It’s nice to see the blog comments rolling in again. I’ve given things a bit of a visual refresh and restored a load of old images so lots of old posts have come back to life.
I have recently got my spark for my work and blogging and stuff again. I’m glad, ive missed it.
Thanks to anyone reading 🙂
As per the title, I am creating a new app to help small shops & businesses on high streets and in town centres of the UK. I have worked with small businesses for over 20 years now, and the same hurdles come up time and time again.
And as a small business owner myself, I can fully empathise with this. Its so hard to stand out, be found and be chosen over and above the likes of Amazon or other similar platforms.
Well, in my personal opinion, people aren’t avoiding high streets and town centres because they dont want to visit them – there are genuine roadblocks in place that are making people choose online purchasing over in-person shopping, such as;
Additionally, after working with a few town centre authorities and BID’s around the UK, there are other things like high business rates and rents, BID Levies etc causing people to close shops and set up online stores instead.
Yes, I believe there is. Due to various reasons, for example the rise of the dropshipper – a lot of the current platforms we buy from are littered with rebranded crap that makes it hard to know what is actually going to be a good product.
For example, I was looking for ceiling fans the other day and searched on Amazon;
Not a single known brand name and in fact some of them look like someone just mashed a keyboard when they were thinking of a brand name.
I mean, Seyxicnor? How do you even say that?
And this is not something I have simply observed myself,
A lot of the posts are old too, so this has been brewing for a while. And if you look into it further, the same can be said for a lot of online retailers now. Even ebuyer, the once famous no1 source for computer stuff – doesn’t even sell desktop computers anymore, and what they do sell can be found on every single other marketplace or online store selling electronic equipment.
I think its safe to say peoples love of the current platforms is waning, and its time to do it all a bit differently!
I honestly think they can. My solution is focused on driving sales to small shops and businesses that have a bricks and mortar presence.
And there is a lot of news and info coming out about how the younger generations are starting to venture out in the real world to do some of their shopping once again;
So there has never been a better time to produce a solution to bring the antiquated high streets and town centers of the UK, into the modern day era of convenience and technology.
You’re gonna have to wait and find out…. 🙂
If you are a shop or business owner local to me, then please get in touch as I would love to get you onboard as a totally free trial.
Oh yeah, its gonna be totally free for everyone, always.
TTFN
Happiness.
Yes, its the first word in a dance song released in 2001 that still gives me goosebumps when I hear it. It’s also something that some of us spend our entire lives in the pursuit of.
A lot of the books and podcasts I listen to talk about happiness and all of them come to the same conclusion. Happiness is something we are in full control of. It isn’t something earned or attained by going through steps or achieving “things” – its a state of mind that we choose to be in, or not.
We are 100% responsible for our own happiness.
Life isn’t cruel or unfair to us.
We allow the pressures of “life” to influence our moods and feelings, which often materialises as feelings of unhappiness & sadness.
However, accepting that “Life” and “Happiness” are things we control isn’t easy – we dont like to admit that the bad situation we are in is our fault. Sure, a kid doesn’t ask to be abused, or a wife doesn’t ask to be beaten up – but in many negative situations, the victim often has options but we cling onto things hoping that people will change.
Instead, we put up with the situation, the relationship, whatever – and it’s usually due to one reason.
The sunk cost fallacy.
Basically, as humans, if we have invested a lot of time or money into “something” – then we dont want to let it go. Whether that’s moving from iPhone to Android, or getting out of a Toxic marriage – if we have dedicated £1000’s or decades to the “thing” then we feel that we have to stick with it, even if it’s making us miserable deep down. We all do it, with memberships, relationships, habits, rituals.
Being human is hard sometimes.
Choose happiness. Don’t carry negativity – its heavy.
Hello, Costa.
You dont know me, I am one of the millions of people that buy your products. Admittedly, I probably visit your stores more than most people – but this post isn’t about me, it’s about you.
In January of 2022, your corporate overlords (CocaCola) seemingly forced all Costa stores to start using a brand of plant milks they had acquired back in 2016 – and this decision seemed to be made without actually checking the loyal customers of Costa actually liked it.
I have absolutely nothing to back this up other than gut feeling and assumptions, but I would bet diamonds you have noticed a spike in Oat milk being chosen over any of the other plant milks?
Do you know why I think that is?
I have tried all the new plant milks, they are all watery and leave an awful aftertaste – all apart from the oat milk. It’s not as good as other Oat milk brands, but it’s the best of a bad bunch when it comes to Adez Plant Milks. Also, ive noticed you sell out of Oat milk quite often in many stores now – whereas none of the others seem to sell out, ever?
There are also new ingredients used in the new plant milks from Costa – some of them are now not suitable for people with differing allergies which means many people now just dont go there anymore.
And finally – you charge more for plant milk! Its 2022 for god’s sake, we are supposed to be moving towards a fairer and more sustainable future? So why DISCOURAGE plant milk adoption, by using awful quality products and charging more for the use of them! If anything, you should charge LESS for people opting for plant milks to ENCOURAGE their uptake?!
To summarise; Costa, you have – in my opinion – put your bank balance and your investors before your brand and your customers, for perhaps the first time since I have dealt with your brand. Ive always felt that you have produced quality products, at medium to high prices but it’s been worth it as your products have always been so premium.
This move to less than premium plant milks and cheek to charge more for them – in my opinion – is why myself along with many others will not buy a plant milk based drink any more. I have black coffee and when I have earnt a free one I may treat myself to an Oat latte, if you have any Oat milk available at the time….
tl;dr Bring Back Alpro!