It's time we talked about the elephant in the room... the energy crisis. We had avoided fully voicing our opinions on the Government's help till we had fully discussed with our energy company what the "equivalence guarantee" meant for us. You may have seen us on Sky News in which we discussed the effects of the "cost of living crisis" on our business, and the fact the Government's advice for people to cut their spending by not buying a latte, was a little counter-intuitive when they want the economy to grow. If not buying a latte helps with the bills then of course we understand, but let's get back to what the Government help means for us.
Let's be frank, the Government's help is a plaster on a rather nasty big wound. We've had our September Electricity bill and the cost is EYE WATERING, below we've included an image of our bills for the last few months just to show how much the increase is.
This is because the Government sat on their hands and did nothing for 2 weeks in September when the price of electricity increased from 29p p/kWh to £1.17 p/kWh. Even with Government intervention, the "equivalence guarantee" discount means we are still paying 72p p/kWh which is almost a 2.5x increase.
So, although our bills will not increase by five times as previously forecast, they have more than doubled. We know a lot of people really appreciated us giving the actual numbers, so our electricity bill will go from approximately £200 (as you can see above) to approximately £550, and that does not include our gas which has doubled in price since August. This means the energy to produce a latte, or toast a sandwich has more than doubled and we will have to foot the bill because we cannot sensibly increase costs to cover that and expect people to be able to afford it. Coupling this with the fact bookings are down by almost 20% compared to September, and "No Shows" for bookings have increased week on week (including for events, which is very disappointing as this affects everyone involved in the event, not just us).
So, really the Government need to do more to help micro businesses like ours, but till they do we'll be doing our best to keep costs down and offer you an amazing experience when you visit.
With that in mind, we'll be launching a new menu soon. It's quite different to what we have offered before with something for everyone, and an emphasis on good home cooking. We will have plenty of options (vegan, vegetarian and gluten-free), but the menu will be slimmed down and will consist of a "Daytime Menu" and an "Evening Menu". We'll have photos of our delicious new food soon and new menus up on the website ready for launch in the next week or so.
We'll also still be hosting our events, which you can check out here! A brief rundown of what we offer:
Every Wednesday is RPG Night! We host a one-shot run by one of our wonderful local GMs, with no prior knowledge of the setting necessary and characters are always provided, all you need to do is have fun!
The last Friday of the month is Social Gaming! Want to meet other local board gamers? Well, join us for Social Gaming! We book off the upstairs of the venue and introduce you all then depending on what you want to play you can break down into smaller groups or play as one big group! Plus Drew and Rhi are on hand to help with the game set-up.
Blood on the Clocktower is hosted once per month with Storyteller Drew, a social deduction game like no other, no player elimination and lots of misinformation make for an interesting evening. Will you find the demon of Meeplewoods Bluff? Or will they succeed in their evil plan and take over the town?
Thank you for reading, we hope to see you all soon, but we understand it's tough for everyone right now.
Remember to support local, and it's free to share social media posts and helps businesses a lot more than you would expect.
Rhi & Drew