Retail in Waterford City

Another 'vicious circle' ..

Go into store - "hi do you have these in size ten?"

Disinterested teenager - " no, you have to buy those online" ..

Eye roll - "ok, 'thanks' "

retailers not keeping customers coming to buy in 'brick and mortar' stores by trying to reduce workers-reduce wages , by driving online sales doesnt help either..

Bare shelves in stores, and being told to buy it online…

A lot of them are killing themselves by a thousand cuts ……

I don’t know what the big delay was, but I saw the builders back at work in Aldi City Square today.

I was in Cork for the weekend and enjoyed this. I cannot even remember when I last was in a Burger King it's been that long.

Yeah it has a drive thru one that i know of could have more

Driving into the city from the bridge is dire for a start. A whole row of vacant buildings with a tacky casino in the middle. You get the impression looking at the city that its in decline. More pubs on the quay vacant than doing business.

Yeah, it’s awful how they removed parking by, er, expanding Bolton Street and adding Waterside.

Waterford has a population of 105,000 within 30 minutes drive of the city centre.

Galway and limerick have over 200,000 using the same metric.

That's the primary reason why Waterford is not a key location for retailers.

It's not traffic, it's not parking it's not online, it's simply the population metrics.

Interesting, I didn't think the disparity with Galway was that much. Have you a link to where we can see those stats?

I was locked out of Boards because of permission issues.

On any analysis, this isochrone is incorrect and should neither be quoted by you or accepted. 30 minutes travel from Waterford city includes Carrick, New Ross, Tramore, a lot of west Wexford and s/e Tipp and nearly half of county Kilkenny. 30 minutes would bring you to Kilkenny and Wexford towns via the M9 and N25. I have not included them. A cursory glance shows urban areas, Waterford city 60079, New Ross 8600, Carrick, 5752, Dungarvan 10081 and Tramore 11277, which adds up to approx 100,000 without counting any of the rural populations in between.

Waterford city has according to city planners, more than twice the retail floor area of any other area in the south east. The disparity that people feel most is in comparison shopping in the city centre. This is based on historic factors to do mainly IMHO with the once commanding financial position and influence of one very large industry. There is currently zero problem with convenience shopping for food or other consumables, cars, big box furniture, white goods, building supplies or any other retail category. EZ living furniture have developed a lovely store on the Cork Road near Mc Donalds. A large new Pet Shop has opened next to JYSK. Tesco for example have recently done a huge job on their Poleberry store and it looks like a top class delicatessen now. A new home ware shop Choice (i think) is developing a very large unit there as well. These developments counter the retail doom mechants on this forum.

The city centre comparison retail offer obviously needs to be upgraded. That has long been understood and accepted by those who post here. It is very difficult to do in times of on line retail and a general retreat from bricks and mortar retail, for example recent closure of all Ted Baker shops across Ireland. The closure of pubs demands a category/forum of its own

Those who condemn retail in the city overall (and some who extend that condemnation to the city as a whole) are talking through their tin foil hats. We tend to be our own worst enemy in that regard.

Thanks for that.

I am always wary of using UK metrics for anything in Ireland. The 200,000 figure is acceptable for Limerick but hardly for Galway where their retail pull/product is a factor of tourism spend rather than local population. The 62000 figure is risible as Waterford city population is 61000 and Tramore is 11000. Are we to believe that Tramore is not in the city's retail zone? Or the 15000 or so in immediate south Kilkenny? Or that its not possible to drive from New Ross and park in the city in less than 30 minutes?

I agree with your points about independent retailers.