Ask most people why they love a particular strip of shops and they won’t mention the shopping. They’ll shout-out the guy at the fruit shop who remembers their order, the bakery that sells out of the good stuff by 9am, or the fact that they bumped into three neighbours on the walk from the car.
New national research from American Express backs that up. Australians were asked which destinations they most associate with small, independent businesses, and the answers weren’t about price or convenience at all – they came down to good food, distinctive local traders, and a sense of actually belonging somewhere.
A national survey of more than 4,000 people set out to find the destinations Australians most associate with small, independent businesses – the strips and pockets of a city that feel distinctly local, rather than interchangeable with the mega mall down the road. What came back was less a shopping list and more a portrait of what makes a neighbourhood worth lingering in: good food, businesses with a bit of personality, and a sense that you actually belong there.
So, where did Australia land?
The top ten reads like a well-travelled friend’s answer to “where should I go for a wander this weekend”:
- South Melbourne, VIC
- Surry Hills / Darlinghurst / Paddington, NSW
- Parramatta, NSW
- Newtown, NSW
- Newcastle, NSW
- Cabramatta, NSW
- Fremantle, WA
- Geelong, VIC
- Fitzroy, VIC
- Hobart, TAS
It’s a genuinely varied list – inner-city terraces and beachside ports, a regional city, a heartland of Vietnamese-Australian food culture, a harbourside capital known for its produce and creativity. What ties them together isn’t geography or even price point. It’s that each one has built a reputation street by street, shopfront by shopfront, largely through the people who run the businesses inside them.
South Melbourne took out top spot. Spend an hour around its market and the surrounding laneways and the reasons are obvious – long-standing florists, grocers and cafes sit alongside newer arrivals, and the suburb feels lived-in rather than curated for visitors.
Why we actually go
The numbers back up the sentiment. Ninety-three per cent of Australians surveyed said supporting small businesses matters to them, and 88 per cent felt these businesses are what make a local area feel vibrant rather than generic. Eighty-six per cent said small businesses help knit communities together.
Most people aren’t finding these places through ads or apps. Just over half said they discover new small businesses by walking past them, and roughly the same number said they’d heard about a favourite spot from a friend or family member. The old-fashioned tip-off, or simply taking a different street home, is still how most of this happens.
Food and drink do most of the work when it comes to actually getting people through the door: 72 per cent said cafés, restaurants and bars are where they engage with small businesses most often. A coffee order is a low-stakes way to build a relationship with a place — order enough flat whites and eventually you’re the regular who gets a nod from the barista.
Almost one in five Australians said they’d travel more than an hour, or plan a dedicated trip, just to visit a small business precinct that appealed to them. That’s not errand-running. That’s treating a strip of shops as a destination in its own right.
What makes a street like this work
None of this comes from one standout business. It’s the accumulation of small, stubborn, personal ones – the florist who’s been there for decades, the newcomer with the good sourdough, the grocer who remembers your order. That takes years to build and isn’t easy to replicate.
There’s also a broader push right now to back these strips with real investment. American Express’s Shop Small Grants program, run in partnership with Mainstreet Australia, is offering up to $2 million to Australian small businesses this year – up to 100 grants of $20,000 each, to help traders refresh shopfronts, buy new equipment or bring fresh ideas to life. Applications are open at amex.com.au/shopsmall until 6 September 2026. It’s the kind of funding that recognises a thriving main street doesn’t happen on its own.
So next time you’re deciding where to spend a Saturday morning, skip the shopping centre. Take the street with the bakery smell instead, and see where it takes you.
