Who remembers Roches Stores?

Andy From Sligo · 08-07-2018 8:23pm #1

I knew roches stores went ages ago - but surprised it closed way back in 2007. good store that. Had to travel to Galway to go shop there , because there wasnt one in Sligo (now there's a surprise) anyone else on here used to like that store?

bee06 · 08-07-2018 8:26pm

Roches was the best! Whatever you needed they had it. I’m surprised it only closed 11 years ago. Seems like longer.

odyssey06 · 08-07-2018 8:26pm

Yes, one of my first memories is a shopping trip to Roches to pick out a new jacket for Christmas...

Speedsie · 08-07-2018 8:27pm

I still use many items originally purchased in Roches over the years. It really had everything you needed.
Miss it as a shop.

How Soon Is Now · 08-07-2018 8:27pm

I remember the one in Tallaght. Also remember the one on Henry Street having great selection of pick and mix haha!

corner of hells · 08-07-2018 8:40pm

I remember the Roche's Stores in Henry Street well.

An interesting fact for ya'll was that the Henry Street branch used no CCTV relying on a team of store detectives who used move around the store on catwalks above the shop floor and behind false walls.

Another benefit for the store detectives was that they often kicked the bollix out of shoplifters without fear of being recorded doing it.

Disclaimer , may or may not be true.

Allinall · 08-07-2018 8:44pm

Roches Stores in Henry Street had a deadly haberdashery department.

To this day I don’t know of any other one in Dublin .

Water John · 08-07-2018 8:47pm

Roches was a great chain of stores, original in Cork. Always quality and everyone got their weddings presents there and they would exchange them, no problem.

nullzero · 08-07-2018 8:48pm

Debenhams bought them out as far as I know,closed a load of the smaller branches and rebranded the rest doing a similar type of business only not as good. Roches had fantastic bed sheets and stuff like that, clearys did similar things and they're gone too. Long live the British chain stores and their lower standards.

votecounts · 08-07-2018 8:49pm

I have fond memories of the shops in Wilton and Patrick Street. Pity they are gone.

Conservatory · 08-07-2018 8:50pm

I remember all the country folk used to come up to Dublin on the same day every year to do their Christmas shopping.

PandaPoo · 08-07-2018 8:53pm

Roches in Nutgrove was my local. Up the big escalator

Andy From Sligo · 08-07-2018 8:55pm

Conservatory wrote: »

I remember all the country folk used to come up to Dublin on the same day every year to do their Christmas shopping.

8th december?

suicide_circus · 08-07-2018 8:58pm

Roches Frascati was replaced by M&S when we got notions

Conservatory · 08-07-2018 8:59pm

Andy From Sligo wrote: »

8th december?

Yeah what was that all about?

Ubbquittious · 08-07-2018 9:04pm

Yep. Founded by a Killavullen man I do believe, frittered away the proceeds on wimmin and dhrink

AllGunsBlazing · 08-07-2018 9:04pm

I was more traumatised by being dragged into BHS during the annual shopping trip to Dublin. It meant new shoes and slacks for school and summer parole was all but done. Depressed.

corner of hells · 08-07-2018 9:06pm

Conservatory wrote: »

Yeah what was that all about?

It was a day to allow Dublin pickpockets and young fellahs who break into culchie cars to supplement their income coming up to Christmas.

biko · 08-07-2018 9:06pm

I used to shop in Roches on Eyre street. Have no particularly fond memories of it though, just another shop.

stampydmonkey · 08-07-2018 9:08pm

Roches Stores Galway....best sport dept/creche ever.

Half the parents of Galway would dump the kids in there to wander around while they fecked off down the town. They had a tiny grey TV showing world cup games over and over...there'd be 7 or 8 kids staring up at it on a Saturday morning.

Conservatory · 08-07-2018 9:09pm

corner of hells wrote: »

It was a day to allow Dublin pickpockets and young fellahs who break into culchie cars to supplement their income coming up to Christmas.

In fairness times were tough before we had all the tourists and foreign students to rob.

kurtainsider · 08-07-2018 9:11pm

I used to go to Roaches stores in the Wilton Shopping Center in Cork. My memory of it is that the staff were always very nice and friendly.

chakademus · 08-07-2018 9:11pm

Best place for fancy paper.

