Phil Dorrell, director at Retail Remedy compares the ambience and authenticity of Morrison Market Street with his local Barnsley Market.

Barnsley Market is a mixture of old-fashioned traders of meat, fish and greengrocery and non-food traders.

Barnsley Market

A good market is hard to beat – and my local one in Barnsley is a great example. It has an energy and honesty that make me feel attuned both to the neighbourhood I live in and to the products I am buying.

Barnsley Market is a mixture of old-fashioned traders of meat, fish and greengrocery and non-food traders. It’s the fresh food side of it that captivates me. I shop at the meat and fish market and am regularly greeted by traders who have been doing this for decades.

The displays are not only creative, but often eye-catching in a way that supermarkets can rarely be.

It’s the birthplace of some of our best retail, and some of our most honest.

Morrisons Market Street

I want to love the idea of markets in a supermarket. On paper the Morrisons Market Street is a brilliant idea – the trouble is it doesn’t always work.

The nature of large corporate retail is invariably to reduce costs, and that is at odds with all of the things that could make Market Street feel special.

There are few things as miserable as a fish counter that is poorly set up and staffed by an employee who looks like they drew the short straw on the rota.

Too often Market Street just feels like half a shop. If you want to be a tiger, don’t paint only half the stripes. Sadly this is something that Morrisons is increasingly doing.