More than convenient: how local shops create good neighbourhoods

Locally owned businesses make areas more vibrant, and keep money in the local economy. Photograph: Maskot/Getty Images

If Toks Aruoture’s WhatsApp flashes with a message from her local business group she knows she needs to read it. There will be a strong chance that someone in a nearby shop or business along a stretch of London shops known as the King’s Road Curve needs some urgent help.

As the owner of The Baby Cot Shop, a children’s furniture retailer in Chelsea, looking out for her fellow shopkeepers is just one of the ways Aruoture helps to support her local business community via a neighbourhood networking group.