Clery's O'Connell Street is gone

ted1

Stheno wrote: »

I work in varied places.

One of them means I land on O'Connell St due to bus stops

At the most, I grab a coffee in starbucks, O'Connell Street to me is just a transit Street, I pass Clearys regularly and never go in there

I'll happily go shopping in Debenhams on Henry Street, or browse on Grafton Street, but never O'Connell St.

That's the thing , with the LUAS on the doorstep it'll totally change it from more than a bus stop.

ted1

Ben D Bus wrote: »

Like it did for Abbey St? BTW, the Abbey St stop is 90 seconds walk from Clerys.

That's not a dig at Luas by the way!

Red line and green line are different, green line will link dundrum, grafton street and O Connell street.

Before the LUAS Sandyford was an industrial estate. It does change

beauf

dudara wrote: »

INO, there is little on O'Connell St to attract the consumer. O'Connell street has been allowed to deteriorate as a shopping destination. The City Council have done little. And now Arnotts are (amongst other issues) reaping that fruit.

I hadn't been on O'Connell street/Abbey street for sometime but now pass through it a lot more often in the last year or so. Ok I realize I'm long out of touch, and looking through rose tinted glasses. But that area doesn't feel (for me) like Dublin anymore, or a Grand Street. It feels like the grubbier part of an industrial city, like London, Manchester or such.

That said it wouldn't be the reason I haven't been in Clerys. That more to do with there was nothing different, or interesting to attract me to it. On reflection, it was my bus stops that used to bring me to O'Connell street. Once my route moved away I stopping going near that part of the city.

ted1

Jellybaby1 wrote: »

It is such a big building, I wonder if there is a possibility of accommodating more than one store. I would hate it to be run down and tacky.

That's more or less what department stores are.

Jellybaby1

Not necessarily. Brown Thomas are not tacky. Switzer's weren't tacky, and now they are gone. It might be possible for some developer to turn it into a shopping hub, or shopping centre with lots of different stores in it.

ted1

Jellybaby1 wrote: »

Not necessarily. Brown Thomas are not tacky. Switzer's weren't tacky, and now they are gone. It might be possible for some developer to turn it into a shopping hub, or shopping centre with lots of different stores in it.

Haha. I meant the several different stores bit, not the tacky part.

seamusk84

Very sad news, but are we really suprised? O Connell street has been going downhill since about 95 in my opinion. All the nice paving in the world won't help that.

I'd suggest that the building become a top class hotel and then the rest of the street will change for the better and cater to the tourist market more. The Gresham and Clerys as two landmark hotels in the heart of the city. Could work.

Jellybaby1

Possible developers are probably watching this thread for all the great ideas!

KungPao

Will be a Lidl.

millie35

KungPao wrote: »

Will be a Lidl.

Or maybe a great big Dealz

Simon2015

millie35 wrote: »

Or maybe a great big Dealz

Or a cash for gold shop.

NSAman

Sad news about Clearys, DCC has a huge amount to play in this closure IMHO. The redesign of O'Connell street (which is sterile and frankly awful) the complete lack of ability to drive through O'Connell street has left Dublin's Main Street devoid of life, devoid of atmosphere and a complete no go area unless you are transiting though it.,,,, the store has been sidelined by its management not keeping up with the times, but also the alienation of the store which is a fantastic landmark to a secondary location at this stage.

markpb

NSAman wrote: »

the complete lack of ability to drive through O'Connell street has left Dublin's Main Street devoid of life,

Ignoring the fact that you *can* drive on O'Connell street in both directions, I don't see how you could think that limiting cars would affect it negatively. Grafton St manages just fine with no cars at all. The vast majority of people in the city centre either live there or got there by public transport or cycling. Only a small minority get there by driving.

Also there's very little that DCC can build to improve O'Connell street - something needs to be done to improve the types of shops there but they can't kick out the existing retailers. Regent st in London is entirely owned by a very small number of landlords who rightly control the tenants and take good care of the building. If O'Connell st is to improve, that would be a great model.

