News

The Association of Convenience Stores (ACS) has today launched new guidance for retailers on how to meet the needs of disabled customers in store.

The guide has been developed in partnership with the Business Disability Forum, and covers a range of issues including wheelchair access, how to assist blind or visually impaired customers and how to assist those with dementia.

ACS has urged the government to include small businesses in the upcoming carrier bag charge in England after new figures from WRAP showed that single-use carrier bag usage in England rose by 200m in the last year. From October this year, all businesses that employ 250 or more staff will have to charge customers a minimum of 5p for each single-use carrier bag.

ACS has previously called for small businesses to be included within the charge to prevent consumer and retailer confusion over which shops do and don’t charge for carrier bags.

New data from the Health and Social Care Information Centre (HSCIC) has show that smoking and drinking rates have fallen and young people are less likely to access these products from shops.

The ‘Smoking, Drinking and Drug Use Among Young People in England – 2014’ report shows that 58% of regular smokers between the ages of 11 and 15 attempted and were refused when trying to buy cigarettes in a shop in 2014, a decrease from 85% in 1998. In addition, the report also shows that just 11% of current underage drinkers bought alcohol from a shop or supermarket in 2014.

Book your FREE place now for the launch of the latest installment of ACS’ flagship research project, ‘The Local Shop Report 2015’, unveiling key insights into the convenience store industry.

The report will be launched at an exclusive event at Hotel Football in Manchester on 9^th September 2015 and will be attended by a host of research experts, retailers and suppliers.

The Department for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs (DEFRA) has published additional guidance for retailers about the upcoming carrier bag charges which comes into force on 5^th October this year.

ACS (the Association of Convenience Stores) has published a detailed analysis of the impact of the introduction of a £7.20 national living wage in April 2016.

The new research by ACS shows that:

ACS gave oral evidence to the Environment and Sustainability Committee about proposed reforming of carrier bag charging and new waste recycling legislation as laid out in the Environment (Wales) Bill yesterday.

The Bill seeks to give Welsh Ministers further powers to place a minimum price on the sale of ‘bags for life’ and to make it a mandatory requirement for all businesses to separate different types of waste into different categories before it is collected.

The All Party Parliamentary Small Shops Group held the first oral evidence session of its Everyday Entrepreneurs inquiry today, looking at the skills that the next generation of entrepreneurs need to succeed.

Apple Pay, the contactless smart phone payment service, has today launched in the UK allowing consumers to pay for items using their iPhones.

If you haven’t noticed, this has been a hell of a week.  The chancellor has announced some radical changes in policy, and two of these – devolving Sunday trading decisions and introducing a national living wage – have huge implications for our sector.  Both of these were unexpected and not included in the Conservatives’ manifesto.