JC's sold to Dunnes Stores

PCros

So i heard that JC's has been sold to Dunnes Stores and staff were told yesterday of their redundancy.

Shame really as it’s been an institution of Swords for the past 42 years but Dunnes probably saw the new housing developments springing up over in Millers Glen etc. and saw potential.

Hopefully the staff get re-employed by Dunnes.

Some memories...
https://www.dailyedge.ie/jc-savages-supermarket-swords-2611325-Feb2016/

selassie

Do you have a link to an online annoucnement of it or have they not gone public yet about it?

pinkypinky

Is this a joke? That link won't load for me but it has "Feb2016" in it.

Why would JCs have done all those renovations in the last year if they were planning to sell?

PCros

selassie wrote: »

Do you have a link to an online annoucnement of it or have they not gone public yet about it?

Nothing official - came from a friends mother who works there.

PCros

pinkypinky wrote: »

Is this a joke? That link won't load for me but it has "Feb2016" in it.

Why would JCs have done all those renovations in the last year if they were planning to sell?

That link is an article from The Journal about all the quirkiness.

Renovations = bigger return on sale.

Charles Ingles

PCros wrote: »

Nothing official - came from a friends mother who works there.

My wife's friend from work, her sisters mother works there she hasn't heard anything about it.

tscul32

I've heard that Dunnes own the new cafe going in

rushfan

Can't see anything on their Twitter feed, hopefully it's false as I dislike Dunnes

pinkypinky

If it's true, I'm really sad to hear it.

PCros

Charles Ingles wrote: »

My wife's friend from work, her sisters mother works there she hasn't heard anything about it.

Ah yeah Mary...nice woman.

Charles Ingles

PCros wrote: »

Ah yeah Mary...nice woman.

That's her she will be devastated

PCros

pinkypinky wrote: »

Why would JCs have done all those renovations in the last year if they were planning to sell?

Actually now that you mention that I did hear ages ago that Dunnes were behind that...could be incorrect though.

pinkypinky

Website even got a revamp, which would seem particularly unnecessary under the circumstances.

paw patrol

that's a shame if true.

I loved JCs - dunnes booze just isn't the same.
I had thought something was amiss the jam/pineapple cakes had gone down in quality in recent months.


JC took sold produce from many local producers...I'm not sure Dunnes will keep that up....hopefully so.

Salvation Tambourine

I also really hope this isn't true, you'd never get someone shouting down the public address system "We've got wine on special, €6 for Australian wine...from Australia!" in Dunnes.

ongarboy

paw patrol wrote: »

I had thought something was amiss the jam/pineapple cakes had gone down in quality in recent months.

When the quality of pineapple cakes go down, you know a business is in trouble!! :D

JCs were on a business improvement TV show a few years back (not long before JC sadly passed away) where they got expert advice on how to improve their store/product/customer service etc but I think within months, they were back to their old bad habits again - cluttered aisles, unattended customer service desks etc.

PCros

Does anyone remember their robotic bag packing system that they installed on a a few tills? I was young enough but I'd say it was in the mid to late 90's.

I just remember all the items going down the belt and falling into the bags arseways. I don't think the system lasted more than 6 months.

dvcireland

what's going to happen the Spanish Wine from Spain?

babyboom

I used to love JCs when we lived in Swords. Don't go there so much recently but I remember their announcements, they were hilarious. "Get your tray of Budweiser for 10 Euro, only catch it has to be consumed by midnight tonight". "Half price leg of lamb from our butcher's counter, left leg or right leg". It would be a terrible shame to see it gone. It's been an institution in Swords for so long.

paw patrol

ongarboy wrote: »

When the quality of pineapple cakes go down, you know a business is in trouble!! :D

you know it...:pac:

dunno what I was thinking last night though - it's jam/coconut cake..

asked a staff member last night and they knew nothing about it yet

pinkypinky

I also just now asked a supervisor and he denied it. 100% untrue he said.

Dizzyblonde

I can't imagine it's true. I know there have been a few more redundancies, but they've put so much money and effort into the makeover and the managers and family are extremely excited about the future of the store. It's probably a case of Chinese Whispers.

PCros

Could possibly be and I'll put my hands up if this turns out to be untrue but I doubt a member of staff is going to divulge those details to a total stranger on the shop floor.

I asked again and apparently management were given packages whilst floor staff are going via TUPE transfer.

paw patrol

PCros wrote: »

Could possibly be and I'll put my hands up if this turns out to be untrue but I doubt a member of staff is going to divulge those details to a total stranger on the shop floor.

I asked again and apparently management were given packages whilst floor staff are going via TUPE transfer.

I spoke to a lad today whose wife works there. nothing has been mentioned to them.

jam/coconut cake was decent today, so all is good in the world

Odelay

I don’t know if one case where dunes took over another store. Anyway, the way retail is going, it’s more are looking to close stores rather than open new stores.

pinkypinky

The other thing that occurs is that Dunnes have just spent a lot of money fancying up their Pavilions branch. Why would they buy another in Swords?

micks_address

pinkypinky wrote: »

The other thing that occurs is that Dunnes have just spent a lot of money fancying up their Pavilions branch. Why would they buy another in Swords?

I'd say they have the business to keep two locations and getting into the pavilions can be painful with traffic

Odyssey 2005

pinkypinky wrote: »

The other thing that occurs is that Dunnes have just spent a lot of money fancying up their Pavilions branch. Why would they buy another in Swords?

To stop a competitor buying it ?.

L1011

Odelay wrote: »

I don’t know if one case where dunes took over another store. Anyway, the way retail is going, it’s more are looking to close stores rather than open new stores.

Food retail and other-retail are totally different in this regard. Excluding Tesco's retraction (one of the Dun Laoghaire stores, Ballymun, Mulhuddart and maybe some more) it is extremely rare for a food multiple to close multiple branches and there is no macroeconomic reason for them to do so. People always need to eat and online food shopping has not taken off to any great extent.

Other retail, clothes specifically, is in bits currently. Books and music have already gone through the wringer and may be recovering to a new norm - at a fraction of what they were.

Charles Ingles

Ben Dunne needs to come back, Dunnes have fell apart he left

carltonleon

Some People are defo getting out on packages, how many I don't know but certainly some at management level, that was confirmed to me.

ongarboy

Charles Ingles wrote: »

Ben Dunne needs to come back, Dunnes have fell apart he left

You mustn't be old enough to remember the Dunnes of the 80s and even 90s. Extremely cramped, small stores with emphasis on poor quality (St Bernard) pile em high, sell em cheap approach.

The stores today in many of their outlets are really upmarket, spacious and can sometimes look like high end department stores with lots of designer concessions and food offerings (Baxter and Green, Cafe Sol, Paul Costello, Carolyn Donnelly etc). The latest consumer surveys has it as the leading supermarket in Ireland per market share for several quarters in a row so I don't know what you mean by falling apart.

https://www.rte.ie/news/business/2019/0408/1041350-kantar-supermarket-figures/

The only issue I have with Dunnes is where they shut down former large stores on the main shopping streets of towns and cities around the country and refuse to sell or let them to any other occupier to ensure there is no competition threat. It means such large and prominent buildings lie derelict for decades in some cases (Tralee, Dundalk, Wexford, Limerick all have examples of former Dunnes outlets being kept this way).

plodder

pinkypinky wrote: »

The other thing that occurs is that Dunnes have just spent a lot of money fancying up their Pavilions branch. Why would they buy another in Swords?

Look at the size of the site. It's massive. Imagine what else you could do with it.

Inquitus

Is this anything more than a random boards rumour? Haven't been able to hear anything about it beyond this thread?

PCros

Inquitus wrote: »

Is this anything more than a random boards rumour? Haven't been able to hear anything about it beyond this thread?

Nope nothing except word of mouth.

