A small business Christmas shopping guide: Shopping local in Stafford & Stone
Support your local small businesses this Christmas
It’s now more important than ever to support your local, small businesses. The Covid lockdowns and the cost of living crisis has forced so many small businesses to close and without our support, even more closures will happen. As Holly Tucker so rightly says when talking about small businesses, “Use us, or lose us”.
Benefits of shopping local
It helps to reduce your carbon footprint
Shopping locally to where you live means that you are there in person to browse, buy and take your purchases home. There is no need for excessive packaging or for cross country delivery services. You’re also less likely to return products you’ve bought in person, again reducing the need for more packaging and more delivery services.
You invest in your community
Not only are you investing in the small business you shop at, but you’re also investing in your local economy. For every £10 you spend with a local business, an additional £50 goes back into your local economy (shop owners will spend this money in local restaurants and shops, thus circulating the money and allowing your community to thrive!).
You’ll get great customer service
You can’t beat the customer service given from a small business. The business owner will often be the person who has made your product, the person you speak to in the shop, the person who bags up your order and the person you’ll speak to on the phone or over social media. They will always do everything they can to offer an excellent service, because they truly care. Their business is everything to them and they want you to love it from start to finish.
You’ll make thoughtful purchases
It’s easy to get carried away online. You’ll add things to your basket without much thought, especially if there is a sale on. It’s just too easy to buy things that we don’t actually love all that much. If, instead, you take the time to walk around a shop, you are picking things up, touching them, looking closely at them, and you are much more likely to buy the things that you really love.
It’s more fun
Plan a day to get out into your local area and do your Christmas shopping. Invite a friend. Make a list of all the shops you want to visit and go and get stuck in. Meet the owners, talk about their products and fall in love with every single gift you purchase. And you’ll need to make time for a delicious lunch somewhere (ideally at an independent cafe) or a hot chocolate covered in cream and marshmallows.
14 independent, small businesses in the Stafford and Stone area that are perfect for Christmas shopping.
So if, like me, you are in the Stafford and Stone area, here are 14 are my favourite independent shops to get you started. With a little planning, you could easily hit up all of these in a day and who knows, by the end of that day you might just have most of your Christmas shopping done!
Happy Christmas shopping!