Viewpoint: Celebrating local shops

The report has grown over the last decade to become a comprehensive summary of our sector, following local shops through significant legislation changes, increased consumer demand, mergers, acquisitions, Brexit, and of course a global pandemic. We use the Local Shop Report every day to inform our conversations with government, the media and the industry.

So what does this year’s Local Shop Report tell us about how retailers and their colleagues have fared over the last 12 months? The first thing that stands out is that despite the huge disruption faced by the entire world throughout the pandemic and even now with supply chain shortages, the sector has remained remarkably consistent.

Sales, as they have in every year since we started putting together these reports, are on an upward trend; retailers are investing north of half a billion pounds a year in improving their offer for customers, and four in five stores are active in their communities.

One big change this year is to working hours, although we expect this to be a temporary shift rather than a permanent trend. Colleagues in convenience stores worked a combined 9.6 million hours over the last year, an increase of more than a million on the year before.

At all times, but especially this year, we cannot overstate the importance of the 392,000 colleagues in keeping local shops going, keeping the shelves stocked for customers and going the extra mile for local people.

Over the last decade, the Local Shop Report has demonstrated to government the incredible work retailers and their colleagues are doing in every community across the UK. Convenience stores have never been more relevant or important to their customers, and as we move on to the next phase of the pandemic, we will continue to send the clear message to government that local shops are worth celebrating at the heart of their communities.

James Lowman is chief executive at the ACS