Agri Vehicles Insurance from Greenlands

Author Topic: Shopping Locally.  (Read 3222 times)

hughesy

  • Joined Feb 2010
  • Anglesey
Shopping Locally.
« on: November 29, 2013, 12:51:31 pm »
Being a local market trader I'm passionate about local produce for local people. Picked this up from a tweet by Tudful Tamworths. Have a read it's well worth supporting.
http://homefarmer.co.uk/shop-local-5-challenge/

happygolucky

  • Joined Jan 2012
Re: Shopping Locally.
« Reply #1 on: November 29, 2013, 01:11:56 pm »
Totally agree, I hate to see the little shops disappear, it saddened me when a car accessory shop shut but happy when I saw a few weeks later it open again, not sure if its the same person or not? But, the internet takes a lot of trade but not for small things that are not cost effective to post or for very large bulky items like coal, feed etc, the local councils should cut rates on property and give them rental breaks as in the long run they would be better as open shops rather than empty ones. I have been approached buy the local community about a business proposition but its possibly too expensive to fund sadly, and we certainly only have enough in our little pot to  buy our own food and heat.  Short term leases are also good, our town centres have changed and yes its charity shops and coffee shops but I love those any way!!  Like you say, artisan shops cannot cope with all the running costs and the competition of cheaper goods on the internet!!

Lesley Silvester

  • Joined Sep 2011
  • Telford
Re: Shopping Locally.
« Reply #2 on: November 30, 2013, 10:35:54 pm »
My local corner shop is great. I get all my basic vegetables from them and lots of bruised/damaged stuff for my goats. When I needed chives recently and they didn't have any, the owner picked me some from her garden and wouldn't take anything for it. You wouldn't get that in Tesco.

happygolucky

  • Joined Jan 2012
Re: Shopping Locally.
« Reply #3 on: November 30, 2013, 10:42:47 pm »
 :thumbsup: :thumbsup: :thumbsup: , shame we all do not have such lovely local shops, although I do love our co op.....I used to live in a market town and even got cups of tea and a chat in some shops, they knew me and I knew them, it was lovely to have that personal shopping experience!! I moved and still loved the local market, any one who has experienced Leicester Market knows just what I mean, although it was changing before we moved out 7 years ago but brilliant!

hughesy

  • Joined Feb 2010
  • Anglesey
Re: Shopping Locally.
« Reply #4 on: December 01, 2013, 09:10:53 am »
Our local town market was run down by the council to the point it only had four stalls and was almost finished. This year it has been taken over by a social enterprise organisation set up for the purpose, and with the guidance of a very experienced market manager it has gone from strength to strength. We now have thirty odd stalls twice a week and the local people are supporting it. It's still early days ck on effect will spread into the town and everyone will benefit. The beauty of markets is that a small business can get up and running with minimal costs and without the commitment of taking on premises.

Ina

  • Joined Feb 2012
  • South Aberdeenshire
Re: Shopping Locally.
« Reply #5 on: December 01, 2013, 09:34:00 am »
Not much left in our little town to buy!

There's the bakers - I don't eat any of their product (no wheat, no sugar...) There's the Coop - they drive me out with loud musac (and seem to sell mostly rubbish, i.e. highly processed crap). There's the newsagent - I buy my eggs there, if they have any (local produce), but often they don't, or they have eggs but can't sell them, because they didn't get the cartons delivered.  ::) There's the chemist's - can't think of anything I might want to buy there. There's an interesting very oldfashioned clothes shop - they sell bits of carpet, too; I have bought some sock yarn there once, but don't really need nylon blouses or pinafores... And that's it. The butcher closed for good a couple of years ago - no idea why, it always seemed busy. (We almost lost the newsagent, too, until somebody bought it at the last moment; same happened to the bakers.)

madchickenlady

  • Joined Nov 2013
  • Old Newton Suffolk
Re: Shopping Locally.
« Reply #6 on: December 02, 2013, 05:46:12 pm »
There is a monthly farmers market in Stowmarket, when I mentioned to the local councillor that it could do with re-launching as there are now only a couple of stalls I was told that there was no point as people were not supporting it because the prices were too high, such a shame, not sure if people are out pricing themselves or whether they are charging a fair price for a superior product, hard to tell with only a couple of stalls! On the plus side our local shop allows the local allotment users to put there surplus stock outside and locals can buy it for a donation to the local hospice. That's a community minded shop. :excited:
Heather

hughesy

  • Joined Feb 2010
  • Anglesey
Re: Shopping Locally.
« Reply #7 on: December 02, 2013, 06:39:46 pm »
I've got a bit of a downer on farmer's markets. Why is produce at a farmers market generally more expensive than similar produce elswhere? Some of the prices asked are just ridiculous. We sell our pork at our local town market and we don't take the p155 with the prices. Our customers really appreciate that they can buy locally produced meat that they know the origins of but I don't see why it has to be expensive to be honest. Our prices are similar to what you would pay in a butcher's shop locally, and often cheaper than the supermarkets. My other gripe is that a farmer's market should surely be selling locally produced stuff but often the stallholders have travelled miles to get there and sometimes the real locals can't get a pitch. Likewise often the stallholders are selling stuff that they've simply bought in to sell and not actually produced themselves. It would be great if more local producers got themselves down to their local town markets and gave it a go, you never know they might actually make a few quid.

john and helen

  • Joined Mar 2013
  • Devon
  • WARNING,,,MAY SAY WHAT HE BELIEVES
    • Facebook
Re: Shopping Locally.
« Reply #8 on: December 02, 2013, 07:02:51 pm »
our local meat is more expensive than the stuff they sell at the supermarket without doubt, but!!!! there is a massive difference in taste and quality,

personally, i don't mind paying that little extra for the massive difference in taste and quality





 

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