Will YOU still be buying from small businesses?

[Yatima]

I own a small business, which was almost crippled by covid, only managed to get back on our feet earlier this year. Now with the announcement of the 80% energy hike, and inflation rising to 13% I'm worried this will finish us off for good.

When people cant afford to heat their own homes or cook their own food, who is still going to be buying from small businesses at a time like this? 😩

I hope your business is not badly impacted OP. It's a worrying time.

I have a small e-commerce business selling only on Amazon. I know there's generally a lot of Amazon hate, but I just wanted to make people aware that 60% of all sales on the Amazon UK site are from independent sellers who just use the Amazon platform instead of or as well as their own website. Amazon of course benefit from referral fees etc. for these sales. But you can shop on Amazon and support small businesses at the same time.

Yes, as far as possible. I'd rather buy local and independent, compared to online.

With my discretionary spending, I’m going to be prioritising charity donations. I’m hoping it won’t affect me too much, but if I do make any cutbacks, it probably will be the local coffee shops, farm shops and other small businesses that will take the hit.

Only if is much better quality or something bespoke.
If it's a like for like product I'll get it from where ever is cheapest and can deliver the fastest for free. Which is always Amazon or Next as I have free next day delivery for a yearly price.

Honestly? No I won't, unless it's cheaper than the alternative.

We already buy all clothes and shoes and household items secondhand from eBay, Vinted, Facebook marketplace and car boot sales. Anything we don't need is sold on or given away through similar channels.

We'll be cutting spending to the bone in the winter so probably no more trips to the pub (already usually Wetherspoons maybe once a week or so as the others are more than twice the price) and no more takeaways (had been Dominos or fish and chips once or twice a month) unless it's chipped in for when friends come around which reduces the cost. We already typically don't eat out in restaurants unless family want to and treat us.

We're actually better off than a lot of our friends as we own rather than rent and should be able to afford these increases by cutting usage and spending but without using savings or getting into debt just about but there will be nothing left for luxuries and we run a very tight ship on spending as it is.

I see mass businesses closures and unemployment on the horizon in my high cost of living, low pay and seasonal work area of Cornwall. No one will be able to afford to eat out or drink out anywhere this winter and in my town most people are employed in the hospitality sector so we'll feel it more than most.

Yes, more than ever, because I want all my favourite independents to survive and life will be sadder without them. I can afford to do so though.

No, sorry I won't be. I'm going to be watching our spending very carefully this winter.

Yes I will be. It’s more important than ever to support small businesses as far as I’m concerned.

Yes and no.

Yes - if you have the product I need for the same price as the supermarket or perhaps slightly more if it's more convenient for me absolutely I'll buy local.

No - I won't go massively out of my way/inconvenient times or buy if it's much more than the supermarket which I know isn't ideal as you don't have the same buying power.

I'm really not into 'craft' items and homemade decorations etc.

I think it will depend a lot on what you are buying and who was your original market to start with.

I am expecting to see a lot of take aways, small cafes etc… to close down just because of the cost of utilities :(
Those that will stay are likely to be those who offer something different - I’m thinking of our small DIY shop or the one selling electric goods. The fact they deliver, install etc…and can offer a proper individualised service mean a lot of (older) people will still use them for example, even though they are more expensive on paper.

Have tried to in the past and have regretted it.

I was buying a board game (specialist) for my DH. So went to a local specialist shop. All arranged. As it's a specialist shop it's not that local! So when it arrived we had to pay £10 postage.

If I'd bought it on Amazon the board game itself was £30 (weep) cheaper and free postage. I wish I'd bought it on Amazon.

Especially since the specialist game shop went on to crucify people like me who believe in and support single sex spaces!
They made a very public statement that single sex spaces were transphobic and people who supported them were bigots.

Now I look for the cheapest option. That shop will never get our custom again.

I increasingly buy from small businesses. All my meat comes from the local butcher - potatoes & carrots from a farm, boiler service etc from local installers rather than big companies. Local chip shop too

Definitely the local coffee shop rather than Costa.

