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.

How patronising.

Did I say just rely on them? 🙄

Good advice, thank you

We have a shop. The hours are 11am-7pm weekdays, 10am-6pm Saturdays closed Sundays. They are posted on the door and the website.

It works for us and for our customers. Sometimes people say they called at 9am or on Sunday lunchtime and we were shut. It's very hard to think of an answer apart from: "Yes, we would have been."

There was a minicab firm near us which always seemed highly reluctant to take bookings - turned out the actual business was selling guns

And yep there are a fair few businesses clearly set up for the local gangster to launder his money and simultaneously keep his missus occupied - beauty salons with no price list or staff, just the owner and her friends sitting drinking Prosecco in reception, and clothes boutiques with just one of each item available in stock, in one size (the owner’s).

Ironically the shop which seems least likely to turn a profit, the one selling sacks of rice, barrels of cooking oil, and big plastic shopping bags, is legit as far as I can tell. Must have a very cheap lease.

That is the ideal. A format that works for you and your customers.

No WIFI and cash would ATTRACT me in!

Goodness me, sorry I got bored after the first paragraph. I open and close whenever I like I just post on Facebook, but I must be doing something unique as I am very comfortably off and keep 9 other people in work. Please please please don’t feel the need to answer me with another story similar to War and Peace.

I haven't read the whole thread so apologies if off topic , but my largest gripe with local businesses is one of pricing... In my large town there must be over 40 independently run coffee shops , which on one hand is absolutely fab and mitigates putting my cash in the hands of chain operators, but and this is a BIG but, they pretty much all offer exactly the same things for exactly the same price meaning that the majority of them are empty of customers as people s tick to their preferred choice and won't venture to try anywhere different. What I will never ever get my head around is why are they not in competition with each other - so for instance, make your latte 20pence cheaper than Fred's over the road or do a mid week deal on your avocado toast? But no, they're all selling their coffee and brunches for exactly the same price . It seems that they're happier to have no customers than change up their pricing structure and actively compete for that business...it seems so senseless to me. In these bleak times where every penny counts for so many of us, I am convinced that undercutting their competitors by a pound or so would lead to increased footfall and a while new raft of customers .

Big companies too.

After years of loyalty I've just binned off Aviva and Virgin. And saved £1k/annum

Change your processes or lose your customer base!!

@Retrohaul Maybe the competition means they are all offering coffee at the exact same price as that is as low as they can go? No point cutting the price by 20p if you make a loss.

And I have seen very busy places go bankrupt because they do not manage costs versus prices properly.

Businesses either cater to the needs of their customer base or they go out of business. It's that simple.

Sometimes you are lucky and have no competition in the area and you can to a degree dictate what services are available and at what cost. But this sort of environment generally doesn't last very long because someone else will see the potential and move in.

Well if you're employing 9 people and have a tax bill of £6K a quarter or whatever it was you mentioned earlier, why are you so het up about those of us who get tired of the 'use us or lose us' brigade and use Amazon etc?

Whatever you're doing is working for you. Well done.

Succinct enough for you?

What I will never ever get my head around is why are they not in competition with each other - so for instance, make your latte 20pence cheaper than Fred's over the road or do a mid week deal on your avocado toast?

The problem with that, though, is that it's a downward spiral. Big supermarkets sometimes do it to gain more market share, but for small businesses, it turns into a fight to the death, as they constantly vie against each other with lower prices. Fred isn't going to happily see you taking 'his' customers and not fight back.

Quality suffers, profits/livelihoods tumble, resentment grows; and then, once the surviving cafes raise their prices again to a more realistic/viable price, everybody grumbles about profiteering, as the 'death-fight' prices are assumed to be the 'proper' ones.

I've even known hard-of-thinking people grumble when shops are closing down and are cutting their losses by selling off their remaining stock very cheap - commenting on how much they must have been making at normal prices (yes, idiot, that will be why they've had to close down, won't it?).

threatmatrix

I'm glad your business is so successful, but you're really starting to sound like the Basil Fawlty of shop owners now.

