Shopping locally and supporting local businesses is becoming more and more difficult what with the rate at which the large chains are winning the price war. They are luring people out of town centres and onto the sprawling suburban retail parks. Long gone are the days of visiting the grocer, butcher, baker and hardware store, its all about convenience now and even the big stores know that online e-commerce is where its at.
Even if we wanted to (which a lot of us do), its almost impossible to avoid visiting supermarkets for essentials such as toilet roll and cling film and for things like pet food, nappies and anything that you need more than one of on your weekly big shop. So while we do what we can to shop locally and support local and independent businesses, in terms of groceries its becoming harder and harder which is why we need to concentrate on doing what we can elsewhere. Take fashion and clothes shopping for example, most of the large supermarkets do have a range now but theyre pretty basic and you can guarantee that you wont be making any statements or standing out from the crowd. Quite the opposite to this in fact, youre likely to find yourself in that slightly awkward position of discovering that youre wearing the same thing as a colleague or friend to work or on a night out.
The advantages of supporting independent fashion retails are mainly two-fold, the first reason is simple, whats on offer will be different to the rest of the high street meaning that dress or pair of trousers you loved wont be cheapened by every other guy or girl on the street wearing the same thing. And the second reason is that youll keep the character and spirit of your local town centre alive, theres little more depressing than walking along a high street thats lined with boarded up shops, smashed in windows and litter everywhere if we let this happen its a downward spiral of houses being devalued and the economy crashing.
Its not all about fashion, you can do your bit when youre shopping online too, simply jump on the sites that offer you quotes and products from companies that are local to you. For example, if youre looking for double glazing quotes, there are sites that will only offer quotes and prices from companies in your local area and a lot of the time theyre one man outfits so youre single-handedly making sure they stay in business. So next time you need something, think carefully about where you spend your hard earned money.