Btw I would be careful to use MN as a gauge as to what will happen to your business.
i started mine in 2008 just when the recession started. Everyone told me it was the worst time to do that. It didn’t stop me building a nice business. It meant I had to more to go and find those customers. I really streamlined what I did to reduce my own costs. And I ensure people had the best customer experience I could.

Depending in what you are doing, I’d look at going online as much as possible, look at other products you could sell that way. Because just as much some people will restrict their spending, others will still have some buying power and the means to buy more than some basic products.

I will try to, my DH is a small business owner (one man working from the spare bedroom so as small as you get) and we have many friends in similar businesses.

However we're expecting his business to really suffer so things will be tight, we will have to meet the increased bills out of my salary alone, and he may have to get a "day job" and keep the business ticking over as a side hustle. Though how he will get work having been out of regular employment for so long I don't know.

probably not.
Unless it was something I could only get from that one business only.
But if I can find it cheaper then il go for the cheaper option.

Local restaurants and cafes- nope because eating out is going- baring the park cafe.
our local diy shop yes because it’s easier and quicker than Amazon actually

Things like haircuts, fruit and veg, kids shoes, cards, flowers etc I will still buy locally. We will be eating out less though, meeting friends at home for a coffee or lunch instead of a local cafe, not buying gift hampers or specially made birthday cakes, and avoiding the shops and fairs where I often buy locally made stuff to give as presents.

As everyone says - it depends what you sell!

Some businesses flourish in hard times because what they sell makes people's lives easier. Some small businesses can actually charge competitively because of lower overheads (our local farm shop sells their own meat - slaughtered less than ten km away and on view in their fields before that - for less than supermarket high welfare meat - no packaging though, customers bring their own, and a very specific pick up slot once every six weeks or so and minimum purchase 10kg to freeze).

Services like small garages can be better value than big chains and if they provide reliably good service will thrive as people change cars less and when warranty runs out move to independent mechanics.

Small businesses invlude things like childminders who can be cheaper and more flexible than nursery chains.

Novelty items that people buy on a whim will be the first things to be dropped, but people will still buy "special" high quality things like jewelry I think, if it has a good reputation and really is high quality. If you sell luxury items it might be worth working on a way to sell through a portal like Etsy as well as in person.

It just depends on prices - if they're competitive. I do my food shopping in a supermarket because it's cheaper .. same with clothes - mainly buy the online.
Just depends what I'm buying tho and if I'm looking for something unique.

I will, but I suppose that’s because I’ve never relied on small businesses for the essentials - we’ve never been able to afford it. Except our local veg store. We’ve always used our local butcher every other week, we eat a lot of veggie meals, and bought nice sourdough bread from from our bakery as a treat a couple of times a month. We have a lot of nice little gift shops and I use them for family presents - again that’s not a regular buy. I wouldn’t have been able to shop at independent business regularly before, they are pricey (as they should be for their good quality) so no different now. I can see how some people who used to be regular customers may need to squeeze their wallets a bit now, I suppose that’s where things will get difficult.

No, sorry, we won’t have anything spare. I hope that those who do will give it some thought and try to help small businesses.

We use local butchers and will continue that.

Non essentials will be the cheapest and only if we have spare money.

I buy from small businesses that offer a product I like, at a fair price alongside good service, the same as any other purchase. That won't change, but the overall number of purchases I'm able to make may do. If so "luxuries" will obviously be the first to go, be it from small or large companies.

I don't buy into the support small/local businesses just because mantra. Large businesses also provide jobs and serve the communities they're in and IME small businesses can be really awful employers and provide terrible service. Not all obviously, but being independent certainly isn't any guarantee that they'll be any good or more ethical.

It really depends what you sell.
For eg, I've stopped buying bath bombs because I'm not having a bath, but I have started buying more wax melts as I use the light and smell (instead of a plug in) ...