Stores Closing in Sligo **mod warning post #720**

darealtulip

sueme wrote: »

Yaaaay! Girls are cool!

yeah and we have one of each then!!:D

magnumlady

bobcar61 wrote: »

Oh and i believe the calendar shop in the same place will be going soon,if it hasn't gone already...surprise surprise:P

Wonder if any of the high street stores in Quayside will be closing or how are they coping or if that extension is going ahead or not?

The calendar shop was only there for a while last year as well.
Its shut already.

Shame about Instore, the hubby will be gutted, he liked the coffee shop.

bennyc

I think the only thing in InStore that ws left on the floor yesterday evening was that massive couch on the floor right inside the door. Very sad to see.

Xiney

Instore is where Mr Xiney and I bought our lovely coffee table


Only one in the whole retail park in our price range that wasn't some hideous glass and chrome or knotty pine contraption.

TequilaMockingBird

Did Instore have a clearance sale or transfer the stock to another branch?

fozzle

bobcar61 wrote: »

It must be true so,the two of us have heard this.

Of course And unlike THOSE customers, I do actually have a better source than "paddy down the road".

fozzle

sueme wrote: »

Did Instore have a clearance sale or transfer the stock to another branch?

They had a big sale, some impressive reductions.

Essexboy

Will Land of Leather be next?
They have gone into administration in the UK http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/7824133.stm

Slidey

Was in PC world today and their service was nothing short of poor.

If every customer got the same reception i got yesterday and today they wouldn't be open for long

Basq

slideways wrote: »

Was in PC world today and their service was nothing short of poor.

If every customer got the same reception i got yesterday and today they wouldn't be open for long

Did he shout obscenities at you, and urinate on you as you passed by?

If so, that was our own AlmightyCushion!

bennyc

I see on another thread that Land of Leather are going into administration. So that will be 4 Stores from the retail park gone of thats the case.

jimmmy

If the park was closer to Sligo town it would have had a better chance. If someone gets the train or bus to Sligo, or lives in an apartment in Sligo without a car, are they going to walk all the way to the top of the hill in Carraroe in this weather ? Round trip of an hour. Go to Letterkenny and the retail park there is more accessible, for example.

AlmightyCushion

basquille wrote: »

Did he shout obscenities at you, and urinate on you as you passed by?

If so, that was our own AlmightyCushion!

WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU TALKING ABOUT!!!!!!

*urinates on Basquille*

darealtulip

jimmmy wrote: »

If the park was closer to Sligo town it would have had a better chance. If someone gets the train or bus to Sligo, or lives in an apartment in Sligo without a car, are they going to walk all the way to the top of the hill in Carraroe in this weather ? Round trip of an hour. Go to Letterkenny and the retail park there is more accessible, for example.

did we not discus this a while ago?? not again:p

tuppence

jimmmy wrote: »

If the park was closer to Sligo town it would have had a better chance. If someone gets the train or bus to Sligo, or lives in an apartment in Sligo without a car, are they going to walk all the way to the top of the hill in Carraroe in this weather ? Round trip of an hour. Go to Letterkenny and the retail park there is more accessible, for example.

Its a surprise to me that some developers are still trying to set up retail parks in Carraroe (and getting large media coverage for their endeavours throughout the year) especially when the one thats there is struggling. Hopefully a bit of sense will be seen further to the deferral.
http://www.sligochampion.ie/news/more-information-sought-on-shanes-development-1585635.html

starbelgrade

tuppence wrote: »

Its a surprise to me that some developers are still trying to set up retail parks in Carraroe (and getting large media coverage for their endeavours throughout the year) especially when the one thats there is struggling. Hopefully a bit of sense will be seen further to the deferral.
http://www.sligochampion.ie/news/more-information-sought-on-shanes-development-1585635.html

The retail park in Carrarow is in a perfect location for all of Sligo's "satellite towns" off the dual carraigeway - all it needs is a decent supermarket, some reasonably priced home & hardware shops, a cafe, a cinema & a Mac dog. Instead of 3 million empty parking spaces.

Has anyone ever noticed the complete lack of care about parking right beside the door of each shop - even disabled spots are not sacred.. "Oh I thought this was the loading bay"!

Stick a roof over half of it & make it a proper shopping centre I say. We may not be able to afford anything they sell, but at least we'll be dry & warm.

starbelgrade

starbelgrade wrote: »

The retail park in Carrarow is in a perfect location for all of Sligo's "satellite towns" off the dual carraigeway - all it needs is a decent supermarket, some reasonably priced home & hardware shops, a cafe, a cinema & a Mac dog. Instead of 3 million empty parking spaces.

Has anyone ever noticed the complete lack of care about parking right beside the door of each shop - even disabled spots are not sacred.. "Oh I thought this was the loading bay"!

Stick a roof over half of it & make it a proper shopping centre I say. We may not be able to afford anything they sell, but at least we'll be dry & warm.