That ends up as a race to the bottom as if one undercuts, the others will do the same and they'll all end up losing money and closing down.

@WeBuiltThisBuffetOnSausageRoll

I've even known hard-of-thinking people grumble when shops are closing down and are cutting their losses by selling off their remaining stock very cheap - commenting on how much they must have been making at normal prices (yes, idiot, that will be why they've had to close down, won't it?).

Yes, those idiots won't realise that they're probably selling off the stock at less than they paid for it, just to get rid and get some cash in, rather than dumping it (which costs them money in waste disposal!).

One of my clients (a shop) had to close down. They had numerous "closing down sales" but still had around £2000 worth of stock (at their cost price, not selling price), left when the lease expired that they had to get rid of. They managed to find another similar shop who'd take the stock off their hands but wouldn't pay more than £250 for the job lot, so the shop lost £1750 on that. That was after they sold most of their other stock at a loss to customers during their sales.

I will never ever get my head around is why are they not in competition with each other - so for instance, make your latte 20pence cheaper than Fred's over the road or do a mid week deal on your avocado toast? But no, they're all selling their coffee and brunches for exactly the same price . It seems that they're happier to have no customers than change up their pricing structure and actively compete for that business...it seems so senseless to me.

I agree with @WeBuiltThisBuffetOnSausageRoll with this. You see it all the time on places like Etsy. A race to the bottom with the less experienced sellers.

But customers become wary if a scented candle is sold for a pound, or supposedly silver jewellery is under a tenner. So you can shoot yourself in the foot with cutting prices sometimes.

Plus customers are sometimes willing to pay more for less tangible things - like a nice view or garden in a cafe. We've all chosen a restaurant over another one at some time or other just because it looks 'nice'.

One of our local tea shops is very olde worlde, a bit more expensive but customers flock to it as it gives the impression of a 'classy place to be', bakes all their own cakes and everything is served on pretty crockery. You feel you're getting a treat.

So price isn't everything.

That is the ideal. A format that works for you and your customers.

@Isawyou yes, we think it's ideal too. Why do you think that greengrocer you mention isn't doing the ideal thing for them and their customers as in doing enough trade in the hours they are open and then shutting up shop leaving you to make your own arrangements?

@taxguru

See, ok I'm no business expert, just a regular woman who likes to treat herself to a coffee and a sandwich occasionally, but surely it is better to have some customers than none? For those cafes doing well with their regulars then there is obviously no need to drop prices, but for the other cafes who literally have no customers their business model is clearly not working, so why not drop a quid off your lunches and a few pence off your coffee and see what happens? It's like when you visit certain " wellness events " where a Thai massage costs 40 pounds, but no ones biting at that price and so the staff stand around waiting expectantly for cusyomers, whereas a simple drop in price could lead to some custom and some profit to take home as opposed to none!

I have no idea why he isn’t doing what works for him and his customers. His participation in the shop local campaign didn’t pay off unfortunately. People flock to the other greengrocer instead.

@Isawyou it obviously suits him. If he goes to the wall it won't affect you because you buy your fruit and veg in Tesco so why are you concerned?

Did I say I was concerned if he goes to the wall? It suits him yes but then he’s complaining about people not shopping local. If it suits him then he should accept people are choosing to go somewhere else that doesn’t pack up at 3.45. The shop local campaign he participated in didn’t bring him extra business as he hoped.

I go to his rival local greengrocer instead who keep expanding. They listen to their customers and are a huge success as a result.

If he goes to the wall it won't affect you because you buy your fruit and veg in Tesco so why are you concerned?

It's mainly the moaning (accusations, even) about uncaring people not supporting local business and the emotional 'use us or lose us' that are the issue.

If the businesses with very restricted opening hours 'own it' and make it clear that their current set-up suits them and the customers that they get, and they're happy with the situation, there isn't any issue.