Cambridge feels the downturn

A quick stroll around the environs of Market Square, a setting that I have known and loved for over a quarter of a century, illustrates the changing face of the high street as the recession deepens. The Vodafone store where I bought my Blackberry last year has gone. Cambridge University Press, having announced a large number of redundancies, has opened a store where hard back academic books can be taken away for less than £2 each (max 20 books per customer!).

Ringtons the specialist tea maker and distributor which opened up a new store on a fashionable high street has disappeared in less than a year. There are plenty of other stores plastered with closing down signs and posters advertising deep discounts of seventy per cent or more.

But a ray of hope among the gloom…....

The market stall selling ostrich meat was doing a roaring trade when I visited it on Sunday morning. Bisbrooke Ostrich Farm is based in Rutland, Leicestershire and from what I could tell at the weekend, their ostrich burgers at a very reasonable £2.50 are proving quite a hit! Their continued success contrasts starkly with the sad closure of the Rington’s retail store (I admit that I have a love of fresh tea leaves and was a little distressed to find the store had gone!) where the rental costs will be sigificantly higher than a pitch within a busy and bustling market place.

Farmers’ Markets became in vogue a few years ago and I wonder if they have passed the peak of their popularity? Will the recession lead to a stampede towards the heavy discounts on meat products offered by the supermarket giants?