Here’s a story in the motoring press about Howes of Fakenham going into administration. Let’s hope the Peugeot dealership can be sold as a going concern and the employees are kept on.  It’s a car sales business that’s been established in the area for 50 years.

The Chamber of Trade’s Bonfire Night Colouring Competition attracted around 1200 entries from various local schools. When judging was over, they had the great idea of brightening up one of the town’s empty shops by plastering them inside the windows.

I think they look brilliant!

Although I spread my custom round several eateries in town, this is my favourite sandwich shop in Fakenham – Fresh4You in Millers Walk. I invariably pop in at least a couple of times a week for a sarnie for my lunch or a late breakfast and a cuppa. The reason I like it? Because it’s always spotlessly clean and eye-wideningly bright. The staff are always pleasant and helpful too – once I dropped a cup of tea on the way out and it seemed as if I’d actually done them a favour, they were so dismissive of the mess I’d created!

This is ‘on the record’, folks: I would heartily recommend their bacon baguettes – they’re scrumptious. The standard ones at £2.99 have 4 rashers inside, which is complete bacon-overkill (being a wuss, I can’t cope with that so opt for a 2-slice version). Their coffee machine looks like the Starship Enterprise dashboard, but produces the perfect Americano although I’ve cut down on coffee and usually get a Fairtrade tea – a really nice cup of Rosie. Overall, 10 out of 10.  Take note, other shop owners…. this is exactly how to do it!

See you in there?

 Creake Abbey Farmers’ Market has won first place in the prestigious Eastern Daily Press Norfolk Food Awards.  The monthly market at North Creake, attached to Creake Abbey Studios, came first in the dedicated  Farmers’ Market section.

The judges said “A fantastic location in north Norfolk with an idyllic setting. This market offers an abundance of locally produced and sourced food products and gifts. The stall holders are only too pleased to share their passion and knowledge and there are lots of opportunities to try before you buy with well presented stalls“.

The market is held on the first Saturday of each month (except in January). Around 30 stall holders attend, with fresh local meat, produce, cheeses, cakes, bread, preserves, ales, juices and plants.  They’re holding a ‘Christmas Shopping Feast’ on 4th December – sounds like it’s well worth a visit!

With  Creake Abbey Farmers’ Market on 1st Saturday and the Fakenham Farmers’ Market being held on the 4th Saturday of nearly every month, our area’s well served. We have few excuses for not being able to buy quality local produce whenever we need it!

I often get asked whether I repair computers or clean systems of viruses. The answer’s no – I used to do that kind of thing many moons ago, but now I just concentrate on the internet side of things. However, there are a couple of local services I recommend. One of them is the business next door to mine in Norwich Street. They’re called LANForce.

They’re an internet cafe and network gaming centre, but provide PC repairs, maintenance and upgrades too. Graham oversees the gaming & cybercafe side. The PC techician, Andy, knows his job inside out. What’s more, their services are not expensive, by all accounts.

Anyway, the point of this post is to let you know that they’ve changed their business hours. They’re now open from 10am Monday to Saturday. That’s a fair bit earlier than before – they didn’t used to open until 3pm (they are open late into the evenings, playing online games).

So… do you need a PC sorting out? Give Graham and Andy at LAN Force a call on 01328 862212 – they’ll do a decent job for you. Tell ‘em Steve sent you, if you like!

My little office in the centre of town is looking a lot more upmarket these days. It’s all thanks to Debbie Osborn, a talented local artist and designer (and blogger) who has provided me with some of her original artwork to hang on my walls. They’re really eyecatching pieces - I’ll bet lots of visitors will be asking where they came from when they drop in to ‘talk websites’.

Keith, her other half, is a pretty fine local photographer. One of his prints – a cracking seascape in the sunset –  is also adorning my office. How bad is that?

So you see, it’s not what you know, it’s WHO you know Thanks very much indeed guys.

The Advertising Standards Agency have upheld complaints about the BT ad that says it’s, “rolling out up to 20 meg speeds” to give “consistently faster broadband“. The ASA stated that “it had not seen sufficient evidence to support the claim and concluded that the advert was likely to mislead“.

The problem I had with that advert – the one where Adam and Jane are talking over the phone about viewing houses and the estate agent’s connection is slower than Jane’s –  is slightly more obvious…

The estate agent showing Adam the houses online is using his laptop inside a property being viewed. Surely it wouldn’t be using the property owner’s broadband connection, would it? So it’s not comparing like-for-like, is it?

Schoolboy error!

..

The town of Fakenham seems to be in a bit of a state of flux right now – at least the shops in the town centre are. That shop next to our town sign which I originally described as a ‘bathroom shop’ and which then morphed quietly into a clothes shop is now on the march. A bright yellow display of balloons adorns the windows, with posters stating that the shop will be moving (see photo inset). It all seems very strange. Anybody care to start a conspiracy theory?

Local shoppers love bargains, but local business owners don’t go for them!

In the past, I’ve talked to somebody at Fakenham Chamber of Commerce as well as Kick Start Fakenham about a local shopper loyalty scheme, but nothing has so far become of it.  I think the Chamber has also recently and independently discussed an idea like this, but maybe somebody needs to give it a nudge and/or get some feedback from the local public…

I think the town’s traders could do with some kind of mutually-beneficial loyalty scheme. Something which would reward local shoppers by giving discounts or special offers and which would, in turn, keep some of their trade in the town rather than see them shop further afield.

I have had some ideas already, having mulled it over for the best part of a year. What has rekindled my ideas now? Well, I was speaking to another business owner from this area yesterday and we were comparing notes about local advertising and promotion. His thoughts were (and my past experiences bear this out) that local businesses are usually very reluctant to promote themselves – even if the method offered is extremely inexpensive or even free! They’re not at all pro-active when it comes to publicity and many smaller businesses in the area will happily admit to being complete technophobes – not at all helpful when somebody like me is trying to convince them to promote their businesses online!

We came to the conclusion that if local businesses could be shown an obviously consumer-driven scheme, they’d be more likely to see the advantage of promoting themselves through it. Our reasoning was that they’re historically used to being consumer-led and would react to a more traditional idea that shoppers would want to use.

So… I’d like your ideas. If you’re a shopper, what would convince you to use a local business rather than one from Norwich or Lynn? If you’re a Fakenham trader or shop owner, do you have any ideas to make a scheme like this work?

You can leave comments here on my blog or email me via steve (at) wensum.net. Alternatively, feel free to give me a ring at the office on 01328 856688.