Episode 3 Swansea Market

'Built in the heart of the city,

'Swansea market is Wales' largest indoor market.'

Here you are. £16.82, that's fantastic,

thank you very much indeed.

'Everyday, more than 700 people

'compete alongside each other for business.'

Get your chestnuts and your satsumas.

Cockles!

Come and get your fishies.

'Their stalls will trade with the communities of modern Wales...

£4.79. £4 to you.

We'll think about it. Leave it here, first.

We'll think about it.

'..and service its oldest institutions.'

-The first time I've ever shook hands with royalty.

-I know.

'In the grip of a recession, this is the one place

'where a small idea can still turn into a big profit.'

The total business turnover is forecast is to be

just over £5 million.

'But the way we shop is changing.

'City centres are losing business

'to large supermarkets and retail parks.'

I've never seen it as tough as it is now.

You're destroying the livelihood of 700 people

if you destroy Swansea Market.

So how can it be right, how can it be right for the country?

The market has to pull together as a unit, as a team I guess.

'Filmed over the busiest period of the market's year,

'this series explores the fortunes and fates of the city's traders

'as they try and keep their business dreams alive.'

Three minutes late.

You know, Paul, it's not good enough, is it, son?

You've just got to pray that somebody wants what we've got, basically.

That's all we can do.

Well, look, look at all these lovely happy people.

You don't get that in Tescos.

'It is mid-December in Swansea.

'Footfall in the city centre is expected to double

'over the coming fortnight

'as people rush to buy their Christmas provisions.

'For the market's food producers,

'this will culminate

'in the most intense trading weekend of their year.'

It's starting early today, isn't it?

'The three fishmongers are working especially hard,

'for securing profits means outdoing their rivals.'

This is our lovely conga for the day.

Good bit of weight to that

and if you don't pick it up properly

it'll either go that way or that way.

'Neil Morgan of Tucker's Fish Shop

'is beginning the first of his Christmas displays.'

You've got these small pin hake.

Then we've got a one to two hake, which is there.

Large hake, there's just hake everywhere.

Hake, hake and hake.

'Each business must decide which fish to buy in,

'when to purchase them and how to stand out from the crowd.'

We raise this up a little bit.

We've got a lot of offers on salmon and hake,

so, we like to make it all stand out.

'Neil's rival at the Market Plaice is Paul Raeburn.

'He's offering customers something a little different.'

We do a lot of offers,

so that's what's got us noticed over the past four years

and that's how we're going to carry on doing,

obviously, prices permitting.

People walk past

and they see hake cutlets on the counter for £15.98 a kilo

and it means nothing to them.

What we've done is pre-weighed them

and when they walk past they see three for £5

and that stops them, the price per kilo doesn't,

so, we simplify things.

'Adrian Coakley-Greene has adopted another tactic,

'bringing in expensive shellfish for the Christmas platter.'

Well, it's the full range of fish but what do people go for -

for the luxury end of the market -

lobsters, king prawns, oysters, smoked salmon.

That's what they're looking for.

'Of all the trades in the market,

'competition is fiercest between the fishmongers.

'Nobody wants to run short over Christmas.'

Have you got any cod left, two to three pounders?

About 20 kilo, if you've got it, please?

One case of salmon fillets.

And we're going to have plenty of this all the way through?

We've got plenty to go through, yeah? OK.

Hake fillets, I think, are going to be a good seller

because we bought loads of them in

and I know the suppliers haven't got any more,

so, hopefully the other guys will run out

and we'll have all the trade, hopefully.

That's the plan anyway.

There is rivalry, like any business, you know what I mean.

We're always looking out for the next customer.

We all want to put the money in the till at the end of the day.

I couldn't care less what they do and I don't care less what they do.

My prices are what they are and my margins are what they are.

I'm not going to come down and undercut

just to try and make the sales.

We are the best.

We are the fishmongers of the future.

'Across the market, other food producers are stocking up.

'Trying to predict how much business there will be in the final weekend.'

Well there's 200 turkey crowns by here.

Come on, Cody. Any time today, boy!

The first job is to get them in, the second job is to sell them.

Next two days, we'll most probably shift a ton of sprouts,

a ton of parsnips, seven ton of spuds.

Best case scenario is we're going to be rushed off our feet,

no time to talk, no time to think, just keeping going all day long.

