Supporting Sunderland's businesses is supporting yourself

One of our most-read stories in recent days concerned a Sunderland Chinese takeaway.

The Fountain Garden has traded in High Barnes for decades and for the past 30 years has been run by the Ng family.

We are at pains to point out that the business is still going strong and will continue to do so. We reiterate this as something akin to panic broke out when people read that the Ngs are moving on to pastures new.

The response we received suggests that if anyone called Ng should stand for political office on Wearside any time soon, they would sweep to power.

This is clearly more than a business. It is a local institution. Happily its future should be as bright as its past.

However, other local institutions do fall by the wayside which becomes a source of regret, not least for the people who neglected to use it.

Helping these businesses, the city, its heritage, ourselves and our families is simple. Shop local. Or at least shop local more often.

It's encouraging that despite the proliferation of multinational fast food outlets, the Fountain Garden and similar remain in big demand.

Supermarkets, pub chains etc. raking in the billions do not unduly suffer when we amend our spending slightly. But it can save local businesses, jobs and even communities when we divert a few quid from those needing it least, to those who add a little colour into the world.

Let's face it. A local butcher, baker or whatever often provides a superior (and locally sourced) product.

Furthermore, the chit-chat with the staff is genuine, rather than the corporate waffle that supermarket staff (who deserve our utmost respect) are instructed to impose on both parties.

True, most local businesses can't be as cheap. But this makes the coffee drinkers who eschew Sunderland's excellent local coffee shops in favour of anodyne multinationals, something of a mystery.

Local establishments often provide better coffee at roughly the same price, are less anodyne, more characterful and considerably less fanatical about pursuing the most aggressive tax avoidance schemes imaginable.

Yes, shopping locally can even indirectly benefit schools, the NHS and everything else we need and cherish. It can even fill potholes.

So shop local.