Market back in business, but traders face uncertain future
IT’S an unmissable part of the Welsh capital’s true shopping experience. A must-visit for regulars of decades, office workers on lunch hours and tourists from out of town.
Since it shut its doors back in March, a few businesses have carried on serving customers via deliveries, such as Ashton’s Fishmongers and A&S Griffiths Butchers, but the place that’s a hive of activity and a cornucopia of characters, has lain mostly dormant for three months.
That was until Monday, when the market reopened and many traders returned with extra safety measures in place.
Jonathan Trott runs Sullivan’s fruit and veg at the Hayes entrance, now the only way into the market – you have to exit the St Mary St side.
He’s had work at his suppliers for 12 weeks and is now back at his popular stall, shouting out the deals of the day at the top of his voice.
It’s quiet at the moment, but Jonathan hopes business will pick up before long.
“It’s very quiet at the moment, we’re seeing a few regulars, but I think they’re a bit scared,” he said.
“I thought it would be a bit better, but they’ve shut the road, Castle St, and we’ve got the five-mile limit on so we’re not seeing anyone from the valleys come down.”
He’s waiting for the pubs and restaurants to get the green light to reopen in the hope that footfall increases.
“People come to town and they can’t have anything to eat, they can’t use the toilet, there’s the weather – but we’ll have to keep going.
“I have turned it all into self-service and we have only three customers at a time, there’s hand sanitisers at the door.
“The customers are saying it’s nice to see us back and they are fed up of going to the supermarket, but it’s just letting people know we are here.
“Hopefully, it will pick up, when the pubs and restaurants open, people come into town have a bite to eat, pick up some shopping. A lot of people like to come to the market, sit down have a cup of tea, walk up and down the aisles and see what’s on offer.”
Jonathan added that the difficulty is keeping the produce fresh.
Alan Griffiths runs one of the butcher’s stalls that line the left side of the market as you walk in on the one-way system.
The stall has been delivering to regulars as far away as Porthcawl, and Alan has worked at the market for just over 50years.
They’ve opened to the public for the past six weeks on a Saturday after customers said they wanted quality meat back in their lives.
“It’s very much as I expected,” said Alan. “The footfall is low.”
Alan also cited the closure of Castle Street as a big impact on discouraging some shoppers coming into the city.
“People coming into the city are confused, I was confused, I didn’t see the Matrix saying the street was closed until I got to City Hall,” he said. “This isn’t going to help the footfall.
“It will pick up very slowly. People are still afraid to go on public transport. It will build up, but slowly. If we don’t get footfall through, I can’t pay the staff the wages they deserve.”
Andrew Griffiths runs the Market Deli which has been in the market since 1906 and he’s worked behind the counter since he was nine years old – at least during the summers.
“80% of our trade is lunchtime trader, office workers or shop workers. We’re heavily down on normal trade,” he said.
On a normal lunchtime, the Market Deli is a hive of activity with seven staff working non-stop filling salad boxes or wrapping up delicious
chicken skewers.
Now, only Andrew is working, both for the safety of staff, thanks to social distancing rules in the small stall, and because there’s not enough trade to justify the full compliment.
“Physically, it’s not worth having more than one body here, and financially it isn’t either,” Andrew said.
“A normal Monday would be about 350-400 customers. Monday I served 25. Tuesday I served 19 and today 12, so far – I might serve another 10 if I am lucky.
“The short-term future, I can’t see us having staff back, maybe one or two after a few weeks and the others filtering in over the next two or three months. It should be the heart of Cardiff, but it’s not. If only we were given the same support as St David’s as a commercial entity or the other council properties like the museum.
“A councillor did say we were the jewel in the crown of Cardiff, but that’s not the way the council treat us.”
Levi Talbot, who has co-run Hatts Emporium with dad Stuart for the past six years, said: “It’s hard not to worry.
“We’ve been in the market for a long time and there’s a community and its shopping is habitual. What has three months of lockdown done to those habits?
“Where they shop, how they shop, especially when you see so much innovation take place on social media from Welsh independents, which is great to see, but you see a shift in people ready for a different approach to how we retail things.
“Actually making people feel comfortable shopping in this space, that was the challenge for us – making sure consumers want to come and shop with us and reassure them.”
Though mostly positive about his stall’s place in the market and going forward, Levi wishes shoppers held the indoor market in the same regard as places that attracted queues.
“I’m happy to be back in the building, seeing the other traders back open, but it was a bit disappointing to be honest, you see all these other business like Primark with queues and you can’t get to Culverhouse Cross because of the queues of traffic, so it was a bit deflating to come in on Monday and not see us met with the same amount of enthusiasm,” said the dad-of-two.
“But, in the same sense, we’re all here to persevere and if the building is not open and not being used what happens to those habitual shoppers, so we had to roll up our sleeves and just be there and be ready.”
And what of the shoppers? Sian and Trystan Francis are back in the market for the first time since lockdown and use it at least once a week, they are impressed with the system put in place in terms of safety and hygiene back at the market.
Trystan, who was pleased that the Thai Asian Delish counter was serving again, said: “It’s great to have the market back open and it’s a step in the right direction in terms of getting things back open.”
While Sian added: “I think outside of the city centre you’ve lost many independent butchers and you can’t get any fresh fish outside the market.”