Treasury analysing whether removal of tampon tax has lowered prices

Cost of period products has risen and campaigners say saving is not being passed on by retailers

The Treasury is analysing whether the removal of the “tampon tax” – trumpeted last week by Rishi Sunak as one of the benefits of Brexit – has helped lower prices at all, amid concerns the saving is not being passed on by retailers to women.

Responding to a written question from the Labour MP Ruth Cadbury, the government said a tax reduction was able to “contribute to the conditions for price reductions” and it was “looking into whether this important zero-rating is being passed on by retailers to women as intended”.

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Tesco chair to stand down after allegations of inappropriate behaviour

John Allan, a prominent business leader and former CBI president, to leave role at AGM on 16 June

John Allan will stand down as chair of Tesco after allegations of inappropriate behaviour.

Allan, who has been chair of the UK’s biggest supermarket since 2015, will stand down at the retailer’s annual meeting on 16 June.

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Asda plans 5% pay cut for about 7,000 workers just outside London

Supermarket is consulting about removing a 60p an hour supplement at 39 stores outside M25 despite the cost of living crisis

Asda is planning to cut pay for about 7,000 workers in stores close to London by about 5% despite the surge in the cost of living in Britain.

The UK’s third biggest supermarket, which was bought by the billionaire Issa brothers and private equity firm TDR Capital in 2020, said it was in consultation about removing a 60p an hour supplement from workers at 39 stores sited outside the M25 but near to the capital.

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Greggs wins right to late-night opening for Leicester Square bakery store

Chain resolves heated debate with council amid concerns over antisocial behaviour

A heated debate over Greggs’ right to trade into the early hours in central London, amid warnings it could cause a wave of crime and disorder, has been resolved.

Greggs said it could now open its Leicester Square flagship store until 2am from Thursday to Saturday and until midnight through the rest of the week after Westminster council allowed it to sell hot drinks, such as tea and coffee, as well as its sausage rolls, pizza slices and steak bakes, after an 11pm curfew.

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Sunak food summit promises star guest and lots of rhubarb

It’s hard to see the PM’s talks with farmers, store chiefs and the (rumoured) odd TV star producing concrete proposals

Farmers throwing in the towel amid soaring costs and labour shortages and falling domestic production of some foods have resulted in repeated gaps on British supermarket shelves – much to shoppers’ chagrin.

UK agriculture has had a torrid few years navigating the fallout from Brexit and the pandemic at a time when squeezed consumers are reassessing what they can afford to put in their shopping baskets.

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John Lewis boss faces confidence vote as business considers ways to seek new funds

Sharon White wants to bring in investors to build flats above stores, potentially leading to the sale of stake in the business

The boss of John Lewis will face a confidence vote by staff members on Wednesday as the business considers the option of bringing in outside investment in a change that could threaten the decades-old employee-owned model.

Chairman Sharon White is considering radical ways to bring in up to £2bn to help secure the future of the John Lewis Partnership, including diversifying into building flats for rent above shops, after reporting hefty losses from its chain of department stores and Waitrose supermarkets.

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Pharmacist at former Sunak family chemist wary of PM’s health plans

Jithender Ballepu says more staff and funding would be needed and has concerns about passing antibiotics over the counter

There is no plaque outside Bassett Pharmacy in Southampton to indicate this was once run by the prime minister’s mother but there is a sign round the back that gives the game away: “Parking for Sunak Pharmacy customers.”

Inside, the pharmacist Jithender Ballepu was expressing reservations about Rishi Sunak’s plans for chemist shops to provide prescriptions for millions of patients in England.

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The ‘coronation effect’: UK high street shelves being cleared of quiche and fizz

Party products, including bunting, flying off shelves, with Britons forecast to spend £200m on weekend festivities

High street retailers are reporting a “coronation effect” sales boost as shoppers make a last-minute dash to the shops to stock up on party fare including bunting, champagne and cakes for this weekend’s celebrations.

With potentially more than £200m of extra sales riding on the festivities surrounding the coronation of King Charles, retailers’ shelves are being cleared of fizz, quiche, scones as well as buffet favourites such as pork pies and scotch eggs.

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More fruit and veg shortages to come as weather in UK and Spain hits crops

Record heat in southern Europe and chilly start to British growing season spell more misery for shoppers

Shoppers have been warned they face more fruit and vegetable shortages, as temperatures in southern Spain soar to unprecedented levels while the UK growing season gets off to a late start because of cold, overcast weather.

Temperatures were expected to reach a new April record of 39C (102F) in parts of Andalucía on Friday amid a long-lasting drought that has affected the production of vegetables in Spain. Córdoba reached a record 38.8C on Thursday.

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HMV to return to flagship Oxford Street store after four-year absence

First HMV shop was opened in 1921 by British composer Sir Edward Elgar and closed in 2019

HMV is to return to its former flagship store on London’s Oxford Street after a four-year absence. It is expected to reopen towards the end of this year, in time for Christmas.

The store was empty for an extended period after the music and entertainment company vacated the site in 2019, before most recently becoming home to one of the many American candy stores that popped up on Oxford Street during the pandemic.

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Sainsbury’s and Unilever deny claims of profiteering in cost of living crisis

Supermarket chain and consumer goods company insist they are protecting shoppers from inflation surge

Sainsbury’s and the Marmite maker Unilever have both insisted they are protecting shoppers from inflation, amid accusations that some companies are profiteering from the cost of living crisis.

“We are not profiteering in any form,” the chief executive of Unilever, Alan Jope, said as the consumer goods company insisted it was only passing on three-quarters of its increased costs to customers.

