Up-to-date coverage of the latest events in UK retail.

Consumer confidence edges up in September

Consumer confidence increased marginally across all measures in September as shoppers delivered mixed results ahead of the October 31 Brexit deadline.

Overall consumer confidence increased two points month on month to -12 in September, although this was still down on the previous score for September 2018, according to the GfK Consumer Confidence Barometer.

Mothercare chair adds Dignity to directorships

Mothercare chair Clive Whiley has taken up the same role at funerals business Dignity.

Dignity said its “well advanced” in a search for more non-executive directors.

Co-op unveils gym made from recycled knives

The Co-op has built a gym made from recycled knives in partnership with anti-knife crime group Steel Warriors.

The gym, in Lambeth, south London, is the first of 20 that the Co-op will back with Steel Warriors as part of the retailer’s programme of community work.

Co-op Chief Membership Officer, Matt Atkinson said: “Creating and protecting community spaces where people meet, exercise, play, learn and laugh together is so important for our mental and physical wellbeing. Without these spaces people become isolated and less active and our young people are less safe on the streets.

“We feel strongly that as a business we have to try and do something to support our communities, to help them work together to improve where they live and keep their young people safe.

“We don’t have all the answers but by co-operating with others and building partnerships like this one with Steel Warriors, which has produced this fantastic outdoor gym made from knives taken off the streets, has to help.”

Walmart mulls sale of JetBlack

Walmart has received unsolicited expressions of interest in its text-to-order JetBlack business.

Partnerships as well as a sale are also being discussed, Bloomberg reported.

JetBlack is a platform operating at present only in New York that enables members, who pay $50 per month for the service, to receive a personal shopping service.

It has been overseen by Rent the Runway co-founder Jenny Fleiss, who joined Walmart two yers ago to work with the retailer’s ecommerce chief and Jet.com founder Mark Lore.