I'm a Wilmslow resident and own a wholesale micro bakery in town. We started our business from our home kitchen in 2011 and our 'Cheshire Tarts' branded patisserie is now retailed at Harvey Nichols, Booths Supermarkets and sold onto restaurant groups such as Living Ventures.
A crucial part of establishing the business was our participation at artisan food markets across the region. Sales at the events were such that we could invest in a properly equipped artisan bakery and, importantly, gain credibility with target wholesale customers.
The business has traded at The Wilmslow Artisan Market from its inception in the summer of 2011. The market has been so crucial to the launch of our brand that we haven't missed a single event in three years – even working holidays around it. We started off taking a single pitch to retail a modest range of patisserie products. In response to customer demand at the market, we trebled our stock levels taking 3 pitches at each event and selling both sweet and savoury goods – all freshly baked from our premises located adjacent to the market.
In March of this year, we successfully pushed for the market to continue without interruption when the partnership behind the event was dissolved after a business dispute. Although we had seen sales drop off quite dramatically after the move of the market from the third Saturday of the month to the third Sunday, and there was little in the way of profit to be made from each event, it still fulfilled a very important cash flow purpose for us. Aside from the markets, our business is a wholesale one and it often takes a long time for us to see the fruits of our labour – the markets are great because the cash from sales comes into the business immediately, enabling us to manage our bills without recourse to large overdraft facilities etc.
But as the numbers of spenders at the Sunday event have continued to nosedive month on month, that cashflow benefit is now outweighed by the real risk of making a considerable loss each time the business attends. We have quickly arrived at the point where the fee we pay to have a stall at the market can no longer be justified. The market is no longer sustainable for us and unless it moves back to a Saturday we will not be able to attend, no matter how much we would love to do so.
We are very fortunate that we have a growing wholesale limb to our business (this has taken off in past couple of months in particular) and we are therefore no longer absolutely reliant on the markets. Nevertheless, it has still been a very hard decision to take. As Wilmslow residents, the success of the town means an awful lot to us – we want to see it buzz and the excitement that the market used to bring to locals and visitors alike seems to have evaporated since the move to Sunday. It is very sad.
Similar events work on a Sunday in Macclesfield and Knutsford (and we will continue to retail there) but I just don't think Wilmslow people want to shop in town on Sunday – they know the event is on but it does not have the same appeal as it did on a Saturday. We've given it a good go for over 6 months now. Wilmslow Town Council and Cheshire East obviously owe a duty to listen to the views of the 'bricks and mortar' retail businesses who pay business rates but I think they also owe a duty to their residents who pay council taxes and voted them into office. The research that was commissioned last year, and which was the catalyst behind the move to Sunday, did not take account of residents' views (it just surveyed the views of the town's retail community) and there should really be some sort of public poll on this issue – it is so important to the vitality of our town.
We hope that at some stage in the future the market might return to its former glory and once more become the flagship artisan event that Wilmslow can be proud to host. If it remains a Sunday event it will be lucky to survive. Without the market, and without the support of our Wilmslow customers, it would have been pretty impossible to get our little business off the ground and that is something we will never forget.
Members post by Angela Kapoor.
Comments
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it would only be 1 - 4 so can't see the problem
We no longer go to the Sunday market as most of the local shops are closed - and the atmosphere with fewer stalls and fewer people isn't enough to make us want to attend. The difference between what it is now and what is once was - and could be again - is staggering.
Is this what Wilmslow really wants? Its quite depressing.
Please move the market back to a Saturday! We are fully behind the market, all the traders, and the shop keepers too. The only way this will work for everyone is if the market is moved back.
Like you we have been trading at the artisan market since it launched nearly 3 years ago and we have never missed an event. We have been there and have met such wonderful customers. The market added a vibrant atmosphere to the town and people enjoyed the event.
It brought the young & old together, filled up the bars & cafés with people joining up and making it a good social gathering. Visitors & local residents including the market traders enjoyed the whole shopping experience of having the shops & market open together.
Unfortunately on a Sunday this has been sadly lost, shoppers don't have the same dependencies, especially as a majority of the shops on a Sunday don't open.
The market was brought in to work alongside retailers and it worked the customers loved it, unfortunately a few remarks and outbursts were voiced by a very small majority and the market was very quickly sidelined.
From the success of the Saturday market gave me the confidence to open my first shop and I embrace the market coming to town, I get involved by running special offers on the day welcoming new customers into my shop.
So I see it from both sides & I agree that having a bigger footfall in the local area is a big big positive factor in keeping the community spirit and getting customers into your shop. We all love the market and I have to be frank, sales have dropped quite significantly.
It's upsetting to see friends, fellow traders give up the market and in good British spirit the rest of us pick up and carry on. We remain loyal and positive to the customers that remain especially when they're telling is they want to see the market moved back to a Saturday. I totally agree with Angela move it or lose it.
CEC appear in no hurry to devolve resp for local street markets to WTC in next 12 months.
More shops did seem to be open last Sun, but not enough.
I still go the market regularly but it really has lost it's spark and I haven't spoken to a single retailer, market stall holder or shopper who thinks the Sunday market is a good idea.
PLEASE let's move it back to Saturday.
"I have lived in Wilmslow for 20 years. I do my best to support the town by shopping locally in town or Chapel Lane and try to avoid trips in the car to Handforth Dean by using our local supermarkets and other shops including Hooper's, in preference to the big chains. I go to Wilmslow nearly every Saturday. Like most working women, Saturday is my day for shopping, for food and anything else. The market has been the best thing that has happened in Wilmslow in all the years I have lived here. I make a point of coming in to buy food from my favourite market stalls, and on a number of occasions I have helped out at out transition Wilmslow stalls that have been a great way for us to communicate our ideas to other local people, and have fun with our raffles and family bike rides. The market is also a great way of feeling part of the community. I asked quite a number of people on Saturday what they thought of the change from Saturday to Sunday. Many of the stall holders do not want a change from Saturday to Sunday (I think their views are important to canvas too!) and I certainly would not visit the market as often on a Sunday. For me, and I suspect many others, Sunday is a day when I do other things: go for a walk, have Sunday lunch with family. I am not a churchgoer but a lot of people here do attend church and they may well not visit the market in such numbers on a Sunday. A Sunday market is a different one from a Saturday. If you go to a market town such as Ludlow, you'll see the Saturday market is when people buy their food, their meat and vegetables. Sunday is different: it's an antique/bric a brac holiday sort of a market. Changing the day will change the feel of the market. The ideal, I think, would be single rows of stalls heading round on to Green lane. Green lane is such a mess, such an eyesore. I realise it is not possible now because of the buses, but I really like the Wilmslow Trust's idea of pedestrianising green lane to get a walking circuit of shops. In the meanwhile, please don't change the day of the market. I find it very hard to credit the comments of the shop keepers that their trade is significantly down: I went into rymans and water stones on Saturday and they were buzzing. Please keep the market on a Saturday. Frankly, apart from the people, it is one of the few things we have to be really proud of in our town. Let's try and make it work for everyone. The market should be seen as a wonderful reflection of our community, not a problem that needs solving or worse still abandoning. Let's celebrate our market and really make it work."