Two convenience stores a week are closing down — 400 over the last two years — as shop owners struggle to cope with tightening bank credit and high rents and rates, the Convenience Stores and Newsagents Association has claimed.

Local shops want to be able to set the price of tobacco products sold in their stores, rather than allowing the Government to determine the price.

RURAL Ireland is heading towards a retail wasteland, due to unfair mandatory wage structures, representatives from the Convenience Stores and Newsagents Association (CSNA) told a Dáil Committee yesterday.

WITH M50 toll payment measures due to come into effect on August 30, the Convenience Stores and Newsagents Association is adopting the tolltag.ie pay-as-you-go system, which provides a top-up transaction service.

SHOP owners came under fire last night after a survey showed almost half of retailers were willing to sell cigarettes to minors.

AN IDENTITY card system needs to be introduced immediately to ensure tobacco is not sold to minors, says the umbrella body for convenience stores and newsagents throughout the country.

MAGAZINE readers in Ireland are paying 25% more for their favourite monthly read than buyers in Britain.