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.

After the pandemic, you will find that a lot of these types of items are cheaper on the high street (in the shops that survived, that is)

Many large on-line platforms took advantage of Covid and started to charge extortionate prices for almost everything. They are no longer what they used to be, now that they have a captive market

The greengrocer in the OP may have to get up at silly o’clock to go to the wholesale market for stock. He may well make most of this profit in the mornings and it may not be worth his while staying open into the late afternoon or evening. In my local small town, which still has a great many small independent shops, it’s very busy in the morning - it obviously suits lots of people shop then - and far less so in the afternoon.
It’s good to have a diversity of retail provision so people can go to whichever shops work best for them. (One thing I did notice during lockdown was how enterprising these small businesses were, moving online and delivering to people or offering safe pick up of orders. Good for them.)

Totally agree op! Our local independent greengrocer decided a while back to close on a Thursday instead of a Monday. I haven’t been in since!

I quite agree. We tested various opening hours to see what works and our busiest time outside lunch was 8-8:45AM for quick coffees and cakes to take away to work for people. Same people came back for lunch. Cafe nearby kept moaning they are not really busy even during lunch but refused to open before 9am and we were by business district fgs...

I get it, some people really cannot open longer or earlier all the time, but sadly something has to give. No one will take annual leave to go see some shop. It always annoyed me too and I too then ended up shopping with big brands which as "support local" supporter in general really frustrated me.
It could genuinely be mitigated by simple things like, have a website with stock on (doesn't even have to be a shop, just stock to see what you have), open earlier 1 day a week and later 1 day a week. Even if it's 1-1.5 hour it can make massive difference.
ADVERTISE you are open extra hours! Sign on door, post on social, sign on website, accurate hours on google maps.

There's a local coffee shop next to my son's nursery and the adjoining school that isn't doing well and they're posting on social media about being in danger of having to close. They open at 10 after school drop off time...

Stopped in a small Norfolk town on a bank holiday looking for lunch. Everywhere was shut, except for a Wetherspoons, which was packed.

I think the wifi thing is fair enough. It's probably to stop people buying one coffee and then spending six hours at the table on their laptop.

I went into a cafe a few weeks ago and couldn't get a table because it was full of people with laptops and empty coffee cups. It must cost cafes a fortune in lost revenue.

Nail on the head!

I live in a town with a dying town centre. A new little ‘occasions’ shop opened very recently, cards, balloons, small gifts and trinkets. They closed Thurs-Wednesday for the schools midterm break to go on holiday (I’m in Scotland) which included the 5 days leading up to Valentines Day 🤷‍♀️

You can pay by card on a plane and there's definitely no internet connection! No excuse not to take cards these days.

More like nail in a coffin and I say that as SME.

If someone wants 9-5 or part time hours, owning hospitality and retail business is not for them in most cases. Unless you are in places like the cafe mentioned by pp by the school. Or have little niche shop open at weekends or something.
Owners need to think...
"I need customers to spend money, most money is spent by the local workforce. Ok so most of them around work 9-5, few different pattern. Hmm. If i open 9-5 they are at work and not spending here... Ok need to trial 8am starts"
Amend times to 12-12 or whatever the potential customer base does.

It's not up to prople to inconvenience themselves to support someone. There needs to be move from both sides.

Satellite connectivity does the same thing @Saltovinegar

I agree. We are blessed with loads of amazing independent businesses near where I live (suburb of North London) but I can rarely spend money in any of them because they are usually open 11-4/5 Wednesday to Sunday and I work, not from home and not in the local area. The ones which really annoy me are the cafes which open late at the weekend - I have a toddler, so I am up and about for a coffee at 8/9 not 10! I understand that most of them are run by people who are staffing the shop mostly themselves, but if that were me, I would definitely be able to get the shop open earlier! A lot of the businesses give off the vibes of hobbies for people who are independently wealthy..... There is a florist which sells lovely flowers but we don't use at all because it's often randomly closed for no reason, and I went in there to enquire about my wedding flowers and they just never got back to me (if you're not free or you don't want the business, just say, ignoring me is really not on!).

There are a couple of local business in my village who do exactly what you are suggesting op. For example, the beauticians does late nights on Thurs, Fri, Sat but then they close on a Monday. There's also a gift shop which does similar and then they open on some of the Sundays before Christmas, Valentines Easter, Mothers Day etc.

Or the pizza van could take pre-orders which are paid for online.

I’ve struggled to keep cash in my purse for years as I have kids who always needed money for something. I pay for everything on Apple Pay now, if you want cash - sorry, I don’t have it so I’ll go somewhere else or go without.

