Carraroe Retail Park.

Aux100

I drove around the retail park and was disappointed to see so many shops have now gone.

I also joined to usual farce of trying to get a space in the Wine Street car park.

Its a joke Sligo hasn't got a big, modern, out of town supermarket that carries a large range of stock.

Should part of the retail park can be converted into this?

elshambo

Aux100 wrote: »

I drove around the retail park and was disappointed to see so many shops have now gone.

I also joined to usual farce of trying to get a space in the Wine Street car park.

Its a joke Sligo hasn't got a big, modern, out of town supermarket that carries a large range of stock.

Should part of the retail park can be converted into this?

Would involve knocking down the current structures as NONE of them are of a suitable size OR shape to put in a large sized supermarket

Whole thing is/was a joke from the start and whoever planned it/gave permission should be looking at some sort of legal wrangle

darealtulip

Aux100 wrote: »

I drove around the retail park and was disappointed to see so many shops have now gone.

I also joined to usual farce of trying to get a space in the Wine Street car park.

Its a joke Sligo hasn't got a big, modern, out of town supermarket that carries a large range of stock.

Should part of the retail park can be converted into this?

We had this discusion already on here some where. Totaly agree though.

Gillie

There was a suitable site picked out already for a Tesco or an Aldi but the powers that be wouldn't allow them open there! Go figure!

jimmmy

Aux100 wrote: »

I drove around the retail park and was disappointed to see so many shops have now gone.

Carraroe retail park should never have been built out there...its way too far from Sligo. It never took off and never will. It only took from other shops in Sligo...now nobody has enough business.

Aux100 wrote: »

I also joined to usual farce of trying to get a space in the Wine Street car park.

There was spaces in the Dunnes car park next door yesterday, I was talking to someone who had no problem parking there. Also the quayside always has plenty of places.

Aux100 wrote: »

Its a joke Sligo hasn't got a big, modern, out of town supermarket that carries a large range of stock.

The one in Ballisodare is only 5 minutes further than Carraroe, and is enough....if one was built at Carraroe it would take from the existing shops.
Sligo is not big enough for yet more shops. Sligo should grow from the inside out. Experience from similar size towns elsewhere indicate the Borough Council is correct in that the shops should be located in Sligo. Its a mess now.....what visitor could find Argus, Duncans island , Carraroe ...even if they had a car ?

Aux100 wrote: »

Should part of the retail park can be converted into this?

It is too far from the town centre, too far from houses apartments, the bus + train station etc etc. It would not work.

starbelgrade

jimmmy wrote: »

Carraroe retail park should never have been built out there...its way too far from Sligo. It never took off and never will. It only took from other shops in Sligo...now nobody has enough business.

The business park did quite well for quite a few years. It's only a sign of the times that a few shops have now closed. If there HAD been the introduction of a supermarket at the beginning of the project, it would've been a hell of a lot more sucessful in my opinion. but we all know why that didn't happen.

jimmmy wrote: »

There was spaces in the Dunnes car park next door yesterday, I was talking to someone who had no problem parking there. Also the quayside always has plenty of places.

That's OK if you like shopping in Dunnes. Personally I find their stock very limited & of fairly average quality, plus getting into the car park can be a nightmare even if you can find spaces easily enough, though God help anyone who has to park a saloon car on the raised level - the ramps are awful tight.

As for Quayside - there's no way on earth one person could carry a week's shopping from Tescos to Quayside without severe damage to their spine!

jimmmy wrote: »

The one in Ballisodare is only 5 minutes further than Carraroe, and is enough....if one was built at Carraroe it would take from the existing shops.
Sligo is not big enough for yet more shops. Sligo should grow from the inside out. Experience from similar size towns elsewhere indicate the Borough Council is correct in that the shops should be located in Sligo. Its a mess now.....what visitor could find Argus, Duncans island , Carraroe ...even if they had a car ?

That's all very well for the people of Ballisodare. There's also a Centra in Collooney, which is handy for me to get the likes of milk & eggs, but they are far too expensive & have a very limited stock.

