Working with Ripon BID

As part of our Totally Locally commissioned work we recently visited Ripon in North Yorkshire to work alongside Ripon BID to help support local businesses. We were accompanied on a walk around the city, talking ...

MORE SUPPORT FOR INDEPENDENT BUSINESSES THIS CHRISTMAS

A new study has shown that almost half of Brits (42%) have vowed to shop at small or independent businesses this Christmas – this is more compared to previous years and a promising sign of ...

THE FIVER FEST EFFECT – NOW BACKED UP WITH DATA

The hard-working team in Clay Cross have really taken Totally Locally to heart and run increasingly popular Fiver Fests in their town. The Feedback we get from National Fiver Fest including Clay Cross has always ...

CHRIS WAS INTERVIEWED BY NICE PEOPLE FOR A NICE ARTICLE

Here’s a smashing article about the history of Totally Locally to celebrate the launch of our new book and our look to find a sponsor to support everything we do for independent businesses. This goes ...

Business News Wales interview with Emma Corfield-Walters

Here’s a great interview with Emma, as well her shop Book-ish being named as the UK’s best independent bookshop, starting loads of great initiatives and being a huge supporter of good things in Crickhowell, Emma ...

MAGIC TENNER CAMPAIGN IN BRIDPORT

The Totally Locally team in Bridport have launched a Magic Tenner campaign and have been inundated with businesses wanting to join in! The Magic Tenner is all about how spending £10 locally magically turns into ...

OUR FIRST BOOK – THE ECONOMICS OF BEING NICE

The Totally Locally book “The Economics of Being Nice” has launched! It’s been a labour of love, but well worth it to see the reaction it’s getting. The book has lots of stories from towns ...

FIVER FEST MARCH 2022 ROUND-UP

The first National Fiver Fest in 2022 was a cracker! We are again bowled over by the enthusiasm, creativity and sheer willpower of everyone who took part in Fiver Fest. It’s heart-warming to see so ...

FIVER FEST MAPS

Amongst the many creative things towns do for Fiver Fest, one of our favourites is a Fiver Fest Map, possibly done by a local artist, it's a brilliant thing to pull the whole thing together. ...

OUR FIRST FIVER FEST AWARDS – THE FIVIES!

Since Fiver Fest went national, we have been blown away by all the inventive offers and creative displays to promote them as well as seeing the huge efforts that goes into running it across the ...

DELIVERING ESSENTIALS BY CARGOBIKE IN HALIFAX

Here at Totally Locally HQ we’re always helping others to collaborate so we thought we practice what we preach! As part of a project for Calderdale Council to support residents of Halifax who need to ...

TOTALLY LOCALLY SHOP LAUNCH

We’ve set up a lovely shop on our website as we’ve started to do a bit of merchandise, items in our shop will help you run and spread the word about Totally Locally and the ...

JUNE NATIONAL FIVER FEST HITS OVER 100 TOWNS

After emerging from lockdowns, there was always going to be uncertainty over running events but we are thrilled to announce that the first National Fiver Fest in 2021 now has over 100 towns taking part! ...

PODCAST WITH EMMA CORFIELD-WALTERS OF BOOK-ISH IN CRICKHOWELL

Chris talks to Emma Corfield-Walters, owner of Book-ish, The UK’s Independent Bookshop of the Year 2020/21 & the instigator of Totally Locally in Crickhowell & named High Street Hero in the GB High Street Awards. ...

MORE RE-OPENING OF THE HIGH STREET POSTERS FOR YOU!

A set of posters to help your business when opening after the second lockdown. Download below. ...

TOTALLY LOCALLY JOINS ROUND-TABLE WITH SHADOW CHANCELLOR

Totally Locally was invited to a round-table discussion hosted by Anneliese Dodds, Labour Chancellor of the Exchequer along with business owners in Hebden Bridge to discuss the challenges that businesses have faced in recent years. ...

TOTALLY LOCALLY ON THE INDEPENDENT 2021 HAPPY LIST

  You can see the Happy List 2021 –  HERE>>.   Full text: Marketing expert Chris Sands developed Totally Locally, a marketing strategy for local shops and businesses, which has helped thousands of businesses stay ...

