Viewpoint: Retailers at the sharp end

By Liz Wells in Talking Points 3rd July 2020

While it is still far too early to even begin to estimate the long-term effect of the Covid-19 crisis, there is one thing retailers in Scotland can put to the back of their minds. The Scottish government has scrapped a major piece of public health legislation.

The bill to restrict promotions of foods deemed to be high in fat, salt and sugar will not happen in this parliament and with a Scottish election next year it is difficult to see it happening in the foreseeable future.

This might just seem like a technical adjustment to the process of government, but if it had gone forward the impact of this legislation on convenience retailing would have been severe. Particularly as it would also have placed restrictions on where products could be placed, in-store advertising, branding of chillers and so on. The convenience sector has avoided regulations that would have been costly, disruptive and damaging to the business model of convenience retailing.

In our view, the legislation would have been largely ineffective in achieving its policy aims. There was simply never a strong evidence base to justify such a major restriction on the way retailers do business. Far from being led by science, the policy was to an extent influenced by the dubious discipline of behavioural economics. This is an attempt to control our behaviour by ‘nudging’ us all towards making positive lifestyle choices: switch off the promotions in-store and people will simply stop buying so much cake. Again, this might seem like a technical or abstract point, but it shows that ideas and theories which become fashionable with ministers and special advisers are translated into policy that has significant real-life impact on retailers, their businesses and their livelihoods.

Retailers are at the sharp end of policy precisely because there are so many convenience stores, because of the way they interface with customers and because so many people shop in them. Government sees this is a vital space in which it can try to influence people and achieve policy outcomes. At the onset of the Covid-19 crisis, the Scottish Grocers’ Federation (SGF) wrote directly to Nicola Sturgeon and key cabinet secretaries urging them to suspend any legislation that would impact on retail. Perhaps they listened.

Pete Cheema is chief executive of the SGF