I love the Honor Oak Supermarket and use it regularly for basic staples, but there is no getting away from the fact that its selection of fresh fruit and vegetables is terrible - as it is for the other local shops that I also support whenever possible. The wastage involved in stocking fresh perishables is prohibitive for small independents, and I can understand their reluctance.

It is, however, very inconvenient for people like myself who don’t have a car to walk to a different town, be it Crofton Park, Forest Hill or Sydenham just to pick up a banana or box of cherries. Whilst I'd love a proper grocers to cater for our needs, the sad truth is that in this day and age most people would still buy their goods from a supermarket, making such a business unlikely to be viable unless people can do the rest of their shop locally along the same parade. For this you'd also need a butcher, a baker (though probably not a candle stick maker ) and so on.

I had access to a Tesco Express where I lived previously and it was the single most useless shop in the known universe, but it still succeeded in closing down its independent competitors within 2 months of opening. I fear the same will happen in HOP to those small shops in the same space, but I cannot deny that I would use a Sainsbury’s local if it were to open, if only for my fresh produce which is otherwise unavailable in the immediate area.