Ads for now-defunct Irish supermarkets

supereurope

Just a trip down memory lane.

Five Star - ads from 1965, 1970, 1976

Five Star was taken over by Quinnsworth in 1979.

Power Supermarkets - 1964, 1967, 1970

Power Supermarkets bought Quinnsworth in 1972 and decided to use the Quinnsworth name after the takeover. Power Supermarkets remained the legal entity behind Quinnsworth until the Tesco takeover in 1997.

Superquinn - 1970, 1982, 1993

Founder Feargal Quinn sold out to Select Retail Holdings in 2005. Under their ownership, the chain collapsed in 2011. Bought by Musgaves, who rebranded all Superquinn stores as SuperValu in 2014.

Roches Stores - 1966, 1997

Roches Stores formed an alliance with Musgraves in 1998 whereby its nine supermarkets became Supervalu franchises. Over the following years, five of the supermarkets closed as Roches decided the space would be better used for non-food retail. In 2005, Roches decided to exit the grocery business entirely.

supereurope

Some more...

L&N - ads from 1980, 1992

L&N was bought by Musgraves in 1995 and its supermarkets were rebranded as SuperValu. Waterford-based L&N never opened a supermarket in Dublin, but it did get as far north as Ashbourne and Drogheda in the early 1990s.

Quinnsworth - 1972, 1982, 1988

Quinnsworth were taken over by Tesco in 1997.

H Williams - 1951, 1969, 1985

H Williams collapsed in 1987.

3 Guys - 1978, 1979

Albert Gubay's 3 Guys supermarket chain didn't last long. He opened his first store in a blaze of publicity in 1977, but sold the chain to Tesco just two years later.

Tesco - 1980, 1983, 1986

Tesco withdrew from the Irish market in 1986. It would try again, with more success, in 1997.

L1011

Some of those Dublin H Williams branches must have been tiny, shows you what size a supermarket was in 1951.

1 Ross(e) Street Stoneybatter is derelict now but its only a corner shop.

https://dublinghostsigns.wordpress.com/tag/pats-corner/

25 Capel Street is even smaller, its a charity shop now

https://www.buildingsofireland.ie/buildings-search/building/50010426/enable-ireland-25-capel-street-dublin-1-dublin

L1011

There was a small-ish Midlands chain of supermarkets, O'Briens, which all ended up closed or in the hands of Quinnsworth - but one by one rather than a full buyout as far as I can tell. The last two were Edenderry, sold in 1984 and Maynooth sold in 1987.

Still a big enough chain to be advertising a car giveaway in 1983:

There had been mention in local papers of plans for a 100th anniversary event in 1989 but they didn't have any supermarkets by then (still continued as an agri supplier for a bit).

In the era of what we'd see as modern sized supermarkets they also had stores in Drogheda and Naas but they had loads more in midland towns in the slightly-big-normal-shop era.

supereurope

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121123693#Comment_121123693

I'd imagine many of those small H Williams stores didn't survive into the self-service supermarket age, which would have just been starting in the early 1950s. I suspect Capel St and Ross St were gone by the mid-1960s. 15 Lower Baggot Street is still a supermarket to this day, a Tesco Express. The Rathmines stores was on the site of where the Swan Centre is now.

Pawwed Rig

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121124224#Comment_121124224

H William's in Raheny is now a Spervalu. Although the site has been developed somewhat the bones of the original structure are still there

Trampas

I remember crazy prices in crumlin shopping centre where quinnsworth was which ended up as tesco which is gone now

thesandeman

What was a turnover tax? It doesn't ring any bells at all.

NewbridgeIR

Great to see these. I worked in L&N 1987-1989. After school and at weekends. Late night shopping Thursday and Friday. Closed on Sunday. Great times.

ohnonotgmail

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121128132#Comment_121128132

Renamed to VAT in 1972.

Albert Gubay selling his stores not long after opening them was the way he did business. He liked setting them up but not so much the running of them. He had a history of doing that in the UK (he founded Kwik Save) and also new zealand.

thesandeman

I remember in my local Five Star around 1970 one of the regular customers used to be an old woman who used bring a monkey in a cage with wheels around with her.

Also, at Easter time Five Star used always have an incubator type thing with baby chickens in it just inside the front door.

L1011

Five Star were originally owned by DE Willams, as in Tullamore Dew whiskey; random thing I noticed when looking up why there were so many different Quinnsworth sites in Ballyfermot on here before.

Another large enough chain that made it in to the modern supermarket days was Liptons. Firm went in to liquidation in 1976 and there was no single buyer - there was a mix of small stores and modern supermarkets in shopping centres (Stillorgan for instance). Some of the ones I've tracked down are Tesco now but a lot seem to have ended up as independents or are gone. This address is the AIB and Paddy Power in Cabra for instance (and seems to have replaced a more traditional shop sized one at Doyles Corner)

The idea of a supermarket chain going bust seems odd now but it happened to Superquinn and H Williams too.

It actually looks like the chain was partially gutted before selling to an Irish owner - 15 stores to Five Guys and some other disposals in 1975 before the remaining 17 went to the owner that it failed under a year later.

supereurope

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121128138#Comment_121128138

I was only ever in an L&N once - the one in Charleville back in the very early 90s. I can't really recall anything about it, other than the novelty of being in a "new" supermarket."

I have a vague memory of being in a very big supermarket in Dublin when I was around 5 years old. All I recall was that it was very big, very cold and very cash-and-carry-like. My dad says he thinks it was a Gubay store but that's impossible as Gubay was gone before I was born. Based on the time (circa 1985) and the fact we went with my uncle and aunt who lived in Rathfarnham, I think it might have been the Tesco superstore in the Nutgrove.

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121131995#Comment_121131995

Liptons was split in two in 1975 - the bigger stores (13 of them) went to Five Star and a company called Checkout Holdings, owned by property developer Joe McMenamin, took over the remainder, the smaller Liptons shops. I think there were plans to relaunch the smaller stores under a new name, but as you said, they didn't last beyond a year.

thesandeman

There were only three in Galway before the arrival of Quinnsworth. Five Star and Liptons were two. I think the third might have been called MNC?

supereurope

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121134585#Comment_121134585

I don't know Galway at all I'm afraid, but I think there was a supermarket there called GTM, which was the first in the city. Bought by Powers (before they bought Quinnsworth), but they didn't change the name and it continued to trade as GTM, at least until all Power supermarkets were rebranded as Quinnsworth...it might have become a Quinnsworth at that point.

thesandeman

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121324870#Comment_121324870

👍 That's the one. I knew it had three letters in it 😃.

Now I'm trying to remember what MNC was 🤔

z80CPU

H Williams Collie Dollies Did you get yours?

pajor

I remember the Garvey's SuperValu in Dungarvan still carrying the L&N branding inside, at the tail end of the 90s. I had never heard of it before then (I was 8 or 9 at the time).