The Association of Convenience Stores has responded to a new report from the Royal Society of Public Health, highlighting the positive role that convenience stores play in the lives of people across the UK.
The Health on the High Street 2018 report, published today, rates each type of outlet on the high street on four areas of health:
- Encouraging healthy lifestyle choices
- Promoting social interaction
- Allowing greater access to health care services and/or health advice
- Promoting mental wellbeing
Across the four areas, convenience stores were given a net score of zero in the report, suggesting that their impact on communities was negligible.
In response to the report, ACS has highlighted the work that convenience stores have been doing to promote healthy eating, act as a social hub, increase their range of services to include health care and promote mental wellbeing.
On healthy eating, convenience stores have played an important role in the nationwide Change4Life programme, as well as working with the Food Foundation’s Peas Please campaign on a retailer toolkit for selling more veg in stores, as well as celebrating the best examples of leading fresh produce retailers across the UK through a programme of awards in 2018.
Convenience stores are well established as social hubs, especially with the growth of coffee and hot food in stores in recent years and the introduction of more seating areas in stores. One of the ways that convenience stores promote social interaction is through community activity – 81% of stores in the sector have engaged in some form of community activity over the last year.
Within the Health on the High Street report, there are nine outlet types that the RSPH report indicate as being positive for high streets. Of these, many are already being incorporated into modern convenience stores; including pharmacies, cafes and coffee shops, vape shops and pubs and bars.
For the last four years, national polling of consumers conducted by Populus has consistently shown that post offices and convenience stores are the two services that have the most positive impact on a local area.
ACS chief executive James Lowman said: “We welcome the recommendations in the report on providing business rate relief for businesses that improve the public’s health, and strongly recommend that convenience stores be included within that category. However, the RSPH report significantly underplays the positive role that convenience stores play in the lives of UK consumers, both on high streets and in wider communities. Convenience stores have a unique reach into every community across the UK and bring together a range of services that can’t be sustained on a standalone basis.”
At the ACS’ Heart of the Community reception in October, which celebrates the role of convenience stores in communities, Small Business Minister Kelly Tolhurst MP said: “As entrepreneurial small businesses, local shops are a vital part of both our economy and our society, serving as so much more than a shop, but also as a hub for local people and a voice in our communities. We are committed to supporting and promoting this positive impact.”
The full RSPH report is available here: https://www.rsph.org.uk/uploads/assets/uploaded/dbdbb8e5-4375-4143-a3bb7c6455f398de.pdf
