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'Tesco was born here... now they have killed our market'
Elizabeth Hopkirk, Evening Standard10.10.08
The last fruit and vegetable stall in the market where Jack Cohen founded the Tesco empire 80 years ago has shut and traders blame competition from the supermarket for its demise.
Martin Wiles, whose family have been trading in Well Street Market, Hackney, for 50 years, held a party for customers and friends before packing up for the last time on Saturday.
His was the last daily stall in a once-bustling market. Now there is one weekend clothes stall left in the whole street.
Mr Wiles, 53, from Romford, said: "It's pointless trying to trade around here at the moment. It's just so quiet. When I started 35 years ago there were 50 stalls on a Saturday.
"Just like high streets across the country, a supermarket has killed it for independent traders like me. It rips the heart out of a community. The difference here is that this market is where it all began for Tesco."
Mr Wiles's daughter Gemma, 21, a mobile phone saleswoman, said: "Saturday was quite sad. My nan went down to help dad because my grandfather, who passed away a year ago, started the stall.
"It's quite ironic about Tesco really. Most people now want to get all their shopping in one place but unfortunately it put my dad out of business. He's quite bitter, but what person wouldn't be?"
A Tesco opened on the street in the Seventies, just a few yards from where Jack Cohen first set up a grocer's stall shortly after the First World War. Since then another Tesco has opened nearby in Morning Lane.
Butcher Alan Wells, whose grandfather was one of Sir Jack's fellow stallholders, remembers him coming back in his blue Rolls-Royce to open the supermarket.
"As soon as Tesco opened the market started dying," said Mr Wells, 49, who still runs the butcher's shop his grandfather opened in 1931.
"When I was young you had to walk on the road because the pavements were so crowded with shoppers."
Joan Holmes, 79, who has shopped in the market for 49 years, said: "You used to be able to buy anything here. The market's dead now. It's very sad. Once these supermarkets open small traders have no chance. They can't bulk buy."
Others blamed the council for raising pitch rents to £40 a week and for parking policies that discouraged passing trade.
A Tesco spokeswoman said: "We understand that people have their opinions and of course we respect those but in many areas Tesco trades very well alongside all kinds of businesses who thrive."
No one from Hackney council was available to comment.
Reader views (4)
No one makes shoppers desert their former haunts in favour of Tesco. They've been offered a choice and taken it.
- Tonyb, Twickenham, UK
Be like me, stop shopping at their stores.
- Vince London, West London
I'll bet that Lady Porter is somewhere, quietly wiping away a tear!
- Sean, Tripoli, Libya
A friend lives in Hatfield, which claims to be a university town. Tesco built a large out of town superstore and the town centre is now mainly derelict! In the area where I live competition (unfair!) from the supermarkets has forced my favourite record shop and book shop to the wall.
- Michael, London
