A closing down sale is not something we would want to announce in the New Year…
…but with hard times ahead, many small independent businesses like ours see declines in sales as people begin to watch their spending. I get it, we’re heading into an inevitably long recession (no, I haven't received any insider secrets from Martin Lewis, but you don’t have to be an idiot to see that it’s not looking good for the people of old Blighty). The thing is, now is the time to support as many small businesses as possible.
Here’s something I know to be true. McDonald’s isn’t going anywhere soon. Neither’s Starbucks, nor Tesco, Cadbury or Heinz. In fact, most of the big brand names you know will stick around - maybe for a few more years, maybe for a lifetime or two. We all know that nothing is permanent (apart from death and taxes, as they say, but there are many who cheat those, too), but when it comes to business, those big names have a lot more staying power than, say, the woman down your street who makes wax melts and sells them through Facebook, or the guy running the local corner store, or that ginger who makes bagels and delivers them to your door.
What I’m trying to say is that small businesses have far less security than big name brands, and now, more than ever, is the time to support them. We’ve all heard the phrase ‘champion small businesses’ or something similar - but just how many people take action on the back of that? It’s all well and good saying it, but the next time you walk past the independent cafe in your town centre that you had always been meaning to visit (but never got round to it), and it has a ‘closed’ sign on the door, just think about whether your support could’ve made a difference.
Meanwhile, the big-name coffee shop down the road can barely keep its doors shut with the barrage of customers that walk in, grab their coffees and go. The big cafes in Ipswich are full of yummy mummies (and maybe some that aren’t so yummy), busy-looking people having meetings, or uni students working on laptops and sipping vats of coffee over the course of two hours so that they don’t get kicked out for occupying a table. It’s always busy, despite the coffee cups getting a millimetre shorter each year, the baristas (if you can call them that) receiving less and less training, and cheaper ingredients being used in the cakes.
On the other side of that coin, Karen is hand-wrapping her wax melts and putting a little note in with each order thanking the customer, hoping that it will encourage them to buy again next month, and even tell their friends about her business. I can’t say that you’ll be valued in the same way by the CEO of [insert big brand name here], who has the perfect house, three cars and a healthy stash of cash in the bank. They’ll take at least two holidays to the Maldives with their 2.5 children, while Karen will struggle to take time off at all.
So, why do we, as small business owners, continue hustling when it can be such a difficult and volatile line of work? It’s because we love what we do. We spend hours and hours developing our businesses, and these businesses become part of our lives.
While it might be a little bit more expensive (in some cases) to buy from a small business, you will get better service and a better product for your money, as well as consistency and transparency. I can hand-on-heart say that, unlike the crisps in a packet of Walkers, the number of bagels in our boxes won’t mysteriously decrease (or, if it does, we’ll tell you about it first).
So, ‘why did I use a clickbait headline?’, you ask. Because I want to make sure that you read this blog. Small, independent businesses will disappear if you don't continue to support them. We need you. We need you to continue paying that little extra but knowing the quality and customer service is above and beyond the big corporate businesses.
At the moment, Bagel or Beigel isn’t going anywhere. Not only would we miss the crazy hours and wet days at the markets, but most of all we’d miss you guys. Your support has been amazing over the last 2.5 years, and we have smashed records on our Christmas orders and markets in 2022, all thanks to you.
I wish I could say that it’s plain sailing ahead into 2023, but I feel I’m going to have to work even harder so that, this time next year, I’ll still be making bagels for you and writing these long-winded blog posts.
With that, I’ll leave you with two words: shop small!