The inevitable re-emergence of the traditional, High Street Butchers Shop

Every cloud has a silver lining, at least that’s what my mother would tell me as a child.

Each time disaster struck my little world; a buckled wheel on my new bicycle, the loss of the spanner for my Meccano set and so on, it would quickly reduce me to tears, and she would comfort me by saying “Never mind dear, every cloud has a silver lining, I’ll speak to your father about it tonight…”

As childhood passed into adulthood, it’s an old adage that I have carried with me, indeed, I often quoted it to my own children when their fragile little lives took a turn for the worst.
Another fond childhood memory is the Saturday morning’s trip to the local Butchers with my mother to choose the Joint of Lamb or Beef for the weekend roast and, more often than not, we would both leave the shop a little later quite satisfied, she with a succulent leg of Welsh Lamb, or a tender Topside of Beef in the shopping basket, and me with a free copy of the “Beano,” a children’s comic which my parents didn’t subscribe to. It wasn’t so much that I had developed a macabre interest for butchers shops, rather, it was the friendly nature of the butcher himself which seemed to impart a feeling of goodwill into our Saturday morning shopping and consequently, I always looked forward to a visit to “Harry’s, the High Street Butchers Shop

“Good morning Mrs Bresco, and you, young James, are you being a good boy for your Mum? Now what’ll it be this weekend Mrs B…, I have some beautiful free range Buxted chickens this weekend, ready dressed for the oven. Or how about a nice rib of Angus beef? And very tender it is too,” he would add reassuringly.
Since the advent of the ubiquitous Super market, the traditional High Street Butchers Shop has been steadily declining, due entirely to our dependence on Supermarket shopping, at least in the cities, that is, as some of the smaller rural villages who haven’t been blessed with a Supermarket, still manage to hold their own, maintaining an age old tradition of providing the local residents’ with, fresh, safe and locally produced meat products. However, since the recent food scare and, frighteningly revealing, DNA sampling across the whole range of meat products, quite soon the tide will turn, as more and more shoppers return to trusted, traditional establishments’ like; “Harry’s,” where fresh, wholesome and unadulterated meat products are for sale amidst an atmosphere of convivial geniality and, a warm welcome, something else that the supermarkets have denied us for so long.

Does, “Every cloud have a silver lining?” in this particular case; I believe it does.

James A Bresco

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Re: The inevitable re-emergence of the traditional, High Street Butchers Shop

And I was hoping for a more vegetarian future for us all

Re: The inevitable re-emergence of the traditional, High Street Butchers Shop

I hope you're right James - The large supermarkets 'have' done a lot of damage to the small shops, not just butchers.
Their attitude is awful - swarming in - everywhere like a blasted tornado ...

Re: The inevitable re-emergence of the traditional, High Street Butchers Shop

We have one butcher's shop in central Kettering and that's where Sheila gets all our meat products - excellent quality at a reasonable price.

Re: The inevitable re-emergence of the traditional, High Street Butchers Shop

I quite like supermarkets I can get everything in one trip, they have great ranges for us veggies these days too. People forget there were good butchers and bad, here we had one good butcher and 3 bad, can't say anyone was sorry to see the back of the bad ones.

Re: The inevitable re-emergence of the traditional, High Street Butchers Shop

I use the supermarkets too - but I do think the Supermarkets are far too greedy and dont give a fig for the guy in the high street .....

Re: The inevitable re-emergence of the traditional, High Street Butchers Shop

I am not too sure any shop keepers care that much really it's profit all the way for most. And nothing wrong with that, I just want products at a price I can afford, I don't need them to care about me as long as they are not ripping me off.

Re: The inevitable re-emergence of the traditional, High Street Butchers Shop

Have you had a tipple as well Julie are you really not aware of all the unrest regarding the small shopkeeper and the giants .....

Re: The inevitable re-emergence of the traditional, High Street Butchers Shop

James matey, I have news for you - notwithstanding I live in a cioty, I've been making use of a 'proper' butcher for the past thirteen years. So much so, that this particular butcher is able to obtain for me lots of 'safari' meats which are both nutritious, healthy and very lean.

Re: The inevitable re-emergence of the traditional, High Street Butchers Shop

I don't drink LOL but I have been a fan of supermarkets for many years, much rather go to one than slog round the local shops which TBH really were not that good. Only thing I do lament the closure of (and supermarkets are not to blame) is the small wool and craft shops I used to love.