End of an era as Enfield butcher's shop closes
Enfield butcher Padraig Coffey closed his butcher shop in the village for the last time on Saturday, citing the cost of running a business and dwindling footfall as the main reasons behind his decision to shut up shop.
Padraig, who is a also a Fianna Fáil councillor in the Trim Municipal District, has been a butcher for 38 years and opened 'PC Meats' in Enfield in 2017, having previously had a butchers in Longwood for ten years before that.
He told how he was "heavy hearted" to make the difficult decision to close and said he still loves his trade but the business is just not there to support the retail unit any longer.
"It has been on my mind for a while. I love it as a trade and I will still be doing processing and manufacturing for the wholesale side of the business but I am closing the retail side. I will put up a phone number on my Facebook page where people can give a minimum order. But as regards retailing on a high street, it is very difficult. It is a hard climate at the moment."
He says it is harder to compete with the supermarkets and there is also a perception that butchers are dearer than the supermarkets but he argues that there is just as good a value to be got in butchers' shops.
Longstanding regulars of a certain age pass away and that custom is lost and he said younger people are cooking less.
"The huge fall off in people cooking for themselves is the problem. Unless you are doing ready meals that are cooked, the whole thing is changing that way. You have to respect the situations people find themselves in. People trying to pay a mortgage, two parents are out working. It's not easy coming in in the evenings, putting on a pot of potatoes and meat and veg. And they will usually go for what is handy for them."
According to Padraig, the two years of Covid were extremely busy but then things went back and were even worse than before.
"During the two Covid years, we were extremely busy. The turnover in the shop shot up by 3k-4k a week.People were working from home and cooking more but then it went back. I almost made this decision before Covid. We had two great years and then it fell back and worse than before."
At the same time, with the increase in the cost of electricity and gas , he said the cost of doing business also went "through the roof".
Padraig says when he started his apprenticeship as a butcher in Navan in 1986, there were 23 butcher shops. Now, he says there are only four, even though the population of the town has more than doubled since. He points out that he was the last butchers in south Meath and now the nearest butcher's shop is in Trim.
"I am in a busy village with 4,000 of a population but I can't sustain the retail part. I will still be doing what I do but just continuing the wholesale part. Lidl is also due to open in Enfield in November. I decided I would rather go in November rather than have false hope around Christmas and continue on.
"If we had the business of the Covid years we would still be ok but the footfall isn't there anymore."
Parking is another issue major issue in Enfield with commuters taking up valuable spaces for local traders in the town centre. "If an elderly person can't get parking nearby they won't come in. On Thursday a car was parked outide my door for 14 hours. Three hour parking is there but there is no one to implement it. It's another nail in the coffin."
Padraig has thanked his longstanding and loyal customers who supported him over the years and says he really appreciated all the well-wishes over the last week.