Page 35 - MarketTimesAugust2013
P. 35

“We would like to get coach parties and I am approaching local cafes and restaurants to see if we can offer special deals including lunch and a visit to the market,” Carol said.
Saturday is the busiest market day, with a great mix of traders and shoppers.
At Retford, the emphasis is on quality. There are excellent produce stalls, quality fashion stalls and stalls selling quality gifts and crafts.
The impressive square with its listed buildings is the perfect setting for a quality market and Carol is aiming to encourage a café culture in the summer months, with café tables and chairs spilling out onto the square whenever the weather allows.
Retford market traders are looking forward to the new investment, which can only help their businesses.
Footfall will never be what it once was, but long-established traders and new recruits to Retford agree that the market is doing relatively well.
Fish man Christopher Harper, who has followed in the footsteps of his father, Roy, and grandfather, Sam, who started the business
63 years ago, remembers the queues at 6.30 am when he started working on the stall 29 years ago.
“People were waiting to buy from you when you got here,” he added. Those days have long gone, but Christopher still has plenty of regulars, some of whom remember his grandfather, and customers still occasionally put in an order for lobster.
Raymond Lewis, who has been working on the family fruit and veg stall for the past 50 years, is still happy serving long-standing customers with his cousin, Tony Latham.
It’s not so much the supermarkets and changing shopping habits that affect his business, Raymond says.
“The real killer is bad weather. When the weather is good we are serving all day, but if it’s raining or cold, people from the outlying villages won’t come into Retford. They will opt to get their shopping from the supermarket,” he said.
Gill Fieldhouse, who runs a fabric stall with her husband, Tim, says that trends can work for you as well as against you.
The couple switched to mainly vinyls because dressmaking was out of fashion, but now they are shifting a lot more fabric because of a new interest in making clothes and crafts.
Shaun Brown, who sells smoking products and buys and sells jewellery on Retford market, finds that his niche businesses attract good custom.
And John Brough, a seasoned market trader who began selling women’s fashion on Retford market after Christmas, is a firm believer that you make your own success.
“You need to engage with people and sell your products — they won’t sell themselves,” he said.
Business gets better all the time and John rates Retford market.
Carol says there are still gaps on the market. She would like to see kitchen equipment, high- end bags, eggs and pies, and more artisan foods on the market.
This market screams quality, so if the offer is right, then Retford market is the right place to be.
   FACTS & FIGURES
 l MarketDays:Thursdays,Fridays and Saturdays
l MarketRent:Rentis£14.50for
a stall on Thursdays and Saturdays and £13.50 on a Friday, which is an antiques and collectibles market. Concessions are available for traders taking more than one stall
l Retford’sClaimtoFame:Retford was destroyed by fire in 1598, but returned to prominence thanks to the Great North Road, Chesterfield Canal and, later, the London to York Railway. It has a successful economy with low unemployment, largely based on services and light industry.
Shaun Brown finds that his two market businesses — tobacco products and buying and selling jewellery — provide a good balance
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Raymond Lewis, left, and Tony Latham run the long-established family fruit and veg business on Retford market
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