Wicklow Shops

WicklowJM

Why does Wicklow town have such poor shops? You name it and wicklow doesn't have it, why is this?

BDR

Because we have a large selection on pubs and chemists.

Who needs anything else? :rolleyes:

mirrorball

There were some decent shops there about 4/5 years ago and the town was thriving. Don't the local traders have a crazy rule whereby the maximum lease for a premises is 5 years and you can't renew? Very disruptive and expensive and alot of places went under or packed it in.

BDR

mirrorball wrote: »

There were some decent shops there about 4/5 years ago and the town was thriving. Don't the local traders have a crazy rule whereby the maximum lease for a premises is 5 years and you can't renew?

Think it could even only be four years. Then they have to move on or they get the right to refuse to leave in the future.

Had a visitor down a month or so ago and was showing her around the town and every second shop/building is empty. It's quite sad.

OP what would you like to see in the town?

yogidc26

BDR wrote: »

Because we have a large selection on pubs and chemists.

Who needs anything else? :rolleyes:

And butchers one for very chemists

Judgement Day

It's the same in every small town in the country, the big stores Tescos, Aldi, Lidl etc suck the life out of the high street and combined with outrageous rents, rates etc make it nigh on impossible for the small trader. Along the east coast DG, Wexford, Arklow, Wicklow, even Bray are all in the dead zone.

Waternews

I think you're wrong.. what kind of shops are you looking for?!
There's..
pubs and chemists
butchers
shoe shops
bookies
interiors places
coffee shops
mens clothes
kids clothes
women clothes
toy shops
diy shops
garden centre type ones
supervalu
wine shop
barbers
hairdressers
deli's

that's the ones off the top of my head that are on the main street...

don't talk Wicklow down. I think the town is looking better this summer than it has for a while.

WicklowJM

I don't wish to run the town down, quite the opposite. But there is no doubt that for a town of its size there should be better shops. I don't accept proximity to Dublin as an excuse. There is something amiss about wicklow and wonder what it is?

spank_inferno

Well OP, what would you like to see?

You say there should be better shops?
What do you mean by better?

Do you mean cheaper? Or Larger?

A town built for pony & trap x-hundred years ago doesnt have the square footage to compete with larger competitors, if you want big then go to carrickmines (which seems to occupy land big enough to fit wicklow town into!)

Some units are empty, but as previously mentioned its hard to keep a business running in the town.

Wicklow town and its hinterland out as far as ashford barely exceeds 15000 people if it even does, so custom is never garaunteed.

With total car dependency and limited parking Plus obscene rates from the council, getting a shop up & running let alone prospering is a hard job.

kavoweb

Wicklow town is dying on its arse,just like most similar towns all across the country. The only difference with Wicklow town is that the people living in it or more importantly,the ones 'running' it dont give a toss. Its a shame because it has such potential with nice beaches,close proximity to the capital and the most scenic vista's in the whole country. Kerry for example is marketed perfectly as the picturesque part of Ireland,Wicklow is even more so but is just not in the running.......its just not being promoted. Why are premises closing all over the town? I think its not exactly correct to lump the blame on global bullying 'hypermarkets'. Perhaps its more to do with high prices throughout.

spank_inferno

I agree with much of what you said.

IMO a lot of the blame with the business situation in wicklow lies with the Town Clerc.
We all know that the councillors are pretty impotent, but nothing happens without the town clerc & Town managers say so.

They only can see in the short term and by that I mean rates.
Because its such an important revenue source for the council, they dont work on building in long term business centric policies for the towns trades peoples.

They need to lower rates for all businesses, finally invest in the long awaited Abbey street carpark, & implement traffic management that involves more than painting some white lines on the road.

Of course dropping revenue and borrwing to improve such things will only create a bigger hole in their budget.

But it isnt "bad money" if the towns commerce improves and the town returns to prosperity.


(its an aside i know but It all goes back to the 80's.
We all paid rates that went to the council, FF stopped this in a populist stunt and the councils have never had that revenue stream effectively recovered ever since. All they've done is load that burden onto small business, thus leading to where we are at the moment.)

