1855: Ironic: Auckland’s ‘Newmarket’
December 19, 2018
By AHNZ
James Braund writes in this letter to the NZ Herald editor (8 January this year) of how butchers, bakers, greengrocers, and fishmongers have disappeared. As I suggest in my previous post, this is a phenomena of Baby Boomers shredding the social function of these once prolific institutions.
I used to shop at Newmarket’s 277 Countdown (Auckland) back when it was still a Foodtown. It has indeed displaced, over the years, all the other forms of grocery retail. This change happens slowly so that we don’t notice it happening. All the other creeks and tributaries have dried up but now as the one and only ‘river’ is dammed (for 2 years!?) people like poor old James are left dry…
click to enlarge
I visited Newmarket a few weeks back and the mall is certainly gone, fully under a grand construction. Can’t even park in there anymore. And, oddly, the barriers are covered up by these trendy young Asians. Especially this Indian girl in the image above. We supposed to identify with them now? Asian invasion!
The irony of having no supermarket in in Newmarket is that the town was founded on being a marketplace. The clue’s in the name: New Market. Back in the day, central Aucklanders trod the dusty road out here to buy their grocery goods come in from the farmlands. Now, of course, the borough has been absorbed into the megacity and become the shopping grounds for conspicuous consumption.
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Newmarket Borough Council was established in 1885
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