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The FT's View from the top column (see its website www.ft.com/video ) features Tim Martin, the chairman of JD Wetherspoon, the pub chain that he set up in north London 30 years ago and which now has more thatn 800 outlets. It is a great read. Good questions and good answers. For example. Q: The price of a pint at a UK pub has risen by aobut £1 in a decade, well above inflation. What's going on? A: The government perceives there is a binge drinking problem in Britain and to an extent that's right, and its approach has been to attack pubs. So it has piled on the regulations, the penalties and the tax. Local shopkeepers will recognise the sentiment. Q: to attract more customers, some pubs are opening libraries or bringing in post office services. Is that the future? A: Libraries and post offices are in the realms of fantasy: [innovation] has to be linked closely to the core business of eating and drinking. We open for breakfasts, which had been in the realms of fanta...

David Whitton, a Labour MSP, addressed local retailers at the Scottish NFRN conference in Edinburgh earlier this week. Mr Whitton is a capable politician and has a good mastery of his brief. Despite his claimed affinity with news retailers, independent shopkeepers will find that his knowledge of their business affairs relies heavily on information from unfriendly sources - supermarkets and anti-tobacco lobbyists. At the age of 17 Mr Whitton found himself delivering newespapers. He recalls that it was "quite lucrative" at the time, with a good mark up and heavy bags. His audience of news retailers smiled, remembering the day. However, today Mr Whitton was promoting the Scottish Labour Party's plan to win power from May. He may talk about helping entrepreneurs but his heart is really in getting people employed. He wants local shops to employ more people and to train more people. In passing he noted that supermarkets have a "good track record of taking on staff in d...

Starbucks provides a cheap place to meet or an expensive place to buy coffee, depending on the shopper's outlook. Aggresively expanding bakers chain Greggs says it plans to increase the number of its outlets selling lattes and cappucinos. While the media says this is a threat to Starbucks, Greggs appears to be operating in the part of the market where McDonald's is operating and that is its natural competition. What is clear about its strategy is that it is tapping into the same "out of home" food and beverage opportunity that is available to local shops. Greggs says it sold 10 million breakfast rolls last year and 300,000 pots of porridge. "Convenience is getting more crowded and everyone is our competitor," chief executive Ken McMeikan told independent retailers at an ACS summit earlier this month. Sandwiches and drinks are now 50 per cent of his sales and coffee is the biggest growth opportunity. His focus is on delivering outstanding service, value...

While supermodel Kate Moss chose to celebrate national no smoking day by parading down the catwalk in Paris smoking a cigarette, the UK's health secretary Andrew Lansley disappointed local retailers by promising to keep the tobacco display ban - albeit starting at a later date. Retailers are disappointed on two fronts: firstly, there is little evidence that similar bans in other countries are working; secondly, the government, when in opposition, promised it would revoke the ban. Local retailers also fear reputational damage, as in the cartoon from The Sun above. However, The Sun is no fan of the ban saying the display ban smacks of the "overbearing Nanny State." It says the responsibility lies with "parents and grandparents to make sure their kids do not die an early and painful death." A survey in Merthyr Tydfil finds that the average age for children taking up smoking is just nine. One lad, the Sun reports, got hooked at the age of three because his gra...

For people in north London on a sunny Tuesday and looking forward to tonight's football match in Barcelona, this sign has especial resonance. For other people, it may just be words. For quiz lovers, it is a sign filled with misery. However, it is a sign that captures the ability of local businesses to win local customers. There is an unstated identification with the hopes and dreams of thousands of football fans. Tomorrow, after Arsenal have prevailed in the Camp Nou, even this post may have a special place in my heart. Or not.

“Independents do it better. George likes retail mavericks, the places where the visionaries are still at the wheel”, writes Paco Underhill, author of Why We Buy in praise of Retail Superstars, a book from US retail guru George Whalin. Not published in the UK, it took me six months to get Penguin to send me a review copy and it was worth it. If you are an independent retailer who wants to make your business more successful then Retail Superstars is a must read and easy to purchase on Amazon. This is not because the “25 Best Independent Stores in America” are like your shop. It is not because you will find some quick wins to use in your shop. It is not because you will find some secrets that you did not know. On the surface, some of these US shops are just too big. Jungle Jim’s is a 300,000 square foot independent grocers with 150,000 stock keeping units (SKUs) of fresh and packaged foods. Gallery Furniture spends $10 million a year on television advertising. Art Electronics is in ...

After years of being on the front foot in the PR war as the people's champions, UK supermarkets got a bloody nose on March 1. First ACS boss James Lowman unveiled his research that demonstrated that while Tesco and Sainsbury had added 2.3 million square feet of selling space in the past year, they had achieved a net loss of 426 jobs. That is the equivalent of 1,500 medium size local shops and no new jobs. "The government is desperate for growth and jobs," Mr Lowman told the ACS summit in Birmingham. "The supermarkets claim they are the answer and the goverment needs to liberalise planning laws. These facts show they are not." Local shopkeepers should use Mr Lowman's facts in conversations with their local MP, local authority people and local planners. The supermarkets are expert at influencing local planning decisions and here is some ammunition that may help you stop them opening next to you. At the same time, analysis by City bank UBS of whether fo...