Learn to be adaptable

Your headline of January 24 reads "£20 million Morrisons is labelled a threat", and once again Bill Archer is at hand to express concerns that the new Morrisons store in Wednesbury would have an effect on the smaller traders.

I feel it is true that some traders may be effected a little, but do you not have other supermarkets of various types in the town anyway, so what is the difference? OK, Morrisons will be bigger but this means it will have bigger problems in my view.

I was a trader myself from 1997 to 1999 in the ill-fated Wednesbury Shopping Hall (you remember the one Bill, we were kicked out in September 99, it was shut down and eventually knocked down - how many years later?).

At a later date, when the market was closed, there was jubilation as plans were unveiled for a superstore for the town centre, with the hope of bringing in more people into the town. Now, suddenly, I read you are saying it will affect trade!

You are no different from many other civil servants - when people bang a drum you start to dance!

Wednesbury will always be there, like many small towns, because it is a good size with a realistic proportion of shops selling just what people need, and Wednesbury will never have the problems seen in other towns such as West Bromwich where there seems this strange idea that more shops are needed and then they fill them with bookies and diners! In fact it would be beneficial if the number of shops was reduced.

I still strongly believe there is money about, despite the town no doubt changing a little since my two years trading. Back then £48,000 came across my counter, although my profit margin was very low to get the turnover. The traders of Wednesbury today will have to learn to adapt and become flexible to the change the supermarket may bring.

Steven Dixon, Ex-Jupiter Consoles, Bridge Street, West Bromwich.