New Shops/Businesses in Bray

Yes just not something the town needs. Same as chemists, beauty salons and barbers/hairdressers.

Main St needs more quality clothing options (not Sports Direct!), and good food options. I suppose that's done by Elephant & Castle but would like to see a Butlers Coffee, Penney's and maybe even TK Maxx whihc has been rumoured.

Just a few ideas

I agree, a very poor selection of both shops and eateries, certainly nothing that will entice me to make an effort to go there. Sure, if I'm passing by I'll pop in just to take a look at the place, but otherwise, nah.

TK Maxx is very hit and miss. For homewares you'll sometimes find some amazing bargains from some well known quality brands, other times nothing at all. Clothing wise, if you're an odd size at either end of the spectrum you'll be in luck, less so if you're just a "medium" in everything.

Bray couldn't sustain an M&S I'd imagine. They closed their Dun Laoghaire branch and that was only food and presumably their Blackrock and Dundrum branches soaked up those customers.

Doubt Bray could sustain a Zara either. Just look at what people around the town are wearing. I would have bought ZARA for years.... now buy Massimo and would happily shop in a local branch but can't see it happening.

Surprised the likes of BESTS or Diffeneys haven't ventured out here. Maybe Allen's and Tanseys kept them at bay and the cost of rents.

But Newbridge's Whitewater can sustain these stores, why can't Bray? They also have less population than Bray and is similar distance away from more attractive options. Newbridge to Kildare Outlets and Bray to Dundrum.

I dunno but I just sigh at the fact that we've waited the guts (if not more) 20 years to get a sports direct.

Fair point about TKMaxx quality being better than Sports Direct, but yeah it's more the effort required to find something is the off putting part. I'd rather just go buy something that bit more expensive and swallow the cost than spend 30-40 minutes flicking the shelves for a bargain.

Also who here knows that there's already a Sports Direct in Greystones and Carrickmines. Do we really have the need for a 3rd? and as a flagship store?

Why wouldn't they?

I don't really regard it as a shopping centre but as a new street and both H&M and Zara have on street shops so there's no reason for that to be a barrier.

It's down to demand and demographics and the prices being charged by owners. I just think shops like Holland and Barrett and Sports Direct just add nothing to the town.

Planning application in to change portion of 2nd floor of the Bray Central from retail to 25 apartments.

Not a good sign.

It kinda is though. It was marked as retail now it’s not. Shows lack of confidence in retailers that they’re having a bad time finding tenants and kinda proves the rumours of same.

one thing for sure BOF will/are have/having a field day with this

Name me a high street with a Zara or a h&m on it in Ireland that isn’t a high footfall shopping street like a grafton st or Henry street. I can promise you we won’t see the first of it in Bray of all places

Newbridge is a stand alone shopping centre, people can say what they want about bray central but a shopping centre it is not…

Deleted

As someone that uses the whitewater in Newbridge but is not from Newbridge it's only average when it comes to shopping centres. Don't get me wrong it's handy to have, decent shops and it's biggest asset is saving the trip into Dublin but over the years it has slowly begun to decline and I'm not sure it would survive another recession. Access is and out isn't great but manageable where as access in and out of the Bray sc is an absolute balls.

I'm not sure how many units Bray sc has but it doesn't seem like many and I wouldn't consider it a destination shop if it only has 8 units regardless of the anchor tennant. I'd agree with the above you'll never see a zara in there and M&S would be nice to have I can't ever see it. As for the great white hope that is Penneys, I see they took over the Debenhams 3 storey in Dundrum opening summer 2023 so doubt they'll look to Bray although I think they'd have been a good fit. You'll also notice a lot of these places have cinemas etc to draw the random shopper I don't think there's one destined for Bray sc.

It will be interesting to see how long will elephant and castle last after the initial opening interest and Christmas rush 🤷‍♂️

Like most large towns now the commercial rates are turning stores away from highsteet shops and into massive retail parks/centres. I'd say if they developed such a park out on the southern cross and in doing so upgraded the **** show that is Bray south exit it would be a lot more desirable. Something along the lines of Banbridge shopping centre or dare I say it Kildare village. It'll never happen though as land is too expensive an housing is the best return in the short term.

I'd say Bray SC was a good idea poorly timed and badly located. It should have been something the council looked at when they were developing the civic centre on the main street but alas housing. Hopefully I'm wrong but I can see this being Brays bloomfields, will get the occasional tennant but essentially a big mistake. 🤷‍♂️

Well if that comes to fruition it'll bring footfall at least. How many parking spaces are there, I recall it was originally meant to be below surface parking but I think that was scraped. Both a cinema and bowling alley will require a lot of parking without shoppers on top.

Putting respectfully before a snarky response kind of undermines the respect bit. I'm amazed you went to such effort to write a snarky response instead of just answering the simple question. Considering you're a mod I assume you do understand the basis of a forum, perhaps not. Imagine I may not actually live locally so do not have local knowledge but did and still have ties to Bray.

As far as I'm aware there isn't a cinema/bowling alley there it seems it is proposed in the plans so respectfully I'll ignore your input.

I'll leave it there and will await the outcome with baited breath.