Worst case scenario, we won't be quite as busy as that,

but hopefully we'll still be very busy.

'As the high street begins to fill up with shoppers,

'every business in Swansea is trying to cash in on the Christmas spirit.

'But news of a very different festive event

'has also filtered down to the market floor.'

Prince Charles is coming here Friday.

Ooh. I'll have to put my clean knickers on then!

'On 14 December, the Prince of Wales has decided

'to make his first ever visit to Swansea Market.'

"One shopper will certainly stand out in the crowd

"in Swansea Market on Friday.

"The Prince of Wales will be visiting.

"He will meet stall holders during a guided tour that will culminate

"in the unveiling of a bilingual plaque to commemorate his visit."

So that'll be nice, I'll just have to wear my best frock now.

'With the market being the Prince's only engagement

'in Swansea city centre, this is a chance for the council and traders,

'to show off the market in its full splendour.

'For market superintendent John Burns,

'the Prince's visit brings new responsibilities,

'as everybody has to learn the dos and don'ts of meeting royalty.'

-Do you shake hands or not?

-Hold that out.

That's good.

Does it matter which leg goes behind?

-I think it's the left.

-Left is it?

-You only shake hands with the Prince if he offers his hand.

-Right.

OK, so. How are you?

-And it's a very weak sort of handshake.

-Right.

Because, apparently, he shakes hands with so many people a day

he must get like repetitive strain injury.

-So it's nice and light. OK, that's great.

-OK, got that?

-Got the rules.

-I can count on you.

-Thank you, sir.

I think if Prince Charles came here,

he'd just have to have one of our lovely roast dinners.

Unless he wanted a breakfast.

If he was calling early in the morning,

he could have a lovely breakfast.

But I wouldn't be all starry eyed, I'll keep that for George Michael.

'Sandy Ellis' carvery has had a busy period up to Christmas,

'but with only days to go, Sandy has decided to review her festive menu.'

Well I've decided that

because it's only a couple of days before Christmas

I haven't cooked turkey today.

Everybody in Swansea is going to be eating turkey on Tuesday,

so, I did beef, honey-glazed ham and I've done pork today.

If I was coming out for lunch today, maybe I wouldn't choose turkey.

So I speak for my people.

'Whilst the turkey might have gone, Sandy has still found other ways

'of bringing the Christmas spirit into her lunchbox.'

Well, I did ask them to participate in any way they wanted to.

-I've got mine on.

-Robert's decided to wear Sandy's pinny

because he just wants to be me for the day.

Jade should be wearing the 'Bah Humbug' hat.

Oh, why? Because I woke up late?

Because she won't dress up.

I woke up late.

Deborah, the hairdresser in the outfit,

has decided to wear a hat with plats

because her hair looks not so good today.

Oh, cheers.

'The end of the year is also a chance

'for her to thank her regular and loyal customers.'

-You knew it was for him, didn't you?

-Of course, I knew.

It's off all of us. So, you can open it now.

-I can open it now?

-You can open it now.

I'm sure you'll like everything. All goodies.

All this from all my friends here, you see.

That's the gift and all this is appreciated.

I won't be able to look after you.

It will keep you going for a few days while I'm not here.

Oh yes. What do you think? Really nice eh?

That's how much they think of me and I appreciate that, too.

'But for the market's other new businesses,

'the vital Christmas period

'is delivering fewer customers than expected.'

So far today, I've had one.

What did they buy?

Four Christmas puddings, the chocolate Christmas puddings.

'Emily Poole's handmade organic chocolate shop

'only started three weeks ago.'

It's a bit worrying.

It should be the busiest time of year but not everyone knows I'm here yet.

I guess the worrying thing is for January, I just hope that

everyone who bought the chocolates tell other people,

I just hope that they still come back and not just for Christmas.

'Further down the aisle,

'Edward and Sarah Lewis' discount perfume stall

'is experiencing teething problems with their new clientele.'

Do you sell knock offs here or are these real?

They're real. We wouldn't be allowed to sell them otherwise.

OK. I'm looking for the One Million for my boyfriend.

-We're out of stock.

-You're out of stock. Um.

Our biggest problem is people think

it's knock offs or copies of fragrances,

maybe because we're in the market and we're reasonably cheap.

Loads of people come and they go, "Are they real?"

And some of the time they believe us, a lot of the time they don't.

That is a problem.

That is £22.50.

