On yesterday's de rigueur Sounds of the Sixties (BBC Radio 2 8.00 a.m.), I heard veteran broadcaster Brian Matthew play a song called "Goody Goody Gumdrops" by the 1910 Fruitgum Company. It reminded me of sixties' tobacconists & sweetshops, of newsagents with glass sweet jars and even F W Woolworth's pick 'n' mix. There were a number who sold loose sweets in Rhuthun/Ruthin and, somewhat incongruously, even Good Health Home Brew got in on the act.
An announcement also yesterday by Rhuthun indoor market that they had a "traditional" sweet stall caused a Facebook furore. There was something of a backlash, as significant numbers leapt to the defence of the Candy Shack that opened on Clwyd Street during the autumn (of 2014). Had they returned to the debate this morning, they would have found the whole thread expunged from the record. It was taken down.
Those opposed felt the market stall offered unfair competition. Others, though, pointed to a former market sweet stall that recently closed: the new stall was only a replacement. Yet others wondered whether that former market sweet stall actually existed. For sweets, things got rather bitter.
And bitter is how I'd describe my own experience of sweets. The older I get, the more damage they seem to do. Sweets are no longer on my radar. I therefore simply cannot comment whether sweets have featured recently in the indoor market or not. What I would say is that there are products within that compete with the town and there are also some unique offers, too (the latter tends to be marginal to life in general). But surely, that's the nature of a market.
Indeed, that's the nature of modern capitalism. OK, we're not talking macroeconomic theory but, at a local level, if there's but one provider, there will always be the temptation for another entrant to tap into the established provider's profits. The reverse of the pro-Candy Shack defence lobby is the evil of monopoly, the pricing policy that monopoly implies, and the limiting of choice.
The clearest example of indoor market competition was the commotion caused as it booted out the long established but fragile Friday Country Market, now exiled to the English Presbyterian Church of Wales's Sunday school rooms. A number of indoor market stalls compete directly with the Country Market. Those who run neither the Country Market nor the indoor market endeared themselves to the town over the spat, though it's clear where most sympathies lie.
The $64,000 question is actually therefore whether our indoor market enhances or detracts from our town. Rhuthun, after all is a *market* town. Is it a boil that needs lancing or a honeypot that attracts? Do we want a full and healthy market? Is it a legitimate form of competition? Haven't markets always provided such competition? Do market trader overheads include a contribution towards rates (I believe that they do)?
The Candy Shack doesn't just face competition from the indoor market, though. The Co-op and Bar Llaeth (and no doubt others) also sell traditional sweets (albeit in bags, not from jars). Even B & M has some. These days, you don't have to go far to find barley sugars, humbugs, liquorice… and no doubt gumdrops, too.
Those opposed felt the market stall offered unfair competition. Others, though, pointed to a former market sweet stall that recently closed: the new stall was only a replacement. Yet others wondered whether that former market sweet stall actually existed. For sweets, things got rather bitter.
And bitter is how I'd describe my own experience of sweets. The older I get, the more damage they seem to do. Sweets are no longer on my radar. I therefore simply cannot comment whether sweets have featured recently in the indoor market or not. What I would say is that there are products within that compete with the town and there are also some unique offers, too (the latter tends to be marginal to life in general). But surely, that's the nature of a market.
Indeed, that's the nature of modern capitalism. OK, we're not talking macroeconomic theory but, at a local level, if there's but one provider, there will always be the temptation for another entrant to tap into the established provider's profits. The reverse of the pro-Candy Shack defence lobby is the evil of monopoly, the pricing policy that monopoly implies, and the limiting of choice.
The clearest example of indoor market competition was the commotion caused as it booted out the long established but fragile Friday Country Market, now exiled to the English Presbyterian Church of Wales's Sunday school rooms. A number of indoor market stalls compete directly with the Country Market. Those who run neither the Country Market nor the indoor market endeared themselves to the town over the spat, though it's clear where most sympathies lie.
The $64,000 question is actually therefore whether our indoor market enhances or detracts from our town. Rhuthun, after all is a *market* town. Is it a boil that needs lancing or a honeypot that attracts? Do we want a full and healthy market? Is it a legitimate form of competition? Haven't markets always provided such competition? Do market trader overheads include a contribution towards rates (I believe that they do)?
The Candy Shack doesn't just face competition from the indoor market, though. The Co-op and Bar Llaeth (and no doubt others) also sell traditional sweets (albeit in bags, not from jars). Even B & M has some. These days, you don't have to go far to find barley sugars, humbugs, liquorice… and no doubt gumdrops, too.