And free wi-fi with access restricted to job search engines & the FAS, Social Welfare & MABS sites,

elshambo

starbelgrade wrote: »

The retail park in Carrarow is in a perfect location for all of Sligo's "satellite towns" off the dual carraigeway - all it needs is a decent supermarket, some reasonably priced home & hardware shops, a cafe, a cinema & a Mac dog. Instead of 3 million empty parking spaces.

Has anyone ever noticed the complete lack of care about parking right beside the door of each shop - even disabled spots are not sacred.. "Oh I thought this was the loading bay"!

Stick a roof over half of it & make it a proper shopping centre I say. We may not be able to afford anything they sell, but at least we'll be dry & warm.

Once they opened it without a supermarket it was dead in the water
It was only a matter of time, it was struggling before the crash!
Furniture shops, computer shops, toy shops, electricial shops and seasonal shops trive/survive on passing trade

No supermarket, no passing trade!
I knew a guy who was manager of a furniture shop up there for a while, was getting dogs abuse from Dublin&England about generating more sales

cant be done when nobody(shoppers) is within 2 miles of the shop
(BTW thats the exagerated royal grand scheme of things nobody!,
not the;excuse me, there are 100 house just down the road nobody:D)

jimmmy

starbelgrade wrote: »

The retail park in Carrarow is in a perfect location for all of Sligo's "satellite towns" off the dual carraigeway

Its not a perfect location, if it was it would not be empty ....as regards the "satellite" towns, Sligo itself is the only satellite town of any size in the vicinity...the catchment area of Grange, Manorhamilton, Ballisodare, Collooney, Ballyshannon etc. A location closer to Sligo town centre , with its transport hubs ( bus station, taxi ranks, train station etc ) would have helped.

starbelgrade wrote: »

- all it needs is a decent supermarket,
some reasonably priced home & hardware shops, a cafe, a cinema & a Mac dog. Instead of 3 million empty parking spaces.

Carraroe had McD, other cafes and restaurants. Its home & hardware shops were competeting with each other...you can say they were not reasonably priced enough but their accountants may argue they did not make enough money on what they did sell. As regards a cinema, Sligo with a population of what it has, cannot support another cinema plex...last time I was in the one in Sligo it was mostly empty / struggling. Opening another cinema in Carraroe would only negatively affect it, the same as opening Carraroe negatively affected the furniture shops and hardware shops in the town for example. If a supermarket opened in Carraroe you could put a fence around Sligo and turn it in to a wildlife reserve.

To get back to topic, its a pity to see stores closing in Sligo, but there were too many of some kinds of shops anyway to be sustainable in todays recession. If the town had been planned properly ( with better parking, the "retail" parks closer to the town centre etc ) we would have had a better chance. How do you expect a visiting shopper say for example to navigate between Duncans island, Cleveragh "retail" park and Carraroe "retail" park, without getting lost + disillusioned ? An experienced town planner from England on holidays told me that years ago, and laughed at the mistakes made in Sligo. He has been proved right.

elshambo

jimmmy wrote: »

Its not a perfect location, if it was it would not be empty ....as regards the "satellite" towns, Sligo itself is the only satellite town of any size in the vicinity...the catchment area of Grange, Manorhamilton, Ballisodare, Collooney, Ballyshannon etc. A location closer to Sligo town centre , with its transport hubs ( bus station, taxi ranks, train station etc ) would have helped.



Carraroe had McD, other cafes and restaurants. Its home & hardware shops were competeting with each other...you can say they were not reasonably priced enough but their accountants may argue they did not make enough money on what they did sell. As regards a cinema, Sligo with a population of what it has, cannot support another cinema plex...last time I was in the one in Sligo it was mostly empty / struggling. Opening another cinema in Carraroe would only negatively affect it, the same as opening Carraroe negatively affected the furniture shops and hardware shops in the town for example. If a supermarket opened in Carraroe you could put a fence around Sligo and turn it in to a wildlife reserve.

To get back to topic, its a pity to see stores closing in Sligo, but there were too many of some kinds of shops anyway to be sustainable in todays recession. If the town had been planned properly ( with better parking, the "retail" parks closer to the town centre etc ) we would have had a better chance. An experienced town planner from England on holidays told me that years ago, and laughed at the mistakes made in Sligo. He has been proved right.

+1
Plan? what plan? We dont need no stinking plan!

So not only was it doomed to failure from the start
It was a bad idea to begin with!?
...As most doomed to "failure from the start" things are:o

The only problem i have with people who are town planners handing out advice is that I shared a house in college with a guy who is now a town planner in England

We gave him the name "sleepy" and not becasue he slept a lot!

Sligoaidan

I paid for a nice big load of porcelain tiles from Tilemarket in Sligo a few weeks before xmas, with the intention of getting them delivered in Jan (I had bought kitchen wall tiles there too at the end of November too, which I picked up myself, but had to wait till some plumbing was finished before kitchen tiling started

We didnt ask to get them delivered before Christmas, as there's still a pile of bathroom wall tiles waiting to be put up, and the staff (who I found to be helpful) said that I'd be as well to wait till the tiler had the wall tiles out of the way before getting a big pile of Porcelein tiles to block up the hallway even further.

