Supermarkets - good thing or bad thing in rural areas?
The latest edition of "Fieldwork" - the magazine for the Campaign to Protect Rural England has some interesting things to say about supermarkets. Bear in mind Seaton is considered rural. This is just a selection of things they say, for the full article, see end of this post.
The Rural Shops Alliance has estimated that there are only 12,000 rural shops left and these are closing at a rate of 300 a year. Between 2000 and 2007 the "Big 4" supermarkets saw a 38% increase in their UK sales area.
Market shares of different supermarkets are as follows:
Tesco 31.2%
Asda 16.8%
Sainsbury 15.9%
Morrisons 11.4%
Co-op and Somerfield 7.9%
Waitrose 3.9%
Aldi 2.9%
Lidl 2.3%
iceland 1.7%.
They go on to say more supermarkets result in fewer independent shops. The town of Fakenham in Norfolk lost 64% of its convenience stores and Warminster 75% after a superstore opened. The New Economics Foundation found that local outlets were replaced by national chains and the distinctive character and identity of town centres is being lost through growing homogenisation.
Local auctioneers, abbatoirs, wholesalers, distributors and retailers aer all at risk as small businesses and farms are taken over, merged or bought out. During a two-year period following the opening of 93 superstores, the net job loss in food retainling alone averaged 270 jobs within a ten-mile radius of each superstore opened. These figures do not include florists, clothes shops and newsagents, which would have been badly affected too.
In Saxmundham, planning permission for a superstore was refused, mainly because of Suffold Coastal District Council's proactive retailing policy. The Council commissioned consultants who concluded that there was no retailing need for a large new superstore.
They continue to say that shoppers want local food but typically only 1-2% of supermarkets' turnover comes from locally produced food. According to one survey in 2007, 57% of people buy local food in order to support local businesses, while 51% of respondents do so to support the local economy. The figures support this stand: money spent locally in independent shops is then re-spent three times before it leaves the area, while over 90% of money spent in a supermarket leaves the area immediately.
Source:Fieldwork, Campaign to Protect Rural England, September 2008, page 16.
posted by Anonymous @ 6:00 pm
7 Comments:
I know what all the surveys say about the Seaton view on supermarkets...and for those who don't know it's fairly close at around 56 for/ 44 against...ish.
But nothing brings the closeness home when you're in the CO-OP and you hear the tourists (grab them while you can) query where all the supermarkets are....and then hear the locale of said shops, and THEN the response "well you're bloody lucky"
Hmmm, has anybody surveyed the visitors?
I live in Saxmundham and the town is nearly dead now...it needed the injection of new visitors that Tesco might have given it...either way people will and do travel the 20 miles out of town to either Tesco or Morrisons rather than stay and shop in Saxmundham so dont ecpect those people who say they will shop locally to actually do so!
Why shouldn't we shop locally - we do have a supermarket you know!
All we need now is an Aldi or a Lidl and we will be absolutely fine.
The thing is, in this age of cheap travel people will always want to go somewhere else, look at how many people commute between Exmouth and Exeter.
If I lived in Saxmundham, I might cheer at the lack of big stores and welcome the change.
I live in Exeter and it's a typical "big town", but does everywhere have to be the same?
Same is good, same is good, same makes more money, same makes more money ...
Of course, then with all that money, you buy a yacht and go looking for places that aren't the same!
"If I lived in Saxmundham, I might cheer at the lack of big stores and welcome the change"
Thats all well and good if you have a thriving local economy but the truth is that since it was bypassed Saxmundham doesn't. It desperately needed the investment that an out of town store could bring and it was the selfishness of the 'local' shopkeepers that prevented it and ultimately saw the massive downturn in the High Street. It fails to supply what its population needs and doesnt attract enough visitors to keep the economy it does have bouyant with the result that shops are empty or let out to charities (we must have highest amnount of charity shops per capita in the country!) We are now in the position where we all still shop at Tesco or Morrisons but we travel 20 miles to do it rather than have it on our doorstep! Tesco still got there store albeit in a different location and our local shops still plunged into decline! The biggest indicator of Saxmundhams decline must surely be that its newest busines (and the only one likley to be a success!) is a pawnbrokers!! I'm certainly not advocating a superstore in every town but I am saying that in the case of Saxmundham it was a bad move not having one when the opportunity came and despite the press coverage we have had lauding our so called 'resistance' to the big supermarket chains you wont find many people here who actually supported the decision to not allow a Tesco!
This is getting silly. Saxmundham isn't Seaton. For a start we have 2, 3, 4 or 5 supermarkets who want to come into this town AND we have one already. Also we are NOT talking about an out of town store we are talking about an in town store not 500m from a current supermarket. Also we are a coastal town on the World Heritage Jurassic Coast. I may be wrong but Saxmundham isn't - it is in a rural area as far as I know. It has only around 4,000 people but has a railway station which allows people to commute from the town to as far away as London and is near the main A12 route so its demographics are totally different to those of Seaton. It even has a Sport and Recreation Club which owns 23 acres (about half the size of the Seaton regeneration ares).
Let us remember we DO already have a supermarket to shop at (a fairtrade one which doesn't stock GM foods either) and we are nothing like Saxmundham. Lets compare apples with apples not apples with tomatoes (yes, tomatoes are a fruit).
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