Stockton BID urge shoppers to support our local high streets with return of Humans Of The High Street

There are renewed calls for people to shop local and support our high streets, as the country starts to reopen from the Pandemic

Stockton BID have relaunched their successful Humans of the High Street campaign - hoping to encourage more people to spend their money in the town - and support people living and working here.

The project sees Stockton businesses take part in a series of emotive video interviews a year after the first series documented the thoughts and feelings of company owners on whether they would survive the impact of Covid 19.

Jason Maxwell, Stockton BID Manager, said: “The videos give you a real heartfelt, genuine feeling of those people behind the businesses – and that’s what we wanted to portray really.

“We wanted the public to know that there are real people running our High Street businesses and that they absolutely do their best for their customers.

“It isn’t just about making money for them, when you see the people behind the businesses they are passionate about what they do and about giving their customers the right treatments, products or services – whatever it happens to be.”

The message from the videos is that Stockton town centre has a thriving business community with companies who are dedicated to working together to support one another – but the public also need to play their part in supporting local entrepreneurs at this critical time.

“A common misconception is that there’s nothing left in Stockton – that there are no businesses left and it’s a ghost town,” Jason says.

“In fact, from our figures, we know that there are more than 400 businesses within our Business Improvement District and what we need people to see is that there are both national and independent businesses, who need your support now.

“I think if people see the raw emotion and collective passion that comes out in this series of Humans of the High Street and the first one, people will come out and support their local businesses.”

For more information on the campaign, you can find more on Instagram, Twitter and Facebook.