recession???

anplaya

walking through town during a saturday,its always busy,ya still notice all the people around town in the pubs or restaurants,business doesnt seem to be affected that much,people seem to still be spending the money.

do you think the recession is affecting the people of waterford that much?cause it doesnt seem like it at the moment,whats your opinions on it?

Nolanger

The dole must have come out the previous day.

anplaya

Nolanger wrote: »

The dole must have come out the previous day.

.seriously though,have ye not noticed?places are busy,people still going out and spending their money etc,doesnt seem like it at the moment

wmpdd3

Hate to use statistics but If foot fall and sales are down then things are not going well. I can't name 1 store in town that is up on sales V last year.

Love to be corrected....

shanethemofo

wmpdd3 wrote: »

Hate to use statistics but If foot fall and sales are down then things are not going well. I can't name 1 store in town that is up on sales V last year.

Love to be corrected....

Unfortunately this is true. People just arent spending at all like they used to.

abouttobebanned

Saturdays are not what they used to be...in shops, in pubs, anywhere really.

There used to be a culture with so many people that they'd go into town in the afternoon, do their few bits and then had some dinner in a local diner or restaurant. You'd go home then, watch some saturday telly, get ready and head out at about 8:30 for the night.

That's just not happening anymore...shopping has become less of an experience, and more of a necessity. Pubs and Clubs don't offer the same appeal anymore...and the prices of drink etc are just not realistic in the current climate.

Is it me or are the local industries not being creative enough with their business ventures to entice people gently back into the routines that we knew and loved in the 1990s.

Tellox

The recession is definitely hitting very hard in waterford - I don't see how anyone can state otherwise. The Crystal is the first strong example I can think of.

Just walking through town last week, I noticed so many stores with closing down sales on, coupled with empty shops everywhere I looked.

Pubs and Clubs are dead - Just this time last year I'd normally head out to Revolution/Geoffs for a pint on a Saturday, grab a takeout and head to a club for the night. If I can afford to drink at all now, it'll be myself and a few mates up in the flat.

And of course, everywhere you look there's posters up by clubs/pubs desperately trying to gain back a bit of business with a "Recession Session". Tip for attracting customers: Stop mentioning the ****ing recession.

tl,dr; yes, the recession is hitting just as hard here as it is everywhere else.

jimbojazz

This is the second recession i've been through. Last time i was out of work foe 18 months.

Work self employed in construction on the administration side.

Have not worked now for over 5 weeks and as stated am self employed. Have had no money in this time and have in the last week moved back with my parents and am in the process of giving back my car. i also have a personal loan and a credit card debt that i cannot pay

Have not had a night out in months - dosent bother me, the least of my worries.

I try to remain as positive as i can but it dosent work - i dont see an inprovement for at least another 2 years

Nothing to look forward to and am really at my wits end - parents are brilliant at the moment but they are both in their late sixties and i feel so bad that at this stage of their lives i am now fully dependent on them again

On top of all this i am separated with 2 kids - so you know the problems that brings with maintenance etc


This is the reality for those of us hit by the recession.

ex_infantry man

things could be a lot better i work as a sales rep for a foods company and we,ve noticed a slight increase in trade since the new year, generally january and february are a disaster when it come to sales and it generally increases after the paddy,s weekend but it aint moving as fast as what we,d love it to

road_high

jimbojazz wrote: »

This is the second recession i've been through. Last time i was out of work foe 18 months.

Work self employed in construction on the administration side.

Have not worked now for over 5 weeks and as stated am self employed. Have had no money in this time and have in the last week moved back with my parents and am in the process of giving back my car. i also have a personal loan and a credit card debt that i cannot pay

Have not had a night out in months - dosent bother me, the least of my worries.

I try to remain as positive as i can but it dosent work - i dont see an inprovement for at least another 2 years

Nothing to look forward to and am really at my wits end - parents are brilliant at the moment but they are both in their late sixties and i feel so bad that at this stage of their lives i am now fully dependent on them again

On top of all this i am separated with 2 kids - so you know the problems that brings with maintenance etc


This is the reality for those of us hit by the recession.

Sorry to hear all that mate, thats the human side of the reccession for sure.
At least on the positive side you have the support of your parents- age doesn't come into it, you're still their child and will look after you.

Have you looked into claiming your entitlements re social welfare?

Try keep the chin up.

merlante

Numbers signing on have doubled in the last 12 months, and is probably over 10% in Waterford. Then again, that's where Germany usually is, and lots of German towns have seriously high unemployment, so coming from 'full employment' it looks bad, but actually we're still in a reasonably healthy situation by European standards. Not that that's much consolation if you're used to an income coming in and you've been laid off.

