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.

Split shifts used to be the norm in hospitality, but so may people don’t want to do them anymore

In my high street, every other shop is a coffee shop - you will find about 10 in one long road alone so how are they managing it? If others are managing it then it's possible. (some are chains, but several of them are independents)

There are two cat cafes in our town. One is constantly moaning on FB about almost everything and begging for donations - you're a business not a charity! If you can't run without donations that's not a very good business. The other one is advertising things like cat yoga, cat reading groups etc- diversifying rather than relying on donations

Menu is quite nice but on the pricey side.

Avocado toast £12
Scrambled eggs and toast £10 extras are £2 each

Sweet waffle £7

There's a cafe near me that sound similar. Opens late morning and closes early afternoon. Frequently closed even when it is meant to be open. The owner also posts frequently on their business page about struggles in their personal life and then uses AI to write the posts that are actually business related. It puts me off going.

There's also a lovely independent boutiquey type shop that posts photos on social media of nice items that I would consider buying. When people comment to ask the price, they get no reply. All I want from a business is to know what they offer and how much it costs!

Similar- there is an independent cinema in the edge of our town centre. They really struggled for the first couple of years but have a huge foyer and an additional room which was originally meant to be an extra "screen" but the logistics didn't work. They have really branched out and during the day it's a co working space where you can rent a "desk" and wifi for the day (and the workers usually end up buying lunch and coffees too). In the evening they have all sorts of events. Wine tasting, board games nights, quiz nights, vinyl record fairs, Christmas wreath workshops, themed activities for kids in school holidays and you can hire an area for private parties etc and use the licensed bar. There's also a coffee kiosk near the entrance which is open early and catches the folk on the way to the station to commute to London. Now doing really well which is great to see.

Some business owners are very short sighted and think customers should go with their vision rather than actually pay attention to the market they are trying to appeal to.

The tiny independent coffee shop near us is open 7am till 6pm.

It's a bit pricy, but it's lovely and always heaving. Very nice decor and atmosphere. Little yard at the back done up with plants in pots and pretty tables and chairs for the summer. Runs a cheese and wine night once a week which is apparently very popular.

They've just opened a second branch a couple of miles away.

Doing it like it should be done.

I do think a lot of local shops/cafes would do better to be shut on, say, Monday not Sunday, and to open 12-8 rather than 9-5. That way people who work could access them

Agree. We have a few places locally that have put out pleas for custom recently, but it genuniely feels impossible to use them sometimes.

Cake shop - location away from highstreet so you would not just walk by it but did not have their own address posted on the social media pages (it was down a residential street that I never go near) so how the hell would I even know where to go? Also open restricted hours.

Restaurant - very good good it has to be said, but you're not able to book a table so if there's a group of you, it's a bit of a risk if you go and they don't have space as there's not really anywhere else to go instead.

Home furnishing shop - Constant "we need customers" posts. My first issue is that I do walk by that place a lot, and the window is sooooo overstocked/displayed that I actually have no idea what they sell and there's no indication of cost. I don't know what's just display and what's for sale. Then to add that it's never bloody open! I swear to god I've been past it through normal day time hours so many time and more often than not it's just, wither because they close on a Tuesday, or whatever reason they've stuck on the window to say they're closing today.

So they are not in the forefront of my mind because I feel I'll be wasting my time.

A pharmacy in a village locally was bleating about losing business to the Asda pharmacy.
Asda doesn't close on Saturday and Sunday. It does accept debit cards too

I have no sympathy for small business owners who dont do their research into whether the product they want to sell is actually wanted by the people who live there. We’ve had a hat shop, a pet treat shop and a sweet shop all open and then close two years later complaining of lack of support from the local community. But we have a pets at home store half a mile down the road with parking out front and 5 major supermarkets selling sweets all within a mile radius of one another. And who the hell wears hats these days. Ridiculous business decisions.

Exactly. Opening a business is a serious undertaking - it's not to be done on a whim and you need to do your research beforehand- I would have thought this was obvious, you dont need to be Alan Sugar to realise this. If you dont, then this will be the consequence.

It's so off putting when people like this blame the community at large rather than themselves for opening a business that clearly was never viable in the first place. It just reeks of entitlement and someone who refuses to take personal responsibility for their own poor life choices.

We have a cafe that opened up near us that we were extremely keen to support. They started up with opening hours from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. everyday apart from Wed/Thurs. Loved it.

Like all small businesses seem to do in my area, they open with a strong start and then mission creep reduced hours when they think everyone is hooked.

Now, they are only open on M-Thurs, 10-3 and I refuse to use them.

It's the same for our local chip shop. They seem to pick and choose when they're open or closed and very sporadic.

