Tuesday, November 22, 2011

Building an Irish-indie Christmas

Bob Johnston at the Gutter Bookshop on Cows Lane Temple Bar, Dublin.

  • CONOR POPE - The Irish Times
Shopping locally this season will be of huge benefit to our economy although independent shops are realistic about what people have to spend
A CAMPAIGN asking consumers to spend more in (possibly more expensive) independent retailers this festive season, as the Government prepares to give us all yet another hair shirt for Christmas,may seem rather quixotic so it is perhaps fitting it has been launched by a bookseller.
This tilt at windmills has been orchestrated by Bob Johnston, theowner of the Gutter Bookshop in Dublin’s Temple Bar who had what he calls “a mad, crazy idea” last weekend as he was sitting on the Dart going into work.
“I was thinking about the whole notion of local shopping and its importance and the difference it could make to so many people and I was trying to think of a way of getting that message out to as big a group of people as possible. It is a simple message aimed at persuading them that where they choose to shop is important. I came up with the name Irish Indie Christmas.”
Within hours he had set up a Twitter and Facebook account using the name @irishindiexmas and set about getting followers and friends. Within days he had hundreds of both.
“Normally when I have an idea like this I think to myself ‘I wish someone else would do something about this’ but this time I thought ‘sod it’ and did it myself.”
He is not entirely unrealistic about what his social media campaign can achieve and he knows he can’t expect people to do all their Christmas shopping in local independent retailers. “That is not how it works, but this is just about creating an awareness that there are consequences arising out of where you spend your money.”
Full piece at The Irish Times.

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