Hows Your Main Street Looking?

Keano · 10-02-2010 01:04PM

Well I live in a small town and only a few shops (sports, jewellers) have gone. It still has 7 pubs, 2 takeaways, an Indian, Chinese and Thai restaurant. Really surprised how they all keep going.

Dudess · 10-02-2010 01:08PM

Patrick Street in Cork is absolutely buzzing - looks really good and a bunch of new shops have been built. Not much evidence of the recession, weirdly enough.

My name is URL · 10-02-2010 01:11PM

There's no shops closed in my village, but there's a castle for sale for €2,750,000 and it's been on the market for a year now.. don't know why it hasn't sold.. seems like a bargain

http://www.myhome.ie/residential/brochure/bellingham-castle-castlebellingham-co-louth/103005

It was worth 7 million a few years ago, and the owners decided to hold out for more.. I bet they're sick now

SeaFields · 10-02-2010 01:14PM

Dudess wrote: »

Patrick Street in Cork is absolutely buzzing - looks really good and a bunch of new shops have been built. Not much evidence of the recession, weirdly enough.

One of those new big shops has let 35 people go since Christmas. I wont say which one but I know a manager and a few staff working there. Its a pity it didn't make the news because they opened it with such glamour and glitz saying how good it was for the people of Cork and how many jobs they were creating.

MaybeLogic · 10-02-2010 01:16PM

My name is URL wrote: »

There's no shops closed in my village, but there's a castle for sale for €2,750,000 and it's been on the market for a year now.. don't know why it hasn't sold.. seems like a bargain

http://www.myhome.ie/residential/brochure/bellingham-castle-castlebellingham-co-louth/103005

It was worth 7 million a few years ago, and the owners decided to hold out for more.. I bet they're sick now

Bellingham Castle.
My family used to live there when we lorded it over Louth, till we sided with King James against Billy and then the feckers kicked us out until we dwindled in stature, ending up 300 years later on a council estate.
As soon as I get a few quid together, I'm gonna raise an army, storm the place and reclaim my rightful heritage.
On topic; There's a few places boarded in Amsterdam but nothing like I see when I'm back in Dublin City Centre. And then not in the centre, you have to go outwards a bit to find any evidence of a recession.

Joey the lips · 10-02-2010 01:21PM

My local town is also drogheda. I live in Duleek. That never kicked off. There is empty units here since they were built years ago.

Dudess · 10-02-2010 01:21PM

SeaFields wrote: »

One of those new big shops has let 35 people go since Christmas.

Not surprised. I'm just struck though by how booming everything seems to be, even though it's obviously not. A Friday evening/Saturday afternoon in Cork is fairly chaotic.

Smcgie · 10-02-2010 01:22PM

Mine is full of potholes that's all

ToxicPaddy · 10-02-2010 01:27PM

My name is URL wrote: »

... there's a castle for sale for €2,750,000 and it's been on the market for a year now.. don't know why it hasn't sold.. seems like a bargain

Might be a bargin buying it, but imagine trying to maintain it????

The heating bill alone would bankrupt you.. as for furnishing it??? :eek:

Buying a place like that is the cheapest part if owning it..

Its not on enough land to attract someone to buy and build a hotel/golf club so its down to the private buyer who will try and make a business out of it.

I know of a couple who bought a large manor house in the Midlands with the intention of renovating it.. after 10 long years and hundreds of thousands spent on it, the place still looked a tip.. so they gave up.. cut their losses and ran..

If ya wanted to make a sequel to the film "Moneypit", there is your opportunity..

As nice as it is, I can see it sitting on the market for a long time to come.

Tox

BluesBerry · 10-02-2010 01:29PM

Its sad to see all those shops closing

In my main street several shops have closed A walkaround shop that had just opened 8 months ago , a shoe shop, An antique shop that sold very unusual things

, a hairdresser, the only hotel, a birthday shop the travel shop a lot are laying empty and there is signs of more closing

Other shops have closed only to be reopened as ethnic shops selling asian/polish/african foods that the locals wouldn't shop in

The government say this recession will end soon......Pfft all these little shops that employed a couple of people that had been there for years are out of jobs it is happening everywhere but no one hears of it because its not a huge company its going to take a long long time to recover

reprazant · 10-02-2010 01:31PM

SeaFields wrote: »

The guy that owns Corky's shoe shops was on Matt Cooper last week. I don't want to venture a guess now as I may misquote him but it was jaw-dropping when he said how much he has to pay in rent every week for his stores.

Developers win once again :mad:

What have developers got to do with this?

Its the landlords who are charging the rent.

Also, nobody made him sign the leases other them himself. He has been trying to get somebody to take over the lease of his shop on Grafton St for years now (even going as far as to offer to pay 30% of the rent or something similar) but nobody will take it off him. Why? Because it is stupidly high rent. His own fault for agreeing to it.

SeaFields · 10-02-2010 01:31PM

Dudess wrote: »

Not surprised. I'm just struck though by how booming everything seems to be, even though it's obviously not. A Friday evening/Saturday afternoon in Cork is fairly chaotic.

Plenty of people in town - just not spending money. At least not as much as they used to. In the shop where I work people mention to me often "is it really this quiet all the time" - even at times when you would expect it to be busy

I suppose some chains expanded based on the celtic tiger level of spending and now that there has been a massive correction they are stumped.

I've made this point before in a thread but in many cases managers, and senior managers, in those businesses have never known anything but growth. They are now finding it difficult to adapt to the correction in the market and their lack of experience is showing.

SeaFields · 10-02-2010 01:38PM

reprazant wrote: »

What have developers got to do with this?

Its the landlords who are charging the rent.

Also, nobody made him sign the leases other them himself. He has been trying to get somebody to take over the lease of his shop on Grafton St for years now (even going as far as to offer to pay 30% of the rent or something similar) but nobody will take it off him. Why? Because it is stupidly high rent. His own fault for agreeing to it.

Apologies I got mixed up between two points I was making there. The centre where I work is owned by one of the biggest developers in the country. That is the one where I said has now less than 30% occupancy. Rent is driving the smaller businesses out of there and is costing ordinary people their jobs.

As for signing leases I refer to my previous post where some managers/ businesses knew nothing but growth in the previous years and made very poor business decisions as a result.

ScumLord · 10-02-2010 01:38PM

Nothings closed in my town other than a pub but that was because it was running without a license, been told our nightclub is shutting down. It's been on the go for 30 years or so and good riddens to the dump it's nothing but a buffer trap, the only reason people go into it is because it's the only place serving drink so they fleeced you €10 to get in to pay for over priced watered down drink. This great cull will get rid of epicenters of greed like that shytehole.

Biggins · 10-02-2010 01:42PM

Well apparently...

drogsnookerclub wrote: »

...they are putting art displays in all the empty shops on West Street (Drogheda), RTE are coming down to video it as well

I suppose that one use for what will be 24+ empty windows on a main st
(they are also coming down to record my wife and group pole dancing for "Operation Transformation" on a Wed' night soon - but who wants to see that!

)

mikom · 10-02-2010 01:44PM

Dudess wrote: »

Patrick Street in Cork is absolutely buzzing - looks really good and a bunch of new shops have been built. Not much evidence of the recession, weirdly enough.

And lo it will come to pass, in the time known as the great recession a new capital shall arise to cast aside all false capitals before it.

Cuddlesworth · 10-02-2010 01:54PM

Biggins wrote: »

(they are also coming down to record my wife and group pole dancing for "Operation Transformation" on a Wed' night soon - but who wants to see that! )

What time, I think I can schedule it in...

rainbowtrout · 10-02-2010 02:01PM

I live in Boyle. About 80 businesses/offices/shops/pubs etc currently open. 40 empty/derelict business premises. 1000 signing on at the dole office and the population is only 2500. Not to mind plenty of ghost estates. Main St is dead.

4zn76tysfajdxp · 10-02-2010 02:01PM

Magnus wrote: »

Shop street is still good but starting to look more English every year.
Unfortunately it's just more convenient to drive to a shopping centre than to walk around town to do the shopping.

