That some small businesses are failing because they don’t adapt to the needs of their customers?

[Isawyou]

I try to shop local. Fortunately I do have some great independent places nearby.

What I am finding frustrating is for example the fruit and veg shop closes at 4.30pm. They start packing up at 3.45pm and it is really difficult to buy things from there where they are stacking all the stands with the produce inside. They also look unhappy at customers coming to buy at packing up time. It is easier to go to the Tesco express that stays open until midnight.

Other shops do not open until 10am and close early. So I can’t get there before work or after work.

They complain their businesses are not doing well and people do not shop local but they are not exactly facilitating it for the customers either.

We can DM our local butcher an order via WhatsApp or messager, and what tome were home. He or his son will deliver.
They're moving with modern tines and thriving because of it.

Businesses stuck in the past, will become the past

Our surgery trialled offering routine appointments over the weekend and surprisingly it wasn’t successful. It seemed that contrary to expectation, the public didn’t want to interrupt their weekend dealing with their fungal toenails.

I’m afraid I had to laugh at 'do not TOUCH THE WOOL'. I used to work in a wool shop many years ago and the one thing you need to do (if you’re a physical shop actually selling the stuff) is let the customers fondle the yarn.

Glad to see this thread hasn’t gone the way of one last year when the OP gently expressed regret at a local cafe shutting at 4, and quite quickly it became the preserve of a few posters who owned such businesses being rather…robust. I gave up after a few pages of people being shouted down for giving their perfectly allowable opinions.

FWIW there’s a local cafe I like and it closes at 3, but it does open on Sundays and has set times for evening openings as well. A new one's just appeared and also stays open later, which is encouraging. So it can be done.

I live in a large European city, and in my local area there is a gorgeous, organic market shop, as well as an Aldi and Lidl. The organic market is open from 11-6pm, closed two days a week. They don’t have trolleys, only small baskets on wheels, so you are limited in how much you can buy in one shop. There is no parking nearby, so you need to carry the groceries home in bags or a fabric baskets on wheels. Our area is full of young families with cars, who like me, do a weekly shop at ALDI or LIDL.

I try to shop at the market shop as often as possible, as I believe in shopping local and because the produce is much better there. The owners are nice, so I recently suggested to them that they could make the shopping experience easier for those who have to shop for a family and drive. Trolleys, a subscription box of fruit and veg, online ordering or home delivery etc. He got really upset with me, and just kept saying ‘why don’t you just come here more frequently rather than doing a weekly shop’. I explained that I work full time and have young children, like many people in the area, and it’s not possible for me to spend an hour several days a week coming to buy groceries. He just couldn’t understand where I was coming from.

I still shop there sometimes, but it really put me off. Seeing ALDI rammed at 7pm on a Monday night full of families doing the weekly shop, it makes me frustrated that they can’t see how many more customers they could get.

Businesses stuck in the past, will become the past

^ this

You can look on any hobby/special interest forum or social media group and you have constant "use it or lose it" calls from shop owners and regular news of the latest independent retailer supporting the hobby to close. But it's always the same problems:

• owner retiring with no one to take it on, but they've never considered taking on an apprentice or planning for succession.
• "we don't do online" and complain that X, Y, or Z is killing the hobby. But X, Y and Z all started as small independent businesses, the difference now is that 80% of their turnover is from online sales.
• weird opening hours.
• cliques and/or special offers for regulars, and no time for "timewaster newcomers" perceived as not serious about the hobby/interest.

I agree OP wholeheartedly. There are some niche shops where I live who only open 10am- 4pm (some even closed on wednesday afternoons entirely) and on the very rare occasions I walk past (due to mostly being at work at those times) its tumbleweed inside. These shops constantly change hands, open for a few months then disappear and another niche shop takes their place and the same thing happens all over again. Of course I understand that shops cant be open 24/7 and that people have family responsibilities etc. However, dont open a bloody shop if you're going to be closed most of the time and then moan that you dont have enough trade. The high street is really struggling right now so unless you are willing and able to put in the work, its pretty obvious that its not going to be a viable business if you are barely open for the very people whose trade you rely on.

