Battle against the giants

As I entered the market, Steve Fowler was busy preparing his fruit and vegetable stall, arranging the shelves, stacking boxes and washing the apples. 

Steve is 52 and has been working on the stall for five and a half years. Before he moved into fruit and vegetables, he worked as a butcher for 30 years.  Originally from Swindon, he has lived in Cardiff for 31 years. 

He is on the front line in the battle to get more people to eat fresh and healthy food and working with fresh produce all his life has given Steve inside knowledge about food. Cooking it, selling it, but also the importance of quality, something he holds dear above all else.

He said: “Supermarket shopping is convenience shopping. Their stuff comes in over night and people don’t know when it’s coming out for sale or how it’s treated.

“Customers can see what I bring in every day is fresh. They see it being unloaded. We know what we are talking about whereas supermarkets do not. Supermarkets are shelf stackers.”

This is the real issue for Steve. He has appeared on television and radio shows and given talks at universities across the country.

At his stall, tucked just inside the entrance to Cardiff Market on Trinity Street, Steve showed how all his stock is refrigerated and said it is usually turned over within 24 hours. Most of his stock comes from Bessemer Road wholesale market and he said he tells his buyers to go to the best suppliers, even if it means paying a little bit more.

But he accepts supermarkets alone are not to blame: “It is a lifestyle problem because a husband and wife, boyfriend and girlfriend are both working. They both go to the supermarket on Saturday and there is food in the freezer the night before.

“It’s a lifestyle where supermarkets are so easy and so convenient, where people are eating microwave meals. People do not know how to cook fresh food. They don’t know what herbs to use, what rocket or coriander is.”

But it’s not all bad news.

It is an age-old joke that students live off beans on toast, but Steve explained he has many young customers, often students, who come in and ask where they can buy a good piece of lamb or pork, how it should be cooked and how to cook the vegetables.

He said: It’s nice to see people come in and ask me and know they are eating decent food.”

Richard Hesketh, 19 and a student living in Cathays, shops at the supermarket but also shops at Cardiff Market.

He said: “It’s all fresh food from here and it’s as convenient as anywhere else.”

But he also said he didn’t think it was a general trend.

Geraint James, 42, unemployed from Taff’s Well, agrees: “It’s definitely important to shop locally and we don’t want Tesco-land anymore but supermarkets are king.”

But Kim Han, 28, a solicitor living in Cardiff Bay, said: “I think there’s been a shift in attitude. More people are aware about getting fresh food. It’s important to have shops like this.”

Stephen Mitchell, 49, a print finisher from Merthyr Tydfil and Katherine Jones, 27, a client manager from Adamsdown agree with Kim Han and all three agree the likes of Jamie Oliver and Hugh Fearnley – Whittingstall have probably had an impact.

Steve is of the same opinion: “I do like the way they are trying to educate people to cook healthily with fresh produce. I’m all in favour of them. There can be a programme on Monday and they have used a particular herb or vegetable and I can tell people have watched it because all of a sudden I’ve run out of tarragon or butternut squash.”

But Mrs Holbrook, 83, from Morganstown summed up the sentiments of the majority of shoppers: “I do think it’s important to shop locally but Asda is near me. Yes, places like the market are important but supermarkets are all right.”

So it seems Steve still has a lot of work to do, though it is clear he is having an impact on those who come to him.

He concluded: “The more people who realise we sell fresh the better. We have to promote local shops and we have to try to shop locally.”