Sunday 15 March 2015

A Traders View On Renewal - Jeff Wozniak

It could be said that Jeff Wozniak believes renewal should involve a more conservative approach than what is proposed in the Draft Master Plan.

Jeff is concerned that our character as an open air market could be lost in the new proposals. He sees the benefits of market innovations like solar power but doesn't see the need for a headlong rush into the 21st century and believes some minor and cosmetic changes are all that is needed. He believes there are some essential characteristics that need to be enhanced in our market -
1. Affordable goods.
2. Well presented stalls and stock.
3. Effective management control to avoid category over-representation (duplication).
4. Cheap shopping with ancillary services like car parking at cheap prices.

Jeff is concerned that enclosing our market would change its character and that permanent type stall set ups could make us a lot less flexible. He uses the example of the current F&V stalls that prevent use of those areas outside normal trading times. He is concerned that permanent set-ups and extended trading would make us too much like a shopping centre and believes our market should not be just a revenue earner for the city but rather a tourist attraction and community hub.

Jeff says that we are not a 21st century market and that we offer better things to our customers like personal service and personal contact in a traditional open market environment. We could make some discrete physical improvements like ceiling fans in summer but essentially our market shouldn't change. As our city moves forward into the 21st century, Jeff's mantra might be - the more we stay the same, the more different we become.


COMMENTS:
16/03/2015 12:43:09 Jeff Wozniak View "... the more we stay the same, the more different we become…You mean:   ...more DIFFICULT we become..." Mino