Problem is that most internet retailers can undercut prices that local shops charge for identical items. We have a fab local pet shop that I buy a few things from but they sell the dog food we use at £21 for a 3kg bag whereas I can buy them same online delivered to my door and it's £45 for 9kg!!

I have this issue around here too. If you want afternoon tea you have to have it at lunchtime

I've got to be honest, unless it's a large cafe I think it's very unreasonable to think that buying a coffee every hour justifies taking one of their tables out of service to work on. Maybe they don't have wi fi because they don't want their cafe full of people taking up tables and buying a measly coffee every hour. 😁

I know of a local indie haberdashery/pretty things shop with hours like this and it is entirely a hobby instagram business funded by being an heiress who does exactly as much work as she cares to to entertain herself. It’ a ridiculous joy to shop in when it is open, eg a basket full of brass sewing scissors each with individual string and card handwritten tags: £6.

On the other hand I used to work in a local indie bookshop which was open 7 days a week, standard opening hours (9-6 or something, I can’t recall, but nothing daft and no lunchtime closing), it did mail order and evening events and the owners were always working before opening and afterwards – not just the standard pre-opening-hours stuff (I think people forget that if you’re open 9-6, staff are there 8.30 to 6.30) but all hours keeping up with book reviews and catalogues to decide on orders, doing bookkeeping, travelling to buy secondhand collections (they sold new and old). But some days the takings would be less than £50. A good weekend day was £1000 but that’s what goes through the till, not the profit. Every extra hour open is an extra hour in staff costs and overheads.

Any city centre cafe that wants my business needs to be open either by 8am in the week or after 4pm at weekends. This inevitably means I end up in Costa or Starbucks. Wtf is it with shutting at 4pm on a Saturday, just when everyone is about ready for a cup of tea?

Agreed. I am in a small coastal town and shops all close at 4pm with places like greengrocers starting to pack at 3.30pm.

Coffee shops closing at 3pm.

Even when I work from home, it is impossible for me to shop during these hours.

Then they complain that people don't use local businesses enough and prefer online shopping.

Same with GPs: they really need to fit around people's working hours.

I don't understand why businesses can stay open until 6pm or need to close on Sundays. That's when the majority of people have free time...

You can't run a successful business if you don't take the needs of your clients into account.

Where I used to live the school mums would go for a coffee after drop off for an hour (drop off was early so even those who worked could come for a quick one). The local restaurant was open at 8am and ten of us would go regularly (that's just our Year group - other Year groups would have their coffee mornings there too). We all ordered lattes etc and a few might order a pastry or even breakfast. Not big items but we were there week in week out. And a few other people held breakfast meetings there.
Then they changed it to no food til 9. Then they didn't open til 9. Lost all their morning clients as that's too late! It had a knock on effect too - after our coffees you could then stroll around the other shops that would have opened up - mostly independents. But if no coffee everyone just went to work or home. So no spending in the other local shops!

Because if everyone stayed open from 8 till 6 and all day Sundays your employer might wonder why you don't work the same ?

Most butchers have to be at the abattoir at 4am at the latest to collect meat (slaughtering usually starts at 1-2. am ) which then has to be butchered before it can be displayed when they open at 8.00.am. That's why many local ones probably shut at 4.00.pm

I'm not sure what is meant by "less convenient". If you buy lamb chops from your local butcher you'll know the animal will have been slaughtered that day and will be fresh.

sorry @Captiancorrellistuba another one chiming in to say this is just not how it works.

we send cows and sheep directly to the abattoir and we get an email once they have been slaughtered, they usually go first thing in the morning (8am ish) and we've usually had the email by 5pm the same day.

If we haven't it means the 'lines' have stopped for some reason - usually staffing issues and the animals wait until the next day, it's rare that happens though and it definitely seems to be a 9 - 5 type operation.

they then go somewhere else for hanging and processing.

lamb is usually hung for a couple of weeks, beef for 3-4 weeks.

if it's destined for supermarkets it will be sent to a processing plant where teams of butchers will break it down into standardised cuts.

If it's destined for butchers then whole 'sides' of the animal will be delivered directly to the butcher and the butcher will break it down into the types of cuts and joints they think their customers want.

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

what part of less convenient and more expensive leads businesses to believe customers are arsed if they close? Sounds harsh but most probably aren't bothered. I do get supporting local businesses to help support someone's dreams etc, but if they only offer stuff that's readily available, more accessible and cheaper elsewhere then will it really be that missed? For example there's a small bookshop here, now of course I accept they can only hold a small stock and the rest will take time to be ordered in and that they can't compete on pricing with others, but the experience is always horrible too. Rude, stuck up staff, pretty dirty and uninspiring, orders take over a week and they add on an admin charge, so full RRP + an admin charge and waiting a week or half the price for next day delivery from the comfort of home?