To think *some* independent shops really aren't helping themselves...?

[BeansAndNoodles]

I'm massively supportive of small businesses, I try to use them as often as I can. We are lucky to have a high street with lots of independent shops. However, my trips to town are limited due to being short of spare time, plus parking costs a fortune unless you limit it to the free 90 mins that you get in the supermarket car park, etc.

But time and time again I go to one of the independent shops to find them randomly shut. I get that they probably only have one staff member so it's hard to stay open if anything out of the ordinary happens, but it's still so flipping frustrating.

The last few trips to town have ended with me ordering stuff online or going into one of the chains because the independent shops I wanted were closed for no apparent reason. The independent health food shop is the worst, they close for an hour at some point between 11 and 3 for lunch but it's not the same time day to day and they don't say on the closed sign what time they'll be back, so if you get there and it's shut you don't know if it's worth trekking back to that end of town in 30 mins or not. I tend not to even bother checking now and just go straight Holland & Barrat instead. Several more shops seem to rely on posting that days opening hours on their FB page, but thats hardly a reliable way to tell people if they're open or not! Last week I had an afternoon off and took a trip to a different town specifically to go to a shop that stocks work by local artists to get some cards and gifts, only to find it closed with no indication of why or if it was opening late or what. I checked their FB page while stood outside but nope nothing. Later that day (3 hours after their stated opening time) they posted that they'd decided to open later for the Christmas lights switch on and that they hoped people would come and support them

Anyway I've just seen yet another slightly passive aggressive plea from one of the owners of the worst shops for this, complaining how quiet business is and telling people to use them or lose them yada. Well yes I totally agree but more often then not when I try to use them they're not bloody open!

Absolutely agree. Theyre shut when people with the money to spend are working, and shut when those people get off work. Weekend rolls around and we have ram everything into two days, we don't have time to visit your shop (let alone multiple moaning independent businesses).

I absolutely hate those pleas for business... Well, be bloody open when I can shop there then maybe?

I totally agree with you.
I have often commented to others that some small businesses seem to treat their outlet/premises/business like a hobby. “Take it or leave it Mrs Customer, we’re closed for lunch for 2 random hours!”

If they want to thrive there has to be a better way to remain available to all of those who expect them to be open to serve us. Drives me nuts.

My dad ran his own shop for his whole life. He never, ever closed early in case a customer turned up, found him closed, went somewhere else and preferred it. Seems so basic.

But i prssume they open and pay staff in their busy times, maybe when they first opened they opened more and didnt have the customers

I agree.

I’m also finding them to be increasingly beggy and guilt tripping that they should be the ones to have my money. It’s become less about small business and more about employees having some moral duty to fund other people’s hobbies.

If you sell something I want and it’s reasonably convenient, I will pay more to buy it from a small business. But I won’t be jumping through hoops, dealing with inconvenience, buying a substandard product or dealing with inadequate customer service and still handing my money over. It’s still supposed to be a business.

I agree OP. There’s a couple independent shops where I am who were very publicly unhappy about the Christmas market appearing outside their premises taking their trade away! I think this’d be the perfect time to open and scoop up cold/wandering market visitors - but what do I know?

I love independent shops but think sometimes they just use things like this as an excuse. As in convince themselves it’s people’s fault not theirs.

Yes - not quite the same but our local play cafe regularly moans at everyone on their Facebook page for not coming when they are quiet. They also lean heavily on the moral duty and guilt tripping.

It really puts me off going, not least because I can only actually make it when they are already busy, so i'm "part of the problem", apparently, of customers that expect service at weekends without coming in the week!

I stopped following a couple of businesses on Instagram for similar reasons - please help us and our sad faces, oh btw we’re closing for a fortnight now. We’re really busy so everything is late, we know you’ll understand! etc. Also lots of public call outs of customers being ‘unkind’ or whatever. Tedious tbh. People should be respectful of course, but equally, someone being cross because their order hasn’t arrived or similar is pretty par for the course.

Lots of small businesses are of course wonderful, but the entitlement of some is grating.

I agree, the social media moaning from some small business owners drives me nuts! No-one is forcing them to run their business, give it up and get a job if it's that annoying!

Decent shops will do well. Nonsense shops selling over priced tat will not.

I love Thai food. There's a tiny Thai restaurant two minutes from my house. Never been in.

Opens every other full moon, if you've booked in advance, but not on the solstice or something.

I'd love to support local independent places but unless they are consistently open I'm not around at 3pm on a Wednesday, I have a busy job and a commute.

So I end up in McDonald's, cos it's always open, and shop on Amazon, because it's always there. And so the problem gets worse, and I know I'm part of it, but what else can you do?

