Wednesday 16 April 2008

A meeting with Mr Cameron



Last week we were summoned to Parliament. We arrived slightly sweaty palmed - perhaps there had been some outstanding bill we'd forgotten about that had been 'taken higher' ? We were then pleasantly surprised to find out that Grant Schapps MP, Shadow Housing Minister, and his party had discovered the delights of Wedge Card and wanted to sign up all of their MP's en masse.


Fast forward a week and we've Wedged up 194 MP's and been visited by David Cameron himself. He talked to us and a couple of Wedge shops on Marchmont Street, asked the owners of their thoughts about the local shop situation and was a generally pleasant guy. He then took his thoughts and wrote a great piece about us for today's Evening Standard.


So we are delighted that Mr C has supported us so. And to make sure we're remaining truly apolitical we're sending out this message to Gordon and Nick: 'join us too!'

Tuesday 25 March 2008

You never know when you'll need a friend

My visa card was declined last week as I was attempting to pay for some food for my dinner. Fortunately I was in a shop where I was known and I was allowed to walk away with the promise of payment the next day.

The moral of this story isn’t that it’s better to not spend everything at the beginning of the month and then live on credit at the end (though it isn’t, my mother would be appalled if she knew) or that buying smoked salmon for a mid-week supper is shockingly decadent (possibly it is and my mother would again be appalled if she knew) but that my local shop knew me and trusted me enough to return. This naturally made me feel all village-y and warm.

So although I don’t advise practising my financial bad-planning and testing this out in your local shop, I do advise you get to know your favourite local shopkeepers because disasters befall us all and it’s nice to know there is someone out there who can help us out the sticky stuff.

Local lives in New York

A new American short film about small shops and communities in New York has caught our eye. Twilight becomes Night cuts right to the heart of the matter. Shot by film-maker Virginie-Alvine Perrette, its message is: “Each time a neighbourhood shop closes its doors for the last time, something vital is lost forever….Local businesses are vanishing at an alarming rate, but trends are not destiny. Through individual commitment and community activism, a neighbourhood can save a neighbourhood store”.

(You can see a short excerpts on http://blogs.wsj.com/independentstreet/2008/02/20/want-to-save-the-corner-store-show-em-the-money/?mod=googlenews_wsj and on the film’s own website http://www.twilightbecomesnight.com/)

As anyone who has wandered through the back streets of NYC and any of its 480 neighbourhoods will attest to, the plethora of independent shops is quite extraordinary. The film has catalogued some of these, with wonderful quotes. “You have to live the life of the people” says one store owner. “People involved in the community feel an attachment to me and I feel an attachment to them”. They talk about the ecology of the block, forming friends and webs of meaning that makes life rich and possible. It’s not just about money, it’s about life. The film-maker even interviewed a neuro-scientist talking about the importance of community life to your emotional well-being – we all need to live in an area where we feel safe and secure. Could it be any more obvious? So you take a cheap flight to NY, taking advantage of the cheap dollar and shop for clothes on Fifth Avenue. But where will you find those vintage jeans, ‘60s records, the repairer of pens or Italian delicacies? In the ‘hood, of course.

Tuesday 29 January 2008

Wedge businesses voted Top Eco Foodies!

It was great to see how many Wedge Card business owners were mentioned in Sunday's January edition of the Observer Food Monthly. The subject: the Top 40 Eco Foodies. Among the 40 are Wedge people Geeta Singh, owner of the Duke of Cambridge organic pub; Arthur Potts Dawson, owner of Acorn House (Alan Titchmarsh, a great favourite of mine anyway, loves to eat at Acorn House. "The wild-mushroom ravioli is fabulous", he says); Catherine Conway, of Unpackaged; Keith Abel and Elle Heeks of Abel & Cole, and Oliver Rowe, chef and owner of Konstam. Now go visiting or eating at these wonderful people's places.


Congratulations to all!

Monday 28 January 2008

Local shops help build communities

James Lowman, the CE of the Association of Convenience stores, writes today in the Scotsman about the importance of local shops in encouraging a sence of community. He reveals some startling facts from the Princes Trust that "one in ten Britons admitted to failing to meet other people socially on a weekly basis and 15 per cent go a week without speaking to any of their neighbours."

We agree that local shops provide vital meeting points for communities . We need a sensible debate that leads to strong policies that protect a communities right to choose what shops exist within them.

Read his article in full here:
http://news.scotsman.com/opinion/Local-shops-for-local-people.3715833.jp

Do Good Lives Have to Cost the Earth?

We were very interested to see a new book entitled 'Do Good Lives Have to Cost the Earth?' published last week. We were attracted by their blurb:

We tend to see climate change as an overwhelmingly daunting threat requiring impossible sacrifices. But it's time to rethink, say a range of notable experts brought together by nef and the Open University - who share a conviction that living well need not cost the earth.

With contributions from such clever people as our founding father John Bird, A C Grayling,
Oliver James, Rosie Boycott and Anita Roddick, we know it will make us think and more importantly inspire us to ACT!

Find out where you can buy it with your Wedge Card discount on our site:
http://www.wedgecard.co.uk/modules/merchant/index.php?name=books&op=namesearch

Wednesday 16 January 2008

Can you be lazy and have morals?

