Thinking of opening up a shop in cork.

Rowanvella199

I am thinking of opening up a shop in cork, although i am not sure what type of shop would be succesfull here. Can you think of any shpos that you would like to see more of in cork, or perhaps you think may be missing from the city?? All opinions greatly appreciated

MikeCork2009

I've always said I'd love to see a Lemon in Cork, like they have in Dublin. Can't beat the crispy breakfast crepe or a chicken tikka crepe.

http://www.menupages.ie/dublin/city_centre/city_centre_south/lemon_dawson_st/Menu.aspx

ScrubsfanChris

When can I drop my CV in?

Spindle

There is a lack of any good late night coffee shops/wine bars as an alternative to pubs. Since Tribes closed there are none at all that I can think of. It might be that the market is not there for it, but it would be nice to have somewhere other than a pub to go at night.

what the hell!

A good bakery would be good. It is so hard to actually find a shop where you can just get a tart or a cake. Also when I used to be in the States we used to go to a coffee shop/cafe every morning before work to get our breakfasts. Good coffee, bagels, pancakes that kind of thing. And it would have to be takeaway. None of the bagel places are open early before work.

The_Banker

Spindle wrote: »

There is a lack of any good late night coffee shops/wine bars as an alternative to pubs. Since Tribes closed there are none at all that I can think of. It might be that the market is not there for it, but it would be nice to have somewhere other than a pub to go at night.

I was thinking the exact same thing after I read the original post.

MrMojoRisin

Rowanvella199 wrote: »

I am thinking of opening up a shop in cork, although i am not sure what type of shop would be succesfull here. Can you think of any shpos that you would like to see more of in cork, or perhaps you think may be missing from the city?? All opinions greatly appreciated

What about a literacy shop?

Surely tribes closing points to it being less than viable in the current climate.....

ResearchWill

what the hell! wrote: »

A good bakery would be good. It is so hard to actually find a shop where you can just get a tart or a cake. Also when I used to be in the States we used to go to a coffee shop/cafe every morning before work to get our breakfasts. Good coffee, bagels, pancakes that kind of thing. And it would have to be takeaway. None of the bagel places are open early before work.

There are some great bakery shops in the market, a beautiful French style cake shop (it does lovely savory tarts as well as fab cakes), also great bread shop and a few other shops selling fab cakes. Also was a lovely Macaroon shop but it closed recently.

miss_shadow

Gourmet Pie shop! I can only get cheese and onion pastys in Marks and spencers and they are way overpriced.

gbee

A teenage gang hang out, easy to fit out, just a few brick walls and a bit of graffiti, a Vodka Syphon and there ye go.

ResearchWill

miss_shadow wrote: »

Gourmet Pie shop! I can only get cheese and onion pastys in Marks and spencers and they are way overpriced.

It opened and closed within 6 months. Was on Princess Street if I remember.

miss_shadow

I don't think that was place was set up properly at all. The pasties were horrible and it wasn't inviting enough.

Steoob

Dont really understand the point of this thread. Surely if someone has a good idea theyre not going to share it for no cut of the profit.

Bloody Nipples

Yeah and it also seems like the OP has no business plan in the slightest? So this whole debate seems fairly academic.

ResearchWill

ResearchWill wrote: »

It opened and closed within 6 months. Was on Princess Street if I remember.

as a nation we aren't really into products, a similar venture would go the same way I think

miss_shadow

We're not into products?!!!.... ... If you say so :rolleyes:

EyeSight

miss_shadow wrote: »

We're not into products?!!!.... ... If you say so :rolleyes:

i think he meant specialised/novelty products. usually shops in cork that are different and supply a niche market fail. i think cork is too small a place to have a large amount of people in a niche market unfortunately

i would LOVE a late night coffee shop to be open. also in other irish and british cities in the last few years american sweet shops have opened up. they sell american products imported which you can't usually buy here(usually more expensive then irish market products). i know galway and dubllin have ones that are doing great business. maybe cork could benfit

SomeFool

miss_shadow wrote: »

Gourmet Pie shop! I can only get cheese and onion pastys in Marks and spencers and they are way overpriced.

http://www.facebook.com/SliceOPie

nom nom nom Found these guys nice!

Dermighty

Spindle wrote: »

There is a lack of any good late night coffee shops/wine bars as an alternative to pubs. Since Tribes closed there are none at all that I can think of. It might be that the market is not there for it, but it would be nice to have somewhere other than a pub to go at night.

