The word market has been appropriated by so many groups now that it has virtually ceased to have its original meaning. «What is the market doing today?» has now a uniquely financial context.
In fact the Wikipedia definition never even mentions fruit, rugs, or fake designer jeans. That big W has some problems in associating markets with such base concepts as actually buying and selling goods is a reflection of how far the usage of the word has shifted.
In today's Times, Caitlin Moran argues for the return of markets (in the old sense) in place of the superstores that now occupy that region of our brains (the cortex shopiensis) as well as a large chunk of this green and pleasant land.
The Impressionist lives in one of the many towns in the UK whose centre and cultural life is being strangled by out-of-town superstores. It's therefore quite gratifying that Harrogate in Yorkshire recently threw out an application to build yet another major «quality retail experience». Perhaps the worm is turning. Or perhaps this is just the last redoubt in a war long since lost.
It's possible that collective pangs of guilt over food-miles and turkey twizzlers will cause us to turn again like Dick Whittington towards the town centre. Towns and cities in continental Europe never quite lost their identities in quite the same way as those in Britain. Paris still has shops in its centre selling jelly moulds and nuts and bolts. After all, Where would we be if a town was merely a collection of housing estates and retail parks connected by tarmac. (Answer: Bracknell).
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