The Difficult Life of Small Business in a Digital World

I subscribe to several business newsletters concerning our local town and surrounding area.

While things are difficult for many small businesses these days — often being squeezed by competition from online sales — I've noticed a disturbing and growing trend.

There seem to be a surprisingly large number of patrons of shops and restaurants who have the same "instantly available/around the clock" expectations of small shop operators as they have of an Internet business.

If you immediately look at it and think "that's unreasonable!" you're of course right!

A website you can order from is just code and computers and it never rests or sleeps. A shop or restaurant is run by human beings and they need to sleep, and be with their families and simply be human beings.

Complaining and leaving a bad review because someone is not open at 9:00 at night "because you felt like shopping" is not reasonable. Complaining because a local eatery's kitchen will not deliver you a midnight snack is not reasonable.

And yet, I have seen such things, more and more.

I suppose it would be "no big deal" if it weren't for the fact that these unreasonable one-star reviews go against small places' otherwise excellent feedback, sufficiently that their perfect 5-star rating in online reviews becomes a "fair enough" 4-star rating, instead.

Having been in small business for myself, I can assure you that feeling like a "feedback hostage" for your very livelihood is NOT a pleasant experience.

Is this really the world in which we now live? I don't know what's happening to our lives, but it just seems like there are more and more people who are becoming increasingly demanding and impatient... and I don't think it bodes well for any of us!

I appreciate you coming to visit my blog!

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(All images are my own)