To ask where all those who said that WFH would be good for business are now?

[ChampagnePuppy]

Sorry, sort of a rant.
I work in a small local foodie business in the South West. I know there is a cost of living crisis, but I also feel that WFH culture is killing us.
So many said that they would spend more in their local high streets now they were WFH but that seems to have stopped.
People are online food shopping and then not leaving their houses. Three local businesses announced they were closing this week, two bakeries and one restaurant. I can count five since Christmas which have folded.
I know a lot are feeling the pinch from gas and electric but a lot of people are just WFH, squirrelling their money away, saving and then saying 'oh that's a shame' on the Facebook posts when a business announces they're folding. Why not support them? I'm not talking about those on the breadline but those who are financially comfortable.
If you want a diverse high street, you have to support local businesses or we won't be here in a years time.

In lockdowns people had more time to spend in local shops and were more likely to buy food as a treat because there really wasn’t much else going on in life and you couldn’t always get your own ingredients.

I see loads of businesses near me selling lovely cakes, buns, brownies, huge sandwiches, pastries. These looks amazing but these aren’t day to day foods for me personally; they’re once a month type things. I’d never be buying them for lunch regularly whether I was in an office or at home.

We've had more cafes and coffee shops open locally than I can count.
Ones having a shiny new kitchen so I assume they're making enough money.
Not high street and mostly independents.

Most of them, if not all are quite high earners so I'm not sure this would change for them. But yes it could for some. The coffees and lunch out was part of the office culture.

Someone who moved in 2020 or 2021 and got a 5 year fixed rate mortgage (which isn't particularly rare or unusual) will definitely be paying the same mortgage now.

Separate point on the state of the high street, cost of living and lack of staff. The UK is up shit creek. There energy price cap will go up again in April. People are having to make choices like never before and leisure spend is taking the brunt of it.

Whilst some of that is true, it really isn't just a UK problem, it is part of coming into the 21st century issue, with the rise of the internet and a demographic who have embraced and been brought up with everything online.

I travel a lot around the world for work, recently in the bay area of San Fran that is flooded with money and little boutiques and delis are closing, the same as they are in France/Germany/Spain you name it.

I haven't seen what OP's business is specifically but opening a small business has always been very difficult, even during the boom years

Christ, any savings I made from WFH have been swallowed up by the general cost of living.

I don’t have DC in childcare so it wasn’t a huge amount (petrol, not spending money on shit on my lunchtime) but my salary hasn’t risen in line with inflation so if I didn’t WFH at least part of the week I’d struggle far more than I did pre-Covid.

Where we can, we’ll buy and shop local, but our disposable income has plummeted 🤬

Seconding this - the most successful ones in our town have diversified so offer a lunchtime delivery service etc. They also do things like charge a one off fee and you get your table for the afternoon to work from plus unlimited tea and coffee, or one place does a lunch deal for £12.95 where you get a board with different tapas, a soft drink, use of your table for the afternoon and then a glass of wine when you finish at 5pm!

Before covid have breakfast at a cheap and cheerful cafe a couple of time a week. No artisan bread but good enough grub. Before covid a breakfast with a cuppa was £4.50, it is now £7.99 - a 78% increase. Unsurprisingly my disposable income has not gone up by 78%. I understand why the prices have had to go up, I just can't afford it.

I think you are wrong OP. I don’t think it has anything to do with WFH. In fact in my personal circumstances small businesses benefit because I WFH more.

When I was in the office I was often in London and would spend £5-7 on lunch in Pret or M&S plus a coffee for about £3. probably 4 dpw so that would be about £160 per month.

Now i WFH a lot more, but the way prices have gone up I am not prepared to spent £10-15+ in Pret for the equivalent, so I bring something in with me.

However, the money I save, I now spend more consciously in places I really like. Today (half term) I spent £100 on a really nice lunch for the family at an independent cafe. Last month we went to a cafe/gallery and spent about the same, plus £100 on a print.

(disclaimer- yes I realise I am lucky to be able to do that)

@Justanotherlurker I can't comment on the relative number of closures, and yes, problems are world wide, but the UK is in one of the worst positions of the 'western' world due to the lack of meaningful government intervention on domestic energy prices, lack of plentiful labour and lack of affordable housing.

