7:10am Saturday 4th July 2009
TODAY is the day. Give the chain stores a miss for 24 hours and Buy Local. Across the Atlantic in the United States, millions of people are celebrating Independence Day.
Here in Worcestershire, meanwhile, we are staging the first Independents’ Day. As we said earlier this week, today marks the culmination of this newspaper’s hugely successful Buy Local campaign.
Launched back in April, our campaign had one simple aim – to encourage our readers to use independent businesses as much as possible.
These are the shops, restaurants, pubs, cafes and markets that are the lifeblood of many of our local communities but are struggling to survive in the toughest economic conditions for decades.
In our special 16-page Buy Local supplement today you will find some great discounts within advertisements from local businesses along with five pages of reader recommendations of the best independent retailers in the county and a full directory of the firms that have supported our campaign.
Buy Local has had a positive effect on business for local independents. Our campaign may be winding down but the Buy Local message will not go away.
Our thanks go to you, our readers, for backing our campaign so wholeheartedly, and for using our Buy Local eco bags – supplied by Jutexpo – for your shopping.
Thanks also to Worcestershire, Wychavon, Malvern Hills and Worcester councils for their support. We are also grateful to the hundreds of local businesses that have displayed our Buy Local posters.
We hope they have benefited from our Buy Local campaign. Today is their day.
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