It’s a widely held truth that Bedford has more independent shops and businesses than our near neighbour, Cambridge.
From restaurants and cafes to shops and hairdressers, we should count ourselves lucky that so many entrepreneurial spirits are inspired to open their businesses in Bedford, and they definitely deserve our support.
Shop local
Since 2011, Team Clanger has been championing the ‘shop local’ mantra, quoting the Totally Locally statistic that spending just £5 a week in your local shops could impact the local economy annually to the tune of £29m.*
In addition, every £10 spent in a locally owned business can mean up to £50 going back into our local economy.
“Nothing comes close to the love, care, and passion that goes into an independent,” said Gemma Crawley-Roberts, owner of The Arc on Howard Street.
“We genuinely care about you and what you’d love to eat/buy/experience. Shopping local means you’re not only keeping us going, but you get to experience the best of the best. There is nothing like it.”
Tony Le-Britton opened Not Another Jungle on Silver Square a year ago. “With four hours free parking at Lurke Street Car Park and two hours at Queen Street Monday to Saturday and all day free parking on a Sunday, there’s no excuse not to visit!” he said.
Whilst in town, pop into the Town Centre Hub to get all the information you need for visiting Bedford, and you can pick up a copy of the Bedford Clanger too.
Share the love and win a £50 voucher
Through our Bought in Bedford campaign, we want to share the love for our Bedford Indies and are giving away a £50 voucher every month this year to one of our readers to spend in their favourite local independent business.
To be in with a chance to win, just follow these simple steps:
1. Make a purchase from one of Bedford Borough’s brilliant indies. This can be an item, food, a service (for instance, a haircut, beauty treatment), or a drink….dare we even suggest a coffee from one of our many fine coffee shops?
2. Take a photo of what you have purchased.
3. Share the photo publicly on an Instagram post using the hashtag #BoughtInBedford. You can also tag @bedfordindependent and the business you bought it from (optional)
4. If you don’t have an Instagram account or a public profile, you can email win@bedfordindependent.co.uk the photo, including a description of what you bought, where you purchased it, with your name. We will publish the photo, description and name on our Instagram account.
Winners will be contacted through Instagram or email after the last day of each month.
We want to see all your #BoughtInBedford purchases and we truly believe that our independent businesses make a big difference to Bedford.
*based on the number of 20 – 65-year-olds in Bedford Borough’s population of 185,300
