Should we be local shopping more often

As I go local shopping in search of eggs for M’s Kitchen for the third time this week, I cannot help but ask how do we get into situations like this in the first place?

Staff working round the clock, email upon email filling up my inbox from CEO’s asking everyone for consideration.

Yet rows and rows of empty shelves in every major UK supermarket every time I venture out.

Eggs though seem to be the least of my worries.

It’s clear that “Ay, Corona” is no longer just a song based on that song from 1979 “My Sharona”.

It appears to be turning into a pandemic driven by survival instinct

Or should that rather be fear?

I walk down the streets at a busy local shopping hotspot – yes, I’ve given up trying to search for the same ingredients at the supermarket.

Then I realise just how much I have become used to looking for everything at a low cost in one place.

I also realise how much this behaviour is impacting on local small businesses and shop owners.

It makes me stop.

For the first time in a long time I feel a deep level of sadness.

• The café where I used to sit and write Naked Baking
• the many shops I buy accessories from for my events
• the health shop I go to when I’m run down
• the toyshop which always seem to stock just what I need last minute for one of the little M’s concerts

Every one of these shops affected not by “Ay, Corona” but by a virus of fear.

How much we take for granted the thousands of people working in retail and hospitality.

The reliance on shops being full, everywhere we want and preferably cheap.

The expectation that people will be there to cater for our every event, every day of the year.

So today I stopped to do local shopping

I stopped at the veg kiosk open come rain or shine to buy some veg.

I stopped at the coffee shop and had breakfast with my son.

I stopped at the barber for my son to have a haircut.

I stopped at the new deli-type shop to pick up a dozen eggs.

I tipped the waiter.

I gave my email address to the deli so one more small business can grow their mailing list.

I cannot honestly say that I will always want to pay 30p per medium-sized egg for when I bake, but today I made a conscious choice to try and make a difference.

I am grateful to people working round the clock to keep us going.

The thousands of people we take for granted every day – I thank you.

And if “Ay, Corona” is meant to teach us something, it should be to appreciate what we have.

To say thank you by local shopping 

To support not just those vulnerable around you, but to think further.

The future beyond “Ay, Corona” – should we go back not just to “Make do and Mend”, but “Spend local and Make”?

Contact us if you want to get involved in our Spend local and Make campaign