Cost of living: How England's 'artisan' markets are surviving the crisis

Jan 06, 2024

Markets are the beating hearts of communities up and down the country, and they have been for centuries.

But as many traders, realising they can't compete with supermarkets on price alone, become more artisan, how are they continuing to earn a crust against the tide of rising overheads and squeezed household budgets?

BBC News paid a visit to the East Yorkshire market town of Beverley to find out.

Stallholder and craftsman Chris Vaudin shows off a wooden height chart - a beautiful keepsake for any family.

But there's a problem - and he's all too aware of it.

"Not everyone needs a height chart or a chef-style chopping board," Mr Vaudin admits. "They're luxury items."

A slogan etched into the wood reads: "Soaring to new heights". For many traders selling their wares at Beverley's Saturday market, however, simply making a modest profit in a hostile trading climate would suffice.

Chris adds: "The days of people turning up at these type of markets with pockets full of money have gone."

He tells me he's taken to social media to make his presence here known, rather than relying on passing trade, as he once did. Custom now is rarely spur of the moment, he reports, with his work now usually bought as gifts.

Granted a charter in 1128, Beverley is a town shaped by its trading past. Georgian townhouses flank the market square; while the impressive Gothic Beverley Minster looms in the distance. There's a mix of stalls. Greengrocers and nick-nack stalls still ply their trade here, but there is also an abundance of artisan wares.

Richard Lascelles, East Riding of Yorkshire Council's market officer for the past 11 years, has "the luxury of being able to wander about", and has his finger on the pulse.

"People are certainly being more careful about what they spend," he tells me. "But markets offer something you don't really get in the supermarkets - that level of personal service at the point of sale."

That may well be the case, but it's clear from talking to traders here that many are walking a tightrope between pricing their wares too high and not shifting them, and pricing them too low and not making enough to cover rising overheads.

Earlier this year, market rents in the town increased by 7%, with the authority telling me this was due to "the financial pressures the council is under".

Steve Yates runs a stall selling sweet and savoury pastries and explains the quandary.

"Food prices have increased by 20%," he says. "But I've only been able to put up my prices by 10%. The shortfall comes out of profits."

"I'll take one of those," says a man, pointing to a mushroom and camembert tart. Mr Yates breaks off to serve him.

Mr Yates has been trading 12 years.

"It's difficult to stay in business," he admits. "We're just trying to make a modest profit."

Some traders have not survived, with gaps between stalls widened to make their absence less noticeable.

Lisa Gray, who runs a cheese stall, says prices are constantly increasing.

She says: "I've been doing this 16 years. Prior to the past year, prices went up four maybe five times. In the last year, they've gone up 10 times. Energy bills are high - we have a walk-in fridge to keep our cheeses in.

"I'm constantly having to write out new price labels. We're seeing increases starting to settle but they're not coming down."

But Ms Gray says it's the non-food traders, like the wood craftsman, who are hardest hit.

"People still need food. It's those who sell the luxury items - candles, high end crafts, that kind of things who are the worse off."

A short distance away, Lydia Kitching, on her pet supplies stall, is handing over a bag of bird seed to a customer. She's been trading here 28 years.

"It's never fully recovered since Covid," she tells me. "It's the most difficult period [of trading] in the years I've been going.

"Before, people might have bought five bags of dog biscuits," says Ms Kitching. "Now it's three bags and they're stretching them out."

Greengrocer Lee Pattison has been trading here since 1954. Grinning, he tells me he was "expected to do a day's work" from aged 11.

The smile disappears as he tells how takings have slumped by "15 to 20%" since the start of the year.

"It's a hard time," he admits, filling me in on suppliers' price hikes. "With fruit, the early crop is always very expensive. In previous years, the price drops for the main crop. But it hasn't happened this year."

Mr Lascelles, the market officer, returns. He tells me he grew up in Beverley, and says the market is "dyed in the wool".

Visitor numbers are fluid, he explains, telling me it can vary from 5,000 to 10,000 people, depending on factors as varied as the time of the year, the weather and even whether there is racing on at Beverley Racecourse.

Trading aside, he says: "It's a real community here. People really look after each other."

John Dyson, president of the National Market Traders Federation (NMTF) believes markets "are definitely changing"

"Artisan is taking over markets," he says. "I grew up in an area where markets sold seconds and overmakes. When I started out, I would literally go round the back of a factory and buy socks from them to sell on the stall. Those days have gone."

But he says it is important to keep an eye fixed on the future and cites the federation's Young Traders Market 2023 competition, which culminates in the national final at Stratford upon Avon, Warwickshire, in August.

"It's a very difficult time but we're some very enterprising young people coming through," he says.

Friends Fiona Walkley and Alison Goddard are stocking up on groceries.

Ms Walkley tells me it has become "quieter than we have seen in previous years".

She says: "The beauty of them is that you can adjust quantities, which helps you to manage your budget."

Ms Goddard tells of the need to support markets such as this.

"There is comfort from knowing you are supporting local people," she says.

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