Rail fares, department stores, Office, banned adverts: your commercial news round-up

It’s A-level results day and as thousands of students across the country find out where they are going to study at university, we urge all incoming law students to head to our first-year zone for more information on what to do at this stage. Meanwhile, we’ve summarised a collection of interesting and relevant commercial news stories below. Take a look and top up your commercial awareness:

• Rail fares in the UK are set to rise by 2.8% in January, adding more than £100 to many customers’ annual season tickets. Since 2009, the overall cost of train travel has increased by 46%, with many campaigners calling for fares policy to be reformed.
• Sales in department stores in July have risen for the first time this year. Stores such as Debenhams and John Lewis saw an increase of 0.2% last month, despite a forecast for the opposite. This modest growth was described as encouraging, supporting the view that the British economy has picked up in the third quarter, after last week’s results showed that the economy contracted in the second quarter for the first time since 2012.
• It wouldn’t be a commercial news round-up without some post-Brexit doom and gloom. This week it’s farmers who are calling for a second EU referendum, after a report found that more than half of UK farms could go out of business if the UK leaves the EU without a deal in October. Campaigners will herd a flock of sheep down Whitehall to protest against Brexit. The report warned that in the case of a no-deal Brexit, the government would prioritise low food prices over farmers, potentially leading to severe consequences for farming businesses.
• The battle for the British high street has claimed another victim this week as shoe retailer Office announced that it will close up to half of its 100 stores as their leases expire over the next few years. The retailer will not use a company voluntary agreement (CVA) to carry out the closures.
• And finally: harmless adverts or harmful stereotypes? Two TV adverts were banned this week by the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) for enforcing gender stereotypes. The first ad, which was for Philadelphia cheese, featured two fathers leaving a baby on a restaurant conveyor belt, while the second advert for the Volkswagen eGolf car showed men engaging in adventurous activities while a woman sits on a bench next to a pram. Both ads received complaints from the members of the public. Jess Tye, investigations manager at the ASA said that “ads that specifically contrast male and female stereotypes need to be handled with care. It’s about thinking about what the cumulative effect of those gender stereotypes might be.”

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