September is a busy time and of course an expensive time. The summer holidays are over - if not quite paid for! The kids are back to school, there have been books, shoes, uniforms and stationary to buy, and yes, it takes its toll on the family bank account.
These are difficult times but we can all do our bit to make things a little easier looking towards the future. First and foremost, local people can shop locally. We don’t think about the impact that supporting our local business can have on our local economy but in these times, when every day we hear of another business closing down, it becomes more evident how important it is to support our own.
Kilkenny has seen some sad closures in recent times, along the High Street alone. Behind each of these closures are job losses for staff and debts for business owners. The impact on the people of the city is that we lose out on variety and options when it comes to shopping. The only way that prices will remain competitive is if there is healthy competition within the area. The last thing we want to see is competition closing down giving a monopoly to others who may take advantage of the situation.
But we can all do our bit by shopping local wherever possible. Buy your fruit and vegetables from your local green grocer, buy your meat from your local butcher, support Kilkenny and Irish owned shops, buy locally crafted gifts, use local accountants, solicitors and insurance companies, buy cars from local motor companies and eat in local restaurants and pubs. This will all go some way towards keeping our local community alive.
In response to support from local customers, businesses should also play their part, by remaining as competitive as possible, offering good value for money and a high standard of customer service.
Everyone knows that repeat business is the secret to success for businesses and people will always come back if they believe that they have received good customer service from mannerly staff and that they have got good value for their hard-earned money - never has this been so important.
The bottom line is this - if we all work together we can get through this recession. We should support local business and local business should offer good value and good service. This is one way of creating a sustainable society and if we can do this we are all winners.