BigMoose

I want a place I can park the car, get the kids out, push the buggy without falling off the pavement, with shops I know what they sell and that I'm not getting ripped off. There are some lovely little shops in Wicklow (if you look hard enough) but sadly I cant afford to go into them. Given all that, I never go into Wicklow Town where there are no known big shops, the pavements are far too thin and poor for buggies (esp double ones), the parking is a joke, the traffic in the main street is a joke where it's too narrow for cars to pass the parked ones... So I always go to Arklow (yes, how come that town can manage to produce something that temps me to go there when Wicklow cant? Same demographics/potential foot fall yet they build a shopping centre where I can park, push the kids and find things I want) or Dublin. The footfall is there, but there are better places to go, Wicklow is so bad I just don't bother. I go there for lovely pretty walks round the harbor but never to shop which is a shame as I'm within walking distance of the place and would far rather shop there than Arklow.

spank_inferno

To answer your question,
Because there was a large area of empty land right on the northern edge of Arklow very close to the n11. This site was aching to be developed.

But your not comparing like for like comparing Wicklow main street vs the Bridgewater SC as a retail experience.

How about compare Wicklow main street with Arklow main street.
Both have the same old design flaws. both struggle with traffic management & space constraints.

If its such a joke, where in wicklow town is there such a large site available today to construct something like Bridgewater SC?

The reality is, there isnt.

chocgirl

I don't think Wicklow is the worst, I'd have it over say Bray any day of the week but it's being hit hard recently. There were a couple of really nice boutiqes that just didn't have the business to keep them open and I don't think it's just down to the council and high costs either. Locals should make more of an effort to support their own and stop running off to Arklow or further afield.

WicklowJM

What does anyone know of the plans to build a shopping centre on the upper mall, between it and high street? Its to be quite big too but with no parking. And if the Abbey car park were ever built you could park in it, stroll past shops on the main street and shop in that shopping centre. the footfall would be good for the shops between Abbey car park and the new centre on the upper mall. If the council would make the main st one way and widen the paths thish might be a nice set up??

spank_inferno

That has been "planned" for a long time now.
Ever since the Bayview hotel closed there was a plan to open it up and its rear garden to smaller retail units.

I dont know why it never happened?
Could have been planning or perhaps the owner if the site was waiting for someone to make an offer he couldnt refuse?

As for the Abbey carpark, again something mooted many years ago that hasnt come to fruition. I think there was objections on the basis of "cost /benefit" ie: A lot of money needed to provide a relatively small amount of spaces. Once ramps and pillars are taken into account it squeezes the spaces that can be fit into the building.

but again, I wouldnt hold my breath on either ever happening.

papachango

I heard that shops in wicklow are owned by the same two or three people and they charge rents that are almost too high for the market to bear. I dont know if this is true or not, but it is what I was told by a tenant of one of the shops. Seemingly they would rather see units empty than lower their prices.
INSANE!
Anyway, the inefficient and short sighted way Wicklow town has been run and managed is wasteful.
Wicklow town has an old and natural beauty, as does its environs. I would compare it with Kinsale in county Cork. Kinsale is thriving yet is many hours drive from Dublin. Wicklow is an hours drive and we lose all that tourism to the south west.
Wicklow could be the Kinsale of the east coast, but alas, in Ireland the gombeens choke creativity.
Wicklow town could be fantastic and a very desirable destination but it is not.
We have a harbour, when we could have a marina.
We have a shorefront, but if and when we got the weather, it could approach a riviera.
Wicklow town could be excellent, it has so much going for it. But small mindedness and a total lack of vision will see it wallow in its own unrealised potential for the foreseeable future.
Sure its alright the way it is some might say.
Alright is not alright if that is the limit of a towns aspirations.
I have lots of ideas, if someone in the council, or indeed, local business people want to hear them.

jenzz

I used to work in Wicklow Town for a large multinational. We closed in I think dec 2005. The reason was the rents were doubled that year. Not fractionally - Doubled. There was no incentive for the company to stay there as footfall is not guaranteed as in the like of Dundrum etc.I saw the incentive to stay there - lovely local people,pretty town but unfortunately as multinationals do they look purely at potential, profitability etc. That particular christmas shops closed one after the other as we all had the same landlord & each shop had their rent doubled by this person. I know the rent was higher than units in Bray, Dun Laoghaire & Nutgrove where these towns had a mucher higher population & higher foot traffic & sales. It was an awful pity - Loved it there & like I said lovely people who liked to chat & certainly knew their manners.

