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!

Sounds like we live in the same town beginning with B!

A new clothes boutique is closing near you, as it has no customers.

That’s like my local garage
24/7
they has a machete attack with the windows smashed. Windows taped up and “we are still open sign”
Christmas Day? They’re open
mid robbery? “Hold on, we will be right with you”
i have been here 19 years and have never seen them closed

I thought that when I was in Cornwall. St Ives is busy aaaalll day, and even more so after 17:00.

I poked my head around the door of a pub asking if they were open for food, and she told me to come back in an hour.
We were 4 adults and 3 kids, and the kids couldn’t wait that long.

But the cafes were either closed, or about to close.
There was so much passing trade!
And surely August is their boom time??

I thought that when I was in Cornwall. St Ives is busy aaaalll day, and even more so after 17:00.

I poked my head around the door of a pub asking if they were open for food, and she told me to come back in an hour.
We were 4 adults and 3 kids, and the kids couldn’t wait that long.

But the cafes were either closed, or about to close.
There was so much passing trade!
And surely August is their boom time??

I thought that when I was in Cornwall. St Ives is busy aaaalll day, and even more so after 17:00.

I poked my head around the door of a pub asking if they were open for food, and she told me to come back in an hour.
We were 4 adults and 3 kids, and the kids couldn’t wait that long.

But the cafes were either closed, or about to close.
There was so much passing trade!
And surely August is their boom time??

I thought that when I was in Cornwall. St Ives is busy aaaalll day, and even more so after 17:00.

I poked my head around the door of a pub asking if they were open for food, and she told me to come back in an hour.
We were 4 adults and 3 kids, and the kids couldn’t wait that long.

But the cafes were either closed, or about to close.
There was so much passing trade!
And surely August is their boom time??

I thought that when I was in Cornwall. St Ives is busy aaaalll day, and even more so after 17:00.

I poked my head around the door of a pub asking if they were open for food, and she told me to come back in an hour.
We were 4 adults and 3 kids, and the kids couldn’t wait that long.

But the cafes were either closed, or about to close.
There was so much passing trade!
And surely August is their boom time??

Being reliably open at advertised opening times is the absolute basic for real bricksandmortar shops.
My regualar dog food delivery failed a few weeks ago. I could have gone to Petsmart (or whatever it's called now) but I drove further to support my local pet shop, only to find a sign on the door saying "Closed for the rest of the day, sorry for any inconvenience."
So I walked to co-op and got a brand I didn't want, because the dogs have to eat.
Obviously I won't bother making that choice again.

🤣

And why the fuck “choose” a bank that’s only open once a week meaning they have to close the shop for half a day?!!!
FGS change banks!!! ZERO excuse!!!

Pubs are getting just as bad nowadays. Our local is closed Mon/Tues, most days open till 10.00 except on Fridays and Saturdays when it's 11.00, and Sundays until 9.00.

Is it me or did all pubs not open til 11.00pm every day in the past?

I know right? change your bloody bank.

Pretty obvious

Likewise we had a family owned newsagents back in the 70s and 80s. We were ALWAYS open from 6am to 6pm with a fixed lunch hour 12.30 to 1.30. Only closed Sunday afternoons, but were still open 6am to 12.30 Sunday mornings. Being open for the "official" opening hours was sacrosanct. We always covered the opening hours within the family one way or another.

Even when my father died (literally collapsed outside the shop bringing the papers in at 6am), we stayed open that day and deliveries were made as usual. On the day of his funeral, we still opened for the morning deliveries/early morning trade, shut for a few hours for the funeral and wake, but were open again late afternoon for the evening papers deliveries and evening trade.

It's what small shops did in those days as we knew our customers relied on us and would start finding other shops if we were unreliable.

It was the same with the stocks we sold. We regarded it as a massive failure if we ever ran out of anything, and would even go round to another shop to buy things we were close to running out of rather than disappoint our customers, whether we were looking close to selling out of a particular newspaper, or a particular brand of fags, or popular chocolate bars etc - one of us would cycle/drive to the next nearest shop to buy a few "just in case" to tide us over until the next supplier delivery or drive to the wholesalers. Other shop owners did the same and would often come to us to buy a few random things that they were running out of!

Our village Post Office is an absolute nightmare. At least weekly posts on the village facebook page about "use it or lose it", and whingeing about customers complaining if they were randomly shut or ran out of anything or didn't deliver their morning paper. Completely oblivious to the way they regarded their customers as a nuisance and saw nothing wrong in expecting customers to pop back the next day if they were randomly closed!

The thing is that these days a lot of small shops really are run as a "hobby" rather than the breadwinner of the household. So they're run around the school run, family commitments, randomly closed for school events or if their child is off school sick etc.

