Meeting of the Parliament 12 January 2016
I, too, congratulate Gordon MacDonald on securing the debate and on giving us all the opportunity to note the findings of “The Local Shop Report 2015” and to speak more generally about the retail and grocery sector in Scotland. I commend the Association of Convenience Stores, the Scottish Grocers Federation and the Scottish Retail Consortium for all the work that they do to keep us in Parliament informed about what is happening in their industries and in the real economy.
As the motion says, there are well over 40,000 jobs in convenience stores in Scotland and many of the stores are family-run businesses with roots in the community. The overwhelming majority are run by small business owners, which suggests that the sector is highly entrepreneurial. If we include independent shops that operate on petrol station forecourts, 75 per cent of the shops that the report studied are small businesses. Only 17 per cent of people said that they visit their local shop less than once a week and 25 per cent said that they visit every day. According to the report, 87 per cent of independent retailers are involved in the community in some way.
I have taken time to visit convenience stores. It is clear that local shops can be a social hub in the community. It strikes me that many stores have regular customers, particularly older people, who could have been shopping in the same place for decades. Convenience stores can be more than just a place to exchange money for groceries; they can be a place to exchange conversation and meet neighbours. It also strikes me that, for some people, their regular trip to pick up groceries or get a newspaper could be the only time that they leave the house on some days, and that the only people who they speak to all day could be the staff working at the till or stacking shelves.
Last week, I presented to the Parliament the Equal Opportunities Committee’s report on age and social isolation. I recommend that all members should take the time to read it, because it underlines the importance of social interaction and being part of a community, which many of our convenience stores are.
Some issues that are relevant to the debate have been raised at the cross-party group on towns and town centres. The Scottish Government has indicated that it is involved in reviewing and, I hope, refreshing the town centre action plan. I want a new, robust and comprehensive action plan to be brought forward at the earliest opportunity.
The themes of the Scottish town centres review, which Malcolm Fraser led, are useful for anyone who has an interest in turning around our town centres, regenerating our towns and supporting businesses that invest in our local economies. Those themes must be developed and taken forward in the coming months. One is the town centre first approach, which is about the public sector taking a lead and promoting investment in town centres to drive up footfall and promote accessibility. Another theme is town centre living, which is about making our town centres places in which to live again and not just places in which to work or shop. Then there is the enterprising communities theme, whose aim is to have a community estate agency established to audit town centre assets and to find better ways to use local properties and existing capacity. A fourth theme—digital towns—is about supporting wi-fi and making sure that we have high-speed broadband in all our town centres.
It would be useful to know more about how the Scottish Government intends to proceed with the renewal of the town centre action plan. Retailers large and small will be interested in the result, as will be the communities that they serve.
“The Local Shop Report 2015” has clearly set out the importance of convenience stores to local communities and local economies. It is another valuable resource for us in the Parliament to draw on as we consider the future of our town centres and of the retail sector.
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