Supporting Local Businesses! Here’s why we love to shop local!
Swipii has always been about supporting local businesses and the local business owners. We’re #longlivelocal!
Our app is full of awesome independent restaurants, shops and cafés who all want to give their loyal customers (and new ones) a great deal. We want to make sure we can bring new people to these fab local businesses, to do a little bit in helping keep the high street alive.
We believe supporting local businesses is hugely important! What do you think?
Here’s why we love to shop local!
1. It’s way more convenient
Let’s get the obvious ones out of the way! Shopping local and supporting local businesses is often way more convenient. Why go out of your way to walk to the global chain of coffee shops when you have a quirky little independent café two doors down? Even when it comes to ‘doing your messages’ (or ‘going for your food shopping’ for the non-Scottish), it can be pretty convenient to pop by the local newsagents or grocery for fresh fruit, veg, milk and bread instead of driving to a supermarket.
2. You’ll get a huge range of stuff to choose from
Supermarkets, more often than not, have a pretty standard range of goods. The same goes for most chains. For the most part, you won’t find much variation between one chain and another when they’re in the same industry.
Independent shops or smaller businesses have more scope to be more creative with their inventory. You can find all the things you never knew you needed!
3. Independent shops are often owned by friends and family
It’s true! You often don’t have to go far through your social circle to find someone who owns or runs a local business. By popping into your local businesses instead of opting for their chain equivalent, or even just sharing your local businesses’ social posts and offers, you’re just giving them another little leg up.
Supporting your friends and family is just totally automatic, so supporting local businesses should come just as naturally to you!
4. Local shops often have the freshest produce
Why do you think so many restaurants are proud of the local produce they use in their dishes? Because it’s so much fresher that way. Compared to supermarkets, a larger portion of local businesses’ goods will be from local sources.
The local greengrocer will have fruit and veg from around your area, and the café next door will almost definitely be baking all of their goods from scratch on-site fresh.
5. Shopping local keeps jobs and investment in your area
Did you know that “Small and medium-sized businesses are the biggest employers in the UK employing 58% of the private sector workforce” (Source: FSB)?
By supporting small local businesses, you’re making sure that your money is helping future generations by keeping jobs in the area. Some articles even state that small businesses are likely to pay a higher average wage than their commercial chain counterparts (Source: Small Business )!
6. It’s more environmentally friendly to support local business
Supporting local removes a big part of the supply chain that you would get from the commercial chains. Fewer air miles, or products travelling from one continent to another.
Local businesses are also more likely to care about the little things when it comes to being environmentally friendly, especially when it comes to things like saving electricity and reducing their waste. If you want to start supporting local businesses, then there is definitely an argument to be made for the environmental factor.
7. Authentic customer service
Good reviews and happy customers often mean more to the smaller local businesses than it might for the multinational stores. Small business owner often know their regulars’ names and orders, and more often than not go out of their way to make sure that customers are kept happy with the service as well as what they buy!
For authentic customer service, you really can’t beat your local!
8. Give your area some identity
If you’ve ever been in the North Laine in Brighton, or along the streets of Glasgow’s West end or Southside, you’ll know that having loads of little independent shops helps to give the area some identity and showcase the creativity of the small business owners.
Many small towns and regions have won awards for being creative, independent and supportive of their local high streets. So make sure you keep those local businesses alive and give them a helping hand with your custom.
9. Positive role models and environment for younger generations
Having positive role models is hugely important for younger generations, as is being brought up in a creative and inspiring environment. Keeping local businesses in the area not only improves job prospects but it gives kids an idea of what could be possible for them if they wanted to run their own small business one day. It also helps encourage community spirit from a young age when you support local businesses as a whole family.
10. Supporting local business often means supporting innovation
Inc. recently stated that “ small businesses are the innovators of the world “ and it’s totally true. Small, local businesses are more agile and are able to adapt their business and learn and change faster. This can give them a huge advantage over some of their chain counterparts and can give their industry learnings to be shared.
By supporting local businesses, you allow them to take full advantage of the learning opportunities available and you encourage innovation. Who knows what the next major innovation will be? It may very well come from a local business in your area.
Psst… Wanna know a way you can easily support local businesses and get involved with some great loyalty programs? You can find loads of local Deals and businesses on the Swipii app!
Originally published at https://swipii.com on November 1, 2019.