I woke up on Sunday six Gin and Tonics away from a good sleep. My small child was bleating for breakfast and entertainment. My one day off this week was clearly going to be less relaxing than my actual job. I wanted at least to be a good mother so I took my son to the controlled mayhem of an indoor kid's gym. By 5pm I was worn out. It wasn't until then I remembered I had to do a food shop for the week. I felt sick. I started fantasising about a well-lit display of endless food, conveniently located under one roof where I could get everything I needed. It didn't matter that I am gloriously blessed with a wealth of local shops literally on my doorstep. It all suddenly seemed a bit of a fag.

But in my lurching tiredness I fortunately remembered how so many fantasies are in real life doomed to be sad, limp, disappointing affairs. Apart from my moral beliefs that if we only shop at supermarkets that's all we'll end up with and our fabulously vibrant and eclectic neighbourhoods we have will turn into vast mega malls and our towns will become soulless clone town affairs. Apart from all that I know that my local deli stocks much better cheeses, hams and bread for sandwiches than the supermarkets. The 24-hour Mediterranean grocer has cheap and good herbs, veggies and stable things like rice and lentils. The odd little corner shop sells my favourite popcorn and snacking materials. And the little health food shop around the corner is heaving with tasty pre-made veggie burgers, organic milk and frozen berries.

So I made a pack with myself – in an effort to not destroy my nerves on this cold Sunday evening I would just shop a little every few days this week. And I'll find out too if my morals are getting in the way of an easy life. I'll let you know how it goes…

Wednesday 9 January 2008

Take action on Competition Commission supermarket report

All too often one is left fuming with newspaper/remote control in hand. The news brings us so much woe and so few opportunities to take action on what troubles us. Well here is a great chance to get your voice heard. If you don't agree with the competition commission findings about supermarkets – that they aren’t a threat to independent shops and that actually we don't have enough of them –join the Friends of the Earth email campaign. (Read about the report on Telegraph: www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2007/11/01/ntesco101.xml and New Economics Foundation www.neweconomics.org/gen/competitioncommissionfailing120407.aspx)

Click here for FOE campaign: http://www.foe.co.uk/campaigns/real_food/press_for_change/supermarkets_planning/index.html. I did it and it took about 2 mins.



Friday 4 January 2008

Cute shops save Wedge writer from Meltdown

My Mall Meltdown was quickly followed by an Idyllic Independent Shopping experience. Accuse me of shameless propaganda (and I’m not ashamed because it’s all true!) but my mind, soul, spirit and Christmas present list was saved by some gorgeous independent shops in Berkley. Residing slightly north of where were staying my husband had the bright idea of visiting this grown-up hippy town for our shopping after his wife returned home with the Mall Meltdown Shakes (OK, there were no shakes. But you get the idea, see below).

After only two hours of sauntering up and down College Avenue in the fresh cold sun with coffee in hand and we were done. We bought books (for the same prices as Borders) at Mrs Dalloway’s http://www.mrsdalloways.com/, a pot and pan set (£6.50) and a broom (£3) for my son (no child labour exploitation here), a tea cup and tea strainer in-one at Global Exchange (£6.50) (www.globalexchange.org), Twister from Sweet Dreams Toy Store (£13), and some beautiful leather gloves for my mother-in-law (£19).

We also stopped off at the Ecology Centre (www.ecologycenter.org/store/) for tie-die socks for our 7 year old nephew (£6) and a jigsaw map of Europe (£8). After some amazing Mexican food in a little house-like restaurant with one table we were ready to for ice cream and giant donuts, where my son dismayed everyone by drinking honey straight from a pot and then charmed them with his English accent.

Mall Meltdown

I have clearly become so local I can’t remember what it is like to venture into a shopping mall or superstore. Sure I’ve been dragged around by friends and supplemented my shopping sometimes at the odd chain. But nothing could prepare me for being slung into an American shopping mall for the first in a year.

Every Christmas I visit my in-laws in a little town south of San Francisco. Without wishing to offend my lovely family there this little town is sort of what spurs me on when the going gets tough at Wedge. The town is spread out with probably six big malls with shops that look like they suffer from elephantiasis, so large are they. No-one walks on the pavements and there is no atmosphere to the town, nothing special that says this is me, this is why my town is great. The shopping and the products are all exactly the same from this town to the next, and all across that vast nation.

The mall was full of pre-Christmas buyers and my sister-in-law and I went to buy some rain boots for my son. I used to go to malls all the time. I spent my early teenage years festering in one just like this. I should feel fine here. Except I didn’t. I felt overwhelmed. I started oozing want from every pore; my eyes went fuzzy as I zoomed from store to store thinking how wonderful I would feel if I bought this sparkly top / those shoes / that necklace. It all got a bit overheated and soon I was in meltdown. I found it hard to concentrate on the goal, one pair of rain boots. When I found some they seemed imperfect, not quite right. I had this nagging feeling that just around the corner there was something better, more thoroughly perfect. This is odd coming from a woman who is always happy with the imperfect, so long as we can just leave the shop right now!

After careful examinations of all the rain boots in the 300,000 sq foot space I left empty handed. Both my sister-in-law (who is used to such ventures) and I were happy to leave. We sought the fresh air like gratefully saved drowning rats. I asked her if I was just plain nuts, didn’t it seem that there was both everything to buy and nothing? All was perfect yet just around the corner was something better. Did she feel as drugged as I? Fortunately she said yes, actually she did. And I felt relieved that this shock to the system happened so rarely now that I could actually feel it coming on – the Mall Meltdown I think I shall name the disease. Cause – too much stuff to buy, too bright lights, too many big shops. Solution – try bite sized buying, much better for the mind and the spirit.