ACS report highlights importance of village shops and challenges they face
RURAL retailers invested more than £280million in the last year, according to the Association of Convenience Stores (ACS).
Its 2026 Rural Shop Report, launched last month, reveals that country retailers splashed the cash to improve their range of products and services for customers, as well as spending on security measures to keep colleagues and customers safe.
Key findings from the report include:
- Rural shops provide secure, flexible jobs for more than 165,000 people.
- Village shops generated £17.7billion in sales last year.
- The average rural shop serves more than 2,000 people in communities surrounding the business.
When it comes to what they offer shoppers, 84% are National Lottery retailers, 72% run bill payment services and 67% provide a cash-back option.
Some 37% have free-to-use cash machines, 33% have a home delivery service, 27% include a Post Office and 26% operate other over-the-counter parcel services.
As for the customers, the average basket size is 2.6 items, with a spend of £6.89, according to Lumina Intelligence.
And the ACS Community Barometer found that 45% of rural shoppers know the people running and working in their local shop well or very well.
The same research reveals that 72% use their local store to pick up additional items to top up a main shop and 80% travel less than a mile to get there.
Showing the importance of rural stores, 62% would have to travel more than two miles for essential groceries if their local shop wasn’t there.
And 58% of customers believe their community outlet helps to cut loneliness.
The report highlights the unique challenges that rural retailers face compared to their more urban counterparts, including a lack of connectivity, issues with getting product into store reliably, theft and other retail crime.
ACS chief executive James Lowman said: “Rural shops are a lifeline for thousands of people in isolated communities.
“These businesses are taking on a lot of the services that are otherwise disappearing from communities and need support to be able to thrive.
“We need to level the playing field for rural shops so they don’t have to worry about phone signal, or broadband connections, or whether their deliveries are going to be able to get to the store.
“It is vitally important that policymakers consider the unique challenges facing rural shops and find ways to help them grow and continue to invest in their long-term future.”
