Sadness for Trim woman who ‘admits defeat’ on saving her kids play cafe

The owner of the Jiggle'n'Jump play cafe in Trim has spoken of her sadness at having to “admit defeat” and give up on her dream due to rising costs and falling customer numbers.

Julie O'Donoghue will continue with her after-school service but the play cafe has been running at a loss and with a heavy heart, she has made the tough decision to close this element of her business. Last Friday was the last day of the play cafe.

Announcing the closure on her Facebook page, Julie said: “It's been a wild ride, and I've loved every minute, but this last few months have been very tough. It's not easy to make the decision to close the doors, but as electricity bills will rise with the dropping temperatures, we're binning pastries and scones, and we don't have customers coming in the doors some days, so I have to admit defeat.”

Julie said she had tried adapting with different ideas and classes and kept prices low despite their suppliers constantly increasing theirs, yet they had to close early some days with not one customer in the door.

“The After School Club is going from strength to strength and has been financing the cafe, but it just doesn't make business sense any longer,” she said.

Julie has thanked her customers for their support over the past four and a half years and is encouraging them to call in before she finishes up on Friday and is also appealing to people to shop local this Christmas.

“By coming in to say goodbye, buying coffees, sitting in for a scone and tea, bringing your little ones to class or for a play, or just spending a few quid, it helps smooth the blow of having to close the doors on my dream. “It's too late for my little cafe, but you can support other small businesses in Trim, by shopping local, buying vouchers, staying in Trim and supporting the local shops, restaurants and local services.”

Having run an after-school service for many years in different rented spaces and also her music and movement classes, Julie had harboured a dream of opening a play cafe since her time living in the US and seeing similar facilities there. She also wanted her own space for her after-school service and classes so she didn't have to pack up everything and haul it in and out of her car each day.

She began looking at premises in Trim which could accommodate a play cafe in the morning and after school in the afternoons and found the unit on the Summerhill Road- just around the corner from two of the local schools.

“I opened the afterschool in January 2019 and then the play cafe in March that year. It was going ok, but we didn't even get to our first birthday when Covid hit,” recalled Julie.

After things started opening up again, Julie said the play cafe went really well initially. The after school suffered a bit due to people working from home but Julie said she knew that would turn around once people started going back to work in the office or realised they couldn't get as much done with children in the house.

Because of restrictions, she had to have a booking system and this worked well and she always knew how many people she would have in and often had to put up a post to say she was fully booked.

While, January and February of this year were busy, it was a different story from March and the play cafe became very quiet while at the same time costs continued to rise.

Using the cost of a hot chocolate as a benchmark, Julie said it went up over 100 per cent from when she started and their electricity bill in September 2022 was up 216 per cent on the previous year.

“Any profit from the after school was being pumped into the play cafe to keep it open. When I did my accounts this year, that was the real clincher. The amount I'd made for 2022- I wasn’t even coming out with as much as I’m paying my part time staff, and that was after pumping as much as I had into it.

“I had a long chat with my hubby and said I have to admit defeat here.”

As Julie faces closing the play cafe for the last time on Friday, she said it's “almost like grieving”. “Every now and again it hits me,” she said.

She said she really appreciates those who have supported her over the last four and a half years and is very lucky to still have the after school which she loves but unfortunately her cafe customers just seem to have all disappeared, probably due to the cost of living.