Ballycummin

LB6

COUNTY LIMERICK ;-)

Anyone know the story with Spar in Ballycummin? - closed down on Saturday "till further notice".... Hope Joe and his staff are all OK!

Kess73

Had not noticed it to be honest. Maybe they are having the shop refurbished or something.

Mc Love

LB6 wrote: »

Anyone know the story with Spar in Ballycummin? - closed down on Saturday "till further notice".... Hope Joe and his staff are all OK!

Should be in the county forum seeing as BallyC is outside city (just thought i would get in there before mysterious)

LB6, from what I heard from one of joe's staff in clohessys on Sat is that its gone in to liquidation. None of the staff were told until last minute. Closed friday night afaik.

Was in there friday night and there was no notice up.

LB6

Tx McL - maybe one of the mods could move it over to the county forum please.

That's a real pity - hope they get someone to take it over soon.... It was a great shop and with the size of the neighbourhood around it, I'm really surprised that it has gone into liquidation.

I quite fancied getting my hot fruit scones in there in the mornings

Raiser

Is Joe the Owner/Manager type who used to just stand about all day long watching People? He didn't seem to be doing it as a security concern and over the years I just came to decide that he just loved to watch People spend their money in his shop.....

Can't imagine the place going into liquidation for another reason than a quick exit to The Bahamas though - seemed to be doing very nicely all along?

Mc Love

I was only joking about the county bit LB6.

Yep Raiser that is the guy(grey hair/glasses) A gentleman, but very quiet. I think it could have gone out of business, as it was probably a milk and bread stop shop. Would be very surprised to hear if people actually did their big shop there.

Also he got rid of the butchers (the one on Fr Russel Road had a place in his shop). HE owns the whole block afaik and Cafe Vie asked for reduced rent and he said no, so they closed down too (stupid move)

Berty

Joe / the owner was and is a very nice person, very pleasant and personable. I would imagine the man and his family had many sleepless nights wondering about this.

It's very easy for people to assume he is cutting his losses before the store takes his soul from him but people are still human and do not want people out on the street.

Im sure, nearly convinced by his caracther, the he would have been trying anything to keep the store opened right up to the last moment which is why the staff were not informed. Rather than just being because the staff would have revolted and walked out.

I know that he was trying a number of things to increase footfall in the shop but alas none of it worked.

You can try to work smarter but sometimes to help you to work smarter you must spend money, which obviously he did not have access to.

LB6

Yep - Joe McGovern was the owner... he was sick some years ago and I thought initially that maybe he'd got a relapse. Good to know that at least he's ok.

True - the shop always seemed to be buzzing....

The kids also used to walk up to it in the mornings to stand in the cubbyhole by the movie rental area, out of the rain, waiting on the school bus to turn up. They'll end up getting pneumonia now :rolleyes:

Kess73

Mc Love wrote: »

I was only joking about the county bit LB6.

Yep Raiser that is the guy(grey hair/glasses) A gentleman, but very quiet. I think it could have gone out of business, as it was probably a milk and bread stop shop. Would be very surprised to hear if people actually did their big shop there.

Also he got rid of the butchers (the one on Fr Russel Road had a place in his shop). HE owns the whole block afaik and Cafe Vie asked for reduced rent and he said no, so they closed down too (stupid move)

Did not know he owned the whole block. A few of the apartments above the shop have been for sale of late rather than just for rent, so maybe he was trying to raise extra cash that way.


Shame if it is gone though, and terrible news for the workers. Would not have been a regular shopper there, I only went in there about twice a week, but I hope something reopens there soon, and hope that the workers have good luck in finding jobs.

xi

Strange no mention of this in any of the local news papers/websites.

Centra in Henry Street caused a headline as did the one near Moyross.

LB6

According to the notice on the shutter it was "closed till further notice" - not Closed down due to liquidation, as is what we have been told on the QT. That's probably the reason it hasn't made the papers, "till further notice" would suggest a shop revamp or something like that and that wouldn't attract the press.

LimkUL

Proof enough?