Just found out today that Tile market closed down! I was abroad over the Christmas, and only got back in the new Year. and didnt hear a thing about it. I've rang Enniskillen, who directed me to their head office, which I rang today, giving my invoice number and purchase amount etc.

Is anyone else in the same boat? Are they going to bring peoples orders from the North...or what? They (head office, just took my details and said they'd get back to me).....Anyone in a similar situation?

Xiney

That's bad luck Sligoaiden.

Any chance that you paid for the tiles on a credit card? If so you could contact your bank and have them reimburse you.

Sligoaidan

NO I paid cash, not credit card! I'll be chasing things up with their had office tomorrow to get my tiles or my money back....I'll let everyone know how I get on....Anyone else in the same situation...or more importantly...anyone who has come out of a the same situation and got their order delivered??


Please..anybody... let me know who you got on...I only want my tiles...surely thats not too much to ask???

jimmmy

Sligoaidan wrote: »

Just found out today that Tile market closed down! I was abroad over the Christmas, and only got back in the new Year. and didnt hear a thing about it. I've rang Enniskillen, who directed me to their head office, which I rang today, giving my invoice number and purchase amount etc.

Thats hard luck. Keep chasing though, you should get your tiles. People say that half the places in the "retail" park in Carraroe must be closed now or closing, or finding things difficult, so I would say you are not the only one.

Xiney

Sligoaidan wrote: »

Please..anybody... let me know who you got on...I only want my tiles...surely thats not too much to ask???

From a closed store, it might be. Hopefully the store in the North sort you out, but in a lot of cases being a creditor (which is what you are) to a closed business is a long road to nowhere.

I find it odd that as recently as December they took your payment though. I wonder did the staff really have absolutely no inkling that they were going to shut in 30 days or less.

Sligoaidan

Well I actually paid for them at the very end of October, but held off getting them delivered until jan, as we already had our hallway full of bathroom wall tiles (from another supplier who hasnt gone bust)...and we were getting held up with some plumbing work etc. We also bought some kitchen wall tiles in Tile market, at the end of November, to put in behind our range in the kitchen (before we laid the porcelein floor tiles),

we picked up those tiles ourselves . At that stage I had said to them (tilemarket) that we'd get the porcelein tiles delivered after Xmas, as we'd have the range in place, and the bathroom wall tile would have been out of the way by then also.

The staff there were fine with that..no problem at all etc.
This was the very beginning of December (4 weeks after paying for the porcelein tiles. (I was abroad then in Dec and didnt get back till New Years day..by which time tilemarket had shut...although I didnt hear anything about it)

As it turns out (from what I heard) the staff knew nothing about the closure until Christmas. 2 of the guys working there arrived at the store as normal (as did customers) at the end of Dec to find that the locks had been changed....so ya, they werent given much if any notice.

Ive rang the head office (Lomac Tiles), who havent been told exactly whats going on...they don't even know if a liquidator has been appointed for Lomac (Ireland) Ltd.

I have my invoice stating what I ordered and that it was paid for in full...considering that my invoice says "all stock remains property of Lomac Ireland ltd until paid for in full"...the ownership of that quantity of tiles should have passed over to me??? So I suppose I own a lorry load of tiles, but need to find out where I'm picking them up from.

Tile Market enniskillen informed me that the N.I operation is a different company and not connected to them in any way.

I better ring Joe Duffy and get some answers!

Culchie

Folks, wherevever possible pay for any deposits/prepayments with a credit card, you then have protection....you will get your money back.

There is going to be alot of big name casualties in the next 6 months and Sligo will be hit worse than most area (Enniskillen factor).

Sligoaidan ... I wish you the best, I think you've got an unwinnable task.

Xiney

Sligoaidan wrote: »

Well I actually paid for them at the very end of October, but held off getting them delivered until jan

Seems like it was a mistake to buy them so early if you couldn't get them delivered right away. Especially paying in cash.

I think at this stage the only thing you can do is contact a solicitor. I'm not 100% sure but I doubt the small claims court applies here because it is a debt which is not covered by the SCC.


An expensive lesson, I'm afraid.

EuskalHerria

It's so funny though to hear certain people complaining now about shops like 2seasons closing down. The loss of jobs is of course terrible, but how long did people think a shop that sold decorations to those who had a little extra money in their back pocket to buy decorative crap for commercialised holidays was going to last?

jimmmy

EuskalHerria wrote: »

It's so funny though to hear certain people complaining now about shops like 2seasons closing down. The loss of jobs is of course terrible, but how long did people think a shop that sold decorations to those who had a little extra money in their back pocket to buy decorative crap for commercialised holidays was going to last?

Well said. Yesterdays weekender was almost funny if it was not so sad, in which the owner of Instore complained about the retail park for his business not succeeding. I remember visiting Instore in Galway about ten years ago. The three or so furniture shops in Sligo, all locally owned, were providing a service in Sligo and while were probably not making much money were surviving. Over the past 4 years or so lots and lots ( too many to count ) of new furniture shops arrived in Sligo ...just how did they think a town of 19,000 people would support them as well as the Sligo businesses ?