Hello Everyone,
There is no easy way to say this, and it breaks our hearts to say, but today we are having to announce that we are going to be closing down Meeple Perk.
For the last 4 and a quarter years, it’s been an utter delight to bring you all the joy of great board games, and good food and drinks in a relaxed welcoming environment. We’ve been overwhelmed time and time again by our amazing, wonderful community who have supported us. However, we are once again placed in an impossible position. Our energy bills have skyrocketed. Whilst the government aid is helping, sadly it’s not really enough, and at the time of writing this, they have announced the aid is going to be lowered and our bills will stay at this unmanageable level. This is the best-case scenario and we cannot take the risk. Particularly when this cost of living crisis means that in general, everyone has less money to spend, something that we’ve seen ourselves. We’re not blaming anyone, but the number of people who attend the cafe and spend the bare minimum and who book and then don’t show has dramatically increased since last summer. This doesn’t help when our costs for running the business have increased, and we have reached a point where we cannot increase the costs anymore. Beyond all these monetary-based reasons, the stress of being a two-person team who owns and runs the business, in these tough times weighs heavily on us at the moment, which has had a serious effect on our mental health. Originally, according to our business plan we had intended to be able to hire staff meaning that it would lighten the load off the two of us. Unfortunately, we’ve never been able actually to do this, due to a number of reasons. We do not know what the future holds for us right now, but as of the start of April Meeple Perk will no longer be open. We do not have our definitive final date yet, there are some moving parts behind the scenes to organise but we will announce it soon. Further information on our closure will come out closer to the time, so please, keep an eye out for more information going forward, but right now we don’t have the answers. When we do know anything we will make sure it’s mentioned all across our various social media. Between now and then, we hope you’ll continue to come in and support us while you can. With our regular events, we will make sure it’s clear when the final events will be as soon as we can. The upcoming Murder Mystery on Valentine’s Day will be our final Murder Mystery event. If you cannot come down but want to support us in our final months we do still have a Ko-Fi page for donations, please do not donate to any other pages that we have not shared ourselves. Once again, from the bottom of our hearts to everyone who has come down to the cafe, discovered the joys of tabletop gaming, found their favourite board games, played a roleplaying game for the first time, stopped the demon in Blood on the Clocktower or got away with murder in one of our murder mysteries, or came in just to enjoy our food and drinks, we cannot thank you enough for allowing us to do what we love for as long as we have.
With all the love in the world,
Rhiannon & Drew
