At Goodness Goodies we are big fans of the shop local movement. For many of us 2020 has been marked by a shift away from time and money spent in city centres to time at home and money spent in local shops and restaurants. While undeniably tough on city centre businesses, many of them small businesses, that shift towards where we live creates the opportunity to increase the quality of our lives and rebalance our economy in a fairer way by shopping local. We believe that shopping local is an important way of making small changes that lead to big differences.

• Shopping locally really does boost the local economy. Nearly one in five of us own or are employed in local businesses. Research by Visa and the Centre for Economic and Business Research (CEBR) found that for every £10 spent with a local business £3.80 stayed in the area.
• Small local shops, distinct from the big chains that dominate city centres, are often more innovative and imaginative offering originality and individuality with better customer service.
• Flourishing local shops and town centres create a vibrant, colourful feeling of community and distinctiveness rather than the blur of sameness we often find in our chain store dominated shopping centres and city centres. 
• Walking and cycling to local shops not only boosts our health but reduces pollution and helping to protect the environment.

The good news is that most of us seem to think that shopping locally is important and can make a big difference to the places we live. Visa’s and CEBR’s research found that over half of people surveyed, thought shopping locally was important to them making a big difference to the vibrancy and attractiveness of the places they live. It seems people are keen to shop local, while people currently only spend a fifth of their money locally, those surveyed by CEBR said they would be willing to spend over half locally.

So, if you want where you live to be more colourful, vibrant and distinctive – shop local! 

Goodness Goodies whilst an online retailer, welcomes anyone to come and collect parcels from their London, SE23 base, or we can also deliver if local to SE23.  Just drop us an email with what you would like and we can arrange a collection or local drop off.