You Are Already Spending the Money: Why Affording It Was Never the Point

Someone in my comments told me they love the idea of supporting the high street, but they simply cannot afford it. I want to be very clear about where I stand, because this one keeps coming up.

It was never about spending more money. Not once did I suggest you go out and buy two coffees instead of one, or double your meat order at the butcher's. That is not the argument. That has never been the argument.

The argument is about changing the till you spend the money in. You are already buying the coffee. You are already picking up something for dinner. The question is which door you walk through to do it. Starbucks or the independent café on the corner. The supermarket or the butcher who has been there since before you were born.

Same money. Different outcome.

When you spend in a chain, most of that money leaves. It goes to a head office, to shareholders, to a property company, to a supply chain that has nothing to do with where you live. When you spend in an independent, a meaningful chunk of it stays. It pays the rent of someone who lives nearby. It keeps a person employed who spends their wages in the same postcode. It funds a business owner who, frankly, is taking a risk that most people would never take.

Those are the people who make your city worth living in. Not the chains, which are identical on every high street in the country and could close a branch tomorrow without a second thought. The independents. The ones who remortgaged their house, who are up before five, who know your name.

So no, I am not asking you to stretch your budget. I am asking you to redirect it. Find the independent, spend what you were already going to spend, and do it there instead.

If you have a story about an independent business that deserves more attention, send it to keepthemopen.com.