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Best&Less accused of putting profit before Bangladesh workers by failing to sign safety accord

Company says its own code of conduct goes further than the global accord prompted by the Rana Plaza disaster 10 years ago

Major clothing retailer Best&Less has been accused of putting company profit ahead of the safety of Bangladeshi garment workers by declining to sign a key international accord on worker safety and labour rights.

The Rana Plaza disaster, 10 years ago on Monday, prompted outrage at the abysmal safety standards in the Bangladesh factories supplying major clothing brands and retailers, leading to the establishment of a cross-border agreement known as the international accord.

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End of an era as London’s famed Sylvanian Families shop shuts

Magnet for thousands of collectors of furry toys will close doors next week

Nineteen-year-old Molly Bell arrived in London early last week from Brisbane. By Wednesday, she had found her way to a tiny toy emporium in a nondescript street in north London to fulfil a dream. She needed to move fast as the Sylvanian Families shop, selling the eponymous toy animals and their habitats, closes on 22 April after more than 30 years.

Since 1992, the charming Highbury shop has been a magnet for thousands of collectors of the anthropomorphic animals – a magical grotto reminiscent of a bygone idyll.

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Shoppers in Great Britain switch to frozen food amid cost of living crisis

Such products doing ‘notably better’ than fresh items, data from Kantar reported by BBC shows

British shoppers are switching from fresh to frozen food as they try to keep down spending amid the cost of living crisis, retail data suggests.

The soaring cost of the weekly shop has been a significant factor in the squeeze on UK households, with food price inflation running at 18.2% amid high energy prices and shortages of salad vegetable because of bad weather in Europe.

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Sainsbury’s shoppers criticise ‘vile’ mince vac-packs aimed at reducing plastic

New pouches for beef are said to be ‘too compressed’ and ‘like I’ve bought someone’s kidney’

Sainsbury’s has said it is determined to make more “bold moves” to cut plastic and defended itself against criticism of new packaging for mince which shoppers have criticised as “very medical”, “too compressed” and “vile”.

The supermarket said last month it was the first UK retailer to vacuum pack all its beef mince, part of the retailer’s efforts to halve its use of plastic packaging on its own-label products by 2025.

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Abusive working conditions endemic in Spain’s strawberry farms, report claims

UK supermarkets heavily reliant on strawberries from southern Spain, where workers allege they are regularly underpaid, have passports withheld and are forced to live in unsanitary shacks

Abusive conditions are endemic in parts of Spain’s fruit sector, a new report alleges, with workers telling the Guardian they have been regularly underpaid and forced to live in dilapidated shacks.

During the winter, at least 60% of strawberries eaten in the UK are likely to be from vast farms across the south-west Spanish province of Huelva. In 2020, the UK imported €310m (£272m) worth of the fruit from the Andalucia region, of which 91% is believed to be grown in Huelva.

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Strawberries instead of bin liners: poll reveals strange supermarket delivery substitutions

Shoppers reported replacement items in 47% of UK deliveries, including 62% from Asda, in Which? survey

Dog chews instead of chicken breasts? Strawberries in place of bin liners? These are just some of the strangest supermarket substitutions, according to a poll.

Almost half of supermarket deliveries (47%) included a substitute item over the past 12 months, the survey for the consumer group Which? found.

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Jacqueline Gold’s proudly smutty Ann Summers changed the UK high street

Lingerie and sex toy chain’s boss tapped into the female market by embracing Britain’s peculiar erotic humour

When Jacqueline Gold arrived to shake up Ann Summers, the company had already been in the family for a decade, bought by her father, David, and uncle Ralph Gold. They had made the initial leap from sex shop to what they styled as a “lingerie boutique”; it would be more accurate to say they took it from a shop women never went into to a shop women did go into, while still selling the same sex toys and lucky knickers.

The impact of Jacqueline Gold, who has died aged 62, went far beyond the shops themselves or even the operation. The irony is that British culture in the 80s was hardly a stranger to images of women in their underwear, but these images were pretty well always used to sell random things to men. The notion of erotic imagery and shop frontage aimed at women was quite novel, and freighted with innuendo – this is one sense in which I can just about allow that Britain is exceptional, the peculiar humour it derives from sex: that Carry-On, seaside postcard, slightly mirthless and dutiful performance, where anyone revealing a sexual identity is considered to make themselves ridiculous, becoming the butt of some inexpressible joke. It was not cost-free, therefore, for women to go browsing in Ann Summers, and Gold attacked this from two directions.

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Greggs to open 150 new stores despite rising staff and energy costs

Britain’s biggest bakery chain says it expects cost inflation of between 9% and 10% this year

Greggs has said higher wage and energy bills are weighing on its profits but it plans to push ahead with opening 150 new stores this year as well as trialling a 24-hour drive-through outlet.

Britain’s biggest bakery chain, known for its sausage rolls and steak bakes, said costs had risen by 9% last year and would continue to be a challenge in the year ahead.

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UK shoppers slash spending as price rises and energy bills bite

February figures from BRC highlight impact of cost of living crisis on British economy before budget

UK consumers sharply cut back their spending in February as soaring living costs damaged household finances, retailers have warned, despite strong sales of jewellery and fragrances for Valentine’s Day.

Highlighting the impact of the cost of living crisis on the economy before Jeremy Hunt’s budget next week, the British Retail Consortium (BRC) said sky-high energy bills and the rising cost of a weekly shop were forcing shoppers to cut back.

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