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Original poster

Cafes and restaurants closing down

39 replies

Lulasun · 25/08/2023 11:15

In the last week, two local cafes have suddenly ceased trading citing rising costs. I know two doesn't sound like much, but I live rurally and they were the only cafes within a 15 minute drive. Both cafes have been there for years and years.

I don't really know why I'm posting, I know two cafes closing is hardly a life changing disaster. It's just made me sad, and I think my local area is certainly worse off for the loss of these places.

It feels like the cost of living is really hitting home for business now.

OP posts:
MrsSkylerWhite · 25/08/2023 11:18

Agree. We’re seeing more closures now than we did in the 6 months after lockdown lifted. It is sad, so many people struggled on through Covid and pulled through only to be scuppered by the COL crisis. I’m looking at you Truss/Kwarteng.

KnittedCardi · 25/08/2023 11:22

Where in the country are you? It's interesting because our local high street in South West Surrey, is rammed full of cafes and restaurants, and they are all very busy. What we are losing are shops, which is equally sad, but all are being replaced by hospitality. The street is therefore becoming a social area, not a shopping area.

paulinaghe · 25/08/2023 11:23

I run a small business and have gone to lots of small business meet ups over the years and met the other founders. Wow, the amount of small businesses that have folded in the last 9 months is astonishing. it doesnt even make the local news

Lastqueenofscotland2 · 25/08/2023 11:25

KnittedCardi · 25/08/2023 11:22

Where in the country are you? It's interesting because our local high street in South West Surrey, is rammed full of cafes and restaurants, and they are all very busy. What we are losing are shops, which is equally sad, but all are being replaced by hospitality. The street is therefore becoming a social area, not a shopping area.

I’m in a small West Yorkshire town and this is also the case near me, a furniture shop has branched out to also doing coffee and cake, the banks are all gone, one of which is now a bar…

MotherOfGodWeeFella · 25/08/2023 11:26

I think it's hard to make that kind of business pay due to the cost of the materials, food, and the overheads. If they're not in a tourist area - and even if they are with the vagaries of the UK weather - then extending opening hours is one way they can try to be more profitable, but it's a very difficult sector. The stats for restaurant and cafe failures are high compared with some other businesses even when the economy is buoyant.

enchantedsquirrelwood · 25/08/2023 11:27

It's quite likely that someone else will take over. It might not be the sort of cafe or food outlet you'd like though. But one person's misfortune is another person's opportunity.

When I moved to the town I live in 20 years ago, there was one cafe. Since then there have been several new ones, both independent and chains, and they are always full. And yes, one of the buildings that was a bank is now a cafe/bar.

Kazzyhoward · 25/08/2023 11:29

Yes, shops, cafes, etc all closing at an alarming rate. No surprise really given the massive (unregulated) increase in power costs, plus the ongoing war on motorists meaning fewer people going into towns due to parking costs, pedestrianisations, etc. Add in tax increases, increases in wages costs, shortages of staff, etc. Also the increase in supplies, food costs, overheads, etc.

After all the money spunked on covid support grants (often for people who didn't need it and not working when they could have done), giving loans/grants to fraudsters, etc., and now the govt is basically hanging out small businesses to collapse with no help at all.

The current government (and rishi in particular) really hate small businesses, we saw it when he deliberately excluded 3 million freelancers and small businesses from Covid support grants, and seeing it again now, with absolutely no help at all for struggling small businesses due to the COL crisis. All Rishi cares about are his big business millionaire/billionaire friends.

TropicalTrama · 25/08/2023 11:29

KnittedCardi · 25/08/2023 11:22

Where in the country are you? It's interesting because our local high street in South West Surrey, is rammed full of cafes and restaurants, and they are all very busy. What we are losing are shops, which is equally sad, but all are being replaced by hospitality. The street is therefore becoming a social area, not a shopping area.

Sounds like where my parents live! My mum was proudly telling me that they have more coffee shops per resident than anywhere else in the country. No idea if that’s true or how she’d even know but there are an awful lot of them so it’s not totally unbelievable.

felisha54 · 25/08/2023 11:33

In our village a new cafe has just opened. There is already 2 cafes (always heaving) and 2 other restaurants.

Richmondgal · 25/08/2023 11:34

Kazzyhoward · 25/08/2023 11:29

Yes, shops, cafes, etc all closing at an alarming rate. No surprise really given the massive (unregulated) increase in power costs, plus the ongoing war on motorists meaning fewer people going into towns due to parking costs, pedestrianisations, etc. Add in tax increases, increases in wages costs, shortages of staff, etc. Also the increase in supplies, food costs, overheads, etc.

After all the money spunked on covid support grants (often for people who didn't need it and not working when they could have done), giving loans/grants to fraudsters, etc., and now the govt is basically hanging out small businesses to collapse with no help at all.

The current government (and rishi in particular) really hate small businesses, we saw it when he deliberately excluded 3 million freelancers and small businesses from Covid support grants, and seeing it again now, with absolutely no help at all for struggling small businesses due to the COL crisis. All Rishi cares about are his big business millionaire/billionaire friends.

