THOUSANDS OF SHOPS TO CLOSE

The cost of living crisis, is also a cost of trading crisis. The ACS have quoted that energy costs on average in Independent stores will be about £45,000 per annum, doubling year on year. Consumers have a price cap, albeit that has gone up massively. But as small business owners we do not have that protection.

This add up to energy bills of £2.5 billion on our sector, which is obviously suffering more due to chiller space. We can try to protect customers from this as much as we can but this will mean we need to put prices up, over and above the costs of goods increases we are already seeing.

There is some support at least, ACS have written to the Chancellor and explained this, but there is unlikely to be an immediate result from this. Also Grocery Aid as previously reported have partnered with Business debtline to support Independent Retailers.

Not sure when this ends, how many more hours we can cut, how many more prices we can put up, but keep going and supporting the community, that’s what we do!