Bucking the Tesco Trend

Banksy's latest masterpiece resonated with me today after visiting the Village Manor Bakery in Waterhead (just off the A62 near the 82 bus terminus, if you are passing). At only one mile from a Tesco, this traditional bakery bucks the trend fantastically by creating fabulous bread, cakes and pies without resorting to the dreaded Chorleywood Baking process that industrial bakers use to make that doughy stuff they sell in supermarkets as bread.

Banksy may be having a pop at the whole plastic bag thing but, to my mind, it is all linked. I simply think back to the days of the corner shop when my mum sent me with a string bag to collect her bread: two uncut white and an uncut Hovis (please Mrs Day).

That childhood errand sums up the difference between the shopping experience then, when I would nip to the corner shop for cold meat, bread and cakes; cross the road to go the greengrocers and then nip up the road to Ashworth's butchers for a pound of skirt.

I do miss the ease and availability of local shopping as it was. And that isn't simply nostalgia but rather regret at the sort of world we had where people knew your name when you went in the shop (I hope it's not just me who can hear the theme tune from Cheers playing in the distance).

When I collected my Mother in Law's bread this morning, I couldn't help but notice that despite the queue out of the door (there is always a big queue) the staff still had time for the many older people who are known by name as they collected their own regular order. They also asked me how my Father in Law was getting on; I've only been in three or four times to collect his bread since he has been ill, but they remembered me.

That's service!