To wonder how the fuck small independant shops make money ?

[LaurieFairyCake]

Tiny shop near me for rent (600 square feet)
£13,000 per year rent

So you have to clear over a grand a month profit (never mind business rates) to break even.

How?

I can speak for every independent place, obviously, but for us the answer is that we don't make money. We provide a decent living for our suppliers and our staff but if we didn't live 'above the shop' we would not survive. Unfortunately we're tied into a long lease which we cannot get out of. When we signed up the world looked very different.

Sorry, can't speak for every independent

I was chatting to the owner of a new independent business in our town - the only independent kids/baby stuff shop in the town - and she was saying that it costs £50000 pa just to open her doors.

The shop is therefor moving next month, and we will have yet another empty shop in town. And as she had a meeting room in her shop that she let out to local groups, there are loads of groups looking for new meeting places.

Many of us moved to her meeting room from the library meeting room, as the council raised the hourly cost of that room from £5-£10 to £25. I am not sure what the council are trying to do, because surely pricing everyone out of local shops loses them more money than reducing rates a bit?

Where I live, we have a huge newly-rebuilt shopping centre which is 90% empty and the owners have recently forced out a long established pet shop by putting up the rent massively. Not sure how true it is, but the local gossip is that the owners make more money by having the units empty because they get some sort of tax break and EU subsidy? It clearly suits them to have units empty because they are EXPANDING the shopping centre, despite the part already open being mostly empty!