Retailers closing their stores temporarily during the coronavirus outbreak have reported issues in arranging magazine returns to their wholesaler.

Adam Marvill, of The Paper Rack in Mablethorpe, Lincolnshire, had to temporarily close his store but faced difficulties with acquiring empty tote boxes from the publisher.

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Marvill said: “It’s been frustrating. We took the decision to close our store from Tuesday last week, and contacted Smiths on the Wednesday asking for about 15 tote boxes, but we’ve still had no luck getting them. Now we’ve got magazines that should have gone back over a week ago, and we’re concerned that we won’t get credit for them.

“I understand that there are far more important things than my problem going on at the moment, but from our point of view, we’ve got no income at all. We don’t really want to be losing money we can’t afford to lose.”

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Natalie Kemp, customer experience coordinator for Smiths News, said: “Our local depot has been in contact and we have resolved the customer’s concerns. The customer has been left happy with our proposed solution.  

“If any other customers do find themselves in a similar situation, we advise them to visit the ‘contact us’ page via SNapp online. All incoming messages are being actioned promptly by our teams throughout normal business hours.”

Find out more on our coronavirus information hub for retailers