The internet has brought us many things, from niche meme accounts and classic 90s TV shows on tap to the ultimate convenience of buying groceries from your bed. But such convenience inevitably comes at a price. When it comes to online shopping, high streets and local markets are suffering the consequences.
Following a gradual decrease in trading, Beaumont Market in Beaumont Leys, a suburb in Leicester, is set to close. The market was home to 60 stallholders when it opened in 1984 but over the years that has dropped to just 15, operating from Wednesday to Sunday.
Leicester City Council has said it is no longer viable to keep the market running but that it has made the decision ‘reluctantly’.
Peter Chandler, head of economic regeneration at the council said: ‘Shopping habits have changed since the market opened in the 1980s, and there has been a gradual decline in shopping there over several years. This has resulted in fewer stallholders and a reduction in the income needed to give the market a viable future.’
Traders have to leave the site by Sunday, September 3, though they have been offered an alternative spot at the Leicester Market. However, stalls there are also set to temporarily relocate in October while the site gets a £7.5m makeover.
One stall owner told the BBC that the news came as a ‘massive shock’. She said: ‘We understand if it’s got to close, it’s got to close, but that’s not a very long time for people to try and find somewhere else to trade. They said we could trade in Leicester possibly but all these people don’t want to go to Leicester, our customers are here.
‘We’ve got regular customers, they want to avoid town, here is fantastic the parking is great, it’s just easier for everybody.’
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