Synotts Closing down now!!

decies

Its hardly a surprise but synotts music shop michael street are closing down think its the end of feburary.
Over 40 years in business, i suppose with illegal and legal downloading ,cdwow ,tesco etc they didn,t stand a chance its another bad day for waterford city centre shopping :(

AdMMM

The massive side effect of this is that Waterford City will be without a Ticketmaster outlet for a while!

kensutz

They got rid of the Ticketmaster machine last month so we have to make do with online/telephone bookings and it seems we won't have an outlet for quite a while.

mike65

Oh noes! haven't been near a record shoppe in 10 years at least.

I blame garage shops for stocking all those cheapskate "Orish c&w" tapes and CDs, the customers of those might have been Synotts last customers.

Mike.

kensutz

Well it's my sister out of a job at the end of next month.

merlante

decies wrote: »

Its hardly a surprise but synotts music shop michael street are closing down think its the end of feburary.
Over 40 years in business, i suppose with illegal and legal downloading ,cdwow ,tesco etc they didn,t stand a chance its another bad day for waterford city centre shopping :(

I'm not surprised. I've been in there a few times over the past few weeks and they've had hardly any stock in there at all. They looked like they were about to wind up in fairness.

It's nothing to do with illegal downloading or anything like that, it's to do with the fact that it wasn't a very good business. I was in HMV in Dublin after Christmas and people were falling over each other trying to get at the bargains. More to the point I was in Virgin in the McDonagh station centre in Kilkenny yesterday and the place was packed.

The bottom line is that Sinnotts had a crap offering and never moved with the times. Plus the place was tiny. When the choice is crap a whole market can become disenfranchised. Look at cinema in Waterford: it was dying on its feet while we had to rely on that joke of a cinema in Patrick st., but now that Storm has opened up and there is good quality competition, cinema is thriving. I was in Storm the other night and two screens were sold out while and the lobby was still crammed full of people queueing. If Patrick st. had of closed before Storm opened people would have said that there was no money to be made by a cinema in Waterford (despite the huge money being made in the other cities).

Hopefully a Virgin or a HMV will open soon and then we will see the truth of the matter.

mike65

kensutz wrote: »

Well it's my sister out of a job at the end of next month.

Feel bad now.

Mike.

Psychedelic

Merlante is right, Sinnotts wasn't good enough to survive, they have been getting worse and worse over the years.

While legal/illegal downloading and bigger better stores might have some effect, it's not completely responsible.

Look at BPM, about half the size of Sinnotts yet they have so much more to offer and I'm sure they are doing well.

Not The Real Scarecrow

shame to see all the old shops going.Was always more into kg discs cause I'm into metal but always like sinnots.Staff were always friendly and they did get in some unusual stuff from time to time.
Tis the beginning of the end.Getin old.

Cabaal

merlante wrote: »

It's nothing to do with illegal downloading or anything like that, it's to do with the fact that it wasn't a very good business. I was in HMV in Dublin after Christmas and people were falling over each other trying to get at the bargains. More to the point I was in Virgin in the McDonagh station centre in Kilkenny yesterday and the place was packed.

The bottom line is that Sinnotts had a crap offering and never moved with the times. Plus the place was tiny. When the choice is crap a whole market can become disenfranchised. Look at cinema in Waterford: it was dying on its feet while we had to rely on that joke of a cinema in Patrick st., but now that Storm has opened up and there is good quality competition, cinema is thriving.

I have to agree completely with this, illegal downloading had and tesco's had nothing to do with them closing down

BBM77

I agree with merlante, Sinnotts was crap never changed with the times. All they sold was the top 20. Let’s face it, the top 20 these days is not good enough to run a shop on.

decies

kensutz wrote: »

Well it's my sister out of a job at the end of next month.

Well i think thats the human side of this story and looking at the bigger picture ( not synotts are crap or i cant get my bon jovi tickets there!!!) the fact is the city centre retail is dying and that is going to have big consequences in the long run for many people from an employment point of view,something that we tend not to care about unless it affects us!!!
Thats modern ireland i guess:rolleyes:

Sully

decies wrote: »

Its hardly a surprise but synotts music shop michael street are closing down think its the end of feburary.
Over 40 years in business, i suppose with illegal and legal downloading ,cdwow ,tesco etc they didn,t stand a chance its another bad day for waterford city centre shopping :(

Synotts is ****e. Over Priced, and ****e Stock. I went in to get a box set around Christmas, and the price was crazy! Refused to buy it and left.

merlante wrote: »

I'm not surprised. I've been in there a few times over the past few weeks and they've had hardly any stock in there at all. They looked like they were about to wind up in fairness.

It's nothing to do with illegal downloading or anything like that, it's to do with the fact that it wasn't a very good business. I was in HMV in Dublin after Christmas and people were falling over each other trying to get at the bargains. More to the point I was in Virgin in the McDonagh station centre in Kilkenny yesterday and the place was packed.

The bottom line is that Sinnotts had a crap offering and never moved with the times. Plus the place was tiny. When the choice is crap a whole market can become disenfranchised. Look at cinema in Waterford: it was dying on its feet while we had to rely on that joke of a cinema in Patrick st., but now that Storm has opened up and there is good quality competition, cinema is thriving. I was in Storm the other night and two screens were sold out while and the lobby was still crammed full of people queueing. If Patrick st. had of closed before Storm opened people would have said that there was no money to be made by a cinema in Waterford (despite the huge money being made in the other cities).

Hopefully a Virgin or a HMV will open soon and then we will see the truth of the matter.

I agree with you 100%. Its no loss.

AdMMM

Illegal downloading would probably have affected Synotts less than it affects mainstream stores given that Synotts catered for the older customer.

Hopefully a more deserved store will go in it's place, although my money is on a quirky little boutique...

Daysha

Maybe MACE might buy it and try keep a shop going on that street longer than 1 month

Nolanger

Always preferred Cantwells.

RxQueen

deise59 wrote: »

Maybe MACE might buy it and try keep a shop going on that street longer than 1 month

hahaha great post!

altho the day that had its closing down sale or whatever they had, never seen as much students in my life hovering around it

Roen

Nolanger wrote: »

Always preferred Cantwells.

Couldn't beat it for their betamax selection of vids.

ec18

cantwells?

Freddie59

ec18 wrote: »

cantwells?

Was a TV/Radio/music shop located in Michael Street. I would like to take this opportunity , as a past and present customer of Noel Sinnott, to thank him and his family for their contribution to the music scene in Waterford for almost 50 years.

At a time when it was virtually impossible to order certain genres of music, Sinnott's would have it by mail order for you pronto.

I must say I am both appaled and disgusted at the comments of some of the contributors on this thread towards the closure of a Waterford landmark, and the loss of jobs. It is revolting. I hope it never comes knocking at the 'oirish':rolleyes: doors of those attempting to make light of a closure of a business.

Take a bow Noel & family. Thank you for your many years of loyal service to Waterford music fans, and I wish you and your family a long and happy retirement.

kensutz

+1 for Freddies comments.

merlante

Freddie59 wrote: »

Was a TV/Radio/music shop located in Michael Street. I would like to take this opportunity , as a past and present customer of Noel Sinnott, to thank him and his family for their contribution to the music scene in Waterford for almost 50 years.

At a time when it was virtually impossible to order certain genres of music, Sinnott's would have it by mail order for you pronto.

I must say I am both appaled and disgusted at the comments of some of the contributors on this thread towards the closure of a Waterford landmark, and the loss of jobs. It is revolting. I hope it never comes knocking at the 'oirish':rolleyes: doors of those attemting to make light of a closure of a business.

Take a bow Noel & family. Thank you for your many years of loyal service to Waterford music fans, and I wish you and your family a long and happy retirement.

I think most of the comments made were not personal but objective comments on the business itself. At least mine were. Obviously if the family were forced out of business unwillingly (as opposed to retiring from the scene gracefully) then there is a personal angle involved.

I don't really remember the hay day of Sinnotts. To me KG Discs and then BPM were the places that had the better stuff and ordered the harder to get stuff. They were my saviours, so any emotional attachment I have to the old music shops would go to them.

The thing is though, where do we go from here? The music shops in Waterford are almost non-existent, and Sinnotts certainly hasn't been much of an addition in recent times.

ec18

Same place I've been going for the last 12-18 months...CD-WOW or Play.com

Sully

Freddie59 wrote: »

I would like to take this opportunity , as a past and present customer of Noel Sinnott, to thank him and his family for their contribution to the music scene in Waterford for almost 50 years.

At a time when it was virtually impossible to order certain genres of music, Sinnott's would have it by mail order for you pronto.

I must say I am both appaled and disgusted at the comments of some of the contributors on this thread towards the closure of a Waterford landmark, and the loss of jobs. It is revolting. I hope it never comes knocking at the 'oirish':rolleyes: doors of those attemting to make light of a closure of a business.

Take a bow Noel & family. Thank you for your many years of loyal service to Waterford music fans, and I wish you and your family a long and happy retirement.

1) Selection was ****e. Golden Disks was better and Zhivago(sp?) had better selection.
2) Prices were expensive. Awful.
3) Staff were friendly. The 4 of them that is.*
4) Waterford Landmark. Sure is, id say that place rarely got a tidy up. It was a cold store. And old. At least they moved stores from there original location though.
5) Ticketmaster was a great service, I thank them for just that.
6) Phone / Mail Order - fair enough, they can get it for you. Your damn well gonna pay for it tho.

Sorry if we offended Freddie, but a lot of people agree the store isnt as good as your making out. Im sure it was a good service, and wasnt terrible but it was never *that* good.

Sully

merlante wrote: »

I think most of the comments made were not personal but objective comments on the business itself. At least mine were. Obviously if the family were forced out of business unwillingly (as opposed to retiring from the scene gracefully) then there is a personal angle involved.

I don't really remember the hay day of Sinnotts. To me KG Discs and then BPM were the places that had the better stuff and ordered the harder to get stuff. They were my saviours, so any emotional attachment I have to the old music shops would go to them.

The thing is though, where do we go from here? The music shops in Waterford are almost non-existent, and Sinnotts certainly hasn't been much of an addition in recent times.

Agreed.

Anyway, we still have Golden Discs and BPM. Plus, an hour up the road we have Virgin - and both them and HMV will deliver. Virigin have some fantasic deals online, and it doesnt take to long to get delivered either. Perhaps someday, they will grace us (HMV or Virgin) with there presence?

dannydiamond

i've lived in waterford for 3 years and after my second trip into synotts came to the conclusion that it's a poor excuse for a "record" shop,so no loss.
Anyone know if there are any plans for a HMV or the like?? This town badly needs one!

Cabaal

Virgin Megastore might not go a miss either, Kilkenny recently got one..surely Waterford can manage one?

mike65

Well all that new retail space on the ORR is going to have to contain something. You can't beat flicking through the racks of a well stocked record shop but as they no longer exist as such you might as well just go for choice and price and buy online.

Mike.

decies

Freddie59 wrote: »

Was a TV/Radio/music shop located in Michael Street. I would like to take this opportunity , as a past and present customer of Noel Sinnott, to thank him and his family for their contribution to the music scene in Waterford for almost 50 years.

At a time when it was virtually impossible to order certain genres of music, Sinnott's would have it by mail order for you pronto.

I must say I am both appaled and disgusted at the comments of some of the contributors on this thread towards the closure of a Waterford landmark, and the loss of jobs. It is revolting. I hope it never comes knocking at the 'oirish':rolleyes: doors of those attemting to make light of a closure of a business.

Take a bow Noel & family. Thank you for your many years of loyal service to Waterford music fans, and I wish you and your family a long and happy retirement.

Hear Hear but thats the so called celtic tiger attitude we have in this city.
I called in today to wish the manager well was shocked how much she said business had dropped and for the record downloading and supermarket competion were mentioned as reasons for huge sales decreases.

I believe your getting a shoe shop in there not going into any more detail.

Sully

decies wrote: »

Hear Hear but thats the so called celtic tiger attitude we have in this city.
I called in today to wish the manager well was shocked how much she said business had dropped and for the record downloading and supermarket competion were mentioned as reasons for huge sales decreases.

Interesting excuse. I wonder if they dropped the prices, made the shop nice and got decent stock would they still be in business?

Freddie59

Sully wrote: »

1) Selection was ****e. Golden Disks was better and Zhivago(sp?) had better selection.
2) Prices were expensive. Awful.
3) Staff were friendly. The 4 of them that is.*
4) Waterford Landmark. Sure is, id say that place rarely got a tidy up. It was a cold store. And old. At least they moved stores from there original location though.
5) Ticketmaster was a great service, I thank them for just that.
6) Phone / Mail Order - fair enough, they can get it for you. Your damn well gonna pay for it tho.

Sorry if we offended Freddie, but a lot of people agree the store isnt as good as your making out. Im sure it was a good service, and wasnt terrible but it was never *that* good.

Sully,

With all due respect you're talking through your ass. Noel Sinnott's shops were top of the tree in this City at one point, but, like all good things it has come to an end. And what difference if four - or four hundred jobs - are lost? It still badly affects those concerned. As I've said, I hope it never comes knocking at your door. Were it not for souls like Noel Sinnott, the likes of BPM, KG, etc all may never have existed.

While your observation on pricing etc is accurate enough, have you spared a thought as to WHY they may not have been able to sell at a lower price. But - and I'm not pointing the finger at just you here - it's typical of the petty begrudgery that's rampant in this City of ours, and which is reflected in the attitudes on this thread. Rather than just wish the man well in his retirement, the snide sniggering (by one poster:rolleyes:), and the verbal kicking delivered here are unbelievable.

For God's sake - spare a thought for people in these situations before shooting your mouths off. I am embarrassed by it.