Waitrose Community Matters Scheme

Originally uploaded by alalsacienne

Waitrose in Thame has recently launched its ‘Community Matters’ scheme.

The scheme is simple. Each month, the shop divides £1,000 between three local organisations- such as community groups or schools. The shop’s customers nominate which organisations can benefit from the scheme. Customers are offered a token every time they shop, which can be inserted in one of three Perspex tubes – one for each organisation. At the end of the month the tokens for each organisation are weighed and the beneficiaries receive a proportion of the cash.

The first three charities in the Thame scheme are a local nursery, a playground project and the local museum. Needless to say we will also be nominating St Joseph’s Building Fund as a potential beneficiary.

The Waitrose scheme seems like a great idea to me – it’s part of a national programme – as it generates much-needed funds for local organisations, influenced directly by the people affected (not to mention the additional positive publicity for Waitrose).

According to the manager of another Waitrose: ‘Our customers love it, and it’s raised our profile locally.’