Judgement Day

Papachango I don't think you could compare Wicklow with Kinsale in terms of beauty but I agree with your other points. I pass through Wicklow on the train quite often and am staggered by the new bridge and road bulldozed onto the Murrough and the gradual sprawl of the horrible industrial estate northwards along the coast - ever closer to Broad Lough! While local authorities allow this type of 'development' there is no hope for towns like Wicklow. :mad:

BigMoose

I agree with Papachango. The town seems devoid of any coherent plan. It is very pretty in the town centre and around the harbour but the total lack of planning baffles me. The place is dying. Mostly already dead. Someone commented earlier that you cannot compare the shopping experience of Bridgewater in Arklow to shopping in Wicklow but I completely disagree. I am comparing where I choose to go and spend my cash. Until Wicklow makes some effort to entice people back to spend cash locally instead of going to Dundrum or Bridgewater, it wont survive. Do the council not have any power over crazy rent policies? Or can they not build a new centre somewhere (there were plans for down Marlton Road somewhere?) where the rents don't start off at crazy unsustainable values?

papachango

Judgement Day wrote: »

Papachango I don't think you could compare Wicklow with Kinsale in terms of beauty but I agree with your other points. I pass through Wicklow on the train quite often and am staggered by the new bridge and road bulldozed onto the Murrough and the gradual sprawl of the horrible industrial estate northwards along the coast - ever closer to Broad Lough! While local authorities allow this type of 'development' there is no hope for towns like Wicklow. :mad:

I digress JudgementDay for I have lived in both Kinsale and in Wicklow. The only difference between Kinsale and Wicklow town is vision. The difference is the will of the people, who have it in their power to effect change, are positive in Kinsale and negative in Wicklow.
I would like to meet these Landlords and run some figures by them. If a landlord thinks that strangulation is the best form of tenant retention they have a very poor and fearful sense of the world. Why dont they lower their prices, encourage occupancy of a diverse tenant portfolio? It makes great business sense and if the advice they are receiving from accountants or finance guys says otherwise, then they should consider changing advisors.
Where are the local councillors on this? Or are they up to their neck in it as well?

Judgement Day

papachango wrote: »

I digress JudgementDay for I have lived in both Kinsale and in Wicklow. The only difference between Kinsale and Wicklow town is vision. The difference is the will of the people, who have it in their power to effect change, are positive in Kinsale and negative in Wicklow.
I would like to meet these Landlords and run some figures by them. If a landlord thinks that strangulation is the best form of tenant retention they have a very poor and fearful sense of the world. Why dont they lower their prices, encourage occupancy of a diverse tenant portfolio? It makes great business sense and if the advice they are receiving from accountants or finance guys says otherwise, then they should consider changing advisors.
Where are the local councillors on this? Or are they up to their neck in it as well?

Fair points and as someone trying to open a shop in another east coast town I fully understand your frustration re. landlords etc. Here in sunny DG about five big players own almost all of the main shopping area and are quite content to leave shops empty rather than reduce rents. The town is visibly dying by the day and yet nothing is done by the local authority to improve matters. Surely it should be possible for local authorities to purchase properties and let them out to aspiring retailers in much the same way as the IDA provides advance factory units etc? They would gain from additional ratepayers as well the rent and it would help bring the town back to life. In the next couple of years there won't be a shop left in this town which is not in a building owned by the shopkeeper. Anybody trying to rent retail space is at nothing.

This You Tube video shows the town a year ago and things are worse since then. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fi2Cd2eDOZY

BDR

Noticed yesterday that the billboard thing about Butlers is advertising Bridgewater.

Good way to promote shopping in Wicklow town, lets send them all to Arklow :rolleyes:

Ciaranpm

Slightly off topic Sorry Mods.-Whilst units are vacant and it is a shame whats worse is the state of some the vacant units in the town esp those on te left just past the Jail I am going to raise with the owner and wicklow co co this week.

Off down to a certain big DIY store and but some PAINT!!! Imn sure the way things are someone could tidy that awful building up for a few quid

BigMoose

Those are a bit of a depressing looking mess alright.