Today was a lovely sunny, mild Saturday which suited a yard party at The People’s Supermarket perfectly. I hadn’t been to the supermarket since I interviewed Arthur Potts Dawson for my masters thesis back in September and it was really encouraging to see how it has developed. The channel 4 tv series has clearly been a huge help in increasing its members and attracting more customers; the shelves were well stocked, there were more selling units being used and the range of stock has increased.

Today’s event was part of the Fairtrade Fortnight – an initiative set up to ‘ask the nation to show off about buying Fairtrade which offers 7.5 million people in the developing world a more secure future’ – something I feel is worth supporting. There was Divine chocolate tasting, coffee tasting, popcorn, live music, talks and the best bit, a bicycle powered banana smoothie maker!

There was such a great community feel to the party. The volunteers were friendly, everyone was made to feel welcome and such a great idea to run an event where everyone has to walk through the shop to get to it.

Potts Dawson is definitely doing a good job. He has been quoted to say ‘let’s take on Tesco with a ‘people’s supermarket’ and I think, after today’s visit, you can say he is doing exactly that; the lovely bunches of flowers for sale outside were beautifully displayed and very affordable, there were loaves of ‘rustic’ bread being sold off for 50p, you could serve yourself small jars of spices for 10p each (perfect amount if you’re not a huge spice lover) and there were large bags of sugar and flower allowing you to take what you needed. The communication around the shop and small messages about the food made you want to buy from them. The unusual yet appealing brands encouraged you to wander through the aisles and the fresh produce was simply refreshing to see.

If you haven’t been before, I highly recommend a visit. The prices are decided by the members. Some I’d say were higher than expected while others were lower but overall the experience makes it worth shopping there. At the end of the day, you are helping promote independent supermarkets. No more Tescos please…..

Well done, People’s Supermarket!