Having everything squeezed into one little town is far from an ideal situation. The traffic congestion & parking situation is often a nightmare at peak times in Sligo - all very well for the housewife who can nip into town on a not so busy Tuesday morning, but not the case for many others.

Take Carrick for example - they have retail parks either side of the town with possibly a greater selection of shops than we have here. It would be insane if they'd tried to build the town up even more.

jimmmy wrote: »

It is too far from the town centre, too far from houses apartments, the bus + train station etc etc. It would not work.

It's less than a 5 minute drive from town & within 20mins reach of most of the satellite villages off the N4 & one of the handiest places to reach for people living in these villages if they're driving towards town.

If there was a decent bus service to & from town, it would help & it wouldn't make the other shops in town suffer too much as a result. I shop mostly in Tescos & find it a pain in the hole to get to & from there - if they opened up in the retail park, it would save me a lot of hassle, time, petrol etc & they'd still be getting my cash. No-one looses out there, so it's win-win for me, and I expect a lot more people besides.

jimmmy

starbelgrade wrote: »

The business park did quite well for quite a few years. ,.

No it did not, it never took off and its not open that many years either. The market always knew the location was wrong.

starbelgrade wrote: »

It's only a sign of the times that a few shops have now closed. ,.

" A few " ? ... nearly half are now closed / empty

starbelgrade wrote: »

That's OK if you like shopping in Dunnes. Personally I find their stock very limited & of fairly average quality,.

I merely mentioned the Dunnes car park in town ( "There was spaces in the Dunnes car park next door yesterday, I was talking to someone who had no problem parking there.") because someone said they could not find a space in the Wine st car park. Obviously the town needs to developed properly...not a hill a few miles from Sligo.

JIZZLORD

in fairness some of the shops were destined to go as soon as the good times ended.

starbelgrade

jimmmy wrote: »

No it did not, it never took off and its not open that many years either. The market always knew the location was wrong.


" A few " ? ... nearly half are now closed / empty


I merely mentioned the Dunnes car park in town ( "There was spaces in the Dunnes car park next door yesterday, I was talking to someone who had no problem parking there.") because someone said they could not find a space in the Wine st car park. Obviously the town needs to developed properly...not a hill a few miles from Sligo.

Forcing people to drive extra miles into an already traffic congested town in order to buy stuff they can't get anywhere else is a joke. Not only does it increase carbon omissions thru all the extra petrol wasted, but also wastes people's time & money. The retail park is a very handy location for most people living the N4 side of town as it's off the dual carraigeway, just a few minutes from the roundabout.

It's a misnomer that Dunnes car park is hassle free - the amount of times I've seen tailbacks at the roundabout there because some idiot takes 10mins to reverse in / out of their spaces is ridiculous. It's not as bad as Wine Street, granted, but I've never had problems parking at the retail centre. The problem there is that there is too much parking and no big supermarket.

I agree entirely that the town centre needs development, but it doesn't need to be developed around a feicin' Tescos! Retail parks work extremely well in most towns, but usually have a greater variety of shops & entertainment, so they succeed a lot better. I don't think that moving the likes of Homebase or Tile Market into town would do anything for them or the town itself.

If I WANT to go into town, it's for every other reason than grocery shopping, which I'm forced to do now.. I'll go into town for a pint, a meal, a coffee, to clothes shop, or see a film, but not to buy bog roll, vegetables or coffee.

And as pointed out above, most of the shops that did close in the retail park were always gonna be the first to go ... an over-sized shop that sold a poor selection of kids toys, a shop that sold either x-mas decorations or garden furniture and a furniture shop that - at it's own cost - probably looked a bit too "high end" for it's own good (even though it was reasonably priced).

Homebase, Currys, PC World are all still open coz they all sell stuff people will always need.

darealtulip

Sligo is not build for traffic therefore retail parks should be outside the town center. Sligo is a small town and they should have specialist shops in the center. A market at the riverside instead of two markets would help a lot too.

Every and city town around Europe discovered that it is better, exept the ones that are build recently,

We hear the same arguments against the build of retailparks on the outskirts in every country. Trade would disapear and the center would be dead. In most cases the opposite happend. People in the chamber of commerce think Sligo is unique and think differantly. This has in my opinoin more to do with protecting their own business then anything else.

