Rumours are flying round Hay about the future of the site of Hay School when Hay School isn't there any more. The fact is that building work on a new school hasn't even started yet - and I'm not sure that a new site for the school has even been chosen yet, so whatever happens is some way off in the future. However, this has not deterred the gossip, the main thrust of which seems to be that Waitrose wants to build a supermarket where the school now stands.
Waitrose themselves have added fuel to the speculation by hosting a Cheese and Wine evening at the school on Thursday 11th February, at 7.30pm, cost £2, and the point of which is to tell the local community what Waitrose can do for us. They already, according to the poster in the Launderette window, provide a delivery service in this area.
Waitrose also have a website with a forum, and one of the threads on that forum was started by a local lady who greets the thought of a Waitrose store closer than Abergavenny with open arms. Mind you, this is a person who says she had thought of selling her home just to move closer to a Waitrose, and she claims that local shops in Hay do not have the selection of food that she wants.
I find that amazing!
Looking round Phil the Fruit's shop this morning, as Islay ate her daily peanut, I could see chillies, limes, sweet potatoes... and if Phil doesn't have something, he can order it for the next day.
We have in Hay, at the moment, two excellent butchers, two greengrocers, one baker's, the Thursday market with the cheese, and fish van and speciality breads, and a Wholefood shop that reminds my boyfriend of the food hall in Harrods!
What more could anyone want?
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
13 comments:
I know what we don't want - a bloody supermarket! We've got co-op, which is ideal, the market, and the shops you mention.
Sadly I imagine it'll boil down to money...
The prospect of a Waitrose in Hay is indeed very dangerous and all of Hay should fight against it. The implications are horrendous. They will worm their way in by saying they will be giving jobs but these will all be minimum paid part time dead end jobs for schoolkids and people desperate for a job. Our fabulous greengrocers etc, will close and then we will be forced to pay the inflated prices that Waitrose offer for foods coming from abroad that we didn't need anyway. Consider, also, the effect it would have on our unique and special Thursday market.
Whoever it is that has this ardour for Waitrose should pack her bags and take her small mind with her. It wont be missed.
If people are persuaded because it means a super dooper new school will be built with the proceeds of the sale of the land , they should think again. New supermarket = closing of our local shops = less demand for local food = decline of jobs = people with kids moving away from Hay for jobs = less demand on schools anyway.
Waitrose should be stopped at all costs because the price of having their "luxury`" items is way too high.
P.S. Oh yes, and while I'm at it, why don't we have shops like bloody Cath Kidston move in and allow Hay to become just like everywhere else?
I can't think why the town council are even considering this. Well, you can have a new school but in return you'll have to forfeit everything that Hay stands for and has stood for for hundreds of years. You can say goodbye to Phil the Fruit, Stuart Pritchard at Castle Greengrocers, goodbye to Tom Bounds and Chris Gibbons, goodbye to the Castle Street bakers, the delicattessan, and sadly and historically, you can wave goodbye to the Thursday market which has been in Hay for what, 800 years. So no more Mr Price the fishmonger and Nicky's cheese stall and Jason's veggies and Primrose's organics. Oh, yes, but there will be jobs for people stacking shelves and collecting all the stray shopping carts. Oh and by the way we forgot to mention that food at Waitrose costs about ten per cent more than it does in the other high street supermarkets.
We have to fight this monster whilst we have the chance. A phone call to the nationals and to Private Eye could stir up a hornets nest.
And not only that, they have the cheek to charge us two quid so we can go and have their wine and cheese and tell them to f*** off.
Well, I shall be paying my £2 in the interests of research, and I'll write it all up for the blog.
Hay-on-Wire has run an open letter about this to Roger Williams M.P. - Copies of Hay-on-Wire are now available from Chris at the newsagents, Phil the Fruit, the Chip Shop, Kilverts, and all good bookshops (Boz, Addyman, Addyman Annexe, Oxford House Books, and Broad Street Book Centre.) More coverage likely in the Spring Issue...)
Some very unfair comments about Waitrose posted above.
IF there is to be another supermarket in Hay, then let it be Waitrose.
They are the only supermarket that supports British farming and Welsh Farming in particular.
As for the remark about paying low wages - everyone who works at Waitrose becomes a partner in the business and has a share in the profit. That profit doesn't go to shareholders like at Tesco or back to America as with Asda.
Waitrose buy more British fruit and veg in % terms than any other supermarket.
It's beef, milk and pork is 100% British. Most of its lamb is Welsh, except out of season.
At the end of the day IF Waitrose comes to Hay there will be another choice for consumers. No-one has to shop there like no-one has to shop at the Co-op.
More pulicity,I say. Let's get letters to the major daily papers, Private Eye, and the other media outlets. Oh and don't forget you can always add to the growing chorus of outrage on Waitrose's very own web site - look for the forums, then go to the non-food discussions. The idea that a Waitrose might come to town will kill Hay stone dead. It must NEVER happen.
I am afraid that I am still writhing about the prospect of Waitrose in Hay. Please, anyone and everyone who reads this, go on to the forum and say your bit - that's assuming you're against Waitrose as much as I am!
http://www.waitrose.com/forum/default.aspx?g=posts&m=7476&
You have to sign up first, but please don't let this stop you.
I love Waitrose. It's somewhere that - if I'm ever passing through Abergavenny - will occasionally stop off for a few treats on my way home (and usually pay a fortune for them). But I think the Co-op, along with the small shops in town provide everything I need for the weekly shop in variety and abundance. We just don't need another supermarket. I'd like to think the last couple of years of turmoil resulting, in part, from our mass greed and aspirational lifestyle choices have taught us some lessons. Less CAN be more...
Have people really been unfair to Waitrose?
Historically, whenever any supermarket opens, of whatever name, local jobs and local small businesses are lost. When the Co-op opened, Bull Ring Stores closed down, and became an antique shop. This was a shop which once blended its own tea to suit the palates (and the water) of Hay!
It's reassuring that they are so good to their staff, but the fact remains that Hay doesn't need any more supermarkets at all. We already have enough food outlets to supply the population adequately.
I have been one of the anonymous contributors to this thread, being strongly against Waitrose coming to Hay. I may also add that I have actually worked for John Lewis and would strongly dispute the fact that they are "good to their staff". Yes, they do some good things, and the staff "own" the company, but I have also seen people have breakdowns and other sad tales, due to their sledgehammer approach in "getting the most" from their employees.In the end, they are just like any other big company, so I wouldn't allow the fact that the employees are "partners" to enhance the image of Waitrose.
My concern, overall, is the effect ANY supermarket will have on Hay and the independent outlets, plus the market.
Choice, choice, choice, choice - the mantra of an increasingly discredited theory. Some people have come to accept the word in a way that confuses it with something entirely different, i.e. 'more'.
In this case, 'more' doesn't help Hay - and it's not beyond question that it helps Welsh farmers. Even if one were to accept the dubious claim that Welsh farming can thrive because of any sort of supermarket expansion, you're left with a trade off, and it's the town's existing (and quite special) economy that would be asked to pay for it.
Those with the idea that if Hay has to have another supermarket then Waitrose would be the best are somewhat reminiscent of many German soldiers in 1945, who would rather have been prisoners of the Americans, than be taken by the Russians - and it was an idea that took hold only when it was certain they'd lost.
And we're not particularly cheered by any comments we might hear, like 'it's not a done deal' - so we'll be opposing this before the outset. The Council of State will be agitating for opposition.
'Get your retaliation in first...'
Paul Harris.
Post a Comment