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!

I would love to shop more locally but I work full time and majority of those shops close at 4 p.m. and have short opening window on Saturday morning. I don't understand why they don't do a weekly day of late hours shopping together with similar shops. Open after lunch and stay open until 8 p.m.

Also, we have a market three days a week, and then a huge market twice a month with a big one at Christmas and Easter. Brings loads of tourists to the town, you can't get a table at pubs and restaurants for lunch because it's so busy, and they do a free park and ride scheme too.
NONE of the high street shops open - they all go on social media proudly saying they are 'boycotting' it!! It's literally the busiest day in the whole of town every time, it boggles the brain.

Why are they boycotting it?

I agree with all of this.

Also, I’m not going to pay 10%-20% more to buy from an independent that opens for 45 minutes every third Wednesday.

I feel for the ones that really do try, but moany FB posts when they aren’t helping themselves really don’t encourage me to go there.

I’m not a business woman but using some of the examples from PP I wouldn’t open a soft play with limited parking in an isolated location, I wouldn’t open a shop but then regularly be closed on the weekend, I wouldn’t open a cafe or takeaway and not be open for the morning commute or after school crowd. These feel so obvious as a consumer, why isn’t it obvious to the business owners?

A new clothes boutique is opening near me. The opening hours are 11-3 Monday to Friday

Having seen both my son and DH treated appallingly by small employers who take everything personally, want blood, won't spend any money on anything to benefit staff and constantly hold "there's the door" over staff, I'm inclined to think our money's better spent with large corporates, who have always been good employers for me.

I agree. We have an independent candle shop a bus ride away. Twice I've checked their website for opening hours and made the journey and found they are closed.

i gave up and started ordering online. I only ordered goods marked as in stock. Once they delivered substitute scents without notifying me - they then had to pay return postage. The second time they ordered the right scent but in smaller sizes. When I contacted them to complain they offered me store credit as compensation. I agreed to that but it was never confirmed and they ignored my follow up email.

I've given up , wonderful product but the service is dire.

I'm in Wales. The bus fare is considerably more than £3 to the nearest town, the bus only runs every 2 hours, and the bus stop is over a mile down the hill from my house (so on the way back with shopping it's over a mile up the hill)...

This is insane! I run a business (not in retail) but I would never ever post anything political on my website or shout about it online for this very reason- dont want to alienate a large proportion of my customers!

I shop in places that are convenient for me to get to, are open, and give me decent prices and good customer service. If those shops arent independent shops then tough luck I'm afraid.

If you want business and people to give you their hard earned money then you need to make their shopping experience a good one. If you cant, then dont moan when your business closes.

All they need is one of those clocks on the door to show what time they will be back.

Perhaps you should suggest it to them as they seem clueless.

https://www.etsy.com/uk/listing/1774819541/personalized-will-be-back-clock-sign?gpla=1&gao=1&utm_source=connexity&utm_medium=cpc&utm_campaign=shopping_uk_google&utm_content=Cj0KCQiAosrJBhD0ARIsAHebCNr4lai9TZTlaoNRyIk_wAbBt-xc7FjLWnM5KlQYhYxv1rctkfsTsucaAmpTEALw_wcB&gad_source=1&gad_campaignid=23101986684&gclid=Cj0KCQiAosrJBhD0ARIsAHebCNr4lai9TZTlaoNRyIk_wAbBt-xc7FjLWnM5KlQYhYxv1rctkfsTsucaAmpTEALw_wcB

I see the same issues with independent cafes in my local tourist village. Open 10-3 four days a week, kitchen closes at 2.15, often staff start putting chairs on tables at 2pm....most of them last about 18 months.

Thats not going to do jack shit though. If I have made a special journey to a shop and I find I have to wait around for an hour then I'm going somewhere else I'm afraid.

Most people are far too busy to hang around for hours to wait until someone comes back when they can get it elsewhere. Especially when people are on their lunch break or have to dash back to pick kids up etc

Inconsistent hours and lots now sell stuff from Shein for double the price.

My late mother used to work in a small bakery, on Christmas Eve the owner, a totally mean woman, would insist on staying open until no-one had come in for 15 minutes, this often meant closing at 9pm! She didn't give any staff discount, even bread, cakes etc left at closing time could only be bought at full price.

