tesco for Kilkenny

kikel

I'm not against tescos but I'm against another shopping centre going up. I want to see the centre of kilkenny preserved. A tescos would take even more people from the centre of kilkenny.

foxcoverteddy

too be honest I am sure no one wants to see the centre of kilkenny spoilt, it is our heritage and the kids behind us. The council at the time didn't do a lot by hiking Market cross in, a very cheap design that has done nothing for the city, they could not even design a decent car park. As for Market Yard, what it could have been, but it is too late, and MacDonagh station, we all know how good that isn't, and we certainly do not want Tesco stuck in the city.
At the moment they have the old mart and the brewery site, again I would be opposed to any supermarket being built.
we should have learnt, though i have my doubts that a store like Tesco or another dunnes, god forbid can only go on the outskirts like the retail park on the Waterford road.
Go on some smart arse will come back and say such a move will drain the city centre, absolute bull, because Tesco do not sell what the High Street shops sell, be fair, and if the centre was going to be drained isn't it a bit late with the station Dunnes, 2 Lidl/Aldi SV, eurospars and centra's.
It is vital we maintain the Irish tourist face for Kilkenny, it is the life blood of the city, though there are elements who are determined the High Street will not become a plaza a place of pleasure to walk and enjoy the shops, instead we have a crappy high st with tiny pavements ,car fumes, no seating for anyone to enjoy the ambience.
If you try to pedestrianise the place they will shout foul, we are losing trade which as we all know is untrue because most of the tourists come by coach and those who don't are hardly going to park on high st.
I think you have to face facts Tesco will not be coming to kilkenny, unless?

kikel

Smart arse here.

A tesco in the retail park would certainly have an effect on the centre of KK. Not as many people would be going to SQ and DS.

With regard pedestrianisation of high st. That is another debate.

foxcoverteddy

There you have a problem, would Tesco draw shoppers from the city? All the pundits say yes, mainly because of this Tesco backlash from the UK.
Trying to keep the status quo is not easy, whilst we have SQ which in effect is now a glorified SV branch and Dunnes which doesn't seem to be expanding.
No one has as yet quoted the effect that Lidl and Aldi and SV have had on the city centre shops, if any, though it should be possible to calculate from the car park usage, or MacDonagh.
The other side of the problem is how much money is being lost by shoppers going to the other Tesco's in Carlow, clonmel etc, there is no way of calculating that as far as I am aware. Equally now having Aldi in Callan though it may not be as great, will have an effect somewhere.
I think some of the heritage cities/towns in the UK or even my favourite Bruge could give us a clue, you cannot let a city stagnate, people have to live there, but there is this compelling need to preserve what we have.
We had this thing about Kilkenny being like Edinburgh which was absolute crap, Kilkenny is unique and we should be striving to integrate the old and the new, perhaps we will not solve the matter here but at least there could be suggestions coming from Posters which could lead the way forward.
You have got to have out of town shopping, the car dictates that aspect and in this modern world no ones wants to be tied to the old one we are trying to preserve for the future.
Yes the plaza aspect is another story perhaps. But the comments were great thanks Foxy

Rantan

well..work has started on the "medieval mile" project..I think its worth waiting to see how that turns out...its purpose is to do exactly what you have suggested(fox) regarding the centre of town and improving the fothpaths etc..
.
slight tangent here...but i think one of the biggest lost opportunities to develop in KK as a heritage attraction was the decimation of the old lanes off high St...I think those lanes could have been a fantastic "old town" type area you see in other cities around the world, with little craft shops and workshops, coffee shops, wine bars etc.

Deskjockey

Jeez, this thread again?

Deskjockey

foxcoverteddy wrote: »

The other side of the problem is how much money is being lost by shoppers going to the other Tesco's in Carlow, clonmel etc, there is no way of calculating that as far as I am aware. Equally now having Aldi in Callan though it may not be as great, will have an effect somewhere.

I would wager that there are less than 5 households in Kilkenny city who would travel to Tesco Carlow or Clonmel to do their weekly shop



Cos it's bonkers

foxcoverteddy

Yes, Rantan, I am of the same opinion, perhaps it is not too late, I was going on two cities in the UK York, "The Shambles" and Brighton's famous "Lanes", no doubt any intrepid traveller will add even more, perhaps the bazaars of places like Morocco, I think it would add a touch of romance to the city, not that we would welcome illegal pipe smoking dens behind the facades.
I can smell the coffee brewing now, wouldn't it just be right for our city.
I do try not to mention the name but there are two posts about people travelling to Carlow and Clonmel, maybe Waterford etc to shop, unfortunately they do, if I lived well it doesn't matter actually where I would, travel to these places, my friend it has nothing to do with anything, it is all in the mind, apart from the store I won't mention at the moment, of course i could do the shopping in kilken ny and no doubt save money, there is not a thing wrong with our city apart from poxy parking and that in reality isn't that bad.
It is those words "The freedom of choice", I would hate to see anything, spoil what we have, in fact as Rantan says our own lanes would be like the icing on the cake.
I hope to god no developer tries to bring that store into the old mart site, to be frank we should resist it rigfht down to civil disobiedience, yes i feel that strongly at preserving kilkenny city.
Foxy

