O'Brien's closed!

deise-lady

Went to get my morning coffee at O'Brien's in City Square this morning and it's closed.

just a handwritten note in the window saying thanks to all their customers.

I did think they were a tad expensive (3.05 for a regular latte), but the coffee was good.

Sully

Was there only store i ever used in town, the other one is tiny! But ya, very pricey!

ziedth

I'm not surprised TBH,

They are very expensive given the quality of food they put out. I'd much prefer Brunch up there or Even the Muffin place at the other enterance (The name Escapes me)

Sully

ziedth wrote: »

Even the Muffin place at the other enterance (The name Escapes me)

BBs.

iseegirls

Are both their stores closed, or is the one outside George's Court still open?

Gadgie

Both stores are closed.

Multivan

I was there once, i thought id try it and i was overcharged, they got our order wrong they didnt put my side of coleslaw on the plate and when i asked them they said oh we dont have any.

They were pretty poor in my experience, didnt do the job properly at all.

when you see how much its costs for a good coffee in France by people who are trained properly you think man i cant believe this. its only coffee and water like

Cabaal

Only ever went into either store once, overpriced

merlante

I was going to start a thread on this myself. It's a shocking turn of events.

Yes it was expensive, but in my experience it was one of the most popular businesses in town. The one in city square was a pretty poor O'Briens, but the one on JR square was fine. This is a chain that does great business nationwide, and could possible be the first to have closed down -- I've certainly never heard of one close.

BB's and Bagel Factory are two other chains that remain very popular. I was in the Bagel Factory yesterday at lunchtime and the place was packed, so I find it hard to believe the business had gone backwards far enough to have to close the place down.

I would be curious to know what the reason was for closing. I doubt it has much to do with the recession or doing poor business to be honest -- even though that's what will be claimed. Maybe they just have another (better?) business in mind.

Some closures are obviously as a result of the recession: Just4men in George's st., Uniglobal in George's court and today I hear that Gizelles on Michael st. are 'retiring from business'. Bleak times ahead for small businesses. I can't help but think that the city centre would be stronger if the big Next from Ardkeen and the TKMax from Butlerstown (which do great business) were in the city centre.

ec18

i'll miss gizelles

ziedth

Sully wrote: »

BBs.

That's the one,

I really like it in there. The upstairs part is always quiet and they have like comfy sofa's. Perfect for when i'm failing at my crossword.

ex_infantry man

I can't help but think that the city centre would be stronger if the big Next from Ardkeen and the TKMax from Butlerstown (which do great business) were in the city centre.


it would,nt make a difference the only reason why these places attract the business is solely becaause there out of the city centre and the parking is free!!!

baronflyguy

I would guess that Gizelles on Michael St are closing and retiring because all that area is due to development to build the big new super duper shopping centre. I would expect to see that side of the street getting emptier and emptier as time goes by before development starts. I'm sure the owners of Gizelles are getting good money if they owned the property they are in and maybe now it not the time to relocate same shop name elsewhere. But you never know they may reopen under a different name or start something totally different.

In my opinion, the problem with the city centre is that it is too expensive for small businesses to trade there, rent consumes too much overhead and having a business there doesn't make much profit. I would guess that O'Briens wasnt making as much profit as people perceived to be. Also if O'Brien name is a franchise and the owner who ran the waterford city operations would have to pay O'Briens regular money to be part of the franchise. On top of that rental for prime locations in the city centre would be a big money drain also which would eat away at profit. So no matter how many customers you have in and how busy it LOOKs, sometimes that isnt enough to keep a ship a float.

By the way I am more of a Foodstore fan along Michael St than O'Briens when it comes to Sandbos. I found O'Briens too expensive.

merlante

ex_infantry man wrote: »

I can't help but think that the city centre would be stronger if the big Next from Ardkeen and the TKMax from Butlerstown (which do great business) were in the city centre.


it would,nt make a difference the only reason why these places attract the business is solely becaause there out of the city centre and the parking is free!!!

Yeah, but if they weren't on the outskirts then people would have no choice but to go into the city centre to buy clothes! Now admittedly there's not space in the city centre at the moment for them, but hopefully with the Newgate centre there will be soon.

We have a choice between crap city centre shopping and crap out of town shopping or good city centre shopping. Waterford is too small for out of town shopping.

AdMMM

Looks like the Coffee Culture in Ireland is starting to suffer. I think for far too long, people have been all too willing to pay over the top amounts for coffee. The days of people spending €10 on a cappuccino and sandwich are fast coming to an end.

deise-lady

AdMMM wrote: »

Looks like the Coffee Culture in Ireland is starting to suffer. I think for far too long, people have been all too willing to pay over the top amounts for coffee. The days of people spending €10 on a cappuccino and sandwich are fast coming to an end.

I agree. I also think the days of us accepting dual pricing has come to an end.
I was in W

---

clothes shop in City Square yesterday. There's a top priced 37 euro / 20 sterling! I just laughed and walked out of the shop. do they think we are complete idiots?!

Apparently a woman in Dublin had a similar experience, went to the nearest bank, took out the sterling and insisted the clothes shop accept payment, as it was dual priced. They refused and she has taken them to court - it's a test case.

trishw78

One of the shops in CS has removed all the sterling prices.

Gadgie

I was in Shaws a couple of days ago, and I see that Adams Kids has a £1 = €1 offer on where you pay the sterling price.

DanGlee

Would the city get more business if it has free parking you think? Surly the government should do something to get the people back into the shops, free parking would certainly be an incentive to get people into the city again...

Or maybe cheap parking in the weekdays and little more expensive at weekends (kinda like peak and off-peak)


Just my thoughts...

noby

deise-lady wrote: »

Apparently a woman in Dublin had a similar experience, went to the nearest bank, took out the sterling and insisted the clothes shop accept payment, as it was dual priced. They refused and she has taken them to court - it's a test case.

