The Scottish Grocers’ Federation (SGF) has called on the Scottish Government to make a lasting commitment to tackling retail crime beyond the extra £3m pledged to Police Scotland, as well to engage more with the convenience community at industry events.
“We welcomed the government allocating £3m to Police Scotland,” SGF Head of Public Affairs, Luke McGarty, told the Economy and Fair Work Committee on February 26. “But for a positive step like that to work … that kind of money has to be sustained year-on-year. I’m not saying how much that should be, but for anything to embed itself and create positive behaviours or positive results, that has to not be a one off, that has to keep coming down the line as long as you can show the results you get for it.”
He also highlighted that reducing crime would help the mental health of those in the retail industry. “If retailers have the retail crime aspect more suitably addressed, you’ll have retailers that are not in fear of their own health and well-being in terms of their safety and likewise that haemorrhages costs for business, and if I’m a staff worker and I see the businesses losing a lot of money through all these other costs I think start to worry for my own job – is the retailer going to cut my hours? What will happen to me? So it’s a sort of ripple effect there.”
In addition, McGarty requested more clarity on HFSS and alcohol legislation so that retailers could get a better insight into what investments were required.
He claimed that business confidence within convenience was mixed with retailers facing growing financial pressure due to energy costs, the cost-of-living crisis and the cost of employment. He asked the government to collaborate more so as not to overwhelm retailers with legislation, and to help ensure that retailers were able to access support to deal with the required changes. “It’s very important the government directorates are not operating in silos and that they all talk to each other, so that you don’t have legislation all landing potentially at the same time, and if I’m a small business like a convenience retailer that I have the funds, the resources, the access to loans or whatever it is to help me future proof for all these things that are coming.”
He spoke of red tape being avoided in favour of self regulation where possible. “We talk about having an education over regulation where that’s feasible … where that would make sense to save increasing bureaucracy and costs that can be put onto business, where the funds that they have available to them are finite, and it’s hard for them to pivot, to adjust quickly.”
McGarty discussed the strength of the convenience sector and emphasised the great loss they would be to their communities if they didn’t receive adequate support. “Convenience stores are in every postcode. They give you key services that may be in some rural locations … if you lose the shop, you don’t just lose the bread and milk, you lose maybe the post office, the free to use ATM, the bill payment services.”
He praised MSPs who had attended retailer events and engaged with the industry. “Coming along like that makes people feel like they’re being listened to and, as a starter for 10, that gains credit with people and gives them more of an optimistic outlook in terms of also wanting to engage,” he said.
And he urged ScotGov Ministers to follow suit and attend events in person. “The elements where we would like to see more engagement would be ministers coming along to SGF events,” he said. “I think that would be quite helpful to have that touch point for retails and relatability to those that make the decisions that they need to subsequently implement.”
