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Action #039
Shop locally
Tracker Updated!
Now that you've told us you've done it, want to tell us a little about who you did it with, how you did it or what you did?
Tracker Updated!
Now that you've told us your class has done it, want to tell us a little about who you did it with, how you did it or what you did?
Action updated!
Action updated!
This action has been done 16,087 times which means we are supporting roughly 4,021,750 jobs in small businesses.
How we did the maths
Every supermarket that opens results in a net loss of 200-300 jobs, as a whole network of local shops and their suppliers is destroyed.
Phrases you won't hear in a super-mega-hyper-market:
"Come on in and have a look around."
"We've got some of those biscuits you said you liked. They're turning out to be quite a popular choice down the street."
"Oh, don't worry if you don't have enough change on you, just give it to me next time you're in."
And unfortunately:
"We're closing. We blame the huge shop that's opened up down the road. We just can't afford to stay open anymore."
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Downloadables
Links we like
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The Big Lunch
The Big Lunch is a party in your street. On 19th July, they asked the people of Britain to stop what they were doing and sit down to lunch together.
http://www.thebiglunch.com/ -
Carry a bag
Handmade reusable bags.
http://www.carry-a-bag.com -
Change 4 Life
Eat well, move more and live longer, happier lives.
http://www.nhs.uk/Change4life/Pages/Default.aspx -
Farmers markets
Find a farmers market near you.
http://www.farmersmarkets.net/ -
Independent London
Independent shops in London.
http://www.independentlondon.com/ -
Good Food Pages
Local food producers, growers and suppliers. Organic meats and vegetables, free range foods, ethically reared meats, mail order and a few great places to enjoy eating good food.
http://www.goodfoodpages.co.uk/ -
Big Barn
Simply enter your post code or place name to find locally produced food.
http://www.bigbarn.co.uk/ -
Organic Wales
Online resource centre for organic and sustainable living in Wales.
http://www.organicwales.com/ -
Love local
Find stuff in your local area.
http://www.lovelocal.org.uk/ -
Slow food
Slow Food is a non-profit, eco-gastronomic member-supported organization that was founded to counteract fast food and fast life, the disappearance of local food traditions and people’s dwindling interest in the food they eat, where it comes from, how it tastes and how our food choices affect the rest of the world.
http://www.slowfood.com/ -
Appetite for Action
This website offers schools access to free resources, from lesson plans and fact sheets through to activity ideas and films, helping pupils to reduce food waste, grow their own fruit and vegetables, understand composting and reduce waste to landfill.
http://schools.appetiteforaction.org.uk/ -
Tesco takes over
Comedy clip set in a fictional future. WARNING Contains strong language
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SAbk4IWoT08
Stats
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about shopping locally
- There are 4.8 million small businesses in the UK (up from 4 million in 2003)
- 3 million businesses are sole proprietors, 1.3 million are companies, 462,000 are partnerships. Of these small businesses 97 % employ less than 20 people, 95 per cent employ less than 5 people
- Over 500,000 people start up their own business every year
- Small firms contribute more than 50.1 per cent of the UK turnover
- 64 per cent of commercial innovationscome from small firms
- 33 per cent of all UKenterprises are in London and the South-East
- Over 2 million people run their small business from home
- Supermarket chains control more than 80% of the grocery market but employ only 50% more staff than the independent sector.
- A 2005 New Economic Foundation Survey carried out in London found that for fruit and vegetables, "Street markets are substantially cheaper than the neighbourhood supermarket".
- Every £1 spent with a local supplier is worth £1.76 to the local economy, and only 36 pence if it is spent out of the area. That makes £1 spent locally worth almost 400 per cent more.
- More than 13,000 specialist stores, including butchers, bakers, fishmongers and newsagents, closed between 1997 and 2002 (New Economics Foundation).
- Supermarkets tend only to be convenient for car-users - a survey of low income families found that travel costs to go food shopping added 23 per cent on the average shopping cost. If local shops were still present, people wouldn't have to travel so far, or spend so much.
- Big supermarkets are geared up to car-based shopping. Car use for food shopping results in costs to society of more than £3.5 billion per year, from traffic emissions, noise, accidents and congestion.
- It would take more than sixty greengrocers to match the carbon dioxide emissions from a single average superstore
- The farmers' share of a basket of food staples is estimated to have fallen by 25 per cent between 1988 and 2004
Recently Posted
Shopping locally
I live in a small town (Bellingen) about half an hour from a regional city. Pretty much I now only shop locally. It is great for the community and the local town economy to do the shopping in town. There are many people in Bellingen doing the same. 22 July 2010, 11:57Penny Lane
I help spread the messege by using the Beatles song penny lane, it really helped to get the action in peoples heads. 05 May 2010, 11:50z
z 31 March 2010, 20:11Done
I bought a pen in local shop. 20 March 2010, 05:07always!!
i live really close to about 7 shops, so its so easy! :D 03 November 2009, 19:17i'm always do this
i'm always doing this as i live really close to my local shops and my mum sends me to get milk or something 03 November 2009, 18:22Suggestion
One of your messages in your book is to shop locally. Would you consider linking Indiebound.org as an alternative to Amazon for customers interested in purchasing your book online? Indie Bound will link folks with independent businesses in their communities, keeping dollars in their own communities! Thank you. 27 April 2009, 17:42
US no-mans land
Having been raised in the US and now living in London, I can see how not shopping locally can hollow out a town and add to a fragmented society. Much of this can be traced to the automobile (every American's birthright). If you compare Los Angeles to a carfree place like Venice, there is no comparison in the quality of life and vibrancy of the community. 29 August 2008, 09:28
local shop
its cheaper to by milk from the shop up the road. in asda and tesco its 1.44, in lidl its 1.40 and in the local shop its 1.20. so we always get our milk from there.
its also easier to get 2 :) 11 July 2008, 18:09
what you want, what you need... tricks for an easy
Late one night recently, a friend was musing about the confusing nature of supermarkets. Something I could well sympathise from my supermarket days (now, to my delight, beginning to be a distant memory). He said that he couldn't always get what he wanted there.
Oh!, I wondered to myself. I thought about that, and realised that I am shopping upside down now. I pretty much always go the the local shop, buy one meal at a time. They know my face. I know theirs. They gave me a bottle of wine at Christmas. Which made my entire Christmas. We smile at each other. Ask each other how we are. Have amusing tussles about the fact that I don't want a bag, don't have a bag and, yes, am happy to walk up the road with an armful of potatoes and bread clutched to my nice clean shirt.
The point, though, is that I don't think about what I want. I find out what is in the local shop, and then I make something out of it. Not concerned about what I want, I'm finding life easier and happier when I just work with what is on offer. Another unexpectedly liberating consequence.
Sure, the food there might not be the best quality. Or the most responsibly sourced. But I'm dealing with one or two things at a time, I suppose.
It's not a million miles away from the idea that you buy less if your re-usable bag is smaller, or that the less you buy then the less you want, and the more relaxed you become. 19 February 2008, 08:21