Portsmouth South MP Flick Drummond made a whistle stop tour of 13 retailers in the constituency on Small Business Saturday to help encourage people to ‘shop local’.
Flick was in Castle Road, Marmion Road and Elm Grove, among others, to show her support for the initiative, which is now in its third year and thousands of independent shops and businesses took part.
“Here in Portsmouth we have scores of small independent shops and businesses doing a fantastic job serving the community and adding a great deal of variety to our cityscape,” said Flick.
“It was great to go and see as many of these retailers as possible and show my support for Small Business Saturday and to encourage people to continue to shop locally where there is often great choice and that personal touch so missing from larger stores and big business.”
Last year, shoppers spent £504m with small and independent retailers on Small Business Saturday, up 8% on 2013.
More people are now prepared to shop with independent retailers and the number of independent shops has risen 110% over the last five years.