Supporting local businesses vs chain stores

[Kd0758]

We have a local ice cream man here. He plays his tune ridiculously loud every day and the last time I got an ice cream from him (a fake Feast for £1.50) it was 3 months past it’s best before.

He’s active on Facebook and has been complaining about people buying ice creams from Iceland but for the price he charges for 1 Mars ice cream I could buy a pack of 10 from Iceland (£2)

Where’s the line between supporting local businesses and buying from a chain?

[Plato]

Local businesses need to supply somethings better than chains.

For instance, better service, unique products, innovation, artisan products etc..

These are the local businesses that will survive and deserve everyone's support. Being stuck in the past and and not adapting to the market is where lots of small businesses fail.

[Blue nose]

For me to buy an ice cream from a van it would be away from home, so maybe at the local park where I don't have option for home freezer.

Likewise I would have in my freezer local ice-cream from local farm shop, as nicer than mass produced stuff.

I still have the mass produced ice lollies for hot days when kids need/want them.

[Vanillapod]

I also believe an independent needs to be providing a premium service. I’d happily buy a locally made ice cream (we have Jude’s where we live) from an ice cream van but not a bog standard (or worse) supermarket ice cream. What would be the point?

[hutton5]

Our ice cream man comes round and I'm sorry but his hands are so dirty, my neighbours are always buying from him for their kids and I'm the big bad mummy who refuses and hands out nobbly bobblys instead 🤣 I just refuse. I have no loyalty with shops either some weeks I shop in local markets, butchers and fruitshops, other weeks It's Tesco, asda, Lidl or m&s.

[Mexy02]

We don’t have many local businesses left as our council has happily destroyed them , we don’t have much choice but to buy from chains but would happily have a high street back . We don’t have an ice cream man either . ( good oportunity round here for someone

[skalexander]

We don't have ice cream vans, but I'm happy to pay £2.50 for an ice cream if we're out and about - we have a great local business who do love ice cream in lots of flavours, their shops is busy all year round as they also do hot drinks, cakes and nice light lunches. However, I wouldn't pay that price for something inferior to what I could buy in the shops just because its local. I do try to support local - buying my meat from the butcher, eggs from a free range farm, milk from an independent farm etc. but there does have to be a balance.

We're having DIY done at the moment (have been for months) and we've bought everything locally except our fire, which our installer told us to order online as he couldn't get near the price, and we haven't paid over the odds. Certainly here, the message is getting home to many local businesses and retailers that blind loyalty just isn't going to happen, and they have to make it worth the consumers while.

[coggie]

I always use the local butchers and greengrocers

[ELLENUT]

Oh dear, my children are now 19 & 16 and I can count the ice creams they have had from a van on one hand
...lol! that was the cause of much excitement ... and never from outside the house

[Megandllsmum]

Originally Posted by Mexy02

We don’t have many local businesses left as our council has happily destroyed them , we don’t have much choice but to buy from chains but would happily have a high street back . We don’t have an ice cream man either . ( good oportunity round here for someone

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^^^^what she said lol.
Hey Sam I can see a partnership opportunity here on the ice cream van round 😀


Tomorrow we are off out for the day at a local heritage centre where everything is independent shop owners and we always buy there but that's out of our town and into the next... God they have some amazing ice cream there that I will have to partake in... There will be a few of us so it costs quite a bit compared to if we stocked up from supermarket but it's a nice treat on a day out.