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.

Agree. With COL the way it is, it makes sense to find out in advance what something might cost. Her DP sounds awful and insensitive.

Also agree. Who on earth would commission having work done without even enquiring how much it might cost them? utterly ridiculous and an appalling attitude towards customers

I don’t mind paying 25-50% more for better product than it’s equivalent in Tesco. So for example I buy local eggs from a farm shop they are £1.20 per 1/2 dozen more than I’d pay in Tesco, ditto cheese meat milk bread etc. But I expect them to be better/fresher/local/sustainable/high animal welfare etc. I also expect good friendly service, easy parking and a pleasant environment/good presentation. We have a farm shop about 15 miles away they tick all these boxes much of the meat/bread/milk/cakes is actually from the farm or baked on the premises lots of other products are local individual producers are named on meat/honey/jam etc. the prices will be at least 25-50% higher than a big name supermarket. They also sell things that are slightly different although definitely not cheap and and it pays off the place is rammed 6 days a week. A smallish but still significant number of people will pay more they do want to shop locally but I think they have high all round expectations and retailers need to understand this.

I don’t mind paying 25-50% more for better product than it’s equivalent in Tesco. So for example I buy local eggs from a farm shop they are £1.20 per 1/2 dozen more than I’d pay in Tesco, ditto cheese meat milk bread etc. But I expect them to be better/fresher/local/sustainable/high animal welfare etc

Same here, but I wouldn’t pay 25-50% extra for the exact same product I can get in the supermarket but cheaper. If I’m paying almost half extra I’d expect it to be much superior quality.

@swayingpalmtree

Why does their livelihood and ability to cope financially trump my own?

It doesn't, but don't whinge when it's not there for YOUR convenience when you forget to buy something at Tesco and it's too far to drive! It's the hypocracy of some customers that gets me, they don't support local businesses, but then whinge when they're not there for the odd occasion they want to use them!

People keep saying “don’t whinge” but I’m not lol.
I haven’t seen any whining on this thread about the lack of local shops. If my local shops go I won’t miss them as I don’t use them them anyway due to cost. I’ll keep going to the supermarket as I do now.

Also agree. Who on earth would commission having work done without even enquiring how much it might cost them? utterly ridiculous and an appalling attitude towards customers

I agree too. Maybe he has the attitude that the boiler will need fixing (true), so the cost is immaterial; but for many people, they may have to simply sit and freeze and delay the repair until payday or longer.

In that case, it's very reasonable to want to know if you're going to have to pay somebody upfront for coming out to tell you that your boiler will need to be fixed in three months when you can afford it.

But who is actually “whinging” about such a scenario? And more importantly who with half a business brain relies on masses of people walking out of Tesco without the ketchup/pot noodles/ toothpaste then coming to their premises to pay 50% more, in order to stay afloat??

Row of new shops near me, 3 takeaways on there and they all don't take card and aren't on just eat or similar either, with no cash machine near by so its not even a case of nipping to the cash machine outside, the closest machine is about a mile away at a much bigger retail park, so guess who will get the business, its madness! These companies need go get with the times.

@sweeneytoddsrazor , so you think customers should adapt their working hours to the few hours the shops are open? It doesn't work that way you know. And as for saturdays? Most working people have so much to do on their only day of that cuing at a local shop usually isn't in the books. As we say : you have to deserve your customers!

But if your day off is Saturday and the shops are open you could go there. You are choosing to do other things because you have alternatives. However the independent shop keeper may not have those alternatives, presumably they want some family time as well. And as has been shown on this thread often the wailing about the loss of the high Street is from people who don't use it.

OTOH some proprietors are so rude they're comedy gold - hence the background to Fawlty Towers.

A local independent café on our seafront has a manager of this ilk. We think of it as 'performance art' and enjoy the view while she tells customers to fuck off under her breath.

Unlikely, when this whole thread is about local shops with limited opening hours and the exact same stock as Tesco but twice the price.

When would I ever need to pay £1 for a tin of Heinz beans, in a shop only open between 10-3pm Monday to Friday, when I could get an identical tin of Heinz beans for 50p in Tesco, open 24hrs?

