AIBU to think you cannot say use us or lose us when you barely open?

[catchingup1]

There is a local independent cafe near me that has been posting a lot on social media about how people need to support them or they will disappear. I do try to support independents where I can.

The tone of the posts is very much use us or lose us, talking about how they cannot compete with the big coffee chains and how locals need to step up.
So I made a point of going.

It is only open 10 to 3, closed Wednesdays and Sundays.

The big chains they are comparing themselves to are open early mornings, evenings, weekends, basically when people actually want coffee.

I am not saying it is easy running a small business and I do not expect them to match chain hours exactly. But they are blaming customers for not supporting them while being open very short hours.

It does seem silly but it really depends on the circumstances.

I know of two small independent businesses (one village / corner shop and one butcher) who tried to close after COVID - to much outcry in the village. They agreed to stay open for a while but said in order to make it work the village would have to e.g. shop there instead of getting Tesco deliveries all the time.

Nothing changed, the corner shop was overlooked in favour of larger supermarkets, and the chap closed it last year. There was outrage and people are still complaining about how there's no shop over 6 months later on the local Facebook page. But if all they needed it for was a pint of milk at 7am because they'd run out and they got everything else from big brands, there's no way it's a sustainable business model.

It's very possible that the coffee shop in your post can only afford to open in those hours to be honest! They won't have a massive staff to be able to open from 7-7.

I think probably their hours are the problem. Probably someone trying to run it around school hours.
They're entitled to say use us or lose us and customers are entitled to say the hours don’t work for us so we’re not going to use you.
I'm guessing through many customers use a cafe around those hours as they cover lunch what’s the menu like?

The independent cafe near me is usually busy. Similar hours but more like 9-2 which I think maybe helps them get some breakfast trade as well as lunches.
The other thing they do is let other people use the space - some with their catering (e.g. private functions) and some without (e.g. guest chef comes to do Tapas nights and similar in hours they don't normally open)

I agree.

Many small businesses scream "support local" but have an unrealistic business model.

A lovely little bookshop on our high street would often post on the local FB page, shaming people for purchasing cheap books on Amazon or from Home Bargains, instead of supporting their shop. The demographic of the area is quite mixed, but the fact was, in the current economic climate, no one is going to opt to pay £10 for a book that they can get for £5 on Amazon. They would also often close the shop unexpectedly.

It was a shame as it was truly a lovely bookshop and a great community space. But the prices were eye watering. Many people are now into recycling and reusing, so buying a brand new book went against that.

The owner didn't see that though. Was very self righteous.

I never understand when people have their own business why they don't put more hours in to make more money. If you're making money for other people, ie Tesco then no I'm doing what I'm asked of me and not a minute more but if I own the business I would want to make as much money as I can.

A woman by me in the high street owns a charity type shop, she supports a charity rather than runs the shop for charity it's her own business, she literally chucks you out once 4pm comes, she's really rude and doesn't work a second over 4pm, I see her locking up bang on 4pm, she closes mondays . She's middle aged so no school runs etc yet she moans all the time about the cost of the rent and the shoplifting and the bills. She's always got a mountain of stuff in the shop to sort and some days there's hardly anything on the shelves coz the shop is really successful and some days its full of people browsing at numerous times of the day.
She doesn't really trust ppl so rarely has people in to help her so I can never understand why not spend a couple of hours a night after the shop is shut pricing up stuff to get out on the shop floor the next day rather than the shop being half empty.
It doesn't make sense to me.
It's her own profit. She's rushing out on making more money.

My family own their own cafe and it's a struggle financially to stay open the full day to catch all possible customers. Staff costs are astronomical, let alone energy. But your local cafe are being unreasonable for sure! If it doesn't pay for them to have the cafe open longer hours, then it's not a business, it's a hobby!

I do get frustrated with businesses like this. We have a cafe in our village which opens 10-4 so misses all the post school drop off parent coffee market & the "I'll just grab something to take to the office with me" market. It's also half filled with random gifts/toys/clothes for sale which don't seem to shift and take up room (as in a whole side room) which could be given over to more tables rather than squeezing ppl in round the till area. It is used but there's still lots and lots of sad faced "please come and buy stuff before i go out of business" messages. I know she's been given lots of advice on what she should do ((basically get rid of the gift shop aspect and use the floor space for tables) but it's "oh but i looove the clothes/the toys/the whatever" - well yes you might do but your customers clearly don't, so stop wasting money on them and use the space for the thing that does sell ie food and drink

Agree. We've got lovely independent cafes in our town but they all keep odd opening hours and none of them are open after 3pm. Do you know where's packed every day after school pick up? Costa.

Most of the cafes near me doing 8l7:30 until 2:30.
The get the tradies in for breakfast and get the lunch crowd. Most are always busy. I guess finishing at 2.30 gives them time once the cafe is shut to clean, do banking, admin, replenish stock and have a good work life balance.

The owners are probably having to work elsewhere to afford to keep going. Have you tried going in for a chat
One lunchtime?