NEW MAP FOR LEIGH-ON-SEA

We love collaboration and this is a particularly nice one! Totally Locally Leigh-On-Sea is part of the Leigh-on-Sea Partnership Group (LPG), who got together to create this beautiful map of their area Local artist Joanne ...

BETWEEN THE LINES – A PODCAST WITH TIM HAIDAR

Chris had a nice chat with Tim Haïdar from GS1 UK (barcode and logistics support company) as part of their “Between The Lines” series of Podcasts… a discussion all about Totally Locally’s work to help ...

TOTALLY LOCALLY NAMED IN BIG ISSUE’S 100 2021 CHANGEMAKERS – COVID HEROES

We are thrilled that Totally Locally has been named as one of the UK’s Top 100 Changemakers for 2021. Such an honour to be named alongside such amazing people. The Big Issue writes: “With Covid-19, ...

HANG ON IN THERE…..

We did a poster. Not for anything other than to say we’ll get through this together. We sincerely believe this. It’s here to download, put in your shop window, in your house or give to ...

HIGH STREETS ONLINE FEATURED ON NATIONAL NEWS

We were featured on BBC Breakfast & BBC News all about our pilot .Shop website for Hebden Bridge and how it is having a positive impact on the independent shops in the town. This also ...

INSTAGRAM LIVE WITH TRIANGLE BAKEHOUSE

Chris talks to Aaron and Vic of artisan bakery Triangle Bakehouse in Ripponden, West Yorkshire about how they started, their ethos, how traditional breads can help with health, real bread and the importance of community ...

OUR FIRST INSTAGRAM LIVE WITH BURNTISLAND

Our Chris had a nice chat with Yvonne from Totally Locally Burntisland about their local campaign, Fiver Fest etc. Yvonne explains how Burntisland has seen amazing results with Fiver Fest and explains the history of ...

HEBDEN BRIDGE LAUNCHES PILOT HIGH STREETS ONLINE SITE

Our first site from our High Streets Online initiative launched in Hebden Bridge and has been warmly received by local businesses and residents! We’re quite chuffed with this, digitising high streets is something we have ...

THE FUTURE OF HIGH STREETS & HOW WE CAN ALL PLAY A PART

Over the last few months I’ve read lot of predictions for the high street. There are many different theories of what will constitute ‘normal’ when it comes to future town centres and high streets, and ...

RE-OPENING OF THE HIGH STREET POSTER SET FOR SHOPS & BUSINESSES

A set of posters to help your business when opening after the lockdown. Download below. ...

SHOP LIKE YOUR HIGH STREET DEPENDS ON IT – POSTER

2 POSTERS TO DOWNLOAD & PRINT The green one lets you add your shop name and web address / social media. The Orange one is a general one.   You can download them as print ...

TOTALLY LOCALLY ON BBC NATIONAL NEWS

Totally Locally, Chris Sands & Leek featured on BBC1 national News. It compares Doncaster Council who spent £50 million on the High Street (they have done a good job) with Totally Locally’s Grassroots, low-budget approach. ...

A TOTALLY LOCALLY TALE OF COLLABORATION FROM WYMONDHAM

Here’s a short tale from one of our latest Totally Locally towns, Wymondham. The organisers of Totally Locally Wymondham are based around Kett’s Books, a community bookshop run by volunteers in the historic market town ...

BURNTISLAND ON SCOTTISH TV FOR FIVER FEST

Scottish TV visited Burntisland for the day to chat to business owners and locals about their part in the latest National Fiver Fest! “Now can spending just £5 a week on your local high street ...

FIVER FEST FEBRUARY REACHES 100 TOWNS!

100 TOWNS ARE JOINING IN – POSSIBLY THE BIGGEST GRASS-ROOTS HIGH STREET INITIATIVE EVER RUN! HOW GOOD IS THAT?! Fiver Fest has been running in individual towns as part of the full Totally Locally Town ...

FIRST TOTALLY LOCALLY PODCAST!

I spent some time chatting with my friend Amy Harbour, who was one of the very first people to take Totally Locally to heart. Back in 2010, Amy ran a Haberdashery(!) in Hebden Bridge. I ...

OUR FIRST NATIONAL FIVER FEST

Fiver Fest is an integral part of our Town Kit campaign – once a town has been told about the impact of spending just a fiver a week has in their area, the next logical ...

