‘Shop local’ to protect jobs on home front

WITH December 8 – the traditional start of the Christmas shopping period – on our doorstep the Dingle Business Chamber is asking people to support jobs in the community by doing as much of their shopping as possible locally.

According to Risteard Mac Liam of the Business Chamber, “it is now more evident than ever that rural Ireland is going to be forgotten if people don’t take care of their local area”. The threat to shops and other businesses in rural areas and in small towns such as Dingle comes from the mega stores that are based in the major town and increasing from online shopping, where highly publicised promotions such as ‘black Friday’ and ‘cyber Monday’ are drawing in more and more customers.

“We would ask people to support local employment by shopping locally. Keeping jobs in the community is very important to its survival,” said Risteard, who wanted to remind people that a voucher for a local shop is the one most likely to be used.