I had a meeting for coffee this morning with Ginny and Phil who run a very similar play centre to ours in Northampton. We discussed the new place opening and I gave them some more information on the couple and the Facebook page they have set up for their new venture.
We're all a bit worried about it, I must admit, as it's been a while since we have had any real competition in the town. The new place is promising to be such a wonderful venue for children to visit so it's natural we're apprehensive about what will happen if they manage to get planning permission. The only sticking point they have is parking so we will just have to wait and see. It was great to chat with Ginny and Phil, though, and I really like the fact that although we run similar places we do get on very well and we all understand how hard the play centre industry is, and that there is absolutely no guarantee that you can make a huge success of it. To me, the new operators sound very naive about their expectations for the business.
I got back to work at lunchtime but we were nowhere near as busy as last week. Keith and I had a look around the Nursery which has now been cleared out by the woman who started running it last year as it just wasn't doing well at all. We now have to find a new tenant and hopefully we already have one lined up - a group of women interested in opening up a pre-school setting, so fingers crossed! It was a bit sad wandering around and thinking back to the years we have spent in the building, when the space was our offices and we were a little bit apart from the play area. Now it all needs a good clean!
I was at work late with Sophie and after dinner we managed to get to the gym for a late swim and a quick session in the spa! Bliss!
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