Yesterday Dan and I attended the launch of the Wedge Card ‘shop local day’ over at Art Vinyl on Broadway Market. The event was hosted by The Big Issue and Wedge Card founders John Bird and his daughter, Diana Bird. The aim of the day was to raise awareness about the benefits of shopping locally, not only for the local economy but also for the social fabric of the communities around local shops.

People from all areas of the local community congregated to support the event, there were people from Hackney City Farm, the editor of Easteight - the local Hackney magazine and local traders and residents of the area alike. The aim was to encourage people to take the ‘shop local’ challenge, and get others around them on board. It will be rolling out across the rest of London in the months leading up to big ‘Shop Local Day’ in June 2008.

John Bird opened the event by giving a very animated, yet moving talk about the benefits to any local community of shopping locally. John is extremely passionate about keeping communities thriving and preserving local people’s element of choice and variation. welovelocal.com along with Sanctuary Hereward and The Big Issue all supported the event, and for us at here at welovelocal John’s message really rings true, if we don’t use our local shops now we will lose them. If that happens then we will lose much more than a shop, but a huge part of our local community.

welovelocal.com runs in similar vein to Wedge in that we aim to foster online communities that act in the real world. Sharing reviews and recommendations, experiences, and sharing that invaluable knowledge with others.

We would love to know if any of you out there are taking the challenge?