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.

We work from home, since working from home we have reduced our childcare bill by £0, travel by £0, like others who work from home our utilities have increased as we’re now at home in the day, so using much more electricity, where as previously nothing was being used during the working day (beyond things like fridge freezer etc).

One thing that I think hasn’t been fully considered ( came up on another thread and I thought it was interesting) is how wfh impacts how attractive certain jobs are vs other jobs at similar qualification/ salary levels. So ability to wfh in office jobs might increase labour shortages in already hard to recruit for sectors which cannot be done wfh. Of course there will always be people who don’t want a wfh job but often what you want plays second fiddle to what you can afford/ logistically manage. Ie you really want to be a teacher/ nurse but being an accountant is easier as you can wfh.

I'm fortunate enough to have a well paid job and I don't need to cut down on things like cafe visits. But I work 50 hours a week so all those lovely cute cafes and bakeries are long shut before I get finished. I live in a place where you can't get your shopping delivered so I go to the supermarket once a week and if I forget anything that's it, we're not eating that this week.
I would really use a bread and milk delivery, a vegetable box delivery and healthy home delivery take away options. But I've no idea if those would make you any money either.

I would really use a bread and milk delivery, a vegetable box delivery and healthy home delivery takeaway options. But I've no idea if those would make you any money either.

My friend has just opened a "healthy" takeaway and she said it's doing really well. They're on Uber and Just Eat. She does the staples that people want to eat but healthier eg smashed burgers made with lean minced beef and grilled instead of fried, served with crispy sweet potato fries and salad. "Tacos" in lettuce wraps instead of tortillas for people doing low carb are really popular she tells me.

Her stuff is relatively expensive for the area (she charges £12 for burger, fries and side salad, and the local pizza places charge £4/5 for a rubbery frozen burger and chips), so it proves people can still afford the occasional luxury if it is something they want. OP needs to find a gap in her local market and fill it like my friend did her takeaway and my butcher with his raw dog food delivery.

I’m still supporting local businesses over chains as I always have done. I just make a lot fewer mediocre purchases. If I eat out now it has to be really good, better than I can cook at home. Whereas previously I’d have purchased something a bit “meh”, now I won’t. Maybe it’s your product not people WFH? 🤷‍♀️

Not everyone saves by WFH, I had a nice part time job just over a mile from my house that I retired from because I hated WFH, if I had stayed there I would have lost a room in my house to work and had to have had my heating on more, just for work, definitely no costs saved on commute as I often walked.

This is just nuts.

I share my 'wealth', such as it is, through taxation and charity. Not paying a premium for food I don't want or need.

And on days I don't WFH, I take my lunch, because I don't want to pay a premium for food in the city either. I can't afford to.

I get you’re frustrated but your attitude to people stinks.

I worked out of an office for 10 years and didn’t eat out for lunch more than a dozen times (despite my colleagues doing so daily).

When I switched to WFH I buy a coffee daily from an independent coffee shop when I’m on my “I need to get out the house” walk. I’ve done that until recently, when the cost is just making it not quite as doable every single day.

I felt awkward going in after missing days, but after an initial query from the owners they accepted my answer of costs (actually offered me free coffee if I needed it, which I declined) and we continued at a 2/3 times a week visits.

From your tone, your an entitled business owner who would rather berate someone go not being able to afford coming in daily anymore, rather than accepting they can come in sometimes, and make them feel unwelcome. Certainly I’d choose never to go to your establishment if I knew how much you blamed other people for choices that they’re entitled to make.

If most people don't use these places anyway as OP says they don't, they are not going to miss them when they are gone. The sooner the high street goes the better as in most towns they are scruffy boarded up areas that just need to disappear and be used as housing rather than building on fields.

If you want a diverse high street, you have to support local businesses or we won't be here in a years time.

I feel that there are too many food options on the high street so I'm happy for some to fold.

OP obviously doesn't live in an average town, they don't have diverse high streets, they have a few pound shop type places, estate agents, barbers and nail bars and a Costa if you are lucky.

@ Hi Op

Why don't you diversity in some way, Like have a trial experiment, to see how effective this will be in various ways then?

why don't you sell some of your food online too as delivery service, or look at doing catering for events locally ect

So you didn’t benefit from commuters pre covid. Because you are somewhere people moved to once they didn’t need to commute.

Your problem is people moving into the area and not spending money where you want them to.

You are in a foodie business. But not a cafe. So not something people come in and buy daily. And your analogy of Gio is completely irrelevant. Because Gio maybe running a business where people go in and spend time everyday.

CoL is impacting everyone. And people cut back on anything that they can. Even in our office, less people are buying from the local businesses that have food vans that come round. Because people don’t need to spend £6 on a sandwich and drink. If there’s a cheaper alternative, people will look to do or buy that. But you are convinced it’s wfh. Even though people going into an office wouldn’t benefit you.

You didn’t have these people as potential customers before the pandemic and they are choosing not you use you now.

Small businesses owners, have to understand that if people aren’t using them they need to look at their business model. There constant small shifts in culture and peoples spending habits. To have a successful small business you have to be constantly making small shifts in your business. And you need to at least look at the possibility that, if people aren’t using you, the problem is the business.

