Editor’s comment: Keeping up the pressure

The recent debate about stricter enforcement of mask-wearing and social distancing in stores is a prime example. Ministers and media commentators refer constantly to “supermarkets” when they mean food retail in general and the assumption is that all food stores can afford to employ security guards to help police the regulations – completely overlooking the fact that there are some 50,000 small convenience outlets out there who can’t pay for extra security yet have played a crucial role in providing the public with access to essential food and drink during the Covid-19 pandemic.

The same disregard or even ignorance was seen during the debate over deposit return schemes for plastic bottles and has been in evidence once again with the plan to restrict the siting in-store of certain food and drink items deemed to be high in fat, sugar and salt.

Clearly, if you run a 500sq ft newsagent’s, siting confectionery and crisps well away from the till-point is a scientific impossibility. Thankfully – and largely due to the hard work of the Association of Convenience Stores and others – the government has made provision to exempt stores that are under 2,000sq ft in size or run by a firm with fewer than 50 full-time-equivalent employees.

But even in making these exemptions, law-makers seem once again to have woefully misunderstood the nature of our sector, assuming that stores belonging to a franchise or symbol group are actually run by the owner of the parent brand. It’s a fundamental error that could cause huge problems for up to 10,000 convenience stores if the proposals are not amended before they become law in April 2022.

It’s probably too much to ask that government actually includes in its policy-making people who have first-hand knowledge of the industries they are about to clobber with unworkable and damaging legislation. In the meantime, it’s vitally important that independent retailers and their trade associations continue their work to keep our sector front-of-mind with politicians, law-makers and policy influencers.

Actions such as writing to your MP or inviting them for a tour of your store (once social distancing allows) play a great role in building and maintaining that kind of familiarity with the day-to-day realities of our industry. It’s up to everyone to keep up the pressure.

David Shrimpton is editor of Independent Retail News