THE new Cricketers Café, located in the pavilion in King George V playing field, has urged the community to “use it or lose it” after having to close on weekdays because of low footfall.
The Cricketers Café, which opened in May, was originally open seven days a week. However, it was announced earlier this month that because of slow “customer traffic” during weekdays, the café would only be open at weekends, and on weekdays during school holidays.
“It became very apparent early on that the weekdays were not viable for us to open,” explained manager Craig Poole in a message to customers. “We are a small business and are not subsidised by the [town] council in any way so any costs lost are our own.
“We were paying our staff (sometimes two members) for a full day’s work but we have seen a very small handful of customers in the week. Our daily costs were not being covered and we were losing money every day.
“Therefore, we reviewed after two months of being open and felt that the weekends and any school holidays would be a better way forward for the cafe to operate and for us to remain in business! We hope that you understand and can appreciate where we are coming from, please do come and see us, we love being there, but we can only survive if people use the café.”
The opening of the Cricketers Café marked the next stage in the town council’s masterplan to promote the park as a tourist destination – and the town council remains hopeful that it can support the café’s operators to generate more business.
Melksham Town Council’s clerk, Linda Roberts, told Melksham News, “The café set up was done on a trial basis to see how it might work. Sadly, the income generated is not meeting the salary costs, let alone anything else. I will be meeting with the proprietor to see if we can do anything which may generate more business and also see if they might be persuaded to take cash as well as cards.
“Sadly it is a question of use it or lose it. I would be extremely sorry if it did not work out. It is still early days.”
The Cricketers Café is open Saturday and Sunday, 9am to 5pm – and it accepts card payments only.
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