Webworkhouse has a cafe at the front which serves coffee until very late, might even be 24 hours.

leahyl

RoverJames wrote: »

Surely tribes closing points to it being less than viable in the current climate.....

Tribes was just so damn expensive for crap food - I would say that's why it closed down. Plenty of people were going in there but not enough were buying food. I used to go there with my friends and we'd sit for hours nursing a cup of tea. It had a great atmosphere - cosy - but it was way overpriced. It was especially annoying when you couldn't just order a portion of chips anymore - you had to get a toastie or something else with it:mad:

So OP we need a nice reasonably priced late night coffee shop with yummy sambos/chips etc and we want it cosy with lots of nice sofas and big chairs and fires!:D

Faith

leahyl wrote: »

RoverJames wrote: »

Surely tribes closing points to it being less than viable in the current climate.....

Tribes was just so damn expensive for crap food - I would say that's why it closed down. Plenty of people were going in there but not enough were buying food. I used to go there with my friends and we'd sit for hours nursing a cup of tea. It had a great atmosphere - cosy - but it was way overpriced. It was especially annoying when you couldn't just order a portion of chips anymore - you had to get a toastie or something else with it:mad:

So OP we need a nice reasonably priced late night coffee shop with yummy sambos/chips etc and we want it cosy with lots of nice sofas and big chairs and fires!:D

Completely agree. Tribes had ideas above its station. They wanted people to spend loads of money, but tried to achieve that by charging extortionate amounts for very average food, rather than providing value for money. My OH paid nearly a tenner in there a couple of years ago for a BLT. No chips, nothing extra with it - a tenner for a sandwich. The staff were also really rude, and the service was really slow. I waited 20 mins for a pot of tea and a scone one afternoon - it wasn't even busy!

A decent late night coffee shop would be great.

miss_shadow

miss_shadow wrote: »

We're not into products?!!!.... ... If you say so :rolleyes:

I meant those products, as in gourmet pies/pasties, as clarified by someone, I omitted the those in error.

Spindle

RoverJames wrote: »

I meant those products, as in gourmet pies/pasties, as clarified by someone, I omitted the those in error.

I think there is a market for this kind of venture, it just needs to be located in an area with high foot fall. Also the product on offer has to be a bit special and of good decent quality to justify higher prices. Good local ingredients always help with this.

If the city council had the foresight to close Patrick Street to traffic and widen the pavement it would have been the ideal area to have street vendors/cafes/markets then add in another handful of decent restaurants serving dishes with local West and East Cork ingredients , then maybe we could be really called Ireland's capital of food, at the moment we are only the pretend capital of food.

gbee

Spindle wrote: »

and widen the pavement it would have been the ideal area to have street vendors/cafes/markets

We spent some €600m widening the footpaths already. What we really need is a drive in restaurant in Patrick Street

EyeSight

Spindle wrote: »

I think there is a market for this kind of venture, it just needs to be located in an area with high foot fall. Also the product on offer has to be a bit special and of good decent quality to justify higher prices. Good local ingredients always help with this.

If the city council had the foresight to close Patrick Street to traffic and widen the pavement it would have been the ideal area to have street vendors/cafes/markets then add in another handful of decent restaurants serving dishes with local West and East Cork ingredients , then maybe we could be really called Ireland's capital of food, at the moment we are only the pretend capital of food.

i think you're not realistic enough. the cost of rent in the main streets is too high, added to the more expensive local ingredients and serving a niche market with low prices. you would have to sell a lot of pies(or whatever product) every day just to break even
remember too that on a normal weekday the footfall isn't that high in the city center compared to other cities where shops like this can survive
that macroon shop in the market is an example of this, it recently closed and wasn't open that long. nice macroons too

the money isn't there to widen the footpath and the place is a bit of a mess already regarding deliveries and being "car friendly", that would make it worse

also if you allowed street vendors i'm sure the owners of cafes/resteraunts would complain. why should they have to pay high rent for premises in such central location when now you just let anyone in. thats why the successful food markets don't happen more often. i would like to see street vendors however

deRanged

didn't they just release a report showing city centre trading is down 13%?
that's a very tough environment to be trying to break in to. the established crowd are finding it tough enough.

that shouldn't stop anyone, but you'd want to have a serious amount of planning done first.

KCAccidental

Faith wrote: »

Completely agree. Tribes had ideas above its station. They wanted people to spend loads of money, but tried to achieve that by charging extortionate amounts for very average food, rather than providing value for money. My OH paid nearly a tenner in there a couple of years ago for a BLT. No chips, nothing extra with it - a tenner for a sandwich. The staff were also really rude, and the service was really slow. I waited 20 mins for a pot of tea and a scone one afternoon - it wasn't even busy!

A decent late night coffee shop would be great.

indeed, I was a patron of Tribes for many years. The prices went up, the quality of food and service went down. Even in it's last few months the owners never tried to draw customers in with offers or a new menu it was incredible. I think there is a market for a late night cafe with food, the webworkhouse cafe is 24hrs and lovely, but they don't do hot food unfortunately. I usually go there after a night out to relax, nice atmosphere in there.

Spindle

EyeSight wrote: »

i think you're not realistic enough. the cost of rent in the main streets is too high, added to the more expensive local ingredients and serving a niche market with low prices. you would have to sell a lot of pies(or whatever product) every day just to break even
remember too that on a normal weekday the footfall isn't that high in the city center compared to other cities where shops like this can survive
that macroon shop in the market is an example of this, it recently closed and wasn't open that long. nice macroons too

the money isn't there to widen the footpath and the place is a bit of a mess already regarding deliveries and being "car friendly", that would make it worse

also if you allowed street vendors i'm sure the owners of cafes/resteraunts would complain. why should they have to pay high rent for premises in such central location when now you just let anyone in. thats why the successful food markets don't happen more often. i would like to see street vendors however

I think high rents is something that needs to be tackled alright, but that is the result of upward only rent reviews, resulting in empty buildings and landlords not getting any rent.

If you look at a lot of other successful towns and cities they all have a central shopping/food/entertainment area that is all paved with no traffic. A city should only be car friendly in way that allows people arrive and park on the outskirts and then walk in comfort and safety in a pedestrian only environment. Deliveries can be left in in early morning and late evening. I am not saying turn the whole city into a no car zone, but at least make a bigger central area more friendly to pedestrians as a whole.

Anyway this is going off the point of the thread, if you are planning a new business you will need some serious research as they are hard times indeed, but there is plenty of money out there, just need to find a way to get people to spend it.

Cork boy 55

LOt of empty shop fronts on grand parade now ???

Recessionbust

How about doin a business plan and create your own idea rather then expecting everyone else to do it for you. If this is your business mentality I would be seriously worried.

gbee

Recessionbust wrote: »

I would be seriously worried.

It's market research, isn't it?

Recessionbust

gbee wrote: »

Recessionbust wrote: »

I would be seriously worried.

It's market research, isn't it?

No its not. Market research is askin peoples advice after you establish an idea or ideas but before you put them into practise. Like I want to open a pub what type would appeal to you? Not I want to open a business any ideas.

miss_shadow

We're probably helping out with his homework

Recessionbust

miss_shadow wrote: »

We're probably helping out with his homework

Haha Yep and maybe he just posted in the wrong category

murphym7

I think you need to be passionate about the thing you want to sell to be honest. Have a real interest in the commodity, and know as much as possible about that commodity. Without a really good understanding of what it is you are selling and the type of person you are selling it to – you will be doomed to fail. I am not posting this to be negative, but you really need to find out what it is YOU want to sell, then figure out will there be a market for it. I would love to start up my own business – I have no idea what that is going to be however, until I know and determine if I have a genuine passion for it, I will be staying put, working for someone else.

Eod100

Spindle wrote: »

There is a lack of any good late night coffee shops/wine bars as an alternative to pubs. Since Tribes closed there are none at all that I can think of. It might be that the market is not there for it, but it would be nice to have somewhere other than a pub to go at night.

As far as I know Cafe Gusto at the top of Washington St stays open till 10pm Thurs - Sat. Granted that's not very late but still opens later than most coffee places. There's also Gulpd Cafe in the Triskel which serves coffee and alcohol.Never been there but any time I pass it, there's a nice cosy atmosphere in there. http://triskelartscentre.ie/gulpd-cafe/

As for wine bars, there's a couple that I know of. There's L'Attitude 51 on Union Quay and was gonna say a place at the bottom of Washington St but pretty sure that's changed to a restaurant. Think that Boqueria place on Bridge St is a wine/tapas bar aswell

Milly33

Is this just a random idea that you had then. Or do you actually have other shops open in some other City