You may well have seen the BUY LOCAL stickers around Timperley, Hale and Altrincham. But why is it so important to Buy Local anyway?
At thebestof Altrincham we believe in local business and local people. We believe that with the support of local people those smaller, hidden gems of businesses in and around Altrincham can thrive, grow and benefit everyone around them. Strong local support can ensure that the good local businesses will be here for generations to come.
With so much in the news about our environment, recycling and being greener, it is sometime hard to know what to do for the best. By BUYING LOCAL we can ensure that we are doing our bit to save the planet or at least make things a little better.
Supporting local business also improves our community. There is nothing worse than seeing a boarded up shop or empty business premises, it knocks the local moral and affects other local businesses, in many cases local businesses are run by local people so again supporting them means the money spent in Altrincham returns to support other businesses and amenities in Altrincham, which benefits us all.
Together Altrincham can be everything to everyone, a thriving gem in the northwest. Altrincham already has so many wonderful local businesses, why not tell us about them, recommend a business which you think needs to be shouted about and we will do all we can to support it. It makes sense!
THINK LOCAL, SUPPORT LOCAL, BUY LOCAL!
Why Buy Local? –
Below are just a few points why buying from Altrincham businesses is important, please feel free to add your own comments too.
Greener – Less travelling means less fuel and wear and tear on your vehicles so you are being greener. As local smaller businesses often use other local business this means they are Greener too.
Better Value – Local IS often cheaper, many large stores make out they are 27% cheaper than anyone else, we have all seen the adverts. However have you ever actually done a comparison? We have found that food from the local butchers or greengrocers are often better value than their supermarket counterparts. That a screw from the local hardware store is no more expensive that at a football sized superstore, and you don’t have to buy a bucket full of them, if you need 5 or 6 then often you can buy 5 or 6 not 600. And of course Value is not just measured in the financial cost of an item, as the below points will show.
Better Service – As recent news reports have shown, local shops and service providers are often much better at customer service than the larger or national companies. This is of course not always the case, you may well fine excellent customer service in some large stores, however in general the local store wins out. They not only do they value the customer more, but also often due to the number of years they have worked with the same products their “real” knowledge is far superior.
Better Quality – have you ever gone to a supermarket and picked up a frozen carrot in the fresh vegetable section? I am sure you have. A lot of supermarkets will buy in huge quantities of food from all over the world and much will be frozen to keep it “fresh” it looks great in store but often deteriorate as soon as you get it home. BUY LOCAL and the vegetables, meat, bread, poultry, fish, fruit etc are often sourced locally, so their freshness, smell, texture and taste is as it should be. They may not always look the way we are told we want them, bright red tomatoes or straight cucumbers but the taste is often far superior as they come from the nearby farms and arrive not in frozen crates which take weeks to get to the store but just a few day or in some cases hours from being farmed.
Local Community – Being blunt when a local business is supported the money stays local. Think of a local family who say run a local store or run a local service provider, when supported locally they will stay in Altrincham, they buy their supplies clothing, when they grow they employ other local people, send their children to local schools, they even buy their sandwiches for lunch from a local butty shop which also is run by a local person, and the knock on effect continues.
Altrincham, Altrincham, Altrincham. We all want the best for Altrincham and all the other villages and areas around it, the reputation of the area is known countrywide. The Likes of Hale, Bowden, Hale Barns, Timperley and many other areas are in general very well thought of. We want this feel good factor to grown, many feel it has taken a battering in recent years however we can bring it back by keeping local. Have you say on what matters on the blog, it takes a few minutes to join in and share your opinion with thousands of other local people just like you. Make the difference.
The BUY LOCAL campaign is being run by thebestof Altrincham and supported by local businesses.