Former Trent Student Founds Website Incentivizing People to Shop Locally

In an innovative and creative way to incentivize people to shop local while promoting small businesses, former Trent student Nick Mitchell founded a new community engagement project called “Take a Challenge, Make a Change" (TACMAC).

Mitchell has been a lifeguard instructor in Kenya and a chef in British Columbia. Photo Courtesy of TACMAC.

Launching this Thursday, the website encourages participants — primarily post-secondary students — to engage in fun challenges to earn discounts or rewards and support charity while supporting small businesses.

Challenges are complete by posting a picture of themselves at the establishments on Instagram with the hashtag #TACMACJACKPOT. Anyone who enters will be registered for a weekly jackpot for a chance to donate $100 —money supplied by TACMAC — to a charity of the winner’s choice.

The charitable idea stemmed from Mitchell’s time working at One Roof Community Centre. It inspired him to create a business dedicated to giving back to the community. The inspiration for creating TACMAC came from his time at Trent where his friends and classmates knew of very few places to spend time and shop in town and go to the same place repeatedly.

"I’ve come across so many of my fellow peers who time after time say there's nothing to do in Peterborough," said Mitchell. "The response was that they didn't know this (certain places) even existed."

Some examples include having a home cook-off with a friend based on one ingredient from The Food Shop or purchasing crickets from the House of Scales and make a meal from them.

TACMAC creates an outlet for students to experience Peterborough outside of the ‘campus bubble” according to Mitchell.

Photo Courtesy of TACMAC.

Businesses can register themselves through TACMAC’s website for a small fee to allow customers to take part in their challenges. The incentive is another way for entrepreneurs to promote and advertise their businesses.

Mitchell says the timing of TACMAC could not be any better since some people are unsure of what is open or closed during the current stages of the pandemic.

"It just gives people a clear-cut path to activities in Peterborough," said Mitchell. "There's probably going to be a lot of confusion to what's okay. When they see it on the website, it kind of reduces a bit of the anxiety."

Over 20 businesses have registered for TACMAC.

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