The scheme, known as Community Matters, was put in place at the Eastbourne Waitrose this week.

Waitrose customers are given a coin token at the checkout, which can be placed in any one of three containers, each of which represent a local charity or project.

Waitrose then divides £1,000 between the charities in proportion to how many tokens each container earned over the course of the month.

Organisations or individuals may put forward charities of their choice by filling out a form in store, and branch representatives make the final decision of which charities will benefit each month.

This month's charities, which were nominated by the Eastbourne branch, are St. Wilfrid's Hospice, Rachel's House and Cats Protection.

However Andrew Berstein, the department manager of customer services at Eastbourne Waitrose, said the scheme will benefit not only organisational charities, but also projects which contribute to the community.