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UK grocery watchdog probes Amazon over alleged supplier payment delays

UK grocery watchdog probes Amazon over alleged supplier payment delays

Reuters15 hours ago

LONDON, June 20 (Reuters) - Britain's grocery regulator on Friday launched an investigation into Amazon (AMZN.O), opens new tab, probing whether the retail giant breached rules on timely supplier payments over a three-year period.
The Groceries Code Adjudicator said it suspects Amazon violated paragraph 5 of the Groceries Supply Code of Practice, which mandates prompt payment to suppliers.

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Train ticket website sues Transport Secretary after making claims about 'secret' £32million agreement involving state-owned firm
Train ticket website sues Transport Secretary after making claims about 'secret' £32million agreement involving state-owned firm

Daily Mail​

timean hour ago

  • Daily Mail​

Train ticket website sues Transport Secretary after making claims about 'secret' £32million agreement involving state-owned firm

Trainline has sued Labour's Transport Secretary Heidi Alexander over allegations she snubbed them by offering a £32million contract elsewhere. State-owned London North Eastern Railway (LNER), which has been run by the Department for Transport (DfT) since 2018, was said to have recently extended a ticketing sales platform contract. But the company did not offer rivals like Trainline the chance to bid for the 10-year-deal, it is claimed. Trainline has alleged the failure to seek alternative bids means due process was ignored - as were the best interests of passengers and the taxpayer. LNER reportedly awarded the contract for the central booking engine that supports its digital ticket sales to Australia's Vix Technology. Trainline also alleges the publication of the award on the Government's website on December 23 was too opaque as it buried the news during Christmas week, limiting the ability of other parties to respond. It comes as Trainline, who would have expected to compete for the work, has its own rival division which provides a similar 'white label' service to train operators. The company is understood to be claiming that a direct award of the contract was not permissible under procurement law because the terms were varied in scope, duration and beneficiaries. Given the terms of the award, the ticketing platform used by LNER, which operates between London Kings Cross and Scotland via Leeds and Newcastle, could be extended across the rail network. However, both LNER and the DfT have denied a new contract exists saying the allegations are 'categorically untrue'. Rail Unions have previously raised concerns about third party ticket operators like Trainline, accusing the company of being engaged in 'relentless profiteering'. Despite the government's plans for simplification through the nationalisation of its railway, it has maintained there would still be a need for 'an innovative and competitive third-party retail market'. Labour also ruled out establishing a national website and app to promote to promote cheaper fares in competition with the firm. But in guidance from January it said a plan to bring together ticket websites of individual operators was now in the pipeline. An LNER spokesman said of Trainline's allegations: 'This is unequivocally untrue. No such contract exists. Trainline is aware this is the case as we explicitly advised them as much earlier this month.' A DfT spokesman added: 'This is completely and categorically untrue – not least because no such contract exists, which Trainline is well aware after being explicitly told as much by LNER earlier this month. 'The Department has been clear we are working industry to simplify ticketing for customers, as part of the biggest overhaul of our railways in a generation.' Trainline has suggested it is challenging the lack of opportunity for alternative providers to bid, regardless of whether a contract has been entered into at this point in time. The company has filed a claim at the Technology and Construction Court.

Wearing shorts still a 'grey area' as offices scrap dress codes
Wearing shorts still a 'grey area' as offices scrap dress codes

