German Christmas Market

WesternNight

foto joe wrote: »

Checked out the market this evening, not overly impressed.

It's doing nothing for local business, I didn't come across any Irish people working in the market and all the stalls seemed to be foreign. I know some are listed on the website as Irish but if anything they're just token Irish stalls and most of the employees seemed to be foreign.

I'd urge everyone to support the local market that's out in wind and rain every Saturday (/some on Sunday) all year round.

Unless it's had a major overhaul since yesterday evening, you didn't check it out well enough. From the very brief look around I had I saw/heard/spoke to several Irish stalls and stallholders. I'll be sure to count them next time I'm there.

And I'm sure plenty of people who already support the regular market will continue to do so. As well as those who don't normally shop in Galway city, who'll presumably be shopping in other local businesses as well if they come to check out this market.

Such an amount of nay-saying purely for the sake of it. Saying that the prices are high is fair enough, but saying that there are no Irish (or Galway) traders is just making stuff up.

joeKel73

I'm sure there are Irish people working there, I just didn't come across any in the 2hrs I spent there. I knew that this was going to be a "German style" market but didn't think it would be a "German market". I think it's a pity that the local businesses couldn't get together to organise this themselves to promote local trade. If someone returned to Galway then in January they're be familiar with some local businesses and their products from their stand at the Christmas market.

As mentioned before there are some very dodgy looking characters slowly wandering around down there!

Mrs OBumble

foto joe wrote: »

Tried these but total rip-off. €4.50 for about 5 strawberries with some melted chocolate on them. Expected more for the price.

That just makes 'em authentically Irish, so!

Sponge Bob

Irish Strawberries, in November....well I never

Fuinseog

skelliser wrote: »

afaik none of these stalls are from local suppliers or anything related to ireland. Think its all an english operation.
Sickening to see the Fianna Fail scumbag mayor Crowe in the picture supporting an operation that brings nothing to the local economy.

Regardless of how it makes you feel, all christmassy etc. i would urge you all to boycott this market.

Why couldnt the powers that be say feck off english market people and organise and build their own?
Maybe next year they will see sense but somehow i doubt it.

Until then i wont be going near this. Better off heading down to our local market at St. Nicholas church.

hear hear, the English should feck off out of Galway and take their boots, debenehams, tesco and marks and sparks with tehm. we don't need them.

half the stalls at our local market are run by Johnny foreigner. i think it is inevitable that at a German market there will be some foreign stands and galway is supposed to be cosmopolitan.

Fuinseog

Head The Wall wrote: »

You're entitled to your own opinion and tastes as am I.:)

I was actually in there today and had a 1 litre Stein for €10 (€5.70 a pint basically) Anyone that knows me will know that I'm not averse to spending money on booze but this seems a bit pricey to me, I don't drink these beers e.g Erdinger in Galway pubs so I can only compare against what I know

There was a nice atmosphere around, I tried the spuds platter and bought a few trinkets so I will be back again. I had contemplated going down tonight for a few jars before going out but I'll have to pass at that price.

I hope the frauleins working in there had heated costumes as it was chilly enough in the Bier Keller.

erdinger in a pub in galway would be around the the 5,50 mark, so it is not too expensive

philboy

I thought the same about them being frozen and a friend mentioned it. She said there was a heater in the corner but it was broken. I thought the music in there was annoying, it seemed to be the same 4/5 songs on repeat really loudly. It was a pain waiting to get the refund on the glasses, waited for ages until I made a point of getting sorted. Obviously they prefer to serve new customers. The waitresses should be allowed to refund you for your glasses or else have a separate area for it.

skelliser

WesternNight wrote: »

Would you ever educate yourself about what you're talking about before you go urging people to do anything.

http://www.galwaychristmasmarket.ie/Traders

Would you ever read my post!!
i said afaik - As far as i know

Thanks to the other posters pointing out there are some irish traders.

Still dont see how we couldnt have organised it ourselves.

skelliser

JustMary wrote: »

Before you start giving out about imports, stop and think about who uses the majority of products made in the medical device companies here in Galway. If you're opposed to imports, then logically you need to be opposed to exports too, because they'll simply turn into imports somewhere else.

Jesus, im not advocating protectionism!!!!!

Money is very tight these days for the vast majority of people. We should be urging people to buy locally as that will help the economy. Spending money in the local economy helps keep and generate jobs. The vast majority of the money spent in this market never sees ireland again.
On the other hand the medical device income stays here.

I cant win tho! on the one hand you have people rubbishing the idea of shopping up north being unpatriotic cause its cheaper and then i speak up about a market, which, it seems, is overpriced and which the vast majority of the profit leaves the country.

I did at the start of this thread hear that this was a english company, i glanced at the site and couldnt find any irish suppliers. I went down for a walk. I didnt notice any irish stalls and what i saw was a rip off.

Iv since been corrected on the irish suppliers.

My other point still stands. With some will and some get up and go we could have had our own market with locally sourced stalls.

That is all.

WesternNight

skelliser wrote: »

Would you ever read my post!!
i said afaik - As far as i know

I did read your post. It would have taken you all of 30 seconds to expand your knowledge.

I agree that it would have been nice if local people organised something like this themselves. But they didn't, for whatever reason. Maybe they can pick up some tips from these traders who have all the know-how and get something together in future years.

skelliser

agreed.

tootired

AFAIK local traders have tried to organise something like this for years, but were blocked by the council.

rivalius13

They could be giving out free blowjobs and people would complain that some of them were too toothy, some just love to moan.

mikom

rivalius13 wrote: »

They could be giving out free blowjobs and people would complain that some of them were too toothy

I see you've met Warty Nora.

dr.bollocko

TBH the "dang foridners" stance plenty are taking up in this thread is a depressing one. And short sighted too. More people in the city to visit market (which features many Irish traders) is a good thing for all local businesses.

snubbleste

I think people will come for the attraction and leave thinking Galway is a rip-off! We'll see in a few months time.

Fuinseog

snubbleste wrote: »

I think people will come for the attraction and leave thinking Galway is a rip-off! We'll see in a few months time.

Dublin prices they are and people are still willing to fork out large sums especially at this time of year. still cheaper than going abroad to a real one.

irisheddie85

Went down to the christmas market yesterday with my girlfriend. Had a walk around and tried some of the food. I thought it was nice and it got us into town early in a saturday which we havent done in ages.

O and guess what ended up down the galway Market so we could get the potato curry.

I think the market will be good for town as it will get more people into town for a look around.

Anyway if local businesses were running it every food stand would probably be doing kebabs

inisboffin

Fuinseog wrote: »

Dublin prices they are and people are still willing to fork out large sums especially at this time of year. still cheaper than going abroad to a real one.

Overall, Market food is way cheaper in Dublin, more competition I suppose. Took a stroll yesterday and wasn't very impressed tbh. With the exception of a few beautiful craft vendors, it was priced and laid out like what you'd see in a big music festival selling tat and food in the middle of an arena. It was pretty devoid of atmosphere, compared to the regular Market. Some friends were in later however and said they had music on a stage in the evening, which would have helped things.

thesandeman

I dont like the way most of the stalls are pricing their stuff per 100grams as opposed to per kg. 2.99 seems cheap until you realise that 100g is only about the weight of 3 bags of Tayto. I reckon some people are being fooled into paying more than intended because of this. Also the potato/mushroom charging a euro extra for a takeaway container you get free from the Chinese. Not tried the pizza yet but it seems reasonable value to me for 6.50 plus 50c per topping.

snubbleste

Did you find it christmassy, thesandeman, or german?

thesandeman

Neither really. First night was like a Saturday on Shop St couldnt move. Went last night about 8 and some of the stalls were closed. Lots of people in the beer tent but no atmosphere just tinny music and babbling. Also as someone else said you have to keep going back on yourself as you keep ending up on the street. The 'stage' only has a tiny place to stand in front of without blocking the path and is nowhere near the bar. I will go back again but Im not overly impressed unfortunately :-(

Head The Wall

Fuinseog wrote: »

erdinger in a pub in galway would be around the the 5,50 mark, so it is not too expensive

Well although I liked the taste of the Erdinger I had: I also like the taste of Bud, Bavaria, heiniken etc which is a lot cheaper.

It didn't taste so much nicer to me to justify the extra expense

hiscan

snubbleste wrote: »

Did you find it christmassy, thesandeman, or german?

I thought this was a question with three options
Seriously though,I went up for a look today and the only thing I enjoyed was the Currywurst as I used to live in Berlin and this brought back memories:)
I wasn't to happy with the crowd in there moving at a snails pace so I was glad to get out of it to be honest,I might go back another day when it's a little quieter:)

Stench Blossoms

Had a quick look down there today.

I'll defo be going back and getting some ostrich... yum!

dinneenp

hmmm...some 'interesting' posts/moans going on here-

charging per 100g- the Eye cinema also do this. They're also not cheap.

no locals working there? there's 3 girls in the ice rink- all local. If a stall if foreign doesn't it make sense that they'll be working on it. After all it's their goods they're selling so know best about it etc.

Bad layout? The square has a set footpath layout so it's limited how they can design it? I found that the layout is okay. Kind of like a figure 8.

I heard that Galway were charging high prices for the stalls. So logically traders will have to charge a bit higher. Some stuff were a bit expensive but not crazy prices. €5 for the bratwurst I'll pay.

Overall it's a nice addition and should bring in lots of people and local shops should get extra footfall I'd expect.

Wompa1

I was thinking about this over the weekend. With all the places for food there, I know I ate there on Saturday night. But anyway, with all the food stalls won't that hurt the local restaraunts that are already getting hit?

The drink tent was pretty full too. The Erdinger was nice but it didn't work out as any better or better value than any other pint really.

Shame to hear one of the German lads working there got mugged leaving work. I did notice quite alot of unsavoury characters around town this weekend. An unfortunate tradition in Galway during x-mas!

Dunjohn

Just heard on the radio that one of the stallholders was mugged of his takings on his way back home. Fantastic image of Galway that guy'll be left with.

I was away all weekend so I haven't had a chance to go in there yet. I'll have a gawk later today.

Storm 10

Did not get a chance to go there yet myself, what are conditions like under foot is it muddy.

dolphin city

skelliser wrote: »

afaik none of these stalls are from local suppliers or anything related to ireland. Think its all an english operation.
Sickening to see the Fianna Fail scumbag mayor Crowe in the picture supporting an operation that brings nothing to the local economy.

Regardless of how it makes you feel, all christmassy etc. i would urge you all to boycott this market.

Why couldnt the powers that be say feck off english market people and organise and build their own?
Maybe next year they will see sense but somehow i doubt it.

Until then i wont be going near this. Better off heading down to our local market at St. Nicholas church.

mccambridges has a stall there - also there is the Irish language teddy bear stall (from moycullen).