It turned into a bit of a farce in the end, but the 1968 campaign ‘I’m backing Britain‘ sprang to mind when I was sat having my my hair cut at the barber’s shop round the corner. Business is OK but people are scared, the barber opined. The man in the sandwich shop had said trade was very slow year-on-year but that the biggest problem was the media talking the economy down. Will Wynne of Arenaflowers.com said much the same on Facebook: Willy Wynne would appreciate it if the news broadcasters would stop doing their best to terrify consumers.
With the current downtown, it strikes me that whilst the patriotic edge isn’t quite what we’re after but there is definitely something to be said for consumers making an effort to support small and local businesses. Small firms are, after all, the life-blood of the British economy and critical to the employment numbers.
So here’s what I’m thinking:
– I have a selection of small businesses around me (pub, sandwich shop, barbers, launderette, convenience store, newsagents, offie and video and DVD hire). I actually use most of them already and would be lost without them: so will continue to use them.
– In the run up to Christmas, try and avoid the bigger retailers (read chains and multi-nationals) and opt for small firms where possible. Not just locally, but using the web too.
What do you reckon?
Just saying the same thing to a relative today, everyone is so scared to spend it’s making things far worse than they needed to be.
There was an interesting piece on Working Lunch today about cheaper cuts of meat that can be bought in the high street butchers and not in the supermarkets but apparently they had problems finding a traditional butcher in London to supply brisket, belly pork and pigs cheeks!
At least good old Morrisons have British Meat on sale but not a pigs cheek in sight, if we all bought British again (am I really old enough to remember this? Only just) things would get better far quicker. We too lost our village butchers (2 of them) post office, green grocers, launderette, video shop and papershop, now we have a Tesco extra and all the big supermarkets a mile away … nuff said ;D
Oh and can I add I’ve not tried pigs cheeks 😀
DBL: thanks for the comment.
Well, you can’t beat a bit of pot roast beef brisket. Really tasty. I’ll leave the pig cheeks to you. ;o)
For me this is about supporting local firms day-to-day and small British firms (wherever they are) as far as we can. Christmas seems like the best time of the year to do this: we’re all gonna be spending some money anyway on presents and the festivities and I’m wondering how much of this can be spent with small businesses (locally or online) to help them make their way through the worst of the downturn.
Supporting local business was easy years ago, what I’m getting at is the ‘local’ businesses are not around as much now. Perhaps we need to visit http://www.touchlocal.com when we need something on the run up to Christmas. On top of the reasons you’ve given above, there’s that customer service level in small businesses that just isn’t in the cloned city High Street anymore … now I am sounding old :p
Glad that I struck a chord…was quite surprised at the response on FB to the update, I must say. First day back in the office after a few days off to chill after 6 months of hell…and all I could see was the BBC trying to give the impression of nuclear meltdown!
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