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.

Small businesses seem to be booming where I am 🤷‍♀️

I shop local when I can, but I’m not going out to buy things I don’t need just to support local businesses. If they don’t have a viable business model then they’ll close, it really is as simple as supply and demand.

As others have said I think it's cost of living rather than necessarily people WFH.

I've a reasonably well paid, incidentally WFH, job. I can't afford to buy many "luxuries" any more. I'm buying 39p Tesco bread not going to the artisan bakery. I'm taking coffee in a flask rather than buying one out - and I have to buy that coffee from Lidl on the way home from Tesco because it's cheaper, otherwise I couldn't afford to do that either.

It's not that I can't be bothered to support your business. It's that my gas bill has gone up £200 a month, my supermarket shop by £50 a month, my mortgage by £50 a month and in that time my salary has only gone up £50 a month.

Even if I had used to spend £10 A DAY on nice treats and lunches and coffees out and stuff on my local high street, that's all totally gone. It is being spent on heating my house and feeding my family basic meals.

I'd love to spend money at a nice local foodie business - I just don't have the money!

Instead of being jealous and pitting yourself against an imagined enemy (WFH people), why not listen to the REALLY FUCKING GOOD ADVICE on this thread and adapt your business to survive?
You're attacking posters who have given you really sound advice. It's like watching that cafe episode of The Fixer in real time. Guess what? That cafe went under in the end because they didn't listen either.

I don’t think @KleineDracheKokosnuss is saying that the cafe should charge less, I think she is saying she doesn’t value cake and the cafe experience enough to pay more than she would at home.

For me, I get why the coffee/cake/sandwich is £3.50, I would just rather spend my money on something I can’t do myself.

I have no obligation to spend the money I earn at places I don’t want to…

Every wfh thread, has a comment about wfh employees not using childcare. Then lots of people pointing out they do use childcare.

Yes, people maybe able to reduce how many hours they use childcare for. But are you suggesting people should put their kids in more childcare than they now need to make it feel fair to you?

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

Its not inherently bad for business though. It’s bad for some businesses sure, particularly those who don’t necessarily offer a USP but rather rely on customers working nearby.
Many other businesses thrive though. For the most part people are still spending the money they would have, it’s just going to different places. They are spending it in local cafes, local gyms, local builders etc.

@ChampagnePuppy when people leave Google reviews - do you reply? We have a cafe local to us which has scared off their customers by leaving passive aggressive comments like "how dare you comment on the price of our coffee. We're a small business!!"

No doubt he's blaming WFH too :/

It is a shame, i dont wfh but all of our bills have gone so high I just can't afford to go to cafes and restaurants any more and I think a lot of people are in the same boat.

Oh I love this reply 👏

Did I say that?
No.

However, call me unfeeling, but you struggling with your own bills does not free up money in my purse to spend on frivolity like lunch out. Just because people WFH does not mean they automatically have spare money, or an obligation to spend any money in a cafe.

That's all well and good but when people's energy bills are 100-200 pound per month more expensive, people have far less spare for frivolous spending. Which lunch in your local eatery is. Regardless of your "ethics

This is why I said "at least if you can afford to."

So I'm supposed to live a stressful life with a tiny window of 5 days a week to spend time with my kids , no time for hobbies due to commute , constant fatigue , stressed evening and less time for my dh just so I can fund your business and keep you afloat?
I embrace the new work life balance that wfh has brought to myself and my family . In fact I have more time for my community and I'm less tired and stressed . I'm sorry your business model isn't working but it's a bit selfish suggesting that wfh is a bad move !

No, it’s not ‘stupid’. The cost to me as a customer for the cake slice is £3.50 the cost of doing it myself is way less. Overheads are irrelevant.

As the customer, the cost is what I care about. That’s the only but that matters.

I’m not a bloody charity. I’m not about to come and donate cash to a business that makes something I can make myself just because the business is finding times tough. If a business wants my custom, it has to try a lot harder and either keep the cost down or make something I can’t make.

This used to cost just under £12 it’s now just over £20

I can afford it COL hasn’t and probably won’t affect us one bit but I’m not paying £20 for fish & chips

But COL has likely affected the fish & chip shop with higher costs.

