Social Supermarket

01

The StoryA foundation that believes neighbours should help neighbours

A local foundation supports people who are temporarily short on money. "We are not a food bank," explains founder Alice. "We believe in the power of community. People helping each other." The concept is simple but powerful: someone who made too much soup shares it with a neighbour; a pensioner with a vegetable garden sells their surplus at a friendly price; someone who is a little short uses the support they receive to buy groceries from the people next door.

Until now the foundation has run on Excel sheets and WhatsApp groups. But the community is growing, and it is becoming unmanageable.

We can't keep up anymore. Someone requested support for a neighbour, but I can't remember whether they already had help this year. We have rules about limits — but nobody can check them.

B Bob, volunteer

Every Sunday I make a big pot of soup. I used to pin a note up at the supermarket. Now I try the WhatsApp group, but it's so busy that my message just disappears.

E Eve, member & cook

The fund is a challenge too. I track by hand how much is available. When money runs out a request waits — and when new money comes in, I sometimes forget who was still in line.

C Charlie, treasurer

The ask

Alice sums it up: "We need one platform where everything comes together — support, products, delivery. One place where the community can find and help each other."

The vision

Financial support

Members request support for others who need it. A central fund absorbs the peaks.

Social marketplace

Members offer home-made meals and their own harvest; others buy it with their balance.

Volunteer delivery

Members who want to help sign up as couriers and pick the orders they carry.

Community contact

Picking up and delivering at home turns a neighbourhood back into a community.

02

CommunitiesEvery neighbourhood keeps its own members and its own fund

Each community is a neighbourhood, district or village. It is defined by four things:

Name — a recognisable name for the community
Geographic radius — how far from the centre members may live
Centre — the geographic midpoint (address or coordinates)
Own fund — donations arrive at one specific community

Joining a community

Choose the desired community

Enter your address details

System checks it falls within the radius

On approval, you're linked to the community

Boundary

A member belongs to one community and can only give support to, buy from, and offer products to members of that same community.

03

The CastEvery participant is a member — and a member can wear many hats

Carol works part-time and sometimes just can't make ends meet, so she joins: she picks a community, registers her details, passes the geographic check, activates her account from the welcome email, and logs in via Gatekeeper. From there, any member can step into one or more of these roles.

D

The Giver

Dave — retired, good pension, knows Carol from the street.

Requests support for someone else (never themselves)
Adds a note to the request
Sees the approval, transparently

C

The Receiver

Carol — receives the support Dave requested for her.

Amount added to her balance
Sees who gave the support
Spends it on the marketplace

E

The Offerer

Eve — retired, loves to cook, soup every Sunday.

Offers a product with full details
Lists ingredients and allergens
Sets her own price

C

The Buyer

Carol — spots Eve's soup on the marketplace.

Orders with her balance
Chooses pick-up or delivery
Leaves a review

F

The Courier

Frank — student, wants to do something for the area.

Signs up as a volunteer
Views and chooses orders
Marks a delivery completed

A

The Admin

Alice & team — run the platform.

Manage and deactivate members
Read overviews and statistics
Watch the metrics dashboard

04

Financial SupportThe community agreed on limits to keep it fair

€250

Maximum per request

Prevents excessive dependency

1 / mo

Giver: requests per month

Spreads help over time

€500

Giver: per receiver, per year

Stops one person taking all the help

€750

Receiver: per year

Ensures help reaches many people

Rule

A member can only request support for someone else — never for themselves.

The fund

Each community has a central fund, filled by anonymous donations from companies and individuals through an external donation app — anyone can give, members or not.

Sufficient balance — the request is approved immediately
Insufficient balance — the request joins the waiting list
Partial — part is approved, the rest waits
New donation arrives — waiting requests are processed automatically, first in first out

Direct gifts

Members can also give straight to each other — Dave sends €20 to Carol's balance, person to person, bypassing the fund. The same limits still apply.

Deactivation

If a member is deactivated while support is still on the waiting list, that waiting support is automatically cancelled and the money stays in the fund for others.

05

The Social MarketplaceSharing and buying within the community

Offering products

Members offer home-made meals ("soup, 4 portions left") or their own harvest ("apples from my garden, 2 kilos"). Each listing must carry:

Product name and description
Price — set by the offerer
Quantity available
Ingredients & allergens
Best-before date
Pick-up address

No gatekeeping

Members post directly, no approval needed. Responsibility for correct information sits with the offerer.

Buying & paying

Buyers pay with their Social Supermarket balance
Too little balance? The purchase can't proceed
On purchase, balance moves from buyer to offerer
The offerer spends that balance in turn — or passes it on as a direct gift

Pick-up & delivery

Pick-up is the default, at the offerer's home — it encourages contact. Delivery is optional: a buyer flags it, a volunteer courier picks it up, collects from the offerer and drops it at the buyer.

Couriers

Delivery is entirely voluntary — no payment, no balance. It runs on community spirit.

Messaging & reviews

Messages flow through the platform, tied to a specific transaction and kept anonymous — no phone numbers or emails change hands. After a transaction, both buyer and seller can leave a review: 1–5 stars plus a short text, shown on the profile.

06

Member ExperienceOne personal page, kept in sync by notifications

Notifications

Members are kept informed across two channels — email and in-app real-time — on the same triggers: welcome & activation, support received, an order placed, an order ready for pick-up, a delivery on its way, a new message. In-app adds an unread-messages indicator.

07

Admin DashboardAdministration and monitoring

Overviews

All members
All transactions
All products
All requests, including the waiting list

Actions

Deactivate a member — with a reason, following guidelines
Inspect requests and view their history

Statistics

Current state of the fund
Support requests per day / week / month
Total balance across all members
Best-selling products
Most & least active members (the latter for outreach)
Number of active couriers
Average delivery time

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