NEWS FEATURE
10 ASIAN TRADER 19 SEPTEMBER 2025
unning a convenience store in
Britain rarely ends when the
shutters roll down. Be it keeping an
eye on CCTV or answering supplier calls, for
independent convenience retailers,
vacations are rare and even when they
occur, it is usually more of a balancing act
rather than a welcome break.
For thousands of independents, holidays
are not just about sunshine and rest; rather,
they are a litmus test of trust in staff,
systems, and the communities they serve.
Asian Trader checked in to find out how
indies unwind. It turns out only a few
manage to go completely off-grid, but most
admit they can’t resist peeking.
Salford-based
retailer Amit Patel,
who has run his
family’s store
Duchy Stores since
his teens, knows
the drill.
“I find it hard to
switch off com
pletely,” he told
Asian Trader.
“Even 1,000
miles away, I still log onto the CCTV system
and have a quick glance. We’ve got a
WhatsApp group, so we have a good idea of
what’s happening back at the shop.”
For Patel, planning a break is like plotting
a small military operation, weighing staff
cover, checking how busy the calendar
looks, and ensuring there’s a point of
contact if things go wrong.
“We’d rather wind down in one spot
rather than have the effort of tours or
excursions. I know sitting a thousand miles
away, I won’t be able to do much but even
then, I am happy keeping an eye on what is
happening than rather going completely off
the grid.”
Technology, he said, is the
unsung hero of modern retailer
holidays. And Patel has a very
good reason to be thankful for it.
For being a child of a retailer-
couple, he never got to enjoy a
single vacation as a whole
family.
“When we were younger it
was either Dad or Mum who
took us (my brother, sister and I)
Pooja Shrivastava finds out that unlike
most Brits, independent retailers’ holidays
are less about rest and more about trust...
“When on a rare holiday, it’s a blended
approach where I will respond to messages
and calls when I’m free. But I still tend to
place orders so that staff can do the day-to-
day running of the store.
“Also, preparing the store for the holiday
is key, for example we will stock up on most
popular ambient lines to avoid big deliveries
when I am away to make it easier for staff to
focus on customer service,” Pandya told
Asian Trader.
Cost of a break
Some retailers have not taken a vacation for
a long time because they fear it
will mean a loss of business.
For independent retailer
Christine Hope, the decision to
step away is brutally tied to
numbers. She runs Hope of
Longtown in a village in
Hereford, a lifeline for the
community as the village
depends on the store for the
essentials.
“Time away from the business has been
vastly reduced to reduce business debt
created by numerous factors,” she says
frankly.
“Right now, I am focused at break-even,
followed by reinvesting. A holiday cannot
replace the sanity of profit.”
Her statement captures the dilemma
many independents quietly live with: when
margins are wafer-thin, leisure is the first
luxury to go.
However, she is now determined to figure
out a way to draw a boundary soon.
“I know it is not sustainable long term.
When this happens, I rarely take work home
to provide some home-life balance and bring
back some sanity,” she revealed.
Always on, remotely restless
away, but never together
since one of them had to
stay back to take care of the
store.
“In fact, I cannot recall
even a single family
vacation that we had taken
together to this day, which
is kind of sad now that I
think about it,” he said.
“But that was their time;
they had no other option.”
Patel’s reflection isn’t an
isolated one.
Local convenience stores like these are
extensions of households, which makes
all-family holidays especially hard.
Generational shifts in many Asian-
owned independents mean adult children
often work side by side with parents. In
many family-run stores, children spend
their summers stacking shelves and
manning the till.
Today, technology has changed the
scenario by enabling remote control and
connectivity, yet vacations for most
retailers remain rare.
For newbies like retailer Vidur
Pandya, it is still a luxury to take
an extended break.
“As both my father and I are
involved in the business, it’s
either me or him who can go on
holiday. This makes taking
family holiday tricky.
“This mainly comes down to
staffing and operations as we are
still new in the business. One key
aspect, I have now realised, is hiring a store
manager to whom one can hand over the
business while on a break.”
Considering that Pandya’s Kislingbury
Village Store is the only one in the entire
village, not opening up for a
couple of days has wider
repercussion on the community
– hence it is never an option.
“I have been in business for
3.5 years so very early in building
the business. I am still training
employees to be independent
which of course takes a while.”
On whichever days Pandya
had managed to get away, he still
found himself working remotely.
Vidur Pandya
Christine Hope
Amit Patel