where was the old crazy prices in relation to the present day dundrum town centre ?

mikedublin

Would anyone know where the old crazy prices store (1980s) was in relation to the present day dundrum town centre ?

I am just curious, as I remember the old crazy prices store, but so much has changed in that area I can't figure out where it was. I've been trying to find an old map of dundrum that might show the roads as they used to be.

dbagman

Isn't the old shopping centre still there?? Down near the luas Bridge??

mikedublin

Not the old shopping centre , (which you are right, is still there), but the large crazy prices supermarket which was somewhere further out of dundrum, on a large site passed the old pye factory, which I think became the dundrum bowling alley in the mid 80s.

Elegant Chaos

I think it's "under" the surface carpark to the south of the current Town Centre, where the retail park and Tesco service station are.
If you take a look at the OSI online maps here and toggle between Ortho 2000 and Ortho 2005 in the Preview Map series pane, you'll see where Crazy Prices was and what it gets replaced by.

dogmatix

Elegant Chaos wrote: »

I think it's "under" the surface carpark to the south of the current Town Centre, where the retail park and Tesco service station are.
If you take a look at the OSI online maps here and toggle between Ortho 2000 and Ortho 2005 in the Preview Map series pane, you'll see where Crazy Prices was and what it gets replaced by.

Thats right. Mind you you it became a tesco in it's final years which was a bit unusual as there was already a tesco in dundrum in the old shopping centre (now lidl).

Before crazy prices it was H.Williams if I remember. And thats as far back as I go...

testicles

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Fratton Fred

testicles wrote: »

This post has been deleted.

up until relatively recently, my wife and her siblings still referred to Tesco Ballybrack as "Crazy Bastards".

dogmatix

Bringing back memories now - anyone remember Maurice Pratt's TV ads for quinnsworth? He was a local lad too - well local in the sense that he was an ex-Benildus man.

I seem to remember there was a very similar looking guy who did the ad's for crazy prices at the same time.

As for Crazy prices/H.Williams - I think it was 3 Guys before the name change to H.Willams? Which is funny (kind of) as there is now a five guys in Dundrum. The circle of life...

huskerdu

I reckon that Crazy prices was where the petrol station is now, or the overground car park.

When you drove down the Sandyford road towards Dundrum, it was just past the left turn to Ballinteer.

DOCARCH

dogmatix wrote: »

I think it was 3 Guys before the name change to H.Willams?

I think it was Gubay's? At least that's what I remember it being called?

Always loved going there as a kid! It was like no other supermarket with all the stock stored high up on racks (a bit like B&Q!).

whiskeyman

Loved going to the old Crazy Prices.
As kids, we played in the grass hills that surrounded the shopping centre as the parents were inside doing the shopping... especially on thursday 'Crazy nights'

ted1

dbagman wrote: »

Isn't the old shopping centre still there?? Down near the luas Bridge??

That was quinnsworth, crazy prices is up where Tesco is now

rubadub

DOCARCH wrote: »

I think it was Gubay's? At least that's what I remember it being called?.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Albert_Gubay#3_Guys

Ireland - Gubay founded 3 Guys in Ireland, selling the chain to the H Williams chain of supermarkets in 1986, which subsequently collapsed in the same year. Many ended up as outlets of other chains, including Crazy Prices, which was later bought by Tesco together with a residual stake in a new 3 Guys chain to create Tesco Ireland

I heard this "3 guys" name only in the last few years. I know the tesco in ballybrack was once referred to as gubays, i.e. I am not saying that was the official name but definitely heard it being called that, and referred to that after it had gone through several changes. I could picture people refusing to call it the stupidly named "3 guys" and stick with the owners name, just like some pubs would still be referred to as the older names, rather than some new "cool" name.

There was h williams in killiney shopping centre, which is currently a supervalu.

Albert Gubay died earlier this year -5 January 2016 (aged 87)

"Pact with God"[edit]
In summer 1997, Gubay told an RTÉ television documentary that he had made a "50-50" deal with God, promising when he was younger and penniless to give half his estate to the Roman Catholic Church, if he succeeded in becoming a millionaire.[14]

In March 2010 Gubay announced that he was to transfer £470 million of his £480 million personal fortune to a charitable trust.[19] Half the income must be spent on projects connected with the Catholic Church with the rest distributed at the discretion of the trustees.

http://www.gazettegroup.com/news/council-called-upon-detail-e50k-site-funds/

“In 1979, a deal was done between the Ballybrack Shopping Centre developers at the time, Gubay, and the council to develop the land for community use as a library and a community centre, but neither one was built.

http://www.whai.ie/company/rory-sheehy-footwear-limited-68047/

Rory Sheehy Footwear Limited is an Irish company that’s been in the business since 05 April 1979. It is currently located at Unit 7, 3 Guys Shopping Centre, Ballybrack, Co. Dublin. and its status is dissolved. The last time company accounts were received was on 19 April 1991.