One other point I didn't mention in my previous post but which sounds highly relevant to the OP's industry is the rapid growth of Aldi and Lidl. They don't even have an online delivery service so that can't be blamed. It comes back to this point about people making choices to save wherever they feel they can and cut out unnecessary expenditure. And this applies as much to those on medium incomes (if not more so) as to low income households because of the mortgage/rent effect.

That sounds fantastic! I would love that. Even if it was just done one afternoon a week, maybe a day when they were normally quiet.

We live in the 'burbs and TBH the local cafes have never been as busy. Full of people WF 'H'

That does sound amazing - tapas and wine, I'm there -

This could be a factor for some too, I myself have noticed a huge price increase funnily enough this was before CoL, also an impact of covid I would say where businesses had to put up their prices. I can't say it's made me go out less (I'm SAHM) but each time I do, I am quite shocked at the prices. I do agree with OP that's WFH has had a huge impact on many businesses, my DH now WFH, he wouldn't have had lunch as he doesn't eat lunch but him and all his colleagues did used to get coffee daily. So that's basically a huge department not doing that anymore.

Yes this is all obvious stuff.
What's needed is some out of the box thinking.
Close on a Monday, open from 9am-5pm on a Wednesday, Friday and Saturday, and then from 3pm until 8pm on Fridays.
As a customer, the hours you need to keep due to childcare and so on aren't my concern. Adapt to your market, or we go elsewhere 🤷🏼‍♀️

I’m working from home, not popping off down the shops.

The biggest barrier I find with local shops, especially one’s food related are the opening hours - and that’s an issue I had pre covid, let alone now. They don’t match people 9-5.

2nd order issue is parking.

^ or replace with the ACTUAL days of the week! 😄

I'm spending less eating out/ grabbing coffees whether I'm WFH or in the office. But that's because the cost of everything has gone up.

WFH will be here to stay, businesses that relied on footfall need to adapt somehow.

WFH means less traffic on the roads with less pollution, which is surely a good thing

The odd coffee shop closing is unfortunately collateral

We all have choices.

Sure people have choices. They can pay their mortgates/rent, heat their homes, AND put food on the table for their kids to eat.

OR they can spunk it all away on fripperies like artisan cakes and coffee.

People have TOLD you why they're not spending any spare cash on niceties like they used to. And it's not because they're WFH. It's because the cost of living crisis means they no longer HAVE spare cash.

But no, according to the OP it's all because we've turned into a nation of WFH hermits who hate the little man and live only to count the vast wealth we've accumulated by simply not leaving the house at 7.30am every morning anymore.

I get you, OP. I've benefitted from WFH 2 days a week but I feel sorry for the businesses and staff this is negatively impacting, which also have the COL problems to deal with. We're all worse off when small businesses suffer.

At the same time, WFH hugely improves my work/life balance, and helps control my costs, and I wouldn't want to return to the 9-5 culture. I don't know what the answer is but I feel for people in your position.

What about for those people where WFH isn't a choice (eg their offices have shut), but it actually costs them more money than working in the office? I imagine there's a few who don't have childcare costs and negligible commuting costs (eg walk or cycle or don't have far to drive), but during winter at least have huge energy costs from being at home all day?

I do half and half, but to be honest it probably costs me more to WFH than to go to the office 🤷‍♀️

pay all the utility bills that are increasing. Those who get to work from home save on all of those

Um what? Nope. DH has WFH for years, well before the pandemic. The costs of keeping our house warm enough ALL DAY that he doesn't turn into a little ice block sitting at his desk have shot up so much recently, it's biting into our income.

We definitely don't save on utility bills working from home!

Weird to blame WFH like it is the boogeyman. WFH means disabled people like me have had a chance to regain our careers/start them and not be stuck at home unable to work.

I've had 2 massive pay raises (like double each time) since the pandemic and overall I spend more but on less because the cost of living has gone up and I have to pay for rent and childcare despite being a high earner. I wldnt have thought twice about eating out 4 days a week now I limit it to one or 2.

Life is expensive now and many businesses who don't adapt won't survive that's not the fault of WFH.

Yes. Hence I didn't say none of them will be, I said there's not a chance in hell they all are, as OP assumes.