Each week, Sarah Milne goes behind the scenes at Surrey Street to bring you stories about the traders and their customers and share some secrets about the traders and their customers and share some secrets about the market that you never knew till now.
This week sees the climax of BBC’s ‘The Apprentice’ show as Lord Sugar chooses his new business partner. Thousands in Croydon will have followed his process of selection over the last three months but did you realise, for Surrey Street’s market traders, every day brings an ‘Apprentice’ style ‘task’, complete with all the gambles and drama.
A fruit and vegetable market trader starts the day as most of us are ending the previous one. The London produce markets open anytime from 9pm and some traders will come home in the evening, eat, sleep a bit and be there for 11pm.
Others will begin their day at 2am. They have no idea what they will find at the market. On a good day there will be everything on their stock lists. On a bad day there may nothing so they will have to make a quick decision on what customers may buy instead.
Produce, supply and price vary like the weather and price of lorry diesel. As market worker, Toby, explains: “You may go [to the market] one day and strawberries will be really really cheap. Then you go back the next day and you think, hang on a minute, have they suddenly grown full of gold or something!”
Of course, the customers expect to get the same amount of strawberries, at the same quality, for the same money as the day before. Regular customers are highly valued on the market and traders work hard to please them. This creates huge difficulties when they are facing price and quality fluctuations daily.
The Secrets of Surrey Street Market. . .
Bank holidays cause huge problems for the market. Our produce comes from all over the world, via the continent of Europe. Companies are increasingly refusing to pay the additional costs involved in driving stock into the UK over bank holidays when there are plenty of other companies that will buy at lower cost in Europe.
In the days immediately after the late May bank holiday, many trader simply couldn’t open their stalls because there was nothing left in London, after the supermarkets had taken their pick, to sell. For customers who took a wasted trip into Croydon, this was an inconvenience. For the traders it was lost livelihood!
Once they have loaded their vans, it’s back to Surrey Street at around 6am to set up the stall ready for the customers - if they come! We customers can be fickle at times. We don’t like the wind, the older people who make up a high number of the market’s regular customers feel particularly vulnerable going out in the wind.
We also don’t like to go out in the rain or even when it’s too hot. Such weather conditions can lead to slow trading days. If it’s predicted, the traders may have picked up less stock but we all know how quickly our weather patterns veer off that forecasted in the morning, let alone the night before when the traders set out to market. A lot of produce has a short shelf life and surplus stock can’t be sold.
On a good day, traders pack up around 5pm, tired but satisfied. On the worst days, they may go home with less than they started with. Most return home around 8pm to eat and sleep before it starts all over again.
Every single one of these traders has my utmost respect and admiration! For me, they are all hired.
Follow Sarah on twitter @Sarah_E_Milne.
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