In The Future We Expect:

UPDATE 2015

Shoplocal set about listing local businesses on this site. Quickly it became apparent that most local goods are not available online. Only local trade is considered and the wider market largely ignored. This won't work!

In light of this we designed the ishoplocal.me site to enable geographically located retailers to advertise their goods online in the simplest online shop we know about.

In 2015 these shops are available to rent at low low cost here:         

Shoplocal will build into a large online department store made up of local traders wherever you are. If the technology is in reach we will have the shoplocal online shop where each trader manages their own stock list within the larger online market. Ideas are vital so if you think you can add to our expertise then please contact us. If you would like to run a shoplocal type website, help your neighbours in trade and even make a profit down the line then please contact us. We are interested in expanding the scheme.

Good Luck in business

from shoplocal

From TIME Magazine:-

Interesting article contrasting the effects of local shopping and "Big Box" retail

At the most basic level, when you buy local more money stays in the community. The New Economics Foundation, an independent economic think tank based in London, compared what happens when people buy produce at a supermarket vs. a local farmer's market or community supported agriculture (CSA) program and found that twice the money stayed in the community when folks bought locally. "That means those purchases are twice as efficient in terms of keeping the local economy alive," says author and NEF researcher David Boyle.

Indeed, says Boyle, many local economies are languishing not because too little cash comes in, but as a result of what happens to that money. "Money is like blood. It needs to keep moving around to keep the economy going," he says, noting that when money is spent elsewhere—at big supermarkets, non-locally owned utilities and other services such as on-line retailers—"it flows out, like a wound." By shopping at the corner store instead of the big box, consumers keep their communities from becoming what the NEF calls "ghost towns" (areas devoid of neighborhood shops and services) or "clone towns", where Main Street now looks like every other Main Street with the same fast-food and retail chains.

Read more: http://www.time.com/time/business/article/0,8599,1903632,00.html#ixzz1UkpKvS9l