How can I LIVE without the supermarket?

Dear all

Thank you for sticking with this blog.  I have had many wonderful comments from friends on Facebook and plenty of advice.

A common theme that has emerged in popular conversation and on the television is the damage that the supermarket is doing to the British High Street.  Everywhere you look shops are shutting down, especially ones selling traditional fare like the greengrocer, the fishmonger, and the butcher.  This makes a lot of people sad but for many it is bittersweet.  The amount of times you hear the following statement on documentaries is quite startling:

‘Oh yeah, it is sad that Mr Butcher’s Meat Shop has closed down but I haven’t used him for ten years.  I get all my meat from the supermarket…’

That makes me want to tear my hair out.  These things will not close down if you USE THEM.  I can understand that people are naturally swayed towards going to the superstores.  They have everything you want under one roof, they have ample parking, and often a coffee shop or somewhere to socialise.  Many people in rural areas pose the question ‘How did I live without the supermarket?’  Well the answer to that is, you did and now you choose not to live without it.

I am from a semi-rural area on the west coast of Scotland.  Dalry is a small town in the Garnock Valley and has been described in the national press as ‘the backyard of the middle of nowhere’.  I lived there for 23 years and I have witnessed how shopping attitudes have changed as a result of the supermarket, cyclical depression, and economic recession.  The common phrase associated with Dalry is that ‘There is nothing in the place’ – well whose fault is that?  When I was little, I am talking in the early 1990s, Dalry was quite a prosperous place.  Nearly every single small business in the town was locally owned and the major employers in the town were Roche Pharmaceuticals, Z. Hinchliffe’s, and Johnston’s Castings.  I have very fond memories of that time.  My mum would pick me and my sister up from school on a Monday and we would do the weekly shop in the town centre.

The route we took into the town centre took us past all local businesses.  Every single shop on Main Street was thriving.  There was a video shop on the corner (which is now the Key Store), a barber shop and gentleman’s outfitters opposite that (that’s where I got my ears pierced – now the Cafe).  There was a lovely bakery called Peter’s Pantry, who did the most delicious Chelsea Buns and Yum-Yums.  I used to love walking past it as a little girl because there was the most delicious smell of sweet pastry and sugary icing.  There was also a chemist which we knew as Garrett’s and I believe that Dr Law’s wife once had ownership. Furthermore, there was a big butcher’s shop and delicatessen called McClymont’s – I hated going in there because they had meat hanging on hooks from the ceiling, which I thought was scary and my mum would stand talking to the shop lady for what seemed like a lifetime to a 5 year old – I think it was Pat Burns? At the bottom end of the street was Matteo’s hardware and electrical shop, Morton’s paper shop, the Dalry Amusement arcade, Neilly’s shoe shop, and a greengrocers in a really dark shop – nothing has been in there for years. And let’s not forget MacKenzie’s bakers and Crawford’s gift shop, where you were told by the grumpy owners ‘DON’T TOUCH ANYTHING!’  The only shops that have remained on that street are the chemist, albeit under different ownership, MacKenzie’s and the shoe shop.

If I continued on to doing New Street, we would be here forever, but to summarise there was two ladies clothing shops (Sunny’s and Margaret Sherrie’s – the latter is now a great greengrocers, big shout out to Janette Galloway), a travel agents (now Shear Magic), Iain Bell’s hairdressers (still there), the Penny Farthing cafe (still there), the King’s Arms Hotel (now a shell), a carpet store, another chemist, a newsagent, and a chinese restaurant.  There was also two mini marts on that street – the Co-op and Galbraiths.  So you can see, Dalry was very well served and people could shop around for the best prices.  My mother would get her rolls from the bakers, her meat from McClymont’s or Stalker’s, her fruit and veg from the green grocers, her newspapers from one of the three newsagents, and the rest of it from the Co-op or Galbraith’s.  You only got items from the mini-marts if you could not get them anywhere else, like tinned goods, frozen food etc. Oh and not to forget the most important business in the town 😉

Mr John Shaw’s Mobile Shop, run by my wonderful dad.  My dad would drive his grocery vans, which were usually converted buses or mobile libraries, around the housing estates in Dalry and Kilbirnie, and also served the local farms.  He sold quite a selection of items, ranging from sweets to potatoes.  He would allow me and my sister to go out on the van with him where we were taught the work ethic that we both pride ourselves on from a very young age.

So what changed?  Well Dalry was hit by the recession very badly in the 90s, under the leadership of Thatcher and then Major.  The rule that most people live by in the West of Scotland is ‘The only good Tory is a dead one’.  People could not afford to buy as much fresh produce as they once could and they would go outside of the town to get to the supermarkets, such as Asda’s in Irvine, where you could get lots of food and it was all under one roof.  Businesses started to close down in the town.

The final nail in the coffin came in the early 2000s, when Tesco opened a large supermarket in Kilbirnie.  It had everything one could ever wish for under one roof, including food, clothing, electricals, and a petrol station.  As a result, local petrol stations have either suffered or just closed down.  The main one in Dalry run by ‘Jimmy Thistle’ – the semi racist name we used for the Indian owner, (which he loved btw and actively encouraged), closed down and the site was redeveloped into a Lidl Supermarket a few years ago.  Dalry now has no petrol station and when you live in the ‘backyard of the middle of nowhere’ that is a problem.

The recession and supermarkets have killed local business in my once prosperous little town.  I feel sad going back to Dalry now but the business owners are still fighting against the national chains valiantly and a number of new shops have opened in the town.

So to answer the question I have posed in the title of this blog -how can I live without the supermarket?  Well quite easily, if I shop at local business.

I will outline my local business shopping strategy tomorrow 🙂

Best wishes

Lynsey