-that's crazy prices, aaaaaat super crazy prices, don't you miss it!

patrickbrophy18

Who could forget Wally Wabbits?

When I was aged 7 to 12, I went there regularly for birthdays. Some memories. It wasn't too dissimilar to Bam-Bams or the Fun Factory.

Didn't "The Dundrum Bowl" have a rollerblading area?

Gareth Keenan

patrickbrophy18 wrote: »

Who could forget Wally Wabbits?

When I was aged 7 to 12, I went there regularly for birthdays. Some memories. It wasn't too dissimilar to Bam-Bams or the Fun Factory.

Didn't "The Dundrum Bowl" have a rollerblading area?

I was in Tesco Ballybrack last night and bumped into a local who referred to it as Gubays

I remember a Quasar area in the Dundrum Bowl, not a roller blading place

Del2005

patrickbrophy18 wrote: »

Who could forget Wally Wabbits?

When I was aged 7 to 12, I went there regularly for birthdays. Some memories. It wasn't too dissimilar to Bam-Bams or the Fun Factory.

Didn't "The Dundrum Bowl" have a rollerblading area?

Don't remember a roller blading area. I do remember the swimming pool they used to have occasionally.

Walter2016

I'm showing my age here

Wasn't it 3 guys first, then H Williams, then didn't H Williams try a format called Giant, then it became Crazy Prices.

Located almost exactly where the Tesco petrol station is now or slightly north.

And to add... H Williams gave green shield stamps, double on Mondays and Tuesdays, if the bell went you got double as well. The green shield head office was in a spanking new modern office on main Street Dundrum - now PTSB.

coylemj

dogmatix wrote: »

Bringing back memories now - anyone remember Maurice Pratt's TV ads for quinnsworth? He was a local lad too - well local in the sense that he was an ex-Benildus man.

Yes, Pratt was CEO of Quinnsworth, then left to do the same job in C&C.

Before Maurice became the TV face of Quinnsworth, their TV ads featured the founder Pat Quinn (always kitted out in a jacket and a white polo neck) and comedian Hal Roach.

dogmatix wrote: »

I seem to remember there was a very similar looking guy who did the ad's for crazy prices at the same time.

Was he a nutty guy from norn iron?

dogmatix

Del2005 wrote: »

Don't remember a roller blading area. I do remember the swimming pool they used to have occasionally.

I believe the swimming pool was only available after periods of especially heavy rain. Funny - they never reopened after the last big swimming event in the early 90's.

dogmatix

coylemj wrote: »

Was he a nutty guy from norn iron?

Aye he was from the north - crazy prices got a bit of stick at the time as they where being accused of copying the idea from Quinnsworth. Can't remember his name - wonder what the pair of them are doing now.

ted1

Gareth Keenan wrote: »

I was in Tesco Ballybrack last night and bumped into a local who referred to it as Gubays

I remember a Quasar area in the Dundrum Bowl, not a roller blading place

Toward s the end it became a roller blade rink.

Remember The place used to flood every 2nd year.

People were shocked when the shopping centre flooded, how short their memories are.

LXFlyer

dogmatix wrote: »

Aye he was from the north - crazy prices got a bit of stick at the time as they where being accused of copying the idea from Quinnsworth. Can't remember his name - wonder what the pair of them are doing now.

Jim Megaw was the Crazy Prices guy

SimonMaher

My mam would still call Tescos in Ballybrack Gubays.

When Ballybrack was built (the local authority estates) there was no Supermarket at all so people had to trail up to H Williams at the Graduate or make the trek to Dunnes in Cornelscourt.

3 Guys, as it was titled but never known as, was a revelation in the pack em high sell em cheap style of retailing. Gubays became Tesco and eventually that version of Tesco was bought out by H Williams who branded the Ballybrack store as Giant Trading Company. When they went bang, Quinnsworth bought the lot and opened a Quinnsworth branch in the old House and Home store round by the hairdressers. This then allowed them to build Super Crazy Prices in the main unit which stayed until Tesco bought back in. Modern day Tescos (Gubays!) in Ballybrack encompasses both stores.

