Limerick Businesses Opening

pigtown

It's good you got that off your chest. Just a few things though, H&M do sell menswear and they sold menswear in the Crescent store from the day it opened. Yes, it was down the back but menswear is always upstairs, in the basement or down the back. They did have mannequins in the window but still they weren't doing enough business. Sure they could possibly have advertised a bit more but believe it or not the people who work in stores like this actually want them to succeed but for one reason or another some things don't work out.

Red King

timesnewroman wrote: »

Urban Vineyard is nice (and cozy). Yer man who owns/runs it seems a decent skin. Nice little smoking area (complete with hot water bottles) to the side too. The obfuscated glass at the front wouldn't do much to entice people in I'd admit.

Agree, it is a nice spot. Don't think it is really aiming to be competition to the Copper Room. I have been to Urban Vineyard twice and really liked the wine and the staff and owner are very nice.

I'll be certainly going back.

That said I am looking forward to trying the Copper Room and the new place in The Pier Hotel.

Cityslicker1

Most shops in Limerick don't have a men's section e.g. Newlook & H&M. Galway a smaller city than Limerick, has a mens section for these stores and they also have a Topman. There used to be a Topshop (Women) on Sarsfield st then it moved to the Cresent and then closed down. Galway have a Golden Discs in the city centre -Limerick has no music store in the centre-Golden Discs used to be in Arthurs Quay, Jetland & the Cresent-all closed.

I think the city centre badly needs a Zara, H&M, NEXT (Used to be on Cruises St), Bershka, Pull & Bear etc. Jack & Jones which is in every city in Ireland has no presence in Limerick anymore-There used to be two-Bedford Row & The Cresent.

Cork city centre which feels more compact that Limerick city centre has a string of names such as Gap, Tommy Hilfiger, Topman, Golden Discs , Fat face, Superdry, Next, Starbucks, H&M, Captain America's etc all in the city centre.

Cork also have Nando's, Bershka, French Connection (Used to be on William St in Limerick,now closed) etc in Mahon point shopping centre.

Swiper the fox

Not sure in what way Cork city feels more compact than Limerick????
Limerick City centre is a short stretch of oconnell st, Thomas street, Bedford row and William st. Cork has Patrick st, every side street linking it to Paul st and olive plunkett street, those streets themselves, north and south main st, coalquay, mc curtain st etc etc. No comparison whatsoever.
Why would you need a Jack and Jones when the clothes are available everywhere, it's like asking for a cadburys shop.
Proper h&m menswear and topman, yes please.

dr.fuzzenstein

Cityslicker1 wrote: »

Most shops in Limerick don't have a men's section e.g. Newlook & H&M. Galway a smaller city than Limerick, has a mens section for these stores and they also have a Topman. There used to be a Topshop (Women) on Sarsfield st then it moved to the Cresent and then closed down. Galway have a Golden Discs in the city centre of the city-Limerick has no music store in the centre.

I think the city centre badly needs a Zara, H&M, NEXT, Bershka, Pull & Bear etc. Jack & Jones which is in every city in Ireland has no presence in Limerick anymore-There used to be two-Bedford Row & The Cresent.

Cork city centre which feels more compact that Limerick city centre has a string of names such as Gap, Tommy Hilfiger, Topman, Golden Discs, Fat face, Superdry, Next, Starbucks, H&M, Captain America's etc all in the city centre.

Cork also have Nando's, Bershka, French Connection etc in Mahon point shopping centre.

It's like retailers seem to think that the preferred attire for men in Limerick is ahem, "sportswear". :rolleyes:

Reputable Rog

Cityslicker1 wrote: »

Cork city centre which feels more compact that Limerick city centre has a string of names such as Gap, Tommy Hilfiger, Topman, Golden Discs, Fat face, Superdry, Next, Starbucks, H&M, Captain America's etc all in the city centre.

Cork also have Nando's, Bershka, French Connection etc in Mahon point shopping centre.

Feels more compact ? Are you serious? There's no comparison between Cork and Limerick.

Silentcorner

Reputable Rog wrote: »

Feels more compact ? Are you serious? There's no comparison between Cork and Limerick.

Jesus calm down mate, no one is criticising the place....

The Patrick St/Oliver Plunkett St, Paul St and all the in between lanes like Marlboro St, Church St, which is the prime Retail centre of Cork is very compact....you'd walk it in a few minutes...it helps the city if anything...never underestimate Cork people's opinion of Cork, something I learned years ago!!!

