Viewpoint: Shops play a key role

The 2020 report tells a story about the people running and working in stores, the role they play in communities, the products and services offered in stores, the way those stores operate, and much more. Putting the report together this year presented some obvious challenges and the information we have collected has been gathered before, during and after lockdown, so there are some areas where the impact of Covid-19 has been inescapable.

Our sector’s Covid experience has been of sales increasing as stores stepped up to the challenge of keeping their local communities going when supermarket shelves were stripped bare. The sector is now worth more than £44bn, a significant jump from last year, but convenience was already expected to continue outgrowing the rest of the grocery market long before the impact of Covid-19, so this is more of an acceleration than a change of direction.

We provide local, secure and flexible jobs for about 412,000 people, and retailers have invested £585m in improving and adapting stores. We often talk about the community value that convenience stores provide, but their value as job-creators and economic contributors should not be underestimated.

As you might expect, the main question that the report poses is whether the changes that stores have made in areas like home delivery, technology and sales performance can be sustained in the long term. Our sector has had a unique opportunity to become a bigger part of the lives of millions of people, and so far it looks like those customers haven’t just rushed straight back to other shops. As ‘normal life’ will inevitably shift again over the coming months, we will look with interest to see how stores continue to adapt, and whether that momentum can be maintained.

James Lowman is chief executive at the Association of Convenience Stores