Which town?

ejmaztec · 10-02-2010 02:03PM

My name is URL wrote: »

There's no shops closed in my village, but there's a castle for sale for €2,750,000 and it's been on the market for a year now.. don't know why it hasn't sold.. seems like a bargain

http://www.myhome.ie/residential/brochure/bellingham-castle-castlebellingham-co-louth/103005

It was worth 7 million a few years ago, and the owners decided to hold out for more.. I bet they're sick now

You should offer them a few quid and you could then be Earl Url.

Biggins · 10-02-2010 02:11PM

rainbowtrout wrote: »

I live in Boyle. About 80 businesses/offices/shops/pubs etc currently open. 40 empty/derelict business premises. 1000 signing on at the dole office and the population is only 2500. Not to mind plenty of ghost estates. Main St is dead.

Wow, thats really bad!

bonzodog2 · 10-02-2010 02:15PM

Biggins wrote: »

Well apparently...

I suppose that one use for what will be 24+ empty windows on a main st
(they are also coming down to record my wife and group pole dancing for "Operation Transformation" on a Wed' night soon - but who wants to see that! )

Synchronized formation underwater pole dancing I hope ?

rainbowtrout · 10-02-2010 02:15PM

Biggins wrote: »

Wow, thats really bad!

Yep, one of the biggest employers Green Isle had a fish factory here but it closed down 2 years ago leaving about 80 out of work, that's a huge number for a town of this size. There is no industry here whatsoever. Every week another business seems to close. I work in the local secondary school and we have about 40 staff (teaching and admin) and we're probably one of the biggest employers. That and the local SuperValu.

stovelid · 10-02-2010 02:15PM

Emiliano Salty Bugle wrote: »

Which town?

The one that's the hub of a variable number of concentric suburbs?

ScumLord · 10-02-2010 02:38PM

rainbowtrout wrote: »

Yep, one of the biggest employers Green Isle had a fish factory here but it closed down 2 years ago leaving about 80 out of work, that's a huge number for a town of this size. There is no industry here whatsoever. Every week another business seems to close. I work in the local secondary school and we have about 40 staff (teaching and admin) and we're probably one of the biggest employers. That and the local SuperValu.

Whats happening to fishing in Europe is really annoying me lately. The European Union has been a terrible thing for fishing not only in Ireland but throughout the world. It's staggering how badly the EU is failing us when it comes to fish stocks. They took fishing out of the hands of small sustainable fishermen and handed it to large fishing corps that over fish and will have wiped out fish internationally before the end of the century probably within 40 years. The EU will be responsible for destroying fish stocks throughout Europe.

ejmaztec · 10-02-2010 02:41PM

A few miles down the road in Listowel it's the same story, except I think they're only down to about 30 pubs, and more than the required number of betting shops. It was ironic that when the ACC bank closed some time ago, Bruce Betting moved in. Some might say that it was a betting shop when the bank was there.

I think that there are over 3000 signing on in the town, a bundle of empty shops, and a vast display of for sale and to let signs all over the place.

The council could change the pay-parking rules to persuade people to spend some money in the town, which is what a lot of traders have asked for, but the council reckons they can't afford to (which is probably bollocks).

chopperbyrne · 10-02-2010 03:03PM

On the bus going through Newry the other day and heard the comment "This place makes Dublin look like Dubai."

Don't think I've ever seen so many closed down shops since the old Tallaght Shopping Centre after the Square opened.

Corruptedmorals · 10-02-2010 04:25PM

There's a Polish shop that keeps shutting down and reopening...think an estate agents might be gone, a pub went but is up and running with new ownership..and the travel agents is gone. Much better than the shopping centre I work in, only the anchors are safe..there's only half occupancy on the ground floor alone.

vangoz · 10-02-2010 05:23PM

Ours is still all cracked and broken, we had a town meeting to discuss what to do but ended up building a Monorail instead.

Mono=One
Rail=Rail

cantankerous · 10-02-2010 05:27PM

My main street has been suffering since one of those "head shops" opened up. Just yesterday I saw a young woman walking into one of them:eek:!!!

Hows Your Main Street Looking?

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