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.

And that would be the right answer. If the hours you need to work to fit around your family's needs are not the same hours at which customers will be available, your small business idea is not viable and you'll need to think again. If you want to run a coffee shop by the station but can't open until 10am because of the school run, you just can't open that business. Or rather you can, but you'd be a fool to yourself because it's certainly going to fail and leave you in debt.

I agree some small independent businesses don’t seem to understand how customers think. I live in a very rural location I never have cash on me and always pay by phone. I’m lucky financially I can afford to support more expensive local shops and I like to buy local food. My nearest small retailer sells a product I use all the time they offered to order it for me on a regular basis (weekly) but 3 times out of 4 “forget” so now I don’t go in there to buy it this means I also don’t buy other stuff in there either. They also didn’t take phone/card tap payments “the machine was broken” for 6 months I never carry my debit card on me anymore and would have to make a special trip to the shop with card to buy things. Combine the two issues together and I’ve stopped shopping in there I feel guilty because I want them to do well. But I have found another small independent shop ok 10 miles further away who are able to do my order and I can pay by pay be phone I go in there weekly and increasingly spending more money in there as I buy more and more of their products. They are more expensive that the big chain supermarket 300 m away but I genuinely want to support local businesses/buy local products and/or ethical sustainable products.
I had a similar problem in our local independent pet food shop who issue a generous loyalty card. I forgot it one day and despite having my details wouldn’t let me put points on it or bring the receipt in the next day and have the points added. Instead of spending the £100 I’d planned to spend I spent £5 and bought the large bag of dog food/new lead in the supermarket. So short sighted.

People are simply saying why they don't or can't use local businesses. I assume that if a business is difficult for me to access and then making it difficult for me to pay for their services then I'm not a customer they need or want and will go elsewhere.

I don't owe any small local businesses charity. I will use them if they provide good service, something I want and don't put barriers in the way of using them. Some make it clear they want my custom so those are the businesses I'll use.

This is it. It's cost vs convenience, once you lose the convenience of being right there or accepting all payment methods etc then you lose the customer. I was willing to pay more for wool in my local wool shop because I could grab it on my way home from work, I could see the selection in person etc, It never being open past 3pm and on weekends means it isn't convenient anymore.

I have an aldi and an expensive supermarket 5 mins from my house, for most shops I go to aldi but if I just need a loaf of bread and some milk I go to the expensive supermarket and pay a little bit more because I can use the self-service and never have to queue vs aldi where I always have to queue. It's the same principle.

Yet I’ve been to yarn shops that do have a knit and natter at night - open later in the day to compensate. They do a roaring trade and often have a waiting list of people who want to join in. So it’s madness that some shops do not explore these trading options. The people who go are those who work m-f 9-5 !! Granted not every marketing trick will work for all small businesses.

Businesses make decisions personal to them, so completely applicable to fruit and veg shops (Broadly speaking). Customers often make incorrect assumptions about the reasons why they chose to operate the way they do.
As this thread has shown, customers have an expectation, business owners may have another, and there's the sweet spot where the two parties can form a relationship.
That's where the money is.

I'm confused why the annoyance seems to be aimed around people wanting shops/GP surgeries etc to be open additional hours, with the implication that we are too stupid to understand this is too expensive for the business, whereas most people instead just want services available at different hours. Nobody expects GPs to be open 9-9 Monday to Sunday but why can't they be open 9-5 M,T,W, 12-8 on Thursday, 9-1pm on Friday and 9-1pm on Saturday? Same amount of hours, just actually gives more working people (i.e. the ones actually funding the NHS) the opportunity to access it, and might even be appreciated by the GPs themselves who presumably also have to do their own shopping etc within business hours!

It also drives me nuts when you can't find, for example, opening hours or a menu for a small business. It is completely free and takes seconds to add opening hours to google, or create a facebook/twitter/insta page with this info. I'm not going to waste my time going somewhere which might not be open when I get there or won't have what I want.

I understand there's a cost to setting up online ordering too but I also don't think older generations understand how much a huge number of people under (approx) 35 would happily pay extra for a service if it means avoiding using a phone!

A lot of businesses have limited business hours because they can't afford to pay for staff for extra hours, so they open for less hours but the hours they get the majority of their custom, so a breakfast cafe opening mornings only (because they get fewer people through later on) or a restaurant only opening in peak evening hours (because they don't get much custom during lunch hours or later on at night). It's not that they aren't adapting to their customers, it's that they have adapted to the bulk of their customers at the expense of losing a handful more. Or that they just cannot get the staff or afford to open on the off chance that that would improve things. This is why big companies have a monopoly, because Costa can afford to stay open until custom picks up in less busy times, or so that they get a reputation for always being open and reliable, whereas small local businesses cannot. The big chains can afford to make a loss some of the time, small businesses cannot. The system is designed to benefit the big chains not the small businesses. They get better deals on things like card machines, product suppliers and company merchandise compared to local businesses, and so end up monopolising the high street

That's nice but has no relevance to my post or the thread.

Businesses often subsidize other parts of the business that are either not profitable or the margins are lower. Other businesses have direct relationships with suppliers. There is a multitude of reasons other than the basics of just convenience and cost.