foxcoverteddy

Deskjockey debate is essential for freedom of the individual, just to say I don't want etc is not looking at the situation from both sides, if your arguement is so blinkered then one should in all honesty keep out. The Tesco problem is vexing to say the least, you see we have on one side those who consider the councils actions dictatorial because we are the only county in the whole of Ireland without Tesco, and one is entitled to ask why.
But having said that there would be the fear of our city centre being decimated, in truth we do not have a lot in Kilkenny there are very few manufacturing units, we do not have large multiple's to encourage shoppers, parking is problematic to some, the road system apart from the motorway is farcical given Kilkenny was an important centre.
Now would Tesco change anything would we be better off? From a shoppers point of view is there much difference between SV, Dunnes and Tesco, not really they are all after yer money but go different ways to get you to spend.
Someone said we can easily go to the ones already established, yes but we tend to spend money that might be better spent in Kilkenny, those dreaded words you find more choice or different choice, which means Kilkenny loses out.
So there is a lot to think about, I am off shopping so have a nice day Foxy

Rantan

Tesco calls Ireland ‘Treasure Island’, TD claims


http://www.irishtimes.com/news/politics/oireachtas/tesco-calls-ireland-treasure-island-td-claims-1.1372525


just putting it out there...from todays Times...

(apologies mods never posted a link before so I am assuming that its OK?)

foxcoverteddy

I am not a political animal but seeing they allowed generous salary increases to BoI yesterday what they are saying and proposing is absolute Bull....e, given we own shares in BoI it is a disgusting state of affairs. Price controls never work, and this shower are really the pits for consumer protection. Back to normal with that off my chest, as long as they don't come knocking for my vote come next election.

Captain Havoc

Links are fine, quoting entire articles aren't.

That Tesco photo'd in the article was one of my two local Tescos in Dublin.

foxcoverteddy

Eh is that your bike outside by any chance? Captain Havoc, Sir

Rantan

foxcoverteddy wrote: »

I am not a political animal but seeing they allowed generous salary increases to BoI yesterday what they are saying and proposing is absolute Bull....e, given we own shares in BoI it is a disgusting state of affairs. Price controls never work, and this shower are really the pits for consumer protection. Back to normal with that off my chest, as long as they don't come knocking for my vote come next election.

"caveat emptor"

if you ask me...2 very under used words today IMO!!

kikel

Rantan wrote: »

.
slight tangent here...but i think one of the biggest lost opportunities to develop in KK as a heritage attraction was the decimation of the old lanes off high St...I think those lanes could have been a fantastic "old town" type area you see in other cities around the world, with little craft shops and workshops, coffee shops, wine bars etc.

No need for me to rant. I 100% agree.

foxcoverteddy

Yes, let the buyer beware, I must admit it is as potent now as ever it was but very much under used.
Some of the terms have a lovely ring about them bona fides, or as often here audi alteram partem,how about caveat venditor, we do have some of these around corpus vile, close with Credo in Unum Deum.
de fideli Foxy

redtelephone

Deskjockey wrote: »

I would wager that there are less than 5 households in Kilkenny city who would travel to Tesco Carlow or Clonmel to do their weekly shop



Cos it's bonkers

You may be right but many people travel from north or south county to Carlow / Clonmel rather than going to Kilkenny. Three out of four Kilkenny people don't live in the city. In my own case it's pretty equal timewise whether I go to Carlow or KK for groceries, but it's normally Carlow because of the choice and the hassle-free parking. Tesco are also delivering a lot of shopping to KK city so people must be buying online.

road_high

Exactly. Kilkenny isn't everyone's "local town" in the county. People down south are closer to Waterford and new Ross. Others in the north and east Carlow is the local big town. Lots of people work in these places too so find themselves shopping after work etc.