Conservatory · 08-07-2018 9:13pm

chakademus wrote: »

Best place for fancy paper.

And pliers

iamwhoiam · 08-07-2018 9:14pm

I was in Debenhams on Friday and it was a car boot sale . Really tacky and clothes racks everywhere .
Roches was much classier in its day and I loved its home ware department .

GrumpyMe · 08-07-2018 9:19pm

Fond memories of watching the populace attempting to us those newfangled moving stairs... in the Henry Street flagship store
https://comeheretome.com/2012/03/07/the-roches-stores-escalators/

charlietheminxx · 08-07-2018 9:25pm

Whenever I was off school as a child, I used to go to town with my nana on a Thursday for a bit of shopping. We always met some of her nieces in the cafe in the Henry St Roches afterwards for a coffee and a snack, I always remember them doing lovely desserts. Can still picture the layout and us trying to find a table while carrying a tray.

This thread has made me a bit nostalgic and sad now (disclaimer: because I miss my Nana, not the desserts).

colm_mcm · 08-07-2018 9:27pm

I remember in the early 90s, the one in Patrick Street in Cork has an orange juice machine that they would feed oranges into. Had never seen one before!

Andy From Sligo · 08-07-2018 9:31pm

Conservatory wrote: »

Yeah what was that all about?

oh it 'was the day to go' - something to do with religion , and the kids were off school for the day. I was one of the great un-washed cultchies that used to travel up from Sligo to Dublin on the iarnrod eireann orange yoke craven A's or whatever they were (nice comfy seats) 18 Irish Punt return day trip

Try_harder · 08-07-2018 9:31pm

Roches thread? Nostalgia ain't what it used to be...

Corruptedmorals · 08-07-2018 9:32pm

I have great memories of playing on the swings, the sweet counter, the cafe and the shoe section beside it, the posters and hairbands section and getting lost and sitting on the customer service desk while they announced me as a lost child over the intercom.

iamwhoiam · 08-07-2018 9:32pm

GrumpyMe wrote: »

Fond memories of watching the populace attempting to us those newfangled moving stairs... in the Henry Street flagship store
https://comeheretome.com/2012/03/07/the-roches-stores-escalators/

God I had forgotten all about it till now , my nan was with my sister and fell on the escalator in Henry St . She fell forwards and came all the way down face first . Luckily a storeman stopped it at the last minute .

miketheDIYman · 08-07-2018 9:37pm

Yes Roches Store's staff had a friendly attitude and were always keen to assist - this worked from Management down the line

Drake66 · 08-07-2018 9:38pm

Andy From Sligo wrote: »

I knew roches stores went ages ago - but surprised it closed way back in 2007. good store that. Had to travel to Galway to go shop there , because there wasnt one in Sligo (now there's a surprise) anyone else on here used to like that store?

I used to work in the one in Henry Street during college. I loved it. The staff were great : it was like a big family. I avoid going into the Debenhams there now. It will never be on the level that Roche's was at service-wise. It is now just another soleless British style high Street shop.

Stephen15 · 08-07-2018 9:39pm

I remember the one in Blackrock used to have a Supervalu attached and then that got replaced with a Marks and Spencer's food section.

Atoms for Peace · 08-07-2018 11:50pm

AFAik the Roche's still own the buildings but have leased them to debhanbums.

New Home · 08-07-2018 11:58pm

I bought stuff in Roches that I haven't been able to find anywhere else since then. They looked like shops your great aunt would go to, but I miss them.

Andy From Sligo · 09-07-2018 12:04am

New Home wrote: »

I bought stuff in Roches that I haven't been able to find anywhere else since then. They looked like shops your great aunt would go to, but I miss them.

yep i used to like finding stuff you wouldnt find anywhere else - i wonder what they would be like these days if they had carried on trading.

in a way the story reminds me of woolworths in the UK, you could get a range of different items you couldnt get anywhere else in there too and they also ceased trading in 2007 too - blamed on the bubble bursting (we called it the Celtic Tiger in Ireland, not sure what nickname they had in the UK for that time)

twowheelsonly · 09-07-2018 12:11am

Ubbquittious wrote: »

Yep. Founded by a Killavullen man I do believe, frittered away the proceeds on wimmin and dhrink

Lol... His son, Stanley, ran the Cork businesses for years and was an absolute gentleman, widely respected by everyone including his staff. Met him a few times through my own job at the time and he was one of those fellas that if you didn't know him you'd presume him to be an ordinary Joe Soap. No airs and graces at all. He passed away about 10 years ago.

