All the ways you can help your favourite local businesses during the coronavirus outbreak

With everything that’s going on at the moment, it’s important to remember our local venues, restaurants, bars and pubs, who are going to be hit hard by the fallout of coronavirus.

Temporarily closing their business means traders will not only lose vital revenue, but that employees will also be out of work, and some places might be forced to cease trading permanently.

After Boris Johnson announced this week that people should avoid pubs, theatres, restaurants and other public spaces, independent businesses were put in an incredibly difficult situation. 

There are some ways that you can help your favourite local spots while still staying safe, however.

One of those is to shop local. The big companies are going to be fine when all this blows over, especially as places like Tesco and Asda can’t keep products on the shelves at the moment.

It’ll be the smaller businesses that really suffer, so whenever possible make sure you buy local – and between you and me, the corner shop near me is currently stacked to the rafters with toilet roll and pasta, while Asda is empty.

Another way is to get a food or drink delivery, as this is probably the best way restaurants, takeaways, cafes and bars can keep the finances trickling in.

A lot of places that didn’t previously deliver are now offering the service, through providers like Deliveroo and Just Eat, with most places providing an option for the food to be left on your doorstep to minimise contact.

shopblocks.com / Flickr

If you want a solid list of the places around Manchester that are doing delivery at the moment, check out this article here.

In good news, many independent businesses are offering big discounts, with some places discounting by as much as 40-50% on food and drink.

A lot of places are also offering gift vouchers – basically you buy a voucher now and when this has all blown over, you head down and stuff your face with as much food and drink as is humanly safe, if it’s a food spot, or claim a haircut or treatment if it’s a barber or beauty salon (you get the picture).

Here’s an article with loads of places around Manchester that are running a voucher scheme at the moment.

And of course, as soon as we’re back to normality the best thing you can do is head out in your thousands and frequent as many of these businesses as possible, making the most of your sweet, sweet freedom.

If you can think of any other ways to help the local places that we love, just pop it in the Facebook comments for this article so people can have a gander.

Stay safe everyone x