APRIL TRADE NEWS Retailers seeing shifting consumer behaviour More empty shops in Edinburgh's Old Town Culture capital status boosting Liverpool retail Retailers 'need more help from government' Bath retailers to target 'affluent women' Birmingham Wholesale Markets to move Nottingham shops banned from using A-boards Trader convicted for selling fake goods from trusted wholesaler OFT warned on newspaper distribution rules Scottish retail sales picking up Ebay fraudster ordered to repay £100,000 Welsh urged to cut down on single use carriers Wholesalers looking for insight from retailers Rural retail initiative to help traders in N.Ireland Hampshire traders fearful of supermarket plans Retail sales surge during sunny April Wholesalers affected by late payments Online retailers 'must convince shoppers of internet benefits' Strongest monthly UK footfall rise in five years Retailers urged to turn to eBay to-sell stock Retailers fight plans for Watford Tesco Express Local retail opinions mixed in Leicester More than one British newsagent closing a day European visitors to The Wholesaler please click here Trade News Archive 2009  January   February   March   April   May Subscribe to our newsletter   Go to The Wholesaler UK Directory 1st May 2009 More than one British newsagent closing every day Local newsagents across the UK are closing at a rate of more than one a day as they struggle to compete with the constantly rising numbers of supermarkets. According to the National Federation of Retail Newsagents (NFRN), 510 of its members went bankrupt last year; this compares to 482 in 2007 and 527 in 2006. The federation said that small newsagents are struggling in cities and in suburban areas. Its head of news and magazines, Stejan Wojciechowski, warned that changes in the way the industry's wholesale suppliers operate could be "the final nail in the coffin" for a number of independent shops. The NFRN is currently campaigning to have the Office of Fair Trading launch a new investigation into the newspaper wholesale system, which it claims has turned into a de-facto duopoly. "Newsagents are already closing at an alarming rate because of competition from supermarkets which now operate in suburban areas," said Mr Wojciechowski. "Changes in the newspaper distribution industry will only make things worse." Earlier this month, business secretary Lord Mandelson ruled to abolish the newspaper code of practice, which had required wholesale distributors to supply newsagents with the papers they ordered. Following that decision, the Association of News Retailing suggested that suppliers may be tempted to price "hard to serve" customers ordering low levels of stock out of the market. (c) 2009 Comment on this news story   Trade News Archive 2008  December   November   October   September August   July   June   May   April   March   February   January