He married a Dutch (or German ??) lady called Heidi and I remember being told the story of how it led to a court case as her first husband sued him, basically for stealing her away from him !! Can't remember the details of it now but by all accounts it was a huge story at the time.

BuboBubo · 09-07-2018 12:13am

Visited the one in City Square Waterford umpteen times before Debenhams arrived.

Bought many pairs of Levis there back in the 90's.

Andy From Sligo · 09-07-2018 12:17am

memory is foggy , im just trying to think all what items they sold:

Homeware stuff

Electrical stuff

Clothes

Kitchen bakeware and that

toys?

cannot think now what else - good shop though

New Home · 09-07-2018 12:21am

Clothes, garden, hardware, kitchen stuff, shoes, hair accessories, "jewellery", make-up... you mention it, they had it.

AMKC · 09-07-2018 12:58am

I do remember it yes. Loved the one on Henry Street in Dublin. I was also in the one in Waterford or Wexford one of them citys. That's where I started collecting Micro Machines. Anyone remember them? Choose the wrong ones do. Still have them somewhere. Must have spent 50 Irish pounds collecting the ones from this certain huge franchise. Wish I had of bought the ones from the other Franchise first do and it might have gotten bigger. The other franchise could have waited. As it was they stopped making the ones I had not bought not long after it. Bought some years later from E-Bay.

Gadgetman496 · 09-07-2018 1:03am

Atoms for Peace wrote: »

AFAik the Roche's still own the buildings but have leased them to debhanbums.

Correct.

Retailer Roches Stores, founded in Cork in the early 1900s, has announced plans to sell its nationwide chain of shops to the British high street giant Debenhams.

It took six years to rebuild the Roches Stores premises on Saint Patrick’s Street after it was destroyed during the burning of Cork city in December 1920. The small furniture shop founded by William Roche went on to become one of the countries best known chain-stores with 11 shops trading throughout the country.

In a deal worth €29 million, the company will continue to own its properties in Dublin, Cork, Limerick, Tralee, Galway and Waterford, leasing them back to Debenhams. Howevever 90 jobs will be lost and the remaining 2000 employees will transfer to the new owners. Linda Tanham of Mandate Trade Union says

Source:

Andy From Sligo · 09-07-2018 1:03am

haha just found this online:

11 memories you'll have if you ever shopped in Roches Stores

Chaos Tourist · 09-07-2018 1:15am

Andy From Sligo wrote: »

I knew roches stores went ages ago - but surprised it closed way back in 2007. good store that. Had to travel to Galway to go shop there , because there wasnt one in Sligo (now there's a surprise) anyone else on here used to like that store?

No I wasn't familiar with it. Was it good? Are you still pining for Roches Stores Galway after a decade?

Was it your pick-up point to score some Mary Jane --a little bit of ganja for the weekend?;)

Aglomerado · 09-07-2018 1:20am

The O'Connell Street Limerick one was our Mecca. There used to be a nice nativity scene on the stairs at Christmas, I always remember that. School uniforms & electrical goods were always got there!
Plus the seats inside the front doors where old folk from the country waiting for the Saturday bus back to East Clare would congregate; would always bump into several neighbours there.

Rubberchikken · 09-07-2018 1:21am

Who doesnt remember it. It was a great shop. Way better than the replacement - debenhams.
Still, life is all about change so i dont give the past too much thought.

super_furry · 09-07-2018 1:22am

I used to work in Roches Tallaght on the night pack back when I was still in college. Was a great place to work for and they really looked after their staff well. Had a friend doing the exact sameness job in Dunnes at the time and he hated it. Five to nine or seven to 11pm stacking shelves, and overtime if it ever went over that with staff nights once a month. Was sad to see them go when they did.

jaxxx · 09-07-2018 1:34am

F*ck off, only 11 years ago? If I had to have put money on it, I would have said at least 20.

somefeen · 09-07-2018 1:58am

The way everyone thinks it shut long before 2007 kinda says it must have been in decline for a long time.
I still hear people in Cork call debenhams Roche's though

Who remembers Roches Stores?

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