19/04/2026
I’m going to be really honest today. I’m not looking for sympathy I’m looking for change.
I’m angry. I’m sad. And I’m trying to hold it together behind the counter while seeing faces we’ve known for 10 years walk through the door. I’m sorry I did not have the strength to talk to most of you.
This was never about lack of support.
You showed up. You always did. You stood in queues, you brought your friends, you celebrated your birthdays with us, you made us part of your life for a decade. That was never the problem.
The problem is trying to exist in an economy where people can barely afford to treat themselves anymore. Where every single cost goes up — ingredients, rent, electricity, fuel levies, packaging, wages — and somehow small businesses are just expected to absorb it quietly, smile, and keep going.
“Just put your prices up.”
“Just adapt.”
“Just work harder.”
Someone said it was our own fault for not changing our recipes! We are working harder. We are doing everything we can. We sold donuts in Bunnings Car Parks during Covid, we know how to adapt. And still… it’s not enough.
And the hardest part?
Standing here, smiling, making coffee, handing over your pastries, saying “have a great day” — while inside you’re carrying the weight of staff, rent and bills… and the very real fear of losing something you’ve built your life around.
We are trained to say we’re fine.
We’re often not.
So please — and I mean this with everything in me —
go and support your local small businesses if you can.
Check on the owners. Actually check on them.
Ask them how they’re really doing.
Because behind every “we’re good!” is often someone who hasn’t slept properly in weeks.
Fight for the little places. The corner shops. The bakeries, the cafés, the florists, the tiny stores that make your suburb feel like a community instead of just a postcode.
They are disappearing. And it’s not because people don’t care.
It’s because the system makes it almost impossible to survive.
We’re here today.
We’re baking as long as we can.
Come by, say hi, give your favourite spots a bit of love — not just us, all of them.
Because once they’re gone…they’re gone.
