Saving Local

SavingLocal.com was a volunteer project I co-founded in March 2020, in the first weeks of the UK lockdown, to help small local businesses survive what looked like an existential cashflow crisis. The site sold vouchers on behalf of cafes, restaurants, bakeries, yoga studios, hairdressers and the rest — redeemable later, when the world reopened. Every penny went straight to the business. We didn't make any money off it; we were furloughed or working from home and we had time and skills to spare. The original site is gone, but a 2021 snapshot lives on archive.org.

Why I built it

I was at ParcelHero.com, and having previously founded London Eating — one of the first UK restaurant guides online — felt strongly for all the small venues that had been forced to close their shops and restaurants overnight, and wanted to do anything I could to help them survive an unprecedented time.

How it worked

SavingLocal.com let the public buy gift vouchers now that could be redeemed later. You could buy vouchers in various denominations, for more than one business at a time. Each voucher had a unique number and was checked off by the merchant on use. We listed the full range of local businesses that were suffering — cafes, restaurants, bakeries, yoga studios, hairdressers, gyms, nail bars, cleaners — anyone people relied on in normal times.

It played a small but meaningful part in keeping local businesses afloat during the lockdown. We moved quickly, occasionally with glitches, and asked people to tell us when things broke so we could fix them.