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ACS 2022 Report
by 55 North
Don’t forget rural shops in levelling up agenda, says ACS
The latest ACS report highlights the vital role that rural stores play to theeconomy and to their local communities.
The Association of Convenience Stores has called on the government to provide more support for rural convenience stores as part of the levelling up agenda.
The ACS’ 2022 Rural Shop Report has revealed that half of rural stores operate with no other retail or service businesses close by, providing access to vital services including free to use cash machines (48%), local grocery delivery (26%), and Post Offices (22%).
This year’s report also shows that if their local shop was no longer there, customers would have to travel an average of 3.3 miles to access these services and to feed their families.
In addition, the report shows that over the past year, rural convenience stores have achieved around £15.8bn in sales and the average rural customer visits stores around 2.5 times per week. Additional key findings include:
● Over the past year rural retailers have invested around £195m in their businesses;
● Rural shops provide local, secure and flexible employment to more than 138,000 people;
● Rural convenience stores contributed £3.5bn in GVA;
● 79% of rural convenience storesare independently owned.
ACS Chief Executive James Lowman said: “Rural shops are a lifeline to thousands of communities and have gone above and beyond to ensure that they can keep providing essentials throughout all of the disruption caused by supply chain issues and the ongoing pandemic.
“This is despite rural shops facing significant additional challenges compared to their more urban counterparts – thousands of rural shops do not have adequate broadband or mobile coverage, and many are at the farthest tip of their supply chains struggling to get a choice of supply and the full range of products their customers need.
“Providing targeted support to rural shops and other rural businesses must be integral to the government’s levelling up agenda to ensure that the gap between rural stores and their urban counterparts doesn’t widen even further.”