BBC News

timean hour ago

  • BBC News

Wearing shorts still a 'grey area' as offices scrap dress codes

When I call Tony Hardy, it's a sunny day. As he often does during the summer months, he's wearing a pair of shorts in the office."We wear shorts all the time," he runs a branding agency in Northumberland, with nine employees. His company, Canny Creative, doesn't have a dress code. Instead he encourages staff to dress professionally but comfortably - especially because the air conditioning in their office has recently broken."Imagine sweating buckets all day and being really uncomfortable and then expecting them to also turn out great work," Tony says. What the stylists say With summer upon us, and much of Britain set to be basking in a heatwave this week and next, keeping cool in the office and during the commute can be a challenge. Take one look at TikTok, and you'll see that the topic of whether or not shorts are ever appropriate for the office remains highly in a 2022 YouGov poll, 66% of Britons said that it was acceptable for men to wear shorts in the office, up from 37% in 2016 - though the 2022 poll was conducted on the UK's hottest-ever people wear to the office has "just gone so casual" in the past few years, with more people wearing jeans and trainers to work, says personal stylist Karina Taylor. She attributes that largely to the Covid pandemic, when people could dress much more casually to work from included people wearing shorts as they worked from their kitchens or home offices, says Carmen Bellot, style editor at Esquire magazine - they no longer had to think about the bottom half of their outfits while on video-call wearing shorts to the office is still "very much a grey area", Karina says, describing them as "the ultimate casual piece of clothing". Stylists agree that whether or not you can wear shorts to the office is overwhelmingly based on context - and they're often too casual for client-facing roles such as law and professionals advise that if your company has no explicit dress code, you should monitor what your colleagues are wearing and decide whether shorts would look out of "you may be pushing the boundaries," warns Nick Hems, a personal stylist in London. What the companies say The BBC contacted a range of companies to ask if they had a formal dress code and whether shorts would be acceptable to wear to the office, if styled professionally. Many companies, including consultancy Accenture and British American Tobacco, told the BBC they don't have explicit dress codes but expect staff to dress both comfortably and professionally, and to take extra care to dress appropriately when meeting clients or attending giant PwC says it trusts staff to make "appropriate decisions" about what to wear to work. "We don't list items that people can and can't wear," a spokesperson said. Santander says both casual and business dress is acceptable for staff who aren't required to wear a uniform, but noted "anything that could be beachwear isn't okay for the office". The type of shorts So if your company does allow you to wear shorts to the office, what sort of shorts should you go for?There's a clear consensus among the experts: keep it formal - ideally tailored - and don't go too short. Beach, sports, cargo and denim shorts are generally all this isn't the case for all companies. At social media marketing agency We Are Social, some employees have even worn hot pants to work, according to managing director, Lucy Doubleday."You can wear what you want," she says, with the company seeing clothing as an expression of a similar story for CEO Tony and his team, who even wear shorts to client meetings, including when they visited London to meet staff at a major bank's headquarters in Canary Wharf."We did get really strange looks," Tony says. "Everybody there was in suits and it was boiling hot. But we're a creative agency and we went as we would go to our regular meetings." He argues that if another company has a problem with how his staff dress, they probably aren't the right fit to work together. What's right for you? Shorts might be perceived differently on men and women, stylists suggest. Carmen says that even outside the office, shorts can be "quite divisive among men," she says."When I speak to men about their opinions on shorts, they tend to say that they don't feel comfortable wearing them when not on holiday," Carmen says. "I don't think there's this type of sentiment in womenswear." Some men embrace the opportunity to get out of long trousers, though - including 46-year-old primary school headteacher, Dave McPartlin. At his school in Lancashire he spends most of the final weeks of term before the summer holidays wearing thinks it's "ridiculous" people are still discussing whether it's appropriate to wear shorts for work - and the students don't treat him any differently based on what he wears, he says. "I don't think they could care less."Diane Brander wears shorts to work sometimes, too. She says her performance in her account administration job "would probably suffer" if she was too hot in the office and unable to wear shorts, and says she finds them more comfortable than skirts and dresses. So what should you do? Karina's best advice is to only wear shorts to work if you're confident about your company's dress code and how to style them. "If in doubt, probably avoid," Karina says, "because it will cause you far too much stress to get the look right and you maybe won't feel confident about pulling it off."

