So who's for the chop then?

swingking

Golden discs has been around since I was a kid. It would be a really sad to see them go.

Does anyone know if they are an Irish born business or are they imported from overseas??

wyndham

wmpdd3 wrote: »

My favourite sandwich in there was €5.25 toasted, what sandwich cost €10?

In Waterford, O Briens was good value. The only place less expensive is Subway.

I said €10 sandwich and coffee.

It it offered good value, why did it close down?

wmpdd3

You know the answer, but never mind..........

Corruptedmorals

wyndham wrote: »

I said €10 sandwich and coffee.

It it offered good value, why did it close down?

Woolworths closed, they offered good value. It's not just that aspect really.

Dunnes Grafton Street closed down yesterday. Dunno if Georges Street did yet.

Ste.phen

swingking wrote: »

Golden discs has been around since I was a kid. It would be a really sad to see them go.

Does anyone know if they are an Irish born business or are they imported from overseas??

I think they're Irish; their head office is on Baggot St Lower as far as I know

Ste.phen

Corruptedmorals wrote: »

Dunnes Grafton Street closed down yesterday. Dunno if Georges Street did yet.

The homewares one did, don't think the grocery one did

wyndham

Corruptedmorals wrote: »

Woolworths closed, they offered good value. It's not just that aspect really.

Dunnes Grafton Street closed down yesterday. Dunno if Georges Street did yet.

Woolworths had been making a loss for years. It was recognised that, with it's high rent high street locations, it would never be able to compete on price with discounters such as lidl, aldi and primark. It offered nothing in terms of quality, originality or value.

Not really the same thing in any case. O'Briens are franchised and not centrally operated and are over-priced by anyones standard. Businesses that offer good value have never been busier. I can buy a decent sandwich/wrap/roll/whatever in Dunnes or Supervalu for €2.50-€3, with whatever I want on it, toasted for free-queues out the door at lunchtime. Centra on Dame Street, D2, are now offering a chicken fillet baguette for €2- queues out the door at lunchtime. Walking past different O'Briens these days at lunchtime, or anytime, there are no queues.

Obviously in the centre of Dublin, there is more competition than in regional towns/cities, but even if O'Briens was the only sandwich shop in a town, they are always competing with somebody bringing their own lunch from home. There are 6 O'Briens in Dublin 1. There are a dozen or thereabouts in Dublin 2/4. They could teach Starbucks a lesson about saturation.

The fundamental flaw with O'Briens is that they offer nothing unique. Franchisees are paying through the nose for initial set-up, licence fees, raw materials, etc for the right to make hang sandwiches ffs.
10 or 12 years ago, maybe they had something to offer, but no longer. Every 2 bit Spar, Centra and petrol station has a sandwich counter with a selection equal to or better than O'Briens.
They may argue they are paying for branding. The problem with this now is that their brand is sullied with a reputation for bad value.

Monkey61

Yep Golden Discs are Irish. Spent 7 years of my life with them. To say gutted, doesn't quite cover my feelings on it! It has been on the cards for years though, it was just a matter of when.

eth0_

swingking wrote: »

Golden discs has been around since I was a kid. It would be a really sad to see them go.

Really? I don't think i've bought anything from Golden Discs in about ten years - they were always over priced and had a really crap selection. Totally aimed at people with the most pedestrian, vanilla taste in music and movies possible.

wmpdd3

wyndham wrote: »

Woolworths had been making a loss for years. It was recognised that, with it's high rent high street locations, it would never be able to compete on price with discounters such as lidl, aldi and primark. It offered nothing in terms of quality, originality or value.

Not really the same thing in any case. O'Briens are franchised and not centrally operated and are over-priced by anyones standard. Businesses that offer good value have never been busier. I can buy a decent sandwich/wrap/roll/whatever in Dunnes or Supervalu for €2.50-€3, with whatever I want on it, toasted for free-queues out the door at lunchtime. Centra on Dame Street, D2, are now offering a chicken fillet baguette for €2- queues out the door at lunchtime. Walking past different O'Briens these days at lunchtime, or anytime, there are no queues.

