More Than Convenient: How Local Shops Make Good Neighborhoods
If Toks Aruoture’s WhatsApp flashes with a message from her local business group, she knows she needs to read it. There is a strong possibility that someone in a shop or business near the shops of London known as the King’s Road Curve may need immediate assistance.
As the owner of The Baby Cout Shop, a children’s furniture retailer in Chelsea, finding your fellow shoppers is one of the ways she helps support your local business community through the Aroochar neighborhood networking group .
“WhatsApp Business Group is for any message, but we mostly use it to sound an alarm or share important information. We say, for example: ‘Need help 408’ and anyone who is around will help,” she says. If a single sales staff member feels unsafe around a customer, one of the group in it Something as simple as that can be involved. “It’s been very effective,” says 49-year-old Aruochar, who ran an online business before opening her children’s furniture store about six years ago.
This initiative, and others who love it across the country, shows that local shops can be a lot more useful than just ingredients for dinner, or birthday gifts at the last minute. Local business owners are interdependent and create an inclusive environment.
The local community also benefits. “Losally-owned businesses are more likely to do business for the benefit of their local community,” says Christian Zacarini, a senior advisor at NEF Consulting, part of the New Economic Foundation thinktank, which aims to promote social, economic and environmental justice. Is.
Tokas Aruochar, owner of Baby Cout Shop, is part of a WhatsApp group for local businesses
Aruoture loves to support its clients by organizing a range of special events, from breastfeeding clinics to first aid workshops; Before the pandemic she had a “Galentine’s Day” evening on February 14th for someone on the loose end. And he’s part of a group of shops on King’s Road that supported this year’s Chelsea in Bloom, a free annual festival that runs alongside the RHS Chelsea Flower Show, and that encourages local businesses to fill the area with eye-catching flower displays. Encourages to change – the best of them win the prize.
“We invite our customers in Kensington and Chelsea to come over for a glass of Prosecco or juice to see the flowers and our latest collection,” Aruocher says.
Such community spirit is not uncommon among small business owners, says Martin McTeague, national president of the Federation of Small Businesses. He points out that despite increasing pressure, many small business owners still find time to volunteer or contribute to a local community organization or charitable cause.
He says that, according to FSB research, 95% of small businesses have taken at least one worker from a disadvantaged labor group, which includes people with disabilities, low levels of educational attainment, and older workers.
Alana Atkinson’s business, A Few Scoops, supports her local community and receives community support in return.
In Manchester, small business owner Alana Atkinson, 35, likes to support community fundraisers. Buy a ticket to a local school raffle and you can win a voucher for one of the ice creams she makes at A Few Scoops, a business she launched in May 2021. The local community supports her in return, she says, buying her products retail and wholesale, and also keeping an eye on the customized tuk-tuk, which is her fresh take on the ice cream van.
“It’s parked in my driveway and part of the small community where I live. Everyone looks out for it because I’m a local businessman and I’m known for this bright pink tuk-tuk,” Atkinson says. Like many local business owners, Atkinson tries to recruit from within the community, posting job ads on her local Facebook group; All eight of its staff members live nearby in South Manchester.
All this helps to create a virtuous cycle. “If you go to a local business to buy your groceries, that money goes to the business owner. That business owner is more likely to stay, so that’s money that will be spent in the local area as well,” says Carlos Fatas, senior economist at the Center for Economics and Business Research (CEBR). “If the business employs people in the store, it is more likely that those people will be local residents. If they go out for lunch and groceries before going home, that too There is money that lives in this area.”
Local businesses also often use local suppliers, as Fatus puts it: “It is easier in the case of local businesses to localize their business supply chains to reduce costs.” There are other layers, such as taxes that go to the council to be spent at the local level. In fact, research by Visa and Cebr in 2020 found that out of every £10 spent with independently owned local businesses, £3.80 was kept in the local area.
It is not that the benefits of buying locally are limited to economics. “Consumers value the inclusivity and community benefits provided by nearby businesses, making their neighborhood a good place to live and keeping their local area vibrant and buzzing. can encourage entrepreneurs to start their own ventures,” says Fatas.
As McTeague puts it: “The impact of small business success goes beyond economic – they are embedded in their communities, trusted by local people and have lived there for long periods of time.”
When more of us play, we all win
Competition is at its peak when everyone has a chance to actually participate. Therefore Visa is a proud sponsor of UEFA Women’s Euro 2022. And Visa’s support is beyond the pitch. Visa is committed to digitally enabling 8 million small businesses in Europe by the end of 2023, providing the technology and tools to help transform small ideas into big businesses, wherever they are. To learn more about how Visa is supporting access and inclusion: Visa.co.uk/wUEFA2022