CHORLEY FIVER DESIGN COMPETITION

If it’s one thing that Totally Locally towns love, it’s having their own Fiver designed to use in their Fiver Fests and to generally help promote the Five Pound Message. ...

THE BOOKSHOP MANIFESTO

We are chuffed to announce our Independent Bookshop Manifesto. ...

THE TOTALLY LOCALLY TIMES

The Totally Locally Time template is part of the Town Kit. It’s been used by a few towns, but Totally Locally Shipston-on-Stour have really taken it to heart! They have printed & released 5 issues. ...

LITTLE THINGS YOU CAN DO

LITTLE THINGS YOU CAN DO….  AS A BUSINESS  We’ve found that Independent Businesses, on average, use about 8 local suppliers. When a town takes on Totally Locally this usually double to an average of about ...

CRICKHOWELL ON BBC BREAKFAST

Emma from Totally Locally Crickhowell was interviewed this week on the BBC Breakfast Show about winning High Street of the Year Award & High Street Hero Award 2019. She is a complete star. ...

EVERYONE LOVES A STAMP!

One thing we hadn’t really considered being part of the Town Kit until we saw a couple of towns had made these themselves are rubber stamps. The team in Teddington had some made from The ...

THIS JUST MADE US LAUGH A LOT! IF HIGH STREET SHOPPING WAS LIKE ONLINE….

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THE TOTALLY LOCALLY BUILDING SOCIETY ACCOUNT!

Leek United Building Society have launched a special savings account to help raise awareness of supporting independent businesses. Every pound saved in the wonderfully named Totally Locally Leek Affinity Account will help support the local ...

TOTALLY LOCALLY TEDDINGTON BAGS TRAVEL THE WORLD

Those industrious folks in Teddington had some useful and lovely Totally Locally shopping bags made with a local-themed nice design from here for full map of their travels. ...

GERALDINE WEARABLE LIGHTS PARADE

Another great event from our friends in Australia, the Totally Locally Wearable Lights Competition! The fabulous Geraldine Lights Festival hosted this competition in near darkness at the local cinema with $1500 of cash prizes in ...

GERALDINE EASTER BUNNY TRAIL

One of the reasons it’s good to have a Totally Locally campaign in your town is that for pretty much any idea/event you can think of, having a locally recognised name means you have a ...

SMALL ACTIONS MAKE BIG NUMBERS FOR THE UK ECONOMY

….. and my maths mistake! Totally Locally is a campaign run in many towns across the UK and around the world (from France to Australia) and all those towns have their own Facebook pages. Tavistock ...

TOTALLY LOCALLY LAUNCHES IN WEST KILBRIDE

Say hi to the latest town in the Totally Locally Family, West Kilbride in North Ayrshire, Scotland! There was a growing buzz developing on Facebook in West Kilbride in advance of their launch event – ...

A TOTALLY LOCALLY BUSINESS STORY

We often get asked ‘What is Totally Locally about, what do you do?” Coincidentally we have had this sent through from a business in Leek, one of our Totally Locally towns and we thought it ...

LETS TALK ABOUT PARKING….. OR NOT!

Parking, it’s a big thing – we can all agree on that. You can pretty much guarantee that when we go to a new Totally Locally town to give a talk, a workshop or a masterclass ...

TALE OF A TENNER – SPENDING LOCALLY & HOW THE MONEY GOES ROUND

The Tale of the Magic Tenner. An amazing little film shot in Hebden Bridge, in Calderdale where Totally Locally HQ lives. Inspired by our magic tenner idea, but we had nothing to do with it! ...

THIS KIT WON’T FIX YOUR TOWN…. BUT YOU CAN

What Totally Locally Is – And What It Isn’t! Deeeeeep Breath……. It’s a Toolkit not a magic wand It’s not a magic wand where you just fill in & print out some flyers and banners, ...

TOTALLY SOCIALLY IN SCARBOROUGH

Here’s the story of how Totally Socially came to be in Scarborough. The Yorkshire Coast Social Enterprise brings together enterprises that have a social purpose. They noticed Totally Locally goings-on in their town and thought ...

THE TOTALLY LOCALLY LEEK FIVE POUND BURGER

In Leek, you can find the fabled Totally Locally Burger – yes they really went and done it! It of course costs £5 to tie in with the Five Pound message, and is made using ...

