Today is ‘Black Friday’ – a nightmare invention of big business to persuade people to spend as much money as possible in their businesses, whether in warehouses or online. It is a particular nightmare for small businesses such as mine because offering those kinds of discounts just does not help us at all – I could never, for example, compete with the discounts my major online competitors could offer. Not only that, it drags people away from the high street in small towns like Fakenham towards the industrial estates and shopping centres. I have no doubt that parts of Norwich are absolutely heaving today, but the streets here are quieter than usual on a Friday.
To counter Black Friday , the founder of Not On the High Street, Holly Tucker, came up with the idea of Colour Friday, asking people to shop small at Christmas. She wanted to celebrate the colour, creativity and community spirit that independent businesses bring to the UK. She points out that if you spend £10 at a local independent shop, it can result in up to £50 more being recirculated in the local economy than if it was spent in a chain, because local business owners are more likely to spend their money locally. Small businesses are the back bone of the British economy – employing around 16.9 million people and contributing a quarter of the UK’s GDP. Yet the UK is expected to spend £3.9 billion on Black Friday in vast global corporations, while more than a million small businesses fear closure.
Another organisation, Small Business Britain, is promoting Small Business Saturday (this year on 6 December). Again, this aimed at trying to persuade people to think about shopping on their high streets and supporting their local businesses. We have had our local MP, Jerome Mayhew, here in Fakenham today filming with many of the independent shops with the aim of promoting Small Business Saturday for us and persuading people to shop local. I saw somewhere on social media the claim that buying one Christmas gift from a small independent business rather than a big retailer will put more than £1billion into the British economy (stat attributed to the Office for National Statistics). If that is even a little bit true it would be a great thing.
But this blog is not about complaining about big vs small business. What I really want to do is to thank the people who do come here to shop, sometimes from quite far away. Today we had someone come all the way from Diss to get her daughter’s Christmas present, and someone else who lives in Spalding who said that she prefers to shop in small businesses. We had two people in who were catching up on missed workshops – learning how to knit socks – such flexibility being a benefit of being small. We have spent countless hours over the last few years helping people choose the right wool for the right project, something which cannot be done online and is no longer even offered in bigger shops. And some of our customers do not even have to come to us in person – we are more than happy to deliver to them. One such lovely person, based in Sunderland, sent us such a sweet card this week, wishing that she could be nearer and sending best wishes to all Fakenham knitters because tomorrow we are celebrating the business with an all day party in the shop. At the same time we will be promoting another small business, the fabulous Blue Fern Yarns who will be running a pop up shop here all day, showcasing her gorgeous hand dyed yarns. We hope that people will come to shop, or to drink tea or coffee or hot chocolate and eat cake and/or to sit and knit and chat. I strongly feel that it is this sense of support and community that makes our high streets such great places to be and thank all of you who are prepared to take the time to shop with us as well as or rather than with bigger retailers. Every day is Colour Friday here!
