Breaking the chain stores of oppression

Everyday life, no matter where you live, has a habit of sucking you in, keeping you mired in just getting on with things. So occasionally I forget why I started writing this column, this tale of urban people moving from the centre to the perimeter, the job of documenting what the dream is really like, and the issues which affect us here and not in Dublin.

Interconnectedness and responsibility raised their heads last week, when I heard that yet another supermarket is to open in the town, ironically on a site which once housed a small manufacturing plant. I say ironically, because the last thing the town needs is another supermarket, and what it needs most to survive is long-term sustainable jobs in the manufacturing sector. Real jobs which will provide employment opportunities for the young and middle-aged, a reason to stay in Manorhamilton long term.

The rumoured new supermarket is part of a Northern Irish chain, which also provides petrol pumps. The proposed location, right next door to the existing Spar, will be about 1,000 square feet, and will undoubtedly take some business away from the Texaco garage just a few yards up the road. Passing trade has no loyalty, so the first garage on the key route, west to north, is bound to take the lion's share of the business.

What effect the supermarket will have remains a subject of discussion. Spar, Mace and Centra are the three operators currently selling in Manorhamilton. Even now, we often wonder how each of them does business in such a small town. What is clear is that all of the supermarket owners work extremely hard, and I find it difficult to imagine that a new facility won't draw away a percentage of each of their businesses. Numbers break down pretty easily, so if each loses even 30 per cent of its business, then it seems to me that one of the existing supermarkets could face the possibility of closure in the medium to long-term. The owners themselves are not so sure, citing "loyalty" as a big factor in the division of the rural spend. I know for a fact that people are sometimes embarrassed shopping in one store over another. "I hate walking past Mace with Centra bags," observed one Manorhamilton resident, when I offered her a lift recently. The same is true in reverse.

Seamus Keenan, our butcher across the street, was taking it all in good humour when I asked him what he thought. "I hear they'll have a big meat counter," he said. But Seamus's business seems fairly strong, and his trademark is quality over quantity, so perhaps his market niche is secure.

The key issue in areas like Manorhamilton is the need for planning and development which is not led by the free market. If you allow the free market to decide, then you are leaving small places open to exploitation. Large chain stores can survive over the long haul, operating on a loss leader basis until they squeeze existing operations to the wall. (Another irony in all this is that a new community centre is due to open its first phase of development over the coming months. This much-needed facility will provide parking opportunities which could be taken advantage of by shoppers at the new supermarket.)

Where does Leitrim County Council stand on this? Is planning going to be granted for something which can only damage business in the town? As a consumer here, I should be looking for the best bargain for my available pound, and if I lived in Dublin that's exactly what I'd be doing. Except, in Dublin you never know the people who are behind the counter trying to make a living; you never know their children who are slogging it out day by day with their parents. The struggle to make a living is somehow hidden behind the bargain basement and the plethora of competition and special offers.

It is a fallacy to believe that life in rural Ireland is cheaper. I don't find it so. I find it's on a par, when you add up the surcharges which have to go on items given the isolation of the delivery location. The markup on magazines, for example, is exorbitant, but the shops selling magazines have to pay extra delivery charges which are passed on to the consumer. I could do my shopping in Tesco's in Sligo, which would be cheaper in bulk, but then would be participating in a free-market ideology, which ultimately could bring this place to its knees.

But it shouldn't be up to individual choice. The planners and those in authority have to start making hard decisions that are about the needs of this community. It's wake-up-and-smell-the-coffee time. Because if I'm prepared to pay at least 50p more per bag for my coffee than I do in Dublin, shouldn't those with community responsibility acknowledge the need to tackle development concerns before life here becomes just too hard?