Small Shops Flourish in the U.K., Offering Hope for the Global Retail Industry

LEEDS, England—A retail shakeout punctuated by the pandemic hit the U.K. especially hard. Independent shops, though, are thriving there.

That offers a modest silver lining for a global industry laid low by a pre-pandemic explosion of e-commerce, followed by on-again, off-again Covid-19 lockdowns. The number of independent shops—classified as privately-owned businesses that typically operate a single store—increased by 804 in the U.K. in the first half of 2021, according to the Local Data Co., which compiles retail data. That was the best six-month period in recent years. The number of chain storefronts, meanwhile, fell by 5,251, continuing a trend of large-scale closures.

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