"Shop local" is said so often it can sound like a slogan. But there's real economics behind it, and a local butcher is one of the clearest examples of how it works.

Money that keeps working

When you spend £10 at a national supermarket, most of that money leaves your area quickly. It goes to head office, distant suppliers and shareholders.

Spend the same £10 with an independent local business and more of it stays nearby, because that business tends to:

  • employ people who live locally
  • buy from local farms, suppliers and tradespeople
  • use local accountants, builders, printers and vans
  • bank its profits, and spend them, in the same community

Economists call this the local multiplier effect: the same pound changes hands several times before it leaves the area. The New Economics Foundation built a well-known method for measuring it, and one widely quoted UK estimate puts it at around 63p of every £1 spent with a small or medium-sized local business staying in the local economy, compared with around 40p with a large firm. The exact figure varies from place to place, but the direction is consistent: local businesses keep more money circulating locally.

A butcher's money goes further than most

A butcher's shop is a particularly good example, because its supply chain is so often local too:

  • Farmers. Butchers often buy from farms in their own region, so your Sunday roast helps keep nearby farms in business.
  • Skilled jobs. Butchery is a craft learned over years. Local butchers train apprentices and employ skilled staff, jobs that don't exist behind a supermarket's pre-packed shelf.
  • Other local suppliers. Bakers for the sausage rolls, local cheese and eggs, chutneys and preserves: a butcher's counter is often a showcase for other small producers.

Keeping the high street alive

Independent shops bring people into town. Someone who comes in for their weekend meat also picks up a coffee, a newspaper or a birthday card. Every busy independent helps the shops around it. Every one that closes makes the high street a little emptier, and harder for the next one.

The business rates and taxes paid by local shops also help fund the services around them.

Fewer miles, more accountability

Shorter supply chains mean meat travels fewer miles. They also mean someone is accountable. When your butcher knows the farmer and you know your butcher, everyone has a reason to get it right. That relationship is hard to replicate in a national chain.

It doesn't have to be all or nothing

Nobody's asking you to stop using the supermarket. But moving one shop a week, your meat, to a local butcher makes a real difference to a small business, and to the people and farms behind it. Christmas is a good time to start: here's why your Christmas meat is better from a local butcher.

Shop local with Mr & Mrs Park's

We're proud to be part of the community in Cholsey. Order online for click & collect. Thank you for choosing local. It genuinely matters.