One of the phenomena that those worried about social exclusion are often concerned about is "food deserts" - that poor people can't access nutritious good value food in their travel to shop area - more constrained for them than others by the fact they can't nip into the family size Volvo estate and do a mega-shop at the local (ie within 10 minutes drive) superstore.
It seems odd to add the residence of investment bankers, top lawyers and any number of expatriates to the list of underserved markets - but my experience of trying to but some decent food in Notting Hill Gate on Tuesday evening suggest it should be. The standard of supermarket provision went up here when first the Damien Hirst restaurant "Pharmacy" - where a naive foreign friend went to buy some ointment, suggesting it was a step ahead of its time became a Simply Food - which used to be nice quality, shame about the prices. And then the tired Europa become a new Tesco Metro. But my shopping trip in Tuesday suggested that standards are slipping. The staff in the M and S were cleaning the store around the customers - so fighting your way through only to discover that there was hardly anything on the shelves when you managed to navigate round the bucket to get to them. I walked out of Tescos after one look at the so-called fresh produce suggested that, where food was on offer, it might not be past its sell by date but it was certainly past its eat-by date.
So why is the offer so poor? Was this a one-off? A sign of cutting corners as cost pressures rise? Knowledge that there is not much real competition? A view that the rushed people of W11, having just had a miserable tube experience will be so quickly in and out they won't notice the prices (possibly right), nor the lack of anything much fresh to eat - and if they were fussed they would go to Whole Foods or the new Waitrose - which tells me its in Bayswater, but omitted to say where. Or just decide that its better to watch Gordon Ramsay while eating a takeaway.
The shock was greater because this was my first venture into a supermarket since my operation. I never used to go if I could help it. And shopping by remote control meant that I sent friends to shop -- and then blamed them for coming back with paltry offerings and didn't believe their claims there was nothing much to buy (its Tesco, how can there be no fresh fish/ no decent apples etc etc).
The poor food offer is part of a wider problem of the destruction of Notting Hill Gate which exemplifies clone town features - despite having a potentially tremendous footfall. Estate agents; mobile phone shops; banks galore; the odd surviving independent but unattractive convenience store - but not a baker; no delicatessen; no quality independent greengrocer; a fishmonger but no butcher - and for the rest charity shops - great for dumping junk but not great for buying anything. And chain restaurants.
So we need policies to reclaim the high street - and make it somewhere worth walking to rather than jumping into the car to avoid. For starters, how about a differential business rate - so chains pay more. And some local action like in San Francisco to support more independent stores. There should be a lot of space coming free as estate agents go bust over the next year - so no better time to transform the desert that is Notting Hill Gate?
And now I am off to see if my fond memories of the under threat farmers' market are justified or whether I am ripe for another disappointment.
10.30 a.m update: am now the joyful owner of piles of fresh asparagus; three bunches of carrots with tops on and have just come back from planting tomato plants and mint on my roof terrace -- I love the farmers' market. Now we just need to save it from becoming a Waitrose car park.
Next policy suggestion -- and one that the Competition Commission were not allowed to look at when they did their grocery study as public interest was deleted form their terms of reference in 2004 - make quality and character of high street; encouragement of independent business and diversity of offer part of planning requirements.
2 comments:
Interestingly, you don't have to walk far down Holland Park Avenue and there are all those shops listed as missing from Nottting Hill Gate.
Maybe Notting Hill is self-defining as tacky and crap? Otherwise it's hard to see what is causing the market failure. Some sort of collective action failure in which each shop would be better if all the others were better? Some sort of clustering effect that retailers rely on - the shops collectively attract customers to an area. But even so you'd think that right outside the Notting Hill tube station would be just amazing retail space.
Perhaps there is no market failure and people other than like it as it is. But I agree that would be hard to fathom.
am not sure that is right. HP has better resutaurants and a very pricey bucther -- but that is about it down there. Nice Daunts and handy bathroom and rug shops but otherwise its a Maison Blanche. Classier but not exactly functional. And they have a worse tesco than we do.
Post a Comment