TOTALLY LOCALLY TICKHILL LAUNCH

Another Totally Locally town has launched, Tickhill. The campaign got the go-ahead to launch at the Tickhill Grand Prix along with a free pitch to spread the word. The Totally Locally Team arranged for a ...

BROSELEY BAGS CONQUER THE WORLD

Not content with their record-breaking bag photoshoot, the folks in Broseley set themselves challenge: just how far can a Totally Locally bag travel! We’re blown away by all the corners of our world that the ...

THE LEEK SUNDAY SUPPLEMENT

A chat with the Totally Locally people of Leek in Staffs. during their award-winning Totally Locally Sunday Supplement. A grassroots, voluntary initiative that has revived Leek’s town centre. Local produce, music, arts and crafts, food ...

Chris receives an Honorary Degree

In July 2015, Chris was awarded an Honorary Doctorate by Staffordshire University. You could have knocked him down with a feather when he heard the news! This was for the work Chris did creating and ...

TOTALLY LOCALLY COMMENDED IN SOUTH AUSTRALIAN STATE PARLIAMENT

The Launch of Totally Locally in Blackwood, South Australia was a huge success, so much so that their local MP, Sam Duluk, delivered this fantastic speech in State Parliament. I was lucky to meet Jonathan ...

TOTALLY LOCALLY SHIPSTON-ON-STOUR

If there has been a town that has fully embraced Totally Locally and every single bit of the Town Kit then it’s Shipston-On-Stour! The local team worked very hard getting everything ready for their launch ...

TOTALLY LOCALLY’S FIRST FRENCH TOWN

Totally Locally has gone all-French! After hearing about Totally Locally, a lovely team in Villaines-la-Juhel in the Pays De La Loire of France translated the Town Kit so they could launch the campaign in their ...

TOTALLY LOCALLY CHRIS IN AUSTRALIA

As Totally Locally takes off more in Australia, I’m working in South Australia with towns and groups on loads of different projects, including creating an identity for your town, engaging communities, workshops with groups on ...

TOTALLY LOCALLY CRICKHOWELL FIGHTS SUPERMARKET PLANS

We thought we’d start to keep you up to date with a few of the things going on in some of the Totally Locally Towns. Around 150 people have turned out in Crickhowell High Street ...

BROSELEY BAG RECORD

Totally Locally towns don’t generally do things by halves and the Broseley gang are no exception!

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LOVE YOUR TOWN

One of the things we see with towns that go Totally Locally is a noticeable increase in pride in the town. This makes sense, we’re opening peoples eyes to the great things in their town, ...

THE SUNDAY SUPPLEMENT

The Sunday Supplement – what is it? Is it a market? Yes. Is it an event? Yes. Is it an extra trading day for a town? Yes It is all of the above, done in ...

THE ECONOMICS OF BEING NICE

(Original article in The Scarborough Comet) It’s always hard to explain the concept of Totally Locally, as there are so many threads. You are probably familiar with the £5 Message, but there is a lot ...

WHAT IF THEY BUILT A SUPERMARKET AND NOBODY CAME?

There are so many anti supermarket campaigns at the moment and it made me think. If the supermarket isn’t profitable shareholders would shut it down. They would leave, and the town would go back to how ...

A TOURIST IN MY OWN TOWN

One of the things we say with Totally Locally is be a tourist in your own town. And I have to say it’s a long time since I did this. Today I had an hour ...

TOTALLY LOCALLY AUSTRALIA TRIP – A SUMMARY BY CHRIS

I’m back in England, after what was a crazy time talking Totally Locally in Australia & visiting in New Zealand, I now realise it was a bit much to try & write the trip up ...

TOTALLY LOCALLY VERSUS THE SUPERMARKETS

The Question Totally Locally Chris did a recent radio interview in which he was asked, and I paraphrase, What about the X amount of ASDA jobs in the area. Won’t going Totally Locally mean people ...

THE ELEPHANT IN THE ROOM

So here we are going to discuss the one thing that no one really seems to want to discuss when it comes to keeping our towns and independent shops alive… Opening Hours. It’s a fact ...

DID YOU KNOW….?