There’s a takeaway near us, that’s closing. The problem is that anytime anyone orders, the women who answers is rude and food can take anything from half an hour to 2.5 hours. If you call to chase your order the woman is awful. So lots of local people won’t use them. But the owners complain about people not liking good food, not supporting small business etc. People are supporting other small businesses just not theirs.

I do get, from your posts, a hint of the attitude that ‘outsiders’ have moved in and you feel they have to prove themselves. My friend lives in a village where people still mention she isn’t really from that village. She moved there before she was 2 and she is now 32. I feel there’s a lot of that in your post. These people have come from somewhere, where things are more expensive. So you feel they owe you in some way.

people can also support small business online. I am mixed race and use silk caps to cover my hair to sleep. No one near here makes them. I don’t want to buy mass produced ones. So I found a small business owned by a woman who had makes her silk/satin bonnets and order them from her, but it’s online. I use another small business for my hair oil, again online. I bought a piece of jewellery for my dds 18th. Again, the small jewellers in my town, are all still selling very old fashioned jewellery. Not vintage just things like rings that say ‘Mum’ on that were all the rage in 80s/90s. I would definitely use them for cleaning and repair, not buy from. So I bought from a small business, online.

These online businesses have the products I want. They are small businesses. The businesses locally, don’t meet my needs. That’s why I don’t buy from them.

If I do go out for something to eat or a coffee I always go to a local independent and will always shop in the independent shops if they stock what I need.

My issue is that I just can't afford to do it as often as I did. We are not on the breadline, we make good money between us but the cost of living has curtailed is immensely and actually DP being able to WFH most of the time saves a fortune in train fare etc yet still we can't go out that much.

Wow,have read all your posts on this thread; what a moaning Minnie.
People shop where they want acvording to their means. If that means they can no longer afford an 'artisan' coffee and croissant from the twee little shop, where they 'can't be bothered to learn the name of the server', so be it. They cut their cloth accordingly and get a 4-pack of croissants from aldi at the same price
You really need to think about the wider world

The thing is with the current COL people are realising they don’t need bakeries, coffee shops etc. Our town is excessively over saturated with take outs, cafes etc. you’ve got more of those than anything else and we’re a small town. There’s no need for half the cafes etc here, there’s not a large enough population to sustain all of those businesses when everyone’s cutting back and no one will be particularly upset if they do go out of business. It’s not our problem, we’ve got our own livelihoods and families to worry about.

Where I live a lot of the small cafes have started a delivery service and it seems to work quite well

I hear this a lot on MN, and my view is that it's a consequence of staff shortages and wage stagnation. Lots of roles no longer pay enough to attract sufficient people and who are willing and able to pay for childcare while they work. It's allowed because many companies understand they aren't going to be able to get anything better. You can tell an employee they need childcare and ultimately you can boot them if they refuse, but what you can't do is ensure there's someone else available to do their job.

We try to support our local businesses. However. Our local pub served food that us hit and miss. Last visit a friend had fish and chips that were inedible, greasy fish. Scratty chips. We complained but almost a shrug of the shoulders response. We probably won't eat there again. Local cafe, just refurbished. Last week it took over an hour to serve 4 if us with a light lunch of wraps and sandwiches. It was nice, but next time we will go to the cafe next door in the mini dept store. I think a lot of small businesses did well during lockdown, thinking people would continue buying from them forever. We had several dessert delivery businesses open, expand then close. When there is nothing else to do, spending £20+ on having waffles and milkshakes delivered is a treat for everyone. As others have said, businessses need to adapt or die. We ran a shop for 30 years selling non essential goods. I have no doubt that we would not have survived the last 3 years. We were already on a downward slope with the decline in high street spending and covid etc would have finished us off.

I live in a big city. Hospitality and retail businesses are shutting down all over the place because so many workers are working from home now. It's not cost of living where I am (different country), it's directly related to WFH resulting from the pandemic. Really sad.

Can you list a few items that you sell and their prices OP?

It's swings and roundabouts OP. Our city centre has died since covid but the more local retail park local cafes and shops got a new lease of life as people work from home and spend more locally. That's not a bad thing overall, although obviously it may be a bad thing for particular businesses.

More concerning is the cost of living squeeze, as we all pay lots of money to Centrica and Shell and have nothing left for anything else.

I wfh full time.

Whatever I saved on commuting has been completely wiped out by increased energy costs.

I’ve never made much of a saving on childcare as I’m working so can’t care for my child so he is still in childcare.

Our total bills have gone up over £600 per month in the last year, and even on really good salaries that’s starting to cut into disposable income. I still buy lunch some where local once a week though.

Last week I had a few hours of calls what I mostly needed to listen in on, so I took my laptop and went to the local cafe to work whilst having breakfast and a couple of coffees, I went to three cafes and not one of them was open before 10.

Spoke to one of the owners (I know the names of 70% of the people working on our high street) and they can’t get staff to open early.

i really think you are directing your anger in the wrong place, cost of living and difficulty recruiting are doing much more damage to local high streets than WFH.

People use retail parks more now, they are queuing up for ours, in fact I wish they would take their business to their own local high street instead of coming to our very nice retail park but the 5 hours free parking tends to bring them in, actual high street is dead though.

Spoke to one of the owners (I know the names of 70% of the people working on our high street) and they can’t get staff to open early.

Doesn't surprise me. A lot of the issues people identify around work and business at the moment come down to that bottom line- can't get the staff.