You can walk to them in your pyjamas. You’re served by an actual person. You can even strike up a friendship, safe in the knowledge they’ll almost certainly never use the words: “Unexpected item in bagging area.”
Local shops give our communities their character. They make our local high streets different to all the others. They’re the independent thinkers providing the heart and soul of our shopping experience – experiences that have increasingly been in danger of becoming anonymous digital wishlists.
And, this year, many of us have discovered that they offer so much more besides. Throughout the coronavirus pandemic, our local shopkeepers have been like local superheroes, supplying us with crucial items that we never previously thought we’d risk running out of, transforming their online presence and delivering to our doorsteps.
They also provide much-needed human contact and support, injecting personality into an experience that could so easily be transactional – be it making a joke that puts a smile on your face, asking how you’re coping, or just not worrying if you’re a few pennies short. That human touch has also encompassed the expertise and knowhow that independent shopkeepers are placed so well to impart. Indeed, a study by the Centre for Economic & Business Research and Visa found that 43% of Britons surveyed say they get a boost of happiness when they support local shopkeepers, and 54% of shoppers surveyed say it’s important to them to shop locally because they know how much their custom means.
These benefits of shopping locally mean as much to merchants as they do to customers. Indeed, shop owners point out that having regular local customers enables them to plan for the future of their business and their staff. Others note that having more local customers vindicates the heroic efforts they’ve had to go to this year. As Kristina Currie, owner of Bon Tot, an Edinburgh-based independent kids’ clothing shop, says: “We feel every purchase, we appreciate every single pound. Every purchase is a vote of confidence in what we do and we want people to know that we value every single sale.”
So as you complete your Christmas shopping, ask yourself: could I buy locally? To you, that item might just be a name crossed off a Christmas list, but to the shopkeepers, it’s another crucial step to paying their business rates or keeping the lights on. In a financially perilous year for the self-employed and independent traders, little purchases can go a long way.
For example, the survey found that for every £10 spent with local businesses, £3.80 stays in the area. Meanwhile, 18% of Britons either own or are employed by local businesses.
This is why it’s so important that we keep up the habit beyond Christmas, permanently reshaping our shopping patterns as we enter the new year. The more we all shop local, the more of a difference we’ll make. Not just to them, but to you as well. Because the longer we can all support their existence, the richer our lives and communities will be.
To you it’s shopping, to them it’s everything. Join Visa in supporting local, independent businesses. #WhereYouShopMatters
