Loyalty

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The Rural Shops Alliance is becoming aware that current Rural Shop owners wishing to refurbish or expand their business and those looking to purchase a rural shop are finding it increasingly difficult to secure loans and mortgages from banks and other providers.

They would like to hear from anyone who has been refused a loan or mortgage or had any other similar problems, particularly if a specific reason for refusal of the loan or mortgage has been given.

Please contact Gary Hepburn at the RSA via: gary.hepburn@ruralshops.org.uk

For more information about the Rural Shops Alliance click here

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From October 5th businesses with over 250 full time equivalent  employees in England will have to charge 5p for a disposable carrier   bag unless it is used to carry a varied list of exempt products  ( visit Gov.uk for full details)

Larger stores will have to ensure that the relatively complicated rules on when charging applies is passed down to individual checkout operators – and then make sure that the process is properly managed. Added complications include dealing with home deliveries, and how to control charging for bags at self-service checkouts.

Smaller businesses, who do not have to charge, may see  some regular customers asking for bags on a more frequent basis so that they can stockpile them to use for free during their visits to the supermarket.

So what should small businesses do? If they carry on supplying  free bags they might find that they will have to buy more bags to satisfy increased demand. If they charge will it put them at a disadvantage against the big boys?

The decision might be based on what actually happens in an individual business but, in reality, if customers accept paying for single-use bags at the supermarket will they quibble if they have to pay in smaller shops, particularity if the money raised is used to support recognised good causes.

Maybe it would be easier if a 5p charge just became the norm.

For some interesting comments and statistics on the use of plastic bags visit BBC news magazine

 

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IMG_6825The ‘Let’s Talk Shop’ Support Programme moves to Langholm, Dumfries & Galloway, from Monday 11th November.

Independent retailers in the town will be attending an evening retail workshop at the Town Hall on Monday from 5.30pm when The Shop Doctor will share his thoughts about how shops can ensure that first impressions deliver, rather than deter, customers and once they are across the threshold how retailers can maximise the selling opportunity through effective layout, merchandising and good service.

As part of the evening The Shop Doctor will also review his first impressions of Langholm and identify with the delegates attending  opportunities to help improve retail vitality in the town.

Independent retailers interested in attending should contact grant.coltart@dumgal.gov.uk

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The Shop Doctor is currently working on a project  to assist Cheshire East Council identify opportunities to improve the shopping experience in the ten market towns involved in the Love Local Life Loyalty Card initiative.

The Shop Doctor is assessing the physical experience of shoppers in the towns  and also evaluating the effectiveness of their on-line presence and how it might be more effectively utilised to attract increased shopping activity to each of the towns.

The final report will highlight issues  impacting on the shopping experience and propose recommendations that will help inform future initiatives to help maintain and develop retail vibrancy in towns across the County.

The towns involved are Alderley Edge, Alsager, Bollington, Congleton, Disley, Knutsford, Macclesfield, Middlewich, Sandbach and Wilmslow.

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Love Local Life, the Cheshire based local loyalty card supported by Cheshire East Council  ran a competition for Valentines Day where  cardholders were asked to nominate their favourite local business.

The competition was a great success and identified four very deserving winners in the categories of Best Value, Best Products, Best Service, Best Range.

Part of the prize to each winner was a visit from ‘The Shop Doctor’ and it was a pleasure to visit each of the businesses and meet with their owners on 12th April.

Already very good businesses I am intending to provide each with ideas that will help make their individual and entrepreneurial business even better, and I start by recommending each of them to you:

The four winners were:

Middlewich DIY – Best Value – www.middlewichdiycentre.co.uk

Delissimo, Alsager – Best Presentation – www.delissimo.biz

Sylk Wine Bar & Restaurant, Macclesfield – Best Service – www.sylk-restaurant.co.uk

The Lavender Tree, Alderley Edge – Best Range – www.thelavendertree.co.uk

More information about the Love Local Life Card and the wide range of retailers offering discounts to cardholders can be found at www.lovelocallife.co.uk

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The independent review into the future of our high streets undertaken by Mary Portas has now been published and the full report can be accessed via her official website

The following is a summary of the 28 recommendations made within the report:

1.Put in place a “Town Team”: a visionary, strategic and strong operational management team for high streets

2. Empower successful Business Improvement Districts to take on more responsibilities and powers and become “Super-BIDs”

3. Legislate to allow landlords to become high street investors by contributing to their Business Improvement District

4. Establish a new “National Market Day” where budding shopkeepers can try their hand at operating a low-cost retail business

5. Make it easier for people to become market traders by removing unnecessary regulations so that anyone can trade on the high street unless there is a valid reason why not

6. Government should consider whether business rates can better support small businesses and independent retailers

7. Local authorities should use their new discretionary powers to give business rate concessions to new local businesses

8. Make business rates work for business by reviewing the use of the RPI with a view to changing the calculation to CPI

9. Local areas should implement free controlled parking schemes that work for their town centres and we should have a new parking league table

10. Town Teams should focus on making high streets accessible, attractive and safe

11. Government should include high street deregulation as part of their ongoing work on freeing up red tape

12. Address the restrictive aspects of the ‘Use Class’ system to make it easier to change the uses of key properties on the high street

13. Put betting shops into a separate ‘Use Class’ of their own

14. Make explicit a presumption in favour of town centre development in the wording of the National Planning Policy Framework

15. Introduce Secretary of State “exceptional sign off ” for all new out-of-town developments and require all large new developments to have an “affordable shops” quota

16. Large retailers should support and mentor local businesses and independent retailers

17. Retailers should report on their support of local high streets in their annual report

18. Encourage a contract of care between landlords and their commercial tenants by promoting the leasing code and supporting the use of lease structures other than upward only rent reviews, especially for small businesses

19. Explore further disincentives to prevent landlords from leaving units vacant

20. Banks who own empty property on the high street should either administer these assets well or be required to sell them

21. Local authorities should make more proactive use of Compulsory Purchase Order powers to encourage the redevelopment of key high street retail space

22. Empower local authorities to step in when landlords are negligent with new “Empty Shop Management Orders”

23. Introduce a public register of high street landlords

24. Run a high profile campaign to get people involved in Neighbourhood Plans

25. Promote the inclusion of the High Street in Neighbourhood Plans

26. Developers should make a financial contribution to ensure that the local community has a strong voice in the planning system

27. Support imaginative community use of empty properties through Community Right to Buy, Meanwhile Use and a new “Community Right to Try”

28. Run a number of High Street Pilots to test proof of concept

The Governments response will be published early in 2012.

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Residents and businesses across Cheshire East are benefiting from the increasing reach of the innovative and rewarding Love Local Life Loyalty Scheme.

The scheme is supported by Cheshire East Council who have recognised the opportunities that such a scheme can deliver and how it can be further developed to provide a single source of information and reward capable of effectively promoting local businesses and council services and facilities.

The innovative scheme is built around a  local discounts and rewards card which offers residents savings  across Cheshire East! The scheme provides the best way to save when shopping locally, and can be used when eating out, buying gifts, keeping fit, using local business services and much much more.