Limerick City centre has failed to attract a lot of retailers over the boom years as a direct result of our image problem, this was highlighted by a Voluntary group representing Limerick retailers a few years ago....agents working out of Dublin simply told new retailers to avoid Limerick...

Poxyshamrock

It's no surprise though. I work for a UK high street store and our Limerick shop is the quietest shop in the whole company which has over 100 stores.

zulutango

Silentcorner wrote: »

Limerick City centre has failed to attract a lot of retailers over the boom years as a direct result of our image problem, this was highlighted by a Voluntary group representing Limerick retailers a few years ago....agents working out of Dublin simply told new retailers to avoid Limerick...

Limerick's biggest mistake is to see the city centre primarily as a retail space. The thinking is that people live in the suburbs or surrounding region, and shop in the city. It's deeply flawed thinking.

The only way forward for the city is to start to see itself as a living city again, as it used to be. Retail will improve dramatically as a consequence of that.

But our streets are terrible, unattractive places. Who in their right mind would want to live on them? We've got to give people a reason to choose the city over the suburbs, and there's a lot we can do in that regard.

Cityslicker1

Reputable Rog wrote: »

Feels more compact ? Are you serious? There's no comparison between Cork and Limerick.

Limerick city centre in my opinion does feel more spread out but I don't mean from a retail point of view-From the Hunt museum to the Daniel O'Connell statue at the top of O'Connell street which is essentially Limericks main thoroughfare is about a mile long made up of a number of blocks with long wide uniform Georgian streets leading off it. Walking from the Locke bar to McGettigans bar is a long stretch on a Saturday night.

There's nowhere in Cork as grand as the Georgian square's such as Pery Sq, Johns square and the Cresent at the Daniel O'Connell monument.

Also Cork doesn't have a Georgian grid of streets once you leave the main retail area. The difference is that Cork feels more retail where as Limerick city centre is made up of more Georgian streets. I do like Corks compact feel with the narrow lanes though with the brightly painted buildings-more of a traditional Irish look.

grenache

Swiper the fox wrote: »

Not sure in what way Cork city feels more compact than Limerick????
Limerick City centre is a short stretch of oconnell st, Thomas street, Bedford row and William st. Cork has Patrick st, every side street linking it to Paul st and olive plunkett street, those streets themselves, north and south main st, coalquay, mc curtain st etc etc. No comparison whatsoever. .

But Limerick city centre is far more spread out than Cork's. Limerick is laid out in blocks, Cork city centre is spiral shaped and compact in its layout. You can walk the loop from bottom of Patrick St up to top of it, come down Cornmarket St and out onto the quays, just down from where you started at Patrick St in 10 minutes easy. You can walk from Albert Quay on one side of city centre to the Mercy Hospital on other side in 15 minutes easy.
How long would it take you to walk from O'Connell Monument to John's Square in Limerick? A good 20 minutes at least. The block layout unfortunately doesn't lend itself to being a tourist friendly city like Galway or Cork.

Swiper the fox

grenache wrote: »

But Limerick city centre is far more spread out than Cork's. Limerick is laid out in blocks, Cork city centre is spiral shaped and compact in its layout. You can walk the loop from bottom of Patrick St up to top of it, come down Cornmarket St and out onto the quays, just down from where you started at Patrick St in 10 minutes easy. You can walk from Albert Quay on one side of city centre to the Mercy Hospital on other side in 15 minutes easy.
How long would it take you to walk from O'Connell Monument to John's Square in Limerick? A good 20 minutes at least. The block layout unfortunately doesn't lend itself to being a tourist friendly city like Galway or Cork.

I was referring to the shopping district which is where the debate was at, I'm sure nobody expects a H&M to go up in Mallow Street or Cathedral Place.

Also, are you sure about those walking times, I'm very familiar with both cities and feel I could walk the Limerick example a good bit quicker (Parnell st, Sexton st, Cathedral Place)

zulutango

grenache wrote: »

The block layout unfortunately doesn't lend itself to being a tourist friendly city like Galway or Cork.

I don't think it's really anything to do with the block layout. We've simply got ugly, uninviting streets. There's no point denying that.

They could be beautiful but we insist on permitting through traffic on practically every street in the city. There's no need for it really. Limerick could be set up in such a way that most of the smaller streets could be completely closed to cars and made very visually attractive. We've got overhead power lines strung here, there and everywhere, there's the narrow footpaths and ****e paving, the ill-fitting street lighting. We could sort all that out, and provide benches, trees, flower beds, sculptures, fountains, monuments, playgrounds in a lot of these street spaces. The place could be very attractive and tourist friendly but there's no real will to do this.

iguana

zulutango wrote: »

I don't think it's really anything to do with the block layout. We've simply got ugly, uninviting streets. There's no point denying that.

