Purple Love Brings Hope To High Street

“When it first started, Purple Love Week was all about supporting local shops all over the country at the quietest time of the year by encouraging people to take part in a national tasting event,” says Cartmel Village Shop manager, Lynne Unsworth, who has taken part in the nationwide event.
“This year we still want people to come and taste what we’ve got here at Cartmel but the overall message is much starker. We all need to keep the economy moving and spending just a fiver can have a massive impact.”

Research has shown that any money spent in the local economy is worth five times as much to the overall community. “So a fiver works out at being worth at least £25 because the money goes from business to business and the whole community benefits,” adds Ms Unsworth.
“What we want to do is to make that spending fun and worthwhile.” With this in mind, Cartmel has been running a Sticky Toffee Pudding Treasure Trail around the village, involving as many businesses as possible. The first correct entry drawn at the end of the week will win a sticky toffee pudding each month for a year. Collect the questions from Cartmel Village Shop and then return the answers to its purple post box.

Other retailers across the country have also thrown their weight behind the campaign, some have organised tasting, while others have run competitions to get consumers interested in their store. Paul Lancaster, owner of Lancaster’s Delicatessen in Colchester, Essex, created a selection of purple cakes, decorated his shop with purple baloons and has been hitting the streets to get people trying various purple products. He has reported sales have been up so far during the campaign.