A nice little poster for you to write some great stuff about you or your shop. From what’s produced locally, to what you do that’s unique, to what’s your favourite shop to where you like ...

CRICKHOWELL CHRISTMAS MARKET

A hugely popular Christmas Market takes place each year in Crickhowell, organised by Totally Locally Crickhowell. This year lots of community organisations and high street businesses worked together to make an extra special event. The ...

TOTALLY LOCALLY STUDY AND GRADUATE

Charnelle Merritt has become the first Totally Locally graduate! Charnelle (pictured here with Professor Jon Fairburn) was key to implementing Totally Locally Burslem and thought it would be great to write about the campaign and ...

TOTALLY LOCALLY BROSELEY LAUNCH

The latest Totally Locally town to launch is the Shropshire market of Broseley. To start with a bang, the volunteer team created 12 events in the town including a treasure trail and kids fancy dress. ...

VIDEO EXPLAINER FROM NEWARK

Check out this great video made by the team in Newark, these are our core messages all made into a fantastic video. This is what it’s all about! ...

TOTALLY LOCALLY TEDDINGTON WORLD CUP

It seemed as though everyone in the town pitched in to help, with organising, catering, venues, printing, photography and more. This is what makes Totally Locally special, working together, and locals realising everyone is on ...

TOTALLY LOCALLY SCARBOROUGH FAYRE

Totally Locally Scarborough hosted this ace fayre that was all about how to have your perfect wedding, party or reception using services and products all from fantastic local independents! Included on the day were stalls ...

TEDDINGTON’S AMAZING APRIL DRAW

Here’s a nice idea from Totally Locally Teddington, a raffle draw designed to remind locals to shop more in their local independent shops. As we’re sure you know by now, we love alliterations so we’re ...

THE CRICKHOWELL TENNER TRAIL

Totally Locally Crickhowell wanted to go one step further than a Fiver Fest and have a similar celebration of what the town has to offer with a Tenner Trail! For two weeks, a heap of ...

TOTALLY LOCALLY LAUNCHES IN SALTAIRE

Saltaire is close to our hearts at Totally Locally HQ, it’s just up the road from where we started our campaign and it’s one of Chris’s favourite places in the world! If you haven’t ever ...

TOTALLY LOCALLY BUNGENDORE LAUNCHES IN AUSTRALIA

Another Totally Locally town has popped up in Australia! After Jennie heard Chris talk in Melbourne she took his ‘just do it’ words to heart and just did this! After returning home, she printed some ...

A WONDERFUL POEM ABOUT TOTALLY LOCALLY

Whilst in Adelaide Chris went for a drink after a long day at the Place Leaders conference where he was talking. They love Totally Locally and he went through most of the towns and the ...

TOTALLY LOCALLY PRESENTATION IN FINLAND

Well this is a bit crazy! Students at TAMK University in Finland have been hearing all about Totally Locally in a lecture! Particularly Totally Locally Burslem from Prof Jon Fairburn and Angela Lawrence of Staffordshire ...

WEST BRIDGFORD TOTALLY LOCALLY POP-UP SHOP!

Opened by the Mayor, this Totally Locally West Bridgford ‘mini department store’ opened just in time for Christmas Shopping. All participating pop-up partners are local and willing to spend their profits in local independent businesses ...

TOTALLY LOCALLY PRESTATYN HITTING ALL THE CHANNELS

The team in Prestatyn are an industrious bunch and know the value of a publicity, pulling all the right strings to get their message out there! Their campaign was mentioned in a Parliament motion, stating ...

VALLEY OF LIGHTS – FLOOD RELIEF PROJECT

  An Award Winning Project by the Totally Locally team. VALLEY OF LIGHTS – WINNER OF THE NATIONAL GOVERNMENT APSE Award 2013 – Best Community & Neighbourhood Initiative in The UK The Valley of Lights ...

THE TOTALLY LOCALLY AWARDS

One day we had the idea to host a big award ceremony. Why the heck not – we liked the idea and with Totally Locally you can just do stuff so we did…. an Oscars ...

RELENTLESSLY POSITIVE – OUR BIGGEST EVER COMPLIMENT!

Chris was interviewed by The Yorkshire Post about reviving the Great British High Street, with all the news of Mary Portas Review in the press, this reporter knew of a campaign a bit closer to ...