Well I hope that you all ‘loved’ the ‘Love Your Local Market’ campaign and got involved in your own way.I was lucky enough to have the pleasure of spending the launch of Love Your Local Market in Oswestry, arriving on the Tuesday I spent the evening speaking at a start up Britain event and the next morning I visited the outdoor and Indoor Market, who were this years very worthy winner of Best Indoor Market Award. A thriving market, it was great to meet traders old and new, even having the opportunity to meet some traders who were starting up in the very near future. The afternoon was spent speaking to three local colleges back to back, which was a fantastic and informative experience for everyone involved, which I personally took a lot away from, namely that there are lots of people out there with a lot of fantastic ideas to get trading, they just need the inspiration to get started. So if you know someone out there who would be great at trading, then give them the encouragement they need to do just that.
I’m sure the Love Your Local Market campaign has enticed a lot of new traders to markets nationwide and with that a lot of new customers, although let’s not lose sight of the fact that we need traders to keep coming back week after week which of course helps customers do the same.
I have heard of some great innovative events set up, such as student markets in different parts of the country, although as I have said many times, any new market traders should be integrated to the existing markets on existing market days and to my disappointment my advice has been ignored in many cases. People are hailing one off one day markets held on a different day to existing days as a success, when in fact the result is quite the opposite and if anything does more harm than good to existing 52 weeks a year traders and their morale.
Markets and their success was built on regular traders and more importantly, regular customers, a lot of people seem to have lost sight of a very simple business model and are more interested in hailing one off markets as the answer to markets problems, which I agree does create awareness, but will not help markets survive in the long term. I hope no one reads this article as a negative and understands that I am 100% positive about markets in the U.K. and their future, although I do feel that people who are already doing great by organising events could become brilliant by involving existing traders, which would not only lead to a better atmosphere on markets but would also unite a host of traders, young and old, who I’m sure you would all agree could learn a lot from one another, especially with the technology know how younger people bring to the table and the work ethics of the older generation.
I am always keen to hear of any readers views and events you guys have held, so please do get in touch via my website.
Twitter @TheAdamCorbally
For those of you that are Apprentice fans out there, you will notice that this year’s season is in full swing and you can check out my take on things on the Daily Mirror online.
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