THE WEEK IN RETAIL
EDITOR’S COMMENT SHARE YOUR NEWS AND VIEWS WITH ME AT ABEGLEY@55NORTH.COM
THESE ARE TESTING TIMES FOR LOCAL RETAILERS One of the highlights of the week has been the extension of the coronavirus testing programme to cover local retailers. Let’s be frank, local retailers are literally risking their lives every day of the week to provide communities with the products and services they rely on. The support offered to local retailers so far has been at best patchy – but we’ll focus on the positives and welcome this extension, something that will come as a relief for many. In this issue of The Week In Retail we provide you with a nuts and bolts guide to how you go about arranging testing for you, your staff and the people they share their homes with. Bear in mind that the programme only covers those showing symptoms and the tests themselves are only guaranteed to be accurate for people displaying symptoms of Covid-19 – so bear that in mind to avoid adding any unnecessary pressure to an already overloaded testing infrastructure. One dispiriting side-story to this development was the way the Scottish Government mismanaged the communication of the UK Government’s extension of testing on its website.
When the Scottish Government website was updated with the new rules it stated that testing would be made available to “staff directly involved in delivering other essential services” and went on to explain that food and drink retail staff fell within that group. Unfortunately, the wording specifically mentioned “supermarket workers” and specifically didn’t mention local retailers. Cue a heart attack on Saturday for SGF Chief Executive Pete Cheema when he read it. Did that mean that convenience retailers were excluded? Or was it just careless wording? He quickly wrote to the Scottish Government and, to their credit, they replied promptly on Monday morning stating that local retailers were indeed classed as ‘essential workers’ and would be eligible for testing. It seems unlikely that the Scottish Government intended to actually exclude convenience retailers and more likely it was just careless use of language. But it’s careless use of language that demonstrates once again that Holyrood lacks even a basic understanding of the structure of the industry we work in.
ANTONYBEGLEY ANTONYBEGLEY @ANTONYBEGLEY
ANTONY BEGLEY, EDITOR
WEDNESDAY 29TH APRIL 2020 / ISSUE 2 / SLRMAG.CO.UK / 3
