Support Local

At this time, your local businesses need you. Here are a few ways you can support Island industry.

Give a Wight Gift Card and help Island businesses

Buying from local businesses and traders is easier now with the introduction of the Wight Gift Card. The new card, accepted only in selected Isle of Wight businesses, was launched last winter, and is proving a popular way to support local firms, as well as a special Isle of Wight-themed gift.

Shoppers can buy the card as a present and know that with a Wight Gift Card their recipient can choose their own selection from many of the Isle of Wight’s best-known brands and producers, right across the Island and with safer shopping online too. If somebody asks you what present you want, ask for a Wight Gift Card!

Let's Buy Local

Eating out - or eating in - on the Island is always a special occasion. The Isle of Wight has an amazing range of food and drink producers and growers, as well as some of the best restaurants, cafes and pubs. Now venues have re-opened enjoy some wonderful meals out with delicious Isle of Wight produce.

Let’s Buy Local is a campaign to encourage Islanders to explore the brilliant shops on our doorsteps – especially food!

AtoZtoMe.com is a map-based website that will help you find Island suppliers who will deliver to your doorstep, or who offer collection from their premises.

Be kind and patient, support Island workers

Do you really need to go to the mainland to shop? Not really – it's safer and better to shop on the Island and support local shops now they've re-opened. Businesses across the Island have done an amazing job keeping shelves stocked and making countless deliveries throughout lockdown. They want to help keep us, their customers, safe. Now we can help them in return.

Stores in our high streets and beyond have been working hard to make shopping safer for us all. Let’s show our appreciation and respect their rules, wait our turn, and of course, be kind. Lockdown has been a stressful time for many, and the shops we rely on are staffed by our friends and neighbours. Just because lockdown is lifting doesn’t mean that everything is going back to normal straight away: not everyone will feel safe and confident immediately. When we’re shopping, we need to look out for other shoppers, and of course the staff in the stores. By shopping thoughtfully, and remembering others, we can help them do their job and keep the Island safe for everyone.

Find out more about keeping the Island safe on the Isle of Wights dedicated COVID-19 website.