But the entire point is- many businesses aren’t hitting the sweet spot which is exactly why so many are going under. In my town there is a permanently rotating change of ownership of such shops where they last for a year or two and then they’re gone, another takes over and the same thing happens all over again. If they were truly hitting a sweet spot then hardly any retail businesses would close. But many, many are and it’s because they aren’t willing to adapt to the very customers that keep them alive.

My point is that what you think must be the sweet spot may not be

There may be no sweet spot to hit

Taking cash isn't free either. Banks charge business customers.

Anytime spent working on a business is not free. It's a cost.
I fail to see what the NHS has to do with how a business operates.😂
Businesses exist to create money.

I agree in part, however, there is an issue with cost and value.
Ultimately if you want longer hrs or a bespoke service you will have to pay more.
Paying more or being pricier is a common complaint, it's been brought up on this thread.
If a small business is not able to make a profit operating in this way then it's obviously not viable to do so. I think the economy is in transition at the moment post covid, some will thrive and some will cease to exist.

Another issue is people usually don't want to work for small businesses. Not being paid properly, unpaid overtime, lack of security etc

Small independent businesses often cannot get supplies at the same trade prices as larger retail places. What they can do however (which is what I do with my small business) is spend time researching items that are more difficult to get in larger stores, that are more ‘special’ and unique. Added to that I offer fantastic customer service, treating the last customer of the day with the same enthusiasm as the first. It’s difficult when you’re tired and want to go home but no one else is going to do it.

A new cafe has opened in our local park. Card only. Loads of teens used to go to the old one for drinks and ice cream. Not anymore!
Local hairdressers....cash only.
Second hand bookshop....cash only.
Local chip shop.....cash only.
They must all lose business because they don't take both!

A lot of flaky people who have struggled with being employed in businesses, not like having a job telling them what to do, start small businesses thinking it'll be easier and they can come and go as they please.

It's absolutely relevent to your post and the thread. Small businesses that are run properly and adapt to changing customer needs become successful and can expand. Tesco wouldn't be where they are today if they'd refused to open beyond 9-5, and didn't innovate and start selling things and offering different services not operated by supermarkets.

Inconsistent opening hours is also a problem - nothing more annoying than a sign on the door after you get there. I drove into Rotterdam centre just before Christmas to buy my mum & dad some canabis plants for their Christmas and there was a sign on the door that they were shut for an hour, right in the middle of their working hours. Having driven all the way in I wasn't going to hang about so just drove home again. Though I expect their regular clientele is a tad more chilled than me 😂

*This is very outing so if you're on mumsnet, hi mum!

Ah yes, offering things outside the scope of basic retail.....

That's a whole other circle of hell.

Our old premises were large and our aesthetic appealing for events / photo shoots. In 5 years of running I hosted two photo shoots despite advertising widely and offering it at 10.00 per hour which is a lot less than commercial studio rates. This wasn't something we decided to offer on a whim - it was based on customer feedback.

Also - why don't you do outside events/ have stalls at festivals. Answer - because it costs more to attend than one can make.

Any events we put on in the premises cost more than they generated.

Honestly I'd be better off if I had a pound for every well meaning but unrealistic suggestion for how to boost my business.

I can hear y'all rolling your eyes from here and the assumption that my niche little business is not what customers want. I promise you that extensive market research suggests that people want my business to exist for their annual trip in, but in a very abstract way.

My buying power is restricted because "small" business and I work damn hard to keep an interesting selection of stock, but people don't seem to realise I can't buy new stock unless customers buy what I have....

In essence my business is very popular in the abstract..... 🙄

If you want them to stay you need to accept less convenience and more expense.

Well, assuming I’m OK with that, I’ll only shop where the service is good. To follow @EllieM27’s experience, I have two feed merchants near me: one binned off Sunday opening during Covid, I have no idea of stock or prices unless I go in, and they only deliver if you’ve ordered over certain number of items. As a one-horse owner I don’t meet the threshold unless I buy more than I need and then I’ve got to find somewhere to store it.

The other has a website where you can see stock, order online for click and collect or free delivery over a certain value. They’re also open on Sundays. Both independent businesses but one miles better than the other.

Good service doesn’t have to mean long opening hours, just opening when your customers want to shop and giving them a reason to spend their precious money with you. Making your offering better than Tesco/Amazon (helpful staff, extra things on which to treat yourself, extra services, online ordering) makes people WANT to shop with you rather than feeling obliged to, then it becomes worth spending the extra money or time.

We had a local butcher, his meat was lovely, a little expensive but worth it. He also did his own homemade sausages, burgers, meatballs and skewers, which were delicious. He opened till 6:30 so you knew you could pop in on the way home from work to get something you fancied for evening meal. He was there for 20 years and was popular.
When he retired and sold the shop, the new guy shut it at 5 pm. Didnt offer anything above normal cuts. He was gone within 2 years because people started using the local supermarket instead.

When you now have local supermarkets, with decent parking and convenience, small shops need to offer an experience, something that makes the visit worth paying more for. Lack of parking and inconvenient hours just arent that.

That’s very true too - my previous cleaner had clearly decided to set up on her own to “be her own boss”. Her customer service was dreadful and she and her staff spent more time clock watching than cleaning. When I said I wasn’t happy with the standard of cleaning (including dirt from behind a cupboard being smeared over the floor, things knocked over and just left there…) she was extremely rude.

I haven’t seen the company operating round here recently so I suspect that if she’s gone out of business she’ll be blaming her terrible customers