Town shops fear goods and services tax would be disaster

A goods and services tax has already been introduced in Jersey, and a GST of up to 8% has been put forward as an option for Guernsey in the tax review published last month.

The review described the current tax base as ‘unsustainable’.

Model Shop Dice Gifts co-owner John Cocks fears that his 65-year career in retail could come to an end if the tax is introduced.

‘If our local customers walked away to shop online, it would be the death of us.

‘More empty shop windows won’t help when it comes to tourists visiting,’ he said.

Mr Cocks also questioned how the process would work without a bar-code system in his store, and whether it would mean retailers would have to buy a more suitable till to accommodate the new charge, something which would likely be costly for shop owners.

‘We have an old fashioned till so we don’t scan things, we input the prices manually.’

Customers often went into the shop to check if prices were cheaper online, something that wasn't always true according to Mr Cocks. ‘We never raise our prices unless it is absolutely necessary,’ he said.

‘At the end of the day, the only winner is Amazon.’

Other stores in Guernsey have faced difficulties due to the dominance of online shops and prices that were hard to compete with.

Guernsey Photographics manager Dave Nash has been working there for 39 years and said that GST would result in an inevitable rise in prices.

‘It would have a devastating effect,’ he said.

‘During lockdown more people started shopping online – some of those people will come back to shopping in store and others won’t.

‘We would have to put our prices up because we can’t take on an 8% loss.’

Jersey has seen photography shops closing down in recent years, which Mr Nash has blamed on GST.

‘There’s no photography shops left in Jersey – they just don’t keep the range any more, which is at least partially due to taxing goods.’