thebestofeastbourne: Buy Local Week: 3-9 June 2013
A NEW movement is emerging across the country to ‘think local, act local’. There are all kinds of efforts to inject new life into places like the High Street, communities and homes. One campaign promoted by thebestofeastbourne is leading the local way.
Pop up shops are appearing. There is also a cross over between art and education. Boarded up shops are becoming a colourful part of the fabric of shopping centres in towns, as local artist driven event and service hoardings now advertise the fact that communities still matter and that life goes on.
It can be argued that they are just papering over the cracks. But seen from another point of view, they are making statements about the fact that it is business as usual, however much the bombs dropped following the financial crash of 2008 damaged the spirit of the nation and its economic wellbeing.
Just as in the Second World War, the message ‘Keep Calm and Carry On’ resonates across the economic barricades. Shopping bags, tea towels, mugs, cards and sweat shirts proclaim the message in all its variations.
These artefacts are a sign of the times.
Supermarkets are re-orientating themselves towards the needs of a new kind of consumer. People have less money, many are now in part-time work or without work and family budgets are severely stretched when it comes to the Saturday shop.
The Tesco Sustainable Dairy Group, for example, maintains it has invested £145 million, over and above the average UK producer milk price. Tescos is busy making all kinds of local connections between food producers and consumers, not just talking up news that it has held its milk prices, but talking up local farmers as part of their initiative.
Money is going towards what Group chairman Will Hosford says is continuing to further a relationship that is ‘a positive journey for both farmers and Tesco’.
The ‘local’ message works. Buy potatoes in Tescos and it is likely that you will see not just adjoining county Kent as the place of origin, but also the farm from which the produce came.
Local farm shops have sprung up in rural locations across the country. Our own Sharnfold Farmshop is a shining example of what can be done in these hard pressed times to present a range of quality produce that is accessible to the whole community.
What Sharnfold does is not just sell food, it sells the whole notion of community on a daily basis. it brings people together as part of the experience.
It is not just High Streets and food producers and distributors that are experiencing radical change.
The new ‘Make Do and Mend Society’ is also becoming the ‘Make Do and Create Society’, with all kinds of initiatives to support employment growth at local levels like Big Society Capital.
On behalf of the Coalition Government, it is developing strategies to support sustainable social investment in the UK, with an injection of £200million from the banks to kickstart ‘a growth fund’.
Already there are something like 500 new small enterprises across the country benefiting from the distribution of these new funds.
We are experiencing the worst recession for 100 years, and across the board, the impact on local communities is significant.
All kinds of plans and projects are aiming to inject a sense of hope and practical possibility into local markets and communities.
The web, of course, increasingly powerful not just as a communication tool, but as new key tool for business, is at the forefront of some of these changes.
A ‘click and collect’ campaign which encourages shoppers to buy online but collect from local high streets and shopping centres is encouraging the footfall back into town centres.
People buy online and then turn up in their High Street to collect. Part of their journey of course, takes them browsing to other shops. Everyone benefits.
It is a very simple formula for the age in which we live, and it works.
Argos began by recently investing £4 million in the campaign and John Lewis, which has bucked the trend by increasing both paying traffic to its web platform and its shops, has also announced a major new plan to expand this side of its business.
Talking to Marketing Week, Andy Street, John Lewis managing director revealed that a fifth of all the Group’s business comes from online sales and that the company is now;
“Seeking new partners to help it expand its “click and collect” service into small towns up and down the UK where it does not have a presence”.
Such a development, the first of its comprehensive kind, could inject new life not just into High Streets, with local shops benefiting from footfall, but also into places like Pevensey Bay, still suffering from the loss of its only bank, the HSBC in 2011, which sent shock waves through the whole community.
We wondered if it would mark the death knell of our tightly knit service base, as shops one by one closed and new businesses were driven away from the idea of re-locating because commercial banking facilities were no longer available locally.
One small initiative has captured the attention of the local market.
TheBestofEastbourne, which was set up by enterprising local businessman David Ruddle, one of a set of successful online franchise models across the country, is about to launch a ‘buy local campaign’ to encourage people to take advantage of some of its offers.
The membership driven model online presents an opportunity for local businesses to benefit from ‘a cluster effect’ online by advertising their services through the platform, which can be browsed and enjoyed. The platform is a lively modern take on a slice of upcoming Eastbourne business life.
TheBestofEastbourne now plans to target a campaign specifically aimed at raising the profile of the ‘buy local’ movement with its own offering next week which aims to put the happy back into the shopper experience.
Talking exclusively to Bay Life, David told us that
‘I have put a lot of my own energy into seeing that the bestof buy local campaign forms a big part of what we are doing this coming month across the country’.
The ‘Bestof Buy Local Week’ begins on Monday 3 June.
Activities include a chance to show support for local business in Eastbourne, a daily prize draw and a new Buy Local page on their platform..
You can find out more about the thebestofeastbourne: Buy Local Week: 3-9 June 2013 here.
‘Keep Calm and Carry On’—Best of Eastbourne campaign leads the way with ‘Buy Local’ Week is a sponsored post on behalf of thebestofeastbourne
thebestof started life in 2005 and now has coverage in over 300 areas across the UK, showcasing and supporting over 30,000 local businesses. Each local ‘franchisee’ works to develop their own hub. bestofeastbourne is run by local businessman, David Ruddle.