There was a coffee shop right beside the station entrance where I used to live. I always thought it was crazy that it didn’t open until 10 as it missed all the people getting the train to work who would have stopped in for a takeaway coffee on their way to work.

it also missed the school mums who would go for a coffee after school drop off.

it closed.

One of our local pubs is like this, a steady stream of “support local” type posts on social media but often closed or not doing food at lunchtime/shutting the kitchen at 8pm on Friday and Saturday night. I know a bit about the pub trade and how hard it can be but without a decent food offering it won’t survive (it’s rural so very little passing or drinking only trade)

We had an independent bookshop owner like this. It was sad as it was a bookshop I’d visited as a child. I wanted to buy some books in bulk to use as kids party gifts through the year so say 10+ of the same book. It was significantly cheaper to order them on Amazon but I really wanted to support him. I asked if he’d consider a discount if I bought 10 copies and he was quite rude and lectured me about Amazon not paying taxes. He reluctantly agreed to a discount but it left a bad taste. If he’d politely explained that he couldn’t discount I’d probably have bought them anyway. I understand how frustrating it must have been for him though.

Our local pub is like this, not open half the week. And a café near my sister which opens 12-4.

Again we have one like this - doesn’t open until 11am by which time they’ve missed all the morning trade and the school mums drop off coffee trade (that’s big in this area!)

we also have a beautiful local restaurant recently opened in a listed building, gorgeous inside, but they are often randomly closed and the owner isn’t very friendly. They are also expensive, £20 for a burger kind of thing and quite a limited menu.

The local population doesn’t exist to subsidise the poor decision making of people who run poorly researched, unrealistic business.

Our local pub did this too. You would go in at 9pm and be greeted with a frosty look and a 'we're just about to close'. I can't be bothered to research their random opening times so we just have a drink at home now.

I do think a lot of people opening businesses now are struggling with the changes the COL issues have caused - you aren’t going to make easy money from hospitality anymore. Anything in the hospitality sector is going to be tough to make a profit, you will have to chase your local demand and meet that, not create a demand for the sort of product you want to offer.

OP your cafe clearly wants to be able to run just on lunchtime trade and mid-morning coffees for those out in your town. In some locations, eg city centre locations with lots of offices nearby, just running on lunchtime trade for those who want a quick sandwich and brew is enough to keep you afloat. Or maybe a tourist town with lots of daytime visitors who want lunch. But it doesn’t sound like your town can support that sort of business.

I don’t understand the “use us or lose us” posts by businesses- a shut up coffee shop when I want a coffee is as much use to me as an empty unit. If there’s no local demand for lunchtime cafes in your town, that business closing down to make way for a business local people do want/need would be a good thing.

There’s a small cafe near me that runs evening sessions a couple of nights a week. Singles nights, jewelry making, tarot, wine tasting, all kinds of things. It’s very successful

I agree. I used to live in a commuter town and a lady tried to open a card and gift shop. She kept complaining on facebook how people she’d see people buying greetings cards in the evening in Waitrose….errr yeah….because Waitrose is open and your shop is shut. She lasted about 6 months, it was a real shame because it looked like a lovely little place but she’d open 10-4 during the week and close on Sundays.

I always thought she’d do much better opening 10-2 and then 5-7 to catch the hundreds of commuters who passed her doors at rush hour.

Sorry but they are idiots. I run a business myself and I wouldnt be able to survive if I did that and if I did chose to do that, then I should 100% expect to fail and I would bloody deserve it.

Coffee shops are a dime a dozen where I live and if you arent open when people need you then you cant expect them to stay loyal to you, they will simply go elsewhere. If you run a business and you cant appreciate such basic business principles then you wont survive I'm afraid.

We've got the opposite of this. Guy runs takeaway coffee shop in a little hut by our local station - he opens at 6.30am till about 11am then reopens again at 2.30 for the school run until about 6pm. Sells cakes, chocolate bars, crisps, sandwiches, newspapers in the morning, has a freezer for ice creams in the summer. He's a great example of working out the needs of his customers and catering to them.

The hours aren't going to help. We have an excessive number of coffee shops in my village but it's a pretty affluent area so lot's of sahp who meet for a coffee after the school run, london commuters and people like me who wfh and pop in occassionally as a pay day treat. After school is also quite busy as there is a large high school and many parents with kid 1 at an afterschool club will wait in a coffee shop with kid 2 rather than go home.

There is a gift shop that has complained on fb about the lack of trade, i'd rather buy from them (usually cards, wrapping paper, gift) but they are often closed during their advertised opening hour so I go to nearby supermarket

A coffee shop that doesn’t open until 10 deserves to go under for the simple reason that they aren’t prepared to deliver what people want (a coffee on their way to work!)

It's very possible that the coffee shop in your post can only afford to open in those hours to be honest! They won't have a massive staff to be able to open from 7-7.

Then running a coffee shop isnt for them then is it? Thats like saying I cant swim but I really want to teach swimming to kids - if you cant do what the business will involve to be successful then you should find something else.

You cant expect the entire world to cater to your needs, not when you are expecting them to give you their hard earned money