Tuesday was national coffee day. I do enjoy a nice coffee and when I worked in the centre of Leeds buying my morning coffee was part of my daily ritual. With a wealth of places to choose from my coffee of choice was from a small independent outlet. At the time, it was not a conscious decision to choose independent versus a large coffee chain – it was the fact that the service was more personal and the coffee tasted great. Now that small local businesses are under threat it has become a conscious decision – and where possible I now prefer to give my custom to independent cafes, clothes shops, farmers markets etc.
Q. Can your business take advantage of consumers move towards independent traders?