From The BBC:
Independent newsagents across the UK are closing down at a rate of more than one a day, a BBC Asian Network investigation has revealed.A group that helps retailers says this is because they are struggling to compete with big supermarket chains, increased crime and the credit crunch. The National Federation of Retail Newsagents (NFRN) wants the government to rescue its declining industry. Official figures show that 510 newsagents went bankrupt last year. In 2007 more than 480 went bankrupt. The NFRN blames the problem on the current economic downturn, and competition between newsagents and with supermarkets, which it says have “massive buying and marketing power”. Government helpCrime is also a big issue. “A lot of newsagents open their shops worrying what’s going to happen that day. We need the government to realise what we are facing, day in, day out,” said Suleman Khonat, the federation’s president. The NFRN wants laws introduced that differentiate between a normal crime and retail…
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