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Andrew Whitehead: Shopping for Scottish Independence

Having discussed the energy, education and manufacturing sectors, the senior partner at SGH Martineau turns his attention to the Scottish retail sector and how it could be affected by a Yes vote

In previous blogs, I offered a few thoughts on the Scottish independence debate from the perspectives of the energy, education and manufacturing sectors, which are three of the key industry sectors for SGH Martineau.

Another is the retail and leisure sector, and so I asked Kathy Toon, who heads that sector for our law firm, for her thoughts.

Kathy confirms that, from the retail perspective, the debate has almost exclusively focused on consumer pricing, especially for household goods and groceries.

The concern is that, outside of the big cities, Scotland is relatively sparsely populated and distribution costs are correspondingly high compared to the rest of the º£½ÇÊÓÆµ.

As a separate country, it is conceivable that retailers, notably the big supermarkets, might disaggregate their pricing and adopt a bespoke pricing strategy either side of the border, as they would do with any other neighbouring countries.

This might lead to higher prices in Scotland and lower ones in England and Wales.

Indeed, this possibility was raised only this week by the chairman of John Lewis, speaking on Radio 4's Today programme.

But there are many who reject this notion and point to the extra costs and hassle for retailers in having to adapt IT systems and marketing literature and so on in order to disaggregate pricing either side of the border.