UK's Rural Shops Invested Over £280m In Last Year

The Association of Convenience Stores launched the 2026 Rural Shop Report, in Parliament last week.  The report reveals that rural retailers have spent over a quarter of a billion pounds in the last year improving their range of products and services for customers, as well as investing in security measures to keep colleagues and customers safe. 

Key findings from the 2026 Rural Shop Report include:

• Rural shops provide secure, flexible jobs for over 165,000 people
• Rural shops generated £17.7bn in sales last year
• The average rural shop serves over 2,000 people in rural communities surrounding the business

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, and more. 

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.

In the 2026 Rural Shop Report, ACS profiles retailers operating shops in rural communities on the issues that they’re facing, and the changes that would make a positive difference to their businesses. 

Josie Chamberlin, J Robarts and Son said:

Our local police officers are stretched thin as they cover several huge village areas. Resources are more limited by being in a rural area. We’re lucky in that we don’t have a lot of trouble, but we still try to keep in contact with police officers and build that connection. 

We encourage officers to come in and get a coffee, have a bread roll made up, and so on. Police presence is the most valuable thing for us.

Joshua James, Fresh and Proper said:

We have a joke running here that we’re a small little village but there’s always at least one road closed. It could be water pipes bursting or internet installation or road damage, or all three at once. 

The issue is the infrastructure networks planning these closures aren’t considering local businesses and the community: in the run up to Christmas, half of the roundabout to our store was closed which had a big impact on access.

Kerry Booth, Chief Executive, Rural Services Network: It was a privilege to attend the parliamentary launch of the 2026 Rural Shop Report and to hear directly from rural retailers about the realities they face. The event also provided a valuable opportunity to discuss rural fair funding and the challenges rural councils face in supporting their local economies. Rural shops are essential community infrastructure, and recognising their role in funding and policy decisions is vital to their long-term sustainability.