Small Business Saturday in Eastbourne is a great opportunity to put independent shops, makers, producers and other small businesses firmly in the spotlight.
But supporting local businesses shouldn't begin and end with one Saturday in December.
Over nearly fifteen years of promoting Buy Local through thebestof Eastbourne, we've seen plenty of good local initiatives generate enthusiasm and attention. We've supported them where we can, and we've learned something along the way.
Creating a moment can make a difference.
Maintaining the momentum is much harder.
That's why, with Christmas approaching and Small Business Saturday taking place on Saturday 5 December 2026, we think this is the right time to start something that we hope can last much longer.
Small Business Saturday is a nationwide campaign encouraging people to support small businesses and recognise the contribution they make to their communities.
It's a valuable reminder to look beyond the businesses and brands we encounter every day and consider what might be available locally.
That could mean visiting an independent retailer, buying from a local maker, choosing local produce or simply finding a small business you hadn't previously known was there.
But the real opportunity comes when someone finds a great local business through a campaign like Small Business Saturday and continues using it afterwards.
Because local businesses need customers in January, April and August just as much as they do in December.
Eastbourne has never been short of good ideas for encouraging people to support local businesses.
Over the years we've seen different Buy Local and Shop Local initiatives create real enthusiasm, and we've tried to support them wherever possible.
One that particularly stayed with us was Eastbourne Can's original Five Local campaign.
It encouraged people to think about their own local spending choices and created a real buzz, particularly around Christmas. Businesses and residents got behind Five Local and the message was shared widely across local social media.
It was a simple idea that people understood.
And it's an idea we think is worth building upon.
We've seen many local initiatives come and go over the years. That's not because they were bad ideas or didn't make a difference. Often, the difficult part of any campaign is maintaining the resources, attention and momentum needed to keep it going.
That's something we want to learn from.
Buy Local isn't something new for thebestof Eastbourne.
It has been at the heart of what we do locally for nearly fifteen years.
During that time, thebestof Eastbourne has been independently funded by local businesses to promote local businesses and support the wider Eastbourne community.
That support has allowed us to keep investing in the platform and the local infrastructure around it.
Today we maintain an extensive Local Guide, a popular What's On resource, local business directories, community information and a growing collection of useful Eastbourne content.
We've also been able to give something back by supporting local events and initiatives where we can, including Eastbourne Carnival, Eastbourne Youth Radio, the Eastbourne Big Futures Show and projects involving the Eastbourne Education Business Partnership.
We don't mention those things for a pat on the back.
They demonstrate something we've believed for a long time.
The more of us who work together locally, the bigger the impact we can create.
We've also tried to keep thebestof Eastbourne as accessible as possible.
People can use our Local Guide, look for businesses, check what's on, read local information and find community organisations without needing a subscription simply to access the information.
Keeping all of that useful and as current as possible takes considerable work.
People are often surprised to learn that the local operation is organised by one person, supported by trusted partners, freelancers and an increasing range of tools that allow us to achieve much more than would once have been possible.
As thebestof Eastbourne grows, we want to keep finding ways to make those resources work harder for the town.
But we can't possibly know about every brilliant business, event or organisation ourselves.
That's where Eastbourne comes in.
We want to take what we've learned from nearly fifteen years of Buy Local, combine it with the simplicity of the original Five Local idea and see whether we can develop #5Local into an ongoing, year-round campaign supporting local businesses in Eastbourne.
We're not trying to invent another reason to tell people they “should” shop locally.
We've been saying Buy Local for years.
We think the more useful challenge now is to make buying locally easier.
Rather than expecting every independent business to generate awareness entirely on its own, we can bring information together, create useful local resources and give people somewhere to start when they actively want to make a local choice.
The businesses that choose to work with thebestof Eastbourne help make that possible.
Their support funds the infrastructure, content and local promotion behind what we do. As that network grows, so does our ability to promote Eastbourne, support community activity and create initiatives such as Buy Local and #5Local.
The more local people use the businesses supporting that ecosystem, the more we can invest back into making the whole thing stronger.
With Christmas not far away, this feels like the right time to begin.We're starting by focusing on three areas where choosing local could make an immediate difference:
Independent retailers, handmade gifts and local produce.
These are exactly the kinds of Eastbourne businesses that could help someone find something different for Christmas while keeping more of their spending local.
And we need Eastbourne's help to find them.
Which independent retailers, handmade gift providers and local producers would you recommend to someone looking for Christmas gifts in Eastbourne?
Tell us about the businesses you think deserve to be found.
Your recommendations will help us strengthen our local directories and make it easier for other people to find independent businesses worth supporting.
The more local knowledge people share with us, the more useful we can make those resources for everybody.
Small Business Saturday and the run-up to Christmas give us a natural opportunity to get #5Local moving.
But we don't want this to become another campaign that appears for a few weeks and then disappears.
We're treating this first stage as a pilot.
We'll see what people respond to, learn what works and continue looking for ways to make #5Local useful throughout the year.
Nobody is going to buy everything locally, and we're not asking them to.
We simply want to make the local option easier to find when it exists.
If more residents use local businesses, more businesses work together and more people contribute their recommendations and local knowledge, the combined effort becomes much more powerful than any of us working individually.
Small Business Saturday gives us a moment to celebrate local businesses. With #5Local, we'd like to help that thinking last much longer.
For our first #5Local push, we're looking for your recommendations in three areas:
Independent retailers. Handmade gifts. Local produce.
If there's an Eastbourne business you think deserves to be included, send us your recommendation and tell us why you think more people should know about them.
And if you're looking for local businesses to support, browse our Shopping Directory and see what's already available around Eastbourne.