Sligo is a small town and people are afraid of change. While it has lots of potential to close the sreets for cars and make it a bit like Galway. Missed chance IMO, a center doesn't need a big supermarket, a normal size will do for the people who live in town. Every body who lives on the outskirt or outside of town could then park and do their shopping and go into town if they want to.

bobcar61

Very well said Starbelgrade.

It's sounds like we are going to have the same argument as before about the retail park been half way to Ballisodare...blah blah blah etc etc etc...

The retail park has been around for 4 years at least so it has done well for a few years jimmmy.

And there are plenty of houses and apartments in close proximity to the retail park,all of Cairns Hill, Carraroe itself, and even out the oakfield/maugheraboy and as Star said all the towns and villages on the N4 side of Sligo as far as Ballymote and Tubbercurry so it serves many people.

starbelgrade

When I moved to Sligo first, I made the mistake of trying to do a shop on a Friday afternoon in Tesco. I was stuck that long trying to get in & then out of the carpark, I actually ran out of petrol.

Aux100

Very well said Starbelgrade.

I second this...

I avoid Wine Street at all costs. None of the supermarkets in the town are up to scratch, we are getting a bad deal. We shouldn't use a shop because its always been in the town. We should use it for value, quality, convenience, selection and not running out of stock all the time.

Having a good (Just) out of town supermarket will improve the traffic / parking problems in the town. I do very little shopping in Sligo because of these problems. I know i am not the only one.

The non supermarket shops are worried business will get worse if tescos moves....

From my point of view business would bet better because I would start to use them.

Janine87

Carraroe Retail Park is a joke. Sligo is not big enough to build a retail park like that.
I also dont get it why they closed Mc Donalds down in town. Everyone has to go down to Carraroe now and its smaller than the one in town.

jimmmy

Aux100 wrote: »

Having a good (Just) out of town supermarket will improve the traffic / parking problems in the town.

"(Just) out of town" Thats the point...all town and city planners think it should not be 2 or 3 miles out of town....it should be close to the town centre , rail + bus links and just off the inner relief road would be ideal and keep everyone happy.
There are good supermarkets in Grange for those from north of Sligo, and Ballisodare for those from south of Sligo.

jimmmy

Janine87 wrote: »

Carraroe Retail Park is a joke. Sligo is not big enough to build a retail park like that.
I also dont get it why they closed Mc Donalds down in town. Everyone has to go down to Carraroe now and its smaller than the one in town.

I agree there. The town itself now cannot even support a McDonalds or a Burgerking. Why was Carraroe allowed to be built at all, on top of a hill so far from the town centre, unlike retail parks in eg Letterkenny ? None of the businesses there are making money ( look at the mostly empty car park any day ) and all they are doing is taking away from the shops in the town.

Janine87

jimmmy wrote: »

I agree there. The town itself now cannot even support a McDonalds or a Burgerking. Why was Carraroe allowed to be built at all, on top of a hill so far from the town centre, unlike retail parks in eg Letterkenny ? None of the businesses there are making money ( look at the mostly empty car park any day ) and all they are doing is taking away from the shops in the town.

yeah there are so many shops that closed down in town too. For example Zavvi... Since Zavvi closed down Johnston Court is empty. There was supposed to be an Esprit... never opened it because the place is not booming.
Apart from the Retail Park Shane Filan from Westlife wants to build a new Retail Park in Carraroe with 68 apartments, shops, creche and more. What is the point in that?

darealtulip

jimmmy wrote: »

"(Just) out of town" Thats the point...all town and city planners think it should not be 2 or 3 miles out of town....it should be close to the town centre , rail + bus links and just off the inner relief road would be ideal and keep everyone happy.
There are good supermarkets in Grange for those from north of Sligo, and Ballisodare for those from south of Sligo.

With a very small assortment yes. Nobody does their weekly shop with the bus or train, maybe a very very small minority.

