Right now, it’s all about staying home to stay safe, but there is absolutely no reason not to keep shopping local while doing so. The seasonal shopping season is just around the corner, but with most people doing their bit to halt the spread of Covid by staying home as much as possible, many will be turning to online outlets to avoid going into town this Christmas. Just because you’re shopping online, though, doesn’t mean you can’t still support our own home grown business.
As Noelle McAloon from Enniskillen BID pointed out, most local business in Fermanagh now have either their own online stores or offer a delivery service. “You can stay at home, you can follow the government guidelines, and you can shop local,” she said. “The temptation is so hard to just go to Amazon, and that’s not what we need in these times. Amazon will still be there in many, many years to come but we literally may not have a High Street next year.
“Hopefully we can come back from all of this. There are so many good local businesses, lots of businesses thinking outside the box, and also it should be acknowledge there are lots of new businesses opening too. It’s really positive to see in the middle of the pandemic and should be applauded.”
Ms McAloon said last year Enniskillen BID had set up ‘Digital Enniskillen’, an initiative to help businesses develop their online presence, whether through an e-commerce website, setting up a social media page, or even just making sure they’re listed on Google maps. “BID recognised the High Street is changing anyway, and we all know Covid has just exacerbated, it has sped it up,” she said, urging local businesses to avail of the service.
Here at the Herald we also want to do our bit to support local businesses online through our ‘Together We Are Stronger’ campaign. If you have a business in the county that has an online presence, log on to fermanaghherald.com/together to register your site and let local people know what you have to offer. Likewise, if you’re a local shopper wanting to support local you can click through to see all the local shops who have registered.
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