Why is that "bashing" though? It's a perfectly legitimate and politely worded comment. There may well be some GP's who would be happy to work a Saturday morning and have a weekday off?

He got really upset with me, and just kept saying ‘why don’t you just come here more frequently rather than doing a weekly shop’. I explained that I work full time and have young children, like many people in the area, and it’s not possible for me to spend an hour several days a week coming to buy groceries. He just couldn’t understand where I was coming from

This is just ridiculous of him and I dont have any sympathy for this kind of attitude. People are busy- they dont have time to make 4 trips to the shops when they could do it in one go. Its a shame but its his own attitude that will cause his downfall. In business, the one factor that makes it a success is the ability to adapt to customer needs. I believe this is more important than almost any factor- covid showed that too.

These businesses going down the "card only" route lose my custom. They also mostly open 10-4.
I use cash mostly.
They use the sign like a badge of honour, when quite frankly, they are losing customers and will upload sad posts for sympathy all over Facebook, blaming Covid, when they go bump.

I've experienced this recently too. Went to the market on my lunch hour to pick up some bread and fruit, bread stall was already packed away. . 130pm! Fruit stall owner was packing up too.

It's sad because it's only a little market and I would hate to see it not there any more, but cater properly for your customers!

I'm an accountant and have dozens of small business clients who would like to grow, but can't because of the VAT, so artificially restrict their business, through shorter opening hours or days/weeks off, to keep turnover under the threshold.

That's really interesting, I wonder if that explains some of the businesses I've been wondering about.

What would the threshold be though?

Don't you use a VPN?

I'm an accountant and have dozens of small business clients who would like to grow, but can't because of the VAT, so artificially restrict their business, through shorter opening hours or days/weeks off, to keep turnover under the threshold

This is interesting and never occurred to me. I'd say this strategy is not working though as these businesses dont last- every year or so another shop takes their place so it clearly cant be working that well.

I’ve given up on our local high street entirely. It caters solely to the retired or SAHPs who can work around insane opening hours like the greengrocer who sells on the high street for two/three hours a day. I’d love to be able to buy fresher stuff from him but sainsburys is open when I finish work, and he’s long gone. There also seems to be an abundance of trinket shops as well - I don’t want these in my home, and they aren’t present in my friends’ homes either. I can’t see how they’ll exist long term. I think changing tastes are not factored in.

My friend lived in a Hamlet. It had one shop and one pub.
The shop closed at 4pm and was only open a few hours on a Saturday morning. During the week everyone was out working, friend said they would be busy at the weekends, as it forced everyone to drive to town for milk and bread.
The pub closed on Sundays, again when they would be really busy.

I know someone who runs a bookshop. They did very well in lockdown but it’s actually harder now. They will do anything for you though. Keep books for you, drop them off at your house for free, do events evenings and weekends. If there are local events they will open Sundays/long hours.
On the flip side if they know it’s going to be quiet they just close. They now close for the whole of Christmas/new year holiday as they sell so little (they will drop a book off for you if you live near them though).

My local council has just scrapped 2 hour free parking. Will be a disaster.

5pm? Luxury!

I went down to my local craft shop the other day only to find it now closes at 3pm. Hopeless.

I went home and ordered from Amazon and had what I wanted delivered the next day.

I agree with lots of things being said on this thread. Our local high street has everything, including a DiY store - that closes at midday on a Saturday and is always closed whenever I drive past on my way home from work at just gone 5pm, too. Same for the cafe/bakery, butchers, greengrocer and pet store. I think any of these stores that could open even half an hour later would get a lot of custom - as the high street is generally always pretty busy with traffic on the way home from work.