Huge high street retailer launches 20% off closing down sale ahead of store shutting for good in weeks
Huge high street retailer launches 20% off closing down sale ahead of store shutting for good in weeks

The Sun

timean hour ago

  • The Sun

Huge high street retailer launches 20% off closing down sale ahead of store shutting for good in weeks

A HUGE high street retailer has launched a 20 per cent off going out of business sale with just weeks left until the store shuts for good. The hugely popular town centre video game shop is due to close down in a matter of weeks it has announced. 4 4 GAME, in Festival Place, Basingstoke, suddenly announced it will be closing down next month. The retailer will be holding a 20 per cent off everything closing down sale before shutting up shop for good on August 10. GAME sells a variety of video games, consoles and pop culture merchandise. The retailer came under fire recently when it cancelled pre-orders of heavily anticipated Nintendo Switch 2 consoles. Its Basingstoke location is now due to close for good with signs seen in the window announcing the closure. No reason has been given for the retailers abrupt departure from the shopping centre. Products including popular video games and Lego sets have had their stock prices reduced. Retailer GAME, which specialises in consoles, games and accessories was acquired by Frasers Group in 2019 as part of a £52 million deal. The retailer has closed a number of locations across the UK in recent months. Signs in the window of the Basingstoke store read: "This store will cease trading on 10th August. Why are so many shops going bust? "Please shop online at A number of GAME stores have closed with some being converted into concessions within Sports Direct and other Frasers Group stores. Locals have been left disappointed by the news of the Basingstoke location's closure. Following Frasers Group acquiring GAME in 2019 significant restructuring and downsizing of the video game retailer has commenced. While plans don't indicate that the stores will disappear from the British high street completely many locations are expected to close. 4 4 Downfall of GAME Game was acquired by billionaire businessman Mike Ashley's Frasers Group in 2019 as part of a £52million deal. However, by January 2020, the retailer announced plans to close 40 of its more than 300 stores across the UK. Today, there are approximately 240 Game stores operating nationwide. This decline comes amid a significant drop in sales of physical video games, compared to Game's heyday in the early 2000s. The Digital Entertainment and Retail Association (ERA) revealed that in 2022, nearly 90 per cent of all video games sold in the UK were digital downloads. Why are retailers closing stores? RETAILERS have been feeling the squeeze since the pandemic, while shoppers are cutting back on spending due to the soaring cost of living crisis. High energy costs and a move to shopping online after the pandemic are also taking a toll, and many high street shops have struggled to keep going. However, additional costs have added further pain to an already struggling sector. The British Retail Consortium has predicted that the Treasury's hike to employer NICs from April will cost the retail sector £2.3billion. At the same time, the minimum wage will rise to £12.21 an hour from April, and the minimum wage for people aged 18-20 will rise to £10 an hour, an increase of £1.40. The Centre for Retail Research (CRR) has also warned that around 17,350 retail sites are expected to shut down this year. It comes on the back of a tough 2024 when 13,000 shops closed their doors for good, already a 28% increase on the previous year. Professor Joshua Bamfield, director of the CRR said: "The results for 2024 show that although the outcomes for store closures overall were not as poor as in either 2020 or 2022, they are still disconcerting, with worse set to come in 2025." It comes after almost 170,000 retail workers lost their jobs in 2024. End-of-year figures compiled by the Centre for Retail Research showed the number of job losses spiked amid the collapse of major chains such as Homebase and Ted Baker. It said its latest analysis showed that a total of 169,395 retail jobs were lost in the 2024 calendar year to date. This was up 49,990 – an increase of 41.9% – compared with 2023. It is the highest annual reading since more than 200,000 jobs were lost in 2020 in the aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic, which forced retailers to shut their stores during lockdowns. The centre said 38 major retailers went into administration in 2024, including household names such as Lloyds Pharmacy, Homebase, The Body Shop, Carpetright and Ted Baker. Around a third of all retail job losses in 2024, 33% or 55,914 in total, resulted from administrations. Experts have said small high street shops could face a particularly challenging 2025 because of Budget tax and wage changes. Professor Bamfield has warned of a bleak outlook for 2025, predicting that as many as 202,000 jobs could be lost in the sector. "By increasing both the costs of running stores and the costs on each consumer's household it is highly likely that we will see retail job losses eclipse the height of the pandemic in 2020."

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