Most depressing Dunnes in Ireland?

[Deleted User] · 24-04-2012 5:15am

Zemuppet wrote: »

Deleted User wrote: »

Working there was hell. You were treated like crap and managers would take any opportunity to berate you. Now the junior/trainee managers were fine, it was the ones who ran the departments and overall store who were the issue.

I worked from 2 pm December 23rd to well after 2am December 24th and was supposed to be back in at 8am. The manager who was with us told me that I was entitled to a certain length of time between shifts and not to come in at 8am. Instead I was to start at 12. I got in at 11 thinking that i was doing them a fabor but was instantly sent to the head manager who spent 5minutes screaming at me for not being there at 8.

I've worked there for 6 years myself and i have found 90% of management sound and workable with yet its that 10% that have a massive ego and power issues that affect staff, other managers and outside reps. Bad staff/management need to be disciplined or let go but if someone is doing their job then that person should not be mocked or belittled.

Had one horrible manager last year who mocked a staff member's OH in front of him and other staff. The fella reported the manager to HR, then the next day the manager sends the staff member up to HR, saying HR wanted an apology for wasting her time. Anyway the fella goes up and finds out that HR said nothing and that prat manager had lied to him. Manager gets a slap on the wrist in the end.

It really is that one member of management that fcuks up everybody else's day when the rest are good folk and workable. I was a staff member not a manager (That said sp to not create bias towards one side or the other)

Lastly on the point of you working from 2-2 and then rostered back in at 8, Dunnes should have told you that there is an 11 hour rest period between shifts, so that git broke the rules and maybe the law if someone can provide info.

I knew I was entitled to an 11 hour break, was only rostered till 12 but with the day that was in it, it was a lot later when I left. I knew i was in the right and I made a complaint about it but it went nowhere. I actually made a few complaints in my time there but they seemed to fall on deaf ears.

Zemuppet · 24-04-2012 5:22am

Deleted User wrote: »

I knew I was entitled to an 11 hour break, was only rostered till 12 but with the day that was in it, it was a lot later when I left. I knew i was in the right and I made a complaint about it but it went nowhere. I actually made a few complaints in my time there but they seemed to fall on deaf ears.

In that place most complaints usually do

Gummy Panda · 24-04-2012 8:48am

jill_valentine wrote: »

Jesus.

Yeah, that sounds about right. My sister, for instance, got a written warning on the first day for failing to have a "work pen".

I get the impression it comes down to managers getting as far as "Manager" and then staying there for the rest of their career. They all seem to go a little bit mad and deal with it by obsessing over crazy little details and abusing what power they have over the people around them. It's the one thing I've heard from everybody I've ever known to work for them, that each and every one of the managers is deranged.

Peter principle is very true in retail tbh

leahyl · 24-04-2012 8:57am

charlemont wrote: »

Ballyvolane Cork.

Whaaaat??! Ballyvolane Dunnes RULES!:D It never closed even after Blackpool Dunnes opened - thought that would have been the end of it but no, still going strong!

telekon · 24-04-2012 9:14am

North main street, cork. Like stepping back in time to the mid 80s. Staff are always more concerned with chatting to each other at the tills than scanning your items. Drives me mad.

Sergeant · 24-04-2012 9:18am

I never found Dunness to be particularly depressing, compared to the gaudy awfulness, and deliberate cheapness of Tesco. Food quality is better in Dunnes, and I don't buy clothes there as I'm not a complete pov.

Ranelite · 24-04-2012 9:21am

Rathmines, the Irish check-out staff - especially self-service overseers - are rude, incompetent and joyless. Doesn't help when you have Adolf Hitler lookalike in charge roaming the aisles.

DEFTLEFTHAND · 24-04-2012 4:52pm

Caraville wrote: »

Is the Tesco in that crappy little shopping centre in Roscrea closed since the big new Tesco opened? That was without doubt THE most depressing supermarket in Ireland.

Although to be fair, Roscrea in general is depressing so it just fitted in with the general air of the place. As someone described to me before, Roscrea is both figuratively and literally a hole- all roads out of it go uphill.

Yes Tesco in the centre has closed since the new development opened.

Thanks for running down our town on a public forum. This place has being hit a hammer blow since the recession not that boom ever benefited it in the first place. Our golden period during the 70s and 80s was killed by a bunch of under qualified morons who destroyed the Antigen Pharmaceutical company, a homegrown multinational that shut its doors in profit due to criminal negligence from three westerners who I won't name.

mongdesade · 24-04-2012 5:12pm

Dunnes Nenagh

Fluorescence · 24-04-2012 5:15pm

jill_valentine wrote: »

The constant, arhythmically blinky flourescent lights?

