News

ACS (the Association of Convenience Stores) has welcomed a letter from DEFRA Secretary George Eustice MP, recognising the enormous contribution of the people running and working in convenience stores.

ACS (the Association of Convenience Stores) is encouraging retailers to get involved in their campaign in collaboration with Alzheimer’s Society to create 25,000 Dementia Friends in the convenience sector.

The campaign coincides with ACS’ 25th anniversary and aims to create 25,000 Dementia Friends in the convenience sector to help customers, colleagues and communities affected by dementia.

ACS has welcomed an announcement from the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy this morning (25^th March), extending the deadline for filing all accounts by three months for businesses that have been affected by Covid-19. Under normal circumstances, companies that file accounts late are issued with an automatic penalty.

As part of the measures, while companies will still have to apply for the three month extension to be granted, those citing issues around Covid-19 will be automatically and immediately granted an extension.

ACS is encouraging convenience retailers to follow advice on social distancing to protect colleagues and customers from the spread of Covid-19 (coronavirus).

It is advised that you implement additional measures in your store to help customers ensure that they adhere to social distancing guidelines. Consider putting lines on the floor in front of the till points to ensure that customers maintain a safe distance to colleagues, asking customers to maintain distance whilst queueing, and encourage customers to use contactless payment where possible.

ACS has written to all MPs today (23^rd March), detailing the crucial role that local shops are playing in their constituencies in response to the Covid-19 (Coronavirus) outbreak.

In the letter, ACS outlines the extraordinary effort being undertaken by retailers and their colleagues across Britain’s 46,000 local shops who are going the extra mile to ensure that local customers can still have access to essential goods and services.

The country has now been coping with the Coronavirus outbreak for several weeks, and as restrictions on our lives have grown, so has the pressure on local shops. We want to explain what we are doing, and what the public can do to support our colleagues in stores.

ACS (the Association of Convenience Stores) has strongly welcomed clarification from Government that convenience store colleagues will be included in the definition of key worker.

From Friday afternoon, schools will close and remain closed until further notice for all except children of key workers and vulnerable children, as part of the ongoing response to the COVID-19 (Coronavirus) outbreak.

ACS has called on the Government to ensure that the UK’s 405,000 convenience store colleagues are provided the key worker status so that they can carry on providing a lifeline to local communities.

From Friday afternoon, schools will close and remain closed until further notice for all except children of key workers and vulnerable children, as part of the ongoing response to the COVID-19 (Coronavirus) outbreak.

I doubt many retailers are going to have time to read a blog from me today, but I wanted to thank the tens of thousands of retailers and the hundreds of thousands of colleagues in local shops who are doing such an amazing job for their communities.

This episode has again brought home the value local shops bring to their communities, and even though I know and expect this, I have been blown away and humbled by all the examples of retailers stepping up for elderly and vulnerable customers in particular.

ACS has launched new guidance for retailers in the convenience sector who are looking to provide home delivery for customers.

More convenience retailers are looking at home delivery as an option to reach local customers that are self-isolating or otherwise unable to travel to their local shop. This new guidance details what retailers should consider when starting a home delivery service.

The guidance covers the following areas: