Limerick ghost town

roast

I finished work early yesterday, so I decided to browse the shops in the city center.

It lasted all of 30mins at the most. Currys, Game, Gamestop and Easons. What an awfully boring shopping experience.

Regardless, I wouldn't count William St./Cruises St./O'Connell St. as "run-down".... yeah, there's some closed stores that have less than attractive appearances, but it's not that bad. I guess that there's not as much focus on the city centres to develop business as there is for these satellite shopping centers.

liammur

phog wrote: »

Isn't that part of the problem, most shopping can now be done online, why bother with heading to town for a days shopping.

Spot on. Get in a big employer into the city. That'll be the driver. The employees will go out for lunch, a coffee, the pub etc.

Cutting the rates for a €2 shop won't solve anything.

hightower1

liammur wrote: »

Spot on. Get in a big employer into the city. That'll be the driver. The employees will go out for lunch, a coffee, the pub etc.

Cutting the rates for a €2 shop won't solve anything.

Yeah, thats a great idea in practice BUT knowing Limerick city couciler clowns they will approach the likes of M&S for a big name shop to go in and sit back thinking "great, job done"... but thats not the case.

Whats to stop M&S then opening a store indeed BUT making it their supermarket shop only or only having a small clothes or other goods side to it? The city center does not need yet another supermarket. There are x2 major and large supermarkets already and a huge amount of places to get small bits and pieces. What the city needs is a large retailer to be sure BUT it has to stock the right lines, the right products, be exclusive to the city center and have a good support structure of smaller shops that compliment the large base store.

Take the newest area of the cresent for example.... the main stores in the newest area being A wear, River Island and Next. Now look at the rest of the stores that may not have as much turn over or space but they compliment the main ones. I'll give you an example.....

You go to the cresent for new jeans, you hit up jack jones and get them but you see a nice shirt on the way in and think its ok but would like something slightly different. You can now head to Zara (which is within your field of view as you leave the store ) or any one of the other clothes stores there to pick your new outfit up. Maybe get a coffee as you browse, the kids can head off to gamestop while so their not bored. The selection for men and women is faily balanced so herself can shop and spend too and maybe pick up beauty products in boots and after ye can all head over to maccy Ds for a bit to eat.

Now you start to see how all the stores are planned well and compliment each other well and thats only the newest section examined. There is no such flow in the city center, take cruises street for example, no store there really compliments the next... argos beside specsavers beside game beside a girls clothes store???? Unless you have very very random shopping habbits not a single one of these stores entices you in to impulse buy or browse.
Lets apply another example....

SO I'm heading to game to pick up a new release. I have it and am happy, I leave the store and subconsciously Im feeling good and would be receptive to spending more money but what do I see? ... a hairdressers, a glasses shop, a womens clothes store and a chocolate store. None of this would register a want to browse or possibly buy, because of this the first thing that hits my mind is "right, next stop... home and play my game". I'm not enticed to browse, I'm not craving lunch or a coffee from my browsing and not dropping cash on impulse buys.

So yes the city center needs a large retailer.... but it needs one that will host a range of goods, be well supported by supplement shops, be laid out with an intelligent person at the helm, the rates for rent need to be lowered, the space for holding large amounts of stock needs to be available (so prices can be kept low) and this area needs to be well kept, presented and protected by the authorities.

Kev_ps3

They need to offer free parking, why would people go through the hassle of the traffic in town and have to pay to park when they can go to the Crescent.

gloobag

I'll never understand what this obsession with M&S is. I travel to Dublin fairly often and have been in M&S a fair few times now. It's no different than any other supermarket. Actually now that I think of it, it's worse than the competition. The prices seem to be higher and you can only buy their own ****e, so if I have a preferance of a particular brand of something I now have to go somewhere else to get it. Very inconvenient. So yeah, M&S can stay well the fcuk away in my opinion.

Voy

Think it's probably the knock-on effect it could have. If M&S came to the city center, there would be a large increase in footfall considering how popular a store it is, and how far somebody living in Limerick would have to go to find the next nearest one.

constantg

Resi12 wrote: »

To be honest, Limerick city was just designed in a horrible way and still is.

All the scummy areas were/are situated way too close to the city centre (I live in one before people go all PC) and now instead of putting shops into the city centre people are going for the suburb shopping centres.

There is no draw into the city, only for clubbing and possibly grocery being the highest reasons.

Totally agree.

I'm from Cork and most of the dodgy areas (lets face it the armed guards wouldn't be patrolling them if they weren't dodgy) are very close to the City Centre, making it convenient for very dodgy and quite a few simply unpleasant characters to come into the city regularly.


One evening about 6 weeks ago I was in the city on the pedestrianised side of Bedford Row and I saw a guy on a horse on the opposite side of the road.... like come on, that cannot be considered normal! It doesn't happen in other metropolitan centres (in Dublin its confined to the peripheral 'scummy' housing estates in my experience)!


Also I was heading into the library today and I was hassled by two different groups of scumbags at different stages for change. I mean come on, you generally don't see that in other cities and large towns. I've never encountered it in Galway. Once in Cork. Dublin has a large homeless community and the Roma do the begging there, but the Dub 'scummy' people generally don't come looking for cash.


a serious issue in my opinion.

hightower1

hightower1 wrote: »

Completely agree. The range of shops in the city is terrible.
If your a male between 18- 40 and want some fashionible clothes that arent part of the scumbag uniform you have a choice of 3 shops in the cit center (River island, connelys or jack jones) ....3.... in the entire city center. What a joke.

Scratch that, just saw that jack jones is closing down now..... thats 2 ... a whole 2 stores left for a normal guy to buy clothes in the city center.
Great. :rolleyes:

constantg

Golf Experience on Henry Street is gone as well......good idea opening up right across from Elverys....:p

Blazer

hightower1 wrote: »

Scratch that, just saw that jack jones is closing down now..... thats 2 ... a whole 2 stores left for a normal guy to buy clothes in the city center.
Great. :rolleyes:

I always said Limerick city had the worse mens shops in Ireland..no bloody choice at all...

Insect Overlord

Sc@recrow wrote: »

I always said Limerick city had the worse mens shops in Ireland..no bloody choice at all...

Tom Taylor (next door to Jack & Jones) has a decent range of men's stuff at the back and upstairs. Similar enough styles to J&J as well.

liammur

Voy wrote: »

Think it's probably the knock-on effect it could have. If M&S came to the city center, there would be a large increase in footfall considering how popular a store it is, and how far somebody living in Limerick would have to go to find the next nearest one.

Not so much M&S that we need. Twitter in Dublin today, 200 more jobs for Galway. M&S will only close down a few small retailers elsewhere. We need IDA jobs in the city but alas, they have ignored Limerick since 1997. Until this is rectified, the city will continue to decline. I've said for the last 10 years and it continues to hold through to this day.

xinchao

Yeah I agree with Bullets,

Nestors was a great shop ( i thought it was a wonderland). lol...I remember limerick in the 1980s, Deprived yes, high unemployment yes, BUT it was still busy, because the cost of items were low. Then again the shops weren't owned by multi-nationals so they were not themed the way they are now. People who own their own small business are more customer focused and don't have to answer to share-holders every quarter.
Limerick has always been a deprived region, yes things got better in the 1990s and early to mid 00s but it over expanded, if you go to TK MAXX shopping area it's desolate, you have an overexpansion of retail units, not only there but Coonagh roundabout, Jetland, Parkway, Crescent. Too many for a small town (we think of limerick as a "city" but in reality it is a small town). Limerick centre should be paved and be pedestrainised . The streets should have coverings like the milk market and it should have small little restaurants and cheap cafes lining them. This would attract people into the city for recreation.
I think costs would be drastically reduced as small businesses would have lower overheads and be independently owned.
Yes, limerick has no-go areas but it is a city rich in heritage and it is logically planned out. If you have many people in a central area police and people would self-regulate deviant behaviour. For example, the crescent shopping centre doens't have people fighting and drinking and being obnoxious. It would't be tolerated.
The real problem in Limerick lies in not having anyone in power having an imagination or any kind of intelligence. It's the same for the economy at large and our political system. Unqualified people in senior positions of power.
The rest of Europe have developed areas like i described, it's just we haven't copped on yet. Although Limerick it has to be said, is a forgotten city investment-wise, which is a shame considering the level of education on offer here.
Finally, Limerick could be a great city and a place to have fun, shop and go out in. It's just we have morons in the city council. There are some good initiatives undertaken over the years it's just they haven't fully carried them through.

P.S. Bring back, Nestors, Modesty, The Theatre Royal, Burgerland... those were innocent times.....There is Zara clothing for men which is a great shop, although kinda expensive. And we can't forget Penny's...lol...

kilburn

Give job creation back to Shannon Development in the region and you will see jobs coming on stream

phog

I remember my father telling me that he used to pay to park his bike in Bradley's yard off Henry St when he came to "town" and that those with horses/ponies would bring them to Dowings yard on Roches St and pay for a stable as they went about their shopping/business. So paying for parking isnt a new thing

mike kelly

gloobag wrote: »

We could stage reenactments of various shoot outs

the expertise is there for that

liammur

kilburn wrote: »

Give job creation back to Shannon Development in the region and you will see jobs coming on stream

Very true. It's obvious the IDA don't give a damn about Limerick, and are happy for the punters and politicians to blame the crescent.

badboyblast

Sure who has money to be shopping, hard enough to keep the bills paid, in around town shopping....pfffff.........

Resi12

Sc@recrow wrote: »

I always said Limerick city had the worse mens shops in Ireland..no bloody choice at all...

Seriously. And the clothes they do have are usually rank to be fair like. The men's section in Penneys is diabolical compared to the one in Dublin.

ErnieBert

gloobag wrote: »

I'll never understand what this obsession with M&S is. I travel to Dublin fairly often and have been in M&S a fair few times now. It's no different than any other supermarket. Actually now that I think of it, it's worse than the competition. The prices seem to be higher and you can only buy their own ****e, so if I have a preferance of a particular brand of something I now have to go somewhere else to get it. Very inconvenient. So yeah, M&S can stay well the fcuk away in my opinion.

There's a M&S here in Galway which is always busy. My wife's friend works there and said that people travel great distances just to buy their food.

MAStanley

Hi,

New to this website - finding it a little bit of an eye-opener.

I have lived in Limerick for the last 12 years, and would agree, there is very much a doughnut affect happening regarding the CC and the retail parks.

However, unlike many of the posters here, don't much see the point in complaining, as, unfortunately, money talks louder than all of you here.

The facts are that if you want to see a return to the city, it is up to you to start it - the retailers are not going to say "hang on, there are a few posters talking on that website, we must do something to prove them wrong", they are going to say "feck them - our bottom line is far more important than theirs", and continue to move out to the suburbs.

I am hoping to open a business in Limerick CC over the next few months, and yes, it will be tough, but I am going in with all the gusto of a Central American hurricane. This is what is required, along with a concerted effort on behalf of the citizens of Limerick CC and it's environs, to visit and utilise what could be a bright, outgoing, busy and vibrant area.

Stop the guffawing of yester-year, and start doing something about it - it is your city, don't feel powerless to make changes in it!

bernardo mac

Wishing you every success MAStanley and the best of luck.CC is in need of energy,drive and new ideas