AndonHandon

Seeing the word "santy" in this thread makes me shudder.

murraychrisg

In fairness everyone says it's terrible and how sad... But it's been like the old dog out the back that the kids don't want to have anything to do with! And when he's gone... It's poor Rex. I'm sorry but yeah a flagship store in Dublin has closed, but not due to the government and how it is managing the city centre! But the international effect on every domestic market globally! Arrnots survived by adapting, roches stores didn't! Clerys was not on the shopping streets and this did not help either!!! Times have changed and they have done absolutely zero to get new business!!! Sucks for people who bring their children to Santa there every year... But not one swallow does a summer make!!
And people losing there jobs also sucks.... But unfortunately it's how it went! I wouldn't like to see anyone struggle to find work after the closure BUT..... Clerys are to blame for it!!!!! Not anyone else!!!!!

ProudDUB

Really, really sad news and another nail in the coffin for O'Connell St, which is so sad. It has so much potential and its let go to rack and ruin. Don't see how Dublin City Council are largely to blame though. You can't blame the streets bad reputation on them, or the junkie problem on them, or the fact that the Guards are powerless to deal with all the anti social problems on the street.

On Clearys itself, add me to the list of people who rarely shopped there. The second floor tea rooms did a good afternoon tea, but other than that I'd rarely go in to the building. Even when I lived in town and was setting up house for the very first time, I bought far more stuff in Arnotts, M&S, Dunnes, Debenhams etc than I did in Clearys. Don't think I ever bought a stitch of clothing in there either.

NorthStars

Phoenix3 wrote: »

Just heard from an employee That Clery,s has closed with immediate effect and has been liquidated despite earlier news of the company has been sold.

That's Enda's recovery for you.

Kermit.de.frog

NorthStars wrote: »

That's Enda's recovery for you.

What has this got to do with the government?


It has already been pointed out retail sales are up 10% so far this year.


The only people to blame are Clearys for being stuck in the past and Dublin City Council and the Gardai for overseeing the deterioration of that part of the city.

It has nothing to do with the government any more than if Harrods opened in the middle of Ballymun and expressed shock that it didn't get enough customers.

It's a mix of poor management at the store and bad management by a (largely SF incidentally) council that does not give a damn about the city or just could not be bothered.

Kermit.de.frog

I'll make a prediction on what the new owners should do and probably will do if they had any business sense.


I'd look to the top of the street at Doctor Quirkeys and then i'd look down the street at McDonalds and Burger King and Anne Summers and i'd make a decision to put a store there that will do feck all for the prestige of the street but will attract in the clientele that would be attracted to a main street that the planning authorities have such derision for.

And they'd make far more money then if they actually made an effort because that is the standard set by the planners for O'Connell Street.

SpaceTime

I don't actually remember O'Connell Street as anything other than a very busy bus stop area. There's nothing on it other than easons

I've never set foot in Cleary's in my entire life for some reason.

My granny certainly shopped there and mentioned them a lot but I just never felt any reason to go there.

So it's pretty obvious that it was badly marketed for many, many years.

This kind of thing happens to old department stores but what's happening to O'Connell Street is disgraceful.

Seriously, even compared to Cork major parts of central Dublin were allowed to become a bit scary.

Compare O'Connell Street to Patrick St. The latter is thronging with major international and local stores and is extremely busy. There's no reason and no excuse for what's happened to O'Connell St.

It's a combination of bad planning and historical snobbery about the North Inner city that prevents people locating things there.

If the council wanted to reverse this they could simply do rates incentives to get businesses into the area. Without active businesses you get druggies, thugs, bad vibe and it goes into terminal decline.

It's an utter disgrace for what is supposed to be the centre piece boulevard of Dublin and a street that was the heart of the city decades ago.

I'm actually even a bit concerned about Grafton St. Walked it recent you and it's not very attractive anymore. That new paving has made it seem dull and the mix of stores isn't as good as it used to be. Also the Marie Celeste Stephens green centre urgently needs a renovation. It's a huge space with nothing useful inside!