I was in town yesterday keeping an eye on the crowds, bearing in mind the usual doom and gloom about 'dead square', etc., on here. The city centre was very lively and people were spending money judging by the bags they were carrying. While I'm sure things are not as good for shops as they were, there is no sign of a collapse in trading from where I was standing. Waterford never really had a boom to begin with, so the decline is more muted here. A comparison of house prices in Waterford and elsewhere around the country over the past 10-15 years shows this. Waterford prices never shot up and are coming down more slowly now.

jimbojazz

mfitzy wrote: »

Sorry to hear all that mate, thats the human side of the reccession for sure.
At least on the positive side you have the support of your parents- age doesn't come into it, you're still their child and will look after you.

Have you looked into claiming your entitlements re social welfare?

Try keep the chin up.

Thanks for that - nice comments

Am meeting the accountant this week to try and sort out social welfare entitlments etc - so hopefully something might happen that way

Am looking at work abroad as well - but having to leave behind my kids will tear me apart

deiseman21

you just have to look at the traffic jams in the morning to see how fcuked this town is!!! (or lack of them)

wmpdd3

Delighted we are finally getting a new bridge but is anyone actually going to pay to use it.


If the PPP doesn't get enough money in return for their investment what happens?

robtri

wmpdd3 wrote: »

Hate to use statistics but If foot fall and sales are down then things are not going well. I can't name 1 store in town that is up on sales V last year.

Love to be corrected....

Hey anybody got the foot fall statisics for waterford city???
I would be very interested in seeing them, as there has been a few mentions of them in a few threads....

merlante

deiseman21 wrote: »

you just have to look at the traffic jams in the morning to see how fcuked this town is!!! (or lack of them)

Right.... so traffic jams are what we're after is it? We shouldn't have built the outer ring road then. Anyone who thinks there's less traffic in Waterford now than in the past is nuts. And I suppose when the bypass opens, the reduced traffic will be a sign of further decay? Come on!

One thing that we do have in Waterford is excellent infrastructure. The best for any city of its size, probably anywhere, when the bypass opens, and all Waterford people can do is bitch and complain that the traffic is not as bad as it used to be. Sociologists should come to Waterford and study us before we will ourselves extinct.

durrus

anplaya wrote: »

walking through town during a saturday,its always busy,ya still notice all the people around town in the pubs or restaurants,business doesnt seem to be affected that much,people seem to still be spending the money.

do you think the recession is affecting the people of waterford that much?cause it doesnt seem like it at the moment,whats your opinions on it?

Don't let surface impressions fool you, retail is suffering hugely. Our sales are down between 30% and 40% compared to last year and no sign of a turnaround.

deisemum

This is my 3rd recession, I was let go from a job during the 80's so
I emigrated, endured the recession of the 90's in the UK and now round 3 here again.

Each recession my circumstances were different, during the 80's I didn't have any commitments as such so just had to fend for myself.

In the UK we bought at the peak of the property prices so had a collossal mortgage. Fortunately we had some saving and had to dip into them to survive. I worked 3 jobs, so did hubby. We put off having children until things had picked up.

This time we're both self-employed, hubby is a carpenter so work is scarce. Fortunately we will have our mortgage paid off by Sept/Oct and don't have any other loans.

I don't go into the city centre much unless I have to apart from grocery shopping in Dunnes.

The one positive thing I've noticed is that customer service is improving in some places.

echosound

merlante wrote: »

Right.... so traffic jams are what we're after is it? We shouldn't have built the outer ring road then. Anyone who thinks there's less traffic in Waterford now than in the past is nuts. And I suppose when the bypass opens, the reduced traffic will be a sign of further decay? Come on!

One thing that we do have in Waterford is excellent infrastructure. The best for any city of its size, probably anywhere, when the bypass opens, and all Waterford people can do is bitch and complain that the traffic is not as bad as it used to be. Sociologists should come to Waterford and study us before we will ourselves extinct.

I don't think anyone is "bitching" about the traffic being lighter than it used to be in fairness; it is, to my mind, a good indicator of the amount of people that have been laid off. The outer ring road was open long before I noticed, for e.g., the dramatic falloff in traffic on the Dunmore road at 8.30 am/5pm, so that wouldn't account for the lighter traffic in peak travel times. It's simply less people travelling to work that accounts for the lighter traffic.

I know the boom never really hit Waterford (one of the few cities where the range of jobs on offer were either factory-based or minimum wage/slightly above min wage fare, and also one of the few cities where a graduate with x years experience in whatever industry would realistically expect to start on the same wage as a school leaver, due to the scarcity of any high-value jobs) so we don't have as far to fall as other centres of population, but the amount of people I personally know who have either been a) made redundant b) had hours reduced c) had pay reduced and d) are in fear of being handed their P45 each day they go into work is frightening.

deiseman21

i was merely making an observation on what i see every day on my way to work and not suggesting that i enjoy a good long traffic jam, i enfact now get an extra 15 mins longer in bed than i did 12-18 months ago because the traffic on the bridge is about 60% of what it was

if you really want to see the impact of yhe recession go down to the dole offices on thursday morning