I know I'm lucky to have these things on my doorstep, but there are plenty of local people who work between 'normal' working hours who will never be able to use these stores as they're never open when we need them. Thus, we instead use the local Sainsbury's. The only convenience stores which stay open later are the Spar and Premier - where costs are typically much higher than the supermarket.

The chemist closes for lunch - every day - which baffles me. Plus, they're forever having issues for which they constantly blame the local GP surgeries, but which is clearly always to do with their own ineptitude. They've got SO bad that I'll drive to a different chemist in the next village rather than use the one a three-minute walk from my front door.

As a small business owner, I've tried things like Sunday and evening opening hours only to find the ones who suggest it come in once or twice and then never do it again.
Same with stocking certain products - someone will come in making a big fuss about how we should stock X, Y, Z and then come in and buy one once and we're left with stacks of unsellable items.

Can't speak for all small businesses (or all customers) of course, but it's amazing how many customers with no experience or in depth understanding of the industry think they can run the place better, but never make an attempt to do open something themselves to solve the problem themselves.

These small businesses are likely to be sole traders, or have only help from family. With something like a greengrocer, he or she might have to be up at 03:00 to get to the nearest wholesale market so they get the freshest produce. I imagine that's why they can't stay open till 20:00.

Alternatively, they probably just can't afford to pay for the staff they'd need to operate 12 hour opening or longer.

They also won't have the buying power of the supermarkets so their stock costs will be considerably higher.

Sadly, they're just being squeezed and pushed out of the marketplace by consumers' changing lifestyles and demands.

Some local shops do seem to act like it's the 1950s and there are housewives at home all day. I still see some that open 10-4 or 5 during the week, and are shut on Sunday and/or close at lunchtime on Saturday. Honestly they'd do better to shut, on, say Monday instead, and open 12-8 on weekdays (I notice this is a more common thing in the US) so they can get business after people get back from work and more people on weekends.

That said, in neighbourhoods like mine more people are working at home so shops might be doing OK from that. And I do appreciate the difficulty of getting staff for outside 9-5 hours, although that might be a good way to give evening jobs to local young people by having evening shifts.

I think it also is in part as they are more likely to be family businesses, and the family doesn't want to work all week, which is understandable.

What's the demographic of your customers? And is there a difference between the demographics of your actual customers vs. your ideal customers?

Extending GP opening hours trials a few years ago were unsuccessful.

www.theguardian.com/society/2015/sep/29/almost-half-seven-day-trial-gp-surgeries-cut-hours-after-lack-of-demand

I was surprised to be given an outpatient appointment (dermatology) at a local hospital on a Saturday afternoon a couple of months ago, very soon after a referral from the GP. It was great, I was seen quickly and efficiently and was very happy. But there were only two other patients while I was there. A nurse told me that it was always quiet, people turned down appointments if offered and they’d probably be dropping it. However weekday clinics are very busy with long waiting times.

I think most small business owners work for themselves because they WANT to set the hours that are convenient for them. I set my own working hours and people have to fit in with that. It means that I get a great work/life balance and have evenings and week-ends off to socialise and spend time with family. I've never been happier - sod having more money and working more!

Some people may not agree with my point.

Over Christmas, I tried to book a local restaurant for Christmas Eve or NYE. They told me that they were shut from 22 Dec to 03 Jan for staff holidays. This has been the case for the past 3 years.

Where I work, I only get Christmas Day and NY Day off. All other days are open.

If you are a restaurant, surely your peak trade is Christmas week? Surely you know that when you go into the restaurant business, you are going to work unsociable hours and days?

I went somewhere else instead and TBH found the food great and appreciate them going out of their way to be open at Christmas and would rather spend my money there.

Just wondering how many posters would be happy in this scenario

Hi MN my partner runs a small independent business. He works really hard but has to work every evening and all weekend. I also work part time but due to his hours I am left with all the DC bedtimes , running them to their activities and no family time at weekends. AIBU to be unhappy with this?

MN replies - he needs to change his hours/job