing products he thinks you should know about). The display makes no sense from a marketing point of view - except that it is sincere and genuine and so represents the best possible marketing you can do.



Mellors are both farmers and butchers, so no faceless retail chain insisting on industrial economies of scale (took these photos on a Sunday, so everywhere was shut - which was also nice as 24-hour retailing is slowing destroying “the weekend”).



Perkins stationers. As well as fountain pens and inks, they have Ordnance Survey maps, newspapers, and a huge selection of confectionary. You can even buy a signed print of David Essex riding a motorbike.



I can never resist a bookshop, especially one where the stock reflects some of the owner’s interests (when I choose books I always think: what do I want to put in my mind next...).



You can tell this shop is run by an enthusiast. If he doesn’t have what you want you can be sure he will get it for you. And lots of expert advice thrown in free of charge.



This is where Satnam Sanghera may have a point. This cycle shop is possibly on the way out. But even though I don’t need anything I might go into shops like this just to see (there is always something interesting if you look hard enough and even the most humble people have a story to tell).



And in case you are thinking family-owned shops are only found in small country towns, here is an example from the heart of London, just round the corner from my office (and it has a variation on the usual “& Son”).

The sort of shop where Ronnie Barker would buy fork handles

This is my favourite hardware shop (and I am a connoisseur of hardware shops). I love the mops hanging in the window - B&Q would never have such a window display. You can tell from the green paint that the family owns the whole building and lives over the shop (their front door is on the left, and deliveries go through the central passage with the double doors). There is an untidy stockroom immediately over the shop itself. The "& Son" suffix indicates more than one generation is involved in this enterprise. This is the sort of shop where Ronnie Barker would buy fork handles.