WHEN it comes to independent trade, the Worcester suburb of St John’s lives up to its ‘village in the city’ nickname.

The shopping strip, only a 15-minute walk away from Worcester city centre, has a village atmosphere and strong community spirit. When the new Sainsbury’s supermarket opened off Swanpool Walk in March, small local traders stepped up to face the competition.

Jeynes Hardware store, next to the 26,000 sq ft supermarket, opened its back doors and put up a sign promoting “the scenic route through St John’s” in a bid to entice customers.

Manager Jill McDonagh said: “It’s so important to support local shops. There are a lot of new people coming into St John’s and they might not know what else we’ve got. We need to raise awareness. At the moment people are using the Sainsbury’s car park, which is free for two hours, doing a supermarket shop, but are not coming into town. Maybe two hours isn’t long enough.”

Many small traders in St John’s are long-established, family-run firms. Jeynes opened 80 years ago and first traded in Hylton Road, where the Homebase store is today.

A number of St John’s businesses are backing our Buy Local campaign supporing independent shops, including Mutter’s Newsagent, I J Narraway butcher, Newmans florist shop, and Colston Bakery.

Rob Shotton, owner of holistic therapy store Prana in King Charles Place, said: “St John’s is full of small, independent businesses. Some of them have been trading for years. It would be totally different without them.”

Prana stocks handmade gifts from all over the world, as well as natural skincare products made in Birmingham and artwork by Worcester artist Glenn James.

Andy Brown, the landlord of the Bush Inn, which stocks beer from the Blue Bear Brewery in Hallow, near Worcester, has already added his support to the Buy Local campaign.

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