Matthew Clapham
1 min readSep 2, 2023

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My (adopted) home town in Spain takes it a step further and puts their money where their mouths are: twice a year they have a promotional campaign to which all local small businesses can sign up (shoeshops, cafés, electricians, yoga instructors, whatever).

You go to the town hall (or their website) and can buy up to 100 euros of vouchers per adult registered as resident in the town, which are worth double what you pay.

So effectively, up to 100 euros per person from the municipal budget that has to go into the tills of local small businesses, and 100 euros of citizens' money that might end up at am out-of-town shopping centre chain or Amazon as well.

Clearly there are issues with this arrangement in terms of how well it is targeted, but on balance I think it's a good idea. Every euro spent locally will return far more than that in economic, but above all social, benefits for the community.

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Matthew Clapham
Matthew Clapham

Written by Matthew Clapham

Professional translator by day. Writer of silly and serious stuff by night. Also by day, when I get fed up of tedious translations. Founder of Iberospherical.

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