I think you've put your finger on it there.
The public in general is happy to watch food porn on telly but the majority don't cook and don't actually care what rubbish they eat, providing it's cheap and easy.
I sometimes wonder why people pay vast sums for palatial kitchens when they only need a two-burner and a microwave to heat-up the sort of stuff with which the supermarket aisles are filled.

The Queens Hotel on City Square in Leeds now in administration (once the most prestigious hotel in the city)...

Otley is an interesting example of a small market town which has a twice weekly (???) thriving fresh produce market, supports a once a month farmers market and other than the three supermarkets you mention plus Superdrug, has no other major retail representation on its main street - sure it has plenty of charity shops (which are pretty good quality actually) but it also has its fair share of butchers and especially individual, independant bakers.

Free parking all day every day is its master stroke of genius and it attracts enough shoppers to keep itself busy both at the lower end and the top notch (award winning pork butchers) end of the market.

That is definitely a case of a business not keeping up with the competition, Malmaison and The Raddison are both far superior hotels and cost the same to stay in, Queens had it's hey day but it hasn't been in the top 10 in Leeds for quite some time, I can't imagine it will actually close, one of the chains may see an opportunity to buy it on the cheap. It's biggest problem is what used to be it's biggest asset, location, it's probably one of the noisiest "premier" Hotels I've ever stayed in, being able to hear station announcements at 6am on a Sunday and the buses rumbling past until early hours isn't what people want now.

There are some really interesting points here – and first, you're absolutely correct to say that it's not the fault of staff themselves who are given only limited training by the supermarkets themselves.

I do think that one of the problems with supermarket fish selections is the very limited selection – and that goes all the way up to somewhere likes Waitrose, which is reckoned to a quality supermarket. In terms of what I see at our local fishmonger (a new business, set up by young people around three years ago) and what's available in the Waitrose I use occasionally or even the Sainsbury's I happened to be in latish last year (a big one in Islington) then there's little comparison. I wonder if that's a bit like butchers too, where choice is limited by a number of factors, including a lack of necessity of much in the way of butchery or fishmongering skills and knowledge, and also a desire on the part of the supermarkets to concentrate sales on 'prime' cuts'. Joanna Blythman goes into some detail on this in [iShopped.

There's also the point I made earlier (if memory serves) that we apparently spend 10% less of household income on food in the UK than our counterparts on the Continent do – and yet we constantly complain that food is too expensive. I suspect that part of that is because the cost of housing and utilities are far higher here than on the Continent and take up a far greater percentage of household income.

Shortly after companies stop spending millions convincing them that it is.

We have an economy almost entirely dependent on excessive consumer spending, so be careful what you wish for.

Yet according to some here advertising has no effect and people only buy what they want.

As I said, I think that this is changing – in some areas at least – and is helped by new businesses realising that the old nine to five opening hours are no longer fit for purpose, for instance.



Talking to the people I have about why Broadway Market nearly died, they all say that the supermarkets were the problem – or at least the root of it. It wasn't a question of small businesses not having a business model that maintained customers, but one of the supermarkets reaching a size where economies of scale allowed them to simply undercut local shops substantially. As my own local butcher explained to me – and he's survived it all – the Tesco that had originally existed around the corner was never a problem; everyone existed alongside each other with no problem. The problems began with the creation of the big box stores.

Your other post about taking an hour to go to a really good butcher is pertinent though: in other words, your immediate shopping area doesn't give you such a choice. Now I don't know, but I assume your hour round trip to Lishman's would be via car? If that's the case, even more than if it were public transport, it suggests that there is an absence of choice in the immediate area around where you live.

^

This!!

The curse of Savile ...

www.yorkshirepost.co.uk/business ... -1-5322849

www.yorkshirepost.co.uk/business ... -1-5322849

For the sake of clarity the hotel is not in administration, a new holding company was created to secure a new refinancing deal now successfully completed. The old holding company was placed into administration and will be dispensed with.

[i"YORKSHIRE hotel business QHotels Group, owner of the historic Queens Hotel in Leeds, has been placed into administration as part of a refinancing deal.

The group, which owns 21 hotels across the UK including Aldwark Manor in North Yorkshire and Tankersley Manor near Barnsley, said the administration only involved its holding company and would have "no impact on staff, customers or suppliers and the QHotels business will continue as normal".

The three-year refinancing arrangement has been agreed with Irish Bank Resolution Corporation which QHotels Group, whose head office is in Morley, Leeds, said would allow it "to continue its successful programme of business development and investment".

The QHotels Group Limited, the original group holding company, has been placed into administration and replaced for all group companies by a new holding company, QHotels Holdings Limited with all other group companies unaffected."[/i

Sorry just seen bramleyrhino's link, mine was from elsewhere.

they already have. and people will still buy these things, and there's no reason why people shouldn't. hopefully, they'll just finance them differently. with any luck the "pay nothing for 6 months. then £30 a month for 240 months @ apr phone numbers" will slowly disappear. people may actually save up for things.

only if the government legislate, and given that roughly 30% of the electorate use these services to finance their consumerism I can't see it being popular.