Sligo is losing a lot of bisiness to carrick where they did understand that you need a big supermarket at a retail park. Forcing people into town with no parking to do their shopping is silly and even if there was parking, why do people from around sligo need to go in to a congested wee town?
I for 1 wont go into sligo because of this.

It's indeed a very small town in need of a small super market for the people in town like you who are happy with the little choice they offer and 1 on the outskirt for people that like me that like cooking and want a bit more.

Now a lot of people go to the north they will be wanting the same ammount of choice here, if sligo fails to give that people will go elsewhere. Good thing then is that the parking and congestion will disolve but at what cost.

And why is Sligo so unique from the rest of Europe?? Look a bit further then Sligo and look at the towns that succeeded in making their towns work without a big supermarket and look at the ones that didn't and learn, simple. You will see that a lot of towns brought the markets back and that gave a new life to the town center.

darealtulip

Janine87 wrote: »

yeah there are so many shops that closed down in town too. For example Zavvi... Since Zavvi closed down Johnston Court is empty. There was supposed to be an Esprit... never opened it because the place is not booming.
Apart from the Retail Park Shane Filan from Westlife wants to build a new Retail Park in Carraroe with 68 apartments, shops, creche and more. What is the point in that?

Now I totaly agree that sligo is developed in the wrong way with very bad planning. To many furniture shops for one. It seems like there is no master plan. Sligo should look at Gaway and make it more atractive for tourists because I think more people will spend their holidays in their own country in the reccesion.

Ps. I don't think Mc donalds or burgerking are worth having in the first place. And since when is McDonalds closed? Didn't notice, won't mis it though.

Janine87

darealtulip wrote: »

Now I totaly agree that sligo is developed in the wrong way with very bad planning. To many furniture shops for one. It seems like there is no master plan. Sligo should look at Gaway and make it more atractive for tourists because I think more people will spend their holidays in their own country in the reccesion.

Ps. I don't think Mc donalds or burgerking are worth having in the first place. And since when is McDonalds closed? Didn't notice, won't mis it though.

Mc Donalds in Sligo town closed Saturday or Sunday.

elshambo

Janine87 wrote: »

Mc Donalds in Sligo town closed Saturday or Sunday.

CLASS!!!!:D

There food is just a: (pick one)
a) Ketchup delivery system
b) Type 2 diabetes delivery system

NO LOSS either way!!!:D

tuppence

Theres a presumption here that everything should be geared for the car owner and that I don't think should be the case. Its still about affordabllity whether people own cars and run cars, now more than ever. Therefore first and foremost a town or city shopping infrastructure should be accessible. Its should have a proper transport system serving it. And aesthetically Carrick on Shannon and Galway have lost alot through their planning, they have become concrete jungles. If anything they jumped at bad internationally planning imo.

I know that people enjoy cooking within a budget but we also want quality. Sligo has good butchers and fish mongers trying to carve a living. I know I get most of the meat I eat locally in my village. (who also supplies the local restuarant) Advocating a big multinational store on the outskirts of town doesn't necessary mean quality anyway as meats and veg arent locally produced most of the time, and many shipped in. Again if the food market be brought down from the IT and the market yard this would be handy. Alot of herbs and spices and rice can be got in some of the asian shops, again at reasonable cost. And I suppose theres lidl for the rest and thats were the cost saving come in. (It itself is a little bit out at St Annes but not the worst)

I dont know about you, its nice to have the choice within town regardless, for food shopping.

bobcar61

jimmmy wrote: »

None of the businesses there are making money

Actually some of them are.

bobcar61

Letterkenny is hardly a model town for Sligo to base their planning decisions on.

I think the retail park is a good addition to Sligo, fair enough it's not in a great location but many people beg to differ. It is very convienent for people living on the south side of Sligo town and county.
All the points are relevant,it's out of town but what major towns have a retail park in the town centre?

Janine87

bobcar61 wrote: »

Letterkenny is hardly a model town for Sligo to base their planning decisions on.

I think the retail park is a good addition to Sligo, fair enough it's not in a great location but many people beg to differ. It is very convienent for people living on the south side of Sligo town and county.
All the points are relevant,it's out of town but what major towns have a retail park in the town centre?

yeah its true that all retail park are outside town BUT Sligo is far too small to have a big retail park like that.
They dont make any money except for Homebase and maybe PC World.

