Trouble is, some newcomers go along to a busy market on a nice sunny day, see jolly bantering traders taking reasonable dosh, and think: 'That's for Me!' Then they take a look at what's selling well (If they've got any savvy), and think: 'I'll do that as well'. Filled with blue sky thoughts they fail to realise that what they've just seen is probably one of the better gaffs still going, with regular traders who have built up good custom over the years. Such markets already have a list of casuals as long as your arm, and little or no chance of taking them on in the near future.
A market lives and dies on its shopping footfall. Not the footfall of people trudging through from A to B, or the footfall of hard-up people trickling in to watch free events, so beloved of our local Liberal Democrat council; but the footfall of people who have deliberately come in to spend time and money shopping on that market.
Due to a wide variety of factors there are far less successful markets than there used to be. These factors are increasing as time goes by, and feature much more strongly in some areas than others. I don't need to list these factors, everyone who follows my columns hears them complained about enough already, but here are a few: Nice big out-of-town retail parks where you can park all day for free, and shop under cover in a warm atmosphere; Huge undercover in-town shopping centres where most of the shoppers in cars or off the buses are captured before they get out onto the streets; Myriads of £1 shops all over town centres; Retail chain stores - especially fashions - with incredibly low sweatshop prices; Supermarkets that sell something of everything at less than traders can buy it wholesale; A plethora of charity shops in town centres that have destroyed the secondhand trade on many markets; the list goes on and on, and the more of these factors that exist in any one vicinity the more difficult it will be for local markets to compete successfully.
So if you know anyone thinking of setting up in market trading, tell them to check out the markets they intend to stand, and talk with traders there, and watch trade for a few weeks, mainly in the marketplace, but also in the surrounding stores and shops. If a place isn't busy it won't suddenly get busy because you've just decided to trade there. I have seen any amount of casual traders come and go through ignoring this sort of basic advice.
In summary, by all means take a look at market trading, but don't go in with your eyes closed, like about 90% seem to. The berks the government will have advising you - usually well-fed pudgy consultants - generally have never stood a market in their lives, and don't intend to. It's a tough hard game, and long hours and dedication are required to make something of it. Time was when the rewards were high enough to justify the effort you put in; now it gets harder and harder as time goes by.
Anyone can come to me and I'd be pleased to show them the ropes in the fruit game, for a consideration, of course. But what I don't think they'd be prepared for is the long hours involved, the regular journeys in the pre-dawn hours in often hellish weather, and the dead days when you wonder what you are doing here. It takes a long time to build up a good bank of regular customers, and you have to eat while you're doing it, so you need good reserves behind you. So take a careful long look first, before you commit yourselves. Don't say you weren't warned first!
The England 2018 World Cup bid: Like almost everyone else I have spoken to, I feel angry about the England bid being kicked into the long grass. A result like this just seems to confirm the press and Panorama investigations: A corrupt International Football governing body, FIFA, giving the okay to a country with the most corrupt national government in the world, Russia. I can't even imagine the size of the back-handers that must have taken place, but I think they'd have needed something larger than brown envelopes. Even the Gruaniad has been sounding off about it:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/2010/dec/03/world-cup-2018-england-bid-fifa
On a lighter note, if I don't blog again before the big day, I'd like to wish all my customers and all those who follow me here and on Twitter a Very Pleasant and Happy Christmas, and my Best Wishes to you all for the New Year.
(If you haven't found me on Twitter yet, here I am: http://twitter.com/eamonnfitzy)
