Reading my Twitter feed and news and seeing restaurant chains, and much-loved neighbourhood venues closing in the face of financial pressures want me to remind myself, if no one else, that businesses are very much a "lose it or use it" affair.
The social enterprise I run (which is, surprisingly, nothing to do with beer - much more with teaching kids to code...which is why I need the beer) is faced with the self-same problem.
You start a new thing and people love it.
People come in and they tell their friends how awesome it is.
Their friends come in to see what all the fuss is about.
Their friends love it and they tell their friends who come in to see what all the fuss it about...and so on.
They give it great reviews on Twitter, on Facebook and any other platforms you happen to be active in.
But, in the face of financial pressure, or maybe the novelty wears off or maybe a similar thing is available cheaper or nearer, or whatever...they don't come in regularly. They just assume you'll always be there for them since, in the heady days of discovery, it was always really busy and getting was hard because it was so busy.
And so there are fewer people "discovering" it because there are fewer people who haven't discovered it yet. So the buzz goes. Then the customers dry up.
When the customers dry up, the business becomes unsustainable and so it stops. Then everyone bemoans the lack of that facility.
That facility can be a restaurant, a pub, a bookshop, a camera shop, an after-school club organisation, or anything that has a physical presence, really.
We all do it. We all "mean to go back" but never get around to it.
We probably didn't want the perceived hassle of going into this place we perceive as really busy, or we're busy trying the next new thing, or maybe life has just moved on and it doesn't suit our needs any more.
We went to the Barleymow yesterday (Sunday) evening for a couple of pints and learned that it had been so busy the day before and for Sunday lunchtime that they'd run out of several beers and hadn't had time to change them over. Also, that they were going to close at 8pm because pretty much no one goes into the pub at that time on a Sunday.
We know we're guilty of grumbling when a pub we love is really busy at a particular time we happen to choose to go in. We try and check ourselves, but we don't always manage it.
But we've started to make a real effort to frequent places when they'll be open, but less busy. We also try, when a restaurant we like apologises for not having any available tables, to tell them that we're delighted they're busy and we'll be back when it's quieter.
So - don't forget that thing you love (be it shop, pub, restaurant or other service) and assume it'll always be there for you - you need to be there for it too!
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