For many, the term “shopping” denotes high street forays along modern promenades or indoor malls. While mainstream spaces offer popular shopping avenues, visitors and locals alike find magic in more localized experiences. Yet many shoppers are not aware of all that town shopping in Devon has to offer. Below are the ABC’s for shopping in Devon’s towns, villages, and independent shops.

A: Ambience

Devon’s shops are as proud of the shopping environment they create as the product itself. Shop owners strive to maintain historic buildings, placing modern lighting in antiquated fixtures. Farm shops allow bits of hay to lace the ground, proving just how fresh their fruits are. Shoppers may be offered a cuppa and cake as they browse. Clever displays create shop scenes in wherein art hangs art, vegetables are packaged in containers made of recycled compost, and galleries host drawing lessons. Shop owners invite visitors to sample the product, from fingering soft wools to tasting honey-roasted mustard. Town shopping in Devon is not an errand but an experience.

B: Benefits

Local shopping opportunities are, in all sense of the word, fresh. From seasonal produce to hot-off-the-press novels, what you find in a local shop is guaranteed to be one of the most unique, relevant incarnations. Consumers are put at-ease knowing where their purchase originated and what their investment supports. Shoppers may even be able to meet with the producer in-person. An additional benefit is that the freshest products are often cheapest: harvest season offers majors discounts on product and hand-crafted knitwear is compassionately discounted during rainy winter months. Opening your purse to town shops provides lasting benefits for yourself and the community.

C: Choice

Why purchase the same sweater that your friend has when you can don an original top for a local shop? Producers create inventive crafts from materials found along Devon’s beaches, on its moors, and from its sheep. Shoppers savour inventive flavours in chutneys to jams, pies to pasties. These recipes may be age-old family secrets or spur-of-the-moment concoctions over an Aga stove-top. Moreover, town shopping does not have to take place in specific retail locations. Post offices display handmade cards; local honey sits in corner grocers; and purchasable art hangs from library walls. Proximity to producers means shoppers have the ability to commission their own pieces, request alterations, and book additional services like help with pick-up and drop-off.  With so many ways and means, shopping is an important part of Devon culture.

There is always time and place for high-street shopping. Yet opening your eyes to Devon’s wider shopping environment creates a more friendly, inclusive, and far-reaching experience than any mall. In seeking local shopping opportunities we find stronger connections to each other and our communities.