I’m lucky enough to be spending a few days in France. One thing you notice is the lack of cloned shops. There are very few chains but still a lot of small independents. Now here is where I get accused of elitism; I know chains like Primark sell things cheaply and at one level give people a choice but the clothes are badly made, they are quick fashion, the terms and conditions of overseas workers are hard to judge, they use up a lot of resources and still leave everyone looking pretty much the same. Given we need to shop why don’t we pursue policies that leave towns looking distinct so you actually feel like you come from somewhere different and which ultimately sell a greater range of products. Planning laws could easily be used to ensure high streets are properly mixed rather than dominated by a few big corporations who can pay the most money to occupy key sites.
“England is a nation of shopkeepers” as the Corsican dwarf had it. Maybe the British love of shopping is intrinsically linked to the British love of shop-keeping, which we do so well that the most successful spread like undesirable weeds.
Then every town looks the same. This isn’t recent though; I remember thinking exactly the same thing in the 70s and loathing Woolworths (best thing about the financial crisis, that – we’ve finally got rid of that drear chain).
Enjoy the markets which, you will notice, don’t have to be called “farmers’ markets” – a bourgeois invention. Any decent market already is a farmers’ market.
Woolworths was the exception then. Now every town is Next, Starbucks, HSBC, Primark and charity shops.