NorthStars

Kermit.de.frog wrote: »

The country is uncompetitive and that costs jobs. No lessons have been learned from the crisis.

This is where all the pay rise lark becomes fatal for jobs. Sad to see it close but not at all surprised.

Was Clery's on a lease or do the owners own the building too?

tricky D

Thread closed pending review/clean up

Edit: thread tidied up and reopened. Some posters need to remind themselves of the DC and Boards charters and cut out the trolling and calling out trolls, bickering, backseat modding, soapboxing, name calling, off topic posts, generally being uncivil. Please pause and bear that in mind before pressing the post button. Tx, bye.

tricky D

Also spare a thought for suppliers too. A friend of mine has lost around €1k worth of stock - kind of lucky. Most others will have lost a lot more.

Back in the mid 90s some fresh management blood was brought on board by Clerys. They saw the opportunities and threats that the Internet posed but they never seemed to tackle the issue properly as far as I could see. The still live website had no ecommerce functions with just a brochure type of site, unlike much of the competition (from a quick glance), so that's a big ball dropped.

Management didn't seem up to scratch in other areas too.

The ceiling collapse of 2 years ago would also have damaged the business significantly as it was shut for 4 months and also some fire damage from an incident in January.

Poor trading conditions due to recession.

Not enough shoppers willing to cross O'Connell St despite it only being a stone's throw from Henry St.

Even the notion of meeting under the clock has taken a hit possibly due to mobile phones and the 'where are you now?' phenomenon. That might have nibbled the brand a small bit.

As to what next, it might be tricky due to the protected status of the building or parts of it. I assume at least some of it is protected but not sure. Will another retailer want to move in? Hotel?

Jellybaby1

I notice there hasn't been any mention of Boyers in this thread. Does Clery's still own Boyers?

SimonTemplar

So now that Clery's has closed, what is left of note on O'Connell St. I can only think of the GPO, Savoy and possibly Easons. Otherwise, it is simply a large public transport hub, and the associated facilities such as convenience shops and fast food places.

jimmii

Jellybaby1 wrote: »

I notice there hasn't been any mention of Boyers in this thread. Does Clery's still own Boyers?

Its part of Arnotts had been since the 60s.

jimmii

SimonTemplar wrote: »

So now that Clery's has closed, what is left of note on O'Connell St. I can only think of the GPO, Savoy and possibly Easons. Otherwise, it is simply a large public transport hub, and the associated facilities such as convenience shops and fast food places.

Penneys as well. Other than that its just fast food places really which is a shame it has so much potential.

ixoy

The OH bought a coat there this week. He had looked around lots of other shops in the previous weeks and it was a while before he even thought to look in Clearys despite passing it nearly daily. It just never seemed a place worth going into for many and that was a big problem.

Teyla Emmagan

That's really sad. Clery's was an iconic institution and part of Dublin history. I worked in the Vhi for a while and it was one of the few 'good' shops down there. Nice for a coffee, great range of goods etc. But sadly too much of the store had lost an audience and the flood seemed to have really hurt them.

The location should be a good one but that part of the city centre has been allowed to deteriorate so much it's just not attractive for shoppers any more. Very hard for a shop to survive as an island, there is just nothing else decent there to pull people in around it. You need a bit of critical mass for a retail premises to survive and although O'Connell St may be busy it wasn't with people who would support Clery's. Commuters and junkies and people eating burgers don't spend money and the spot the shop is in is now a really poor one. They have let O'Connell St go to the dogs sadly. Clery's was the best thing about it and now it's gone too.

AMKC

jimmii wrote: »

Penneys as well. Other than that its just fast food places really which is a shame it has so much potential.

Eason,s is still there yes. There is also DrQuirky,s Emporium as well and the Dublin Bus head quarters.

I heard the company that bought Clearys plans to build a shopping centre there. As if another one is needed. I think its very sad that it is now gone but that a John Lewis there would be a great solution. It is up to the new company that now owns the building as to what happens now do.