Enterprise Nation

The historian Adam Hart-Davis is calling on people to keep trade local as more than 2,000 small shops close each year on the high street. I’ve just calculated my own high street footprint and there’s plenty of room for improvement.

What’s your high street footprint?

When I first read news of this campaign, I thought it didn’t apply to me as I already buy local but then I ran my high street footprint from the day before:

Morning – head to Claremont News (local shop) for copy of the FT and on to Café Nero (not such local shop) for croissant and cappuccino.

Late afternoon – in need of fresh air, walk to Marks & Spencer (not local) to get groceries. Stop off at ‘The very nice card shop’ (local) to buy a wedding acceptance card. Buy wine from Tanners (local) and a new white shirt from Cara (local.)

How does your footprint look?

High Street, no more

This campaign being championed by Adam Hart-Davis says that local butchers, bakeries and family run stores are closing and being replaced by out of town supermarkets or ‘local’ express stores. They are estimating that by 2015 there’ll be no independent high street shops, equating to the loss of 50,000 small shops.

To show your support for the campaign, you can sign the petition on the link below.

I’m going to act by starting to shop in the market and visit more family stores. I’m just not sure I’m ready to give up on the Café Nero cappuccino. – Emma Jones 

• Save Your High Street e-petition