Happy first birthday to Bristol startup Wriggle! On a mission to introduce Bristolians to hundreds of the city’s best independent food and drink businesses, Wriggle incentivises them to spend local with exclusive discounts.
Having started as a way to help restaurants, cafés and pubs to reduce food waste, Wriggle has grown into a marketplace for independent food and drink. Businesses that work with Wriggle benefit from a simple tool that allows them to share last-minute offers via the app, instantly reaching a hyper-local audience of thousands. What does this mean for local businesses? Well, it means that they can attract brand new customers, target quiet times and reduce both the cost and the impact of wasted space and produce.
For customers, the benefits are clear. The app is free to download, and allows people to find the lunch, dinner or drinks deal they want, all from hand-picked independent businesses and always with a discount. Offers change on a day-to-day basis: it’s simply a case of browsing the offers available for that day, paying through the app, and turning up to enjoy the deal.
It may be a simple idea, but the benefits to local businesses are massive. Take Bagel Boy, for example. Owners Mitch and Leo enjoy a roaring trade – but as with the majority of independent food and drink businesses, there are times during the week that are far quieter than others. By using Wriggle weekly on a Tuesday, they’ve managed to boost this quiet night to anywhere between 50 and 80 evening customers per week – and at a cost that’s not extortionate.
In the last 12 months, 250 businesses have used Wriggle, the app has had 20,000 downloads and 7,000 purchases have been made – not a bad start for Wriggle at all! With their first birthday comes the launch of a shiny new version of the app (available both from the App Store and Google Play), with a few significant changes…
Firstly, Wriggle users can now suggest and favourite businesses and be notified when they appear on Wriggle, as well as being able to search through the directory of Wriggle businesses even when they’re not running an offer. Secondly, the app is now more location-specific, with venues being listed in order of proximity. And finally, the login and payment processes have been simplified, meaning that the app should be much easier to use.
If you’ve not yet downloaded Wriggle, what are you waiting for? With deals on the day of writing including including haddock and chips plus lager or wine for £11 instead of £16 at Fishers, and a full afternoon tea for £22 instead of £29 at Cox and Baloney, there are some big savings to be made – and some great independent food and drink venues to be explored!
Cannot recommend this app enough.
I’ve found numerous new places to eat & at discounted prices too.
Great idea, well executed!