Are we seeing a shift in shopping habits?

In November 2015 the Morrisons in Burnham-on-Sea closed its doors for the last time, it’s not the only supermarket in the sea side town as there is a Tesco superstore on the outskirts but Morrisons occupied a prime location near the town centre allowing locals to walk to it and people who had commuted in to pop in to the High Street. With a not inconsequential population of nearly 20,000, it is interesting that the area of Burnham and Highbridge was not deemed able to support two large supermarkets. Residents will now need to make the longer trip to the supermarket on the edge of town and the unit will be filled with discount home wares which it is feared may out compete smaller High Street shops selling similar items.

As a sweeping generalisation, the arrival of supermarkets heralded the end to the local High Street shop with butchers, bakers, greengrocers and fishmongers shutting up shop, no longer able to cope in the price stakes. Now we are seeing an interesting situation where it seems that supermarkets themselves are no longer able to cope with their own expansion. Many are now closing down the large outlets they once favoured and opening up smaller ‘local’ ventures. As consumers, our habits have changed, many of us are using online delivery services while others have shunned the large local weekly shop and have turned instead to picking up ingredients as and when we need them.

In an idealistic world, this trend in closing supermarkets should herald the reawakening of our high streets, the reopening of the local food specific shops we were once dependent on and a resurgence in food markets. Of course the situation is much more complicated in reality and this return towards localism would need backing from many corners; of local authority, able to provide independent businesses with rates which won’t cripple them; it needs local residents to use their shops on a regular basis; it needs the people with the dedication and skills to be able to run these businesses and establish themselves. Maybe it also needs a new look at opening hours, to encourage the younger generation to depend on shopping local.

One of my greatest bug bears of being a twenty-something in full time employment with friends and family spread across the country and a sports team committed to is that if I don’t shop local on a Saturday, I have lost my opportunity for the whole week. No independent shops around my house are open past 4.30/5pm, nor are they open on a Sunday. As I get home from work at 6, sometimes later, I have no choice but to rely on the local supermarket which does open later. In my ideal world, there would be at least one night a week where all independent traders would open their doors later in the day and keep them open until 8pm so that those in office jobs and, crucially, the younger generation could get back into the mindset of relying on independents. Long gone are the days when a housewife would be available during the day to shop for the household between 9am and 5pm. Why haven’t our licensing laws and High Street changed to catch up?

Implementing a change in opening hours would of course rely on the support of traders and the local community. Of course there is the question of staff, of licensing hours, and of the loss of family time for the trader and staff in question. I strongly believe that backing from the community would be there in most towns; my local butcher and baker have queues out of the door on a Saturday morning, granted their produce is not cheap but they do know what farm their beef came from and who made their wholegrain loaf.

At the moment, the older generation are key in keeping the High Street and local markets going during week days. My generation are currently looking to be working well into our 70’s with the upwards trend in retirement age and if, in 40/50 years’ time we are not around during the day to patronise local shops and markets, what will happen to our High Streets and small traders then? It’s all very convenient having your shopping delivered to your front door in colour coded bags so that you know if the items inside need to go in the fridge or the cupboard but I think we need to be able to pick our own food, be presented with it so that we think more about it, think about how it got there, who grew it, who’s family farm we’re helping to support and talk to the person who has selected these items for sale.

From a localism perspective the closing of large supermarkets could be seen as a fantastic opportunity. We as communities just need to encourage and support those brilliant people who do (and crucially want to) own, supply and work in local shops and of course our local markets.

Somerset Farmers’ Markets take place all over the region with 9 monthly and 2 weekly markets, for more information see www.somersetfarmersmarkets.co.uk

Jo Hayers, joint coordinator for Somerset Farmers’ Markets