Shop keeping

‘Wedge Card’ helps customers support local stores

Loyalty schemes loom large in the ‘customer relationship management’ strategies of the UK’s major retail chains. And they’re highly successful – none more so than the Tesco Clubcard, which is held by nearly a quarter of the population. But the recently launched Wedge Card has a different aim in view – to encourage ordinary people to support local shops and services that might otherwise disappear.

Diana Bird, a former chef, launched the scheme last December with her father, Big Issue founder John Bird. Since then 200 traders have joined up. They’re on target to double that figure by the beginning of March, and there’s a second scheme on the go for Leicester, plus plans to expand across greater London in the coming months.

As a punter you can buy a Wedge card for 20 quid (ten of which goes to a local charity). This gets you special offers, discounts, and invitations to events at local shops affiliated to the scheme across central London.

It is pretty simple to become a Wedge trader too. Big chains are debarred – participating companies must have fewer than ten branches. Beyond that, it’s a matter of deciding on a discount offer, and buying seven Wedge cards as an initial outlay (these can either be sold to the public or given to staff).

Wedge’s biggest traders so far are Green Baby (who sell eco-wear for babies and have four stores – top left) and Foyles Bookshop (with two stores); the rest are all individual shops, restaurants, cafés and so on. Discounts are most commonly between 5% and 10%, but the Chelsea Physic Garden offers cardholders a substantial £3 off its usual £7 entry price.

Bird hopes the scheme will get people engaged in their community and combat the breakdown in communication that occurs when local shops and services close. “Having these facilities close by helps people feel safe and is essential for vulnerable groups such as the unemployed, old people and pregnant women,” she stresses. But above all Wedge hopes to challenge the preconception that local one-off businesses are more expensive than chain stores. “There have been surveys done by the Evening Standard that have consistently found that products in local shops are cheaper,” says Bird. And Princeton University research has demonstrated that supermarkets are designed to induce customers to buy 20% more than they need. – Giovanna Dunmall

11 March 2007

Giovanna Dunmall