They could be beautiful but we insist on permitting through traffic on practically every street in the city. There's no need for it really. Limerick could be set up in such a way that most of the smaller streets could be completely closed to cars and made very visually attractive. We've got overhead power lines strung here, there and everywhere, there's the narrow footpaths and ****e paving, the ill-fitting street lighting. We could sort all that out, and provide benches, trees, flower beds, sculptures, fountains, monuments, playgrounds in a lot of these street spaces. The place could be very attractive and tourist friendly but there's no really will to do this.

I feel so sad when i think about how 60 years ago the main retail area of O'Connell St was actually very beautiful with amazing buildings on it. Like Cannocks, Cruise's Royal Hotel and the original Todds building.

bigpink

Bedford row,thomas street and little cathrine cars dumped there all the time

Jofspring

bigpink wrote: »

Bedford row,thomas street and little cathrine cars dumped there all the time

Did you not know Sunday's are a free for all? Yellow lines mean parking not prohibited, bar Sunday's. It's in the official NRA Rules of the Road.

bigpink

Jofspring wrote: »

Did you not know Sunday's are a free for all? Yellow lines mean parking not prohibited, bar Sunday's. It's in the official NRA Rules of the Road.

Ah stop last sunday in town was crazy the parking.Cars turning onto shannon st and both sides on yellow lines full

Vanquished

iguana wrote: »

I feel so sad when i think about how 60 years ago the main retail area of O'Connell St was actually very beautiful with amazing buildings on it. Like Cannocks, Cruise's Royal Hotel and the original Todds building.

That portion of O'Connell Street really has been butchered over the past 50/60 years by aesthetically ignorant, philistine planners!

So much stately grandeur has been lost! It's incredible to think that Cruise's hotel was sacrificed as late as 1991!

ongarboy

Poxyshamrock wrote: »

It's no surprise though. I work for a UK high street store and our Limerick shop is the quietest shop in the whole company which has over 100 stores.

That's interesting. I wonder why. Is it that the purchasing power of Limerick citizens is less than that of other cities/catchment areas? I wonder is it really because a larger % of the Limerick population are not into the type of clothing that the missing high street chains offer, particularly for men.

Playing the devils advocate here, but when I go out in Dublin, Cork or Galway, I do tend to see more stylishly dressed guys whereas I cannot say the same in Limerick - a lot of guys just seem to wear that generic neutral baggy check shirt and baggy jeans from Dunnes ensemble that they might have also worn in 2005 or 1995. (eg Nancy Blakes on a Saturday night).

Ironically Limerick was the only place I've heard of guys being turned away from a nightclub (Ikon) because they weren't wearing "shoes". Apparently if you wore a cheap 5 euro pair of fake leather shoes from Shoe Zone or Guineys, you'd be left in but if you wear expensive Ted Baker or Hugo Boss trainers, you'd be told "no runners allowed".

Maybe it's observations like above that contribute to the lack of such fashion outlets.

On the Jack'n'Jones comment posted, while a lot of shops provide J&J lines, they will never offer a complete offering like the dedicated J&J stores do. I'm really surprised that Limerick doesn't have one as a lot of smaller towns across Ireland have them (Tralee, Monaghan, Drogheda etc).

mossym

Cityslicker1 wrote: »

Most shops in Limerick don't have a men's section e.g. Newlook & H&M. Galway a smaller city than Limerick, has a mens section for these stores and they also have a Topman. There used to be a Topshop (Women) on Sarsfield st then it moved to the Cresent and then closed down. Galway have a Golden Discs in the city centre of the city-Limerick has no music store in the centre.

I think the city centre badly needs a Zara, H&M, NEXT, Bershka, Pull & Bear etc. Jack & Jones which is in every city in Ireland has no presence in Limerick anymore-There used to be two-Bedford Row & The Cresent.

Cork city centre which feels more compact that Limerick city centre has a string of names such as Gap, Tommy Hilfiger, Topman, Golden Discs, Fat face, Superdry, Next, Starbucks, H&M, Captain America's etc all in the city centre.

