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.

I know this isn't about GPs but mine offers appointments on Sundays! Scans are also offered on Sundays in my local area. Not sure how they work it but it's extremely convenient, I always take a Sun slot.

I’ve got one that closes at 2pm. When I asked why I was told there wasn’t any demand. I’m part of the demand as would other people be if they stayed open. I don’t understand it. No cafe after 2pm at the weekend, no-where to have coffee after a walk or out shopping. It seems like a very short sighted decision to me.

I think sometimes it illustrates that people do not have the business acumen to run a business.

Its hard enough as it is to compete with huge corporations, crippling energy bills, rising costs, lack of staff.

But christ, if you cant know that opening your coffee shop next to a train station or nursery from 7am and taking advantage of that trade, to be blunt, perhaps you shouldnt be running a business at this stage of your life.

There is a local petting farm and they are SO sporadic - no opening hours online, a facebook that is randomly updated and whether or not they even open seems to be the whim of an owner.

Now people are starting to go to other places nearby and the semi begging posts have started about supporting local, but ignoring all the comments where people say you literally have no idea that they are open until you get there (no phone number for the business!).

The business invoices the customer digitally in front of them via an app. They then process a bank transaction.
Then they leave a 5-star review.
There's no guessing over the phone.

My plumber and electrician and mechanic and pretty much every other trader I deal with invoice directly at the end of the work in this way.

However they all manage to make sure I know what kind of bill to expect and if they find something unexpected they check with me before proceeding.

If they wanted me to sign a blank cheque up front then I'd use alternative providers as most trades do give estimates and quotes as standard. This is also recommended by most trading bodies to prevent cowboys exploiting customers and bringing the trade into disrepute.

They receive an estimate or projected bill once a visual assessment has been done. Variations are explained at the time with the agreed consent of the customer, then signed. He doesn't charge a call-out, however, if a customer mentions costs it's usually a red flag. He won't wait till the end of the month to be paid.
More significant works are contracted with firm-agreed T and C's.
It's a business with employees (Subcontractors) and a projected turnover of over £750,000.
Fully insured, with legal cover for disputes. Financial audit every week.

So in fact you do give estimates which is not what you said upthread where you claimed customers wanting an indication of likely costs ("fishing for costs") were an unreasonable PITA.

And frankly your turnover could be many millions but I won't do business with you unless you can provide quotes and cost indicators which is exactly what my clients expect of me.

For the love of God, the whole opening hours thing is a complete nightmare for some of us, especially sole traders.

I've tried early starts, evenings and Sundays due to alleged customer demand / convenience but after weeks of constantly advertising this have still found myself sitting twiddling my thumbs of an evening for two or three hours watching tumbleweed .....

Each individual business has to try and cater and adapt to its customers of course - I'm in my 7th year of business and achieving consistency in the current climate is extremely difficult.

It's not just hobbyists expecting charity from the wider community, it's people trying to make a living, trying to be independent and self-sufficient and providing goods and services that are in demand - until they aren't.

And that's a whole other can of worms.

Plenty of posts on here explain that for every "awkward" business owner, there are a dozen more doing everything they can and still not managing due in large part to the wider economic landscape.

There is a local petting farm and they are SO sporadic - no opening hours online, a facebook that is randomly updated and whether or not they even open seems to be the whim of an owner.

Now people are starting to go to other places nearby and the semi begging posts have started about supporting local, but ignoring all the comments where people say you literally have no idea that they are open until you get there (no phone number for the business!).

I think some business owners are so egocentric that they don't actually consider that their potential customers are people too, with their own needs, preferences and schedules. They have their own lives: they aren't just going to round up their kids and their friends and take them there on the off-chance that they can go in. As you say, many of them will dismiss valid concerns as petty moaning and not worthy of their comment.

It's incredible, but I think a lot of business owners just don't get the idea that one hour slot at a convenient time for plenty of customers can be much more lucrative than another random hour when everybody is at work/school/not around. The same principle as having a beachside bucket-and-spade shop and expecting to sell just as many in January as in August!

He doesn't charge a call-out, however, if a customer mentions costs it's usually a red flag. He won't wait till the end of the month to be paid.

I still fail to see why somebody wanting to be able to consider the cost initially is problematic. Do you never budget for things as a household? Suppose you were looking to lease a car, would you just expect to choose your favourite and then settle the bill, rather than knowing the costs beforehand to enable you to choose the best/most realistic deal?

Personally, I would have thought it's a good thing when people are considering if/how they can pay for something before committing to it, rather than just going ahead without knowing whether they can honour the invoice when it arrives.

Unless this is your way of saying that you don't want hoi polloi as customers and spurn the business of ordinary people who don't have millions, enabling them to have whatever they want without ever caring about the cost.

It used to be that most towns had a set early closing day (Wednesday here) and a set late night shopping night (Thursday). Much better.

I passed a cute cafe in a prime town centre location today. I doubt they'll last much longer. The sign in the window says they're open thu-Sat, 10-4.30. Neatly missing almost all trade.

I've seen them closed during events in the square outside, too.

