Dealing with the Competition!
May 28th 2009 01:27
Our main street. Picture by Joy Cooper
What this means is that there are other businesses competing for the same dollar from the same customers in our geographic area. Being a holiday town, that's no problem in summer as there are usually lots of tourists around. In the quieter, colder winter months customers can be quite scarce.
Since we opened two years ago we have seen a number of our competitors close and change hands, then change hands again, so the food business can be a little cut-throat.
One approach we have taken with our competitors is to actually talk to them, work with them and even support them by buying their products. For example, the bakery also makes sandwiches like we do, but their range isn't as wide as ours. We buy bread off them and they often buy wraps and smoothies off us.
The fish and chip shop often buy salads off us while we buy hot chips off them. The restaurant loves our hot chocolates and we love going there for dinner.
We have chatted to the other cafes about the price of coffee and when we have to close the shop for holidays or days off, to ensure that the town has a place to go to for coffee.
The way I see it, we are all trying to earn a living and we all have the right to do that. We don't mind if we see some of our customers in the other shops as I think 'spreading the love' is characteristic of small towns. And that's the way we like it.
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