The Strong get Stronger….
In two years time, without help now, Northampton market will not exist.
The rent is not the only problem down there, as us market traders have to put up with the falling footfall of customers; the anti-social behaviour of the street drinkers and dealers; and the stink of the alleys surrounding the market which are used for toilets in bad weather now that winter is upon us. The market-place has fallen into what might be called a medieval atmosphere.
NBC surely have a vested interest in the markets survival. Sainsburys closure will be a big loss to many of my customers and of course the town centre. Not everybody drives into town to do their shopping; a lot of my elderly customers use the buses and tell me they are going to miss Sainsburys which they have used for many years. Have the council offered them any help to stay?
I’m incredibly passionate about the Sunday trading restrictions being lifted. The greedy supermarkets are allowed to stay open all day Sundays, and I'm sure many smaller retailers would like to open up on Sundays too. We have lots of reviews about the decline of the high street, but at no point do they mention a change to Sunday regulations being considered or lifted.
Supermarkets are exploting lockdown loopholes, but that’s what badly written rules are all about. Little independent shops have been forced to close twice this year, giving them a right kick in the teeth, but large retailers and massive online sellers crack on as normal, and improve on their already vast profits. The real beneficiary of the lockdowns are online companies such as tax shy Amazon. Amazon are well known tax dodgers: if only they were compelled to pay more tax then it might be a more level playing field.
I do have sympathy for the smaller retailers: we all moan about Amazon but untimately buy from them because it is cheaper and more convenient to buy. But sadly we prefer to take the bargain and not think about the future effects on our town centres and the high streets.
Maybe small businesses should donate more to the Tory party then they might get more breaks! Still the Tories instincts are not to upset big businesses; you never know when a boardroom opportunity might surface in the future... If there are tax loopholes then those with the means will find them.
As small businesses fail through continued lockdowns, and the biggest businesses buy up their property and land for cheap money, the effect of all this is to push us inexorably downwards towards a medieval social structure; eventually there will only be the masters, who own everything, and the slaves, who own nothing.
This government has given £2 Billion rates relief to the big boys which they are now paying out to their shareholders. This is spending public money which I think is wrong and these big companies should be made to pay it back.... It's a case of the strong getting stronger by feeding off of the weak, helped along by those in charge of the country.