I can remember that detail, but not my PIN number.

Simon

Walter2016

dogmatix wrote: »

I believe the swimming pool was only available after periods of especially heavy rain. Funny - they never reopened after the last big swimming event in the early 90's.

It had just been refurbished, they had a grand reopening, and a week later it flooded.

Insurance co refused to insure it again, so it closed for good.

coylemj

lxflyer wrote: »

Jim Megaw was the Crazy Prices guy

He hasn't gone away you know, Big Jim is back!

Belfast Telegraph Oct 4th, 2016......

Jim Megaw, the genial former Crazy Prices frontman, has entered the digital age with a new 30-second spot for entertainment complex We Are Vertigo that pays homage to the ads that made him a much-loved household name.

http://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/news/northern-ireland/crazy-prices-jim-megaw-back-in-new-ad-campaign-35100808.html

tabbey

DOCARCH wrote: »

I think it was Gubay's? At least that's what I remember it being called?

Always loved going there as a kid! It was like no other supermarket with all the stock stored high up on racks (a bit like B&Q!).

Albert Gubay's "3Guys" never really succeeded in the Irish market. Even when it became Crazy Prices, the poor relation of the Tesco group, it had poor standards.
one time about twenty years ago, I bought rashers from the Ballybrack store, which reeked when I opened the packet. Having returned with the rotten product, the checkout staff told me to bring them to the butcher counter, I was embarassed with the smell, walking through the store. The so-called butcher said "they're not that bad".

For years I never bought meat from any part of Tesco.

djemba djemba

Not sure what made me think of this but was there a Crazy Prices bus? I think it ran to Ballyogan. It did exist didn't it or am I making it up.

SEPT 23 1989

djemba djemba wrote: »

Not sure what made me think of this but was there a Crazy Prices bus? I think it ran to Ballyogan. It did exist didn't it or am I making it up.

There was one in wexford as well

coylemj

djemba djemba wrote: »

Not sure what made me think of this but was there a Crazy Prices bus? I think it ran to Ballyogan. It did exist didn't it or am I making it up.

Back in about the 1980s, Dublin Bus had an option whereby the entire external surface of a bus could be used for a single advertisement. I recall one for Bird's Eye frozen peas and there was a few other companies that bought in to the idea.

LXFlyer

coylemj wrote: »

Back in about the 1980s, Dublin Bus had an option whereby the entire external surface of a bus could be used for a single advertisement. I recall one for Bird's Eye frozen peas and there was a few other companies that bought in to the idea.

Nothing to do with that.

These were Bus Eireann vehicles on private hire to Crazy Prices on a dedicated shuttle run.

ozzy jr

You guys might enjoy this link,

https://lovindublin.com/feature/check-out-these-photos-of-dundrum-before-the-shopping-centre-was-built

patrickbrophy18

ozzy jr wrote: »

You guys might enjoy this link,

https://lovindublin.com/feature/check-out-these-photos-of-dundrum-before-the-shopping-centre-was-built

Thanks for that ozzy jr, looking at those photos really jogged my childhood memories of going to Wally Wabbits and Dundrum Bowl itself.

Wasn't there a roller blade area in the Dundrum Bowl shortly before it closed?

Either that or it was very nearby as I distinctly remember going to one for a mates 11th/12th birthday. Man, that makes me feel old!;)

I still see the old Dundrum Shopping Center whenever I go there and I've noticed moss growing all over the external escalator system. It's kind of eerie to look at.

whiskeyman

patrickbrophy18 wrote: »

Thanks for that ozzy jr, looking at those photos really jogged my childhood memories of going to Wally Wabbits and Dundrum Bowl itself.

Wasn't there a roller blade area in the Dundrum Bowl shortly before it closed?

Either that or it was very nearby as I distinctly remember going to one for a mates 11th/12th birthday. Man, that makes me feel old!;)

I still see the old Dundrum Shopping Center whenever I go there and I've noticed moss growing all over the external escalator system. It's kind of eerie to look at.

Roller blade rink was opened after the 'great flood' as far as I remember.
Used to love playing quazar in there. Seemed massive at the time, but sure we were only nippers running about!

I haven't been down to the old Dundrum Shopping Centre in years... or the village. Must take a visit down to see it someday.
Have fond memories of going there into Bewleys for sausages and chips!