Right, OK.

-So, it's quite cheap.

-I thought they were knock offs.

When you generally go to a market they're normally all dodgy stuff.

'But for one shop, the lack of Christmas custom

'has been the final straw in a year of declining business.'

We've been having very, very poor sales.

One day, we had £2.

Another day, we sold the grand sum of £7-worth of stuff.

And another day, we sold £10-worth of stuff.

'After five years in the market,

'David and Janet Court are closing down I Do Wedding Favours.

That's what makes me sad.

We had that logo designed

especially for the shop

and it actually says, "I do".

You've got your little groom and your little bride.

That was the beginning of our dream.

That was the beginning of our dream.

People are buying online far more than they ever used to.

We're a bit like a museum.

People come in, they look at stuff, they see it and they think,

"Oh, that's what it looks like. Now I'll go and buy it on eBay."

'David and Janet had invested £30,000

'in improving the shop's interior.

'An investment they now have to walk away from empty handed.'

What I see is all what could have been and we're losing.

It was a dream, yes, all right, but you can have your dreams shattered,

that's just too bad in a way. I suppose.

This isn't just a dream, it's real. It exists.

But it won't be.

I was looking at this counter earlier on, thinking,

"This belongs to me, this belongs to me,

"all that and this all belongs to me."

And I'm going to go out that door and leave it all behind.

Somebody once said that the nature of an entrepreneur

is someone who,

while they're cracking open the bottles of champagne to celebrate,

at the same time they are conscious of the possibility

of going into administration the following day.

If you're not prepared to face at least a certain amount of that,

you'd struggle to make a success of a small business.

I'll miss the shop, I'll miss the shop a lot.

I'll miss having an active part here as well.

I've enjoyed being a retailer.

I've enjoyed being a market trader.

I've enjoyed meeting people and discussing things

and doing things

but it's come to its end.

'The morning of the royal visit has arrived.

'Across the market, traders have made a special effort

'to give the Prince a proper Swansea Market welcome.'

This morning I thought I'd put on my pinstripe suit, stiff collar

and a nice clean white coat.

So, maybe that would be quite fitting for the royal event.

I thought I'd give the tiara an airing for Prince Charles.

Also, I'm wearing this top

which is this length, Will.

Sometimes I wear it as a dress when I'm feeling very daring.

'News of the Prince's arrival has spread throughout the city.

'An extra 3,000 people are now crowded into the market.'

Oh, very excited. Can't wait.

Is this quite a big deal for Swansea, do you think?

Yes. Look at all these shoppers.

I didn't even know he was coming.

I was in town shopping, Sunday dinner.

We're very proud of our market.

We've been waiting a long time now.

Ten to nine I was in here, mind.

There we are, this is what

the market used to be like every weekend.

It was full all the way up there and all the way down there.

This is what the market is supposed to be like.

'At 10.30 precisely, the royal cavalcade arrives.'

CHEERING

-How tall is Charles?

-6'2".

-Is he 6'2"?

-He's over six foot.

I just saw the top of his head there. There he is.

It's a bit surreal to be honest.

You see him on the telly and there he is.

'Charles' itinerary gives him only 45 minutes

'to visit all the market's major food producers.'

How many years have you been here?

-I've worked in here 34 years...

-34 years.

..and I've owned it for 20 years.

-Is it a good site to have?

-Oh, it's fantastic.

-Really busy.

-Yeah, nice.

No, I'm not nervous, it's just nice to see him.

I'm not nervous, I'm never nervous, am I?

'With only limited time,

'everybody wants their moment in the spotlight.'

-What are these crabs here?

-These are river crabs.

You can steam these, you can use them as bait. They're all alive.

They sell very well. It's something you don't over cook.

No, no, no, exactly.

Happy Christmas and congratulations.

-Thank you, you're very kind.

-I'm delighted.

-Are you a granny yet or not?

-Not yet, not quite, yet.

There's a hell of a lot of grannies around today.

-All the very best, enjoy.

-Happy Christmas. Thank you so much.

Oh, no, I hope you're not going to stand in my way.

No, you're all right.

Because I'm going to stick you over there.

My legs are shaking a little bit because you don't know what to say.

But it's always a pleasure you know. Same time next week.

'Congestion is the market means that moving anywhere

'has now become a problem.

Are you trying to get out?

You'll have to go out that way.

