Page 24 - MarketTimesJune2016
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 Simon Walsh now runs a popular bag stall in the covered market, a business his father started in 1975
 Jen Dalkin has been selling artificial and wedding flowers and crystals on the indoor market for the past two years
“Footfall has doubled since the market moved,” Coun Kennedy said. Issues remain. At the moment there is not enough parking, which puts punters off coming, but he said the council was addressing the traders’ concerns and he would be meeting with them once a few outstanding challenges had been ironed out.
The long-standing traders are generally pleased with the new-look Greatie. Joy and Rodney Smith, who are both on the traders association, feel the market family is back together and things can only get better.
Rodney, who has run the catering wagon for the past 31 years, said: “It did feel a bit as though the family was split, but now we are all back together again and there is often a queue of cars waiting to get on to the market early on Saturday mornings.”
Rodney’s parents, May and Arthur, sold
many different lines on the market including toys.
“My father has died but my mother still has stock in her garage which she says she will bring down to sell on the market, although she is 85 and blind,” Rodney said.
The pull of Greatie is strong and many traders are second or third generation market people.
Simon Walsh’s dad Pat set up a bag business in the market in 1975 when it was in St Martin’s and he remembers carrying stock to Greatie as a young boy.
As on any market, there are always dissenting voices. Billy Clayton, who sells sportswear under the canopy, hasn’t got a good word to say about the way the market is run.
And Paul Emmett, who sells babywear on the adjacent stall, said the traders had made a
success of Greatie, and no one else. Relatively new traders are simply pleased to
be able to make a go of their fledgling business in a market with low overheads and good footfall.
Janet Walker, who runs Fuji Candles, said: “It’s been a great place to start a business.” And Lisa Henney has launched a boutique in the city off the back of her market stall selling ladies fashions in Greatie.
Jen Dalkin, who sells artificial and wedding flowers, considered doing the same. “Then I thought, why would I, when there is such good footfall here.”
“ And I am doing well without the overheads you get with a shop.”
Whether any of them make it on the same scale as John Hargreaves is uncertain, but one thing is for certain — Greatie is on the up.
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