Tips to facilitate your shopping in local shops

#ComercioLocalEsVital

How to find the store you need?

1. Shop at the nearest stores: the baker around the corner, the neighborhood hairdresser, the small supermarket in the city center, etc. Being well established in their environment, small businesses seek to satisfy the needs of their neighbors by listening to them and providing them with a personalized service. In this way and thanks to regularity and dealings with the merchant, the customer ends up finding the service and the product they want to obtain. 2. Find out by word of mouth: Good word of mouth is still a powerful way to find good sellers and good products. The relationship you have with our closest or best regarded people will allow the merchant to build a reputation that will be much stronger than that achieved by a marketing and advertising camp. 3. Do a digital search: Proximity commerce is increasingly present in the digital world and this is great news for consumers. There are several pages that help you find good businesses. The most obvious is the use of Google, which uses geolocation data to give the names and addresses of merchants located near the user’s position, in response to a request of the type “Pastry” or “Shoemaker”. This service called Google My Business, allows a merchant to easily have a minimal digital presence with certain essential information, such as hours of operation, address or telephone number. Obviously, there are more specialized sites and apps that will allow you to find the right merchant, such as the local Yelp platform, which lists the neighborhood businesses closest to your location along with consumer reviews.

Change some habits

1. Equip yourself with everything you need: To consume locally, it is necessary to have the right items to transport what we have bought. Shopping carts are very useful for shopping on foot, especially if they have a relatively large volume. If not, a few tote bags will do. Choose them with comfortable handles, especially if you have to walk a lot. Do you travel by bicycle? Have you thought about the practical basket or bag to carry your purchases? Also a backpack will be enough for small purchases. This is the opportunity to invest in some bulk bags or other containers adapted for this use to move towards zero waste. Finally, always have these bags at hand, this will facilitate the automation of these new habits.

2. Organize your purchases: Were you used to shopping once a week? You will probably have to do your shopping a little more often going to the proximity stores. You will gain in freshness and product quality. To buy time, you can adopt new habits. For example, order your butcher online during your office break and have your older son pick up the order when he leaves school.

3. Open yourself up to conversation and new social relationships: You don’t behave with your small shopkeeper as you do in a supermarket. By dint of frequenting them, we get to know the vendors in the local stores and we create a bond that contributes to creating social coherence within the neighborhood or city. So, more than ever, show courtesy and politeness. Develop relationships with the merchant, and also with other customers.

4. Unleash your curiosity: The merchant knows his products better than anyone because he is the one who chooses them, often even manufactures them. Do not hesitate to ask questions about the origin of the products, their manufacture, their history … Very often the merchant is passionate about what he sells and will be happy to give you all the information about his products. It is in these informal exchanges that the professional can adapt his offer and his services to your expectations. Satisfaction questionnaires are not necessary, direct and spontaneous contact between the customer and the merchant is a real strong point of local commerce.