Go down there, turn to the left.

Right, we're moving on guys, please.

Yeah, it's all good so far. It's amazingly busy here today.

But fair play to Charles,

he is just doing a fantastic job shaking people's hands.

He must soak his hands in salt water at the end of every night, I think.

-I'm going to keep the glove, Will.

-We're going to keep it.

I was trying to get my glove off and then I thought, oh.

What a lovely man.

There they are, on the shelf.

'After 40 minutes, the Prince has met all the selected stallholders

'and has only a few, very patient hands left to shake.'

Your highness. We've waited a long time to see you.

-Very nice to see you.

-Very, very nice to see you.

-Are you sisters?

-No, we're neighbours

-Do you come shopping together quite often?

-Yes, quite a lot.

Then have a jolly good coffee or something.

-You have a lovely Christmas.

-And you.

That was lovely, fantastic.

You got quite a chat out of him, didn't you?

I did, and he shook my hand and he held it.

That was really lovely.

APPLAUSE

'By 11.15, the royal entourage has departed.

'Swansea Market's regal moment has come to an end.'

Yeah, that's it. Been and gone. Back to serving people now.

'The final weekend of trading is about to begin.

'Over the next two days, thousands of supermarket shoppers

'will abandon their trolleys and visit the market

'in search of Wales' finest and freshest Christmas produce.'

It's going to be pandemonium.

Everyone getting last minute veg, total pandemonium.

Running around.

Hustle, bustle. Bumping into people, trying to get stock in,

trying to get it up.

It's chaos because you've got a lot of people waiting.

We'll have turkeys along there, along the main rail by there.

Chickens and capons over there.

Geese behind me and ducks in this corner by here.

'15 hours of trading will see 1,200 turkeys being sold,

'250 lobsters boxed up

'and over 4 tons of sprouts bagged and weighed.

'Traders and customers will experience

'the most stressful weekend of the market's year.'

Radish, spring onions, tomatoes,

cucumber, lettuce, boiling potatoes, roasting potatoes.

-OK, I'll check on the lettuce.

-Ten live lobsters.

There you are. That's for Jay, right.

One beef dinner, Jade, for the lady and she doesn't want swede

and no sprouts because we haven't got sprouts.

-Do you want me to skin it?

-Yes, please.

-Both sides?

-Yes, please.

Thank you. How are you, all right? One crown 5 or 6 kilos.

-OK, there's five there. Are they big enough?

-Yeah, yeah.

-Yeah?

'The first morning sees numbers in the market treble

'and behind the shop front,

'an army of other workers

'are charged with keeping stock levels up.

'Standards of presentation must remain high.

'No-one will buy from an untidy stall.'

I keep the green bit of the tomato, the calyx, it's called the calyx,

I keep that showing that way, facing the customer, yeah.

And it gives it a nice display.

You can't have gaps appearing in your fruit and veg.

Yeah, you can't have gaps appearing.

Like asparagus for instance, the tips cannot be touching things

or they knock the ends off, positioned in a certain way, yeah.

If it looks attractive, people will buy it, yeah.

If it's looking down and flat, people ignore it.

'But for one of the market's fishmongers,

'early trading has been complicated by their ice machine breaking down,

'forcing them to buy in a hundred kilos of ice.'

It should last us today and tomorrow.

And then, that'll see us through Christmas

and afterwards, I think, we've got to sort it.

'Instead of asking for help from his market rivals, owner Paul Raeburn

'sent one of his staff out of town to pick up emergency supplies.'

I won't ask the other two.

I don't know whether that's me being too proud

but I won't ask for their help,

just because I know...I know what the answer would be anyway.

At the end of the day if I'm not working,

if I'm not trading, it's more for them

and I can't fault them in that respect,

at the end of the day, but there we are.

-£1.50.

-How much?

-£1.50.

-£1.50 in money?

-Money, yeah.

-OK.

'For the other fishmongers, ordering fish has become a nightmare

'as the nation's ports have decided to close

'four days before Christmas Day.'

No brill, no turbot, no scallops, no pollock. This is the way it works.

We're a couple of days before Christmas

and everybody just stopped.

We've got four more trading days.

But they'll have their feet up tomorrow.

'All three businesses have risked

'tens of thousands of pounds on produce.

'But not everybody has got their order in on time.'

When is your last day, Mark?

Oh, Christ.