Obviously in the centre of Dublin, there is more competition than in regional towns/cities, but even if O'Briens was the only sandwich shop in a town, they are always competing with somebody bringing their own lunch from home. There are 6 O'Briens in Dublin 1. There are a dozen or thereabouts in Dublin 2/4. They could teach Starbucks a lesson about saturation.

The fundamental flaw with O'Briens is that they offer nothing unique. Franchisees are paying through the nose for initial set-up, licence fees, raw materials, etc for the right to make hang sandwiches ffs.
10 or 12 years ago, maybe they had something to offer, but no longer. Every 2 bit Spar, Centra and petrol station has a sandwich counter with a selection equal to or better than O'Briens.
They may argue they are paying for branding. The problem with this now is that their brand is sullied with a reputation for bad value.

Thank you that's a great answer, I think you've hit the nail on the head. I always worked in Waterford city where I never had a canteen.

There is no Centra etc in the middle of town.

A cheap lunch is Mcdonalds and a dear one is pub grub.

I would have always sat in O'Brein's with my lunch, not really much choice.
In relation to the other options ie pubs, restaurants it as great value. I never paid more than €7.00 for my lunch (sandwich and coffee).

When I had to work in Dublin I always went to a spar etc. Much better.

Thankfully now where I work, I get a three course meal and coffee for €3 in our canteen!!

dudara

eth0_ wrote: »

Really? I don't think i've bought anything from Golden Discs in about ten years - they were always over priced and had a really crap selection. Totally aimed at people with the most pedestrian, vanilla taste in music and movies possible.

They always were a bit middle of the road, but I actually did buy some DVDs there recently as they did seem to be offering better value than before.

rco2000

Terrible news... Sasha chain has just gone into liquidation. Another 300 Irish jobs gone in the Irish retail sector.
They had a gr8 name - they will be missed.

Toto Wolfcastle

It's terrible for those who work in Sasha but I don't think the shops will be missed that much. They sold awful clothes of an awful quality. My mother has had a voucher for there for a good while and hasn't been able to spend it because they clothes are just not worth it.

Monkey61

eth0_ wrote: »

Really? I don't think i've bought anything from Golden Discs in about ten years - they were always over priced and had a really crap selection. Totally aimed at people with the most pedestrian, vanilla taste in music and movies possible.

Ah now that's hardly fair, they were constantly coming out top in the national price survey thing compared to the competitors. Also every week the chart prices would be checked against HMV and lowered accordingly just to make sure!

Middle of the road indeed, but that was the USP.

rco2000

janeybabe wrote: »

It's terrible for those who work in Sasha but I don't think the shops will be missed that much. They sold awful clothes of an awful quality. My mother has had a voucher for there for a good while and hasn't been able to spend it because they clothes are just not worth it.

I think that is unfair. My mother & 3 sisters swore by Sasha. They always got good quality clothing at fantastic prices from Sasha. And the Shoe Rack footwear range had always the latest fashion styles at gr8 prices.
Remember Sasha were never like the UK chains ripping off Paddy with 50%+ price increases for the same stock. (and still are ripping us off).
It's a shame to see what was an Irish success story go down in the current recession.

Corruptedmorals

Some of the biggest rip-off merchants copping on in the last week...Topshop and Oasis (not by enough). River Island DID go down in stages, now offering about 3/4 € over the actual exchange rate, which is fine considering VAT wages blah blah.

Click (knackery shop but it DID stock Lipsy long before Topshop and others did) has closed. The Sasha in Stephens Green looked rocky for ages, I'd agree, the clothes looked fine, my mam bought from there occassionally. Stephens Green will be decimated I think...so many tiny little stupid shops on the first and second floors. Alan the shoe shop and a chemist and a jewellery shop closed. Dunnes, Boots, TK Maxx, Game, Asha, card gallery and maybe Banana Tree will survive..the rest will either go or struggle. Paco looks like it's struggling already.

Actually the Sasha in Stephens Green shared premises with Quiz (very knackery) so surely that'll go too with a few job losses.

rco2000

Actually the Sasha in Stephens Green shared premises with Quiz (very knackery) so surely that'll go too with a few job losses.[/quote]


Had Sasha survived the Examiner procees, they had done a deal with Quiz to operate in a partnership in all of their "surviving stores" i.e. Sasha would rent space to Quiz as a concession. Sasha were lining up other concessions too & would have dropped Sasha branded stock from their stores.
Unfortunately they did not get that far.

rco2000

Golden Disks gone into Examinership................

http://www.rte.ie/business/2009/0223/goldendiscs.html

upnaas

Jim Langan Furniture gone, there will be nothin left in this country by the end of the year

me-skywalker

davton wrote: »

Deli staff in general. People will start getting back to making a sambo rather than the paini's etc

well give it a few months and it wont be foreign ppl making sandwhiches or in mcdonalds or 'lower' skilled jobs they will be full of irish ppl again. Ild rather make sandwhichs for money than sit on my ass and scrounge off the so called ppl who govern....


haha found this after being on a post about the dole

Cabaal

upnaas wrote: »

Jim Langan Furniture gone, there will be nothin left in this country by the end of the year

Course they will, only the strong survive

smelltheglove

There are some who are intent on sticking through the bad times. ONe person I know owns a huge Irish company and has insisted they have worked so hard for what they have they will bear with the times.

I work in a market where a lot of traders are finding themselves out of pocket but all are insistant that they will stick through it. I just think things are more frightening now as people have a lot more than they did in the last recession so there is more at stake.

Positive thinking peeps;)

sunnyside

Awear and Debenhams both look seriously short of customers these days. Both have sales constantly but the shops seem to have almost no customers anytime I've been in. In the last week since the budget things seem to be worse than ever for retail.

Haven't heard anything about shops closing down recently though.

darc

I can see very few additional retailer going under for the simple reason that lanlords have finally finally come to their senses and have dropped rents.


Simple fact is if they didn't they would see empty units the length & breath of the country. - Rent can represent up to 30% of a retails turnove, so falling rents can allow retails breath again and bring prices down.

An internal accountancy report has alos shown that the last 2 weeks have been hell for retailers and possibly the worst 2 week trading period for over 20 years!

sunnyside

darc wrote: »

I can see very few additional retailer going under for the simple reason that lanlords have finally finally come to their senses and have dropped rents.

Even on Grafton Street? Weren't the landlords there more reluctant than most to drop rents?

swingking

I hope we don't see anymore shops go under. The loss of shops equals the loss of more jobs and this is not good for our economy

wyndham

wyndham wrote: »

I said €10 sandwich and coffee.

It it offered good value, why did it close down?

10 euro for a sandwich and coffee? Are you serious?

darc

sunnyside wrote: »

Even on Grafton Street? Weren't the landlords there more reluctant than most to drop rents?

Absolutely on Grafton st, but you won't hear a lot about it. - I know one store (very small) that last year had a revised rent estimated at €155,000 to take effect from July this year and the agent was looking for €200,000 for the lease. The same unit is now available for approx. €80,000 rent, no sale fee & 3 months rent free.

Corruptedmorals

Paco Stephens Green and most The Bag Shops gone. The Chinese health shop on Grafton Street is gone. That's all I noticed in the last while..say there's loads on the brink though. M&S is always dead, Oasis and A-Wear and the like having constant sales. Arnotts and BT's actually as well.

My Dunnes is up on sales this time last year and has been hiring twice in the last 6 weeks..weird.

rco2000

sunnyside wrote: »

Awear and Debenhams both look seriously short of customers these days. Both have sales constantly but the shops seem to have almost no customers anytime I've been in.


A-Wear are doing fine considering the downturn etc. They are opening several new stores in 2009. Next one is Wexford town.

Gr8 to see an Irish clothing retailer riding the storm & not ripping us off like the UK clothing chains were/are.:)