Fruitopia’s Pete Smith reflects on the reasons for the fruit and veg shop’s recent closure, and the future for local shops in the face of stiff competition.

BPI (Bitternepark.info): It’s very sad that Fruitopia has closed: a lot of people would agree with that. What were the reasons behind the closure?

Pete: I’d say too many things happened: the post office going was a big blow to the whole Triangle; it knocked about 20% of our turnover off. We lost a reasonable amount of turnover having a flower shop open next door to us. Tesco up the road has affected it, but to us the biggest thing is Waitrose, I’m absolutely convinced. Waitrose sells lots of things that we sell, but has a wider range. It is a nice, airy, well-lit shop. People who would come to us and go to a supermarket could now do all their shopping in one go - and feel good about themselves. They’ve got some very clever marketing: locally produced food, for example (although they don’t advertise what percentage is locally produced). But at the end of the day a supermarket is still a supermarket, no matter what clothes it wears on the outside.

BPI: But it is, to some extent at least, worker owned, so some people who are supporters of the co-op might have an affinity with John Lewis and Waitrose for that reason.

Pete: Absolutely, but it is still a beast, that has to grow year on year. Because if it doesn’t, the people who run it are going to get the sack … and other people are going to come through the ranks, because if you run a company, if your company stands still year after year, you’re not seen as a success.

BPI: It has grown enormously — it used to be a far more obscure brand.

Pete: It was very niche, wasn’t it. More of a home counties brand. I read the other day it now has 180 stores, and they’ve got an aggressive plan to double that within the next five years.

So we launched a marketing campaign after the post office closure — leaflets and a home delivery service - and clawed a lot of what we’d lost back. So we worked really really hard to stand still, effectively. But Waitrose had a massive effect. And Tesco, up the road - I’m sure it affects the Triangle. Most people who would drive up that road and stop at the Triangle can now stop there. But our core of local people, a lot of them now are quite happy to go to Portswood.

BPI: I remember, on a Saturday morning there were times when you could hardly get in the door at Fruitopia. But the Triangle in general seems a lot quieter now.

Pete with his son

Pete: The post office certainly made a difference because people used to collect their pensions, and do their shopping when they had their money in their pocket. But they weren’t our ‘biggest earners’; that’s probably why we were able to survive after that. But the people who would buy throughout the week can now go to Waitrose and buy a big shop.

I’m not the food police: I don’t mind where people go and shop. I have to buy things somewhere. But what attracts people to the area, I think, is the schools, the park, and the fact that it had local shops. But if you don’t use those facilities, if you don’t encourage them, then you’re going to lose them. You know, if someone opened a nice, shinier newer park, a bit further down the road, with a bigger, wider river….

BPI: With some nice modern play facilities?

Pete: …yes — and everyone went there, would the council say that it’s not really worth maintaining the one that we’ve got at the moment? And you could call it ‘benign neglect’ really. If you want these facilities in your area, then you’ve got to use them and support them.

Fruitopia's previous incarnation

It’s not that every shop has a right to expect people to come in and buy things: you don’t have that right. But on the other hand, if people want those facilities, these days they’ve got to make a conscious effort to keep them. And even if they try they might not always succeed. If you look at areas like Swaythling, there used to be loads of shops down there. Now it’s all takeaways and convenience stores. That’s because local people didn’t support local shops when they were there. There used to be a fruit and veg shop, a butcher, and a bakery. And that’s just ten years ago.

It’s not like the old days when enough people didn’t go to supermarkets: everyone goes to supermarkets now. The people who go to local shops are in the minority.  

BPI: And there’s a Sainsbury’s on the cards for the site of the bus depot in Portswood.

bus depot

Pete: The problem is it will have parking. And that is one of the issues. If you talk to the council about parking, and having longer than half an hour, the response is that the policy is to encourage people not to use their cars. Which is great, but it’s not a policy that is aligned with small shops and local businesses.

BPI: When we spoke previously you were saying you felt there were ironies about the Cobbett Road Library campaign. I think you were saying that one of the reasons that people supported the campaign was that they didn’t want to travel to Bitterne or Portswood to use the library; they wanted to keep facilities on their doorstep. And yet, you feel many are very happy to shop outside of the area.

Pete: Yes. I don’t think people see the two as related though. But I do think it’s ironic, because that was a very very popular campaign. I don’t remember anyone saying, no, I think they should close it. Everybody, even people who didn’t use it, thought it should be saved. But it seems to be a different thing with shopping.

BPI: Do you think that the local shops could have organised their own campaign to foster that spirit of shopping in ‘real local shops’?

Pete: Some of us have been trying to organise that for a while, and have just given up. You end up with the same couple of people trying to do everything, and when you’re trying to run a business, working 60 or 70 hours a week, and you’ve got a child — trying to organise and run a campaign like that is quite difficult, so you need to have all the other traders behind you, who are involved, not just a bunch of people who say, well yes, I think that’s a great idea but hey I’m too busy to do anything about it.

BPI: Do you think there will be another fruit and veg shop in the Triangle?

Pete: I’d be surprised, to be honest. I think the only way it would happen would be if there was a local campaign that really gathered momentum, that got some money together and that said “we’re going to run a fruit and veg shop ourselves”, and if it could get someone to come in and manage it for them. Because I can’t see anyone coming in now and putting money into it. Someone would have to put their own money into it to buy it, and they’ve got to make money — a living — out of it; and it’s really long hours — 60/70 a week — and what’s the point of working those hours if you’re not going to be rewarded. And business rates go up, refuse collection costs go up, minimum wage costs go up, the cost of produce goes up, and the rent was going to go up, too.

BPI: What’s next for you?

Pete: I don’t know, really.


Many thanks to Pete for taking the time to chat with us.

Š bitternepark.info

• the government's Planning Inspectorate will be making a decision, er, sometime, on the  Sainsbury's proposal following a public enquiry earlier this month, held because the Inspectorate 'called-in' the application.

For our original artcile on Fruitopia's closure, and all the original comments, click here

See also

Articles on this site relating to Tesco or Fruitopia: just use the ‘Search’ tool!

Links

Interesting Wikipedia article on Waitrose: market, history, growth etc

Ditto Wikipedia on Tesco

Tescopoly

Channel 4's Dispatches Documentry on 'The Supermarket that's eating Britain' (Referring to Tesco)
Google video - (48 mins)