Reasons to Shop Local

 Christmas is a time of giving and this Christmas give your community the gift of survival and support your local businesses.  This blog aims to give you some ideas on why you should shop local and hopefully along the way you'll be inspired by the range of  fantastic ideas for quick and meaningful gifts from local businesses & services. 

So why should we support our local area??
Whether you turn on the TV, Radio, pickup a newspaper or search online there is one word that seems to be popping up everywhere.  'local' is the catch phrase of the moment.

Shop Local  is high on the agenda -just look at RTE Local Heroes Drogheda and the initiatives that they are doing with various RTE programmes following their progress along with a lot of other towns around the country. In this last week's  Galway Advertiser in this interesting article they've have listed a few good reasons to spend your money locally and  launched a high profile shop local campaign.
 



 Reasons to  Shop/Think  Local 

• Think  local to support yourself  -spending money locally keeps revenue  in the area as local traders live in their local area and  tend to spend in their local area. 

• Independent shops create distinctive shopping experiences, stock different, traditional and often local products- visitors to an area want to experience something they cannot see where they come from so independent businesses provide that. 
• Encourages a variety of services -Private and public sector services (banks, restaurants, salons, dentists, doctors, etc) cluster around shops &  businesses. This is vital for any community but especially rural communities.
• Local businesses support local charities, schools, and community events
• Good service - Local traders survive by their reputation so will often go out of their way to give great customer service.

Your hometown is more important than a cheap pair of underwear!