I fully hear you on this.
Where I am it is very related to staffing issues, people with businesses just cannot get staff to be open all the time, I’ve seen it in action.

I don’t know what the solution to it is, because meanwhile the big supermarkets have raised their convenience levels to extraordinary levels, not only on their opening times but also their stock is 100% reliable. You don’t go in and there’s no milk for example.
A small shop really suffers on this. We have a very small farm shop and although we are open 365 days, reliably, sometimes we have unexpected super busy days and I can’t get another delivery for 2 days or the other local farmer who’s providing the lamb still has to hang / butcher before we can restock and that’s 2 weeks off.

supermarkets have the technology and umph to make sure that never happens.
But anyway, i think overall we all know a small business has different challenges, and it’s a different experience and most are trying their best to make it work. Most, not all. But even on that, I think the hammering people are taking on costs has smashed motivation - it all seems like it’s too hard for very little reward.

I agree with you OP. Have you let the shops themselves know? I'd be tempted to go armed with a double-sided note to stick on the door (so they can read it whichever side they approach from) saying "I came at Xpm to buy something but you were shut again".

I don't use Facebook, but if I'd had this issue and then saw a pleading post from the shop I'd be tempted to reply to it.

I agree. Sort of similar but we had a new smoothie place open up over the summer with opening hours of 9.30 - 2pm Tues- Fri and then similar hours on a Saturday. Its literally next door to a primary school so completely missed parents school pick up time. We also have a really busy outdoor pool in the summer with a Friday fun night for kids between 6&8 they completely missed peak times then you get the sad fb posts...
It just feels like a hobby and not really a business.

We have/had a local market stall where the owner would make sad Facebook updates late at night about the viability of the business. I did feel sorry for him as obviously it's not an easy environment but it was also quite uncomfortable.

Also, they went counter service only after COVID and had a limit on card payments...both things understandable and not insurmountable but another little nudge away from them.

Can I extend this slightly to independent cafes and restaurants? They've got plenty of time to post videos on TikTok and Instagram but when you ask what their opening hours or menu are, or any other question about their services - silence. Make it really easy for me to understand what you do, when and where you do it and how much it'll cost me and I'll use you. Make it difficult for me and I'm out.

There's a local, independent book shop which I've made a point of regularly patronising because I love an independent bookshop.

Popped in yesterday and overheard the owner, twice, tersely correct an elderly woman for 'mis-gendering' an author. The owner was rude and the elderly woman was confused and a bit upset.

I won't be going back and I must have been one of their best customers as I buy a lot of books.

Probably a front for money laundering or human trafficking.

Our local softplay is absolutely fabulous but the parking is horrendous. They are on a small industrial estate with allocated parking for customers of each business. The softplay only has 10 spaces. I live in a village 7 miles away so I can't walk there, we have no buses and there are no pay and display carparks anywhere near. I have my grandchildren on a Monday so that's the day I want to go. There are never any available spaces so I've given up going. They frequently post about needing support. I'd love to and , if I lived in walking distance or they had a big carpark, I'd be there frequently.

I guess they're often in a difficult position, but I do think that if I owned a shop, especially in a suburb, I'd be open 12-7 during the week so working people could use it, and shut maybe on on a Monday rather than a Sunday. That would make more sense rather than the 9-5 Mon-Sat a lot of them do.

This. And yet I have heard these “hobby” shopkeepers moaning about Amazon. 🤷🏼‍♀️

Agree. We have an independent toy shop near us and a HMV. The new Stranger things funkos are £14.99 in HMV. The independent shop...£20!! A £ or 2 and I'd use the IS but not when it's a fiver difference 😫

Yes, I've had two problems like this recently.

Good independent local butcher (who I try to buy something from every week) - went to them recently during their advertised "open hours" and they were closed. About 2pm, so not near closing time. Then the same thing happened next time I went there! I did keep trying and they have been open recently. But this would make a new customer give up.

Also a small independent sweet company who I ordered advent calendars from in mid-November. Nearly 2 weeks later, still not despatched, and they wouldn't give a firm date for despatch. Their emails implied that I was being mean for hassling a small independent company. Eventually they despatched them in last year's packaging as a special favour. They were gifts and I needed time to get them to the recipients!

Yes, I understand that small companies don't have the infrastructure of supermarkets or Amazon, but don't dick me around.

I hope when they've said "Use them or lose them" you've let them know that you wanted to but they are never open and you had to take your business elsewhere?

Maybe I have just been very unlucky but I have had quite a few bad experiences in independent shops with the people working there being rude or at worst racist to me. I try to avoid them now. I don't think they miss me. They never seemed to particularly want my custom.