Small Business Saturday comes to Sussex
We're all being asked to shop local today
People across Sussex are being asked to shop local today, on Small Business Saturday.
The non-profit initiative was launched in America back in 2010, as a way of promoting independent and smaller local enterprises.
Martin Searle is the Development Manager at the Federation of Small Businesses in Sussex.
He says: "An easy convenient move is to, you know, go to the High Street sellers and to the big businesses, the chain stores, or even to go on Amazon or whatever. But we're saying make a bit more effort if you can to shop local, spend local.
"Our research shows that 63 pence of every pound that you spend with a local independent shop is retained in that community. Because obviously the shop owners and the staff live and work in that community, but also that means that those firms have a tax take, you know, they will pay their taxes to the local council and the local council can then use that money for local services such as brilliant events at Christmas for instance, or the roads, the education system, and so forth. So you're supporting your local council to provide you with local services.
"Also, if you can, I think there's so much to be said for buying locally sourced goods as well because obviously it's good for the environment. There's this word ‘short supply chains’ which basically means it's a very short journey between, say, farm to fork. What you see on the shelves will have gone through a very short journey as opposed to say a supermarket or a chain store where they may have even been imported and not only going over land but over sea!”