The Covid loans saved thousands of businesses and jobs
i assume you have never run your own businesses
the price of coffee in coffee shops is prohibitive
I was in a Costa last week 3.65 for a coffee I am just not prepared to pay those prices

CheeseandGherkins · 25/08/2023 11:35

I'm not surprised considering the cost of living crisis means people that would have been able to buy from them now can't and decide to eat and drink at home instead. It doesn't matter how much money the government throw at a small business if the potential customers can't afford to spend money.

Babyroobs · 25/08/2023 11:35

The cafes and restaurants in my village always seem busy but generally full of pensioners. No-one else can afford to eat out.

newnamethanks · 25/08/2023 11:36

Tom Kerridge has a TV series at the moment. In one episode he was discussing running costs with his accountant/business manager. "Our energy costs last year were 14p per unit. This year its up to 92p per unit". I don't know how small businesses are staying open. Terrible for them.

ImABox · 25/08/2023 11:39

I think people tastes are changing as well. On holiday recently I really wanted a salad type lunch, something healthy. But there were only places selling chips and carbs and sandwiches. Which I understand are cheap to knock out but seemed quite old fashioned and people going there have the money to spend and happy to spend it.

also locally people complain about the tourists, but without the tourists there would be no numbers to make the local attractions work, without them we would have no cafes or attractions. No good answer!

MrsDanversGlidesAgain · 25/08/2023 11:40

KnittedCardi · 25/08/2023 11:22

Where in the country are you? It's interesting because our local high street in South West Surrey, is rammed full of cafes and restaurants, and they are all very busy. What we are losing are shops, which is equally sad, but all are being replaced by hospitality. The street is therefore becoming a social area, not a shopping area.

I live in SW London suburb with a large sporting arena and the area is completely geared to catering to fans - coffee shops, restaurants, takeways, kebab shops....and always has been. That's what keeps the area going. We have TWO Starbucks within a couple of hundred yards, and four shops selling coffee at the station. If you want shoes or underwear or furniture or everyday stuff apart from food, you go elsewhere. And the council eternally wonders why.

There's about a quarter of a mile of shops - oriental carpets, party stuff, tailoring, oe overpriced shop selling women's clothes, a glazier, kitchen design, tax advice...stuff that people use once in a blue moon if ever. That swathe of road is a chance to open some shops that cater for everyday needs, yet our environment councillor, when she's not earnestly lecturing us about why the verges don't get cut, witters on about 15 minute cities while ignoring the wasted space just down the road.

LlynTegid · 25/08/2023 11:47

The business rates model is for an analogue world, no action against vape shops (some no doubt fronts for money laundering) and in general as demonstrated during 2020, the government does not understand business.

MrsDanversGlidesAgain · 25/08/2023 11:51

Oh yeah, forgot... we are at max capacity with barbers, as well.

ImNotReallySpartacus · 25/08/2023 11:54

Were these cafes the sort of cafes that open four days a week from ten till three?

TakeMe2Insanity · 25/08/2023 11:54

I’m in SW London, zone 3, and the introduction of controlled parking zone over lunchtime has added to restaurants finding it harder to survive. We have plenty of coffee shops but anyone offering more is struggling.

FLOWER1982 · 25/08/2023 11:55

Not surprising really. Coffee and cake for 2 was around £15 the other day. Meal for 4 at an Italian was almost £200 last weekend. 4 mains, 4 puddings and 2 drinks each. Absolutely shocking.

CremeEggThief · 25/08/2023 11:59

I'm going to be controversial and say another reason is the standards of service in hospitality in the UK are so hit and miss, especially since the pandemic, that people tend to remember the places where they are well-treated and avoid those where they were not...
I have got up and walked out of 2 or 3 cafés in the past few months, as they haven't come to offer me a drink or a menu within 5 minutes of finding my (own) table on days when they weren't particularly busy.

That's just rude of them and not somewhere that's getting another penny of my money.

TonTonMacoute · 25/08/2023 11:59

Same round here, so many pubs and cafes are closing or up for sale.

Im also in a rural area and there just isn't the level of business needed to keep them going as food and energy prices have increased so much.

Sortmylifeout52 · 25/08/2023 12:17

In a run down part of Cheshire.
No banks, no shops, but 3 coffee shops and a drive thru Costa on the way! Oh and endless kebab/ chicken places and a new B&M and macdonalds 🤷‍♀️🤷‍♀️

FutureThroughLensOfThePast · 25/08/2023 12:23

It's a spiral - rising costs passed onto consumers - when you're spending £20 on a light sandwich lunch for two, it becomes a special occasion only thing.

OnToTheNextOneOntoTheNextOne · 25/08/2023 12:32

Lots of small independent restaurants and cafés have folded locally.

Our favourite cafe (non profit organisation) looks on the brink of extinction. They recently got rid of the last of their long term employees who were on decent contracts, replacing them with zero hours/ temp contract staff. The service is now dire and footfall is down.

We try hard as a family to support local independent business - but when they can't even afford to keep good staff and the experience becomes miserable for the customer it makes it feel less affordable. It's like, this £10 coffee and sandwich is my special treat - if I have to queue for 10 minutes and the staff are surly and the table is dirty....I get that overheads are high but I feel cheated.