Sorry, can't be everywhere at once

Anyway, I'd vote for that tiny clothes-only one that used to be at the top of Grafton St. There's a fairly terrible one in Nutgrove too.

ciarang85 · 24-04-2012 5:26pm

the one off wine street in sligo is a fúcken dump:pac:

Tayla · 24-04-2012 5:42pm

Chain_reaction wrote: »

The Dunnes in Enniscorthy before they opened the new one.

I hope someone else remembers that... The one in St.Stephen's green was like Harrod's food hall compared to this horror of a grocery section.

I remember it, it was the most claustrophobic shop ever, you could barely get a basket down the aisle let alone a trolley,

Kevski wrote: »

Dunnes in Crumlin Shopping Centre is a fairly depressing spot.

*shudders*

skinny90 wrote: »

Does anyone not think that lidl is well very boring and bland,no music or noise at all,don't get me wrong I go there on a weekly basis for certain foods but I find the staff very depressed/unmotivative.i know I'd crack up working there

It is, has such a strange atmosphere, really dreary, Aldi is much better.

Ammonite · 24-04-2012 6:00pm

nibtrix wrote: »

This one! Does it still have the grocery, chilled section, offie and fruit&veg section in different parts of the shopping centre, with different tills in each one so you have to queue and pay four times to do one weekly shop?

I agree with this. It's one seriously weird set up. That whole centre is an utter disgrace and should be knocked, I'm interested to know if there's a more dated shopping centre in Ireland. It's hard to believe the Crumlin SC even still exists in 2012.

I don't like the Dunnes in Rathmines either, doesn't come close to the horrors of Crumlin but anytime I've gone in I haven't been impressed with the freshness of the fruit and vegetables or the overall feel of the place.

Corruptedmorals · 24-04-2012 6:08pm

fluorescence wrote: »

Sorry, can't be everywhere at once

Anyway, I'd vote for that tiny clothes-only one that used to be at the top of Grafton St. There's a fairly terrible one in Nutgrove too.

It's still there. It closed for a year and then reopened. It's still getting killed by Stephen's green though..

ziggy23 · 24-04-2012 6:19pm

Jimoslimos wrote: »

Is the one in the Ilac centre still open? Mind you that whole place is depressing.:(

Oh that one in the corner in Ilac is depressing as fcuk. Dunno why it's still there since there's a much nicer one a couple of metres away.

Greentopia · 24-04-2012 6:28pm

The one in Nutgrove is awful alright.

The one here in Arklow in the Bridgewater Centre is ok, but that's because it's new. I don't see it aging well.

Aldi is much better, the staff in the local one here are quite chipper and friendly, even the *Eastern Europeans on the check out are friendly and say hello. I sometimes get a "hello madam" from some of the male checkout staff, which is something I usually only ever get in shops in the U.K.

*Eastern Europeans-nothing against them, they just don't generally do the whole smiling and saying hello thing much I find. Or at least not my neighbours anyway.

Biggins · 24-04-2012 7:30pm

The Drogheda Dunnes stores, West street (there is another in a place called Scotch Hall, HUGE difference!).
They spent a fortune doing up the front of it from this:
* http://www.csa-architects.ie/home_nav_2_c_4_p_40.html
To this:
* http://www.csa-architects.ie/home_nav_2_c_4_p_40_i_2.html

Yet never bothered with the inside where the tills are REALLY on top of each other.
You can just about fit between each one and there is rows of till across, which behind each one, has another two!
(So if your on the third - or second - till from the back and trying to get out with your shopping, somehow you have to squeeze by not one but two others already in front of you at their tills with all their stuff and trolly!)

Then there is the shopping aisles themselves. They are just as narrow, within a few feet of each other from one side to the other in each aisle. The flooring is ancient looking and in places in a desperate condition, everyone is squashed going around it. They have the shop layed out that there is actually pillars in the middle of the thin isles just to make things even more fun to try adventure around. The place (very old building, never done up inside) during the day is constantly dirty and smells not in a good way.
In total, its a total fcuk-up, a true total squashed cattle market of a place.

...But hey, the front looks nice!

Walked into it many a time just to see if they had changed anything inside - saw it was still the same cramped dump and walked out again, across the road to a rival.

Corruptedmorals · 24-04-2012 7:34pm

ziggy23 wrote: »

Oh that one in the corner in Ilac is depressing as fcuk. Dunno why it's still there since there's a much nicer one a couple of metres away.

Nah there's another one in the Ilac even more depressing than what you're talking about..the clothes one? This one is further down, it has a supermarket, homewares and timepiece. But maybe it has finally closed down. Stpid amount of dunnes in town, at one point there was 8.

Pwindedd · 24-04-2012 7:39pm

79 posts and no-ones mentioned Dunnes at Northside Shopping Centre Coolock...shocking !!!

