10 September 2026
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.
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.
As we are a local independent business, we continue to promote our local independents with our ongoing #BoughtInBedford campaign.
*based on the number of 20 – 65-year-olds in Bedford Borough’s population of 185,300
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