Off topic fishing Ban 542

Good point.

A shop keeper who is arrogant and dismissive deserves to fail IMO. However, I've been around and shopping long enough to have known shops before smkts had the dominant position the have now and I don't remember shopkeepers generally being arrogant.

A wider range certainly. But years ago we didn't demand the range of products we do now - for instance cheese was mild or strong, you wouldn't have expected exotic cheeses like, say, Camembert outside specialist shops. And As I remember it, smkts veg produce looked fresher, less tired; some greengrocers' products were very variable. OTOH they probably were local not hauled hundreds of food miles apart from oranges and things we don't grow but the customers were not aware of that then. So, yes, the smkts did offer some advantages; it was not obvious in the very early stages what their social consequences were going to be. Now we know.

I guess some are. I use local shops for meat (I can specify that I only want to buy local and the quality is top) and greengrocers who sell - and fruit and one of my "regular greengrocers" which used to have good ripe fruit has changed hands and doesn't seem to be so good at that now so I reckon they might be getting less of my custom; will still buy what suits me there but it's looking likely to be less than it was.

Cheers Jane

Cheers Jane

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