Small Business Saturday - 5th December 2015

Are you going to support your local Small Business Saturday?

Saturday the 5^th December is Small Business Saturday; a specific day to celebrate our local independent retailers. Small Business Saturday is a grass roots, non-commercial campaign to help support local independent retailers.

Why support Small Business Saturday? It is the independent retailers that give variety to each town/city centre and Carlisle is no exception.­­ Carlisle has some great examples of independent retailers from its coffee shops selling locally roasted coffee and its pubs selling locally brewed beer to sports retailers selling the latest hi tech gear.

As an advisor to independent retailers it is clear that in nearly every case these businesses are bursting with passion and expert knowledge about their products, which is very difficult for the national retailers to acquire. In my view, this leads to a much richer shopping experience and one that is very much worth protecting. I’d go one step further and say it is these businesses that stop one town shopping areas being a clone of the next, providing much needed variety and a connection to the local area.

With this in mind, I urge you to go out (not just a week on Saturday) as often as you can to give your support to smaller retailers to ensure they survive long into the future in our town centres. Whether you are in Carlisle, Dumfries, Penrith, Leeds or Skipton why not pay a local small business near you a visit and see what they have to offer before you go online to do your Christmas shopping.

Whether a big purchase such as a set of Golf Clubs, or a small spend on a coffee, give a local small business a try. If that is not enough to make you go and buy local remember that small retailers pay their tax in the UK unlike certain river named retailers.

For more information on the Small Business Saturday campaign check out their site www.smallbusinesssaturdayuk.com