I didn't know that.

Bloody hell, I didn't know that. Well, we've had it.

Thanks very much buddy, take care. Bye.

Oh. We've lost out.

Transport has gone.

Should have spoken to him this morning.

Just made my mind up now. He can't get it on, transport's gone.

'Paul and Adrian will have to work extra hard over the next two days

'to catch up with Tucker's, whose weekend has had a flying start.'

Yesterday, I thought we were going to have too much.

Today, I think we're not going to have enough now.

But I can live with that.

In fact, I'm going to change my sign to, "Get your fish fast",

because we're selling out.

Come on you're all right, come on.

'As the weekend wears on,

'the pressure begins to show on some traders.

'They have now worked over a hundred hours in one week.'

Go by there now, go back,

let him come out and you go straight back in there.

Yeah, that's what we're doing.

Come back, straight, then.

Problem is we've got...there's no parking regulations here today,

so, everybody's just free for all.

Problem is you've got 100 stalls and nine parking spaces.

100 stalls and nine parking spaces.

Come on, Jan.

Tempers do flare at times, but, you know, it can't be helped, I suppose.

You know, personality clashes as well, isn't it!

-I'm not picking all the fish up today.

-Sorry, they said, "No good."

What do you mean it's not good, what's wrong with them, then?

'Inside the market, customer service is being stretched to its limit.'

-Four of them?

-Please.

-Sure?

-Yes.

-Are these any good?

-Do you want them cleaned?

-Yes, four big ones.

Well, these are all roughly the same size.

That's why they're four for ten, see.

-You want them cleaned, yeah?

-Yes, please.

Hard work. They make you pick up every single fish,

change their minds.

I've been going crazy in here.

Just don't give up.

Done this for 30 years,

you just push yourself on and on till it's done.

Christmas time, Christmas Eve, you go home

and probably fall asleep in the chair by 7.30pm, but it's done then.

£10.

'In the last few hours of the weekend,

'trade builds up to a fever pitch.'

-There we are, thank you.

-That's great, thanks very much.

-Have a good Christmas.

-And you. Thanks a lot, goodbye.

'This is the last time for another year

'that so many people will be in the market.'

Keep the change, is it?

Yeah. No!

Thank you very much.

There he is. There's the man.

82, OK?

This one by here? That's beautiful that is.

We need Christmas because we go very quiet January, February.

So this, it seems great that we're making loads of money,

but it all goes January and February because we do much less trade.

Five-a-day, nice one. Keep the doctor away, yeah.

There we are, £22.15. Thank you very much.

I haven't got any £5 notes, all right. So, £18.50, OK.

99 each.

-The last one.

-The last box again.

-We got him.

19.68.

-Thank you very much.

-Merry Christmas, mate.

May I have your attention, please? Swansea Market is now closing.

I'd like to take this opportunity

to wish everyone a very happy Christmas.

Thank you.

Done. My work is done. Ah.

'After 46 continuous days of trading, Swansea Market is closed.

'The food producers will have two days to recharge their batteries.

'But almost all the traders have made a profit.

'Even the fishmongers,

'who have perhaps worked harder than anybody else,

'have done enough to relax over Christmas.'

I am absolutely bollocksed,

to put it nicely, yeah.

It's been hard, I mean eight days on the trot, it's been hard, it has.

We've done very well. Everybody's happy.

The boss is happy, we got our bonus.

It's time to just kick back now and have a couple of pints.

The Christmas rush this year has been phenomenal.

We've never seen so many people here in Swansea Market.

I can't understand where these people go for the rest of the year.

We see these people, maybe, once a year.

Yes, we've got good regular customers

but I'm talking about the mass throng of people.

'At her Lunchbox, Sandy and Rob have done enough

'to survive their first festive season.'

It's been a tough old week, month, six months.

But we're ready for a little break now.

A few days off, you know, family time.

And...that's it,

just waiting for the big guy in the red suit to come, innit!

'Next week in Swansea Market,

'a quiet new year threatens Emily Poole's chocolate dreams.'

If I carry on from now then I'll be getting into quite a bit of debt.

'The food traders do business with Wales' new big spenders.'

Wow, very fresh.

'And a Christmas mini-break

'gives Sandy new inspiration at her Lunchbox.'

-Would you like to try one sir?

-What is it?

-It's a Moroccan tagine.

-Ooh.

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