Interestingly enough though their social media has come to a halt. They used to post on Facebook every 1 to 2 days. That is strange considering the lead up to Easter which is an important period in retail.

carltonleon

PCros wrote: »

Nope nothing except word of mouth.

Interestingly enough though their social media has come to a halt. They used to post on Facebook every 1 to 2 days. That is strange considering the lead up to Easter which is an important period in retail.

Not for JCs, They have been selling all their Easter Eggs since Christmas :)

pinkypinky

They had been tweeting again before Easter. I wondered if their social media person was on hols.

plodder

Inquitus wrote: »

Is this anything more than a random boards rumour? Haven't been able to hear anything about it beyond this thread?

The rumour seems to be all over the town now. I wonder if it's a case of Chinese whispers starting off from the Lord Mayor's being closed.

micks_address

plodder wrote: »

The rumour seems to be all over the town now. I wonder if it's a case of Chinese whispers starting off from the Lord Mayor's being closed.

I don't know about the dunnes takeover but I heard from a neighbor who shops there that they were looking for 30 redundancies there from the higher paids

Uriel.

micks_address wrote: »

I don't know about the dunnes takeover but I heard from a neighbor who shops there that they were looking for 30 redundancies there from the higher paids

Yes there's a bit of a clean out from what I've heard. Including some longtermers in management. Haven't heard of a sale or a takeover though.

Dazed909

Uriel. wrote: »

Yes there's a bit of a clean out from what I've heard. Including some longtermers in management. Haven't heard of a sale or a takeover though.

Now confirmed that Dunnes are the new owners. Staff told today.

Odyssey 2005

Dazed909 wrote: »

Now confirmed that Dunnes are the new owners. Staff told today.

Sad day.

Salvation Tambourine

Dazed909 wrote: »

Now confirmed that Dunnes are the new owners. Staff told today.

That's awful, I'm a big fan of the Big Shop and loved wandering round JCs each week.

I can imagine a lot of people just moving down the round to Lidl.

Tropheus

Nokotan wrote: »

I can imagine a lot of people just moving down the round to Lidl.

They already have. That's the problem. Having a Lidl lilterally next door was a nail in JC's coffin. Very hard for a family owned store to compete with the multi-nationals.

It's odd timing given the amount of investment in the facelift.

Hopefully the staff are employed by Dunnes.

ongarboy

Nokotan wrote: »

That's awful, I'm a big fan of the Big Shop and loved wandering round JCs each week.

I can imagine a lot of people just moving down the round to Lidl.

Lidl won't have the range that JCs or Dunnes would have. As Lidl just provide a single (their own) brand of any one product - that might be fine for a lot of people but many customers want their branded Barrys Tea, Nescafe Coffee, Jacobs biscuits, Kerrygold butter etc

JCs must've been one of the last independent single managed supermarkets in the country. While Supervalus are individually managed/franchised, they still follow the overall corporate Supervalu brand/layout/pricing etc

Grolschevik

ongarboy wrote: »

As Lidl just provide a single (their own) brand of any one product -

Not any more, if they ever did.

Salvation Tambourine

ongarboy wrote: »

Lidl won't have the range that JCs or Dunnes would have. As Lidl just provide a single (their own) brand of any one product - that might be fine for a lot of people but many customers want their branded Barrys Tea, Nescafe Coffee, Jacobs biscuits, Kerrygold butter etc

I actually used to shop at Lidl and went to JCs for the variety available.

I might need to stock up on a few things over the next few weeks. Four large bottles of Peroni for €10 at the moment for starters.

pinkypinky

Really really sad to hear this.

Is there a date for official switch over?

Arthur Daley

Sad to see independent Irish retailers that cannot compete in the country anymore.

lpool2k05

Switch over is August 1st

Peatys

I'd say it was more an owner who didn't want to spend the years at the coal face like his father.

Jc's got busier, not quieter when lidl opened, as people who went to other Lidl's were using that one and dipping into jc's for the other ranges.

I don't think he's selling cause he has to.

Same fella let the Lord Mayor's staff go and no sign of even statutory redundancy.