Why don't we have decent markets in the UK?

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I'm in Brussels, and walked through the most amazing market near the station.
Fruit, vegetables, breads, fabric, clothing, hardware. Anything you could possibly want.
I live in Bristol, and there's certainly nothing like it here.
Are there decent markets in the UK, or do we prefer getting stuff from supermarkets?

One of the challenges traders face at Borough Market is that it’s so overrun with tourists and photography students that genuine customers stop going as battling through the crowds puts them off. This is what one of the traders at Borough Market told me a couple of years ago. I used to be a regular customer of his so knew him pretty well. He said Saturdays were the worst by far because it was so packed but 99% of people were just looking rather than actually intending to buy anything. He gave up his stall there in the end.

Broadway Market in London on Saturdays is still pretty decent but it is increasingly full of people having a day out rather than going to buy things and I can see it going the same way as Borough sadly. I’ve stopped going there to buy my fruit and veg for this reason.

I think I've been to the same market as you OP and the markets in Rotterdam are insane! My friends and I were talking about the differences there and at home as we were walking round. Honestly, I think it's a cultural thing really. I'm sure I'll get flamed for this and be told that some people always cook from scratch, use farm shops etc etc and that's fine but I'm talking more generally.

I think we rely so much on supermarkets and as such only buy what is in supermarkets. We also seemingly have a huge problem with farming in the UK; weather issues, difficulties finding farm workers etc so it's not exactly going to help food production - so no production of locally grown food will mean no markets or certainly not to the level of Brussels.

It's such a shame though! I felt a bit of an idiot myself though as I had no idea what half of the stuff was, but I usually shop from my sofa on the Ocado or Asda website so I've only got myself to blame!

Also, people work more hours in the UK than most other European countries. People don’t have the time to go pottering around the market.

Isn't UK average like 36 hours? That's very much towatds the lower end against other European countries

I can tell you why I don’t

the produce goes off quickly and the ones I have gone to historically don’t let you pick your own fruit. They do it for you which makes me believe they actively pick stuff that will be no good the next day

they generally used to deal in cash and I primarily deal with cards only. That might have changed.

any clothes be bought from markets have washed really badly. Colours have run into each other, fabric quality awful.

Farmers markets/artisan stuff is mad money. I might be persuaded as a one off to buy some olives or something but generally it’s massively overpriced and then I feel rude walking away without buying anything.

I suspect the real reason we don't have as many markets as other countries is because we were the first industrialised country and therefore the first majority urban country in the world. Most people are so many generations removed from the land they have no family memory of rural life and don't have the connections to the seasons and where food comes from. We expect food to be cheap and available all year round. In addition the war disrupted things further.

And I say that as someone who grew up on a farm and who now lives somewhere with a thriving historic covered market.

I think this is a big part of it, at least it is for me. I don't want to talk to loads of randos, I want to grab my shopping and then self-checkout. Also I work and have small kids. I want to get my food shopping done in the shortest time possible.

@HundredMilesAnHour that’s a real pity. The visitors may end up killing off the very thing they love to see.

I noticed a similar vibe at a Christmas market in a town near me. Huge crowds of people looking and soaking up the atmosphere, but very few purchases being made, except for the mulled wine stands and the burger van! Not something very appealing to a local I expect…

The problem in Bristol was that they built Ikea where Eastville market was held.

Actually full time workers in the UK used to work the longest hours in Europe pre-Covid but since Covid there has been a reduction in hours, partly due to flexible working. The UK’s average 36.5 hours is still higher than the 36 hours EU average and the UK works more hours than Australia and Canada, but less than the US and Japan.

I work for a global company and in the UK we most definitely work longer hours than the majority of our continental European peers. We also tend not to take lunch breaks and/or eat at our desks.

Op what did you purchase at the market?

If you don't go to Borough Market really early in the day it is too crowded to easily see what's on offer. Having to push through people just makes the whole experience claustrophobic and difficult. We don't bother going anymore.

St Nicks, surely?

Hello from Italy where the legal minimum is a 40 hour week, but I usually work around 43 hours per week and cook from scratch daily, not out of choice, if I didn't we wouldn't eat! In my one hour lunch break I go to the market once a week...

If you didn't want to cook from scratch you could eat the wide range of ready made foods and ready meals that large Italian supermarkets stock!

The ones local to me are pretty good. You can buy most things. The fruit and veg are great.

I don’t go as much as we used to, just because I’m usually at work. But if I am off on a Friday I definitely use the Stamford market for basics over the supermarket.

Around where I grew up, the only reasonable markets (i.e. huge punnets of fruit and hoards of fish, veg, meat, etc) were in the towns that are popular with coach trips...

However, this does not stop me from stocking up to fill my fridge and freezer when I visit family 😁(I mean, 8 frying steaks for £5? Yes please! And whole salmons for £16, which can be cut up and work out cheaper than tiny "fillets" from the supermarkets)

Swansea indoor market is excellent and had won awards. It sells all manner of things, especially food and local produce. It's very popular and the buzz is great.

Swansea also has street markets every weekend at different locations around the city and county.

Come to Swansea one weekend, there's a direct train from Bristol. Even if it rains there is lots to do, see and eat.

The traditional markets traders got booted out when Mary Portas was hired at extortionate cost to 'gentrify' the market. Which meant going down from jampacked with fruit, veg, herbs and spices, plants, eggs, dairy, fresh seafood, household equipment, beautiful fabrics and clothing that covered multiple ethnicity and religious requirements along with packed shops lining the street and the like to 4 stalls selling the same veg and empty places where they handed the pitches to Artisan Coffee Bean Sculptors, Enchanted Candle Sellers, four MLM stalls and a bloke with a mouldy leg of ham and bucket of olives from the cash & carry that took one sniff of the new fish stall trying to nick trade from the fishmonger and reversed straight back out again.

Right, but it does exist - and plenty of Italians eat it! I just get a bit sick of the narrative that everyone in Italy is cooking market food from scratch everyday and the implied superiority. I spent a lot of time in a very non-touristy bit of Italy (I was a researcher there who went for a few months at a time over several years) and the supermarkets sold plenty of this stuff so clearly someone was eating it... They even had ready made innovations I had never seen beforw, like 'pour in the tin' cake mix!

Stamford market is excellent. But getting parked there is a flipping nightmare.

In the 70s markets in the North West were fantastic, fresh food, clothes, records, bakeries, everything. I grew up in Liverpool and St John's market was about 3 floors high, right in the middle of town.

I live near the World Famous (their words) Bury market in the north west. Great fish and meat hall, sell everything in season, including game, a huge veg stall which brings in unusual produce like samphire, nordacot and whimberries. It’s reasonably priced and has cheap parking and sells all the usual stuff eg curtain fabric, watch batteries, flowers etc. it even has a black pudding stall and a Katsouris Greek deli. I love it.

Stroud Farmers Market, every Saturday morning.
A genuinely great market, in the Cotswolds. It is extremely busy and very popular.

Yes true

Op what did you purchase at the market?
I wish, but as i'm starting off on a 3 week holiday in the Netherlands, nothing.