Business news. For years Brixton Market has been widely known for it’s strong multi-cultural atmosphere with buyers and sellers from many ethnic groups. It became so well known that folks in search of scarce or generally hard to find fruits or vegetables originating in Africa or the Caribbean would make Brixton Market their ‘first port of call.’
Today it’s an entirely different environment with less than a handful of Black traders, largely replaced by Arabs, Indians and now Eastern Europeans, Polish to be exact.
Why the change? Is it that Black traders failed to manage their businesses properly and or succumbed to the rising rents over the years? Is it because Black consumers failed to continue their usual custom thereby ensuring the traders an income and ability to replenish their stock? Could it simply be the effects of virulent market forces that have made it impossible for Black traders to compete or lastly as some speculate, could it be a long and sustained effort by the Council to change the culture of the market, a culture that has made the area internationally known?
What are your thoughts?
