Buying Local does not mean you can’t shop outside Lane Cove. It means where you can make the choice to shop local and support locally owned businesses which use local resources, employ locals and primarily service local customers.
Local Shopping is Better For the Environment
Around the world, after lockdowns were removed, local communities launched shop-local campaigns to help with pandemic recovery. The question is now being asked should Shop Local campaigns shift their focus and marketing message to ask people to shop locally to assist with the climate emergency and cost of living increases?
Kimberley Guthrie, Chief Officer, of Scotland’s Towns Partnership Interim, recently wrote an article about “Why Loving Local is the Key to Tackling climate emergency and Cost of Living Crisis”. In this article, she noted:
“Yes, Scotland Loves Local has a part to play in long-term pandemic recovery. But its relevance is just as strong when dealing with today’s twin climate and cost of living crises too. Reduced travel (to use the obvious example) not only lessens financial costs but our carbon emissions. Our message strikes at the core of many innovative public policy initiatives too, from community wealth building to 20-minute neighbourhoods.”
A research paper published in 2020 in Environmental Science & Technology, a peer-reviewed scientific journal published by the American Chemical Society by PhD students from Radboud Adboud University in the Netherlands, found that shopping at brick-and-mortar retailers for everyday household products such as toilet paper, shampoo and toothpaste, often results in less greenhouse gas emissions than ordering the products from an online retailer.
The main reason is because of how people shop online: Many buy items online frequently — but they only buy a few items per purchase. Yet when they shop in-store, they tend to make a single bulk purchase.
Buying Local Fosters Uniqueness
You can walk into any big shopping centre in Australia and see the same stores, but in Lane Cove, if you buy locally, you can foster and preserve one-of-a-kind businesses with a distinctive character.
Lane Cove residents place a high value on uniqueness and individuality.
We have seen big chains come into Lane Cove and fail (how many suburbs can lay claim to the fact that McDonalds shut down in their suburb). It does not mean that we don’t like franchised stores. We have some fabulous franchised stores in Lane Cove, for example, Chargrill Charlies, they are part of a bigger group but the store is owned by Justin Levinstein, who supports many local charities and sporting groups.
Support Your Local Community
Locally owned businesses support local groups. If you go to any local school fundraiser you will see that the majority of the prizes are donated by small local businesses. ITC speaks to local businesses every day, and they have told me that they are always happy to donate prizes when a customer asks, but if a stranger who has never shopped with them, walks in off the street and asks for a donation, they are less likely to donate. They want to help the people who buy from them.
Local Decision Making
A local store can easily source different and varied products, they do not have a buyer who sits in an office and does not interact with the customer. If you want a particular item they are more likely to try and source it for you.
Local Owners Expertise and Knowledge
Local businesses have a greater interest in finding out about their customers. The owners are your neighbours, and their kids go to the local school.
Competition and Diversity
A local community with many small businesses is an ideal way to ensure innovation and competition. People vote with their wallets. That is not to say that Lane Cove does not have a large number of cafes and hairdressers. However, most of them are unique and are not part of a chain.
So next time when you have the option to buy something locally or at a big shopping mall, make the choice to shop locally and help out your neighbours and your community. These people might be the people who give your kid a job on the weekend.
Where did you hear that? On ITC of course!!
In the Cove publishes new content every day. It could be an article, an event, a job or local info. To make sure you don’t miss this info sign up to our newsletter. It comes out every Wednesday Night at 7.30pm and includes a wrap up of local info and events and the articles we have published that week.
Help Support Local and Independent News
You can support us in three ways:
- Become an ITC reader sponsor – Feel free to be a reader sponsor if you have enjoyed our local news coverage and would like to be an ITC reader sponsor. You can sponsor us with a monthly sponsorship fee. We have reader sponsors who sponsor us for $5.00 a month and some who sponsor us for $100 a year – no amount is too small or too big. Thank you so much to the people who have already supported us via our press Patreon account. Help Us Here.
- Buy the ITC team a coffee – We now have a team, and they need to be paid – buy the ITC team a coffee (or two) and that will help us pay their wages and shout then a coffee Buy a Coffee here.
- Do you own a Lane Cove Business or a Lane Cove resident who owns a business, you can advertise with ITC – our packages start from $30 monthly fee (for a 12-month commitment). Email us here for our rates card.
