LETTER : Supermarket society

Nicholas Du Quesne Bird
Saturday 20 April 1996 23:02 BST
Comments

Your support helps us to tell the story

From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it's investigating the financials of Elon Musk's pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, 'The A Word', which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging.

At such a critical moment in US history, we need reporters on the ground. Your donation allows us to keep sending journalists to speak to both sides of the story.

The Independent is trusted by Americans across the entire political spectrum. And unlike many other quality news outlets, we choose not to lock Americans out of our reporting and analysis with paywalls. We believe quality journalism should be available to everyone, paid for by those who can afford it.

Your support makes all the difference.

The round of supermarket-bashing continues with Glenda Cooper's piece "All-conquering superstores drive out street markets" (14 April) in which she quotes Tim Lang as noting that shoppers in supermarkets behave like zombies, and that there is minimal human interaction.

For thousands of us who walk home from work, our supermarket is a place where we stop and shop, daily. We chat to our friends there, and to the staff, as we do when we meet them in street or pub. Our students get jobs there at weekends and holidays. It is our neighbourhood shop.

Doubtless it is picturesque to stomp round street markets in the rain making lots of individual purchases of usually inferior goods, and then to have to go to a range of small shops to obtain all the things that aren't sold in street markets. But the bulk of us use supermarkets.

A street market of comparable volume to even a small supermarket must also be more expensive to the taxpayer, in terms of policing costs, the supervision of hygiene and trading standards, and in the removal of refuse. I doubt that it would benefit the community by providing jobs in the way that Professor Lang suggests, since a supermarket provides jobs that are less likely to be dead-end ones and are almost certainly better paid.

Nicholas du Quesne Bird

Bath

Join our commenting forum

Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies

Comments

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged inPlease refresh your browser to be logged in