Wild As The Wind & Fiver Fest

Fiver Fest Poster

Wild As The Wind Natural Skincare & Essential Oils is participating in the October 2021 Fiver Fest organised by Totally Locally.

Q :: Does this mean Wild As The Wind will be discounting products?

A :: Yes it does!

*Details of how to take advantage of these reductions below.

Fiver Fest Origins

Despite the name, Totally Locally coordinate a national campaign to support local communities and local independent businesses.

Towns throughout the UK are invited to assemble teams of volunteers to organise the scheme at a local level. This includes the local promotion of Fiver Fest, producing a booklet listing all of the local independent businesses taking part, and generally raising awareness around the need for local people to support their local independent businesses.

Fiver Fest is presently a bi-annual event encouraging locals to spend a fiver with their local independent businesses within a two week timeframe. It is hoped the initiative will help to regenerate our town centres, and put the heart back into our communities.

According to Totally Locally:

It’s a chance for independent businesses to use their collective power to encourage people back to our town centres, to say thank you to customers who supported them during these testing times, and to prove once again, that the small guys can compete with the online giants & supermarkets. In fact they beat them hands down in many ways, [especially when it comes to] their contribution to our local economies.

Bridport Fiver Fest

The Bridport team have been particularly active, and have even garnered the support of Bridport Tourist Information Centre.

They have also inspired over 20 Bridport independent businesses to participate in the event.

Bridport Tourist Information Centre is acting as a hub for the event, distributing posters and event booklets. They are open from 10.00am – 3.00pm on Saturdays & 9.00am – 5.00pm on weekdays.

Find them at Bucky-Doo Square, South Street, Bridport, DT6 3LF.

Investing In Local Independent Businesses Is An Investment In Ourselves

In the Naughties, comedian and political satirist, Mark Thomas, popularised the notion that 80% of money spent within a local economy stays within the local community, whilst 80% of money spent with big transnationals leaves the local economy… And, in all likelihood, the country.

More recent figures produced in The Guardian state:

Research on spending by local authorities shows that for every £1 spent with a small or medium-sized business 63p stayed in the local economy, compared to 40p with a larger business.

This translates into flourishing local communities, with greater job opportunities, and a more creative and inspiring environment within which to live.

Why We Need To Stop Buying From Amazon For Our Own Sake

A recent article by Adam Greenfield, entitled, We know Amazon is killing the high street, so why do we keep clicking on ‘buy now’?, outlines why our independent shops are falling victim to online purchases.

It illustrates how Amazon has made ‘frictionless purchasing’ into an art form. But at what cost?

Online purchases eliminate the need for human interaction, increasing our isolation at the expense of community, depriving us of sensorial interactions with our world, leaving us more emotionally unfulfilled, and likely to make more online purchases to fill the void.

It also means we don’t get expert, tailored advice in person from someone who is passionate and deeply knowledgeable about what they do. Nor do we get to feel, taste and smell our potential purchases.

Amazon is as impersonal as it gets. So, it’s no surprise they intend to replace people with AI within their business processes, according to Greenfield.

There’s a real human cost to this on every level: interpersonal, emotional and spiritual needs are increasingly not going to be met. Plus, we need human interaction to maintain a healthy immune system, and to develop in terms of personal growth.

And, despite almost doubling his own personal wealth in the last 18 months, Jeff Bezos, CEO of Amazon, a company with an appalling record for employee welfare, has focused his attention on space travel to Mars, rather than helping alleviate the growing suffering here on earth.

Elon Musk, CEO of Tesla, has amassed so much wealth in the same period he is now the second richest man in the world, behind Bezos.

Musk is also planning on going to Mars.

Why are we investing in people who are divesting from us?

The Washington Post, (owned by Bezos), ran a story in January 2021 entitled: “World’s richest men added billions to their fortunes last year as others struggled.” with the byline: Billionaires have added about $1 trillion to their total net worth since the pandemic began.”

It further goes on to explain that;

Musk has quintupled his net worth since January, according to estimates put together by Bloomberg, adding $132 billion to his wealth and vaulting him to the No. 2 spot among the world’s richest with a fortune of about $159 billion. Bezos’s wealth has grown by roughly $70 billion over the same period, putting his net worth estimate at roughly $186 billion as the year came to an end.

Wild As The Wind Is Part Of The Bridport Fiver Fest

Fiver Fest will take place nationally from Saturday 9th October until Saturday 23rd October 2021.

Wild As The Wind Natural Skincare & Essential Oils is locally participating in the Bridport Fiver Fest via Bridport Market.

We are also discounting a good number of items in the Wild As The Wind Online Shop so they can be offered at £5.00 via the SALE Page.

Thankfully, Bridport is a thriving market town with a diverse array of independent shops. Unlike neighbouring Dorchester, none of these are boarded up due to permanent closure. Quite the opposite. The only one of three commercial retail properties up for rental in Bridport is a national betting shop.

Sadly, the scene in Dorchester is more representative of the rest of the country than Bridport. It’s why schemes like Fiver Fest are so important.

The Co-Op Are Getting The Word Out

Despite being a national concern, I first heard of Bridport Fiver Fest through the Co-Op.

More specifically, I heard about Fiver Fest via the Co-Op Nub News, which is hosted by the Co-op, and dedicated to Bridport news and events with a very clear community focus.

This is worth mentioning because we need all the support we can get. And, because it’s rare!

Put ‘Sainsbury’s community schemes’ or ‘Tesco community schemes’ into Google and all you are likely to find is support for local food banks and charities set up to deal with privation. These things are the ultimate symbol of communities which have failed.

So credit must be given where it is due. The Co-Op is investing time and energy into communities so they don’t fail. And, long may that be the case!

The Co-Op also run an important community based online portal called Co-operate.

This is how they describe it in their own words…

Co-operate is an online community centre for co-operation.

It’s for people who:

care about their community
want to join forces to get things done

It’s created with communities, for communities, and is owned by communities.

See You At Bridport Market Or Online!

I really hope to see you at Bridport Market this Saturday.

Failing that, I hope you pay the Wild As The Wind Online Shop a visit over the next couple of weeks. May be you’ll find a bargain or two.

And, if not, there’s another way in which you could provide invaluable support… Just quickly revisit the product page of your favourite Wild As The Wind product, and leave a review.

Not only will this help Wild As The Wind be more visible online, but it will also help others to make a more informed choice about which products would be beneficial for them.

Not sure how? This How To Leave A Review article explains everything.