From Tim Evans
HAVING just skimmed through various negative letters in the JEP from folk regarding the Think Twice, Buy Local campaign, I must offer an alternative and perhaps a more insightful opinion to this thorny subject.
We must attempt to lose this ‘us and them’ outlook (large multi-national chains excepted, of course!). A retailer is also a buyer and may have a family to support.
The Jersey marketplace is not independent. When a purchase is made outside the Island this of course affects a local business and thereby affects us all.
As a local and a retailer, I believe folk should remember that for the most part, local shops are owned by normal, hard-working people living in an Island that happens to have a fairly high cost of living – wages and other outgoings for a retailer are generally higher, in line with the cost of food, fuel, electricity and other essentials.
Add to this 3% and the fact that most stock is imported across one of the most expensive stretches of water on the planet, and inevitably prices are going to be higher.
As long as there is good service, we should help to preserve each other’s way of life by supporting local businesses – builder, plumber, chippy, retailer, whatever the trade.
Ultimately the money goes back into the local economy, helping our little bit of the world go round.
If people feel the need to vent and shout ‘rip-off’ then they should direct that toward the large companies who control the price of food, fuel and electricity, not at their fellow man.
1Q Apple store,
32 Burrard Street.
