General Chat

Maybe this should have been on the thread about food banks.

It does seem odd to me that there are so many people unable to afford proper food and, if ever I go to a town, I see no more fishmongers, greengrocers, butchers and ironmongers, all of whom sold things you needed to live from day to day.

They could not make a profit and closed.

In their place are shops, which presumably can afford the high rents of town centre property, that are selling things nobody needs like tattoos, false nails,alcohol for home consumption and jewellery.

Argos, which sells not a great deal you can't do without, is thriving, as are the chains that sell fast and not particularly good food.

possibly some of it is the way we have become sanitised over food production

we buy our preferences ready packed ready(almost ) for the oven.......

gone also, are the days of open street markets where you selected the rabbit, eels, fish, chicken, or what ever and it was despatched, cleaned before your very eyes.....and you couldn't get any fresher than that!


I also think that many of those glitter shops are on short leases anyway
Bob

and these days you cant buy a box of screws, unless it pre packed in fives or tens.

I had an item that needed some screws, you cant even open the pack, to try them for size, these days.....

I think we have all been very well trained by advertisers.

Until recent years you would identify some need you had and set out to find a product to fulfill that that need.

Gradually, over the years, they have managed to train the public to see a product and then find a need for it.

Its more likely that the High rents and rates for properties (Shops) contribute to the demise of lots of them. We have got the Fishmonger,Baker and quite a few Greengrocers ,however the Little corner shops are few and far between,which is a shame. :-(

Take it one stage further back Merlin. Those rents are still being charged but the shops supplying unnecessary goods and services are able to pay them while the people offering necessities are not.

True Sharron, but many of them don,t stay for long,Here today gone tomorrow,Most doing a runner and not paying rent or rates.

Talk about not being able to buy single items. I wanted to buy some socks, Just one pair (different, each for sort of stocking fillers for the grandchildren. M&S seem to sell their socks in either 3s or sixes, including the comic socks.

I also think it goes a couple of generations back when proper cookery was dropped from school curriculums. when thos children grew up and got married they had not learnt to cook basic items and therefore relied on prepacked/cooked. Vegetables had to be clean and ready for cooking (if they cooked them at all), meat had to be weighed out into packs so they could see what they were getting (if they cooked it). So greengrocers and butchers couldn't survive. These children passed on their non skills to their children who opted for fast pre packed foods and so ad infinitum.

I have noticed though that the greengrocers stalls and the one very good, very cheap green grocers shop we have in town does very well. However the clientele are mostly over 50 and/or people from the ethnic communities.

All the independant food shops have been killed off by the supermarkets. Similarly B&Q and the like have wiped out the smaller hardware/ironmongers shops.

Argos aren't actually thriving. They are part of the Home Retail Group. HRG have been struggling for years. They seem to be losing out to online retailers.

HRG shares were worth 294.80p on the 23rd April 2010; compared to 187.20p now. That's a drop in value of 36.49 per cent.

Houses are being built with just a stamp sized garden - so there's no incentive to grow your own.
Meat-eaters have been sanitised. I'm amazed at the number of people who, when they see a dead animal hanging a butchers, or a fish complete with a head, are horrified. Much easier to buy it pre-packed and looking nothing like a cute fluffy ickle wabbit.

Business rates and rents have also risen out of all proportion, especially in places like Winchester.

Having said that, we actually have a thriving independent hardware shop that sells a diverse range of things, and where screws and nails can be bought singly. But, for years it was the only hardware shop. Robert Dyas moved in to the high street 2 years ago, but it's not very big, and on some fronts can't compete with the independent shop.

But all those places that supply things you might want but don't really need are thriving and more things are being devised to sell.

I recently saw a milk frother for sale as a kitchen essential.

I try to get to the local farmers' market (Tuesday mornings), but it isn't always possible. I haven't been to the market for weeks.

As well as supporting the local farmers, the produce is fresh and local...... who really knows where food in supermarkets comes from, and how old it is?

Kitchen gadgets.... how did our grandparents survive? :-S

There's a small hardware shop in town........ but the BIG Aussie chain is building an enormous store a few miles away, should be opening in January. The small shops can't possibly compete.

These gadgets are at the back of cupboards!!

Ann, have a look in Poundland or similar for single pairs of fun socks, or Aldi or Lidl do some.

Most years I get o.h. a novelty pair of Simpson socks, this year looked in Poundland and not a Simpson in sight! Other funny ones but nothing suitable. He only said the other day I wonder what ones I will get this year, he looks for the parcel.

I got him some work socks with reinforced toes etc from Tesco or Sainsburys, 5 or 6 pairs in a pack for about £6 or £7 a pack.

Poundland had single pairs of work socks with labelling that looked very similar if not identical to the ones I got.

We have a shop nearby called Allsorts which sells exactly that, it's part hardware, but has cards, ornaments, stamps, bird and pet food, and lots of other things. They did have a second store across the city for a while but I think that's closed now It's quite a handy place to shop for screws and such.

Lizx

Really good post, Sharron.

It is an interesting point that whilst some people are increasingly unable to feed themselves, it would also appear that money is being spent on fancy goods, otherwise these shops would be unable to continue trading.

Subsequent generations since the War seem increasingly unable to cook. Imagine giving youngsters rations and unlimited vegetables, seeing them turning the produce into meals for the family. Basic items being a small amount meat/fish bulked out with bread, pasta, rice, potatoes, pulses, vegetables etc.

All these electrical goods, fancy kitchen equipment, beauty treatment shops, throw-away clothes have become the norm. I hear a member of my family speak of the £1 rule… apparently if an item costs you £1 for each use, that is the figure that should determine whether it is good value! What nonsense. When I was young my parents used items of clothing and the like, many hundreds of times, and that was the expectation from everybody.

I have also found it interesting to see what items kind folk have put into the food bank collection points at supermarkets, often hardly useful, nourishing foods, although I appreciate they may be wishing to provide luxuries at this time of year. I have often dropped of boxes off chocolates, not wanting to consume them ourselves.

Recently, a government minister received much flak for her comment about the poor being unable to cook. I did hear her retraction where she said she was speaking unscripted. She was genuine, her words badly chosen, but I think that she was clumsily trying to make the point that families seem unable to make a meal out of basic food items anymore i.e. a can of pulses and some vegetables. And that applies to rich or poor.

It doesn't apply to everybody but many..

Liz, yes I got 3 pairs for the grandsons in poundland afterwards.

The idea that the average housewife knew how to cook in the 1950s and 60s is risible.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ieth9gTRaZI

As, indeed, is any observation concerning the average of any class of person.

Is that your experience, Rollo?

As children in the 50's we always came home to a good, home cooked meal. Everything was made from scratch. A roast on Sunday, cold meat, chips and peas on a Monday were always on the table. Lovely homemade soups most nights, (that was the french influence), cauliflower cheese with sausages, rissoles, fish pie, salads, cottage pies, various casseroles, etc. All good hearty meals, not many convenience foods, home-made puddings. I'm sure most of my friends fared similarly.

We did baking on a Saturday, filling the tins for the children to enjoy during the week. I was not allowed to be extravagant in my use of dried fruit, my mother still with thoughts of the war. It all taught me how to cook healthy, wholesome, family meals using basic ingredients. My friend and I often cooked a meal for her family when I stayed over. It was all good experience.