Small Business Saturday 🛍️

Rosie_Scope

Did you know that there are 5.45 million small businesses across the UK?

Well, today is the day to show them some extra love! But while today is the official Small Business Saturday, it's really a year-round national movement to spotlight the small businesses that make a big difference to our communities and economy.

The aim is to encourage people to shop small and help small businesses thrive.

Not everyone will be able to nip out to their local shops but there are also lots of businesses who sell online these days and it's great to be able to support those too.

You can find out more about Small Business Saturday on their website:

https://smallbusinesssaturdayuk.com/index.aspx

Do you have a favourite small business near you? Please don't name it if it will identify where you live, but I'd love to hear what they make or do.

Or do you have any favourite online businesses? It would be fab to hear about them as well.

66Mustang

I like buying stuff from small businesses!!! 😊

It's nice interacting with companies on a personal level… the person you deal with is often the one behind the entire company, and that makes the interaction consequential to both sides

I also like buying individual and unique things… if you buy a branded item a proportion of the purchase price (often a significant one) goes into propping up brand equity. With an independent shop that amount is usually much smaller, so your money is going to tangible things like the quality of the product and the constituents of it… On the subject of that, small businesses quite often stick together and source ingredients/materials from other small businesses, too, so you're perhaps supporting more than one business

As much as it might be pleasurable to get onto a high horse, it's not because I want to support the little person for the sake of it. I think any business – big or small – should exist upon the merits of their product and service; if they are lacking why does the business deserve to exist?

As harsh as that sounds it's a testament to the quality of what you can get from small businesses… I never come away thinking "this is a bit naff or overpriced, but at least I've propped up a local business"; it's always something that I felt was worth my money and gives me more satisfaction than something from a generic national chain store

rubin16

I have an issue where I won't go anywhere I've not been before, or know whats it like beforehand. So unless someone has took me there I will never try a new shop, which unfortunately means I don't tend to go in smaller shops or new businesses.

Online though I will shop anywhere (Depending on things like reviews, price etc.) but generally find smaller shops are more expensive than bigger online stores for the same product. The only exception to this is unique or creative items, whereby you can only get it from the small business/designer.

chiarieds

Hi @66Mustang - it's great to see you posting, & I also appreciate what you've said here. As I think you know, I had a secondhand & antiquarian bookshop for nearly 25 years. It was just a small bookshop with about 6.5 thousand books (& get 12 people in there, which happened, & you could hardly move) so it was definitely a 'small' business!

When someone would come in & say, I don't suppose you have this book I've been looking for for years,' & I could say, 'yes, here on this shelf,' it was a genuingly a pleasurable moment for us both!

I remember one young man who came in saying his Dad, who lived in South Africa & who had never been to England, let alone our shop, told him he must visit our bookstore when visiting our town. It seems word of mouth had spread even further than we'd known!

I'll also never forget a young girl, who'd have been about 9 or 10, & who'd been coming into our bookshop for a few years with her Dad & brother being in tears when I said we were closing. She rushed across to give me a hug saying, 'you can't close.'

It can be hard to be a small business when you do your best, but it becomes less profitable which can be due to many things. Small businesses need people's support or may cease to exist. We had previously had so many people come in & say secondhand bookshops are becoming a rarity so they had been pleased to see our shop.

Trevor_PIP

I can remember when it was all small businesses, no supermarkets in my town until the late 1970's and it was a good period. All the different shops selling their products and they were well run friendly little businesses. Same with the pubs too. Pubs on every corner, all different selling a different British breweries ales and beers - Whitbread, Courage, Bass Charrington, Scottish & Newcastle and Guinness. Lovely ales and beers and I will not forget them, a lot have gone now. Scottish & Newcastle and Courage brewed excellent ales and beers, I can name them and only one lager… It is shame how it has gone with pubs, ales and beers, younger people do not know what they have missed. All told great times.

All ruined by supermarkets really.

66Mustang

@chiarieds

If I didn't know where you were I'd suspect you were from my town - your bookshop sounds remarkably similar to one that went bust in my town about 15 years ago! I imagine for the same reasons, perhaps even due to the same online book stores…

One thing I did find especially sad was how busy the store was when they offered 50% off everything as the stock had to go.

Like your shop, my parents went into there a few times to ask for hard-to-find books. I think they were only let down once, because they wanted a book in a language the owners couldn't speak!!! 😃

Chris75_

https://forum.scope.org.uk/discussion/comment/1089186#Comment_1089186

Most beer tastes the same now, and the pub is sadly a rip off these days, too.

I still drink Glasgow brewed Tennent's, but only at home.

Trevor_PIP

https://forum.scope.org.uk/discussion/comment/1089207#Comment_1089207

Yes, beers do taste the same now, but they didn't. Some lovely dark beers, bitters, milds, Brown ales and shouts in the past. Sadly missed too! Guinness, some bitters and local ales can still give a taste of the past. There is still Newcastle Brown Ale too. I never drank lager for decades.

I drink Guinness now but not regularly, I've enjoyed beer in the glorious beer past!

66Mustang

@Trevor_PIP

While I disagree that proper beers taste the same, since the craze for "craft beers" I've found those all have the same taste. I could blindly identify a beer considered "craft" but probably couldn't differentiate between two of them 🙃

It's quite nice for me as the craft beers can be over £8.50 a pint. I'm happy to stick to the traditional "working class" beers and pay £5.50 for a pint. Let others subsidise me. I live down south, can you tell? 😃

Chris75_

https://forum.scope.org.uk/discussion/comment/1089307#Comment_1089307

I have gone at beer drinking back to front. When i was young, lads drank Tennent's Lager, and older men drank McEwan's 80 shiling (heavy), or McEwan's Export. I have only been drinking Tennent's Lager a few years, from being that odd one in the round drinking heavy.

Needless to say, there is no being in a round these days, just me at home having the odd wee session with tinned Tennant's. (Sans cigarettes unfortunately, as that's a rich man's game these days).