Another day, another hospitality business forced to change its hours...

Friday 01 December 2023

Another much-loved local hospitality business has had to cut down its opening hours and put prices up to stay afloat following increases in running costs.

Green Goose Jersey, a golf shop and café at Beaumont, announced that from today it would be closing on Mondays and Tuesdays – and increasing its menu prices due to “continually rising costs”.

In the same week, owners of Nude Food's two sites in the west of the Island and Rojo bar and nightclub also revealed that these hospitality businesses would be ceasing trading.

Nicola Mollin, director of Green Goose Jersey, said: "The pressures have been increasing over the last few months, and every single thing we order has steadily gone up in price, whether that's milk, coffee, electricity."

Jersey Electricity announced earlier this year that its prices would rise by 12% from 1 January 2024 to "keep pace with rising costs due to the volatility of international energy prices".

From 1st December, we will be closed every MONDAY & TUESDAY. As a result of continually rising costs in all areas, unfortunately our menu prices will also be increasing. However we hope our customers understand and have endeavoured to make this as minimal as possible #greengoose

— Green Goose Jersey (@greengoosejsy) November 30, 2023

Mrs Mollin continued: "We tried to keep costs down as much as possible, but it's got to the point where it's not feasible for us to keep our menu prices the same. Those will have to change, and we hope our customers understand.

"Opening times and menu prices are something you have to continually review, and it has got to the point where if we didn't make some changes, we would have to have a different conversation, like the owners of Nude Food had to have."

Even though Green Goose opened as the lockdowns drew to a close, the business has not escaped the impact of the Covid pandemic and the resulting hike in day-to-day living costs.

She added: "We understand that people are struggling, people have less money due to the cost-of-living crisis, people aren't going out and socialising as much. It is difficult, but these are the measures we have had to take to stay open."

Pictured: Nude Dunes had only opened several months ago.

The owners of Nude Beach and Nude Dunes this week said that they had done "everything we can" to continue to try to keep their business running.

Meanwhile, Marcus Calvani, Co-Chair of the Jersey Hospitality Association, said the island was living through a time of "sky-rocketing costs for hospitality and challenges with recruitment, shipping and staff accommodation" and said he was "very worried about what's round the corner".