Opening times for independent shops are pretty decent where I live. We are city-centre based so they don't tend to shut just randomly as it's always busy enough to have potential customers. Parking isn't an issue as most people use public transport.
But generally I don't have much loyalty to independent shops. I prefer the online shopping experience and I find bigger chains tend to be cheaper with more promotions and loyalty offers. I also don't like being in small shops where the owners try to be overly helpful and make you feel under pressure to buy, it often feels more relaxing to browse in a larger store where the staff aren't overinvested in whether you make a purchase.
I'll often buy items direct from overseas which is the exact same item as the item in the shops, but far cheaper and a wider selection.

A much-loved shop near us has recently closed. It was close to a primary school and was the sort of place that should have been very popular with parents on the school run, selling cards, gifts, books (including children's books) and a few traditional toys. Unfortunately it didn't open at school pick-up and drop-off times as the owner-operator was a parent of a young child and shut for her own school run. It was such a shame they couldn't either use a childminder or find a reliable assistant to keep the shop open at those key times.

No, of course not, but if you know that they will be back in 5 mins then you might wait around if you can.

As the OP said, she has no idea when they will be back. It could be 5 mins or 5 hours.

Yep. Tbh I've long thought it was foolish that she doesn't have separate business social media accounts; I think she gets (got) a lot of custom by personal networking (that's how I met her) and likes to have an informal and personal touch and all that, but jeez, if that's how you're going to do it, keep politics out of it! And actually telling people to shop elsewhere if you don't agree with her on controversial and divisive issues... initially I thought perhaps she knew her customers really well and knew she could take the hit but I guess not.

Honestly, even if she had been expressing views I agreed with, I still would probably have been turned off. I don't like purchasing innocent items to be politicised and while I think people with her views are misguided, I don't think they're disgusting pieces of shit!

I feel like that about craft market type places too. Let me browse, don't be helpful unless I ask!

There are a few in my home town who don't open until 10.00, (and that includes cafes and a children's clothes shop). I get that they might be dropping off children at school, but so are their customers, and that time is when people are likely to want to shop child free, or maybe grab a coffee with friends before heading home or to work. It seems crazy to be closed when their likely customer base will be around. Even if they have to pay someone to drop the kids off, or cover the shop for an hour or so they will at least gain customers who might go on to be regulars. As it is, the school mums and grandmother just go elsewhere (often to the chains who may dominate High Streets, but are at least open when people want to use them).

We went to a late night shopping Christmas thing last night. Some of the independent high street shops were open. In two of them, my daughter found the exact same items on Temu. In the independent shops they were about 10x the price.

Highly doubt I will use independent shops going forward if that’s what they are up to.

I should have mentioned that my father did not employ staff and would definitely not have expected them to do that.

There’s a “makery” near me where the woman sells crafting supplies, finished handmade items, and has a studio room where she holds classes and lets people do ad hoc crafting for £10 an hour. It’s a pleasant environment with a great array of merchandise; I love the variety of unusual & inspiring supplies and materials.

She depends heavily on Christmas trade - yet just closed down for a long weekend to take a holiday with her husband! And her shop hours are constantly changing.

i see her on Facebook exhorting people to “shop local” but she doesn’t make it easy. And when I do go in, she’s so aggressively trying to upsell that I end up leaving sooner than planned.

I am very sympathetic to the challenges of small business - rent, logistics, staff etc.

However, I don't think customers are morally obliged to inconvenience themselves in order to support them. Rather, independent businesses need to deliver something we can't get from the big high street chains or online, in order to incentivise us to want to spend the extra money.

This is the bit too many of these businesses just don't understand.

We have the exact same whining from local small businesses online. It's particularly annoying as one of the challenges with our little high street is that it's not super pedestrian/shopping friendly. Recently, one that had been right at the end of the street, by itself with no convenient way to cross the road, had to close because of lack of business. Lots of "woe is me" posts from them and all the other businesses. I get it. I really really do. But I'm not going to risk life and limb to go into a gift shop for expensive gifts at the ass end of the high street. Sorry.

I'm mroe than happy to support calls for the council to make some effort to make the high street more usuable - and I've even given up time and expertise to help a group who were campaigning on this. And if you call a meeting with local councillors, I'll turn up and support calls for change. And I'll turn up to a fund raising event or whatever. But please don't whinge at me because your shop is in an inconvenient spot and I don't want to have to go down there to use it.

I always wonder with such people if they link the two things - does she realise she caused it with her nasty behaviour or does she just believe it's everyone else's fault her business failed? it fascinates me 🤔