Forget 'Black Friday' - support Banbury's independent businesses on 'Colour Friday' instead

The ‘Colour Friday’ initiative was first orchestrated by the UK Ambassador for Creative Small Businesses, Holly Tucker MBE, as a way of encouraging people to choose shopping at small independent businesses over impulse buying from big online retail giants in the annual ‘Black Friday’ sales.

Owner of The Artery on Parsons Street and champion of Banbury Colour Friday, Barry Whitehouse, said: “Half of the small business owners in the UK have said they are genuinely concerned that this may well be their last Christmas trading, so now is the best time to support your town centres.

“As well as that, on an environmental level, the carbon emissions generated from ‘Black Friday’ online sales are the equivalent of 215 flights from London to Sydney.

"So how much better would it be to shop locally and have a better impact on the local economy but also the environment as a whole.

"So this initiative is encouraging people to support their town centres and their small local businesses to keep their economies thriving and to keep their town’s a vibrant place because we don’t want to see any more shops closing.”

The campaign, which was started last year, is growing annually and has had a number of towns and independent business areas promote the initiative this year.

Barry added: “Banbury has such a wonderful selection of independent businesses, we wanted to highlight what ‘Colour Friday’ is and urge people to consider calling into their town centres and supporting what shops we have before heading to the huge online giants.”