To think it isn't always a tragedy when shops close down?

[tulippa]

A small supermarket close to me has just announced it is closing. This has been followed by many posts on local social media saying how sad this and what a great shop it was.

Whenever I used it, it was always really expensive and had very few customers. Lots of items would be reduced presumably because no-one was buying anything. I'm sure it would have stayed open if it had been profitable.

Yes it would be really sad for people to lose jobs especially now - I get that.

However, AIBU to think that it's kind of our own fault if a shops closes down due to lack of business? There's no point being sad about it - if we wanted it to stay open we should have used it more. Also businesses need to be aware of what people want. They can't stay open for the sake of it if no-one wants to buy their stuff.

"No, not all. Some aren't able to open because they're too small to enable social distancing between staff and/or customers."

Our local shop is too small so they ask what you want and bring it to you a sort of counter at the entrance iyswim. Thinking of an alternative way to operate. They are doing a good trade

I think the parking is a red herring. If you are going to go into somewhere like Salisbury and spend £100 on clothes and maybe another £50 on a meal, does £4 for parking really make any distance (plus the petrol costs).

difference not distance!

A shop closed near me that was in an absolute prime location, on a busy road on the only route out of town, lots of traffic and foot traffic too.

The reason it closed? I suspect it was to do with the man who ran it. It was a well known budget brand that's popular everywhere else. However, every time I went in he would ask sometimes quite intrusive questions. Maybe he was trying to make conversation, but it actually got to feeling quite awkward and as a result I stopped going there. Months later it shut. I just wonder if he hadn't been so curious/over-familiar with people whether it still would've been going. Sad.

Parking charges vary according to demand in an area. The demand in Salisbury was artificially depressed so reducing the charge was a sensible response. Elsewhere, the parking companies will charge what the market will bear.

I thought Oasis and Warehouse went bust during the recession tbh, I had no idea they still existed. I don’t use the high street very much tbh, I live in a small town so it means commuting to the closest city and I just can’t be bothered.

It’s more sad when smaller businesses go bust than larger ones but you are right, they’re often overpriced compared to bigger corporations.

Round these parts the council recently granted half an hour free parking. The local village shops had a huge upturn. Even adult DS commented he'd never used the village so much as when they made the car park free and he was using the local butchers etc.

There was a shop there for years that was great, a sort of everything shop that sold everything from yard brushes to make up. It was cheap and if you needed anything you'd likely get it there. Then the son took over.
Within a month the 'bits' that everyone went for were no longer stocked, replaced instead by expensive toys, appliances and the like. Everything else shot up in price.

He lasted about 2 years before eventually moving the shop to another, slightly more affluent village, complaining our locals didn't support his shop. Funnily enough the affluent village didn't want to pay his comedy prices either, and with a moaning article in the local free paper he shut up shop.

Never understood why someone would take a business model that worked so well and run it into the ground like that.

Parking charges vary according to demand in an area.

Maybe for private car park firms, but councils don't work like that. We have only council car parks in our town centre. They keep increasing the charges despite low demand. In fact, during a council meeting re the charges, they actually said that because fewer people were using them, they needed to increase the charges to raise revenue - the idiots completely missed the point that rising charges would cause even fewer people to use their car parks, thus reducing revenue further. Councils tend not to understand basic economics!

Never understood why someone would take a business model that worked so well and run it into the ground like that.

Sounds like the parents weren't running it on a commercial basis - lots of businesses run by elderly people fall into that trap. They don't need "living wages" as they've paid off their mortgage, don't have holidays, etc., so are happy to run their businesses making very low profits. When either sold or taken over by younger family, the new owners aren't in the same position and need to earn a living wage so make changes to increase profits. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't.

It’s more sad when smaller businesses go bust than larger ones but you are right, they’re often overpriced compared to bigger corporations.

More often that not, because they can't buy anywhere near as cheap as the supermarkets who bully their suppliers!

Lots of my clients are small shops, cafes, fast food etc - many of them buy a lot of their stock from the supermarkets as it's cheaper than the wholesalers or direct from suppliers. It's why (before covid), you'd see people in supermarkets with trolleys full of bread rolls or milk etc.

When I was young, we had an old fashioned "corner shop". Every Saturday, we'd go along to Kwik Save and get two trolley loads of branded groceries - Kelloggs cereals, Heinz tins, McVities biscuits, etc. That was because they were cheaper than the local wholesalers. We'd add 5p as our profit and the selling price would still be cheaper than we could buy them for.

As for bread etc., the "bread vans" had minimum order quantities, as they weren't interested in small shops. It meant we had to buy more than we'd sell and throw loads away, but it was the only way to get a daily delivery.

I don't think people realise the practical difficulties of running a small shop. The entire food production/distribution industry is geared towards the big supermarkets. Smaller shops would be able to compete if they operated on a level playing field, but supermarkets are too powerful to allow that to happen, hence why "corner shops" often appear over-priced.

Parking is a big deal for me. I still go to hairdresser in small very deprived town I used to live in. Parking is free but limited to 2 hours. Controlled by disc (not easy to get hold of) and patrolled by very zealous wardens. The car parks are largely empty as it’s not a town you’d chose to shop in. There are a few shops I don’t have where I live and I’d love to go in but by time I’ve finished hair colour I’m limited to a quick dash in one if I’m lucky. I then get in car and drive to nearby Retail park with free parking instead. There used to a Tesco in the town. Same disc parking. I forgot to display once, got ticket never went back. Tesco soon shut I imagine a lot of people had similar experience.