Can't be bothered? As if we're somehow obliged to keep your business going? Nope. Also, if a local cafe goes bust I honestly don't care , i can buy cakes at tesco🤷. now if my local pub went bust I would be gutted!

I don't see the correlation tbh. Those making savings by wfh will still be putting them towards their increased col. They might be more comfortable and shielded from the rise in fuel and childcare costs but it doesn't mean they have massive disposable incomes to spend locally.
I work in an office 5 days pw, the first thing I gave up when all of this started was buying my lunch (it went from approx £3.50 for a sandwich to over £5, before I even bought a drink. Nearly £10 per day on lunch is not affordable for me). Just having people working in an office wont save your business OP when the col is so high.

That's irrelevant.

Everyone has a value they place on things, which determines what they are happy to spend. The value of fish and chips, to that particular poster, is less than £20. Therefore she won't spend £20 on it, even if that is a fair price for the fish and chip shop to charge.

The same goes for everything.

I get it OP, but please don’t blame it all on those WFH. I’d love to be able to support local independent businesses but I am in more meetings than ever and locked to my desk for over 7 hours a day, and the cost of all my monthly outgoings has increased. The grass isn’t always greener.

You sound really bitter.

People can’t be bothered to spend money on the high street? How insensitive, my energy bills have quadrupled. Yes I WFH but that hasn’t given me huge amounts of disposable income to fritter on the higher street.

if your business is not working then you have to adapt. Can’t blame it on people WFH.

No one is saying you must shop somewhere. It's fine to not want to, but it is stupid saying.
I could build house cheaper, I could make jacket cheaper, I could ..... Do so many things cheaper.

It is stupid saying. It is not stupid, however, to not want to pay for something you can make.

It will be interesting how wfh impacts jobs like nursing & teaching etc. They already have recruitment & retention issues & are going to be even less attractive to younger people as no wfh. I assume the salaries will have to rise considerably.

• I hate this comparison because it is not comparison. If you like to make your own fine but the "I can make it cheaper at home"... Of course! You don't pay commercial rent, rates, bills, insurance, wages, equipment and repairs, and so on. If you would pay yourself £10 an hour, counted used energy (not on price cap!), Added bit of your rent and mortgage and house insurance in, threw in extra for phone and internet business need, depriciation of your equipment so you can buy new one AND VAT... It would be fair-ish comparison....

Basically. It's stupid saying. But there is nothing wrong with preferring your own of course!*

This is a pretty stupid thing to say - mortgage and rent, depreciation of my mixer (really?) aren't things that I have to dig in to my pocket as I make my cake, and they are going to happen anyway. Yes, the cost of my ingredients isn't the o lot cost when I make a cake, but it's pretty darn obvious why someone might make that comparison!

the cafe nearest to my house - SW, city - is SO expensive yet ALWAYS full. The food is incredible, the coffee is absolutely delicious. I try not to eat there too much - £6.70 for the granola bowl, £3.50 for a coffee - but I honestly think people pay for what they want. they've hit on a formula that people are still willing to shell out for so it's clearly possible.

They don't seem to see the link between the comment 'oh no that lovely cafe has shut down' and their lack of support.

I won't be happy if my favourite local cafe shuts down. But I also can't support it while I have my own increased bills to pay. I'm building up a savings buffer in case things get even tighter.

My family thought about getting a chippy dinner a while ago. That's when we discovered their prices have doubled. Because of their energy bills no doubt. But we can't justify spending £50 on fish and chips for three people right now. We'd rather use up what we have at home.

Apparently gas prices have come right down again to what they were before Russia invaded Ukraine. The companies must have forgotten to update their billing prices... If I was a food/drink business owner I would be asking my MP to get the government to give the likes of British Gas a tap on the shoulder while there are some businesses still standing.

My local high street has thrived since lockdown and WFH. I think a lot has to do with geography - lots of local shops surrounded by housing so people walk past the shops on the school run and they are easily accessible by all.

The "big town" a mile away though is in a terrible state. So many shops closed and not much to attract people in.

Unfortunately now the small local independents are also starting to struggle. Not due to lack of footfall but the rising energy costs. Some are not sure they can continue to operate much longer. Small businesses in this country need better support with energy rent and rates.