More market trouble...

I arrived into Temple Bar Market on Saturday and immediately sensed an air of negativity around the place. I wasnt very awake as it was early, so was a bit slow on the uptake. I chatted to Brendan at the Olive stall and then went to Jenny's stall for my usual range of salads and veggies. I overheard her conversation with another regular customer, and picked up that the other mainstay vegetable supplier - Dennis Healy - had been suspended from the market. I had spotted the gap in the stalls, but had assumed that they were just late in getting things set up. While stall-holders have been suspended before, there seemed to be more going on that just that. There was. As it turned out, all the stallholders had been informed over the New Year break period that their rents were going up - in many cases, they were being doubled!! I was astonished, to put it mildly. Given that we are in the midst of the biggest economic downturn in many years in this country, it seems totally unfair to put up rents to that extent. The various local authorities around the country were told in no uncertain terms by business and national politicians to limit their rates increases to marginal increases of below 5%, and here we have a public agency increasing the equivalent of rates by over 100% in most cases! Talk about not having a level playing field. Once more, there is inequity being fostered between big business who can command air-time and influence, and small business, who are too scattered to be able to hope to position themselves in equivalent positions of power.

Back to the problem that led to Denis Healy's stall being conspicuous by its absence... I spotted Denis himself before I left the market, and asked him what the story was. Apparently, his staff had left some empty boxes behind on the last day before Christmas, as one of their vans had broken down and they couldnt pack everything. As a punishment for this, he was being fined almost €1000, and was being suspended until the fine was paid! What an attitude this displays. You need to sell some amount of veggies and fruit to make a profit of €1000. Denis was visibly upset by the whole thing and had come into the market to attempt to meet with the market supervisor directly, as nobody had returned his phone calls earlier in the week.

Maybe the stall-holders should take matters into their own hands and find another location to set up their stalls - if I am anything by way of being a typical regular shopper there - I dont go to savour the early morning smells of Temple Bar en route to the market itself (stale alcohol and worse), but to buy the excellent produce that is available from the stall-holders...