Plans to extend Sunday trading hours have been put to public consultation with a view to bringing Northern Ireland in line with the rest of the UK. Robin Morton takes a closer look at the arguments for and against longer opening hours.

Conor McKibbin’s steady hand has seen the family’s retail interests in County Down steadily mature over the last decade or so. This month, we take a look at the smaller of their two stores in the village of Dundrum…

A judicial review of a ban on the display of tobacco products in shops in England is unlikely to overturn the legislation completely, industry experts have warned. At the start of this month, Imperial Tobacco, Japan Tobacco International and BAT [...]

The retail, food service and hospitality sectors locally are beginning to think about this year’s Shop 2010 event, scheduled for Simmonscourt in Dublin between September 28 and 30.

While the state of the economy has been a common topic of conversation for some time, the talk lately has been of recovery and growth, but is there any reason for optimism? We asked economist, Richard Ramsey for his assessment of the situation locally, particularly in relation to the retail and food sectors…