Supermarket lets customers chose the charities it will donate to

25/07/08

Supermarket chain Waitrose has pledged that it will let customers and employees pick local charities that it will donate a total of £2.28 million to over the next 12 months.

The new Community Matters scheme will offer £1,000 a month to each of Waitrose's 190 branches to be given to three different local projects.

To be considered, the local charitable groups need to contact their nearest Waitrose and submit a form. At this point, employees will pick which three they want their branch to support.

Customers will then be asked to vote for their favoured charities using tokens they will be given at the check out. At the end of each month, the £1,000 is split depending on these votes.

The scheme has already been piloted in branches of the supermarket located in Witney, Wokingham, Newbury, Buckingham and Henley.

During the May trial in the Wokingham branches, the Thames Valley and Chiltern Air Ambulance, Mencap Bubble Club and The Dogs Trust all benefited from donations, the businessinberkshire.co.uk website reported.

Read more Sector News >>