Supermarket-free birthday cards

Well my friends and family came up trumps yesterday with some lovely cards that didn't appear to have been bought from supermarkets.

They all clearly think I'm turning into an anti-supermarket Nazi and are terrified!

I think it's an interesting point though, because supermarkets are no longer just places to pick up groceries. You can now buy virtually everything from Tesco or Asda, including cards and gifts, and I for one have certainly been guilty  in the past of grabbing a card and book or CD for somebody as a present along with my shopping. We're back to that old chestnut of convenience again.

And of course the impact is being felt on the high street. Look at what happened to Clinton Cards. Yet again shoppers are choosing supermarkets over individual/specialist shops and its having a big impact.

Flicking through my birthday cards I can see that quite a few of them are obviously from small independent card or gift shops. 

Cath's card....

My lovely friends Cath and Stefan, who live in London, even popped a note inside their card saying "we made a special effort to buy a card not from Tesco just for you". This is especially kind when you consider that Cath was one of the friends I visited and blogged about in January, who freely admits that she gets pretty much everything from the supermarket round the corner from her house. So thanks Cath!

Other cards were harder to source, because of course they tend to be branded with the name of the company that designed/made them, rather than where they were sold. But I reckon the ones with a price code on the back are likely to have come from the bigger retailers - and potentially the supermarkets. I got several of these.

....and message 

Of course all cards and birthday wishes were very well received. But if you don't want to see the demise of small independent card shops, or even bigger high street chains like Clintons (who frankly rather deserve their fate I think - their prices were astronomical!), then it's worth supporting them when you can.