That should be interesting. On the one hand, a price on an item is just an "invitation to treat", and not a binding contract, so the supplier has a right to refuse to sell. On the other hand I'm sure the case will be made that they were misleading the public. Not sure if she will be successful.

I thought Adams were closing - perhaps that's why there's a 1:1 offer.

noby

DanGlee wrote: »

Would the city get more business if it has free parking you think? Surly the government should do something to get the people back into the shops, free parking would certainly be an incentive to get people into the city again...

Or maybe cheap parking in the weekdays and little more expensive at weekends (kinda like peak and off-peak)


Just my thoughts...

They did this in Dungarvan on the run-up to Christmas. Free parking from 3pm onwards.

Sully

The shopping center in Kilkenny was free over Christmas. City Square is very expensive for parking after the first hour.

leeroybrown

As one poster alluded to above the O'Brien's chain is franchise based. The profitability of any one shop will be based on it's location and how well the franchisee manages it. My understanding is that O'Brien's are expecting some of their less well located and less well run franchisees to go out of business over the coming year.

deise-lady

DanGlee wrote: »

Would the city get more business if it has free parking you think? Surly the government should do something to get the people back into the shops, free parking would certainly be an incentive to get people into the city again...

Or maybe cheap parking in the weekdays and little more expensive at weekends (kinda like peak and off-peak)


Just my thoughts...

Can't see the council going for that - it'd be a huge loss of revenue for them. Although I do think it's a good idea.
Unfortunately I think it's going to get even more expensive - wasn't it reported at the last council meeting that they are thinking of putting it up to 1.80 per hour?

DanGlee

deise-lady wrote: »

Can't see the council going for that - it'd be a huge loss of revenue for them. Although I do think it's a good idea.
Unfortunately I think it's going to get even more expensive - wasn't it reported at the last council meeting that they are thinking of putting it up to 1.80 per hour?

I heard that from somebody too...

Do they not realise putting the prices up (especially in a recession) is only going to drive more people away! As these people that work in government / councils all retarded?

baronflyguy

DanGlee wrote: »

I heard that from somebody too...

Do they not realise putting the prices up (especially in a recession) is only going to drive more people away! As these people that work in government / councils all retarded?

Nope, they just get FREE parking so why should they worry.

It's true though, I would go into city centre more often if I wasn't charged for parking.

Public Transport is BS also if you ask me, realistically I can't see someone driving into city from the country or from near by towns and parking on the outskirts then getting public bus into city centre. If the government want to do that in any city THEN they must provide FREE bus journeys. It works in Perth Australia. I've been there and I've seen it working. But our elected people haven't the balls to made a radical change like that cause they are all afraid of upsetting people (unions, civil servants, other politicians)...blah blah blah....our donkey wheel economy needs a new donkey, maybe we should upgrade the donkey to a stallion.

I reckon if people want to use the bus they will but the government are wasting their time and our money thinking they will convert people into leaving their car at home.

Is there anyone reading this who has changed from using their car to using the bus to go into city centre? Please respond cause you would be the first person I know who has done that.

There is my rant and rave for the day.

trishw78

I still wouldn't shop in there if the parking was free, now reducing the prices on the clothes to closer the sterling price now that's a whole other ball game

merlante

DanGlee wrote: »

Would the city get more business if it has free parking you think? Surly the government should do something to get the people back into the shops, free parking would certainly be an incentive to get people into the city again...

Or maybe cheap parking in the weekdays and little more expensive at weekends (kinda like peak and off-peak)


Just my thoughts...

I guess they could do that, but then the council would have to raise the cash from somewhere else to balance the budget. No such thing as a free lunch. The advantage for Waterford people is that this particular 'tax' is taxing other people who use the city as well as Waterfordians.

Someone said that they still wouldn't shop in the city centre even if the parking was free. I find that kind of bizarre, but by no means do I think it's an unusual view. For those who shun the city centre, where do you shop? Do you get everything in Next and TKMaxx? Or do you go to Cork or Dublin? I think it's kind of a crazy attitude to view the city centre as somehow expensive and inaccessible from the suburbs, when you have country people driving for miles to get to any kind of civilisation...

merlante

AdMMM wrote: »

Looks like the Coffee Culture in Ireland is starting to suffer. I think for far too long, people have been all too willing to pay over the top amounts for coffee. The days of people spending €10 on a cappuccino and sandwich are fast coming to an end.

In fairness, you could stuff your face with coffee and food in O'Brien's for a tenner. Bit of an exaggeration there. I wouldn't actually put them more expensive than BBs, Bagel Factory, Lucia, Lattitude, etc.

The cost of living in Ireland remains high across the board. Nothing is cheap anymore. I guess that might change now, but prices will probably just hold steady for a few years rather than decrease.

trishw78

I buy the majority of my clothes in New look in either Clonmel or Dublin, it's not often that I find clothes that I either (a) like the look of or (b) that comes in my size. I do like most people I know buy my underwear in pennys and a magazine or two in the book centre. But generally I find clothes shopping in Waterford boring sometimes like it feels like once you've been in one shop you've been in them all. I don't have the patience for TKmaxx style shopping

Junior

deise-lady wrote: »

Apparently a woman in Dublin had a similar experience, went to the nearest bank, took out the sterling and insisted the clothes shop accept payment, as it was dual priced. They refused and she has taken them to court - it's a test case.

I don't think she'll get anywhere with it, I remember hearing someone from a consumer agency stating that we are a single currency state, and as part of that the shops are obliged to accept only one legal tender i.e. euro, however in the UK as they aren't part of the Euro they can accept either or..