Atlantic Closing??

opelmanta

Heard a rumour that Atlantic Homecare at Childers Road Retail Park is to close. has anyone else heard this rumour. They are part of a huge chain(Grafton PLC who also own Woodies and Chadwicks to name but a few). I mean if a shop like that cant survive in one of the busiest retail parks in the country what hope is there for anyone else???

Mc Love

Look where it is...stuck in Childers road, probably not enough people can get access to it

ninty9er

opelmanta wrote: »

Heard a rumour that Atlantic Homecare at Childers Road Retail Park is to close. has anyone else heard this rumour. They are part of a huge chain(Grafton PLC who also own Woodies and Chadwicks to name but a few). I mean if a shop like that cant survive in one of the busiest retail parks in the country what hope is there for anyone else???

I laughed, oh how I laughed.

Staff at Woodies are expecting peeled back hours after Christmas, I would assume the same is true of Atlantic.

acalmenvoy

sparkysrovers wrote: »

Look where it is...stuck in Childers road, probably not enough people can get access to it

+1

Its a joke...:mad:

Berty

when it first opened it was a flagship store. I was in it yesterday looking for a post box(expensive BTW) and it was a **** hole. Pallets dumped around the place creating many cul de sacs. Very annoying. My neighbour works there, maybe I will ask her when she is sober.

zuroph

poorly run and with an awful amount of chinese crap quality items. the regular stuff they stock is more expensive than local stores (same with homebase). Anyone looking for a bargain will rarely find it there. Woodies are quite similar but will hold out a bit longer due to management efforts. all problems lie with staff turnover. the staff dont know the products so cant sell them effectively, and the head guys are pricing themselves out of the market on stuff. I work for one of their suppliers.

angeldaisy

Atlantic in Dublin is definately closing down, was in there last week - what a dump - full of crap. 50-70% off everything + still expensive

opelmanta

zuroph wrote: »

poorly run and with an awful amount of chinese crap quality items. the regular stuff they stock is more expensive than local stores (same with homebase). Anyone looking for a bargain will rarely find it there. Woodies are quite similar but will hold out a bit longer due to management efforts. all problems lie with staff turnover. the staff dont know the products so cant sell them effectively, and the head guys are pricing themselves out of the market on stuff. I work for one of their suppliers.

I dont know about management efforts in Woodies. its very badly run. management couldnt organise a p*ss up in a brewery. one major cutback woodies did is make all their deputy managers redundant

acalmenvoy

These fuc*ers are realising that the Irish are not a soft touch anymore, we've become more cost consious, the day of screwing the 'paddy' is coming to an end, I'm heading to Enniskillen tomorrow (6am) with 2 grand in my pocket.

Just have a look at these two links I found in the bargain thread, unbelieveable...

http://www.argos.co.uk/static/Product/partNumber/4230027/Trail/searchtext%3ETASSIMO.htm

http://www.argos.ie/static/Product/partNumber/4230027/Trail/searchtext%3ETASSIMO.htm

bazz26

No surprised really if they close given that in the last couple of years that side of the city has been saturated with these DIY chain stores and retail parks. They will go as quickly as they came now that people are not spending as much as they used to.

anoble66

There's also store managers coming down from the Northern chains of Homebase to try and sort out the stores in trouble down here. I think come the new year you will see a lot of the UK chains start to go from Ireland as they try and stay afloat in the UK.

I went into the north last weekend, for 50e we got 2 crates of beer, 6 bottles of good wine and a few other bits that i cant remember. Priced up the wine down here and that alone came to well over 50euro. I bought a 37" Philips LCD TV 2 weeks ago, ordered it in from Pixmania.......lower spec Philips TV in Harvey Norm was going to cost over 1000 euro without stand. I got a much better TV for 932e delivered from France with the stand.

Mc Love

Yep Pixmania is so good for deals!

anoble66

Its great isnt it. I know some people have received faulty goods from them and had hassle with returns etc but I have never had any issues.

Another example, I am looking into buying a Onyko SR606 AV receiver for surround sound......650e here, 349stg delivered from Richersounds in Belfast....the prices we are paying here are beyond a joke and i have no sympathy for the shops here that are going to go under for over-pricing goods.

Mc Love

anoble66 wrote: »

Its great isnt it. I know some people have received faulty goods from them and had hassle with returns etc but I have never had any issues

Well having worked for a company that sold products on pixmania, i was wary at first from buying with them. because there was a lot of complaints.

But ordered twice from them and they were great

Berty

Staying on topic:

Atlantic homecare amongst all its other rivals will now notice by the lack of new homes being built there will be less and less footfall in the door.

I spoke to the Currys manager recently and asked him about the massive margins they make. He said that their margins are extremely tight even though they buy and sell in bulk.

Its down to the duty paid by us in this country.

Its the same for wine which is €4.78 before you even try and sell it. So a retailer will sell blossom hill for around €7.50 but the first €4.78 went to the government. Using the conversion rate the import duty for wine in the North is €1.86 so thats why its instantly cheaper.

spadder

back on topic, As someone mentioned, Grafton group own Woodies and recently aquired Atlantic, it makes no sense to have similar shops in the same area in these times. I like woodies, where I live (meath) the woodies in navan is very good, as a gardening novice I found the garden staff helpful. As a diy store they have a good range, if you want building materials or industrial tools,then go to a providers, if you want a few bits and bobs on the weekend for DIY it's fine. There own brand stuff is alot better than B&Q.

Berty

I went into Wickes in Limerick yesterday. Its not a great store for a DIY person even though the sign advertises it as such. They are not very good for the trade from what I could see. Its all spread out and not very big.

I cannot see them competing with any of the established places.

Declan30

Havent gone in wickes yet.Going to get a voucher for my Dad a present might change now.

Ever tried to get help in Atlantic in buying something.All i ever get is this is not my area.I cannot help you.
Then try and find someone they all disapear.

Woddies is Good but getting there with traffic on that side of the city is a nightmare

zuroph

opelmanta wrote: »

I dont know about management efforts in Woodies. its very badly run. management couldnt organise a p*ss up in a brewery. one major cutback woodies did is make all their deputy managers redundant

sorry, i didnt word well, i meant senior head office management efforts to concentrate on woodies more.

opelmanta

zuroph wrote: »

sorry, i didnt word well, i meant senior head office management efforts to concentrate on woodies more.

quote taken and appreciated... seriously though woodies is a good shop. poorly merchandised though.. i go there a lot and the staff are quite helpful...if you need help there you should ask for pat mac or danny...always knew their stuff

Berty

One of the things about those retailers is that the suppliers generally do their own merchandising so the staff have a lazy attitude to certain sections.

"oh your man will be in Tuesday, leave that pallett alone".

I used to do van sales into Atlantic and Woodies and had to follow in after the truck had delivered the stock and merchandise the shelves. I would only go in once a week and I guarantee the staff would have touched nothing. Lazy sods.

Dunnes are the same with merchandisers but they now people dedicated to each aisle so they will do most of it for you so you just swan in and pick up the loose bits they forget or implement a new planogram.

Merchandising for Woodies and alike saves them money on staff.

However, savings alone wont save them from the global housing recession. No houses = no people needing their services.

I see a lot of empty retail parks soon.

Check out Coonagh cross. Big buildings with nothing going into them.

zuroph

same as above, we've even offered huge merchandising just to try help them sell our products since staff training just doesnt happen. but it wont happen. lack of commission on bigger items means the sales staff arent pushed if u take it or not, and the bigger stuff requires more work from them, so they avoid it like the plague.