My hairdresser is the same. It's 50-50 whether my appointment goes ahead because she so often emails/texts on the morning to say either she or one of her kids is off sick, or the school is randomly closed due to flooding, ice, heating failure etc so she has to stay off to look after her child, etc.

It's all so frustrating these days. You want to support small private businesses, but it's hard to do so when they mess you around and inconvenience you!

100%. A new bookshop opened near me, and they claim to support the TQ+ ideology's desire to end women's and LGB rights and destroy child safeguarding. The people who set it up are naive morons based on a quick chat, and I will laugh my head off when I see the landlord has re-taken possession of the shop that I bet they are paying too much for.

I think the issue is that a lot of people decide to run a small business thinking that "being your own boss" means taking any holidays etc you like, when in fact it usually means working every hour god sends to make ends meet. DF ran a small business, DB did for a while, DM did the books for a lot of them, lots of friends who have shops, are sole traders etc, and I really wouldn't do it. I have a pipe dream of opening a bookshop, but I also am aware I'd never see the DC because I'd have to work 8-6 every weekend.

Two great independents near me: a butcher and a hardware shop that recently branched out into cards, small toys, some nicer kitchenware. I always try both of them first for stuff I need. Regular hours, friendly and helpful staff, nice stock. Butcher especially I see working late into the night getting Xmas orders ready and they open at 7am Xmas eve for collection. It's not family friendly, and it's really hard work.

The nearest small town to me has quite a few 'antique' /junk shops [not charity] and there are notices on the doors saying to phone for an appointment to view inside ! I'm Swedish death clearing and could put some good business your way, I really want to fanny around trying to squeeze appointments into my busy life. I don't drive so things would need to be collected and that takes time.
Contact two charity shops, they collected, few days later went into one and my antique Welsh dresser had a £350 sticker and a sold label on it. The charity had looked after my mum before she died.
I'm glad they got the money rather than a hobbyist shop owner.

Totally agree
I actually sent an email querying opening hours to a local independent gift shop a couple of weeks ago after my 85 year old mum had gone to buy presents there on 3 occasions, only to find it shut. The business owner replied listing her opening hours and said illness could cause a shop to be shut. Yes, I get that but surely not consistently?

We’ve got one of these too. Actual local legends. Open every single day 8am - 10pm, every random uncle, cousin, nephew behind the till at some point. They adapt and continue to do well.

plenty of the other sort of independent stores near me too, always whining on local fb like they have a god given right to my money. They come and go until the space becomes a charity shop or a Turkish barber 🤦‍♀️

It’s the busiest shopping day of the week, and has been for yonks, apparently.

Go figure! 🤷🏻‍♀️

Probably because the owner and staff have also dropped off their kids and it takes an hour to set up to open a cafe, i.e. turn on the ovens, coffee machines, tills, etc., set up the tables/chairs, etc. You can't just walk in and start serving within 5 minutes! I'm just pointing out the reality when owners and staff also have children themselves and themselves want "family friendly" hours.

It’s pricing as well. We were in an independent clothes store and I saw some trousers I had seen online (summer trousers and it was autumn). On the website they were £45 but you’d get money off, always discounts/sales. The shop was selling them for £60!
I then found them online for £11 on sale. They had lots of stock.

I don’t know this shop, but, i will heartily laugh along with you when they go tits up.

I think most people understand that small shops can't open all day every day. But they need to be transparent about their opening hours - have clear opening hours signs on their door and webpage/facebook page and stick to them.

Nothing more annoying than a shop (or any other business) randomly closing during times when they should be open (as per their signage/internet), especially if you've made a specific journey.

We had this with our village post office. They randomly closed for half an hour mid day for the counter guy to have his lunch. Trouble was some days it was 12 noon, some days 1pm, some days any time inbetween. They got a lot of complaints, so they asked on the local face book group whether customers would prefer a fixed lunch break - it was something like 99% of respondents who said yes, but the owners seemed surprised! Doh!! Ever since, they now close every day at 12.30, and customers know and can plan around it.

I'd have thought it was common sense, but apparently not to the owners!

I think the issue is that a lot of people decide to run a small business thinking that "being your own boss" means taking any holidays etc you like, when in fact it usually means working every hour god sends to make ends meet

Yes I think this is it. The thing is - if you can actually put in the work in the beginning you can probably then begin to scale up later on and employ others to help you have time off. Hard work pays off once you have a good reputation.

My best friend is a mechanic and he worked his arse off in the beginning - used to work 6 days a week from 7.30am until 6.30pm Monday to Saturday. Never used to take any holidays, just worked. After about 4-5 years of doing this he built up a great customer base and now he always has a waiting list of people booked up 4-5 months in advance because all his reviews are so great. He will never have to advertise ever again and now he shuts on Saturdays and hires someone else to do the work on Fridays so he has Fridays off too.

BUT, he only achieved this by putting in the work at the beginning. Thats what a lot of people miss I think.