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.

Saturday is peak time for trade!

It is annoying if someone made the journey to go there for 10am and they were closed. This is why people end up in the big chains (not saying that small businesses have to match the opening times of the chains) but at least open when you say you will or let customers know with a sign or something.

There’s a little chocolate shop in a nearby town who got very upset when Hotel Chocolat opened round the corner. They had a little Facebook plea about supporting local. These are their hours.

🤣😂🤭

LMAOOOOO

The cafe bar near me is always busy. They open 0800-2300 and start with coffee and breakfast, move through sausage rolls and cake and onto afternoon/ evening drinkers. If it was only open those hours customers would not go!

There was an independent cafe/cake shop in an area I like, did really nice cupcakes and hot drinks. But it was really restricted hours and only open as a cafe on certain days, other days it would be closed to the public but you could see the owner inside. She would sometimes open the door if you knocked - before I knew better - and say they were closed and she was baking.

Sadly and unsurprisingly closed down now. I stopped trying to go there because it was too hard to keep track of when they'd be open and I kept missing them

Lovely day today, went to a quaint town, lots of tourists about. Ideal time to go and sit in a pub garden with a view. Except the pub, which only opens Thursday- Sunday (understandable if the trade does come until later in the week) was doing repairs to all the tables in the garden so the garden wasn’t open. Why wouldn’t they do it Monday, Tues, Weds? Weird.

Maybe she has to get home before she turns into a pumpkin

There are 2 new cafes near me and a pub. One of the cafes is excellent, far better than the one that’s about a 5 min walk away that’s wildly over priced especially for round these parts but for some inexplicable reason it is always busy. I have been in twice and the cake and food is ok but nothing special.

I took my mum out for a coffee to a lovely little cafe near Great Portland Street in London (near Oxford St) last week after her medical appointment. I was surprised that a latte was £3. I had assumed an independent would cost much more.

I would support local cafes if the coffee and service was good but sometimes it’s just not. DH and I had breakfast at a new trendy cafe near me and the bread was clearly the cheapest supermarket 50p a loaf.

No but the. People who run these businesses think that they should.

Well summarised BigMommasHouse..

I have a few near me.Cant see them lasting much longer..

I remember walking past a shop in whitby with dp one weekend
He loves model planes and is always on the look-out for a new project to do,so asked if id mind going in for a look to spend some hard cash on tat
Only open Mondays 12-2
I mean what is the point?!

There used to be a really cute little gift shop near me. It sold lovely things but the owner kept changing the opening hours so people never knew if it would be open when they got there. The owner just didn't get why this was a problem, "oh, they can come back later". Well not if they have a busy life and need a gift today! She didn't seem to understand that most people are a lot busier than her and don't have time to indulge her hobby business.

I went to a cafe today and had coffee and had coffee and pastries. They back their own bread and pastries and also operate a small
deli. They open at 8, offer breakfast, lunch and dinner. They have a cocktail menu with a happy hour from 4-7. They open seven days a week but I think close earlier on a Sunday, maybe at 4pm after serving a Sunday roast. I would
actually like them to open fewer hours as I struggle to see how this is sustainable in the longer term. The couple who run it work over 150 hours a week between them.

There are a couple of cafes in our village, I have no idea how they keep going as they are usually shut when I am not working!

Running a cafe is not a work/life balance friendly enterprise.

Closing on Sunday is basically shutting out your busiest day of the week - I imagine most cafes survive though weekend trade.

I think a lot of people don't realise that while there are some purchases people will go to huge effort to make, these aren't most of them. Yes, if I absolutely adore something I will probably come back later and slay a dragon or something, but for most things, convenience is a far bigger driver, along with availability; if it's open, people can wander in and purchase stuff they didn't know existed five minutes ago. And if sellers make it difficult, they will lose the sale most of the time.

They should perhaps read up on sales psychology because it's very interesting. It's certainly not so fatalistic as "I will open whenever I like with no consistency and it will make no difference to how people shop".

People will stop buying stuff they really like if you piss them off enough.

A lovely dessert parlour opened locally. Their hours are 5pm-10pm. They are looking at evening trade, fine. Their cakes are Costco cakes cut into slices are sold at extortionate prices. Again complaining that no one supports them.

Yanbu but people can still support them and get in within those hours/ on a Saturday!!

It used to sadden me when I was doing the school run that the only shop open at 9am was the supermarket. After doing the shop I had to go home to put it away. It would have been great to have a coffee or a browse, but the cafes and little quirky shops didn’t open till 10, and once I was home I was home

our local pub was struggling to survive. It is on a road with three adjacent primary / pre-pre schools, and led to a common with many dog-walkers. Once it diversified into coffee and cake during the day and bangers and mash and beans at 5pm after clubs finished, it did quite nicely

My husband and I have never been pub people. It just would never cross our mind to “go down the pub“. My husband is not a big drinker, I rarely drink, it’s just never been our agenda. But we love coffee. We’ve often said that we’d love a coffee shop to open late. We often say in the summer, we’d like a walk into our local town after dinner for a coffee. Theres the appeal in the winter of getting out in the cold fresh air for a walk through the Christmas lights or post Christmas blues to a local cosy coffee shop in the evening.

a new independent coffee shop opened up in town and their hours were until 8pm. Not as late as we’d like but certainly later than anywhere else!! Got there around 6.45 and all the machines turned off. Asked for a coffee (can we turn them on?! 😎) “er, no, they’re now cleaning because we’re done for the day”.

havent been back since 🙄 not worth the effort 🙄

YANBU

We have a few cafes and bakeries in our area that close around 3 pm, but they all open 7:30/8:00 am for the early trade in freshly made sandwiches and coffees to go. Followed by the post school run crowd and the dog walkers who tend to be around 9:00 am. If they’re not opening until 10:00 they’re missing a lot of customers.

Reminds me of a children's hairdresser that opened up near me when my DC were little. It was only open Tues - Thurs 10 til 3pm, so working parents couldn't use it. Customer base already down. On top of that, it was almost impossible to book an appointment because they never answered the phone, so effectively the only way to book was to go in person. But even then, if they were both busy cutting hair, they refused to pause to book you in, so you had to wait at least ten minutes before they would talk to you. Unsurprisingly, it closed after about a year. It's a shame because it was a lovely little place for children, but they just had zero idea about customer convenience.

2 similar small bakers near me. One opens early doors and is full of tradies buying breakfast bacon/sausage baps, coffees etc. The other opened at 10am serving small pies (ideal for a tradies lunch or breakfast) Guess which one closed very quickly?

This in another annoyance. The Costa attached to my local cinema is open til 8. Except it isn't because if you go in after about 7.20 the chairs are all on the tables and the coffee machines are being cleaned so the staff can get out at about 7.50. I'm sure their till takings show they "aren't missing any trade".

My Starbucks changed their hours to finish at 5pm instead of their normal 6pm. They wanted to open earlier and shut earlier. I guess their tills dictate what’s best! But go in there anytime after about 4.20 and like your Costa, 90% of the chairs are on tables, they’re busy sweeping up. Sure you can go in but it’s not a nice atmosphere either from the staff or where to sit. Their tills will continue to dictate that they’re probably dead from about 4pm but that’s because they’ve created that atmosphere!!! More recently I see it’s up for sale which is a shame, for everyone who like independents, there’s others who like chains. And there’s no doubt that chains bring other chains which is good for the little high streets all round