I don't know how they expect working people to visit them during working hours and "support" them. I'm not sure they even care that much. I often think these places are fronts for something else or a hobby.

It's mildly irritating but it just means I make my coffee and cake at home and support the local Chinese if I want a takeway.

God the entitlement is strong. I’d want to say your business model doesn’t work and it’s really, really not our problem…

My art gallery is open from around 11am in the week and on Sunday. We've tried opening earlier but literally no one walks through the door.

💯!! It’s not everyone else’s obligation to keep someone else’s business going!

I’m not sure that an art gallery and cafe are exactly comparable businesses…

I also have this issue with our local gym that runs great classes…at times like 11 o’clock on a Wednesday 🫠 then promotes the shit out of them because they are half full. Well…yeah, most people are working at 11am on a Wednesday what do you want..!

Thats not really the same though is it? I dont find I need to look at a Rembrandt at 7am every morning to fuel me up for the day ahead 🤣

Haven't rtft yet but you could be talking about the small town near me - several lovely independent shops, and cafes always posting about how business has gone down since Tesco/Greggs etc... arrived locally, but don't seem to understand it's their approach that is putting people off:

• very limited opening hours so the high street is often quiet on weekends except for the chains
• not able to afford to employ staff so shut multiple times throughout the day for deliveries/restocking/breaks
• closing early if trade is slow
• having no online presence to supplement their limited opening hours

It must be very difficult for them running small businesses on a shoestring budget, but when you have local chains competing, you need to be reliable, and most of the independents round here are very much hobby businesses fitting around the owners lives rather than being run as actual businesses.

Yes I joined a women only independent gym and really wanted to go there rather than a large chain, only to have the owners constantly change opening hours and cancel pre booked classes at an hours notice because it 'wasn't worth their while' running the class with low numbers. They'd then complain to members that we weren't supporting the business by recommending them. When it was pointed out that they were unreliable and needed to provide a consistent service to get word of mouth recommendations they shut down the members WhatsApp group and kicked all the existing members out. They're now rebranding and have almost doubled their membership prices! Bonkers. I'm back at my local authority gym which is cheaper and if I book a class and plan my availability around going I know it's going to happen.

Absolutely. Many small businesses have an unrealistic view of what it takes to succeed.

Opening the hours that "capture" trade must be essential for a business centred around food and drink?

There's a cafe quite local to me that cooks tasty meals alongside catering to standard drinks options.

They close at 4pm weekdays and 3pm on a Saturday. Occasionally I've thought "If they were open later, I'd get a meal". But they don't need to stay open later because their hours catch the pre-work crowd and after school family groups as well as lunch customers.

In surrounding towns, various vegan-only cafes have opened, with the owners talking enthusiastically to local press. Some of those same owners are back speaking to local press after a year (average) about why they cannot stay open any longer.

People might be happy to "support local" but they won't rearrange their schedules to do so.

Like our recently reopened pub in the village.

big Facebook splash over their coffee and morsel of cake service (I’m not even kidding about the teeny cake!)

Someone asked what time you’re open? 11.30 onwards. I saw the reply and inwardly eye rolled

it’s a hop and a skip from the local primary school… why not Open from 9.00?

Gastro pub in the middle of nowhere 10 min drive down the road opens their coffee service from 08.30. It’s busy. People drive to it.

mind you, I do think the pub in our village is a bit clueless and more than a touch arrogant to be honest.

We have a billion vape shops in our small town (and barbers/coffee shops/pizza places)

We wanted to stop smoking so I googled 'small business vape shops our town' and one popped up-it was ran by an older couple who knew their stuff,where very friendly/helpful and knew their business inside out

Needed to nip in for coils/vape juice every two weeks or so and where happy enough to support them

Then it shut for a week (fair enough) and a younger couple took over

For some reason,they filled it with tiny model trains/train tracks

Because of the space these trains take up,they had a lot less room for stock-it tripped over one set when I walked in

Then dp went in and asked for the type of coil he used on his vape and the bloke not only didnt have a clue which fitted (kept asking 'do you think its this type?')but was very rude about the vape ('hahaha!I cant believe you use that type-they went out with the ark mate!have you thought about upgrading?we have x/y/z' dp told him that he'd bought the vape from the business and there was nothing wrong with it so wouldnt be shelling out £50 for a new one)

Then we went down for about 1pm to find it closed (meant to shut at 4pm)

We put it down to an emergency and went back a few days later-same thing

I ordered what we needed online and did try again a few times but they where rude,didnt have a clue or where shut

We gave up and I order online (which is cheaper) and watch the owners online begging for people to support them or they'll close

They dont seem to have a clue