Local shops are the 'social glue' of a community
Dec 18 2007
Local shops are the 'social glue' of a community and need to be used if they are to stay, according to a business expert.
Dian Bird, founder of the Wedge Card, a loyalty card scheme for independent SMEs, says that local shops and SMEs 'connect' people by providing a meeting place within their communities.
Bird says: 'We want to say to people that if you don’t use local shops you are not going to have them, and the landscape of your community is going to completely change. We will end up living in a retail park.'
She says that many shoppers are nostalgic about independent businesses on the high street, 'yet when asked where they shop, they'll tell you they drive to their local supermarket'.
According to research carried out by Keynote, the decline of retail SMEs has been going on for a long time.
Although British retail food sales increased by 30 per cent between 1992 and 1997, small shops lost 8.5 per cent of their trade while supermarkets gained 18 per cent.
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