Archeron · 24-04-2012 7:51pm

admiralofthefleet wrote: »

anyone remember the downstairs in the old dunnes on north earl street? it looked like a nazi bomb shelter

And there was always a mum with kids struggling to get a pushchair, three kids and 200 bags of shopping up that ominous seventy step staircase. I earned a lifetime of karma points helping people get their stuff up that.

nicechick! · 24-04-2012 8:16pm

There stores are well merchainsed, clean, usually good choice range and the quality is good basically it does what it says on the tin so to speak HOWEVER there Customer Service is appalling!! I have without fail cannot help but notice the staff seem to be sullen, withdrawn, rude & unhelpful! The driver in this is in my opinion down to lack of skill set/people management skills! Management are easily recognized from the sales assistant grouped together, clip boards at the ready but god help you if you approach them unhelpful.

Without fail I have never enjoyed my experience there in any of there which in turn makes me avoid them! Having worked and lived all over the country I have been to an unlimited number of there stores at this stage! Although one compliment Dunness Stores in Bishopstown Cork if ever I had a good experience it was there though that was at least five years ago now!

I couldn't tell you if there is a worst or best but in my view there evident lack of customer service must drive sales away. I tend to avoid Dunness and would want to be extremely stuck if I were to shop there.

ziggy23 · 24-04-2012 9:04pm

Corruptedmorals wrote: »

Nah there's another one in the Ilac even more depressing than what you're talking about..the clothes one? This one is further down, it has a supermarket, homewares and timepiece. But maybe it has finally closed down. Stpid amount of dunnes in town, at one point there was 8.

Yea that's gone now thank god but they've replaced it with an equally depressing tacky shop:rolleyes:

xzanti · 24-04-2012 9:12pm

Newbridge

FinnLizzy · 24-04-2012 9:19pm

ciarang85 wrote: »

the one off wine street in sligo is a fúcken dump:pac:

Agreed, the men's wear is pretty much in a shed

Chain_reaction · 24-04-2012 9:20pm

Ranelite wrote: »

Rathmines, the Irish check-out staff - especially self-service overseers - are rude, incompetent and joyless. Doesn't help when you have Adolf Hitler lookalike in charge roaming the aisles.

What do you expect when the staff are treated like they are?

Never heard a good word from anyone who has worked for them and comments by former staff in this thread also adding fuel to the fire.

efb · 24-04-2012 9:21pm

Athlone town centre is pretty awful too.

somefeen · 24-04-2012 9:22pm

douglas, cork.

Douglas in general is a **** hole, this place adds to it.

Realtine · 24-04-2012 9:22pm

[QUOTE=. And the one in Clondalkin.[/QUOTE]

What? The mill?

This is a grand Dunnes ....it's huge.

Corruptedmorals · 24-04-2012 9:38pm

nicechick! wrote: »

There stores are well merchainsed, clean, usually good choice range and the quality is good basically it does what it says on the tin so to speak HOWEVER there Customer Service is appalling!! I have without fail cannot help but notice the staff seem to be sullen, withdrawn, rude & unhelpful! The driver in this is in my opinion down to lack of skill set/people management skills! Management are easily recognized from the sales assistant grouped together, clip boards at the ready but god help you if you approach them unhelpful.

Without fail I have never enjoyed my experience there in any of there which in turn makes me avoid them! Having worked and lived all over the country I have been to an unlimited number of there stores at this stage! Although one compliment Dunness Stores in Bishopstown Cork if ever I had a good experience it was there though that was at least five years ago now!

I couldn't tell you if there is a worst or best but in my view there evident lack of customer service must drive sales away. I tend to avoid Dunness and would want to be extremely stuck if I were to shop there.

If you worked in one for a few weeks you wouldn't wonder why the staff aren't happy! They are notorious as an employer for a very good reason. They only care about having stock on the floor and selling it, seriously customer service is not stressed at any point. It's up to the individual. I for one worked in two Dunnes for nearly 4 years and was always able to be pleasant. But I'm well able to see why others aren't doing this. There's no motivation, the only thing that gets you through the day is the people you work with, everything else is fairly soul destroying. Customers treat staff and stock like crap also, which isn't going to raise staff morale. The drapery sections are treated just like Penneys is, except with way less staff to cope with it. All stores are understaffed big time.

Dunnes has a huge amount of staff who have been there 10+ years. Customer service actively declines the longer the staff are there.

Snake Plisken · 24-04-2012 9:39pm

Ammonite wrote: »

I agree with this. It's one seriously weird set up. That whole centre is an utter disgrace and should be knocked, I'm interested to know if there's a more dated shopping centre in Ireland. It's hard to believe the Crumlin SC even still exists in 2012.

Was talking to Staff in Tesco apprarantly Dunnes got rid of all the shop units and where going to build a super store but the property bubble burst and decided not to go ahead with the development.

I heard the Dunnes board of management are hoping for someone to buy them out like Asda or Walmart but don't think that's going to happen.

I do wish there was a grocery Dunnes in Lucan or Adamstown but thats not going to happen.

Most depressing Dunnes in Ireland?

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