Obviously different if the local shop is open later (ie attached to a petrol station), but that isn’t what people are talking about on this thread.

A local independent café on our seafront has a manager of this ilk. We think of it as 'performance art' and enjoy the view while she tells customers to fuck off under her breath.

I think I know her....

Completely agree op, and have said it many times. Small high street shops flounder if their hours are aligned with the shopping habits of 1970s housewives. But they're now being boosted by home working, which is no bad thing.

I'm certainly not whinging. I tried to "support" local businesses and got nothing but forgotten orders, poor stock, inconvenient hours, higher prices and the aforementioned insults from proprietors who are still operating as though it's 1995, the internet doesn't exist and every home has someone available between 11am and 3pm to do the shopping.

F that. I can sit here placing online orders all day long from the comfort of my home, searching out the lowest prices while I'm at it. It's the failing businesses doing the whinging.

Completely agree op, and have said it many times. Small high street shops flounder if their hours are aligned with the shopping habits of 1970s housewives

Or you could flip it around and say the customer wants the same type of high street as the 1970s but aligned with 2023 shopping habits.

Row of new shops near me, 3 takeaways on there and they all don't take card and aren't on just eat or similar either

Not taking cards these days is unreasonable but I can understand takeaways not being on Just Eat, Deliveroo etc as the cut the platforms take is punishing. I always order directly.

But if your day off is Saturday and the shops are open you could go there.

What if people would like to (or need to) do things other than shopping, when the shopping could be done during the week?

A business cannot make money from people on a budget.
The business doesn't care if you're on a budget either.
Entitled customers aren't profitable.
Just come out and have a look.😬😂

A business cannot make money from people on a budget.

Poundland seem to have done pretty OK!

How is it any more 'entitled' for a customer to want to have an idea of the price than it is for a business to expect to be paid it for providing the goods/services?

I bet you'd be complaining even more if people called you out and then clearly couldn't afford to pay the going rate, and so proved to be a waste of your time - even though they couldn't have known, because of the refusal to give them any price guide upfront.

You remind me of these dodgy companies that prey on elderly and disabled people by insisting on coming out to their homes without giving any indication of prices, giving them the hard-sell to buy hugely over-priced products, and then trying to shame them as 'time-wasters' if they then can't afford it (or realise that it's a complete rip-off).

As far as I'm concerned, any company that refuses to give you any kind of average/example price guideline is up to no good and is best avoided.

This is a really good point. It would explain a lot about some small
Business owners (not all, some are talented and hardworking). Unfortunately a lot of the ones local to me would fit this explanation

A business cannot make money from people on a budget.
Unless you are an energy business.

Tbf I always ask for ballpark figure too. While it's understandable different thing can be wrong, If I tell boiler person the error shown and one tells me 100, one 300 and one 500, kind of know the middle is probably the way.
Of course they all come with disclaimer that if there is something else wrong it will be different, which is understandable.

I nipped in to my towns Victorian indoor market yesterday. The market bosses are always in the local papers complaining about footfall and how the council charges too much for stalls and they are struggling etc etc.
3pm, Saturday afternoon and 90% of the stalls were closed. No butchers open, veg man had pulled the shutters as had the sweet stall. If I wanted underwear or. Second hand book I’d have been ok, but nothing else was open.
in the end I went to the large Tesco opposite and bought what I’d needed.

Id have preferred to support the market, but they don’t seem to help themselves

Erm the problem with your theory is he doesn't go out, nor does he reveal costs.
Asking for a cost breakdown over the phone without a previous visual mitigated assessment is impossible. This is why bigger concerns such as BG use an insurance system. If you read the T and C's they're loaded with caveats. It's a business not a charity.
Therefore your points have very little merit.
I don't go out because I have nothing to do with the business. Although I have advised him to ditch nuisance customers and be firmer.

Opening times not correct on the website is a big one for us. Eg we arrived at a big chain store shop an hour before advertised closing and they were locking up and just said we close at 4pm now.

Also not accepting both card and cash puts us off.