Random Waffle Thread

VDA've shut its doors in Carlow permanently; had only opened back in May last year.

VDA?

No worries, I'd very rarely be in town so had no idea who you were referring to

Will take your word on it; I'm a tea person.

What I will say, and looking around Carlow, there's a lot of "coffee" shops, houses but, and again I'm not a coffee drinker, but with no such limitations on the amount of such places in the CDP, the amount of places, like your petrol stations, your fast food joints etc. to get a takeaway or sit down coffee, means the VDAs're gonna struggle against your garages & multinationals & supermarkets whatever about differences in taste.

But fair play to anyone who takes a chance on opening up such units; employment created, rent being paid on a premises, commercial rates etc.

When last week we had the "closure" of a certain premises due to disinformation, misinformation (not from the Carlow Forum it must be noted) to point the premises had to issue a statement of clarification, it's a pity the same backslappers incl. many of whom will be door-knocking in the Springtime & who were more than happy to do a VDA Carlow social media post at the time, didn't actually follow through on their "support" for such a venture; social media likes, content creators, influencers, social media gurus, s/m posts by Cllrs. don't pay the bills.

I did think the location was a good one; but to go back to my point, you can go in & get a coffee in Gold Rush Casino beside it, Supermacs, Cafe 500 & numerous other places within 3-4 mins.; the junction had high footfall with it being a school & college route, opp. the post office & Carlow Co. Dev. Partnership Ltd. having a premises there, a car park, Castlegate apartments etc. but clearly not enough of a footfall turned in often enough.

As it happens another business has shut its doors on Potato Mkt.; Go Zone another tech shop which, in turn, had replaced a similar business in same unit; can't remember name right now. Go Zone only lasted maybe 2-3, 3-4 months if even that?

Someday soon we'll have tech shops in Carlow selling coffee..................

Petrol station up by the credit union has closed and a tanning salon that only opened a month previously next to is has also closed. Rest of the shops in there are open.

E-Bike Pilot Scheme Launch tomorrow, Friday, in the Exchange on Potato Mkt. All're welcome to it at, from 11am

I do hope the Bolt pilot scheme is a success & that it operates like how Zeus do it with their e-Scooters in other markets though

Roll on Local Election 2024................

I wonder what’s going to happen it ??

… I’m afraid I’ve a fair idea

Anywhere in Carlow town or hinterlands that I can get a chainsaw sharpened?

Thanks 🙏

CARLOW RESTAURANT ORDERED TO PAY OVER €1,000 TO FORMER STAFF MEMBER

https://carlow-nationalist.ie/2023/09/25/carlow-restaurant-ordered-to-pay-over-former-staff/?fbclid=IwAR0LkMoGIa6E716VpsA1unMKZoKDk3jrAXIgKyTyabWI7SM0hJdjXXSjujM

Visual Carlow is set to make a profit this year.

That is great news to be honest no matter how small the profit is

I wonder is this the first time its turned a profit in its 14 years of being open.

They kind of did a trial run for this for 4th Year/TYP to 6th Year/Leaving Cert students back in Summer 2021 with a graduate of their Media & PR course; she's quite the influencer herself on the various platforms; would be curious to know if any participants on that short course, introduction, sign up to this one next September and how many who do take up the course last the pace.

Nationalist article re same https://carlow-nationalist.ie/2021/06/14/social-influencer-course-at-it-carlow/

We've plenty of influencers of varying degrees of success; financially via sponsorship, benefit in kind, kickbacks by local, regional & national businesses locally & beyond, Podcasters, vegetarians/vegans/healthy eaters, foodies, gym bunnies, vloggers, world travellers, as it is; a course like this allows for our Insta Huns/Influencers/Bebo Stunnahz/Social Media Gurus/Digital or Citizen Journalists etc. to get some real guidance from those who've been there in past 5 years since the industry has exploded and've made mistakes in our cancel culture which has stymied debate in such cases; ASAI occasionally, rarely indeed, rebuke such luvvies but aside from that there's the usual light touch regulation, few guidelines and basically anyone with a social media platform such as Tik-Tok, YouTube, Instagram & a phone can legitimately call themselves an influencer these days & so many want to; it's the Arthur Daly factor; get away with it for as long as you can & as much as you can get away with in a lot of cases.

Plenty of spoofers, shysters, cowboys like in any industry though; hopefully a course like this might sort the wheat from the chaff.

Remember when Penneys relocated to its Kennedy Ave. location Summer 2022; amount of such influencers who were on site by invite & otherwise was odious; Tik-Tok this, Instagram that, hashtag the other; everything it seems must be live-streamed & recorded; Homesavers in Penny Lane launch was similar; those two could easily feature as case studies; the Al Porter situation in terms of the PR disaster & relaunch is another one; we've seen many locally & nationally alone; they happen on a daily basis & the whole "viral" thing has lost all meaning now too.

Would imagine there'll be input from Terry Prone/Carr Communications/Anton Savage & MD Media & probably some talent agencies like NK Management or similar.

The 2 Johnnies, Happy Pear, Vogue & Joanne McNally, the Fleming Family in Tralee, Nathalie Lennon etc.'re all influencers & have come to the party from various backgrounds they're all examples of positive influencers who've monetized their influence to their benefit & collaborated with brands; it's arguable they've sold their soul in some cases but f it puts bread in the jar..........???

They've hordes following them; when you breach the ten, twenty thousand mark it's massive but having hundreds of thousands is the goal at national level before breaking the million & more mark internationally.

But fair play to those who'll design this course & deliver it; hope the likes of Lauren Whelan herself is involved & there are others locally & nationally who could deliver some modules & one off talks; we need guidance & not some idiot with a selfie-stick & who learned their editing skills from a 13 year old gamers YouTube tutorial on their Atari.

Not a course I'd be interested in but certainly the case studies that might feature, the salient tales, the PR disasters & advice/redemption stories would be fascinating to sit in at the back of a lecture hall on.