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Welcome to the IMP!

The Independent Merchant Project is a free resource to find independently owned, non-chain resources in your community for dining, groceries and hobbies.

Built and maintained by Matt Shepherd with code by Joe Crawford, it's still in its early phases, with kinks being worked out. If you've found us, please forgive any bugs and/or share your thoughts on how we can do better.

Comments, suggestions, and more are welcome at hello@theIMP.ca. If you'd like to start an IMP of your own in your community, we'll set you up for free (really!).

More details on the project philosophy and parameters are on our About page. Really, if you're in the Kingston area, just start digging in using the tabs up top (or the hamburger menu, if you're on mobile). Have fun! Let us know what you think!

Can you help?

We're looking for people who can help with:

• CSS and helping make the site more stylish and responsive;
• People who can help keep the site up to date through periodic checks for open/closed businesses;
• People who can help with coding, including scripts to scrape site links and return 403/404 errors in standard reports, and convert CSV spreadsheets to HTML.

Updates/changelog

• Added "looking for help" section above
• Some site tidying and edits to supplemental text

• Updates to Dining and Groceries
• Some site tidying and edits to supplemental text

• Created this index page
• Added and updated Dining (Silver Wok now closed)

Upcoming plans:

• Add "Things to Do" page - museums, art galleries, libraries, etc.
• Add master search to index page.