Letters: Let’s support local

We all LOVE our new Ballito Junction Mall, our Virgin Active Gym and our new private schools. Thank you so much for bringing the “Big Guns” to our little town.
I have no doubt that the town will now see exponential growth over the next few years, providing new jobs and further prosperity to the area.
However, I think we should all give a thought to those brave individuals who put their livelihood and life savings on the line to open small businesses in our little town of Ballito to offer us a selection of services, before the big boys came to town.
They have battled the local planning authorities (no mean feat), licensing and banks and faced certain financial ruin if we didn’t support them.
The old Ballito Town now has a brilliant selection of eateries. Small business in The Circle, The Quarter, Lifestyle and many other business parks around Ballito offer a selection of services from kite surfing, hairdressers to décor. We also have excellent car mechanics, gyms, nursery schools and locksmiths in our town.
Let’s give them all a big thank you for hanging in there through the dry times. Let’s hope the local municipality understands their value to the local economy and assists them in every way possible to enable their businesses to continue to thrive, and we the locals remember to support them throughout this difficult time of adjustment.
We must remember that our local small businesses do not have the resources that the national chains have, to enable them to ride out a prolonged fight for our rands.
We understand that we must all move with the times, but wouldn’t our little town lose some of its unique identity and friendliness if we did not have our small business community.
Let’s all try to spread our rand around town, the big guys can afford to wait for the town to grow.
My advice to small business is to ensure that their customer service and pricing is geared to keep every single customer that walks through its doors. Winter is coming and it may get very cold, pricing, friendliness and warmth is what will keep your customers coming back.

ANDREA SHARROCK
Ballito