The main town here has a Thursday late night. I nipped up just before christmas. Almost everything outside the shopping centre was closed (Boots, M&S etc) with the exception of The Works and TK Maxx, both of which are a trek away from the centre so people aren't going to walk through a closed high street just to browse those two shops.
Inside the centre was a mixed bag. The centre advertises 'Thursday evening late night shopping until 8pm' but many closed much earlier, some closing at usual time and ignoring the late night bit altogether. It was annoying really, I'd gone on the premise that the entire shopping centre was actually open. When you add in the £3 an hour car parking to that, it's little wonder people just order online.

There’s a lovely little olde world style sweet shop on my local high street. It opens 10-3 Monday - Friday, closes for lunch for 30 minutes daily and closes at noon on Saturday. Closed altogether on Sundays, even if there’s an event in the town. There are two primary schools in the town centre area and kids from the secondary school usually come through the high street around 330. I can only assume the shop owner has identified that school kids and parents might overwhelm them with trade and so has designed the opening hours to avoid them altogether.

He doesn't charge a call-out, however, if a customer mentions costs it's usually a red flag.

So me asking do you charge a call out fee (and him answering “no” presumably) and then me asking can you give a rough idea of what it might cost to do x with my boiler, if that’s what it needs is a red flag? I’ve never met a tradesman who hasn’t been able to give a rough scale of costs - on the understanding they will be more specific once the exact issue is known.

I don’t want to have someone out and not be able to pay them for their work, and I don’t have unlimited funds so I need a rough ballpark.

It sounds very coy to me - I want you to do this work, but let’s not talk money up front.

@WeBuiltThisBuffetOnSausageRoll agree. I don’t engage anyone who couldn’t give me an idea of costs before getting them out to quote or do the works. I would want to know if eg a window fitter was going to charge for a visit to measure and quote for a whole house refit. Our plumber (very busy man!) will give you a ballpark figure and is upfront about call out charges for out of hours emergencies etc etc.
If people are refusing to give an idea, then hen I assume they will be out to fleece me with hidden charges or they simply don’t want small household work, preferring to cash in on large scale corporate work instead. Consequently they don’t get recommended by us ‘riff raft’ at the lower end of the business scale.
I guess all that business they miss out on leaves more for the fabulous one man band operations who actually care about customer service - and tidy up after themselves and turn up on time and don’t make you feel like an imbecile to boot!!

I'm in rural Ireland and ours opens sat morning but does close Wednesday pm. Also opens one evening a week for routine bloods and vacs. The longest I have waited to see doc is 2 days. We do pay 50 euro to see a doctor and 20 euro for blood tests as completely private business.
But our coffee shop closes at 4pm and some local shops you wouldn't even know if they were opening or not.

Not really. 24 hours, 11pm, 5am maybe, but most retail permission is fine 6am to 8pm. Very rare to restrict retail operation outside these hours.

It's not at all rare 🤷‍♀️

@Sadlifter are you talking about licensing restriction, planning restrictions, or what? In England & Wales, Scotland, somewhere else?

Oh I hate those signs.

They never say when the "half hour" began so you don't know if they will be back in 2 minutes or the full half hour - and it's never half an hour is it?

I just go elsewhere or go without

I still fail to see why somebody wanting to be able to consider the cost initially is problematic.

@WeBuiltThisBuffetOnSausageRoll To be honest, the previous posters 'D'H sounds like he sees people who might be struggling financially as an inconvenience. He must be pretty thick to not realise that whilst he has a 750k business, some people actually have to ask for costs before hand, to ensure they're not wasting the tradespersons time if they can't afford the job.

I once hired someone like the husband, no up front costs, very much 'ill assess the job when I get there'. He charged a reasonable rate, but wanted cash only. Cue lots of tutting and eye rolling that a woman living alone (at the time) didn't keep £100s in cash just lying around in my house🤔if he'd had at least said cash only, I'd have had it ready for him when he arrived.

It's also consistency of opening. We have one shop that opens late Thursday and Friday but closes all day Monday. We all know this and it has always been open when advertised. 20 years trading in the town and doing fine. I often go on a Thursday pm and once I had left my card and they said pay the next day. They took a minuscule risk for 20 euro and they got their money and me telling everyone how great they are. That's how local businesses need to compete. Convenience, trust, friendly and helpful. People will pay a premium for it.

Before Covid my practice opened until 8pm weekdays and Saturday until 2pm. It was fabulous. You could always get an appointment at times to suit.
Then it got taken over, Saturdays were stopped, weekdays were now 5pm. What had been a hugely successful little practice saw patients leave in droves (myself included) and GP's abandon it. It's now in Special Measures and rated inadequate.

Another example of taking something hugely successful and completely destroying it.

They never say when the "half hour" began so you don't know if they will be back in 2 minutes or the full half hour - and it's never half an hour is it?

I think the second part of the above is the explanation for the first part! I do agree, though.

Unbelievable!

And they'll complain and find something to blame it on aside from their own lack of acumen.

The shops around one of my friends' small city do the late night thing and group together to send notices, just postcards, with themes like "Diva Night" where they give away little feather boas and free glass of fizz etc. to get people to come out. Or a few weeks before Christmas they'll do a night for men shoppers who need "help" selecting gifts, and offer special discounts, and so on. They make the shopping evening an event once a month or so, to get people in the habit of it.

I really can't understand the cafes that don't open for the morning commute/school run trade. Talk about clueless! And sorry but closing the shop randomly during the day with a "be right back" sign is unprofessional. Pack a lunch.