Supporting Small Businesses: Yorkshire Creatives Makers Market
Jian visited a local market that boasted the unique work of many small businesses, and is kindly here to tell us all about it.
Image Credit: Jian Feng
Although discounts provided by high street brands can often be tempting to the regular consumer, local independent stores attract many customers as well. Recently, there was a Creative Makers Market in Haworth, where local independent businesses boasted their unique items, inspired by their passion that can never be found from the high street.
The creative market is located nearby Keighley. Visited on a foggy day, hosting a steam train station, it looked like a dream town from last century. People and puppies went in and out of the fog, finding their favourite items to prepare for the Christmas season. Following the lane up on the hill, the market was located in the school room beside a church. It’s a warm room made of mostly wood.
The items on sale were not only unique, but most of them were hand-made with sustainable material. In the fast-growing industry, sustainability is becoming the talk of the town, meaning these products attracted a large group of local residents and students from Yorkshire.
The beautiful song that was playing in the background, was created by one of the store owners, who sold three string guitars created by himself with wood. He also shaved the wood to the shape of an old football fan, with a little scarf representing different local teams.
At one of the stalls, there were two sisters selling handmade items, that were perfect for winter decorations. One of them said “we want to share our creative ideas with other creative makers there.”
Keighley is the home of Bronte Sisters, well-known authors around the world. This meant there were many visitors coming to the market to buy bags, postcards, and pens with patterns of the Bronte Sisters and their famous quotes.
Bronte Wildlings store showcased various hand-made hats, scarves, and different clothing’s for young children. There was an eye-catching animal shape bonnet to warm ones self up during the winter, along with many colourful scarves. Plant lovers would also be satisfied with the creative plant plots there. There were different shapes and patterns with sustainable materials to hold your favourite plants.
According to Rosalia, the organiser of creative market and owner of Bronte Bitch, “the aim of this market is to spotlight the local talent and creators, who also launched a small business idea.” Rosalia used to organise a similar market in London before the pandemic struck. More recently, creative independent stores have become increasingly popular in North England, especially the Yorkshire region. There are an increasing number of independent stores there after the pandemic, which encourage people to live with sustainable items.
Reports showed that there were over 2000 new independent stores opened during 2021, compared with a large number of chain restaurants and bars that closed down because of the pandemic (Financial Times, 2021). One of the potential reasons for this is smaller enterprises are entitled to 50% business rate discount until April 2023. Another reason is that there are many independent stores in town, so consumers can visit these small businesses with great convenience.
If you have the chance to visit one of Rosalia’s Creative Makers Markets, you would not regret it, so, buy local produce and support small businesses.