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Is Ennis turning into a ghost town?

maiden

I posted previously about hearing about Kearneys closing down, and Ive heard since that these have gone too:

The Craftbox
Bambinos
Petit Pois
Frozen Francies
The Chocolat Shop

Its all such a shame, I love our town, what is to become of it!!!!!

All these poor people having to close their shops......

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Lady Chatterton

A few street entertainers and O'Connell Street could look like Shop Street in Galway

poppyvally

MrsD007 wrote: »

A few street entertainers and O'Connell Street could look like Shop Street in Galway

Absolutely agree. I just love my occasional visit to Galway city. There's a great atmosphere in Shop St.

CptSternn

They could pave the road after making it pedestrianised and it would look nice. I mean, have ye seen the Millennium Walkway in Dublin where they did that?

Right across from the Jervis centre and LUAS stop.

bannermaf

RATES. RATES. RATES.

The council is trying to kill local business, though God knows why.
In these very difficult times, they are the only entity unwilling to help and unwilling to negotiate.

I cannot for the life of me figure out why they are doing it.

dr.fuzzenstein

bannermaf wrote: »

RATES. RATES. RATES.

The council is trying to kill local business, though God knows why.
In these very difficult times, they are the only entity unwilling to help and unwilling to negotiate.

I cannot for the life of me figure out why they are doing it.

It's called Irish Economics.
If you are making less money, raise the price. If that doesn't work, you didn't jack it up enough. Once everything has collapsed, scratch your head and wonder aloud "I just don't understand what went wrong!"
And I'm not joking, the council's argument is that they need to take in x amount of rates, since they're taking in less, they can't lower rates.
I wouldn't have any confidence whatsoever in our glorious leaders that any more thought goes into it beyond that.
I only hope someone in Harvard let's them in on this new-fangled idea called "economics of scale", it's this radical idea that if you lower the price, you increase turnover and therefore income, but I'm sure it'll be laughed at by them as "voodoo economics" and they will throw in the aul' knee-slapper of "Ireland is different" (which it isn't, this is just a lazy, old excuse meaning that we don't want change and rather do things the way we always have, the fact that it doesn't work is irrelevant, because it's just so comfy and lazy to do it this way)

CptSternn

This is the same council currently paying over €70,000 to maintain to automatic toilets in town. I don't think economics is in their vocabulary, much less learned curriculum. But hey! The council are sending the top financial guy in Clare to Harvard this summer for a class on running a government at a cost of the tens of thousands of euro, so maybe we the good people will be happily surprised when he returns with what must be all the answers considering it is costing us more than an eight year degree he could have gotten here in Ireland for the same price.

Then again I'm not holding my breath.

dr.fuzzenstein

CptSternn wrote: »

This is the same council currently paying over €70,000 to maintain to automatic toilets in town. I don't think economics is in their vocabulary, much less learned curriculum. But hey! The council are sending the top financial guy in Clare to Harvard this summer for a class on running a government at a cost of the tens of thousands of euro, so maybe we the good people will be happily surprised when he returns with what must be all the answers considering it is costing us more than an eight year degree he could have gotten here in Ireland for the same price.

Then again I'm not holding my breath.

They'll have to raise rates to pay for those Harvard courses.

CptSternn

As we were walking through Dublin around Grafton Street I thought of how great it would be to have something like this here in Ennis...

Pedestrianised areas that are also covered allowing year-round enjoyment and outside dining.

dr.fuzzenstein

I suggest guerrilla action.
One night, when it's quiet, we all meet in town with some digging equipment, some very heavy-duty steel concrete barriers and steel poles and get digging at the bottom of Abbey street, O'Connel street and all access points to the square.
Surely it will take the council several days to remove barriers that weigh several tons, anchored six feet into the ground with steel poles.
Maybe after having this experiment in pedestrianization forced upon them for several day, the traders will change their minds and finally see it as the good thing it could be.
The traders have made it clear that they will refuse pedestrianization against all common sense, so there's no maybe about it, they will have to be forced into it against their will and if they don't like it, they can open a shop in the median strip of the Ennis bypass if they think it's so great.

CptSternn

I have a friend that lives in Northern Canada. It gets so cold there in the winter sometimes they cannot leave the house for days. Even on good days it is still well below zero. Many years ago down the main street they dug tunnels and put entrances to all of their shops in the tunnels. In the winter these days they can come and go throughout the main street without having to be subjected to the cold.

Maybe we could start a similar trend here by building more covered outdoor walkways that would allow use even during the wet months.

BeeDI

I have never seen a ghost in Ennis. Why all the fuss:cool:

Balagan

BeeDI wrote: »

I have never seen a ghost in Ennis. Why all the fuss:cool:

Have seen a few around The Diamond Bar!

dr.fuzzenstein

CptSternn wrote: »

I have a friend that lives in Northern Canada. It gets so cold there in the winter sometimes they cannot leave the house for days. Even on good days it is still well below zero. Many years ago down the main street they dug tunnels and put entrances to all of their shops in the tunnels. In the winter these days they can come and go throughout the main street without having to be subjected to the cold.

Maybe we could start a similar trend here by building more covered outdoor walkways that would allow use even during the wet months.

Like January to December?:p

poppyvally

James fish 'n chip in Carmody St... Gone!. Pity, I loved his homemade fish batter

dr.fuzzenstein

poppyvally wrote: »

James fish 'n chip in Carmody St... Gone!. Pity, I loved his homemade fish batter

Only decent Fish and Chips in Ennis, the rest is a lot like Donegal Catch.
Goes to prove again, anything genuinely new, different, cheaper or better than anyone else doesn't stand a chance in Ennis.
If you want to survive you have to open a shop that offers the same as anyone else at exactly the same prices, try something new and people are scared.

Mikefitzs

I never thought it was a good chipper, I bought there twice and never returned. That said I really hate to see any business that's made the decision to open close down so soon.
They should have got it right at the start and they would have built up a steady customer base.

dr.fuzzenstein

Mikefitzs wrote: »

I never thought it was a good chipper, I bought there twice and never returned. That said I really hate to see any business that's made the decision to open close down so soon.
They should have got it right at the start and they would have built up a steady customer base.

A few people have said this to me, I just don't understand it! I saw nothing wrong with their fish.
Enzo's Abbey Street and Friar Tucks (as far as fish and chips are concerned) only went as far as frying a bag of frozen chips and some Donegal catch.
Enzo's in Parnell Street have nice chips, but I wouldn't buy fish there and Hillbillies don't do fish AFAIK.
There's still Supermacs, but they're not really known for their fish.
I liked their fish, it was by far the best fish and chips available in Ennis.
It only proves my theory that if you do anything nicer, better, bigger, cheaper in Ennis people will be suspicious, won't trust it and just think "what's wrong with it" and therefore the shop won't survive.
If you wanted nicer fish, you'd have to drive to Gort and go to the Kettle of Fish.

But maybe quality has nothing to do with it, if you want to survive you have to offer grease for drunks at 3am.

Hawk Wing 2

poppyvally wrote: »

James fish 'n chip in Carmody St... Gone!. Pity, I loved his homemade fish batter

no! the only place for proper fish and chips in town

Carazy

Have to go to Gort (Kettle of Fish) or Donkey Fordes now for a bit of fish and chip.

.
I always felt at James' you got a good feed for a good price.

Akrasia

Carazy wrote: »

Have to go to Gort (Kettle of Fish) or Donkey Fordes now for a bit of fish and chip. .
I always felt at James' you got a good feed for a good price.

I liked that place, but they were a little bit inconsistent. I think it depended on which staff were working at the time, if you went in and the owner was there you'd get top notch food, but I don;t think the staff were trained very well and a few times the chips were either raw or burnt and the fish wasn't right either

Shapey Fiend

I used get food there occasionally and found it decent but not spectacular. Admittedly I didn't try the fish.

The fish and chips place I really miss is the one used be where Eddie Rockets is now. On the Dock? THAT was spectacular. Loads of different types of batter. Amazing burgers. They did meat and two veg takeaway dinners as well. Only discovered the place a few weeks before it shut down and I was absolutely gutted.

There was a spectacular take away in Dublin called Byrnes Burgers that shut down a month ago. I really miss it as well. They cut the chips and ground the beef for the burgers on site. 10 times better than the Gourmet Burger type chains you see everywhere.

Clareman

The Long Dock was the name of the place, long time since it was that, it was The Lemongrass after that and was empty for a while as well.

JustLen

It was still gorgeous tho!

Clareman

Agreed, I was back in their parent restaurant in Carrigaholt last week, I'd recommend it to anyone

poppyvally

Can anyone enlighten me as to what type of business is going in where the NIB and before that Griffins used to be up across from O'Connell mnt?That place sure could do with a face-lift. The only bit of colour on that corner is the Euro store!

Balagan

poppyvally wrote: »

Can anyone enlighten me as to what type of business is going in where the NIB and before that Griffins used to be up across from O'Connell mnt?That place sure could do with a face-lift. The only bit of colour on that corner is the Euro store!

I think it's supposed to be a hearing-aid place.

maiden

Yeah I heard Hidden Hearing and on a more positive note, kearneys is reopening, also new cafe where Anthony Dalys was, a new hairdressers opened where Tom Mannion travel were before

poppyvally

Anyone know what's going in where Dan Baker used to have the little shop in Barrack St.?

Balagan

poppyvally wrote: »

Anyone know what's going in where Dan Baker used to have the little shop in Barrack St.?

I heard it will be a café, though there are so many now it's hard to believe, so could easily be wrong.

buck65

Balagan wrote: »

I think it's supposed to be a hearing-aid place.

What?