My favorite children clothes store https://www.maammekauppa.fi/ is shutting down (I’m not affiliated, but where will I buy those pretty and durable shirts now?), reason - people are not buying local, one of two local manufacturers who was their suppliers went down last fall for the same reason. This fanatically local and very personal shop just didn’t make it. And as small local business owner, I see my reflection in their shutdown.
This is just sad.
And they are right. I’m (affiliated here) trying to sell local brewing yeast for a year now, and almost nobody buys it. I offered gardening chemicals to supermarket networks to be marketed as local - they say there is no demand, they end up with unsold surplus of this (and they know their numbers). I want to believe and praise “buy European” story, but right now the opposite is happening.
It’s getting harder and harder to be found by search engines thanks to AI, but I suggest content marketing. Write articles on your website about brewing. Something for complete newbies, then tips for people who have brewed before, etc. Do this in both English and Finnish. Sell a complete starter kit for newbies that includes everything necessary to make the first batch down to the glassware, mention it casually in your posts. Etc. Make it possible to order the kit with different yeasts