I think we need to stop flogging a dead horse re high streets and shopping centres. Why keep campaigning to save the High Street when communities clearly don't value it enough to use it?

In this areas there are massive house building plans, all on green fields, Mike's away from proper facilities, when we have a huge shopping centre that is half empty.

If they built some houses there, they would be close to the station and other amenities and the shopping centre could be smaller with shops (and restaurants) people actually use. They won't because it's much easier and therefore more profitable for developers to build on virgin plots.

I think the parking is a red herring. If you are going to go into somewhere like Salisbury and spend £100 on clothes and maybe another £50 on a meal, does £4 for parking really make any distance (plus the petrol costs).

In that circumstance I would agree - but not everyone goes shopping with the plan to spend £150. There are a lot of small villages in that particular area and Salisbury would be the nearest town to go buy say one new summer dress - you might only want to look in the sale or spend no more than £30 or less in somewhere like New Look. In which case it’s much more economical to shop online and pay postage and packaging or sometimes no postage and packaging at all. I think little things like this happening often is hitting high street shops hard.

If you are going to go into somewhere like Salisbury and spend £100 on clothes and maybe another £50 on a meal

Most people won't spend £150 every time they go to town though, will they? Not many people make a day of it. Most people just want to nip in, buy one or two things, and then nip out again. Paying £2 or £3 for just half an hour when you've spent a tenner is a BIG issue!

It is sad when smaller independent shops close. It’s a real shame when people lose their jobs and or business

We had a really nice cooking and craft supplies shop locally They had niche products and ran cake decorating courses - it should have been a roaring success

The lady who owned the business hated adults and especially children touching things on the shelves - which is fine as she wanted to sell her products
I get the thing about children not touching But how can anyone (potentially a paying customer ) buy something without touching it first

And she was so rude. Word got round in our small town where everyone knows everyone

People stopped shopping there. And the shop closed.

The lady who owned the business hated adults and especially children touching things on the shelves

Sadly, some people are in the wrong business, especially those who don't know how to deal with people, especially children.

I remember when my DS was very young. There was a local small pottery (cottage industry) advertising kiddie painting sessions where you chose a hand made clay item and the children were provided with paint pots to paint it. (My DS chose a clay train). It was husband and wife running it, neither were remotely interested in the children (probably didn't have children themselves, no interaction at all). I helped DS paint it and he was really proud of what he'd done - he proudly took it to the woman who just basically sniffed and told us to come back the next day after it had dried. No "well done" or "that's lovely" to him. As I say, probably didn't have kids of her own as she really hadn't a clue how to talk to a child. I think if businesses want to encourage children's activities to help them make money, they should understand the basics of how to talk to/interact with kids! Needless to say, it closed down a few months later.

My local council made the very sensible decision to drop all parking charges every Saturday in December. That helped local trade!
There was an outcry quite a few years ago when the local greengrocer and butcher folded. They were viable businesses but the council at the time had jacked up the business rates and they couldn't afford it.
Better people have since taken over and we have regular farmers markets and a Saturday market with proper greengrocers and butchers and they do very well!
Shops that have failed in recent years there have done so for obvious reasons. Yet another card shop, yet another hairdresser. Too many others competing.
Those that have found a gap in the local market have done well.

there are a lot of businesses big and small that are fairly and superfluous at the best of times without a pandemic. And I agree with others there is a lot of small individual businesses that charge a fortune for pointless items and then wonder why people don't buy them.

But niche businesses all have a place. I mean I'm not a warhammer fan but just because Someone who doesn't enjoy warhammer (we have a warhammer shop in my town centre) think it's pointless and therefore should shut down because it's 'superfluous' is probably being quite harsh. Just because things aren't mainstream doesn't make them superfluous. FWIW I'm a professional photographer. A lot of the photography I do could be considered superfluous because it's not essential but does that mean my business should fail? I don't think so.

I love to see a well run business do well. I cant think of one that had a decent product and good service at a fair price and failed.

All that stuff about support a small business and you're funding a little girl's dance lessons gets on my nerves too. Like people who work in big companies don't buy their kids lessons?

It's sad when small businesses close, for sure.

I have a hard time feeling bad for Debenhams and similar chains, which don't carry much stock in stores and tell you to order things online if you ask about them. I always tried to shop in-store but it can be impossible to look for something specific even in big department stores.

I agree with you, op. It's sad for the staff, but usually long overdue. Debenhams has been awful for years, such a confused shop. I have hated WHSmith for years; the dusty bars of chocolate at the till, the overpriced books and the thing I can't ever forgive them for is the Playboy stationary for school girls.

Hopefully Sports Direct won't survive this. The way Mike Ashley treats his employees is appalling.

We had a family owned upmarket independent restaurant/bar close in our town a couple of years ago, compete with faux outrage on the local FB page. It had been thriving for many years before that, won awards in local & county competitions etc, but was sold as a complete business after one of the original owners passed away.

It was the beginning of the end. The outstanding chef left fairly quickly to pastures new in a starred London outfit. The new maitre d' was frankly rude & surly, menu changed direction completely, quality plummeted, prices were jacked sky high. It lasted two years. We'd been regular customers every couple of months for years, went twice with the new people and never went back. Most people who were regulars felt the same - they got lots of new but one off visits after the revamp, people will give something new a try, but almost no one I knew went back again. It was disastrous.

That was not a tragedy, it was an inevitable consequence of extremely poor decisions.

Aagh! stationery