Xiney

A lot of the retail parks in Galway (Headford Road, Wellpark) are very handy from eyre square, but let's face it, retail parks are ugly as sin.

Then again, at least I can get to them.

darealtulip

tuppence wrote: »

Theres a presumption here that everything should be geared for the car owner and that I don't think should be the case. Its still about affordabllity whether people own cars and run cars, now more than ever. Therefore first and foremost a town or city shopping infrastructure should be accessible. Its should have a proper transport system serving it. And aesthetically Carrick on Shannon and Galway have lost alot through their planning, they have become concrete jungles. If anything they jumped at bad internationally planning imo.

I know that people enjoy cooking within a budget but we also want quality. Sligo has good butchers and fish mongers trying to carve a living. I know I get most of the meat I eat locally in my village. (who also supplies the local restuarant) Advocating a big multinational store on the outskirts of town doesn't necessary mean quality anyway as meats and veg arent locally produced most of the time, and many shipped in. Again if the food market be brought down from the IT and the market yard this would be handy. Alot of herbs and spices and rice can be got in some of the asian shops, again at reasonable cost. And I suppose theres lidl for the rest and thats were the cost saving come in. (It itself is a little bit out at St Annes but not the worst)

I dont know about you, its nice to have the choice within town regardless, for food shopping.

I never buy meat at the supermarket and as you said in a other post in the rural erae you don't have a choice other then the car.

And yes I buy my herb in ti na nog when I need them I go into town. Don't want to be forced into a town that's not made for car traffic and without parking. That was the whole point. Specialist shop in the town center and the suppermarkets on the out skirts.

We have great dellicatesse shops etc so the start is there, now move that tesco's out of the center, it is a very bad suppermarket in the first place with no choice and to packed.

jimmmy

Xiney wrote: »

A lot of the retail parks in Galway (Headford Road, Wellpark) are very handy from eyre square,

Thats why they are reasonably successful, unlike Carraroe. Galway has a much bigger population ; it was stupid for the planners in Sligo to allow development so far away from Sligo. We are supposed to be thinking about convenience and environmental awareness nowadays. Sligo is a mess and too spread out...try explaining to a visitor how to get from the town centre to Argos to Carraroe to Duncans island to Lidl. Look at any successful towns or cities of 18000 to 20,000 people and they do not allow such crazy development. The town should grow from the centre out but with proper planning, roads, car parks etc.

Xiney

In fairness, if Sligo put street signs up consistently, explaining directions to tourists wouldn't be such a problem.

And also, if there was a useable bus service in town, the location of carraroe retail park wouldn't be a problem either.


The imp:

- does not go to finisklin, what about people who work there? It's a long walk up to the Post Office depot if you miss your parcel, as well.
- is never. ever. on time. It's a farce, really. I get it, there's traffic. But there is ALWAYS traffic. fix the timetables so this is reflected.
- only goes to the retail park on Saturdays.

darealtulip

jimmmy wrote: »

Thats why they are reasonably successful, unlike Carraroe. Galway has a much bigger population ; it was stupid for the planners in Sligo to allow development so far away from Sligo. We are supposed to be thinking about convenience and environmental awareness nowadays. Sligo is a mess and too spread out...try explaining to a visitor how to get from the town centre to Argos to Carraroe to Duncans island to Lidl. Look at any successful towns or cities of 18000 to 20,000 people and they do not allow such crazy development. The town should grow from the centre out but with proper planning, roads, car parks etc.

and the fact that there is a aldi and tesco'sat the retail parks in galway helps a lot, but I agree that the planning in sligo could have been a lot better. It remains a small town and it probaly will be for a long time to come.

Love the town center in Galway and Sligo could do it in small. Close Castle street for cars and put more terraces out. Utilise the river side more, I love the bustle when the french market is on.

Xiney

correction - there is lidl, argos, aldi, tesco and (arguably) dunnes at the headford road retail area. Also, a cinema and bowling. Passing trade is where it's at.