This weeks blog might not be to everyone’s thinking or ideology but…

It’s something I’ve been thinking about a lot in the last few months and I feel the subject has particularly been highlighted given current events.

‘Loyal to Local’, ‘Buy Local’, ‘Close to Home’ and a lot of other similar terminology is being used at present, which I think is great but here is my view: what if some of the companies who fly this flag have made a lot of money in the last ten years and given zero back to the local community? And I don’t mean this in terms of just money.
 
Growing up when my mum sent me to the shop, we always used the paper shop as the owner bought new footballs for the kid’s football team. We bought our groceries from Mr. Nidjar as he would let the kids watch videos on a Sunday (beta max and we didn’t have one). It was a moral two-way contract and everyone took part meaning both parties received value.

This blog is not about painting Ish Fish as the knight in shining armour; we have always given back into the community and maybe that was drilled into me as part of the above upbringing.

So what changed? Maybe, due to more people using supermarkets we lost that local interaction!!! Therefore, hopefully, this will come back with the big push for more people looking to change their purchasing ways.

We shall see.

However, when it comes to buying local personally, a big part of that for me is what the company is giving back.

We have some fantastic companies in Grimsby who have gone above and beyond during these times and I won’t mention them but, I’ll be buying a Sunday lunch this weekend from Healing Manor, a few drinks from Docks Beers and sending some fish to my friend Zane Powles MBE.

If you know what I mean…

Take care and stay safe.

Garry