Trade Associations – British Trout Association
BY ANDY SMITH BTA EXECUTIVE OFFICER Keep fi sh on the menu
Supermarkets may not be specialists but they must maintain the condition of their wetfi sh counters if they want to attract - and keep - customers
mon• I ger n: A dealer in a specifi c commodity
’m the weekend cook in our house, have been for years, and I’ve always been the weekend shopper too, in my local high street in Edinburgh.
We used to have three butchers and two
fi shmongers. The butchers’ shops one by one evolved into charity shops and one wee fi sh- monger is now a seamstress. The bigger fi sh shop, the one across from the Canny Man, held on longest, being well patronised by old Morningside ladies, but a couple of years ago it too closed. We now have one fi sh van for an hour on a
Friday outside the Bank of Scotland and an- other on Saturday mornings outside the small Sainsbury’s. That’s great but they can never be so con-
venient as a real fi ve- or six-day specialist fi sh shop. They both, however, sell loads of local trout and know what they are doing. In additi on to them, Morningside residents
can also get fresh and packaged fi sh from one biggish multi ple grocer, a specialist food outlet and the high street convenience outlet. You might argue that these can more than
make up for a few specialist 9-5 shops, and that could be the case most of the ti me, but someti mes important things drop off . This is a story about one of them in parti cular
and you can make up your own mind. It was a Sunday and aft er a rugby internati on-
al I realised I was cooking for nine people. I am known to enjoy a glass of wine when the fami- ly come round so I opted for something simple that could be pre-prepared and just heated up: fi sh and chips. I set off to buy a mixture of fi llets for an
10
www.fishfarmer-magazine.com
looked dried out
“They
from being displayed all day - and maybe the day before
Andy-style mixed fi sh bake, where we have three or four types of breaded and non-breaded fi sh baked in the oven and everyone can help themselves. I got to the fi sh counter about 3pm and it was beauti fully laid out. The
staff had obviously followed the mandated planogram meti culously. But there was a problem to a trained eye when I got close and looked at and through the fi sh. They looked a bit dried out from being beauti fully displayed all day,
and maybe the day before as well, and not sprayed or turned every while to keep them in perfect nick. I asked if they had any fi sh in the sealed bags I know they come in
”
from their fridge and not on display, but was told that what they had was on the shelf (and drying). And all the fi sh – the trout, salmon, cod, haddock, plaice, sole and so on – was in the same boat. So I didn’t buy fi sh and our fi sh bake evolved into a chili con carne in the same way butchers shops changed above. And while I, as someone in the business, had enough knowledge to pass the fi sh counter, I’d guess that they kept selling the fi sh to consum-
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60