We’ve been doing the SLR Awards for almost a quarter of a century now and it never fails to impress me how the sector continually finds ways to keep moving forward and keep evolving, particularly when it often feels like the world is collapsing around our ears.
Ever since Covid, I’ve had the distinct impression that the general standard of the stores on our shortlists is improving every year. Historically, that hasn’t always been the case. But in recent years the average standard of the shortlisted stores seems to me to have moved up a notch or two year-on-year.
I should probably be clear here on what I mean by average standard. I’m taking a strictly mathematical approach here, if not an entirely scientific one. If you give every store on the shortlist a score from one to 10 on general standards and then average those scores out, you’d get the average standard. You’d have some 10s in there, but you’d also have some sixes and sevens. This year, however, I’d say we didn’t fall below an eight and we had an embarrassment of riches when it came to the 10 out of 10s.
That might sound like me just blowing sunshine up your derrières, but it’s actually a really important trend. May I remind you that the whole point of the SLR Awards is to play a role in helping raise standards across the local retailing sector in Scotland. Yes, handing out the awards on the evening is important and rewarding, but the real point of the awards is to highlight and share best practice and creativity, help retailers inspire one another and, ultimately, drive improvements across our entire sector, for the benefit of all.
Now I’m not for one moment suggesting that the SLR Awards has been the driving factor in helping raise standards, but I like to think that the awards have played some sort of positive role in encouraging some retailers to aim higher, to take learnings from other retailers, and to have the vision and courage to keep moving their stores forward to the future.
As this year’s shortlist admirably demonstrated, there are so many fantastic stores out there and our sector is blessed with an abundance of brilliant retailers, so it makes sense to work together towards a common goal.
It’s a time of huge change for local retailing – no change there, then – but by working together wherever and however we can, we can continue to build a solid platform for whatever the next 10 or 20 years brings. Being a retailer is a tough gig, but it’s a lot less tough when we’re there for each other.
Antony Begley, Publishing Director, SLR
A night to remember
We’ve been doing the SLR Awards for almost a quarter of a century now and it never fails to impress me how the sector continually finds ways to keep moving forward and keep evolving, particularly when it often feels like the world is collapsing around our ears.
Ever since Covid, I’ve had the distinct impression that the general standard of the stores on our shortlists is improving every year. Historically, that hasn’t always been the case. But in recent years the average standard of the shortlisted stores seems to me to have moved up a notch or two year-on-year.
I should probably be clear here on what I mean by average standard. I’m taking a strictly mathematical approach here, if not an entirely scientific one. If you give every store on the shortlist a score from one to 10 on general standards and then average those scores out, you’d get the average standard. You’d have some 10s in there, but you’d also have some sixes and sevens. This year, however, I’d say we didn’t fall below an eight and we had an embarrassment of riches when it came to the 10 out of 10s.
That might sound like me just blowing sunshine up your derrières, but it’s actually a really important trend. May I remind you that the whole point of the SLR Awards is to play a role in helping raise standards across the local retailing sector in Scotland. Yes, handing out the awards on the evening is important and rewarding, but the real point of the awards is to highlight and share best practice and creativity, help retailers inspire one another and, ultimately, drive improvements across our entire sector, for the benefit of all.
Now I’m not for one moment suggesting that the SLR Awards has been the driving factor in helping raise standards, but I like to think that the awards have played some sort of positive role in encouraging some retailers to aim higher, to take learnings from other retailers, and to have the vision and courage to keep moving their stores forward to the future.
As this year’s shortlist admirably demonstrated, there are so many fantastic stores out there and our sector is blessed with an abundance of brilliant retailers, so it makes sense to work together towards a common goal.
It’s a time of huge change for local retailing – no change there, then – but by working together wherever and however we can, we can continue to build a solid platform for whatever the next 10 or 20 years brings. Being a retailer is a tough gig, but it’s a lot less tough when we’re there for each other.
Antony Begley, Publishing Director, SLR
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