Santa comes to town in Melrose, to deliver ‘shop local’ message
Town centre traders are promoting the need for people to support businesses in their community this festive season even more than any other as they battle to overcome problems faced as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic.
They star in the latest social media drive for Scotland Loves Local, the high-profile campaign to fuel the nation’s economic recovery from its grassroots.
It comes after ‘Saltire’ Santa toured shops throughout Melrose to highlight the great gifts and perfect produce that shoppers can bag for Christmas.
Dressed patriotically, Saltire Santa also bought a trolley-load of festive essentials from the Co-op – and even took time out to get a haircut in Wilson’s Hair.
He was joined on his journey by local photographer Lloyd Smith, who was working with Melrose-based Brand Satellite, who created the branding and multi-media creative for the Scotland Loves Local campaign.
Polling commissioned by Scotland Loves Local in the South Scotland Scottish Parliamentary electoral region has found that 53% of people agree it’s important they do as much Christmas shopping as they can from their local high street, either in-store or online, rather than going further afield.
Two-thirds (66%) of those questioned said they would go into stores on their local high street to do some Christmas shopping, while 64% said they would do some Christmas shopping from stores on their local high street online, where able to do so.
Phil Prentice is chief officer of Scotland’s Towns Partnership, the organisation leading the Scotland Loves Local campaign with the support of the Scottish Government. He said:
“We’re delighted to have the great array of local businesses in Melrose featuring so prominently as we encourage Scotland to love a local Christmas. The best Christmas present we can give our local businesses is for people to shop as close to home as they can, supporting those around them, whether in person or online.”
For more information, go to www.lovelocal.scot.
