Are you still on the search for a New Year’s Resolution? How about considering putting your money where your house is and committing to shop local for 2020?

If you love where you live then set yourself the challenge to begin buying local more often. You don’t need to do everything all at once. Perhaps buy an additional item locally each week. Or build up a habit of visiting shops which you’ve never popped into to explore what they have to offer.

Here are our top reasons why shopping local is the way forward for any savvy shopper. After all as a wise man once said… ‘You can’t buy happiness, but you can buy local and that’s kind of the same thing!’

Help Boost the Local Economy

Perhaps you’ve never understood how shopping local can help the local economy. The answer is very simple. When you spend money within a local business, the owner takes his earnings to other local shops, restaurants and bars. This means that money is continually circulating within the local economy. Research estimates that for every £10 spent locally, an additional £50 is returned to the local economy!

For Becketts Farm, not only is this the case, but we aim to source our produce and ingredients from local suppliers and producers. We’re helping to keep money in the West Midlands and our surrounding counties by choosing to shop local ourselves for the food we serve to hundreds of customers daily.

Discover Personality and Character

Instead of being ran by boards, stockholders and algorithms, local businesses are ran by local people. This means that the welcome and service that you receive is more personable and friendly. Those serving you have answers to your questions about products, care about how your day is going and want to deliver you an exceptional experience in store. Over time, as a repeat customer it’s not unusual to develop a long-lasting rapport with the staff. We have lots of lovely regular customers. Very quickly, we’ve gotten to know their go to orders, their hobbies and football teams, and enjoyed meeting their family and friends when they visit too! It makes for a lovely atmosphere in both our Farm Shop and Restaurant when so many smiling faces are getting along, with a love of food connecting us all.

Have a More Tailored Shopping Experience

Local businesses don’t have huge teams brainstorming the latest consumer trends and buying products based on this. In contrast, local businesses are guided by exactly what their customers want to buy. Independent businesses are always very happy to hear customer suggestions and recommendations for which products to stock. You speak directly to the person in charge of buying products for the shelves, who’ll be happy to see if they can source what you’re after. If you have any suggestions for products you’d like to see on our shelves, or dishes you’d like to feature on our menu relaunch in Spring 2020, drop us a message over on our Facebook or Twitter pages @BeckettsFarm.

Help Create a Healthier Planet

The threat of climate change is all over the media at the moment, and not without good reason. Humans are contributing to greenhouse gases like never before, with fossil fuel use. One of the ways to help cut down on greenhouse gases which we can all commit to is reducing our food miles. Our food systems contribute 20-30% of global greenhouse gases, with air freight one of the biggest polluters. Buy sourcing your food locally, you reduce the distance that your food has had to journey to reach your plate. At Becketts Farm, purchasing from local suppliers and producers is of huge importance. Our meat, where possible is sourced from within a 50 mile radius and our greengrocers look to the Vale of Evesham for much of their seasonal fruit and vegetables.

Keep Tradition Alive

Big multinational companies are driven by getting things done faster and cheaper, often at the expense of tradition.The high street does so much to try and keep people in work, and retain traditional production methods. At our Bakery and Butchery counter we’ve trained countless young people in these traditional trades. Just around the corner from us is Earlswood Craft Centre, retaining many traditional crafts. Additionally, there’s Fowler’s of Earlswood, a family cheesemakers who can trace their heritage back to the 1600s. What a shame it would be to lose tradition.