Cafes and restaurants closing down

[Lulasun]

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.

Mental ain't it? It's why I very rarely eat/drink out anymore. It's a boring life but everywhere is too dear, I just can't justify the expense. Plus I'm greedy and the portions are never big enough.

However, a huge swathe of the UK must be immune from inflation - or don't care or just think life's too short - because this thread has proved there's no shortage of cafes and restaurants. You'd think there might be over supply to prove the OP's point, but evidently not.

Yes. And then it doesn't feel special enough because the staff are all on zero hours contracts and demotivated and the whole visit feels disappointing.

Yes probably col , or what has been happening around here is a cafe / small trader has been going years , wants to retire but no-one wanting to take on the business so it sadly closes down.
in my local cafe they have stopped serving a little side salad & a few crisps to the toasties & sandwiches which makes them look a bit sad.

A new (cupcakes) cafe' opened in our village a few months ago. Initially it was busy because they did a big push on the local social media pages. But after that it was always quite empty. The prices are too high. They do say they are because they sell high-quality products. But you can get nice cupcakes and cakes in other places, and most people are not spending £4 on a cupcake at the moment. The place is 'Instagram ready' but that's not enough to attract returning business. And the location isn't suitable to attract passing traffic.

I think that's a big issue - many small businesses, mainly shops and cafes, are hanging on to the fact that they are 'boutique' and that they sell unique and/or good quality products. But with the CoL crises, that's a little deaf, IMO.

Ds2 and I went to a generic family pub last Monday... Both ordered the same dish, I made sure they knew one was with chips and one was jacket potato. They both arrived with chips, sent mine back, jacket potato came, stone cold in the middle, third time the potato was hot. When I went to pay I refused to pay for my dinner.. They were a bit sniffy but agreed in the end.

And without those cafe additions, you might as well just buy a sandwich from M&S or wherever.

I saw a FB post earlier. It was a fish and chip shop but still an illustration of the increase in costs faced.

Tens of thousands a year increase on gas, electricity and oil. On top they didn't mention how much ingredients costs had gone up which will be loads. Also NMW has gone up 10%.

A profitable business could put their prices up and still lose money. And when it's a small independent business they can't afford to work for nothing or more likely negative money. So they close unfortunately.

Sure 🙄

As we move out of summer then I think it can only worsen

Our high street is full of vape stores, and expensive charity shops. The charity shops are ridiculously priced I feel. They will maybe start to go soon...

There's also many specialist ( polish, Turkish,Asian) food supermarkets.... how are they doing? Are prices massively increased? I do not shop in them so have no idea

Plenty of working people have a decent household income, from MN you'd assume everyone was living on the breadline and unable to afford even gruel, it's not the case.

That said locally I've found prices have gone up which is fair enough given they're paying more for everything, but the quality has gone down as they invariably can't find enough staff.

Our town is wealthy. People in big cars, big houses, obvious wealth on the streets. Independent businesses really seem to be struggling. Several have closed. Theres not even the business for a pub on the small high street. Cafes full of retirees and patents of young kids at lunch time and then no evening/night time economy at all. Sad for the businesses that have closed and its also not good for the town in the long run.

What is with that anyway? I didn't realize it was a thing. I have one round here, opens 10am-2pm but looks from the outside like the sort of place you could get afternoon tea. Discovering it was shut in the afternoon, my friend and I returned at noon another day to find it's the sort of place that does beans on toast. They're the only cafe round here so I imagine they'll do ok. I think they'd do better though if it was more obvious from the outside what they sold and if they opened early enough for people to get breakfast before going to work. I'm not sure who their target market is.

When overheads are so high (power and wages), they can only open for hours when they have enough custom to cover the costs. That usually means limited to the busiest of times, If they opened longer, they'd use more power, staff would need breaks etc plus wages for the extra hours, the owners would probably need to pay for childcare around school opening/closing times, etc etc. For many, the trade in quiet times such as mid morning and mid afternoon just doesn't justify the costs of opening.

We have few shops, but plenty of cafes, restaurants, coffee shops and charity shops. Nowhere much to buy clothes or other goods unless you want either very expensive or Poundland. I don’t go there much, but every time I do, another retail outlet has closed.

I’ve noticed a couple of hairdressers reducing their opening hours. One doesn’t open at all on Saturdays and one, only every fortnight. I’d have thought Saturday would be a good business day.