Cork also have Nando's, Bershka, French Connection etc in Mahon point shopping centre.

and what does that tell you? that the business just isn't there for these shops to justify their presence. now whether that's poor income, or high rates is a different matter. but i keep reading that "oh the city centre needs x shop" when there is a long history of those types of shops not succeeding. First thing any store thinkign of opening will do is a bit of market research to see how similar shops got on and the picture is bleak.

if these shops could succeed, they wouldn't have been there and shut down in the past

bigpink

Limerick had 2 topshops one time

Special Circumstances

bigpink wrote: »

Limerick had 2 topshops one time

I've seen bigger caravans than the one that was in the crescent though :pac:

Red King

I don't get the popularity of Jack & Jones - the clothes are awful. One step up from the tracksuit brigade.

grenache

Swiper the fox wrote: »

Also, are you sure about those walking times, I'm very familiar with both cities and feel I could walk the Limerick example a good bit quicker (Parnell st, Sexton st, Cathedral Place)

If you were power walking Rob Heffernan style then I'm sure you could. It would take the average punter minimum 15 mins and most 20.

bigpink

Special Circumstances wrote: »

I've seen bigger caravans than the one that was in the crescent though :pac:

I agree it was a waste of time

zulutango

It's often said that more people would come into the city of there were more high end retailers. It's patent bollocks. The challenge facing Limerick is something else. People don't want to engage with the place and there's all kinds of reasons for that. The streets are hideous. We direct most of our traffic up the main shopping street for Christ sake. It's absolute lunacy. We've terrible public transport. Only about 3% of the population live in the centre and they're among the poorest of us. We boast about our wonderful market while the area around it is one of the most derelict and deprived in the country. But, for some crazy reason, most people including many in the Council and Chamber of Commerce, seem to think that if we get some high end retailers in then everyone will be rushing to Limerick City centre and the city will be transformed.

Silentcorner

ongarboy wrote: »

That's interesting. I wonder why. Is it that the purchasing power of Limerick citizens is less than that of other cities/catchment areas? I wonder is it really because a larger % of the Limerick population are not into the type of clothing that the missing high street chains offer, particularly for men.

Playing the devils advocate here, but when I go out in Dublin, Cork or Galway, I do tend to see more stylishly dressed guys whereas I cannot say the same in Limerick - a lot of guys just seem to wear that generic neutral baggy check shirt and baggy jeans from Dunnes ensemble that they might have also worn in 2005 or 1995. (eg Nancy Blakes on a Saturday night).

Ironically Limerick was the only place I've heard of guys being turned away from a nightclub (Ikon) because they weren't wearing "shoes". Apparently if you wore a cheap 5 euro pair of fake leather shoes from Shoe Zone or Guineys, you'd be left in but if you wear expensive Ted Baker or Hugo Boss trainers, you'd be told "no runners allowed".

Maybe it's observations like above that contribute to the lack of such fashion outlets.

On the Jack'n'Jones comment posted, while a lot of shops provide J&J lines, they will never offer a complete offering like the dedicated J&J stores do. I'm really surprised that Limerick doesn't have one as a lot of smaller towns across Ireland have them (Tralee, Monaghan, Drogheda etc).

The purchasing power is not the issue, the levels of disposable income in Limerick are much higher than people realise. We do have pockets of Social deprivation but that is what they are, pockets, they should not define the entire city...

From a mens clothing retailer point of view I would imagine this city is the hardest to figure out...Limerick is simply not a trendy type of city, similarly the craft beer trend didn't catch on here in Limerick as it did elsewhere, nor did the hipster trend for that matter.

Limerick is a very conservative/unpretentious kind of city that is reflected in how it dresses, how it behaves to all kinds of trends, even in our property market...now that is neither a good thing or a bad thing... but everyone keeps trotting out the old narrative that it is a "working class city" or "was hardest hit by the recession" etc etc and there is some truth in those but they are very one dimensional assessments...

When you think of the logic of spending a high percentage of your income of whatever trend the fashion industry throws at us you might just begin to see Limerick in a different light...

Also, if you are selling product to Tourists this is not the ideal city for that, we get some tourists but they do not go shopping here....

Swiper the fox

grenache wrote: »

If you were power walking Rob Heffernan style then I'm sure you could. It would take the average punter minimum 15 mins and most 20.

So Albert Quay to the Mercy hospital or The Crescent to Johns square??
Which is quicker, is there some website/app that can give the definitive answer??

Swiper the fox

Swiper the fox wrote: »

So Albert Quay to the Mercy hospital or The Crescent to Johns square??
Which is quicker, is there some website/app that can give the definitive answer??

I found it myself, the Limerick route is .8 miles, the Cork route is a few steps shy of 1.2 miles. In both cases I think I've gone the quickest way (the way I'd walk myself)

grenache

Swiper the fox wrote: »

So Albert Quay to the Mercy hospital or The Crescent to Johns square??
Which is quicker, is there some website/app that can give the definitive answer??

I'd imagine your legs would tell you