Local businesses are fearful that Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer's work from home plans will turn Britain's high streets into ghost towns and destroy their livelihoods.
Buggy whip manufacturers must have felt the same when motor vehicles began to catch on...but I doubt any of them would have felt entitled to halt progress because of it.
...small independent businesses across England and Scotland have warned the move could be a disaster for shops and may cause a 60 per cent drop-off in customers. Owners, citing how many independent shops have 'gone bust' following the pandemic, say they 'don't support' Sir Keir's proposal and have instead called on the Government to 'focus on small businesses more'.
Meaning what? Halting working from home? Subsidising them for their estimated losses?
'It is not a good idea at all. It will not be good for business,' George Koumpanakis, who works at Acropolis, a Greek diner inside the Grainger Market, told MailOnline. Mr Koumpanakis warned that the diner would 'probably lose around 60 per cent of business' because it 'relies a lot' on office workers coming in on their breaks.
A lot of business owners are joining this bandwagon, as if they were somehow entitled to the custom of workers.
'If you stay here for a couple of hours you will see how busy it is when offices are on their lunch,' the 49-year-old said. 'When people come into work they might buy a coffee from the market and might come here for lunch, but they are not going to be doing that if they're allowed to stay in the house from their first day.'
You're forgetting that these businesses grew up around the areas they did to meet a demand, and now that demand has gone elsewhere. They've gone elsewhere because their businesses have changed, but you want yours to remain static. Why not adapt yours to the new requirements, and do delivery to homeworkers instead?
It is a taboo subject within a 'free' economy to admit that there are 'losers' as well as 'winners' in economic change - but the nature of an 'economy' encompasses constructive destruction.
ReplyDeleteSo yes, I appreciate the challenges facing small businesses whose 'customers' have now gone. But then if you cast you mind back just a few years people were wailing and gnashing their teeth over 'the death of the High Street', or the loss of favourite chains of stores (Woolworths, C&A), or the even earlier collapse of coal mining or steel making.
Do we really expect to see and economy driven by the need to build warehouse capacity to store all the baggy whips, valve radios and TVs, or paraffin lamps that will never be sold?
Small businesses fail, close, and move out, possibly replaced by rate free charity shops. So another loser will be the council, losing money from rents and rates. Many councils are already said to be bankrupt, and this may make the situation worse. What do? What to do?
ReplyDeleteThe cynical side of me suggests that, as those WFH are using part of their home as a place of business, some council taxes will rise to 'incorporate' business rates. As the council will not know who is WFH, unemployed, or still going out to work, ALL council taxes will increase.
Meanwhile, not slow in gaining financial advantages, HMRC may also become involved.
Whatever happens, this will cost everyone a shed load of money.
The good thing is that, at last, I may get a seat on the bus!
Penseivat
This seems to be about cafes and coffee shops rather than small businesses in general. The cafes and coffee shops that lose business because of WFH may find it is replaced by other customers who have up until now been avoiding them because they are so busy at lunchtime. OAPs, shoppers, tourists etc.
ReplyDeleteI can't help wondering how long the large businesses will put up with their employees skivvying off work by supposedly working from home since most people are not self motivated. When the big bosses realise this there will be an increase in the dole payments as those skivvying off are let go.
ReplyDeleteHaving a passing interest in motorbikes, I often watch you tube videos about the history of various bike manufacturers. One that has just come to mind is Yamaha finding that no one in impoverished post WW2 Japan was interested in buying a new piano. Low cost personal transport however was very much in demand. Like many other motorcycle manufacturers around the world, they started making copies of the German DKW 125 two stroke design that had been taken as war reparations.
ReplyDeleteI have some sympathy for them. The move to WFH would have been much more gradual (and therefore easier to adjust to) if the fuckwits running the country hadn't spunked over £400 billion on lockdowns.
ReplyDeleteIt should be nothing to do with the Government. If businesses want their staff to work on site, they they should have to do so. If a business thinks they can get by with staff working from home, then that's good too.
ReplyDeleteNobody should have a right to work form home though, enforced by a Government from afar
Personally I'm sick of staff still being at home so long after the pandemic. It's really annoying having to rely on people answering emails or phones when I just used to walk through to another office to get information I needed in real time
And anyone who offers the excuse, 'sorry I'm not at my computer right now as I'm out shopping', should be binned on the spot
"It is a taboo subject within a 'free' economy to admit that there are 'losers' as well as 'winners' in economic change..."
ReplyDeleteWe are encouraged to face taboo subjects head on, so this should not be different!
"The cynical side of me suggests that, as those WFH are using part of their home as a place of business, some council taxes will rise to 'incorporate' business rates. "
Another price increase under Starmer's Labout government? Who'll notice amongst all the others?
"This seems to be about cafes and coffee shops rather than small businesses in general."
Yes, indeed. It's affecting a VERY narrow field.
"I can't help wondering how long the large businesses will put up with their employees skivvying off work by supposedly working from home since most people are not self motivated."
Self-motivation isn't an issue when you no longer have colleagues stopping by your desk 'for a chat'...
"One that has just come to mind is Yamaha finding that no one in impoverished post WW2 Japan was interested in buying a new piano. Low cost personal transport however was very much in demand."
The problem seems to be, they want to remain cafes and coffee shops, and not do anything else.
"The move to WFH would have been much more gradual (and therefore easier to adjust to) if the fuckwits running the country hadn't spunked over £400 billion on lockdowns."
ReplyDeleteThe true cost of the government's pandemic response.
"It should be nothing to do with the Government."
Government thinks everything is its business, in the hopes that buy the law of averages, some have to be winning ideas.