A MARKET trader is marking more than half a century of selling his wares from the same stall in Tavistock Pannier Market.

As the market celebrates winning a national title as one of the best indoor markets in the country Charlie Snell shares his own secrets of success.

Aged 95, Charlie is remarkable in not only being the oldest market trader, but also continuing to work while his sons have retired.

He must be doing something right commercially to have stayed in business and his simple tip is to give people what they want.

Charlie has adapted through the decades, first selling brass ornaments when in fashion, then everyday household wares. His biggest seller are the black bin liners tougher than supermarket brands.

But there’s more to his longevity than that. If you spend even the shortest time at his stall in one corner of the market trying to chat to him, you will be interrupted several times by warm hellos and regular requests for regular items.

Charlie admits to working far longer than most people because he enjoys it: “It gets me out of the house, otherwise I’d be sitting on the settee wasting my life away. I really like meeting people, that’s what gets me up and what makes the day go by.

“Of course I have to make the odd bob or two, but that’s not the real reason. I have my regular customers and other traders and visitors and new people. I’ve always got time to chat. If I’m friendly to people they will come back, even if I haven’t got what they want the first time.”

He was unable to help a customer asking for plastic lids for her pet food tins, but he has lots of other ‘essentials’ and has little competition in the town, either on stock or price.

He has been through the ‘everything’s a pound’ phase of selling, because of inflation makes it uneconomic. But somehow, many of his products do unbelievably still sell for £1, like shoe polish and envelopes.

Charlie‘s friendships extend to a trader who gifted him a smart watch after admitting he could not mend his.

The market is a far cry from when Charlie joined and he says he prefers it when it sold meat and veg and was the traditional type of market.

He said: “It’s not the same anymore, people had to come to the market when they sold fresh fruit and veg and meat. It sounded more alive then. They brought in livestock and butchered and sold the meat here. There was lots of noise and smells and it was exciting seeing it all come alive each day.

“It was more an event for locals to come to the market who bought their weekly joint and other food which was all fresh.”

The only setback to Charlie’s career, which started in markets in bombed sites in Plymouth and Devonport Dockyard, was falling and needing hospital treatment. And he has no retirement plans.