The pandemic has helped lift some small businesses – while other independent retailers need our help

This Christmas shop locally and give small retailers the boost they need to carry on, writes Emma Henderson

War of words: local book sellers are fighting back against the retail giant (Getty)

Everybody wants convenience. That’s why Amazon is so useful, it’s incredibly convenient. You can buy something quite literally at the click of one button and get it tomorrow. Whether that’s dog food or light bulbs. It’s all there, and the company has thrived throughout the pandemic. 

But what is very far from convenient is losing your job, your business and your shop. And that’s what’s happened this year, where double the amount of high street shops closed between January and June, compared to last year, according to PwC. While data from Statista estimates 140,000 people lost their jobs in retail.

The closure figures don’t cover independent shops though. Without the well-known and slick websites that dominate Google searches to rely on during the numerous lockdowns, these businesses were some of the worst-hit.