The World on a Plate

Research by nef for the Friends of Queens Market - the East London market featured in the documentary Wal-Mart: The high cost of a low price - presents a microcosm of the dangers of basing regeneration policy on supermarket expansion, from the real employment impact of supermarkets to the threat to consumer choice.

The report analyses the threat that the development planned for the site the Market now stands on poses to the local economy and community in Newham, and the high cost of the loss of traditional street markets for communities across the UK. Revealing the flawed basis on which planning decisions around the country are being made in favour of the UK’s biggest supermarkets, the report quantifies for the first time the real value to local economies and communities around the UK of genuine local enterprise.

Measuring the current local and community impact of Queens Market including its economic impact, employment impact and its contribution to enterprise generation in one of the capitals most deprived boroughs the report finds that Queens Market generates over £13 million for the local economy with £9 million spent on food, in addition, the report finds that not only are fresh fruit and vegetables on average half the price of supermarkets, four out of five visitors to the market cited choice as their main reason for shopping there, and a ‘shopping basket’ exercise found that items bought at the market were on average 53 per cent cheaper than at a local ASDA Wal-Mart supermarket. The market also offers particular benefits to low-income customers not available at supermarkets - they can use informal bargaining and haggling to achieve substantial discounts.

The report also finds that the Market provides twice as many jobs per square foot of retail as supermarkets, and that the combination of low overheads and flexible business rates mean that the market serves as nursery in which a diverse range of enterprises can start, flourish and grow.