Totally Locally Leek

As it says on the Totally Locally Leek website, if every adult in the town spent just £5 a week with locally-owned businesses it would mean £4.1M per annum being retained in the local economy. Given how much most residents will spend per week in supermarkets and other non-local businesses it's not surprising that many towns like Leek are suffering.
In many places of this size (pop. 19,000) you'd have difficulty finding anything to spend your £5 on other than five items from the pound shop, but Leek is different and there are still a large number of useful, independent shops in the High Street.

OK, maybe not much "useful" stuff in Housey House, but what a wonderful building.

No self-respecting North Staffordshire town is without one of these.

The Saturday market is for antiques, collectables or junk (according to your taste).
There is a general market here on a Wednesday and an indoor market several days a week.

If you are as old as me you'll remember when every High Street had one of these!
An enterprising Leek shopkeeper is making good use of an old shop front.

This is the first gold postbox I've seen.

 It's here because Leek is the home town of gold medal winning rower, Anna Watkins

So, I had no trouble spending my £5, and a lot more beside, getting everything I needed and a few things I didn't know I needed as well. I only had to call in at the huge Morrisons supermarket that's on the route between the canal and the town to drop off the recycling and use their toilets. (Well, they don't have to empty theirs themselves!)

If you're stopping over in Leek, as I was, its well worth having a walk up to the town in the evening despite the uninviting route via the industrial estate and then the main road.

There are several decent pubs, including two selling locally-brewed beer from the Titanic Brewery (Do you want ice with that?!) and from my all-time favourite Joules of Stone Market Drayton, but pick of the bunch, most unexpectedly, is "Den Engel" - a Belgian-style bar (well, as Belgian as you can get in this country where no one would understand table service and drinks on a tab) with a huge selection of draught and bottled Belgian beers.