foxcoverteddy

Quite a sobering thought, Kilkenny City is not everyones local, to be honest you have seen the problem from another angle, and the fact that Tesco are doing a lot of deliveries to Kilkenny, we used the service during the bad winter, they came from Clonmel.
So already we have a considerable amount of money going out, or not coming into Kilkenny.
One great problem, are we happy for the situation to remain as it is, to protect our city centre, which is unique, not knocking our neighbours but none of them compare to Kilkenny tourist wise.
Putting Tesco on the outskirts of the city, will it drag custom away from the city centre shops, well Dunnes might, jolly well would create as they would be the main store, having said that, go into Penny's any day and the place is buzzing.
It follows that looking at it from that point those who prefer Dunnes will still go to Market Yard/Cross, so having our own Tesco out of town will it reduce the numbers travelling to all the stores dotted around us, to Kilkenny's advantage?
We come back to the old mart and the new road and bridge, is this a very contenious development, do we want that or should the bridge be built away from the city, do we need a super new road destroying parts of old Kilkenny?
Is to the west of the city a prime spot, unfortunately the roads to the west are a disgrace given the importance of Kilkenny, yes there is the motorway running from Cork to dublin skirting Urlingford, but no spur to Kilkenny.
Putting anything near Castlecomer would ruin the village/town, which really only leaves Cillin Hill or Loughboy Retail Park.
Anywhere would be better than trying to implement a Tesco anywhere near the city centre.
I think this needs a lot of work and you have both highlighted some excellent reasons for discussion.
What a sunny morning, Foxy

Grab All Association

One of my friends was in Kilkenny yesterday looking for a Tesco (her first time there) she called me and asked where was the store got into some mood when I told her there isn't one.

Same ****e in Thurles although we already have a Tesco its an old run down store from the 70s (Quinnsworth-Crazy prices-Tesco) they put in a few applications to the council through the years but with every application all the small traders/RGDATA would put in objections for no reason only to crush competition. Whether its Tesco or small shops there are 4 traders in the town who pretty much object to everything and try to dictate who can open a business or not and when the town council gives permission they put on the tears to ABP.

Small towns like Cashel, Roscrea, and Tipperary have Tesco Stores. Kilkenny city (with a much larger population) and county should have at least 1 store.

Dozen Wicked Words

Chris___ wrote: »

One of my friends was in Kilkenny yesterday looking for a Tesco (her first time there) she called me and asked where was the store got into some mood when I told her there isn't one.

Same ****e in Thurles although we already have a Tesco its an old run down store from the 70s (Quinnsworth-Crazy prices-Tesco) they put in a few applications to the council through the years but with every application all the small traders/RGDATA would put in objections for no reason only to crush competition. Whether its Tesco or small shops there are 4 traders in the town who pretty much object to everything and try to dictate who can open a business or not and when the town council gives permission they put on the tears to ABP.

Small towns like Cashel, Roscrea, and Tipperary have Tesco Stores. Kilkenny city (with a much larger population) and county should have at least 1 store.

So she comes to visit Kilkenny, a lovely, historic place and goes lookin for ye olde Tesco? Perhaps your friend should broaden her shopping horizons. Tesco isn't much different from any other supermarket, I'm sure she could have found what ever she was looking for in another shop, or waited until she got back home and gone to her local Tesco.

Cabaal

I honestly don't get people's obsessions with Tesco, its nothing special and certainly not cheap. In many respects I'd rather Kilkenny doesn't have one.

Its as odd as the obsession some people in Waterford have had for a few years about M&S, M&S have nice stuff now and then, but it is very very far from cheap. You certainly wouldn't do your weekly shop in it.

road_high

It's not just tesco and a demand for it. It's that kilkenny Is very poorly served by supermarkets and choice is very poor.
Even worse now superquinn is defunct. Is just another super valu so there's less choice and competition straight off.

road_high

I'll be amazed if tesco don't buy the oldmart site now.

Grats

Other than Tesco Kilkenny is well served by supermarkets. Whatever you might think of SuperValu they are second to Tesco and ahead of Dunnes.

road_high

Grats wrote: »

Other than Tesco Kilkenny is well served by supermarkets. Whatever you might think of SuperValu they are second to Tesco and ahead of Dunnes.

It really isn't! If dunnes and aldi/lidl are your thing then it is. Like super valu too but I do like tesco for a change, one in Carlow. Really the vast range they have that's draw for me. So many things dunnes don't do.

Captain Havoc

Can someone give me specific things Tesco do better than what we already have?

shane 007

Captain Havoc wrote: »

Can someone give me specific things Tesco do better than what we already have?

Tesco's own brand dog food :-)

nhg

Grats wrote: »

Other than Tesco Kilkenny is well served by supermarkets. Whatever you might think of SuperValu they are second to Tesco and ahead of Dunnes.

You obviously haven't shopped (or should I say tried to shop) in Supervalu in Callan so.......

Cabaal

nhg wrote: »

You obviously haven't shopped (or should I say tried to shop) in Supervalu in Callan so.......

I will say Supervalue in Callan has very much improved....but only since Aldi opened, since then they stock has improved and the amount of offers they have has gone up.

Shame it took Aldi to force these improvements. Management were certainly not on the ball and very much became complacent when it came to running the store and offering services to customers, this doesn't exactly create customer loyalty.