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The 2018 Local Shop Report has revealed that convenience retailers are countering cost increases in their business by investing in services, opening for longer and employing more people on flexible part time contracts.

Over the last year, there has been an increase in the average number of people working in stores, with the sector overall now employing almost 365,000 people, although this has been coupled with a move to colleagues working shorter hours.

Key findings from this year’s report include:

ACS (the Association of Convenience Stores) has welcomed the publication of terms of reference for a market review into the supply of card payment services from the Payment Systems Regulator.

The review will look at the fees that are charged to merchants (retailers) by acquirers such as WorldPay, Barclaycard and others. This fee, known as the merchant service charge rate, includes the interchange fee (capped by EU regulations), profit for the acquirer, and card scheme fees which are currently unregulated.

ACS has responded to the publication of the Scottish Government’s Diet & Healthy Weight Delivery Plan, ‘A Healthier Future’, calling on the Scottish Government to consider the impact of their proposals on small shops.

The new plan aims to halve the rates of childhood obesity by 2030 by including actions to ensure that the food environment supports healthier choices.

Measures announced for consultation later this year in the Diet and Healthy Weight Delivery Plan include:

ACS (the Association of Convenience Stores) has condemned LINK’s decision to reduce interchange fees for cash machine operators, raising concerns that cash machines in rural and isolated communities could be lost as a result of the changes. 

LINK confirmed in January this year that over the next four years, they plan to reduce the interchange fee (the fee paid by banks to cash machine operators) from 25p to 20p. The first of these reductions will come into effect this Sunday (July 1st). 

ACS has responded to the publication of a new report from consumer group Which? that warns of 60 bank branches closing every month, highlighting the role of convenience stores in continuing to provide banking services for local customers.

The report found that 2,868 branches will have closed between 2015 and the end of 2018, with Scotland, the South East and the North West seeing the most closures per region.